The United Auto Workers strike continues as workers demand better wages from GM, Ford, and Stellantis. To discuss, we FEATURE Erica Smiley. Smiley is the executive director of Jobs With Justice. She co-authored The Future We Need: Organizing for Economic Democracy in the Twenty First Century, a book on collective bargaining and democracy with Sarita Gupta. Smiley has been instrumental in developing the strategic vision of Jobs With Justice to build power for impacted working people through expanding their collective bargaining power as one way to redefine and claim their democracy, while addressing issues of inequality and poverty. As one of the few queer black women leaders in the labor movement, Smiley has helped to seed numerous initiatives that position and prioritize the demands and voices of vulnerable working people in socio-economic and political decisions that directly and indirectly impact their individual lives, families, and communities. As a seasoned organizer she has been a vocal advocate for mobilizing our movements to be aligned around a common agenda for working families. Media includes: Chicago Tribune, Bill Moyors, The Washington Free Beacon, Reuters, MSNBC.

On Friday, the Fulton County Superior Court will hear a preliminary injunction request to halt a new GOP-appointed commission with broad and vaguely-defined power to investigate, discipline, and remove locally-elected prosecutors from office in the state of Georgia. This decision has potential to significantly impact Fani Willis’s indictment of Trump. To discuss, we FEATURE Jill Habig. Habig is a former civil rights prosecutor and policy advisor to Kamala Harris, and the founder and president of Public Rights Project (PRP). PRP works with local governments and community partners to help ensure that laws are enforced equitably and civil rights are protected, including workers rights, voting rights, immigrant rights, housing rights, and more. Since 2022 they have been on the frontlines of ongoing state & local legal fights to protect reproductive rights across the country. Habig's work emphasizes consumer fraud, corporate power, health, and civil rights, including issues related to gender and LGBT rights. She served on the Affirmative Litigation Task Force at the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, where she worked on the landmark trial challenging Proposition 8 (marriage equality). Media includes: USA Today, The 19th, Daily Kos, Fortune Broadsheet, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Reuters, CNN.

The U.S. House of Representatives has hit a standstill in discussions over spending as representatives struggle to reach a compromise. If a short-term funding bill is not passed by September 30, the government will shutdown. To discuss, we FEATURE Susan Podziba, principal at Podziba Policy Mediation. Podziba has served as a public policy mediator for more than 30 years. Podziba is author of Civic Fusion: Mediating Polarized Public Disputes and Our City: From Corruption to Participatory Democracy as well as numerous book chapters and journal articles. Most of her projects include working with senior leadership of governments, representative stakeholders, civil society, and the general public. Her clients have included the United States Departments of Commerce, Defense, Education, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, and Transportation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Senate, U.S. Institute for Peace, United Nations, The World Bank, British Council, Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research, Emilia Romagna Regional Authority of Italy, and Negotiation Strategies Institute of Jerusalem. Media includes: The New York Times, The Washington Post, Fast Company, The Boston Globe.

Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, recently went on NPR to discuss rising hate crimes in 10 major U.S. cities. To discuss, we FEATURE Nadia Aziz. Aziz serves as senior program director, Fighting Hate and Bias Program at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and is a visiting lecturer at Clemson University. Previously she was deputy director at the Arab American Institute and before that, policy counsel of the Stop Hate Project with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, where she worked to ensure individuals and organizations targeted by hate have the resources they need to confront hate in their communities. Prior to joining the Lawyers’ Committee in 2017, Nadia worked at the Arab American Institute in Washington, DC as director of government relations where she represented the interests of nearly 3.7 million Arab Americans, and encouraged their direct engagement in civic and political life. She has previously worked with America Votes, the Democratic National Committee, and the Democratic National Convention Committee. Media includes: The Hill, The Huffington Post, The Ed Schultz Show, CNN.

Four woman have accused British comedian Russell Brand of sexual assault, including one who was 16 at the time of the alleged assault. To discuss, we FEATURE Asian A. Eaton. Eaton is an associate professor of psychology at Florida International University (FIU), where she runs the Power, Women, and Relationships (PWR) Lab. As a feminist social psychologist and an expert on intimate partner violence, she studies how gender intersects with identities such as race, class, and sexual orientation to affect individuals’ access to and experience with power in (a) intimate partner relationships and (b) the workplace. Eaton is also the head of research for the nonprofit organization Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), which is working to understand and end cyber abuse. Media includes: The New York Times, Psychology Today, Prevention Magazine, Telemundo, Mic, BBC.

This week, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Washington to ask for U.S. aid to help fund his country's war with Russia. To discuss, we FEATURE Michèle Flournoy. Flournoy is co-founder and managing partner of WestExec Advisors, and former Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), where she currently serves on the board. She served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from February 2009 to February 2012. She was the principal adviser to the Secretary of Defense in the formulation of national security and defense policy, oversight of military plans and operations, and in National Security Council deliberations. Prior, she was dual-hatted as principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and threat reduction and deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy. In that capacity, she oversaw three policy offices in the Office of the Secretary of Defense: Strategy; Requirements, Plans, and Counterproliferation; and Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasian Affairs. Extensive media experience.

Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15 to October 15. To discuss, we FEATURE Melissa R. Michelson. Michelson is a nationally recognized expert on Latino politics, voter mobilization experiments, and LGBTQ rights. She is the award-winning author of seven books, including Mobilizing Inclusion: Transforming the Electorate through Get-Out-the-Vote Campaigns (2012), Transforming Prejudice: Identity, Fear, and Transgender Rights (2020), and Governing California in the Twenty-First Century (2023). Michelson is dean of arts & sciences and professor of political science at Menlo College. Her academic work is solidly based in activist scholarship. Whether the focus is on members of the Latino, LGBTQ, or other marginalized groups, she uses her research to motivate greater equality and justice for all. Michelson’s current projects include ongoing research on how best to motivate Latinx citizens to vote, how to reduce prejudice against members of the LGBTQ community and against people living with HIV/AIDS, how best to motivate members of hard-to-count populations to participate in the 2020 Census, how best to motivate poll workers on new and developing vote technology, and many other smaller projects. Media includes: The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal.