Nearly 15,000 nurses have gone on strike in New York City, making it the largest nurses strike in the city's history. To discuss, we FEATURE Brittany Neal DiNatale. DiNatale is an experienced emergency room nurse with a background in corporate marketing. She is a fierce advocate of the important role nurses play in order to create and develop strong healthcare systems. Despite being the most trusted profession year after year, and the largest segment of the healthcare workforce, nurses are underrepresented in the media. Nurses are also facing a growing professional crisis with endemic workplace violence, chronic short staffing and a worsening shortage due to burnout. Developing and supporting the nursing workforce is a critical component of a successful healthcare system. Media includes: Readers Digest, HealthEcetera Radio, WMC News & Features. WIOX Radio.

As the protests in Iran enter their third week, Donald Trump has threatened to strike the country if the protests continue to escalate. To discuss, we FEATURE Barbara Slavin. Slavin is a distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington and a lecturer in international affairs at George Washington University. Prior to joining Stimson, she founded and directed the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council and led a bi-partisan task force on Iran. The author of Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies: Iran, the US and the Twisted Path to Confrontation. Slavin also served as a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, where she wrote Bitter Friends, and as a senior fellow at the US Institute of Peace, where she researched and wrote the report, Mullahs, Money and Militias: How Iran Exerts Its Influence in the Middle East. Media includes: USA Today, The Washington Post, The Economist, NPR, PBS.

Unrest in Venezuela continues following the U.S. raid and capture of President Nicolás Maduro. To discuss, we FEATURE Liz Rebecca Alarcón. Alarcón has an expertise in US-Latin American relations (with emphasis on Venezuela), Latin American culture and politics, digital media, U.S. politics, and democracy. Alarcón is also the founder & CEO of Pulso, a nonprofit media outlet reaching more than 1 million Latinos with "history no one taught you and commentary you won’t find anywhere else." Media includes: The New York Times, The Atlantic, MSNBC, Time Magazine, The Miami Herald .

The Justice Department's has begun an investigation into whether Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell lied about a $2.5 billion renovation of the central bank’s headquarters. Powell has accused the administration of attacking him based on his refusal to cut interest rates. To discuss, we FEATURE Monique Morrissey. Morrissey joined the Economic Policy Institute in 2006. Her areas of interest include the Federal Reserve, social security, pensions and other employee benefits, household savings, tax expenditures, older workers, public employees, unions, and collective bargaining, Medicare, institutional investors, corporate governance, executive compensation, and financial markets. She is active in coalition efforts to reform our private retirement system to ensure an adequate, secure, and affordable retirement for all workers. She is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance. Media includes: The New York Times, The Washington Post, Fox News, CNN, NPR.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear two cases, from Idaho and West Virginia, that will decide whether transgender girls will be barred from participating in girl's and women's sport. To discuss, we FEATURE Kierra Johnson, executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force. When announced as the next executive director of the Task Force, Johnson said, “Dignity, liberation, joy, freedom, love and resistance are just a few of the words that I associate with the National LGBTQ Task Force. As a bisexual/pansexual woman, I am no stranger to being made invisible, advised to tone down, or trained in the art of the code switch. As a queer southern mom, it is no surprise why I would be drawn to an organization that touts the tagline ‘Be You.’ In these cultural and political times, it is an act of resistance to live out loud and to lead and love with our full identities. I welcome the opportunity to think strategically with a powerful team of leaders and be in service to those working to ensure that LGBTQ people—especially the most targeted among us—not only survive but thrive. I can’t wait to roll up my sleeves and dive in to continue the ongoing and creative work of the Task Force to change hearts and minds, behavior and policies so that justice is no longer a vision but a reality for all!” She is recognized as a national expert on queer and reproductive rights issues, has testified in front of the U.S. House of Representatives and has appeared in Newsweek, The New York Times, Fox News, Feministing.com and NPR.

Ofcom, the UK’s independent online safety authority, has begun an investigation into X over concerns that its Grok AI has been creating sexual deepfakes, some of children. To discuss, we FEATURE Sophie Maddocks. Maddocks is an expert on digital abuse with a decade's experience working across schools, universities, and non-profits. Her research on image-based sexual abuse, synthetic media (deep fakes, AI porn), the metaverse, and harmful social media trends has been published in multiple peer-reviewed academic journals and edited volumes. Critical, intersectional, and youth-led, Maddocks’s research begins from the view that cyber-sexual violence is preventable, not inevitable. She has taught courses on digital media, inequality, and cyber-civil rights, as well as a participatory research workshop in partnership with two Philadelphia public schools. Before moving to the US, Maddocks was at British non-profit, The Sutton Trust, where she worked to challenge elitism and exclusion in higher education. Media includes: Wired, Forbes, El País, i-News, Japan Today.

Next week, Academy Awards nominations will be announced. To discuss, we FEATURE Carla Hay. Hay is the author of WMC's Investigation: Gender and Non-Acting Oscar Nominations. She is a Tomatometer-approved critic at Rotten Tomatoes and a member of the Critics Choice Association. She is editor-in-chief of Culture Mix. She has been a writer or editor for Paramount Media Networks, Women's Media Center, Shondaland, AXS.com, Examiner.com, Lifetime, People, and Billboard and has been interviewed on CNN, Access Hollywood, and CNBC, and has been a guest speaker at Columbia University and New York University.