Detainees at Florida's "Alligator Alcatrez" immigration detention center have been moved due to hurricane threats and indicate that the facility will be permanently closed. To discuss, we FEATURE Anu Joshi. Joshi the national campaign director for immigration at the ACLU. Before that, she was the senior director of Immigrant Rights Policy at the New York Immigration Coalition, an umbrella policy and advocacy organization that represents over 200 member organizations statewide. Joshi led the organization's work on issues relating to immigration status and enforcement on both the state and federal level. Her work has focused on federal appropriations, Dream Act and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) negotiations, the proposed public charge rule change, access to drivers' licenses for undocumented immigrants in New York, and broad statewide sanctuary policies. Media includes: The Brian Lehrer Show, Capitol Tonight, Democracy Now!, Newsweek, Newsday, The Guardian.

Qatar and Pakistan, who are mediating peace talks between the U.S. and Iran, have described the first round of high-level negotiations in Switzerland as having made significant progress with a framework of completing negotiations within 60 days. To discuss, we FEATURE Susan Podziba, principal at Podziba Policy Mediation. Podziba has served as a public policy mediator for more than 30 years. Most of her projects include working with senior leadership of governments, representative stakeholders, civil society, and the general public. Podziba created a process design tool for World Bank mediators and assisted with the process design for a national economic policy dialogue in Sudan. Ms. 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. Media includes: The New York Times, The Washington Post, Boston Globe, Fast Company.

After just two years, Keir Starmer has stepped down as UK prime minister. To discuss, we FEATURE Mary Nugent. Nugent taught undergraduate classes in UK politics, women & American politics, and introductory political theory at Rutgers University for over three years. She is now an adjunct professor at Trinity Washington University. She has an undergraduate degree in social and political sciences from Cambridge University, and a Ph.D. in political science from Rutgers University. Her thesis drew on analysis of three decades of legislative behavior in the UK House of Commons and interviews with Members of Parliament to study changes in male MPs' engagement on women's issues, and the impact that the increased presence of women has on men's behavior. Media includes: Wall Street Journal, Salon, The Guardian, BBC.

Five people have been arrested for vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Critics and journalists have questioned whether vandalism was actually responsible for the peeling blue paint, pointing instead to possible flaws in the $14–15 million renovation project, which has been plagued by algae growth in addition to the peeling paint. To discuss, we FEATURE Sarah Beetham. Beetham is an assistant professor of art history at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, specializing in American art and particularly the monuments erected to citizen soldiers after the Civil War. Her current book project, "Monumental Crisis: Accident, Vandalism, and the Civil War Citizen Soldier," focuses on the ways in which post-Civil War soldier monuments have served as flashpoints for heated discussion of American life and culture in the 150 years since the end of the war. Media includes: The Washington Post, U.S. News and World Report, Architectural Digest, Mic.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be in the United States, Canada, and Mexico from June 11– July 19. To discuss, we FEATURE Donna A. Patterson. Patterson is a professor and the chair of the Department of History, Political Science, Law Studies, and Philosophy and the director of Africana Studies at Delaware State University. She is available to discuss the Cape Verde team as well as international tourists visiting the US and Mexico. In December 2022, she moderated an event during the African Leaders Summit in Washington, DC and in February 2023, she spoke on a panel, “Next Steps After the African Leaders Summit” at USGLC’s Mid-Atlantic Summit in Wilmington, DE. Media includes: Slate, The Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Christian Science Monitor, Globe and Mail, San Diego Union Tribune.

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. To commemorate, 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 six books, including Mobilizing Inclusion: Transforming the Electorate through Get-Out-the-Vote Campaigns (2012) and, most recently, Transforming Prejudice: Identity, Fear, and Transgender Rights (2020). 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. Media includes: The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal.