The imposition of Donald Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee will make it significantly more expensive for U.S. companies to hire overseas workers. Economists have warned that this is likely to harm economic growth. To discuss, we FEATURE Joelle Gamble Copeland. Copeland serves as Chief Economist for General Motors. In this role, she leads global economic and industry insights in support of key enterprise initiatives such as strategic scenario planning, forecasting, and public policy. Prior to joining GM, Copeland was a Deputy Director at the White House National Economic Council, where she was a critical member of the team that developed the administration’s manufacturing, labor and supply chain agenda. Prior to that role, she was Chief Economist of the U.S. Department of Labor. Media includes: Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Sacramento Bee, The Nation, Salon, Fox News.

President Trump has claimed s that autism is tied to pregnant people taking Tylenol. To discuss, we FEATURE Stephanie Moulton Sarkis. Sarkis is an American Mental Health Counselors Association Diplomate and clinical mental health specialist in child and adolescent counseling. She is a licensed mental health counselor and a national certified counselor. She maintains a private practice in Tampa, Florida, where she counsels adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (including Aspergers), and anxiety. Media includes: Psychology Today, The Huffington Post, CNN.

World leaders are gathered in New York City for the UN General Assembly. Two of the most pressing issues on the agenda are Russia's war on Ukraine and Israel's war on Gaza. To discuss, we FEATURE Shazia Z. Rafi. Rafi is the managing director, Global Parliamentary Services, LLC. She is also the UN Representative for the All Pakistan Women’s Association, the oldest and largest women’s organization in the country, and president and convenor of AirQualityAsia. From 1996 to 2013, Rafi was the Secretary-General of Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA). PGA is a non-profit, non-partisan organization of elected legislators from over 100 countries that leverages parliamentary processes to promote peace, international law, gender equality and reproductive health. Under Rafi’s leadership, PGA successfully promoted the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court; played a critical role in the passage of the Arms Trade Treaty to regulate conventional weapons trade; built international consensus for progressive legislation on gender equality and reproductive health at the Cairo Conference and the Beijing Conference; promoted clean air/clean water legislation focused on urban environmental health and mediated in conflict zones from Azerbaijan to Cote d’Ivoire and Haiti. Media includes: The Guardian, The New York Times, International Business Times.

France, the UK, Canada, and Australia have recognised the Palestinian State. To discuss, we FEATURE Rebecca Vilkomerson. Vilkomerson has been working in social justice movement organizations for over two decades, including as the executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace from 2009-2019. Vilkomerson has since co-founded, with Soheir Asaad, the Funding Freedom project, which works to build solidarity and support for Palestinian freedom through education, advocacy, communications in philanthropy. She authored Funding Freedom: Philanthropy and the Palestinian Freedom Movement, a report published by Solidaire in 2022, and Solidarity is the Political Form of Love: Lessons from Jewish Anti-Zionist Organizing, a book co-authored with Rabbi Alissa Wise. Media includes: The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The Hill, Huffington Post, Tikkun and Zeek, CNN.

The Secret Service found hundreds of SIM cards and servers near the UN that would have the ability to shut down cellular networks. To discuss, we FEATURE Irina Tsukerman. Tsukerman is a human rights and national security lawyer based in New York. She runs a boutique national security law practice. Tsukerman specializes in information warfare; she has written and spoken extensively on active measures by Russia, China, and Iran and influence campaigns by Middle Eastern state actors, as well as on the impact of active measures and influence campaigns on the human rights and NGO world; she has also published on a wide range of global issues touching on energy, geostrategy, strategical alliances, Great Power competition and its impact on geopolitics, domestic policy, and business, information security and digital rights/cybersecurity, big tech, terrorism and extremism, as well as issues in intelligence and counterintelligence. Media includes: Al Jazeera, The Epoch Times, CyberNews.

ABC has reinstated Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show. Last week, in his opening monologue, Kimmel stated that "we’re still trying to wrap our heads around the senseless murder of the popular podcaster and conservative activist Charlie Kirk yesterday, whose death has amplified our anger, our differences. With all these terrible things happening, you would think that our president would at least make an attempt to bring us together, but he didn’t." The suspension was criticized as an attack on First Amendment rights. To discuss, we FEATURE Judy Endejan. Endejan is a Seattle based attorney with the firm of Garvey Schubert Barer. Her practice focuses on telecommunications, media and intellectual property issues. Her background is a unique blend of private practice and in-house experience. She has represented a wide range of clients with cases under the First Amendment, the Federal Communications Act, intellectual property laws and the regulatory laws of California, Washington and Oregon. A former professional journalist herself, Endegan has made a major mark on the state of Free Speech and Free Press law. Extensive media experience.

The Supreme Court has allowed President Trump to fire Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter. The move has brought up questions of presidential powers. To discuss, we FEATURE Jill Habig. Habig is 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. Habig's emphasizes consumer fraud, corporate power, health, and civil rights, including issues related to gender and LGBT rights. Media includes: USA Today, The 19th, Daily Kos, Fortune Broadsheet, Washington Post, Reuters, CNN.

President Trump has urged federal prosecutors to investigate and prosecute his political opponents. To discuss, we FEATURE Lee M. Pierce. Pierce is associate professor of rhetorical communication at the State University of New York (SUNY) Geneseo and an instructor for the Harvard Debate Council. Lee holds a PhD in Speech Communication from the University of Georgia. As a researcher, Pierce specializes in rhetoric, race, and U.S. political culture. They are an expert on political rhetoric, political campaign rhetoric, protest speech, women's speech, Black speech, public controversy, and debate and argumentation. Pierce is author of Tense Times: Syntax and Surprise in U.S. Crisis Culture. Media includes: Hello Giggles, The Conversation, Newsmax, ABC7 News.

Super Typhoon Ragasa has hit the northern Phillipines, where thousands have already been evacuated. Preparations are also being made in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China as the storm moves west. To discuss, we FEATURE Tonya Cross Hansel. Hansel is a social worker with expertise in research, statistics, disaster mental health, trauma, and maximizing outcomes for social service agencies. Hansel joined the faculty of the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Department of Psychiatry in 2007 and is now associate dean of research. Her research efforts center on evaluation of general trauma services, disaster response work in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and towards a better understanding of technological disaster following the Deepwater Horizon Gulf Oil Spill. Extensive media experience.

National Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15 to October 15. To commemorate, we FEATURE Sofia Quintero. Quintero is a Gen-X Afro-Latina screenwriter and novelist. Raised in a working-class Puerto Rican-Dominican family in the Bronx, the self-proclaimed “Ivy League homegirl” graduated from Columbia University and began her first career as a policy analyst and advocate working for various nonprofit organizations and government agencies including the Vera Institute of Justice and the Hispanic AIDS Forum. After years of working on diverse policy issues, Quintero turned to cultural work with the intention to meet audiences where they are yet take them someplace better. She has published six more novels and twice as many short stories and novellas with every major house and across genres – young adult, “chick lit”, erotica and hip-hop noir. Because of her gift for translating complex social issues into accessible and compelling stories, her commercial fiction is assigned in college classrooms across the nation and in multiple disciplines from English to criminal justice. Her Black Artemis novel Picture Me Rollin’ about a Latina ex-offender who’s obsessed with Tupac Shakur has been assigned alongside Asha Bandele’s The Prisoner’s Wife and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Extensive media experience.