KPFA - Project Censored

The News That Didn’t Make the News. Each week, co-hosts Mickey Huff and Eleanor Goldfield conduct in depth interviews with their guests and offer hard hitting commentary on the key political, social, and economic issues of the day with an emphasis on critical media literacy. The post Project Censored – June 6, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

In the first segment of today’s Project Censored, Mickey welcomes back Lauren Harper and Seth Stern from the Freedom of the Press Foundation. They discuss several matters including their latest FOIA work on how the Trump administration has been treating immigrants, students and other vulnerable groups across the country. They provide an update on Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk and her release from detention in Louisiana, as well as updates on attacks on non-profits and the press at large, including attacks on major establishment media outlets. Later in the program, Mickey welcomes back the iconic attorney and prolific author Ralph Nader. They discuss his new book, out from Seven Stories Press, Civic Self-Respect. It’s a how-to guide on being a more meaningfully engaged citizen with steps anyone can use to fight against growing authoritarianism in the U.S. and how we can create a more robust and representational democratic republic and protect our civil liberties before it’s too late. GUESTS: Lauren Harper is Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation (www.freedom.press). Seth Stern is Director of Advocacy, also at the Freedom of the Press Foundation. Founded in 2012, the Foundation is a non-profit organization that defends both freedom of the press and freedom of speech. Among its projects is the Press Freedom tracker, a database of press-freedom violations in the U.S. Ralph Nader’s name has been a household word in the US since the 1960s. His activism has covered issues from product safety to health-care policy, and he has founded multiple public-interest organizations.   The post Defending Freedom of Speech and Civil Rights Against Trump / Ralph Nader on “Civic Self-Respect” appeared first on KPFA.

Today’s episode of Project Censored is preempted by special programming for KPFA’s 2025 Spring Fund Drive. Brian Edwards-Tiekert speaks with author and political commentator Malcolm Harris about his latest book, What’s Left: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis. To support our mission and receive the Malcolm Harris’s book What’s Left as a thank-you gift, please donate here or call (800) 439-5732 (800-HEY-KPFA).   The post Special Spring Fund Drive Programming: Malcolm Harris on Saving the World appeared first on KPFA.

Today’s episode of Project Censored is preempted by special programming for KPFA’s 2025 Spring Fund Drive. Jesse Strauss speaks with accomplished author, scholar, educator, cultural organizer, poet, and playwright Eve L. Ewing about her book Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism. To support our mission and receive Eve L. Ewing’s book Original Sins as a thank-you gift, please donate here or call (800) 439-5732 (800-HEY-KPFA).     The post Special Spring Fund Drive Programming: Eve L. Ewing on Original Sins appeared first on KPFA.

Today’s episode of Project Censored is preempted by special programming for KPFA’s 2025 Spring Fund Drive. Nora Barrows-Friedman speaks with renown historian and author Rashid Khalidi about his work documenting the history of Palestine and his recent book The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine. Rashid Khalidi is the author of numerous books about the Middle East, among them the award-winning Palestinian Identity, Brokers of Deceit, and The Iron Cage. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and many other publications. He is the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University and coeditor of the Journal of Palestine Studies. Nora Barrows-Friedman is a longtime broadcaster and journalist who has focused on Palestine and Palestinian rights issues for nearly 20 years. She was the co-host and senior producer of Flashpoints on KPFA from 2003-2010, and has since been an associate editor and reporter for The Electronic Intifada. Nora is the author of In Our Power: U.S. Students Organize for Justice in Palestine. To support our mission and receive Rashid Khalidi’s book The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine as a thank-you gift, please donate here or call (800) 439-5732 (800-HEY-KPFA).     The post Special Spring Fund Drive Programming: Rashid Khalidi and The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine appeared first on KPFA.

Eleanor Goldfield hosts this week’s program, which focuses on two major issues on U.S. campuses. First, a look at how universities (notably Columbia) have suppressed student protests against the Israeli genocide in Gaza and what explains the severity of those actions. Then, how are universities dealing with student complaints about faculty members? Are the processes fair? What are the implications for academic freedom? GUEST: Kei Pritzker is a journalist at Breakthrough News, and a co-director of the documentary “The Encampments.” Nick Wolfinger teaches at the University of Utah, and is the editor of the new book Professors Speak Out, which presents 22 accounts of campus investigations, as told by the faculty members involved.   The post Crackdown on Pro-Palestine Students / “Professors Speak Out” on Investigations appeared first on KPFA.

Mickey Huff and Eleanor Goldfield co-host this week’s program. They dedicate the hour to interviews about the 2025 “Izzy” Awards. Named for the famous muckraking reporter I.F. “Izzy” Stone (1907-1989), the annual awards honor outstanding works in independent journalism published during the preceding calendar year. Now in their 17th year, the awards are bestowed by the Park Center for Independent Media (PCIM) at Ithaca College in upstate New York. Chris Albright is a resident of East Palestine, Ohio, and a survivor of the 2023 railroad derailment, fire, and chemical spill. Max Alvarez is Editor-In-Chief at the Real News Network (www.therealnews.com). Victor Pickard is a media scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, and a member of the panel of judges for the Izzy Awards. Arielle Angel is the Editor of Jewish Currents magazine (www.jewishcurrents.org).   The post Honoring Independent Journalism: The 2025 “Izzy” Awards appeared first on KPFA.

This week we’re looking at the insidious and nefarious sides of tech, starting with a conversation with Esra’a Al Shafei discussing her new site Surveillance Watch, an incredible trove of data formulated into an easily searchable and interactive site that exposes the vast interconnected web of global authoritarian surveillance systems. Esra’a discusses the impunity with which these corporations and financial institutions operate, with no care for borders, side-stepping sanctions, and using genocide as a marketing tool. She highlights the importance of bringing this information to light, of acting to protect ourselves and each other and never normalizing the Orwellian panopticon. Next, cohost Mickey Huff sits down with investigative journalist Peter Byrne to unveil a new 10-part series titled Military AI Watch: the dangerous militarization of AI and the profiteering behind it. Peter and Mickey discuss the first piece in the series, “One Ring to Rule them All,” where Peter names the cast of characters in this dark fantasy turned reality, their terrifying aims, the monopoly on murder, and more. GUESTS: Esra’a Al Shafei is a Bahraini civil rights activist, free-speech advocate, and the founder of Surveillance Watch, a website that monitors the global surveillance industry. Peter Byrne is a veteran investigative reporter who has written on topics ranging from breast cancer, to wildlife conservation, to corruption at the Postal Service. Together with Project Censored, he is launching “Military AI Watch,” a ten-part series on the militarization of AI.   The post The Dark Side of Technology: Surveillance and Militarization appeared first on KPFA.

Eleanor Goldfield hosts this week’s Project Censored Show. Her first guest, Ben Price, speaks about the concept of “rights of nature” and how a legal system based on the control of “property” necessarily subordinates both the rights of humans and the rights of nature. In the second half of the program, Maya Schenwar and Kim Wilson examine the effects of the U.S. prison system on the families of prisoners and explain why “prisons are the canaries in the coal mine.” GUESTS: Ben Price is the education director at the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (www.CELDF.org). Maya Schenwar and Kim Wilson are the coeditors of the 2024 book, “We Grow the World Together,” a collection of essays on the impact of  imprisonment on families — especially the children of prisoners.   The post Rights of Humans, Rights of Nature / Incarceration and Families appeared first on KPFA.

Eleanor Goldfield speaks with Chip Gibbons, who details the acquiescence of academia and corporate media to the Trump  administration and Israel and sets these in the historical context of prior federal attacks on First Amendment rights. Next, Gene Bruskin explains the connection between the militarized U.S. economy and the daily pocketbook issues that confront American workers. GUESTS: Chip Gibbons is Policy Director at Defending Rights and Dissent (www.rightsanddissent.org), a free-speech-advocacy organization. His book on the history of the FBI is scheduled for release in 2026. He has a recent article in Jacobin magazine. Gene Bruskin is a 50-year labor activist, and the cofounder of the National Labor Network for a Cease-Fire.   The post Long history of attacks on free speech / How the militarized economy makes us poorer appeared first on KPFA.