The Good Fight, with Ben Wikler (general)

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Syndication

Women and men who serve in uniform often face an enemy within their own ranks: sexual assault. In this story, newly remastered from The Good Fight's 5th episode in December 2013, we tell the story of survivor Trina McDonald as she went from enlistee to victim to survivor to fearless advocate, and how she joined forces with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand to take on the system that had failed her.

Note: The Good Fight is on a summer hiatus, but will continue posting remastered reruns until we return with brand-new episodes. Happy summer!

 


One monopoly to rule them all: Comcast's attempt to gobble up Time Warner threatened the very Internet as we know it. But one senator fought back.

Direct download: 44_How_Al_Franken_beat_Comcast_and_saved_the_Internet.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:59pm EDT

Marine biologist Ayana Johnson has a plan to bring back the fish, one island at a time. To do it, she'll have to drink a lot of beer. http://tgf.fm/43

Direct download: 43_Using_the_ocean_without_using_it_up.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:40pm EDT

Spring is finally here. Daffodils dancing int he breeze, pollen collecting on car roofs, and the symphony of coughs filling the air. It's not just allergies that are making it hard to breathe. It's also coal. Ending coal fired power is the best weapon against the US's asthma epidemic. Host Ben Wikler checks in With Mary Anne Hitt, the Director of the Sierra Club's beyond Coal Campaign, about her recent victories. And Nick Rathod brings Ben up to speed ont he progress of the young but mighty State Innovation Exchange, Progressive's best weapon against the evil ALEC. Here comes the sun!

Direct download: 42_Coal_youre_going_to_lose._You_too_ALEC.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:01am EDT

So much glory: Kickstarter triumph, new baby, and encore visits from three beloved guests. Sister Simone gets back on the nun bus; Shannon Watts faces down the NRA; and Garlin Gilchrist makes us all want to move to Detroit. http://tgf.fm/41

Direct download: 41_Were_back_Had_a_baby._Got_Kickstarted._And_talked_to_three_heroes..mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:06am EDT

Co-founder Alicia Garza shares the story of how #BlackLivesMatter began—and how it became the rallying cry for a movement, ignited by tragedy, that is fighting for survival. http://tgf.fm/40 And back the show by Feb 5 here: http://tgf.fm/ks

Direct download: 40_Why_22BlackLivesMatter22updated.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:29pm EDT

Want more Good Fight magic in the world? This is the moment to help, at tgf.fm/ks. We're running a Kickstarter campaign to raise $100,000 for our second year of shows, and we're already halfway there—but if we don't raise $50,000 more in the next seven days, it all disappears. 
 
Chip in now, and then read this special message from Ben Wikler: Seven reasons to back The Good Fight. 
 
Inline image 1
 

 

1. Our guests should be household names.
 
Frank Mugisha is the leading gay rights activist—in Uganda. Sister Simone Campbell is a powerhouse lobbyist... nun. Jose Antonio Vargas won his Pulitzer Prize at age 26, four years before he came out of the closet as undocumented. 
 
 Six Good Fight guests.
 
Ai-jen Poo helped launch a nanny uprising. Garlin Gilchrist II is reversing the Detroit diaspora. And Larry Lessig is on a shoot-for-the-moon quest to kick big money out of politics. 
 
They're just a few of the amazing people we've been lucky enough to introduce to our listeners. There are so many more out there. Some are well-known already. All of them should be. 
 
 
2. We're doing something no one else is doing.
 
This isn't talk radio, and it isn't NPR. We don't rant, we don't pretend every argument is equally valid, and we don't obsess over horse-race minutia.
 
For us, politics isn't a game. But it is insanely fun. Battles for justice are the greatest stories on earth. They're like The Princess Bride: full of, as the grandfather put it, "fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes... True love! Miracles!"
 
On The Good Fight, we interview genuine heroes winning fights that matter. Then we take those interviews, edit like crazy, stir in original music, narration, and archival audio—and craft spellbinding real-life David vs Goliath radio stories, told from the behind-the-slingshot point of view. And then we ask our listeners to get involved. 
 
 
3. A golden age of podcasts is dawning. A huge new audience awaits.
 
Every week, nine out of ten Americans listen to the radio. That's no surprise: radio is uniquely intimate. We've all had "driveway moments"—when you're sitting in your car, right outside your house, unable to move until the story on the radio is done. 
 
Now it's moving online. Suddenly, America is discovering that podcasts—radio shows on the Internet—can be just as powerful. Thanks to Serial, iPhones, and connected cars, millions of people are tuning in to podcasts for the first time. 
 
The question now is whether podcasts can become, for progressives, the answer to what conservatives did with talk radio in the last century. 
 
This is the moment I've been dreaming of. The moment I've been preparing for. 
 

4. People love The Good Fight
. 
 
Here's what they're saying: 
  • "Refreshingly anti-cynical... expertly produced and presented... a welcome reminder that news doesn't always have to be bad." – The Telegraph
  • "At first, I was skeptical – it reminded me of the hundreds of activist emails piled up in my inbox. But this show, I quickly found, is no guilt trip. It's funny and stimulating... It's great." - The Guardian
  • "Best of 2013" – Apple
  • "Exciting! How do you get it to play?" – My mom
We hit a million downloads in our first year. In case you haven't heard the show, or haven't tuned in for a while, we've posted excerpts right here on the Kickstarter page. And if enough of us join in, a lot more great ones are coming soon.
 
 
Wait, you haven't seen it yet? Go watch it. Note: the first ending is fake. Stick around for the part with Al Franken. 
 
Host Ben Wikler pauses for a moment during The Good Fight's Kickstarter video
 
6. Seriously, though: this means the world to me.  
 
Ever since I was a kid, I've been fascinated by the place where politics and media collide. My first job out of college was producing Al Franken's show on Air America Radio. Five years ago, I made up my mind to try and launch a show—but it wasn't until a friend signed on to help, a programmer and activist named Aaron Swartz, that I summoned up the courage to actually give it a shot. 
 
On a wintry January day three years ago, with me on the mic and Aaron running the mixing board—all in my bedroom closet—we produced our first podcast. 
 
And from that first moment, I loved it. 
 
January 2012: Aaron and Ben celebrate their first podcast
 
But it was more a dream than a job. We both had a lot going on. My son, Mac, had just been born. Aaron was leading the fight against SOPA, and wrestling with an unjust prosecution. The show's only sponsor was the bagel store on 7th Avenue—and it paid us in cream cheese. 
 
A year later, to my delight, MoveOn.org agreed to help me get the show off the ground. But by that point, Aaron was consumed by the court case. On the day I started working on the show full-time, he took his own life. 
 
Today, for me, the show is a way that I can honor his memory. The fundamental vision that has always driven it forward, the one that inspired him to join—the idea that the most important fights are also the most fascinating stories, and that by telling them, we can build the empathy and hope and love that are foundational to social change—that vision has never wavered. 
 
 
7. The stories we tell, the heroes we lift up, define who we become.
 
We have a choice to make. We can exalt wealth and status and fame—or we can measure our lives by the difference we make in the lives of others.
 
Researchers have shown that hearing stories about others' moral decisions affects the choices we make for ourselves. Hearing stories of heroes draws out the best in each of us. I know that a single podcast can't shift the moral center of our culture. But it's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. 
 
The Good Fight is my candle. 
 
I hope you'll help me spread the light. 

With gratitude, 

Ben 
 
P.S.: Whether or not you can give, there are a lot of ways to help. You can forward this email to friends, with a personal note. You can share our video on Facebook by clicking here—or even "donate" your Facebook account to contribute a daily post until the deadline next week. Believe me: appreciate absolutely all the help that anyone can provide. 
 
And, oh wait a second, I almost forgot: REWARDS!
 
Kickstarter campaigns aren't charity: back the show, and we'll send you stuff! 
 
For $20, you can adorn your forearm, or the family-appropriate body part of your choosing, with a Good Fight temporary tattoo, featuring our beloved behind-the-slingshot logo: 
 
David models the Good Fight temporary tattoo that he helped inspire
 
For $40, you can simultaneously prepare yourself for fights against Goliath and share The Good Fight with a friend—by plugging two sets of headphones into the world-exclusive slingshot-shaped Good Fight headphone splitters!
 
 Good Fight production coordinator and host Ben Wikler enjoy their new splitter.
 
For $75, you get a t-shirt. For $100, you get all of the above. There are reward levels for everyone! $1500 buys you the only existing Good Fight Google Glass, modeled below by my son Mac: 
 
 Mac Wikler: the only person on earth who makes Google Glass look cool
 
To find out all about all of the other mind-blowing tiers, check out The Good Fight's page on Kickstarter. They make great gifts. And remember, the Kickstarter ends at the stroke of midnight on February 6—so there's no time for delay. Claim your reward, spread the word, and forever join the ranks of Team Good Fight! 
Direct download: TGF_Kickstarter_-_1.13.15_-_720p_Ending_Edit.mp4
Category:general -- posted at: 6:22pm EDT

For decades, corporations have found Republicans ready to do their bidding thanks to a shadowy outfit known as ALEC. But Nick Rathod, a preacher's son, has a plan to fight back. http://tgf.fm/39

Direct download: 39_ALEC_Match.com_for_evil.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:38pm EDT

Zach Wahls, as a teenage Eagle Scout, gave a speech that changed the nation. If you ever clicked the headline "Two lesbians had a baby, and this is what they got," that speech was what you got—a speech that shifted the way millions of people thought about marriage equality. But as it turned out, that speech was just his warm-up act. On the latest Good Fight, Zach Wahls tell his extraordinary story—a tale of family, growing up, and a David-and-Goliath struggle to rescue the soul of a great American institution.

Direct download: 38_How_the_kid_with_two_moms_saved_the_Boy_Scouts.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:23pm EDT

Mayday SuperPAC, Lawrence Lessig's anti-corruption moonshot, lost nearly all of its races in the 2014 midterms. Does that mean it failed? Or does the shadow of money in politics extend beyond mere wins and losses? Professor Lessig and the Progressive Campaign Change Committee's Adam Green take us behind the vote tally and into the heart of the campaign-finance darkness for part 3 of The Good Fight's Mayday 2014 trilogy. http://tgf.fm/37

Direct download: 37_Did_Lawrence_Lessig_waste_10_million.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:34pm EDT

2014 was the election that young people were supposed to ignore. But then came the voting anthem nobody can stop humming. Today on The Good Fight, the inside story of Turn Out For What—as recounted by Rock The Vote's Ashley Spillane and Dan McSwain, and featuring the voices of Lil Jon, Lena Dunham, Fred Armisen, and Whoopi Goldberg. It's the electoral viral mega-hit of the year, 10 million views strong, exactly when we need it most. 

See the video at http://tgf.fm/36, help turn out voters at moveon.org/calls, and remember to vote on November 4! 

Direct download: 36_Turn_Out_for_What.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:49pm EDT

Conservatives might have money, but progressives have something even more powerful: science. That's right: gigantic, statistically valid, scientifically rigorous experiments about the best way to win elections. 

If that's a surprise to you, there's a reason: the most fascinating experiments are all being kept secret. And that's by design. This isn't academia, where the goal is the pursuit of truth. This is politics--where once the other side learns what you've figured out, knowledge stops being power.

At the heart of the progressive electoral-scientific revolution is a little low-profile outfit called The Analyst Institute. It stays away from the media. But today, its Executive Director Tate Hausman emerges from the labs to fill Good Fight listeners in on some of the most crucial findings of the political data wizards—just in time for us to put the lessons to good use in 2014 to help save the Senate. 

Ever heard the phrase "the states are the laboratories of democracy"? Well, it's out of date. These days, the whole country's one big lab, and we're all test subjects. And thank goodness: science plus people power is our last, best hope to beat the billionaires. 

Direct download: 35_The_progressive_secret_weapon.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:26pm EDT

Why haven't wages risen in 40 years? It's not just bad luck. The mostly invisible, ultra-powerful folks who run at the Federal Reserve have gone to great lengths to keep it that way. When too many people get jobs, when pay starts going up... wham! They knock things back down again. 


But lately, things have been a little different. The financial crisis jolted the Fed into superhero mode—and Janet Yellen, the new boss, seems determined to make the economy work for regular people. Trouble is, the old guard's not happy about it. What's needed is another jolt, a fresh infusion of real-world voices. And now, an unlikely group of outsiders is stepping up to provide it. 


Meet Action United's Kendra Brooks, the AFL CIO's Damon Silvers, and the Center for Popular Democracy's Ady Barkan—and go inside what might be the wonkiest and most important economic-justice fight of the year. Or the decade. 
http://tgf.fm/34

Direct download: 34_Fed_up_with_the_economy.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:27pm EDT

They promised the biggest climate march in world history. But when the big morning arrived, the Weather app showed a thundercloud. 

Hear what happened next—and feel the (renewable) energy of a giant, urgent movement hitting the streets together for the first time—as The Good Fight takes you inside the most ambitious grassroots mobilization of the year.

Direct download: 33_Inside_the_ginormous_huge-tastic_climate_march.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:25pm EDT

The killing of Michael Brown, and the military-style police crackdown that followed, exposed millions of Americans to the wide-open Pandora's Box that is the American way of law enforcement. In the weeks since, as the nation wrestled with fundamental questions of race and justice, media across the country have alighted on what seems like an easy answer: just put cameras on the police!

Turns out, it might actually be a great idea. Not because it solves everything, or even because it generates world-changing footage.  In fact, as it turns out, the least important thing about body-worn police cameras is the stuff that actually gets recorded. But body cameras have a way of changing the way people behave, on both sides of the lens. Professor David Harris and community organizer Terrance Stone join us, in the wake of Ferguson, to examine the science and practice of a gizmo that could save more lives than the Apple Watch. http://tgf.fm/32 

 

Direct download: 32_Will_police_body_cameras_prevent_the_next_Ferguson.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:37pm EDT

Lawrence Lessig's Mayday Super PAC stunned the political world by raising $7 million to fight corruption. Now comes the hard part: using money in politics to kick money out of politics. Lessig returns to the show to bring us inside the battle.

Direct download: 31_Mayday_Super_Pac_Strikes_Back.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:24pm EDT

Before the Win Report, before MoveOn.org, Garlin Gilchrist II was exactly the person Detroit couldn't afford to lose: a brilliant, entrepreneurial computer engineer and civic patriot. He left. But now he's back. Here's his story. http://tgf.fm/30

Direct download: 30_Garlin_Gilchrist_II_Detroit_diaspora_and_destiny.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:05pm EDT

The soon-to-be legendary live taping of The Good Fight from Netroots Nation 2014! Hear amazing stories from NARAL president Ilyse Hogue and newly-elected NEA president Lily Eskelsen Garcia, thrill to a live Win Report with Garlin Gilchrist II, and march through the streets with Mark Ruffalo and a big crowd of Detroiters as they try to get their water turned back on. Netroots is a massive annual gathering of progressive activists, organizers, and media/tech people; featured speakers this year included Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren. But the highight of it all happened in room 320: the Good Fight Live.

Direct download: 29_Live_from_Netroots.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:12pm EDT

For decades, criminal justice reform was political Kryptonite. But Cory Booker isn't from Krypton. Booker joins us to explain why he's tackling this fight—and how, in a Festivus miracle of bipartisanship, he teamed up with Rand Paul. http://tgf.fm/28
Direct download: 28_Cory_Booker_and_Rand_Paul_partners_on_crime.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:35pm EDT

UltraViolet co-founder Nita Chaudhary takes us behind the scenes in the insurgent, devastatingly effective campaign to make the anti-feminist backlash backfire. The strategy: using cutting-edge online advocacy to put a political and economic price on sexism. The good news: it's working. Hobby Lobby, watch out. Find background info, links to sources, and how to get involved here: http://tgf.fm/27

Direct download: 27_War_on_women_meet_the_resistance.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:44pm EDT

In this week's Win Report, the Supreme Court rules on Hobby Lobby  blocking birth control and home-care workers' rights. Good news and bad  news on climate change. Plus, marriage equality in Kentucky, a gay police chief in South Carolina,  and more updates from around the country. 
Direct download: Win_Report_07-03-2014.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:48pm EDT

When Jose Antonio Vargas was 16, he discovered his green card was fake. At 26, he won journalism’s biggest prize. At 30, he outed himself as undocumented.

Vargas’s powerful new film, #Documented, tells his story—and it will change the way you think about immigration. He joins The Good Fight to discuss his life, how it felt to see his mother after 21 years, and what it’s like to be asked by journalists "Why don’t you just become legal?" More info: http://tgf.fm/26

Direct download: 26_Pulitzer_winner._Undocumented._American.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:15pm EDT

What if you’re doing the wrong thing with your life? That’s what 20-year-old Aaron Swartz asked Lawrence Lessig. In response, Lessig transformed his career. Today, he’s got an insanely audacious plan to kick billionaires out of politics… with help from billionaires. Hear his story: http://tgf.fm/25
Direct download: 25_Lawrence_Lessig_Aaron_Swartz_and_the_Super_PAC_to_end_Super_PACs.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:12pm EDT

A stand-alone Win Report! The latest victories and defeats in progressive fights throughout the country, including Gov. Rick Perry's stupid comment about homosexuality and Obama's recent and awesome executive orders. http://tgf.fm/WR0620

Direct download: Win_Report_06-20-2014.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:42pm EDT

Obama's new carbon pollution rules are the biggest step ever taken by the U.S. government to fight climate change—but they're not the biggest step taken by the country. The most important win is one that's taken place invisibly, in city by city battles over the last decade: a grassroots campaign that's blocked 90% of proposed coal-fired power plants (182 in all) and shut down a third of the existing coal plants in the nation—165 and counting. 
 
It's a wave of unheralded victories that set the stage for surge in renewable energy, created the political space for the new Obama policies, and could open the door to a global climate treaty that seemed impossible just a few years ago. 
 
This episode of The Good Fight brings you inside one of the most successful environmental fights in U.S. history, the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign, as recounted by the people leading it. If you think the fossil fuel industry is unbeatable, put on some headphones and make sure you're sitting down. 
Direct download: 24_The_347_climate_wins_youve_never_heard_of.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:55pm EDT

The National Popular Vote campaign is on track to do the impossible: fix the broken, crazy, undemocratic way the USA picks its presidents. The New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg takes us inside the fight. Plus, a new Win Report.

Direct download: 23_The_plot_to_bring_democracy_to_America.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:51pm EDT

Rev. Jim Wallis left evangelical Christianity to fight for social justice—and then found his vocation by mixing them together. Now, he's a spiritual adviser to Obama, a force in immigration, and our guest. Plus: a new Win Report. http://tgf.fm/22

Direct download: 22_Meet_the_minister_Glenn_beck_hates.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:47pm EDT

The documentary Citizen Koch was almost crushed by the Koch brothers' power. But filmmakers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal fought back. Today, the story behind the movie America's ultra-conservative power brokers don't want you to see.

Direct download: 21_Beating_the_Koch_brothers.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:19pm EDT

Opponents of raising the minimum wage like to claim that economists are on their side. They're wrong. In this episode: the truth about minimum wage economics, the fight in the field, and the reason the jobs debate is a sideshow. Learn more at http://thegoodfight.fm/20

Direct download: 2020Why20economists20want20a20higher20minimum20wage.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:35pm EDT

For two long decades, gun safety reform was a nonstarter. And then came the Newtown massacre. Outrage swept the country. Politicians vowed to act. And in Zionsville, Indiana, a stay-at-home mother of five logged on to Facebook and created a page that would become the epicenter of a new movement of moms to demand action and save lives. 

That mom, Shannon Watts, was a political neophyte, but her communications expertise—honed in her past career as a PR pro—made her an instant force to be reckoned with. Within a year, she and her network became the grassroots partner of Michael Bloomberg's campaign to stem the tide of gun violence in America. And this week, Bloomberg and Watts announced a new organization, Everytown for Gun Safety, and a $50 million plan to hold anti-safety politicians accountable in this year's elections... with far greater investments possible down the line. 

 

Today on The Good Fight, Shannon shares her story, her strategy, and the reasons why change is possible in a country where tens of thousands die from gunshots every year. http://thegoodfight.fm/19

Direct download: 1920Meet20Bloomberg27s20supermom20secret20weapon.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:45pm EDT

Everyone working at the border crossing knew that it was happening: brutal violence and abuses by border patrol agents. Sometimes even lethally. But the U.S. Customs and Border Protection wasn't talking, and politicians seemed more concerned with increasing its size and military power than in holding it accountable. 
 
Enter John Carlos Frey, muckraker. 
 
An investigative reporter of the old school, he got a tip about a secret videotape of a killing, in which a dozen border patrol agents brutally beat a hogtied migrant. Where thousands of reported abuses hadn't made a dent in official policy, maybe this video could spark a change. And so the dogged hunt began, leading to an expose that would trigger Congressional outrage, a buried investigation, and finally an official shift that could pave the way to lifesaving changes. On today's Good Fight, we examine the power of an image to awaken a nation to an outrage—and look at the dark side of the political drive to "secure the border." 
 
Featuring John Carlos Frey, activist Hannah Hafter, and a Win Report with Garlin Gilchrist II of MoveOn.org.
Direct download: 18_The_muckraker_and_the_border_patrol.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:08pm EDT

Big Oil. Bankers. Global mega-corporations. Those are the powerful. But sometimes, the powerless win too—and this episode is about one of those times. It's the story of the Domestic Worker's Bill of Rights in New York, and the surging movement across the country of nannies, home health aides, and other domestic workers who are fighting for the rights and dignity that every worker deserves. 

If you think taking care of kids all day isn't work, that's probably because you haven't done it. But for decades, even the most basic labor laws haven't protected the millions of Americans whose job involves taking care of others in their homes. 

Our guests are at the vanguard of closing that ludicrious loophole. Ai-Jen Poo, head of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and Barbara Young, longtime nanny turned NDWA organizer, tell us how the movement began, what it took to win the first statewide law in America—and how their vision now extends not just to protecting domestic workers across the country, but to ensuring that every family can access the support and care their loved ones need. 

All that, plus a Win Report that you won't want to miss. 

http://thegoodfight.fm/17

Direct download: 17_The_nanny_uprising.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:30pm EDT

For 5 million unlucky Americans, health care reform currently means... zilch. But as Ron Pollack, the country's leading health care advocate, explains on this episode, this is a fight we're going to win. And as you'll realize as he tells amazing stories about the battles he's helped win in decades past (you'll find out how Nixon was essentially hoodwinked into launching the national Food Stamp program), Ron's a guy you should listen to.  

Plus: MoveOn.org's Anna Galland tells us why Bobby Jindal's administration in Louisiana is suing MoveOn.org for telling the truth; a real-life emotional moment at Good Fight headquarters; an epic Win Report... and a listener contest you'll definitely want to enter.

http://thegoodfight.fm/15 | show@thegoodfight.fm

Direct download: 15_The_dumb_reason_5_million_are_uninsured.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:23pm EDT

In Uganda, under the new anti-gay law, you—you reading this now—would almost certainly be a criminal. Know gay people, but don't report them? Prison. "Promote homosexuality" by posting on Facebook or Twitter about gay rights, or doing an interview for a podcast? Prison. Gay yourself? Life sentence. 

But Frank Mugisha, an openly gay activist for equality, isn't leaving. And his allies, in Uganda and around the world, aren't giving up either. 

In this episode, through interviews with Frank and with Andre Banks, who runs the global advocacy group All Out, we tell the story of the fight against Uganda's insanely harsh new law—a law whose origins are uncomfortably close to home.  

Learn more at http://thegoodfight.fm/14

Direct download: 14_This_interview_is_illegal_in_Uganda.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:26pm EDT

A year ago, President Obama did something jaw-dropping, and not in a good way: He proposed, in his budget, cuts to Social Security benefits. This year, though? The cuts were gone. To understand why he made the proposal, and why he reversed course, you have to understand a much bigger battle. The debt ceiling, the rolling fiscal crises, the doomed Grand Bargain—they're all actually one story, and to understand the Social Security showdown is to see how they fit together. In this episode, we take you behind the scenes of the progressive flank in that fight, and celebrate a win years in the making. 

More info: http://thegoodfight.fm/13

Direct download: 13_Social_Security_cuts_DOA.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:30pm EDT

The Iran sanctions bill was the kind of measure that usually passes Congress unanimously. And, as always, dozens of Senators signed on right away—even though the law would've destroyed the most promising US-Iran peace negotiations in a generation, and put us on a road to war. 

But then, suddenly, the bill collapsed. 

What happened? On this episode of The Good Fight, we take you behind the scenes of the rapid-response, highly strategic progressive mobilization that pulled Democratic Senators away, at the last second, from an incredibly dangerous vote. It's the story of a movement that learned a key lesson from Iraq in 2003: the best way to stop a needless war is before it begins. And it's the win that keeps hope alive for the agreement that the US, Iran, and other countries are negotiating even now, a deal that could offer a transformative breakthrough for peace after decades of hostility. 

All that, plus the Win Report... and an encounter with an overenthusiastic vacuum cleaner. Find links to sources, music credits, and more at http://thegoodfight.fm/12

Direct download: 12_War_with_Iran_canceled_until_further_notice.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:48pm EDT

The story of Utah's same-sex marriage movement starts with chutzpah and ends with a ridiculously, touchingly exuberant series of victory celebrations. You might get halfway through before you mist up, but don't count on it. Telling the story are Mark Lawrence, the man behind the lawsuit that struck down Utah's vicious anti-equality constitutional amendment, and his friend Troy Williams, an activist who more than earns his unofficial title as "the gay mayor of Salt Lake City." Plus, a delightful non-war with Iran and a win-tastic Win Report guest-hosted by the New Organizing Institute's Bridget Todd.

Episode notes and email signup: http://thegoodfight.fm/11

Direct download: 11_Gay_marriage_in_Utah.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:30pm EDT

When Heather McGhee's new job was announced, Elizabeth Warren called her "a champion," the head of the AFL-CIO said he was "thrilled," and Chris Hayes hailed her as "hands down one of the most impressive, ferociously intelligent, committed, passionate people I've had the great fortune to meet in progressive politics." 

She's 33. She recently helped pass a law that saves consumers $20 billion a year. And she was just chosen to become the president of one of America's leading think tanks. 

In this interview, a special mini episode of The Good Fight, you'll meet Heather McGhee, one of the first of the millennial generation to lead a major political institution and one of America's foremost voices on inequality, money in politics, and the path to reform. You'll hear her story, you'll learn about your country, and you might just shed a little cynicism along the way.

Show notes and email signup: http://thegoodfight.fm/10

Direct download: 10_More_leaders_like_this_please.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:03pm EDT

A guy commits some crimes, gets caught, goes to prison. And then everything gets weird. Plus, before that: 2014's first #WinReport, and an exclusive global traffic and weather update that stretches from Sochi, Russia to Chris Christie's New Jersey highways.

Find show notes, and sign up for our email list, at http://thegoodfight.fm/9.

Direct download: 9_This_prison_is_weird.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:59pm EDT

The Good Fight's own annual awards show—recognizing the wins and losses in the most important fights of the year. Your hosts: Garlin Gilchrist II, Ben Wikler, and Winifred the Win Horse. Plus a window into what 2013 meant for people the marriage equality movement, and the fight for equality as a whole, with activist Darlene Nipper.

Thanks to Karl Frisch for joining us as the announcer! Find show notes, and sign up for our email list, at http://thegoodfight.fm/8.

Direct download: 8_-_The_2013_Winnie_Awards.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:30pm EDT

In the final days before the bill passed, who saved Obamacare? Catholic nuns. Sister Simone Campbell—one of the most charming, utterly down-to-earth, and profoundly committed people I've ever met—explains why. And in the process, she tells her own fascinating story, from an anti-segregation sit-in where, as a teenager, she decided to take her vows, all the way to the present and her delight in the joyous tone set by Pope Francis.

If you're glad that Obamacare is finally here—that millions of Americans are, at last, covered by health insurance—then you'll love this mini, Christmas-inspired episode of The Good Fight.

We'll be back on Jan 9 with the next full episode of the show, featuring a new Win Report, comedy, and fresh stories of people people changing the world. In the meantime, be sure to subscribe, post a review on iTunes, and start a petition with our sponsor and partner, MoveOn.org

Plus: we're hiring. Want to be our Associate Producer? Go to thegoodfight.fm/ap and apply now.

Direct download: 7_Christmas_Short_-_How_the_nuns_saved_Obamacare.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00am EDT

Diet Coke. Cherry Coke. Voter Suppression Coke. Thanks to a brilliant grassroots campaign, one of these products has been discontinued. 

On this episode, recorded live at the Rootscamp activist summit, we take you behind the slingshot in the astonishingly successful fight to expose and shame the corporations backing the notorious American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC is the shadowy, far-right group behind crafted such state policy gems as Voter ID laws and Stand Your Ground—but because of our guest and his allies, it's on the retreat. Plus, the first cameo by Ben's two-year-old son Mac; a special three-person crowd-wowing edition of The Win Report, and a misadventure in skydiving. Listen, post a review, and spread the word!

Direct download: 6_Coca-Cola_voter_suppression._Beating_ALEC._LIVE_from_RootsCamp..mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand brings us inside her fight against military sexual assault. She's joined by Navy veteran Trina McDonald, whose story will break your heart—and then put it back together stronger.
 
If you saw Trina in the Oscar-nominated documentary The Invisible War, you've probably already realized it: you can't miss this episode. And if you've been reading about Senator Gillibrand and her battle to change the military justice system, this is where you'll find out why she'll never give up. 
 
Plus, before that story, it's everything you love about The Good Fight: a mind-bending descent into our secret underground studio, a glimpse of the NSA's World of Warcraft video game infiltration operation, and a classic Win Report with Garlin Gilchrist II of MoveOn.org. Plus an update on the fast food worker uprising. Tune in, fight back, and spread the word: episode 5 is the best Good Fight yet. 
Direct download: 5_Gillibrand._Rape_in_the_military._NSA_World_of_Warcraft.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:03pm EDT

The podcast for people who want to fix not just a website, but the whole economy.
 
Does the Obamacare website make you want to sing? Don't answer. Just listen: we've taken care of that for you already. And once the music stops, it's time for a visit to an uprising in the underbelly of our unsurpassedly unequal economy: the great fast food strike of 2013. You'll meet a Taco Bell worker standing up for her rights, an powerhouse organizer working behind the scenes—and you'll take The Good Fight's soon-to-be-beloved McDonald's McResources McQuiz. 
 
Plus, a Win Report that examines the Obamacare predictions of noted health policy experts Michelle Bachman and Glenn Beck, welcomes the Arctic 30 as they bid a fond farewell to their Russian jail cell, and tells the (genuinely) heartwarming Thanksgiving story of a Pizza hut manager who did the right thing, lost his job, and fought back. 
Direct download: 4_Fast_Food_Strike._McQuiz._The_Ballad_of_Healthcare.gov.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:37pm EDT

Has the so-called "nuclear option" destroyed all life in the U.S. Senate? If not, why is it empty this week? And speaking of military metaphors in politics: was the war on drugs ever good policy? Plus: what might be lurking in America's turkey this Thanksgiving, and what is it trying to tell us? We explore these questions and more in episode 3 of The Good Fight, featuring a classic Win Report with MoveOn's Garlin Gilchrist; an important message from a microorganism, and an in-depth interview with our featured guest: Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance. He'll blow your mind. Don't miss it.

Direct download: 3_Nuclear_option._Drugs._Thanksgiving.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:26am EDT

As seen by denizens of the far-right fever swamps of American politics, Obamacare is a terrifying nightmare—a nightmare Ben accidentally discovers on his way to the office. After a swashbuckling escape, he's joined by MoveOn's Garlin for the second, world-traversing Win Report, and then, for our epic story of the week, immigrant rights champion Prerna Lal. Prerna tells her own story, and takes us inside the movement that aimed for the DREAM Act... and won something called DACHA that changed millions of lives.

Plus, the debut of the Obamacare Defense League—a league composed of Good Fight listeners whose voices make an unforgettable case for not going back to the bad old days of American health insurance. 

Direct download: 2_Obamacare._DREAMers._Escaping_the_fever_swamp.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:57pm EDT

Gunfire, explosions, and the roars of marauding ultraconservatives fill the DC air as Ben  launches the first episode of The Good Fight. Then: a jam-packed hour featuring the inaugural Win Report, with MoveOn.org's Garlin Gilchrist II; advice from Al Franken; and a mind-blowing perspective on Obamacare from legendary activist Heather Booth. Join the battle. Spread the word. The next era of human history starts now.

Direct download: 1__Launch._Franken._Obamacare._Wins..mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:55pm EDT

Subscribe. Brace yourself. Post an early review, even, if you're feeling optimistic. Because The Good Fight, with Ben Wikler is about to arrive.

Direct download: Coming_Soon.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:23am EDT

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