Democracy Now! Audio

Headlines for May 20, 2025; “The Suffering Is Beyond Description”: Report from Gaza as U.N. Warns 14,000 Babies Could Soon Die; Making Gaza Unlivable: Israel Intensifies Attacks as Netanyahu Vows to Seize All of Gaza; From a Palestinian Refugee Camp to Columbia: Mohsen Mahdawi Graduates After Being Jailed by Trump

Transcribed - Published: 20 May 2025

Headlines for May 19, 2025; “Absolutely Genocidal”: Mouin Rabbani on “Gideon’s Chariots,” Israel’s Latest Escalation of War on Gaza; Project Esther: NYT Details Right-Wing Plan to “Rebrand All Critics of Israel” as Hamas Supporters; Columbia Chose Silence, Not Solidarity: Mahmoud Khalil’s Statement at Alternative Graduation Ceremony; On 100th Birthday of Malcolm X, Family Presses Trump to Release Gov’t Files on Assassination

Transcribed - Published: 19 May 2025

Headlines for May 16, 2025; “They Want to Silence Me”: Columbia Student Mohsen Mahdawi on ICE Jail, Palestine, Activism, Buddhism; The GOP War on Medicaid: 14 Million Could Lose Healthcare to Fund Tax Breaks for Rich; Supreme Court Hears Birthright Citizenship Case That Could Also Sharply Reduce Judicial Power

Transcribed - Published: 16 May 2025

Headlines for May 15, 2025; “Trump’s Fake Refugees”: As U.S. Welcomes White South Africans, Trump Falsely Charges “Genocide”; Israel’s “Crime of Apartheid”: New Report by U.S. Professors as Palestinians Mark Nakba Day; “Surveillance Humanitarianism”: As Gaza Starves, U.S.-Israeli Plan Would Further Weaponize Food

Transcribed - Published: 15 May 2025

Headlines for May 14, 2025; U.S. & Saudis Sign $142B Arms Deal as Trump Meets with Syria’s New Leader & Drops Syrian Sanctions; While Israel Wanted to Bomb Iran, Trump Pushes Talks; But in Gaza, Israel’s Mass Killings Continue; Salvadoran Journalists Exposed Pres. Bukele’s Ties to Gangs. Then They Had to Flee to Avoid Arrest

Transcribed - Published: 14 May 2025

In Part 2 of our interview with Palestinian journalist Abubaker Abed, the 22-year-old recounts leaving Gaza last month for Ireland while facing threats to his safety and suffering from malnutrition. He says he has found solidarity and comfort in Ireland, but says he is still dealing with the trauma of a year and a half of war. The sounds of planes and helicopters still trigger fear in him. “I’m trying to navigate this pain,” he says.

Transcribed - Published: 13 May 2025

Headlines for May 13, 2025; Gift or Grift? Trump Under Fire over Qatar’s Plan to Give Him $400M “Flying Palace”; “Unprecedented” in U.S. History: Trump & Family Rake In Money from Gulf States, Crypto & Real Estate; “People Are Starving to Death”: Oxfam Warns Israel’s Blockade on Gaza Is Catastrophic; If I Stayed, I Would’ve Died: Journalist Abubaker Abed on “Agonizing” Decision to Leave Gaza

Transcribed - Published: 13 May 2025

Headlines for May 12, 2025; Newark Mayor Ras Baraka Arrested for Visiting ICE Jail, Slams Trump Admin’s “Insane” Abuse of Power; “Un-American”: Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman on DHS Threats to Arrest Her for Visiting ICE Jail in Newark; ​Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Gaza: Why Does U.S. Have Money for “War and Genocide” But Not for Healthcare?

Transcribed - Published: 12 May 2025

Headlines for May 09, 2025; Leo XIV: First U.S.-Born Pope Criticized Trump/Vance on Deportations, Lack of Compassion for Immigrants; Priest Sexual Abuse Survivors Demand Accountability from New Pope: “Open Up Those Archives”; “We Are Not Living. We Are Enduring.” Gaza Mother on Struggle for Food, Safety Under Israeli Blockade; Tyre Nichols Case: Shock & Anger in Memphis as 3 Cops Acquitted on State Murder Charges

Transcribed - Published: 9 May 2025

Oliver Laughland, The Guardian's U.S. southern bureau chief, discusses his reporting on the election in Elon Musk's new company town in Texas, his coverage of new police collaboration with Trump’s mass deportation plan, and conditions in “Detention Alley.”

Transcribed - Published: 9 May 2025

Headlines for May 08, 2025; Who Killed Shireen Abu Akleh? Reporter’s Family Responds After Film Names Israeli Soldier Who Shot Her; “Fascism Isn’t Coming, It’s Here”: Mehdi Hasan on Trump, Gaza & Leaving MSNBC to Start Zeteo

Transcribed - Published: 8 May 2025

Headlines for May 07, 2025; “A Dangerous Escalation”: India Bombs Pakistan in Intensification of “Forever War” over Kashmir; “Columbia Knew”: Survivors Win Historic $750M from Univ. & Hospital in OB-GYN Sex Abuse Settlement; Rodney Scott, Trump’s CBP Nominee, Accused of Covering Up Death of Mexican Father in CBP Custody

Transcribed - Published: 7 May 2025

Headlines for May 06, 2025; Trump’s Newest Grift: Molly White on First Family’s Cryptocurrency Empire & Gutting of Regulations; Palestinian Poet Mosab Abu Toha on Winning a Pulitzer: I Can’t Celebrate While Gaza Is Starving; Israel’s “Horrific Trifecta” of Starvation, Siege & Bombings Creates Maternal Health Disaster: Nurse

Transcribed - Published: 6 May 2025

Headlines for May 05, 2025; “Chilling”: Wisconsin Gov. Evers Pushes Back After Trump’s Border Czar Threatens to Arrest Him; “End Times Fascism”: Naomi Klein on How Trump, Musk, Far Right “Don’t Believe in the Future”

Transcribed - Published: 5 May 2025

Headlines for May 02, 2025; Gaza Aid Flotilla Attacked by Drones in International Waters; Organizers Blame Israel; “Losing Our Democracy”: Workers & Immigrants Lead Nationwide May Day Protests Against Trump; “Palestine Is Really the Center of the World”: Angela Davis on Gaza, Black-Jewish Solidarity & Trump; Badar Khan Suri Is a Peace Scholar at Georgetown. Now He’s Being Held as a High-Risk Threat in ICE Jail

Transcribed - Published: 2 May 2025

Headlines for May 01, 2025; “I Am Not Afraid of You”: Mohsen Mahdawi’s Defiant Message to Trump After Release from ICE Jail in VT; “They Shattered Our Dreams”: NY Father Recounts How ICE Snatched His Son & Sent Him to El Salvador; Is Trump’s “Minerals Deal” a Fossil Fuel Shakedown? Antonia Juhasz on New U.S.-Ukraine Agreement; Yemeni People in State of “Terror” After 1,000+ U.S. Airstrikes Kill Hundreds: Helen Lackner

Transcribed - Published: 1 May 2025

Headlines for April 30, 2025; “Trump Is Trying to Break Us”: Trump Threats to Annex Canada Help Liberal Party Win Critical Election; DOGE Is Going Global: Elon Musk Is Inspiring Right-Wing Efforts Abroad to Gut Government Programs; Viet Thanh Nguyen on 50 Years After Vietnam War, Trump’s “Ugly American” Politics, El Salvador & More; “To Save and to Destroy”: Viet Thanh Nguyen on New Book Exploring Otherness, Refugees, Gaza & More

Transcribed - Published: 30 April 2025

Headlines for April 29, 2025; “Taking Our Power Back”: Immigrants & Workers Plan for May Day Protests as Trump Marks 100 Days; “The Hollow Half”: Palestinian American Sarah Aziza on Gaza, Generational Trauma, Anorexia & Exile

Transcribed - Published: 29 April 2025

Headlines for April 28, 2025; Three U.S. Citizen Children, Including 4-Year-Old Battling 4th Stage Cancer, Deported to Honduras; “Abuse of Power”: Trump Admin’s “Bizarre” Arrest of Milwaukee Judge Shocks Legal Community; Former Social Security Chief Martin O’Malley Warns of “Collapse of the Entire System” Under Trump

Transcribed - Published: 28 April 2025

Headlines for April 25, 2025; “Sinners”: Director Ryan Coogler on His Latest Hit, Delta Blues, His Mississippi Roots & Vampires; “Musk Is Scamming the City of Memphis”: Meet Two Brothers Fighting Colossus, Musk’s xAI Data Center

Transcribed - Published: 25 April 2025

Headlines for April 24, 2025; “Ultimate Grifter”: Bob Kuttner on How Trump Could Drop His Tariffs & Take Credit for Saving Economy; As Trump Attacks CBS, Maria Ressa Warns He Is Following Philippine Model to Crack Down on Free Press; Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa Remembers Pope Francis for Progressive Views & Embracing the Global South; Trump’s War on Children: DOGE Guts Head Start, Child Abuse Programs, Healthcare & More

Transcribed - Published: 24 April 2025

Headlines for April 23, 2025; “America, América”: Greg Grandin on Latin American History, from Colonization to CECOT to Pope Francis

Transcribed - Published: 23 April 2025

Headlines for April 22, 2025; Remembering Pope Francis on Earth Day: How He Linked Capitalism, Climate & Catholicism; “The Doxxing-to-Deportation Pipeline”: Update on Abduction & Jailing of Tufts Student Rümeysa Öztürk; Vijay Prashad: Historic 1955 Anti-Colonial Bandung Conference Inspired New Era in Global South

Transcribed - Published: 22 April 2025

Headlines for April 21, 2025; Sen. Van Hollen on Meeting Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador & Escalating Constitutional Crisis; Pope Dies at 88: Pax Christi’s Marie Dennis on How He Championed the Marginalized, Changed the Church; “Heart of Compassion” for Palestine: Pope Francis Called for Gaza Ceasefire Until His Final Days; Pope Francis’s Book Editor Robert Ellsberg on the Pontiff’s Life, Legacy & Care for Refugees; Mohsen Mahdawi Arrest Sends Message “Peacemakers Are Not Welcome”: Israeli American Columbia Student

Transcribed - Published: 21 April 2025

We speak with Ana Tijoux, the French Chilean musician and hip-hop artist known for her socially conscious lyrics, as she launches her U.S. tour.

Published: 21 April 2025

Headlines for April 18, 2025; “Absolute Nonsense”: As Measles Cases Soar & Kids Die, Expert Slams RFK Jr. on Vaccine-Autism Link; Cannes Selects Film on Gaza Photographer Fatma Hassona; A Day Later, She’s Killed in Israeli Strike

Transcribed - Published: 18 April 2025

Headlines for April 17, 2025; Constitutional Crisis: As Trump Ignores Judges’ Orders, Will the Courts Capitulate?; “Need the World to Pay Attention”: Sudan Faces World’s Worst Displacement Crisis After 2 Years of War; Trump Eyes Congo’s “Incredible Mineral Riches” as Armed Conflict Devastates Region; “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This”: Omar El Akkad on Gaza & Western Complicity

Transcribed - Published: 17 April 2025

In Part 2 of our interview with Omar El Akkad, he discusses the roots of his new book about the war on Gaza, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, and how he draws hope from people engaged in “active resistance.”

Transcribed - Published: 17 April 2025

In Part 2 of our interview with Omar El Akkad, he discusses the roots of his new book about the war on Gaza, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, and how he draws hope from people engaged in “active resistance.”

Transcribed - Published: 17 April 2025

Headlines for April 16, 2025; Mohsen Mahdawi’s Abduction “Should Terrify” Us, Says VT Rep. Balint, Whose Grandfather Was Killed in Holocaust; Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen: Breaking Up Meta’s Monopoly Would Improve Service, Safety; “Unquestionably Unconstitutional”: Harvard Law Prof Slams Cuts as School Rejects Trump Demands

Transcribed - Published: 16 April 2025

Headlines for April 15, 2025; Liberation Seder: Hundreds of Jewish Protesters Demand Release of Foreign Students Abducted by ICE; Trump Weighs Expelling U.S. Citizens as Salvadoran Pres. Says He Won’t Return Wrongfully Removed Man; Cover-Up in Ecuador? Disputed Presidential Election Rocked by New Allegation from 2023 Assassination; “The Dark Money Game”: Director Alex Gibney on How Citizens United Ushered in “Legalized Corruption”

Transcribed - Published: 15 April 2025

In Part 2 of our conversation with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney, he discusses in detail his new set of documentaries.

Transcribed - Published: 15 April 2025

Headlines for April 14, 2025; Mahmoud Khalil’s Lawyer: Trump Admin Is Delaying in Federal Court While Racing to Deport Activist; Maria Hinojosa: El Salvador’s “Dictator” Key to Disappearing Migrants Like Kilmar Abrego Garcia; “I’m Not Really Free”: Pulitzer Winners “Suave” & Maria Hinojosa Examine Life After Prison in Season 2

Transcribed - Published: 14 April 2025

Watch our extended interview with British Palestinian filmmaker Farah Nabulsi and Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri, who discuss the new feature film The Teacher. Inspired by true events, the drama looks at how Israel’s decadeslong military occupation impacts Palestinian children. Nabulsi details the challenges of filming The Teacher in the occupied West Bank, and Bakri discusses how he drew on his own experience as a father to play the titular role.

Transcribed - Published: 14 April 2025

As the Pulitzer Prize-winning podcast Suave returns for its second season, we continue our conversation with journalist Maria Hinojosa and David Luis “Suave” Gonzalez, the subject of the series. Gonzalez was sentenced to life in prison at age 17, but got an unexpected second chance when he was paroled in 2017 following a Supreme Court ruling that found sentences like his unconstitutional. The first season of the podcast followed Gonzalez’s case, his decadeslong friendship with Hinojosa and his eventual release from prison. The second season looks at his struggle to reintegrate into society.

Transcribed - Published: 14 April 2025

Headlines for April 11, 2025; Supreme Court Orders U.S. to “Facilitate” Return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador; Michigan Lawyer Detained at Detroit Airport, Phone Seized; He Represents Pro-Palestine Protester; Microsoft Worker Fired for Israel Protest: “Cloud & AI Are the Bombs & Bullets of the 21st Century”; “The Teacher”: Director Farah Nabulsi and Actor Saleh Bakri on New Film Based in Occupied West Bank

Transcribed - Published: 11 April 2025

Headlines for April 10, 2025; From “Liberation Day” to Chaos: Trump Pauses Most Tariffs While Escalating Trade War with China; Trump Threatens Joint U.S.-Israeli Attack on Iran If Talks on Iran’s Nuclear Program Fail; Columbia Prof. Marianne Hirsch: Mahmoud Khalil Arrest Reminds Me of Growing Up Under Authoritarianism

Transcribed - Published: 10 April 2025

Headlines for April 09, 2025; A War on the First Amendment: David Cole on Trump Targeting Students, Law Firms, Schools & Journalists; Elon Musk Stands to Get Even Richer as Trump Backs $1 Trillion Budget for Pentagon

Transcribed - Published: 9 April 2025

Headlines for April 08, 2025; “What About the Capitalists?”: Autoworkers in U.S., Mexico Call for Solidarity, Not Divisive Tariffs; “Detained Without Evidence”: Maryland Father Remains in El Salvador Prison After SCOTUS Ruling; “Black Americans Are Not Surprised”: Christina Greer on Trump’s Attacks on Students, DEI & History

Transcribed - Published: 8 April 2025

Headlines for April 07, 2025; “Point-Blank”: Israeli Soldiers Execute 15 Gaza Medics & Rescue Workers, Bury in Unmarked Mass Grave; “Hands Off!”: 1 Million Protest Trump’s Cuts, Attacks on Education, Immigration, War on Gaza & More; “Terrifying”: Poorest Countries & Global Working Class Face Worst Impacts of Trump’s Tariffs

Transcribed - Published: 7 April 2025

In Mali, thousands of mourners gathered in Bamako Sunday for the funeral of Amadou Bagayoko, half of the world-renowned duo Amadou & Mariam. Bagayoko died on Friday at the age of 70. The blind husband-and-wife music duo came to the Democracy Now! studio in 2018 to perform and talk about their music.

Transcribed - Published: 7 April 2025

Headlines for April 04, 2025; Reproductive Rights Crackdown: Planned Parenthood CEO on Supreme Court Case, Title X & More; “An Attack on Labor”: Washington Farmworker Organizer “Lelo” Detained in Trump Immigration Crackdown; “Can’t Look Away”: New Documentary Examines How Social Media Addiction Can Harm — Even Kill — Kids

Transcribed - Published: 4 April 2025

Can’t Look Away is a new documentary that examines the tragic consequences that the algorithms of Big Tech companies can have on children and teens.

Transcribed - Published: 4 April 2025

The legendary folk singer Michael Hurley has died at the age of 83. Born in Bucks County Pennsylvania in 1941, he had a remarkable career that stretched from the 1960s until his sudden death this week at his home in Oregon. In 2020 Hurley stopped by the Democracy Now! studio.

Transcribed - Published: 4 April 2025

Headlines for April 03, 2025; “American Empire Is in Decline”: Economist Richard Wolff on Trump’s Trade War & Tariffs; Jewish Students Chain Themselves to Columbia Gates to Protest ICE Jailing of Mahmoud Khalil; ICE Detains Mother & Her Three Children in Farm Raid Near NY Home of Border Czar Tom Homan

Transcribed - Published: 3 April 2025

Headlines for April 02, 2025; Elon Musk Fails in Attempt to Buy Wisconsin Supreme Court as Judge Susan Crawford Beats Brad Schimel; A “Coup” at Columbia? Former Law Prof. Katherine Franke on School’s Capitulation to Trump; Trump Sends Hundreds of Immigrants to Brutal Salvadoran Prison as Mass Deportations Expand

Transcribed - Published: 2 April 2025

Headlines for April 01, 2025; Workers vs. Musk: Federal Unions Resist Attacks on Bargaining Rights & Cuts to Essential Services; A Blueprint for Resisting Trump Education Cuts? Chicago Teachers Reach “Powerful” Tentative Contract; “The Darkest Hour of Need”: Burmese Junta Continues Bombing in Aftermath of Devastating Earthquake; “We Are Killing the Essence of What the University Is”: Dr. Joanne Liu on NYU Canceling Her Talk

Transcribed - Published: 1 April 2025

Headlines for March 31, 2025; “Obsessed”: Elon Musk Pours $20 Million into Wisconsin Supreme Court Race as Voter Anger Builds; “Taking Down Everything Black”: Fired Kennedy Center VP Marc Bamuthi Joseph on Trump’s Takeover; Remembering Robert McChesney, Prescient Critic of Media Consolidation & Big Tech

Transcribed - Published: 31 March 2025

Headlines for March 28, 2025; Hip-Hop Star Macklemore on New Film “The Encampments” & Why He Speaks Out Against Israel’s War on Gaza; “The Encampments”: New Film on Mahmoud Khalil & Columbia Students Who Sparked Gaza Campus Protests

Transcribed - Published: 28 March 2025

Headlines for March 27, 2025; Fired Kennedy Center VP Marc Bamuthi Joseph Speaks Out After Trump Guts Social Impact Team; “Kidnapped”: 1,000+ Protest After Masked ICE Agents Abduct Tufts Ph.D. Student Rumeysa Ozturk; Can Elon Musk Buy Wisconsin? Ari Berman on Billionaire-Funded Attempt to Flip State Supreme Court; Elon Musk’s Family History in South Africa Reveals Ties to Apartheid & Neo-Nazi Movements

Transcribed - Published: 27 March 2025