Ralph Nader Radio Hour

Ralph welcomes journalist and author Megan Greenwell to discuss her book "Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream." Then, Ralph speaks to James Zogby (co-founder and president of the Arab American Institute) about the recent Israeli attacks on Lebanon.Megan Greenwell is a journalist who has written or edited for publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, New York Magazine, WIRED, and ESPN. She is also the deputy director of the Princeton Summer Journalism Program, a workshop and college-access initiative for students from low-income backgrounds. She is the author of Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream.The real trick with private equity (and this was the thing that made me want to write a book on it) is that when they take out those billions of dollars worth of loans (if you’re buying a bigger company), the private equity firm is not responsible for paying those loans back. Only the portfolio company in whose name the private equity firm

Ralph welcomes Haley Hinkle, policy counsel at Fairplay to tell us about how a New Mexico jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million for harming children’s mental health and safety, violating state law. Then when present highlights from last week’s symposium on impeachment, featuring Dennis Kucinich, CIA whistleblower, Jeffrey Sterling, Public Citizen co-president, Rob Weissman, GW law dean Alan Morrison and many more.Haley Hinkle is policy counsel at Fairplay, where she advocates for laws and regulations that protect children and teens’ autonomy and safety online. Ms. Hinkle has also worked on issues at the intersection of government surveillance technology and civil liberties.We saw a lot of that in the discovery for these cases and other lawsuits that are currently being brought against the companies—that they have a lot of internal research where they’re very specific with their features. And also their safety features. They test them to make sure safety features aren’t too effective. They don’t reduce too muc

Ralph welcomes international security expert Paul Rogers to discuss the US-Israeli war on Iran. Then, Ralph speaks to constitutional law experts Bruce Fein and John Bonifaz about their upcoming impeachment symposium.Paul Rogers is Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies in the Department of Peace Studies and International Relations at Bradford University, and an Honorary Fellow at the Joint Service Command and Staff College. He is open Democracy’s international security correspondent.I think if you look at the war overall, then essentially of the three (I use the term as a crude term) participants, the one that is basically doing most badly is the United States, followed by Israel, followed least by Iran. Relatively speaking, the Iranians (particularly the Revolutionary Guard Corps) are closer to where they wanted to be, which is not true of the United States and certainly isn’t true to a very large extent of the Israelis as well. In other words, the war is going badly. for the people who are determined to try an

Ralph welcomes Wes Bryant, a retired Air Force special operations master sergeant and former analyst at the Civilian Protection Center who talks to us about how civilians, either through incompetence or negligence, are not being protected during American missile strikes. Then our resident constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, joins us to break down his latest op-ed “The Power to Declare War Belongs to Congress Alone.”Wes Bryant is a defense and national security analyst with focus on foreign policy and global conflict, counterterrorism and extremism, strike and joint targeting operations, and civilian harm. He retired from the U.S. Air Force in 2018 at the rank of Master Sergeant after twenty years of active duty service. He was formerly a senior policy analyst and advisor on precision warfare and civilian harm mitigation at the Pentagon’s Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, where he led as the first-ever Branch Chief of Civilian Harm Assessments.This strike [on the girls’ school in Minab, Iran] violated

Ralph welcomes international human rights lawyer Craig Mokhiber to discuss the U.S. and Israel’s illegal war on Iran. Then, Ralph speaks to investigative reporter David Cay Johnston about the finances of Donald Trump.Craig Mokhiber is an international human rights lawyer and activist, and a former senior United Nations human rights official. A human rights activist in the 1980s, he would go on to serve for more than three decades at the United Nations, with postings in Switzerland, Palestine, Afghanistan, and UN Headquarters in New York. In October of 2023, he left the United Nations, penning a widely read letter criticizing the UN’s human rights failures in the Middle East, warning of unfolding genocide in Gaza, and calling for a new approach to Palestine and Israel based on international law, human rights, and equality.Anyone who pays attention knows that Iran wasn’t attacked because it has nuclear weapons. It was attacked because it doesn’t have nuclear weapons, and was therefore viewed by Israel and the U

Ralph spends the whole hour with progressive activist, Corbin Trent, former communications director for Alexandria Ocasio Cortez to discuss the lack of vision and the spineless leadership in the corporate Democratic Party.Corbin Trent is a co-founder of Brand New Congress and former co-director of Justice Democrats, two grassroots organizations working to elect progressive Democrats to Congress. He was the National Campaign Coordinator for the Bernie Sanders Presidential campaign, and recently served as the Communications Director for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He writes about rebuilding America at AmericasUndoing.com.This is a [Democratic] Party that is led by sinecurists and apparatchiks who never look at themselves in the mirror after they lose to the most vicious, cruel, ignorant, anti-worker, anti-women, anti-environment, anti-small taxpayer, pro-war Republican Party. They never look into it. It’s always: they blame the Greens or they blame some third party or Independent candidate. And they never as

Ralph welcomes sociologist and historian Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi to discuss the United States' war of aggression on Iran.Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi is an Iranian-born American historian and sociologist. He is a Research Fellow at the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics at the CUNY Graduate Center. He was the Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Studies and Director of the Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies at Princeton University. He is the author of four books on different aspects and historical context of the Iranian revolution of 1979 and its aftermath.The only countries that I see that are in constant violation of international law is the United States and Israel. And frankly, I am speechless, although I’m speaking, but I am speechless—in what universe can this war be justified as self-defense? You listened to Secretary Rubio’s speech in Munich where he laments 400 years of colonial rule being lost to this international law and laws of fighting wars because the

Events are moving rapidly in the Middle East, so we wanted to provide our loyal podcast listeners with some context to help digest everything that’s happened so far. We hope to provide a longer view of the what, where, who, how and why and offer some perspective on this military action’s broader historical, political, and legal implications.Ted Postol is Professor of Science, Technology and National Security Policy Emeritus in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at MIT. His expertise is in nuclear weapon systems, including submarine warfare, applications of nuclear weapons, ballistic missile defense, and ballistic missiles more generally. He previously worked as an analyst at the Office of Technology Assessment and as a science and policy adviser to the chief of naval operations. In 2016, he received the Garwin Prize from the Federation of American Scientists for his work in assessing and critiquing the government’s claims about missile defenses.Ambassador Chas Freeman is a retired career diplomat

Washington Post personal finance columnist, Michelle Singletary, tells the moving story of how a visit to her grade school by the Reverend Jesse Jackson inspired her life and career as described in her column, “How the Rev. Jesse Jackson Taught Me to Keep Hope Alive." Then Ralph welcomes Professor Eric S. Fish from U.C Davis School of Law to explain how grand juries are no longer rubber-stamping frivolous cases brought to them by the Trump Administration. Plus, Ralph gives us his take on Trump’s marathon State of the Union speech and the Democratic response.Michelle Singletary writes the nationally-syndicated personal finance column “The Color of Money,” which appears in the Washington Post on Wednesdays and Sundays. In 2021, she won the Gerald Loeb award for commentary. She has written four personal finance books, including, What to Do With Your Money When Crisis Hits: A Survival Guide and The 21-Day Financial Fast: Your Path to Financial Peace and Freedom.The Trump administration’s destruction of diversity,

Ralph welcomes J.B. Branch (Public Citizen's Big Tech accountability advocate) to discuss some of the sectors that Big Tech is disrupting with artificial intelligence. Then, Steve, David, and Hannah speak to Russell Mokhiber about the latest issue of the Capitol Hill Citizen. Finally, Ralph speaks on the legacy of the late Rev. Jesse Jackson.J.B. Branch is the Big Tech accountability advocate for Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division. He leads Public Citizen’s advocacy efforts on artificial intelligence accountability, consumer data and privacy rights, tech product safety, platform oversight, and child online safety protections.What’s happening is these AI companies are taking a page out of the playbook of the social media days. When social media was brand new, they were trying to say that this technology is going to lead to people being more connected, it’s going to lead to efficiencies, it’s going to lead to overall positives. And in fact, there were times where you had big tech CEOs who were saying that

Ralph welcomes, Robert Weissman co-president of Public Citizen, to discuss his Senate testimony about the many ways the Trump Administration’s assault on fraud is itself fraudulent. Plus, Ralph informs us of a report from Aljazeera about the MK-84 weapon the IDF is using in Gaza that is designed to generate so much heat it literally vaporizes people.Robert Weissman is a staunch public interest advocate and activist, as well as an expert on a wide variety of issues ranging from corporate accountability and government transparency, to trade and globalization, to economic and regulatory policy. As the president of Public Citizen, he has spearheaded the effort to loosen the chokehold corporations and the wealthy have over our democracy.Every American should be worried about fraud. So it’s fine for the committee to be talking about fraud, but it should be based on actual facts and what’s actually happening, which is not what’s going on with this focus on Minnesota… And without a doubt, if the concern is about frau

Ralph welcomes Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson to discuss a wide range of topics, including NATO, Greenland, Gaza, and more. Then, Ralph speaks to Rabbi Alissa Wise (founding director of Rabbis for Ceasefire) about the “Jews for Food Aid for People in Gaza" campaign. Finally, Ralph and the team address some current events.Lawrence Wilkerson is a retired U.S. Army colonel. Over his 31 years of service, Colonel Wilkerson served as Secretary of State Colin Powell's Chief of Staff from 2002 to 2005, and Special Assistant to General Powell when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993. Colonel Wilkerson also served as Deputy Director and Director of the U.S. Marine Corps War College at Quantico, Virginia, and for fifteen years he was the Distinguished Visiting Professor of Government and Public Policy at the College of William and Mary. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Eisenhower Media Network, senior advisor to the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and co-founder of the All-Volun

Capitalism as an economic system has been around in various forms for over a thousand years and according to our featured guest this week, it keeps evolving. Join us for a lively and challenging discussion between Ralph and Harvard history professor, Sven Beckert, as they discuss his book “Capitalism: A Global History.”Sven Beckert is the Laird Bell Professor of History at Harvard University. He has written widely on the economic, social, and political history of capitalism. His book Empire of Cotton won the Bancroft Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His latest book is Capitalism: A Global History.Capitalism has existed within a whole range of political systems of organizing political power. And this includes authoritarian regimes; this includes fascist regimes; and this includes also liberal democratic regimes such as Great Britain and the United States. And you see this kind of tension emerging today within the United States in which there is a kind of concern, I think, among some capital-own

Ralph welcomes professor and historian Daniel Immerwahr to discuss the history of the United States' overseas possessions and his book "How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States."Daniel Immerwahr is a professor and historian at Northwestern University. He is the author of Thinking Small: The United States and the Lure of Community Development and How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States.What I wanted to do in the book was to look at the United States and to take seriously the parts of the United States that don’t always feature in the textbooks—that are outside of the mainland, the contiguous blob. And what I discovered when I did that was that these places were often in the mainland’s mind seen as peripheral places, but this was not a peripheral history…It turns out that once you’ve got the territories in view, you have a different understanding of them. And so a lot of US history (and really important parts of US history) has actually taken place outside of the part

With the American republic hanging in the balance, Ralph calls on Democrats to pressure Republicans in the House and Senate to impeach Trump before the midterms or suffer the consequences. Then, we welcome Dino Grandoni, co-author of a Washington Post report on the surprising ways various species of animals and plants help advance our own health and longevity.Dino Grandoni is a reporter who covers life sciences for the Washington Post. He was part of a reporting team that was a finalist for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for coverage of Hurricane Helene. He previously covered the Environmental Protection Agency and wrote a daily tipsheet on energy and environmental policy. He is co-author (with Hailey Haymond and Katty Huertas) of the feature “50 Species That Save Us.”The Democrats—while there are people like constitutional law expert Jamie Raskin (who has said a shadow hearing to publicly educate the American people on impeachment “is a good idea”) he’s been muzzled by Hakeem Jeffries and Char

This week we focus on the Trump Administration’s seizure of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro as Ralph welcomes legendary former ambassador, Chas Freeman, who calls it nothing more than a “gas station stick-up.” Then our resident Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, lays out some of the legal ramifications of the whole affair.Ambassador Chas Freeman is a retired career diplomat who has negotiated on behalf of the United States with over 100 foreign governments in East and South Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and both Western and Eastern Europe. Ambassador Freeman was previously a Senior Fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, and served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense, U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, and Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires in the American embassies at both Bangkok and Beijing. He was Director for Chinese Affairs at the U.S. Department of State from 1979-1981.

Steve, David, Hannah, Jimmy, Matthew. and Francesco give Ralph a well-deserved break and highlight some of the clips they want to revisit from another challenging, inspiring, fascinating, infuriating, and galvanizing year. Featuring interviews with Chris Hedges, Jon Merryman, Mike German, and more.Featured ClipsDouglas Brinkley — The Legacy of Jimmy Carter (January 11, 2025)Chris Hedges — A Genocide Foretold/ World BEYOND War (March 29, 2025)Peter Beinart — Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza (March 15, 2025)John Bonifaz — Impeach Trump!... Again (August 30, 2025)Mike German — Policing White Supremacy (March 8, 2025)Stephen Witt — The AI Prompt That Could End the World (November 8, 2025)Jon Merryman — Trading Life For Death (July 12, 2025)News 1/2/26* Our top story this week is of course the news that the CIA has conducted a drone strike inside the sovereign borders of Venezuela. CNN reports U.S. Special Operations Forces provided intelligence support for this strike, though spec-ops leadership denies

We welcome Sam Rosenthal, political director of Roots Action, to analyze their “Autopsy” report on why in 2024 the Democratic Party lost to the worst, most corrupt GOP in American history. Plus, Ralph answers some of your listener questions.Sam Rosenthal is an organizer and researcher who serves as Political Director at RootsAction.We’re talking about young voters, voters of color in major urban centers and college towns who looked at their choices last year (2024), looked at the candidates in the way the Democratic Party had conducted business and said, “I don’t really see anyone here who’s representing my best interests.” So it’s not that these folks necessarily went and voted for Donald Trump (although some did) or voted third party (although some did). But by and large, people just didn’t come out and vote. They were not inspired. They were not galvanized. And they didn’t see how it would benefit their material interests to come out and support the Democratic Party as they had in 2020. So that’s the ballg

Ralph welcomes RJ Cross from USPIRG to discuss the Trouble in Toyland 2025 report. Then, Ralph speaks with truck safety activist Marianne Karth about the need for stronger truck safety regulation. Plus, the RNRH team has a spirited debate about spectator sports.R.J. Cross is the Director of the Our Online Life program, Don’t Sell My Data campaign, and U.S. PIRG Education Fund. Her work as a writer and researcher ranges from the risks of commercialization of personal data, to consumer harms like scams and data breaches, to emerging threats from AI. In her work as a Policy Analyst at Frontier Group, she has authored research reports on government transparency, consumer debt and predatory auto lending, and has testified before Congress.A lot of the toys we found either claim to be or are using one of OpenAI’s chatbots. Even though OpenAI has said that its products are not for kids under the age of 13—but they’re allowing their chatbots to be used in toys, which are products by definition for children. So there’s

Ralph once again welcomes Chuck Collins, heir to the Oscar Meyer fortune and one of the founders of Patriotic Millionaires, to discuss his agenda for reform outlined in his new book BURNED BY BILLIONAIRES: How Concentrated Wealth and Power Are Ruining Our Lives and Planet. Then Sarah Moskowitz, Executive Director of the Citizens Utility Board of Illinois (CUB), joins us to tell us how to fight back against AI data centers that are spiking your electric bills.Chuck Collins directs the Charity Reform Initiative at the Institute for Policy Studies, where he also co-edits Inequality.org. He co-founded the Patriotic Millionaires and United for a Fair Economy, and he is the author of Born on Third Base and The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions. His new book is Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power Are Ruining Our Lives and Planet.There’s a number of examples of how we could create a decency floor that many societies have (including, obviously, Canada) that you can’