The Signal

The Signal | Interview with Alan Jenkins, author of 1/6: The Graphic Novel

Alan Jenkins is a writer, Harvard law professor, and human rights advocate. He and co-author Gan Golan, along with illustrator Will Rosado, led the creation of the graphic novel series 1/6, which asks the question: What if the Jan.6 insurrectionist attack on the US capitol had been successful? In the tradition of speculative fiction from George Orwell’s 1984 to Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale, it explores themes of autocracy, scapegoating, strategic disinformation, and more, all of which we are still dealing with as a nation. Alan joins us today to talk about this really informative and critical series, which just released its second issue, and how he and his team are sending copies to schools all across Pennsylvania.
Visit: https://onesixcomicsstore.com/
Jenkins teaches courses on Race and the Law, Communication, and Supreme Court Jurisprudence. Before joining the Law School faculty, he was President and Co-Founder of The Opportunity Agenda, a social justice communication lab.
His prior positions have included Assistant to the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he represented the United States government in constitutional and other litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court; Director of Human Rights at the Ford Foundation, where he managed grantmaking in the United States and eleven overseas regions; and Associate Counsel to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where he defended the rights of low-income communities facing exploitation and discrimination. He previously served as a Law Clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun and to U.S. District Court Judge Robert L. Carter.
Jenkins is a frequent commentator in broadcast, print, and digital media on topics ranging from Supreme Court decision making to racial equity to the role of popular culture in social change. His past Board service includes New York Public Radio, the Center for Community Change, the Legal Action Center, and Futuro Media Group, as well as the Board of Governors of the New School for Public Engagement. He has also served on the Selection Committee for the Sundance Documentary Fund.
Jenkins holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School, an M.A. in Media Studies from the New School for Public Engagement, and a B.A. in Psychology and Social Relations from Harvard College.
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ALSO LISTEN TO:
The Growing Fascist Threat To American Democracy, With Jeff Sharlet
The New Apostolic Reformation: A Revolutionary Theocratic Movement Coming For Pennsylvania, The Nation, And The World
The Christian Right’s Crusade for Power and War on Democracy, with Katherine Stewart
Kristin Kobes Du Mez on Evangelical Support for Trump and Project 2025’s Christian Nationalist and Authoritarian Designs for the Nation
BBC News Reporter Mike Wendling on His New Book ‘Day of Reckoning: The Far Right’s War on Democracy’
The Signal is produced by Kevin Mahoney, Raging Chicken Media.
Music by Maf é Tulà and Cartas a Felice, "La Loca." Panela Music. 
Follow us on Twitter:
@BucksCoBeacon
@cmychalejko 
@RCpress

The Signal | Keystone Newsroom Political Correspondent Sean Kitchen on the Democratic National Convention

Sean Kitchen is the Keystone Newsroom’s political correspondent. 
The Keystone is a Pennsylvania-based newsroom of local editors and reporters with a modern take on sharing information and telling stories that impact our communities.
The Keystone is owned and operated by COURIER, a pro-democracy news network that is building a more informed, engaged, and representative America by reaching audiences where they are online with factual, values-driven news and analysis at the local and national level.
Sean joins us after just getting back from Chicago where he covered the Democratic National Convention. He talks to us about the DNC and the presidential race moving forward. 
Subscribe to the Keystone’s newsletter: https://keystonenewsroom.com/newsletter/ 
Follow Sean on Twitter: https://x.com/pennslinger 
Listen on Apple, Spotify, Google and iheart
The Signal is produced by Kevin Mahoney, Raging Chicken Media.
Music by Maf é Tulà and Cartas a Felice, "La Loca." Panela Music. 
Follow us on Twitter:
@BucksCoBeacon
@cmychalejko 
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The Signal | From Jesus to John Wayne and Donald Trump to Project 2025. A Conversation with Kristin Kobes Du Mez About MAGA Evangelicals

Kristin Kobes Du Mez is Professor of History and Gender Studies at Calvin University. She holds a PhD from the University of Notre Dame and her research focuses on the intersection of gender, religion, and politics. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Religion News Service, and Christianity Today and has been interviewed on NPR, CBS, and the BBC, among other outlets. Her most recent book is Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation. Kristin joins us today to talk about her book, evangelical support for Trump, and how Project 2025 looks to advance the MAGA-evangelical movement’s broader goals to transform the nation. 
Listen on Apple, Spotify, Google and iheart
Subscribe to Kristin's newsletter here: https://kristindumez.substack.com/
Host Cyril Mychalejko’s 5 Book Recommendations to Further Shine a Light on the Issue
American Evangelicals for Trump: Dominion, Spiritual Warfare, and the End Times, by André Gagné 
The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, by Tim Alberta
The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America, by Frances Fitzgerald 
The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism, by Katherine Stewart
American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays The Gospel And Threatens The Church, by Andrew L. Whitehead 
ALSO LISTEN TO:
EPISODE 5 – The Growing Fascist Threat To American Democracy, With Jeff Sharlet
EPISODE 7 – Understanding Backlash Politics And Religious Conservatives Inciting School Board Wars, With PRRI’s Melissa Deckman
EPISODE 12 – The New Apostolic Reformation: A Revolutionary Theocratic Movement Coming For Pennsylvania, The Nation, And The World
EPISODE 18 - The Christian Right’s Crusade for Power and War on Democracy, with Katherine Stewart
EPISODE 19 - A Conversation with André Gagné About His Book ‘American Evangelicals for Trump: Dominion, Spiritual Warfare, and the End Times’
The Signal is produced by Kevin Mahoney, Raging Chicken Media.
Music by Maf é Tulà and Cartas a Felice, "La Loca." Panela Music. 
Follow us on Twitter:
@BucksCoBeacon
@cmychalejko 
@RCpress
 
 
 

The Signal | How the Corporate Poverty Complex Profiteers Off of Poor Americans, with Anne Kim

Anne Kim is a writer, lawyer, and public policy expert with a long career in Washington, DC-based think tanks working in and around Capitol Hill. She is a contributing editor at Washington Monthly, where she was a senior writer. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, Governing, TheAtlantic.com, the Wall Street Journal, Democracy, and numerous other publications. Today Anne joins us to talk about her new book Poverty for Profit: How Corporations Get Rich off America’s Poor.
Listen on Apple, Spotify, Google and iheart
Host Cyril Mychalejko’s 5 Book Recommendations to Further Shine a Light on Public Education in America
The Guarantee Inside the Fight for America’s Next Economy, by Natalie Foster
Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare, by Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward
America: What Went Wrong?, Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele 
Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond
Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media, and the Politics of Antipoverty Policy, by Martin Gilens.
The Signal is produced by Kevin Mahoney, Raging Chicken Media.
Music by Maf é Tulà and Cartas a Felice, "La Loca." Panela Music. 
Follow us on Twitter:
@BucksCoBeacon
@cmychalejko 
@RCpress

The Signal | This Bucks County Dad Took His Child’s School District to Court to Uncover a Secret Book Banning Scheme

Darren Laustsen has lived in Bucks County for over 35 years. He became involved in local politics after witnessing right wing extremism consume his daughters’ school district. Darren is an outspoken voice in support of public education and against Moms For Liberty. He testified in Harrisburg in support of anti-book banning legislation and took the Pennridge School District to court uncovering a secret book banning operation initiated by school board members. Today Darren joins us to talk about his activism in defense of public education and students’ freedom to read.
Listen on Apple, Spotify, Google and iheart
Read Darren’s Articles:
Why I’m Taking Pennridge School District To Court
In Pennridge School District, Books Once Shadow Banned Are Now in the Trash Can
Uncovering the Cover-up: How Republican Pennridge School Board Directors Secretly Banned Books
Also Listen To: 
EPISODE 2 – The Merchants of Deception: The Dark Money and Front Groups Behind School Privatization, with Maurice Cunningham
EPISODE 6 – The Right’s Long War On Public Education, With Jennifer Berkshire
EPISODE 7 – Understanding Backlash Politics And Religious Conservatives Inciting School Board Wars, With PRRI’s Melissa Deckman
EPISODE 10 – Raising A Transgender Child In An Increasingly Transphobic Country, With Brett Freeman
EPISODE 11 – Unmasking Moms For Liberty’s Extremism, With Olivia Little And Diana Leygerman
EPISODE 21 – Understanding the Nation’s Mounting Book Banning Crisis in Public Schools, with PEN America’s Sabrina Baêta
EPISODE 30 – ‘The Education Wars: A Citizen’s Guide and Defense Manual’, with Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider
The Signal is produced by Kevin Mahoney, Raging Chicken Media.
Music by Maf é Tulà and Cartas a Felice, "La Loca." Panela Music. 
Follow us on Twitter:
@BucksCoBeacon
@cmychalejko 
@RCpress

The Signal |The Education Wars: A Citizen’s Guide and Defense Manual, with Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider

Jennifer Berkshire writes about the intersection of education and politics for the Nation, the New Republic, the New York Times, The Baffler, and other publications. 
Jack Schneider is the Dwight W. Allen Distinguished Professor at the UMass Amherst, where he leads the Beyond Test Scores Project. He is an award-winning scholar, and his work broadly explores the influence of history, culture, and rhetoric in education policy. 
Both Jennifer and Jack co-host the education policy podcast Have You Heard, and they co-authored A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling of Public Education and the Future of School which came out in 2020. Well, there’s good news, they have another book coming out in July: The Education Wars: A Citizen’s Guide and Defense Manual, which I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy of. They join me today to talk about this new book and why we must defend public education. 
Host Cyril Mychalejko’s 5 Book Recommendations to Further Shine a Light on Public Education in America
They Came for the Schools: One Town's Fight Over Race and Identity, and the New War for America's Classrooms, by Mike Hixenbaugh
Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization, by Maurice Cunningham
The Death of Public School: How Conservatives Won the War Over Education in America, by Cara Fitzpatrick
Left Back: A Century of Battles over School Reform, by Diane Ravitch
Whose America?: Culture Wars in the Public Schools, by Jonathan Zimmerman
Also Listen To: 
EPISODE 2 – The Merchants of Deception: The Dark Money and Front Groups Behind School Privatization, with Maurice Cunningham
EPISODE 6 – The Right’s Long War On Public Education, With Jennifer Berkshire
EPISODE 7 – Understanding Backlash Politics And Religious Conservatives Inciting School Board Wars, With PRRI’s Melissa Deckman
EPISODE 10 – Raising A Transgender Child In An Increasingly Transphobic Country, With Brett Freeman
EPISODE 11 – Unmasking Moms For Liberty’s Extremism, With Olivia Little And Diana Leygerman
EPISODE 21- Understanding the Nation’s Mounting Book Banning Crisis in Public Schools, with PEN America’s Sabrina Baêta
Go see Jennifer and Jack live at the Philadelphia Free Library. Register HERE.
The Signal is produced by Kevin Mahoney, Raging Chicken Media.
Music by Maf é Tulà and Cartas a Felice, "La Loca." Panela Music. 
Follow us on Twitter:
@BucksCoBeacon
@cmychalejko 
@RCpress
 

The Signal | Getting the Demoratic Party's Message Out, with JoAnn Loulan

JoAnn Loulan has been a political activist since college, demonstrating during the Vietnam War and fighting for civil rights, and then after college for lesbian visibility and political rights. She's written 3 books about that issue (Lesbian Sex, Lesbian Passion, and Lesbian Erotic Dance) and was on many talk shows back when there was little lesbian visibility. In addition, she has been on book tours talking with thousands of people throughout the US, Canada, and Europe.Her political work continued with raising money for many democratic candidates including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
In 2017 she started Local Majority, an organization that writes research papers for state legislative candidates in swing states. These are informational and well-researched about topics germane to their state (including Pennsylvania for 3 cycles) that the Democratic party does not provide. The group has written over 300 papers and is currently working in Arizona. 
In 2022 she along with Tracy Sherman started the Democratic Messaging Project. The purpose of this group is to work around the algorithm so people know what Democrats are doing, have done, and will do to make lives better. They do digital in-app messaging, rolling billboards that grassroots groups use to amplify their message, static billboards, and work on college campuses to educate and get the youth vote out. She is also a mother of 3, a grandmother of 3 and finally marrying her partner of 30 years. 
Today we talk about the work these two organizations are doing heading into the 2024 election.
Buy Tickets to Beaconfest!
 

The Signal | A Conversation with Mike Wendling About His New Book "Day of Reckoning: The Far Right’s War on Democracy"

Mike Wendling is U.S. National Digital Reporter for the BBC, based in Chicago. In 2020, he co-founded the BBC News disinformation unit and was editor and presenter of Trending, the BBC World Service show that covers the world of social media. He has decades of experience covering extremism, the American far right, social media and disinformation. Today he joins us to talk about his new book, out May 20, called Day of Reckoning: The Far Right’s War on Democracy.
Host Cyril Mychalejko’s 5 Book Recommendations to Further Shine a Light on the Issue
Going Mainstream: How Extremists are Taking Over, by Julia Ebner
The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War, by Jeff Sharlet
The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism, by Katherine Stewart
Meme Wars: The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America, by Joan Donovan, Emily Dreyfuss and Brian Friedberg
They Want to Kill Americans: The Militias, Terrorists, and Deranged Ideology of the Trump Insurgency, by Malcolm Nance
ALSO LISTEN TO:
EPISODE 5 – The Growing Fascist Threat To American Democracy, With Jeff Sharlet
EPISODE 7 – Understanding Backlash Politics And Religious Conservatives Inciting School Board Wars, With PRRI’s Melissa Deckman
EPISODE 12 – The New Apostolic Reformation: A Revolutionary Theocratic Movement Coming For Pennsylvania, The Nation, And The World
EPISODE 18 - The Christian Right’s Crusade for Power and War on Democracy, with Katherine Stewar