Make It Plain with Mark Thompson

Why is the infrastructure bill significant? Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves says it’s a historic long-term investment for the next five years, giving life to projects like fixing bridges and roads and even expanding broadband access. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeitplain.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Yesterday, as President Biden signed the infrastructure bill, protestors and organizers gathered on Capitol Hill to point to the crucial legislation that also needs passage: the Build Back Better Act. Mark teamed up with Poor People’s Campaign Co-Chairs Rev. Dr. William Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis to call for immediate action on the Build Back Better legislation. You’ll hear from protestors/organizers from Maine and Montana, Stewart Acuff, formerly of the UWUA and AFL CIO, and the keynote address from Rev. Dr. William Barber II. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeitplain.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The fact is, we won’t be seeing the last of COVID-19 anytime soon. That’s one of the several truths dropped in today’s episode with Dr. Sandro Galea, epidemiologist and Dean of Boston University’s Robert A. Knox School of Public Health, and author of his new book “The Contagion Next Time.” Not only can we expect to see more of the coronavirus, but we could see stronger, more deadly strains. But this episode is not intended to make you fear what’s ahead! Dr. Galea wants us to prepare accordingly, and consider a number of external factors, so as to not forget all that we endured with coronavirus and be in poor conditions to battle the virus again. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeitplain.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

If you believe in and support reparations: the time is now. Your help is needed in contacting House leadership to let them know. Dreisen Heath is a Researcher with Human Rights Watch and Kennis Henry is Chairperson of NCOBRA Legislative Committee, and in today’s episode, they give us the exact steps you need to take to get involved, including a super easy website that allows you to send an email directly to House leadership (link below). They also give us the background info: who is supporting the bill, how many votes are currently in favor, and what still needs to be done. #HR40totheFloor MORE INFO: ncobraonline.org hrw.org/reparationsnow SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLKIT: thesocialpresskit.com/reparationsnow Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeitplain.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Markos Moulitsas, Founder of DailyKos and Civiqs, is here for his weekly installment of #ThursdayKos to do a postmortem on the election in Virginia. Markos lays out the questions the election posed: will trump voters turn out if he’s not on the ballot? Will suburban college-educated white women go back to the republican party? Will the Democratic base turn out? And according to Markos, we got our answers--answers that could prove to be an indicator of how things will go in 2022 and 2024. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeitplain.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Dr. Ray Winbush is the Director of the Urban Research Institute at Morgan State University and author of the book “Should America Pay?: Slavery and the Raging Debate on Reparations.” He has been working within the reparations movement for decades and in today’s episode, he and Mark discuss the latest in getting H.R. 40 passed, as we are now the closest we’ve ever been in advancing reparations legislation. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeitplain.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's that time again! Chad Stone, Chief Economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, is back for his monthly installment of breaking down the latest jobs report, giving us way more detail than the top-level numbers, helping us understand the depth of where our economy stands. Chad maps out the recovery we’ve made so far since the COVID-induced recession, and he also gives us a refresher on why the unemployment rate is deceptive on its own, without considering several other factors. He also gives us some predictions for what’s coming as we near the holiday season where we’re used to higher employment and spending. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeitplain.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Sheryll Cashin is a Professor of Law at Georgetown University and has committed to writing extensively about inequality and race relations in America, which is currently culminating in her latest book, “White Space: Black Hood: Opportunity Hoarding in America.” She talks with Mark today about the caste system that was created to contain Black and Brown people--though they are not the only ones ensnared. As the government continues to over-invest in affluent white spaces while dis-investing in/containing/preying on people in high poverty Black and Brown neighborhoods, they spin stories about people in “the hood” to justify the way things are. Professor Cashin is able to show how specific actions by the government uphold decades-old policies like redlining, and keep poverty concentrated in the areas of their choosing. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeitplain.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy &

Mark teams up with Danielle Moodie, fellow DCP Entertainment broadcaster and Host of WokeAF, to bring you our first episode of our crossover series “Make It Effing Woke.” On the first Friday of every month, Mark and Danielle will bust open the day’s biggest stories, combining their powerhouse truth-telling to “make it effing woke.” And in our first episode, the question is: why the heck did we try to run Terry McAuliffe in Virginia again? Yes, the question is coming too late, but it’s important to take a look at exactly what happened so Dems don’t make this mistake again. And aside from a weak candidate, we’ve got a bone to pick with white women, who are seemingly more concerned in aligning with powerful white men than voting for candidates who will actually work to protect their human rights. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeitplain.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redci

Access to healthcare can be the determining factor in life or death, which is why it is critical to get coverage. Open enrollment has begun at Healthcare.gov and Chiquita Brooks LaSure, Administrator at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, downloads us on the details of how to get signed up and why you can expect more low-cost options than ever before. SIGN UP FOR HEALTH INSURANCE HERE: https://www.healthcare.gov/ Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeitplain.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Students at Howard University are protesting the living conditions in some campus dormitories, saying the mold, mice, flooding, and other subpar conditions are making students sick. So around 150 students have occupied Blackburn University Center on October 12th and have not left, demanding the school’s administration address their concerns. Mark joined up with Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Dr. WIlliam Barber to travel to the campus and speak with the students who have been organizing this protest effort. You’ll hear from some of those students today, as well as their counsel, Attorney Donald Temple. Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Barber also draws important connections to history to show how the protests the students are staging today are critical actions. *This episode was recorded on Sunday, Oct 31. Any references made to events/conversations happening “today” or “tonight” have now passed. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeit

Gaby Goldstein is Co-Founder of Sister District, an organization with the goal of putting progressive power in state legislatures. Gaby joins today to discuss the governor’s race happening TODAY in Virginia--so if you live in the state, it’s your time to get out and vote! And if you know someone, it’s your job to give them a call to make sure they’re hitting the polls. Gaby acquaints us with the candidates and let’s us know that’s it will be a photo finish, emphasizing the importance of progressive VA voters getting out in support of Terry McAuliffe. Gaby also fills us in on the origins of Sister District and another organization they partner with on multiple initiatives, Run For Something. She shows us how the state legislative level of government is critical in fighting gerrymandering and it’s also where big, impactful change can happen. She also tells us about the Future Winners Program, which works with candidates who ran and lost by small margins, in order to revamp their campaigns to take another shot a

What is the connection between the Virginia governor’s race, Toni Morrison, and Mark Twain? Those are the ties made in today’s conversation with James Henry Harris, Distinguished Professor of Homiletics and Pastoral Theology and a research scholar in religion and humanities at the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University. He’s also author of the book “N: My Encounter with Racism and the Forbidden Word in An American Classic,” a memoir recounting a semester spent in a graduate course studying Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn,” where the n-word is used more than 200 times, which granted a sort of permission to the white professor and students (Harris was the only Black student) to freely use the unabbreviated version of the word themselves. This experience acts as the foundation for today’s conversation, which examines the intersection of Toni Morrison’s own studies (and support) of Mark Twain and his work, and how the effort to ban her work is being used by the Republican gubernatori

Dan and Casey Dalton are siblings and co-founders of Evidence and Ocean Grown Extracts, companies committed to raising awareness and funds to free people who are jailed for cannabis-related offenses. Dan joins the show today to discuss the mission and function of Evidence, which is housed in a renovated jail in Coalinga, California. They transformed the 77,000 square foot prison into a full-fledged manufacturing facility that now provides more than 100 jobs to the local community and brought the city out of debt. On top of that, they distribute their product in literal evidence bags (hence the name) in order to bring awareness and elevate the conversation around the subject of freeing prisoners who are doing jail time for activities that are now legal in many states across the country. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeitplain.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com

Yesterday on Capitol Hill, the Poor People’s Campaign, led by Co-Chairs Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, gathered to demand action from the two senators who are now infamous for standing in the way of progress: Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. On this Moral Witness Wednesday, Mark spoke with leaders and constituents on the ground who want to know why Manchin and Sinema are blocking Build Back Better. You’ll hear from the following guests in this order: Congressman Jamie Raskin; Rev. Jeffrey Haggray; Walt Hale and Roy Blankenship of the Black Political Empowerment Project of Pittsburgh; Colleen from Arizona; Protestors/Poor People’s Campaign members at the Hart Building; and hunger striker Paul Campion Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeitplain.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Eric Boehlert, Writer and Publisher of Pressrun.media, is tired of the media indulging the anti-vaxxer narrative by producing countless stories about people who will “lose” their jobs if they don’t get vaccinated and their employers are now requiring it. Eric sees mainstream media embracing conspiracy and misinformation, choosing to paint these people as rational humans, instead of people who are walking away from steady income. They could also be lifting up the alternative: those who might have struggled to gain employment in the past, but are now vaccinated and still searching, might have an easier time now. In other unfortunate news, outlets like the Washington Post still feel compelled to talk with Trump supporters, despite the fact that he’s no longer president, which is an unprecedented move in the history of reporting on former presidents (spoiler alert: they didn’t do that before). Eric also takes time to touch on the subject of Colin Powell and explains why his infamous 2003 presentation at the Unite

Senator Joe Manchin has framed President Biden’s Build Back Better plan as “entitlement;” so this past weekend, Mark joined forces with the Poor People’s Campaign, led by Co-Chairs Rev. Dr. WIlliam J. Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, to show Joe Manchin exactly how much HE is costing the state he is supposed to represent. In today’s episode you’ll hear from both leaders and residents of the state who speak of struggling to work against poverty and gun violence with no resources at their disposal--resources that their Senator Joe Manchin could help provide access to. Guests speak in the following order: Poor People’s Campaign Co-Chair Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, West Virginia Poor People’s Campaign Tri-Chair Pam Garrison, Pastor Michael Poke of St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church, Pastor Shelly Bosley of First Missionary Baptist Church Vandalia, and West Virginia residents Tonisha Copning and Gene Everest Moore. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For ad

Natalie Cofield is the Assistant Administrator for the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Women’s Business Ownership, and she joins the show with exciting news to share: a new Women’s Business Center has opened in Tulsa, OK, making it the 139th center across the country. These centers seek to provide resources to help women entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses. And beyond what it will provide for the community, it’s also a historic beginning, 100 years after the Black community in Tulsa’s Greenwood district, known as “Black Wall Street,” was destroyed in a racist attack that took the lives of approximately 300 Black Americans, and countless homes and businesses were destroyed. To learn more about SBA’s programs and services for women entrepreneurs, visit www.sba.gov/women. To find other WBC locations and additional SBA resources, visit www.sba.gov/tools/local-assistance. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: mak

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg takes time to talk with Mark about the vast benefits of the Build Back Better plan, which stands to create jobs and make lives healthier and more enriched, and also addresses issues of environmental and racial injustice. We then get to hear from leaders of congress who commemorated 10 years since the statue of Martin Luther King Jr. was erected next to the National Mall. He speaks with Speaker Pelosi, Congresswoman Terri Sewell, Congressman Troy Carter, Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, Congressman Bobby Scott, Actor and Author Hill Harper, and MLK Memorial Foundation President Harry Johnson. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeitplain.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Markos Moulitsas, Founder of DailyKos and Civiqs and host of podcast “The Brief,” is back for our weekly #ThursdayKos chat, and it begins on the subject of the politicization of Colin Powell’s death, and how anti-vaxxers (and the media outlets they flock to) are forgetting some key details as to why Powell passed away. Looking over at the senate, Mark and Markos wonder aloud if Manchin will help get rid of the filibuster in the name of voting rights, which he claims to support wholeheartedly. But if we want to stop the Sinema/Manchin circus, Markos explains why we MUST have successful midterm elections in 2022. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeitplain.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy