Sarah Leah Whitson joins Jim Clancy in a discussion of Trump's "Global Board of Peace" and concerns about the state of U.S. Democracy. Whitson is an experienced Human Rights and Democracy advocate who co-founded DAWN (Democracy for the Arab World Now) with Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi before his murder. Whitson says "It is a profoundly anti-democratic entity and a profoundly colonial entity such that the people who actually live in Gaza have no say whatsoever for the government that is going to rule their lives." The discussion turns to the actual state of the ceasefire in Gaza, the failure to deliver most of the humanitarian aid and supplies and the effect that is having on civilians there. Whitson surveys the U.S. political scene and spares neither Republicans nor Democrats "What I am surprised and disappointed and frankly revolted by is the complacency, cowardice and corruption of the American political elites, of American civil society with power."

Discern This takes a look at the progressive movement in the United States with a focus on the Poor People’s Campaign founded by Reverend William Barber. This modern analogue to the social movement founded by Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s, echoes its predecessor’s conviction that society needs to confront the interlocking and mutually reinforcing injustices of poverty, racism, militarism, and adds climate change to the list. Author and progressive activist Phyllis Bennis explains how the PPC functions as fusion movement with interconnected objectives. Using clips from some of Reverend Barber’s powerful and emotive speeches, Discern This discusses the intellectual underpinnings and practical goals of the Poor People’s Campaign. Phyllis Bennis, who is a research partner to the campaign, gives context to the speeches and lays out Reverend Barber’s view of military spending and intersectionality. In her conversation with host Lonzo Cook, she emphasizes the importance of mobilization to achieve progressive goals.

The conversation explores progressive landscape beyond the Poor People’s Campaign, with Lonzo Cook asking Phyllis if the American left has been undermined by its fissiparous tendency to split into narrow interest groups. In the final section, Phyllis Bennis details her engagement with local media outlets across the country and how that meshes with her focus on affecting change in local politics.

Phyllis Bennis is an author and progressive activist. She is the Director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute of Policy Studies in Washington DC.

Discern This delves into America’s changing role in the world with veteran journalist and political commentator David Andelman, whose career includes stints as New York Times bureau chief in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. How does the United States self-perception mesh with the views of it around the world and is it still “the shining city on the hill”? David Andelman brings into focus the shifting status of the US, as viewed from abroad, a topic he covers as a CNN columnist and in his own substack Andelman Unleashed.. He highlights a fascinating finding from a recent international survey which placed Canada and its constitution as the leading example to emulate, according to respondents in countries considering their own constitutional revisions.

Drawing on his perspective gained from reporting from 86 countries over his career, David Andelman sketches the major fault lines in world affairs. He identifies the possibility of fighting a two front war- in Ukraine and over Taiwan- as the greatest threat facing the United States. Andelman explains why the Baltic states and Poland have had a more realistic and accurate appraisal of Russian intentions and how the France and Germany fell victim to wishful thinking in their policy with Moscow. He highlights the attritional nature of the war in Ukraine and posits the negative feedback loop of Russian casualties could have on the Kremlin. He adds that some of the overlooked disruptions caused by the Russian invasion, include overtures between former Soviet republics in central Asia and the United States.

Andelman endorses Henry Kissinger’s dictum that strong domestic support is required of the conduct of a successful foreign policy- that international events are too often refracted through the prism of national politics. He chides the US media for inconsistently explaining the relevance and impact of international events to its domestic audience. For him one of the weaknesses of the American political system is that Americans are not being educated about the linkage between America’s global position and America’s prosperity.

David Andelman is a journalist, author and political commentator. His career includes stints as New York Times bureau chief in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. David was also a Paris based correspondent for CBS News. He is currently an opinion columnist for CNN on international affairs and writes regularly for his own substack: Andelman Unleashed.