As Congress negotiates a new “Farm Bill” – they do so every 5 years – will health, nutrition, poverty, and nature/climate get seats at the table or will Big Ag and Big Food dominate and dictate as usual? Speaking of food, here’s my 2021 conversation with MARK BITTMAN, longtime fixture at the New York Times, author of 30 books, about one of his latest – ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, JUNK: A History of Food from Sustainable to Suicidal. How did things get so bad and how can we turn things around before it’s too late? Learn more at markbittman.com

The US holds one national popular vote and the Republican party has won that vote once since 1988, that’s 36 years. Yet they’ve held the presidency nearly 12 of those years. Since Nixon, they’ve appointed 15 Supreme Court justices, to the Democrats 4. I speak with ARI BERMAN about his new book, MINORITY RULE: The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People—and the Fight to Resist It. I learned a lot about the pulling back from direct democracy by the framers between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The GOP exploits the resulting Constitutional weaknesses. This may be the most critical domestic challenge we face today. Learn more at aribermanauthor.com

In May, FATHER GREGORY BOYLE, founder of HOMEBOY INDUSTRIES in Los Angeles — the largest gang intervention and re-entry program in the world — was honored by President Biden with the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Homeboy said that Boyle “…exemplifies the transformative power of compassion, forgiveness, and second chances. For nearly forty years, Father Greg has empowered hundreds of thousands of individuals to break free from the cycles of poverty, violence, and incarceration.” Here’s our 2010 conversation where we talk about his work and his first book, TATTOOS ON THE HEART. We were joined by Luis Perez, one of the senior staff at Homeboy. Learn more: homeboyindustries.org

With an eye on the election, I speak with RICHARD CIZIK, founder of Evangelicals for Democracy, which aims to build a community of evangelicals across the political spectrum who champion democracy as an act of Christian faith. Earlier he spent nearly three decades deep inside the Religious Right. In 2008, after 28 years at the National Association of Evangelicals, Rev. Cizik was forced to resign as VP for Governmental Affairs, for publicly supporting civil unions and for advocacy on climate change. Learn more: EvangelicalsforDemocracy.org

In response to the wonderful positive reaction to last week’s episode with DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN on her new best-seller An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s, here’s our 2013 conversation re her book, THE BULLY PULPIT: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism, a history of the first decade of the Progressive era when courageous journalists and an ambitious president took on the Robber Barons – the 1% of their day – and won. You can learn more at doriskearnsgoodwin.com