Flipping Tables

Thank you to the patrons who make this possible! patreon.com/montemaderWhen everything feels impossible (and lately at times it has) when power concentrates, institutions bend, and the news is a daily gut-punch, we're told that joy is irresponsible. That real resistance has to be grim all the time or you aren't doing it right. Thats not true. Joy. Art. Music. Song. Are all integral components of resistances that change the course of history. In this (almost) two-hour episode, lets traces ten stories across 2,000 years of human history where people under siege, during empire collapse, fascist occupation, genocide, and authoritarian rule, chose joy anyway. Not as escape but as the most radical act available to them.From enslaved gladiators who built a free community on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, to early Christians throwing communal dinner parties in Roman catacombs, to Parisian workers running a utopian government for 72 days before being massacred, to Jewish fighters holding a Passover Seder the night before the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began (and more): this episode is a historical time traveling journey in how joy functions as survival, identity, and resistance network. I hope it encourages me the way it encourages you. It's only when we remember the joy of living that we find the courage to resist. Recommended Books for further reading if these stories inspired you: Spartacus Barry Strauss, The Spartacus War (Simon & Schuster, 2009) Aldo Schiavone, Spartacus (2013)Early Christians & the Catacombs Robin Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians (Harper & Row, 1987) The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas, trans. Maureen Tilley (Fortress Press)Paris Commune John Merriman, Massacre: The Life and Death of the Paris Commune of 1871 (Basic Books, 2014) Louise Michel, The Red Virgin: Memoirs of Louise Michel, ed. Bullitt Lowry & Elizabeth Ellington Gunter (1981)Harlem Renaissance David Levering Lewis, When Harlem Was in Vogue (Knopf, 1981) Langston Hughes, The Big Sea (1940) Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road (1942) Alain Locke, ed., The New Negro: An Interpretation (1925)Danish Rescue of the Jews Bo Lidegaard, Countrymen (Knopf, 2013) Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem (Viking Press, 1963)Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Samuel D. Kassow, Who Will Write Our History? (Indiana University Press, 2007) Israel Gutman, Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Houghton Mifflin, 1994) Emanuel Ringelblum, Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto (McGraw-Hill, 1958)Víctor Jara & Nueva Canción Joan Jara, Victor: An Unfinished Song (Jonathan Cape, 1983) Peter Kornbluh, The Pinochet File (The New Press, 2003)The Singing Revolution Mart Laar, The Power of Freedom (2010) The Singing Revolution, documentary (2006, dir. James & Maureen Castle Tusty)The Velvet Revolution Michael Žantovský, Havel: A Life (Grove Press, 2014) Timothy Garton Ash, The Magic Lantern (Random House, 1990) Václav Havel, The Power of the Powerless (1978)Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Marguerite Bouvard, Revolutionizing Motherhood (Scholarly Resources, 1994) Rita Arditti, Searching for Life (University of California Press, 1999) CONADEP, Nunca Más (Eudeba, 1984) Horacio Verbitsky, The Flight (The New Press, 1996)Sources list available on Patreon: patreon.com/montemader

In March 2026, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stood before a Pentagon worship service and prayed for "overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy", calling for the eternal damnation of America's enemies. Military commanders across every branch have been reported, in over 200 formal complaints, telling troops the Iran war is "God's plan" and that Trump was "anointed by Jesus" to trigger Armageddon. Benjamin Netanyahu has quoted 1 Samuel 15:3, the command to destroy the Amalekites, sparing "neither man nor woman, infant nor ox" to justify Israeli military operations.This is what happens when political leaders weaponize faith to sanctify violence. And it has been happening for 1,700 years.From Constantine's battlefield vision in 312 CE and the subsequent murder of philosopher Hypatia by a Christian mob, through Augustine's just war doctrine that gave state violence a Christian vocabulary, to Charlemagne's massacre of 4,500 Saxon prisoners at Verden for refusing baptism. We cover the First Crusade's Rhineland pogroms, where Jewish mothers drowned their children rather than see them forcibly baptized, and the Jerusalem massacre of 1099, where chroniclers described blood reaching horses' knees. We examine the Albigensian Crusade's destruction of Béziers, where the papal legate reportedly said "Kill them all, God will know his own," and the witch trials that followed, killing up to 60,000 people (80% of them women) using Heinrich Kramer's Malleus Maleficarum as theological cover.We also cover what this history did specifically to women, a thread that runs unbroken from Tertullian calling women "the devil's gateway" in 200 CE, through the rape of nuns during the Fourth Crusade's sack of Constantinople, to the sexual violence documented in California's Spanish mission system, to the girls in Native American boarding schools whose hair was cut, languages stolen, and bodies abused under church-run federal contracts.The only thing more dangerous than a tyrant, is one who believes God gave them permission.SOURCESAugustine, The City of God, c. 413–426 CETertullian, De Cultu Feminarum, c. 200 CESocrates Scholasticus, Historia Ecclesiastica, c. 439 CE (murder of Hypatia)Annales Regni Francorum (Charlemagne / Verden massacre)Barbero, Alessandro — Charlemagne: Father of a Continent, UC Press, 2004Chazan, Robert — European Jewry and the First Crusade, UC Press, 1987Mainz Anonymous and Solomon bar Simson Chronicle (Rhineland massacres, 1096)Raymond of Aguilers, Historia Francorum (Jerusalem, 1099)Caesarius of Heisterbach, Dialogus Miraculorum, c. 1220 (Béziers)Nicetas Choniates, Historia, c. 1206 (Fourth Crusade / Constantinople)Brenon, Anne — Le vrai visage du catharisme, Loubatières, 1988Kramer, Heinrich — Malleus Maleficarum, 1487 (ed. Mackay, Cambridge UP, 2006)Levack, Brian — The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe, Routledge, 4th ed., 2016Cuneo, Michele de — Letter of October 28, 1495, trans. Samuel Eliot MorisonDíaz del Castillo, Bernal — True History of the Conquest of New Spain, c. 1568Hassig, Ross — Mexico and the Spanish Conquest, U of Oklahoma Press, 2006Pedro Pizarro — Relation of the Discovery and Conquest of Peru, c. 1571Stannard, David — American Holocaust, Oxford UP, 1992Kamen, Henry — The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision, Yale UP, 1997Jouanna, Arlette — La Saint-Barthélemy, Gallimard, 2007Parker, Geoffrey — The Thirty Years' War, Routledge, 1997Regan, Donald — For the Record, Harcourt Brace, 1988 Maurice, Jean-Claude — Si vous le répétez, je démentirai (Bush / Gog and Magog)NPR — "Netanyahu's references to violent biblical passages raise alarm," Nov. 7, 2023U.S. Dept. of the Interior — Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report, 2022Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada — Final Report, 2015Johnson v. McIntosh, 21 U.S. 543, U.S. Supreme Court, 1823Vatican Statement repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery, March 30, 2023

Apologies for the lateness of the post, our dashboard encountered a technical difficulty that showed my podcasts didn't exist and had to be fixed before an upload could happen. Thanks for your patience. After being at Montgomery last weekend I wanted to do a deep dive into what I never learned as a kid. What led to the Civil Rights movement, its danger, its courage. Part one takes us through the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and part two takes us beyond. SOURCESU.S. Congressional Records, Joint Committee on Reconstruction, 1866 (Memphis Massacre testimony)FBI Files on the murders of Medgar Evers, Emmett Till, and the Mississippi Burning case (MIBURN) — available through FOIA requests and the University of Mississippi's Mississippi Digital LibraryMississippi State Sovereignty Commission Records — Mississippi Department of Archives and History (publicly available since 1998)Department of Justice Civil Rights Division records and case filesNAACP Anti-Lynching Campaign Records — Library of CongressCongressional Record, Senate filibuster of the Civil Rights Act, March–June 1964Branch, Taylor. Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–63 (1988). Simon & Schuster.Branch, Taylor. Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963–65 (1998). Simon & Schuster.Branch, Taylor. At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965–68 (2006). Simon & Schuster.Berman, Ari. Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America (2015). Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Anderson, Carol. White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide (2016). Bloomsbury.Anderson, Carol. One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy (2018). Bloomsbury.Du Bois, W.E.B. Black Reconstruction in America, 1860–1880 (1935). Harcourt, Brace.Garrow, David J. Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1986). William Morrow.Hamer, Fannie Lou. The Speeches of Fannie Lou Hamer: To Tell It Like It Is (2011). University Press of Mississippi.Lewis, John, with Michael D'Orso. Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement (1998). Simon & Schuster.Litwack, Leon F. Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow (1998). Knopf.Marable, Manning. Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction and Beyond in Black America, 1945–2006 (2007). University Press of Mississippi.McAdam, Doug. Freedom Summer (1988). Oxford University Press.McWhorter, Diane. Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama — The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution (2001). Simon & Schuster.Payne, Charles M. I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle (1995). University of California Press.Stevenson, Bryan. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (2014). Spiegel & Grau.Tyson, Timothy B. The Blood of Emmett Till (2017). Simon & Schuster.Wells-Barnett, Ida B. Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases (1892). New York Age Print.Wells-Barnett, Ida B. A Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States (1895). Donohue & Henneberry.Wilkerson, Isabel. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (2010). Random House.Woodward, C. Vann. The Strange Career of Jim Crow (1955). Oxford University Press.Honey, Michael K. Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign (2007). W.W. Norton.Mlinar, Zeljko, et al. Memphis Sanitation Strike Archives — Memphis Public Library Special CollectionsTucker, David M. Memphis Since Crump: Bossism, Blacks, and Civic Reformers, 1948–1968 (1980). University of Tennessee Press.Wright, Sharon D. Race, Power, and Political Emergence in Memphis (2000). Garland Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896)Smith v. Allwright, 321 U.S. 649 (1944)Boynton v. Virginia, 364 U.S. 454 (1960)Browder v. Gayle, 352 U.S. 903 (1956)Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 (2013)United States v. Price et al. 383 U.S. 787 (1966)

Three decades before the White House, Ronald Reagan was being assembled in plain sight. This episode traces the apprenticeship most highlight reels skip: the New Deal Democrat who became FBI informant "T-10," the B-list actor who turned a corporate speaking tour into a political movement, and the lapsed Midwestern kid who would one day broker the marriage of the Republican Party and white evangelical America.In postwar Hollywood, where Reagan, as Screen Actors Guild president, simultaneously fed names to the FBI and lent SAG's institutional cover to the blacklist. His October 1947 HUAC testimony was polite; the private file was not. Careers ended on the strength of "fraternal" reports.Then in 1954, General Electric Theater, and eight years on the GE plant circuit under Lemuel Boulware, the hardline VP who handed Reagan a reading list of Hayek and Hazlitt and turned his pep talks into a portable free market gospel. Corporations were buying preachers and performers to sell their "anti-union, low regulation" gospel. By 1962 GE had cut him loose, but "The Speech" was finished and in 1964 it launched Goldwater and, with him, Reagan himself.Finally, the wedding of cross and capital. Reagan, never a churchgoing adult, became the indispensable broker between corporate donors and a politically homeless evangelical electorate. In Dallas, August 1980, he closed the deal with one line: "I know you can't endorse me, but I want you to know I endorse you." That coalition outlived him still runs our country. In Part 2 we talk about the longterm staggering impact of Reaganomics. ReferencesBalmer, R. (2021). Bad faith: Race and the rise of the religious right. Eerdmans.Cannon, L. (2000). President Reagan: The role of a lifetime. PublicAffairs.Crespino, J. (2007). The new right and the southern strategy. Journal of Southern History, 73(4), 895–924.Critchlow, D. T. (2005). Phyllis Schlafly and grassroots conservatism: A woman’s crusade. Princeton University Press.Dochuk, D. (2011). From Bible Belt to Sunbelt: Plain‑folk religion, grassroots politics, and the rise of evangelical conservatism. W. W. Norton.FitzGerald, F. (2017). The evangelicals: The struggle to shape America. Simon & Schuster.Hancock, A. (2004). The politics of disgust: The public identity of the welfare queen. New York University Press.Kohler‑Hausmann, J. (2017). Getting tough: Welfare and imprisonment in 1970s America. Princeton University Press.Kruse, K. M. (2015). One nation under God: How corporate America invented Christian America. Basic Books.Levin, J. (2019). The queen: The forgotten life behind an American myth. Little, Brown and Company.Mittelstadt, J. (2005). From welfare to workfare: The unintended consequences of liberal reform, 1945–1965. University of North Carolina Press.Nadasen, P. (2005). Welfare warriors: The welfare rights movement in the United States. Routledge.Nickerson, M. M. (2012). The Reagan administration’s response to the gender gap. Journal of Policy History, 24(1), 115–140.Perlstein, R. (2020). Reaganland: America’s right turn 1976–1980. Simon & Schuster.Reagan, R. (1986, February 15). Radio address to the nation on welfare reform [Speech transcript]. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/radio-address-nation-welfare-reformRich, C. G. (2020). The “welfare queen” goes to the polls: Race‑based fractures in gender politics. Georgetown Law Journal, 108(4), 1–67.Shilts, R. (1987). And the band played on: Politics, people, and the AIDS epidemic. St. Martin’s Press.Sick, G. (1991). October surprise: America’s hostages in Iran and the election of Ronald Reagan. Times Books.Troy, G. (2009). The great communicator: Media and the Reagan image. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 39(3), 458–470.Unger, C. (2024). Den of spies: Reagan, Carter, and the secret history of the treason that stole the White House. Mariner Books.Wilentz, S. (2008). The age of Reagan: A history, 1974–2008. HarperCollins.

Resource packet mentioned in podcast: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JHWbiYVQ4sD5gX-o0yHC-5hXnY1KPf0kBvw2rZSJfiE/edit?tab=t.0For ad free episodes, bonus content and "where did we get the Bible?" series sign up at patreon.com/montemaderWe have all seen the photos and videos of Gaza the last two years. We have heard the stories. We have watched politicians deflect and people say "but October 7th!!". But there's a story that spans far beyond October 7th. There is a series of decisions that decimated a region and crushed the vulnerable under the thumb of the powerful. How did we get here? what is the history that led to this point? To help talk about his heartwrenching story, we welcome Dr. Daniel Bannoura. Daniel is a Palestinian theologian and podcaster. He is a professor at the University of Notre Dame, where he received his PhD degree in Qur'anic Studies. He’s also the Director of Public Engagement at the Bethlehem Institute of Peace and Justice, and host of “Across the Divide”, a podcast that provides a space for thoughtful conversations about Palestine-Israel through the lens of faith and peacemaking.Recommended Reading: 100 Years War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi

This Episode is brought to you by Ground News, subscribe for 4o% off their vantage plan at groundnews.com/monteWhy do institutions built on moral authority so often become safe harbors for predators? Abuse scandals within religious institutions are recurring patterns with shared structural causes. This episode breaks down why churches, regardless of denomination, repeatedly find themselves at the center of abuse cover-up stories, and why victims so often find themselves silenced.We walk through several prominent cases that have made headlines in recent years spanning Catholic dioceses, evangelical megachurches, and independent ministries examining the common threads: delayed reporting, internal investigations kept away from civil authorities, institutional loyalty placed above victim care, and the "forgiveness" framework weaponized to shut down accountability.Then we go deeper into the structural question: hierarchy itself. When authority flows unidirectionally downward challenging a leader becomes spiritually dangerous for members. Whistleblowers risk not just reputation but community, belonging, and in some traditions, their eternal standing. This creates near perfect conditions for abuse to go fester and grow.SourcesBaptist News Global. (2026, March 21). The Southern Baptist Convention did not get played. https://baptistnews.com/article/the-southern-baptist-convention-did-not-get-played/Barr, B. A. (2021). The making of biblical womanhoodChen, Y. (2024). Ecclesiastical abstention or judicial abdication? The First Amendment and clergy sexual abuse. Yale Law & Policy Review, 42(1), 1–58.CrossPolitic Studios. (2026, March 17). How the SBC got played [Documentary film]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/XNQk2y8cUJYDu Mez, K. K. (2020). Jesus and John WayneFreyd, J. J. (2022). Institutional betrayal and institutional courage. In L. S. Brown & E. Pantalone (Eds.),Guidepost Solutions. (2022). Report of the independent investigation: The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee’s response to sexual abuse allegations and an audit of the procedures and actions of the Credentials Committee. https://guidepostsolutions.com/sbc-ec-investigation/Hess, R., & Hess, J. (1989). A full quiver: Family planning and the lordship of Christ. Wolgemuth & Hyatt.Ingersoll, J. (2015). Building God’s kingdom: Inside the world of Christian Reconstructionism. Oxford University Press.Joyce, K. (2009). Quiverfull: Inside the Christian patriarchy movement. Beacon Press.Klein, L. K. (2018). PureKvam, K. E., Schearing, L. S., & Ziegler, V. H. (Eds.). (1999). Eve and Adam: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim readings on Genesis and gender. Indiana University Press.MinistryWatch. (2022, February 15). Former plaintiffs in Bill Gothard abuse lawsuit hit back at Institute in Basic Life Principles’ statement to NBC News. https://ministrywatch.com/MinistryWatch. (2025, August 1). TX Supreme Court rules against Bill Gothard and the Institute for Basic Life Principles. https://ministrywatch.com/Netflix. (2022). Our father [Documentary film]. Blumhouse Productions.North, G. (1996). Crossed fingers: How the liberals captured the Presbyterian ChurchPortugal, T. (2023). Donor Deceived: Doctor donor fraud cases. https://donordeceived.org/Pride, M. (1985). The way home: Beyond feminism, back to reality. Crossway Books.Provan, C. D. (1989). The Bible and birth control. Zimmer Printing.Recovering Grace. (2014). Firsthand accounts of sexual harassment and abuse at IBLP. https://www.recoveringgrace.org/Right to Know. (2023). Fight fertility fraud now: State and federal legislation tracker. https://righttoknow.us/fertility-fraud-laws/Silliman, D. (Director). (2023). Shiny happy people: Duggar family secrets [Documentary series]. Amazon Studios.Stewart, K. (2020). The power worshippersType Investigations. (2016, January 8). New charges allege rape by prominent religious leader. https://www.typeinvestigations.org/Worthen, M. (2013). Apostles of reason

This episode is brought to you by Ground News. Get 40% off their vantage plan by subscribing at groundnews.com/monteLike many of you, I watched a viral video of a gorgeous woman walking through her house, opening her Bible to Matthew 25 and reading the passage on "the least of these". This was in response to a TikTok comment of someone lashing out at Jen because she (the commenter) "was maga and loved Jesus". After calmly reading the Bible, Jen simply says "sounds pretty liberal to me" and ends the video. That simple video caused MAGA to call Jen's job where she works as an OB Nurse to get her fired, reported her online and tried to call her licensing board to get her nursing license revoked! Because she read the Bible and they didn't like it. She even had to have private security when she spoke at a conference. And that is how I met a kind, compassionate, funny, loving lady who shares my alma mater. We talk about our journey's through faith, Liberty, growth, change, and what it means to love your neighbor.

This episode is brought to you by Ground News. Subscribe for 40% off their vantage plan at groundnews.com/tables. Project MKUltra was a secret research program run by the Central Intelligence Agency beginning in 1953 during the Cold War. Its goal was to explore methods of mind control, interrogation, and psychological manipulation, partly out of fear that rival nations like the Soviet Union were developing similar techniques.The program funded dozens of experiments at universities, hospitals, and prisons. Researchers tested drugs such as LSD, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, electroshock, and other methods to see whether human behavior and memory could be controlled. Many subjects were not informed they were part of experiments, and some were exposed to powerful drugs without consent.The program remained secret until the 1970s, when investigations by the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities revealed the experiments. Much of the documentation had already been destroyed on orders from CIA director Richard Helms.MKUltra became one of the most controversial intelligence programs in U.S. history and led to new oversight of intelligence agencies and stricter ethical rules for human experimentation.Sources available by request at info@montemader.com

Another crossover episode from my true crime podcast Highway to Hell because of its relevance to whats going on today. If you are a true crime and travel fan please check us out wherever you listen to podcasts. After his sweetheart deal in 2008, Epstein was able to reintegrate into life and maintain his trafficking ring without any loss in wealth, associations or connections. This episode tracks his life and dealings from 2008 to his death in 2019, the aftermath of his cruelty, the arrest and trial of Ghislaine Maxwell and the recent release of the Epstein files. As of now, no man involved with Epstein and his human trafficking has been arrested in the USSourcesThe source list is way too big for the show notes but is available upon request at info@montemader.com

This episode is brought to you by Ground News. Subscribe for 40% off their vantage plan at groundnews.com/tablesLets examine the birthplace and ideological architecture behind Project 2025 and the modern conservative movement driving it, tracing its roots through theology, institutional strategy, and political power . What is framed as a “Second American Revolution” is not merely transition planning but a coordinated effort to concentrate executive authority, weaken democratic safeguards, and embed a hierarchy-first moral framework into federal governance. We walk through the founding and evolution of The Heritage Foundation its key figures such as Paul Weyrich, Edwin Feulner, Kevin Roberts, Paul Dans, and Roger Severino, and analyzing how theological commitments to natural order and authority have been translated into policy blueprints.Lets explore the projected human impact of Project 2025. We outlines how proposed changes would affect undocumented immigrants, people of color, the unhoused, women seeking reproductive care, people living in poverty, LGBTQ communities—especially trans individuals—and Indigenous nations. Across issue areas, it identifies a recurring pattern: civil rights reframed as bias, equality recast as disorder, and harm justified as restoration. Policies targeting health care access, environmental protections, voting rights, labor standards, and social safety nets are presented not as isolated reforms but as part of a coherent effort to shrink democracy until it no longer obstructs a predetermined moral hierarchy.But people are pushing back morally, legally, and politically. Leaders such as Reverend William Barber II, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Women’s Law Center, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, LGBTQ advocates, and Indigenous organizers, and highlight counter-visions rooted in pluralism, shared power, and inherent rights. RESIST. American Civil Liberties Union. (2023). Project 2025: Threats to constitutional governance and civil rights [Issue brief]. American Civil Liberties Union. https://www.aclu.orgArendt, H. (1969). On violence. Harcourt, Brace & World.Barber, W. J., II. (2018). The third reconstruction: How a moral movement is overcoming the politics of division and fear. Beacon Press.Bendix, R. (1977). Nation building and citizenship: Studies of our changing social order. University of California Press.Bonilla-Silva, E. (2018). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in America (5th ed.). Rowman & Littlefield.Brugge, D., deLemos, J. L., & Oldmixon, B. (2016). Exposure pathways and health effects associated with chemical and radiological toxicity in Indigenous communities. Environmental Health Perspectives, 124(8), 1232–1240. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP.1509889Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. (2019). Work requirements do not cut poverty, evidence shows. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. https://www.cbpp.orgCenter on Budget and Policy Priorities. (2021). How immigration enforcement harms children and families. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. https://www.cbpp.orgCritchlow, D. T. (2007). The conservative ascendancy: How the GOP Right made political history. Harvard University Press.Davis, J. (2022). How the public administrative state became the enemy [Conservative legal and policy commentary on the “administrative state,” 2016–2022].Feagin, J. R. (2013). Systemic racism: A theory of oppression. Routledge.Feulner, E. J. (1986). The conservative vision. The Heritage Foundation.George, R. P. (1999). In defense of natural law. Oxford University Press.Gorski, P. S., & Perry, S. L. (2022). The flag and the cross: White Christian nationalism and the threat to American democracy. Oxford University Press.Goss, R. E. (2009). Queering Christ: Beyond Jesus acted up. HarperOne.

Metro Surge in Minneapolis brought with it horror and conflict. Civilians and US citizens were killed, migrants were abducted without warrants, legal observers were tear gassed, people were held in extended detainment without help. Federal officers murdered without investigations, the DOJ and DHS broke federal law without any recourse and it left people wondering "what can I legally do?". It's also become progressively more important to understand how our immigration system works in the US, how its flawed and what all of our rights are. Daphne Delvaux, is a former immigration attorney and now educator who helps people know their rights and understand how the system works. She is also an immigrant herself and shares her story of going through the system in the US, one that denied her the first time because she and her husband chose not to mix finances. Here she tells her story, teaches us about our rights and gives us some hope and gentle mothering towards the end. Something I desperately needed.

This episode is brought to you by Ground News. Subscribe for 40% off their vantage plan at groundnews.com/tablesWhen I scheduled this talk with Odessa, one of Nashvilles staunchest activists, I had no idea what was about to unfold in Minneapolis with the shooting of Alex Pretti just 5 days after we recorded this session. I think this conversation could not have landed on a more relevant time if I had tried. Odessa Kelly is a Nashville native, organizer, and political activist focused on racial, economic, and social justice. She was born and raised on the East Side of Nashville in a working-class community facing poverty, substance abuse, and gun violence. Kelly graduated from Tennessee State University with a degree in Business Administration and later earned a Master’s in Public Service from Cumberland University. She spent nearly 14 years working as a civil servant for Metro Nashville’s Parks & Recreation Department, including leading the Napier Community Center, where she worked directly with youth and families. Witnessing systemic inequities and the impact of policy decisions on her community pushed her toward broader community organizing work. In 2016, Kelly co-founded Stand Up Nashville, a grassroots advocacy organization dedicated to fighting for economic equity, affordable housing, workers’ rights, and community benefits from local development. Under her leadership, the group won Nashville’s first community benefits agreement with a major soccer stadium project, securing commitments on living wages, affordable housing, and childcare supports. Kelly has been honored with several awards, including the National Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Award, a National Courage Award, and Nashville Scenes Activist of the Year for her work advancing justice for working people and marginalized communities. As a mother of two and a member of Mount Zion Baptist Church, she has also run for public office. In 2022, Kelly was the Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, campaigning on expanding economic opportunity, housing justice, and representation for working families. Her activism and platform emphasize lived experience, community empowerment, and challenging systems that leave working-class people behind. And now she meets with us to tell us how to carry that legacy forward.

This episode is brought to you by ground news. Subscribe for 40% off their vantage plan at groundnews.com/tablesViola Fauver Liuzzo was a 39-year-old white civil rights volunteer from Detroit who traveled to Alabama in March 1965 to support the Selma-to-Montgomery marches. On the night of March 25, while driving 19-year-old activist Leroy Moton back toward Selma, she was chased down U.S. Route 80 by a car of Ku Klux Klan members—Collie Leroy Wilkins Jr., William Orville Eaton, Eugene Thomas, and FBI informant Gary Thomas Rowe. Wilkins fired a shotgun into Liuzzo’s car, killing her instantly; Moton survived by playing dead. The presence of Rowe, who had a history of participating in Klan violence while on the FBI payroll, sparked major controversy about what federal authorities knew and tolerated.Alabama first tried Wilkins for murder, but his initial trial ended in a hung jury, and a second all-white jury acquitted him despite Rowe’s eyewitness testimony. After the state failed to secure a conviction, the Department of Justice charged Wilkins, Eaton, and Thomas under federal civil-rights law (18 U.S.C. § 241) for conspiring to deprive Liuzzo of her civil rights. All three were convicted and received ten-year sentences, marking one of the earliest successful federal civil-rights prosecutions against white supremacist violence. In the aftermath, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover orchestrated a smear campaign against Liuzzo—spreading false claims about her character to deflect criticism of the FBI’s role in managing informants. Her murder and the federal response helped galvanize support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and later fueled congressional scrutiny of FBI conduct during the Church Committee investigations.Sources:James P. Turner, Selma and the Liuzzo Murder Trials: The First Modern Civil Rights Convictions.Mary Stanton, From Selma to Sorrow: The Life and Death of Viola Liuzzo.Gary May, Bending Toward Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy.Wayne Greenhaw, Fighting the Devil in Dixie: How Civil Rights Activists Took on the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama.Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–1963.Taylor Branch, Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963–1965Diane McWhorter, Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights RevolutionDavid J. Garrow, Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.J. Mills Thornton III, Dividing Lines: Municipal Politics and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Montgomery, Birmingham, and Selma.Peter B. Levy, The Great Uprising: Race Riots in Urban America during the 1960s.U.S. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities (Church Committee Reports).FBI COINTELPRO Files (Declassified).U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division Archives on the Liuzzo Case.Federal Bureau of Investigation, The FBI and the Civil Rights Movement (archival materials).NAACP Records and Papers on Selma and Voting Rights.Civil Rights Documentation Project, Library of Congress.Eyes on the Prize (PBS Documentary Series) Home of the Brave (Documentary on Viola Liuzzo).National Civil Rights Museum, Viola Liuzzo Exhibits.Southern Poverty Law Center Archives on Ku Klux Klan Activity.John Lewis, Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement.Lerone Bennett Jr., “Selma: The Road to Freedom,” Ebony Magazine Archives.Joseph Crespino, In Search of Another Country: Mississippi and the Conservative Counterrevolution.Stephen B. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound: A Life of Martin Luther King, Jr..Tom Wells, The War Within: America’s Battle Over Vietnam (context on FBI surveillance).Adam Fairclough, Better Day Coming: Blacks and Equality, 1890–2000.David Carter, The Music Has Gone Out of the Movement (on federal infiltration of civil rights groups).United States v. Wilkins, Eaton, and Thomas (Federal §241 Trial Records).