0:08 – Donald Trump delivered a far-right-wing State of the Union address Tuesday night to the House of Representatives, and it was reminiscent of a game show. Mitch Jeserich, host of Letters and Politics, joins us to discuss.
0:34 – Carmen Maria Machado is the author of a new memoir bending genres and perspectives, about her experience with abuse during a same-sex relationship. It’s called In the Dream House.
0:55 – A Bay Area lawmaker is introducing legislation aimed at creating a “seamless” mass transit system in the Bay Area. Assemblymember David Chiu’s bill would move toward a rider-friendly system unifying fares, mapping and planning in order to boost transit use, slash commute times, and help California reach its climate goals. KPFA’s Christopher Martinez reports.
1:08 – On Monday, San Francisco Senator Scott Wiener rolled out a bill proposing California use eminent domain to take over private utility Pacific Gas & Electric. We host a roundtable on the bill, SB 917, with Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener), environmental justice advocate Mari Rose Taruc, who is coordinator of the “Reclaim Our Power” utility justice campaign with the Local Clean Energy Alliance, and Hunter Stern, assistant business manager at IBEW Local 1245, which represents more than 12,000 PG&E workers and opposes a state takeover of the utility.
1:34 – Progressive lawmakers in Congress, including “the Squad” and Reps. Chuy Garcia and Earl Blumenauer, have rolled out a 7-part People’s Housing Platform to make massive reinvestments in public housing, address gentrification and displacement, strengthen renter protections and address the U.S. homelessness crisis. We talk about the plan with Dianne Enriquez (@Dianne283) of the Center for Popular Democracy, a network of grassroots community organizations that helped to develop the People’s Housing Platform.