America’s treatment of immigrants is a moral catastrophe. Families fleeing violence and persecution are seized, caged, and pushed out to countries where torture, rape, and political repression are routine, often with only the barest pretense of due process. This is not border “enforcement”; it is deliberate cruelty used as a political weapon. It has already stained America’s name before the world and shredded any claim to moral leadership.
Today’s podcast guest is Evaggelos Vallianatos, a historian, environmental strategist, and writer who has served as a visiting professor on environmental history and environmental regulation and politics at a number of universities. He worked for the US Environmental Protection Agency for 25 years, where he studied US agriculture and pest management practices and policies.
In this episode, we discuss the current political juncture of the climate change discussion in the United States, what countries are doing globally to combat climate change, the societal, health, and human rights impacts of climate change, and what actions everyday people can do to help combat climate change.
Listen now; link in bio.
Full Bio
Evaggelos Vallianatos is a historian, environmental strategist, and writer. He has served as a visiting professor on environmental history and environmental regulation and politics at a number of universities, including Humboldt State University, the University of New Orleans, Bard College, American University, George Washington University, the University of Maryland, Pitzer College, and California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Vallianatos worked for the US Environmental Protection Agency for 25 years, where he studied US agriculture and pest management practices and policies. His experience led him to write the book Poison Spring: The Secret History of Pollution and the EPA (2014, co-authored with McKay Jenkins), which highlights how the environmental watchdog agency became a “polluter’s protection agency.”
Vallianatos is the author of hundreds of articles on Greek history and the environment, and six books, including Poison Spring. He has a BA in Zoology and MA in medieval Greek history from the University of Illinois, and received a PhD in European and Greek history from the University of Wisconsin.
Trump and Netanyahu stand as corrosive forces who have disgraced the offices they hold and desecrated the democratic ideals they were sworn to uphold. Each has weaponized fear, division, and deceit to perpetuate his own power—undermining courts, vilifying truth, and poisoning public and international trust.
Read more in my recent article; link in bio.
Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are criminal leaders whose contempt for law, truth, and democratic constraint define their rule. Their relentless assaults on judicial independence, democratic norms, and the rule of law are tearing at the institutional fabrics of America and Israel.
Read more in my latest article; link in bio.
Chinese authorities are increasing pressure on underground Catholic communities to join the state-controlled church, according to Human Rights Watch. Under President Xi Jinping’s “Sinicization” campaign, religious practices are being reshaped to align with Communist Party ideology. Reports point to growing surveillance, restrictions, and intimidation, particularly targeting Catholics who refuse to comply. Despite a 2018 agreement between the Vatican and China, concerns over religious freedom have intensified. Researchers say independent voices are silenced, and access to information remains tightly controlled. As pressure mounts, the situation raises urgent questions about the future of religious freedom in China, and who will stand to defend it.
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America’s treatment of immigrants is a moral catastrophe. Families fleeing violence and persecution are seized, caged, and pushed out to countries where torture, rape, and political repression are routine, often with only the barest pretense of due process. This is not border “enforcement”; it is deliberate cruelty used as a political weapon. It has already stained America’s name before the world and shredded any claim to moral leadership.
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I support this urgent call from Amnesty International. Civilians across the Middle East are bearing the brunt of escalating violence following recent U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and subsequent retaliation. Critical infrastructure — including homes, hospitals, and schools — has been affected, leaving thousands dead and many more displaced. International humanitarian law is unequivocal: civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected at all times. Yet the current trajectory points to further escalation. Civilians must never be treated as expendable. Their protection should be the starting point of any policy. We urge Congress to act, prioritize civilian protection and uphold international law.
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Trump’s outrageous statement that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” if no deal is reached with Iran, has drawn an extraordinary wave of condemnation, from Tehran to the Vatican to international rights bodies. Amnesty International’s Secretary General denounced Trump’s on April 7, 2026, as an “apocalyptic threat,” exposing “a staggering level of cruelty and disregard for human life” and should trigger urgent global action to prevent atrocity crimes. Pope Leo XIV called the language “truly unacceptable,” and UK Prime Minister Starmer condemned Trump’s threat, stating that “they are not words I would ever use…” Together, these reactions, among many others, underscore that Trump’s rhetoric is not being treated as mere bombast, but a genocidal threat that shreds basic norms of international law.
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Meir go back to comic books
What you say is true, but it's not the whole picture. There are a lot of other people involved as well, religious fanatics who have taken over congress and the supreme court, and are keeping him where he is, thinking he is a messiah. Congress could have booted him out the first time he was in office, they did not. When he urged his followers to attempt to subvert the election in 2020 congress did nothing. In investigating the Epstein scandal, again, nothing was done. He is where he is because of white christian nationalists who have been grooming him and others in order to take over the government of the United States. They have been working on this since the Reagan years. This was definitely not the will of the people! It was pulled off by a minority who want to make it a theocracy and so far it's been going according to the plan in project 2025. Many of the supporters of this insanity believe that if world war 3 starts, being the faithful, they will get a free ticket to paradise. I suspect they are grooming their orange messiah, encouraging him to start Armageddon. This is something all of us should be aware of!
