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Rainey Reitman describes (a) how finance companies punish speech, (b) Freedom of the Press Foundation, and (c) their new Penlight prize. Reitman is a writer, civil liberties advocate, online organizer, and facilitator. She is currently president of the board of Freedom of the Press Foundation, which she co-founded in 2012. At that time she was activism director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Her new book, Transaction Denied: Big Finance's Power to Punish Speech, is a primary topic of this interview. She is interviewed by Spencer Graves. A moderated discussion of the issues raised in this interview is available in the companion “Media literacy and why you should care” article on Wikiversity. Copyright 2026 Rainey Reitman and Spencer Graves, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 international license.

Nolan Higdon and Spencer Graves discuss media literacy and why you should care. Higdon is a prolific author and media critic, previously interviewed 2026-05-29 for Radio Active Magazine.  Graves' key question is how to market media literacy?  Robin Andersen, interviewed for Radio Active Magazine 2026-03-27, noted that experts have been trying to promote media literacy for years -- decades -- without making rapid progress. Graves, Andersen, and Canyon collaborated in recent workshops on "How to expose media lies and have fun doing it". Graves suggested that we might make faster progress with media literacy with a clear, concise and compelling answer to the key Marketing question:      What's in it for me? for substantial portions of humanity. A moderated discussion of the issues raised in this interview is available in the companion “Media literacy and why you should care” on Wikiversity. Copyright 2026 Nolan Higdon and Spencer Graves, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 international license.

UMKC law professor Allen Rostron discusses the fall docket of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) and other issues with Radio Active Magazine regulars Craig Lubow and Spencer Graves. Rostron holds the Edward A. Smith Missouri Chair in Law, the Constitution and Society, in the UMKC School of Law, where he previously served as Associate Dean of Students. _______ Copyright 2026 Allen Rostron, Craig Lubow, and Spencer Graves, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 international license.

Rachel Clark discusses the impact of news media on the Japanese political economy with Spencer Graves. Clark has been providing translation support for several years for speaking tours of Japan co-sponsored by Veterans for Peace and others. A moderated discussion of the issues raised in this interview is available in the companion “The impact of news media on the Japanese political economy” on Wikiversity. Copyright 2026 Rachel Clark and Spencer Graves, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 international license.

Renée DiResta discusses what she recommends that individuals and groups, including governments, do to advance their interests considering the good and the evils of social media. Her comments are based primarily on research summarized in her 2024 book on Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality, updated in 2026 with the addition of an epilogue. In November 2014, a month before a major measles outbreak began in Disneyland, DiResta was the mother of a 12-month-old studying data on vaccination rates in California. She was alarmed that vaccination rates had been falling. She wrote a blog post about that. Then she called her representative in the California state assembly and asked about the prospects for eliminating the personal-belief exemption from vaccination requirements for children in day care and schools in California. She was told that the anti-vaxxers were too strong. After the Disneyland outbreak, she called back and got a different answer: A representative who was an MD had introduced a bill "to eliminate the personal-belief exemption" to the requirement to vaccinate children entering pre-school and school. Vaccines are never 100% effective. Just over half of those infected from the Disneyland outbreak had been vaccinated, proving that        each unvaccinated human threatens everyone else, though the threats to the vaccinated are substantially less than to the unvaccinated. DiResta publicly supported the bill to eliminate the personal-belief exemption and drew the ire of leading anti-vaxxers, few of whom lived in California. That led to death threats, congressional subpoenas, lawsuits, and legal bills exceeding a million dollars. She soon figured out that most of the anti-vaccine comments came from out of state, some by bots. That work morphed into a job as the Technical Research Manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory between 2019 and 2024 and then to her current position at Georgetown University. That work produced a 2022 report by The Virality Project with DiResta as lead editor that documents how anti-vaccine narratives on social media dramatically reduced the effectiveness of public health efforts. It also produced a 2024 report on "Shaping the Future of Social Media with Middleware", which she edited with Luke Hogg, and a 2025 report on "For Expertise to Matter, Nonpartisan Institutions Need New Communications Strategies", co-authored by Rachel Kleinfeld. DiResta is interviewed by Spencer Graves. Copyright 2026 Renée DiRista and Spencer Graves, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 international license.

Two topics: First Reverend Randy Fikki of Unity Southeast Kansas City discusses how they provide shelter for houseless. Second, Linda Cortese and others discuss International Overdose Awareness Day, August 31.1  Resources from Today’s International Overdose Awareness Day Broadcast include: Get Smart About Drugs Fentanyl Free America | DEA.gov First Call KC 816-367-5900 24/7 Crisis Call line findhelp.org GRASP (Grief Recovery After a Substance Passing)- 816-361-5900 to register Safe.Pharmacy _______ See also "International Overdose Awareness Day (IOAD) Toolkit" on the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (https://www.cdc.gov/overdose-prevention/php/toolkits/ioad.html). Copyright: 2026 Randy Fikki, Linda Cortese, Emily Murray, Margaux Mueller, Seth Middleton, Dawn Owens, Andrew Burris, Spencer Graves, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 international license

Teressa Wilke and Ann Suellentrop discuss their reactions to a workshop they attended on "How to expose media lies and have fun doing it" with Spencer Graves, who organized the workshop with Robin Andersen and Katerina Canyon. A moderated discussion of the issues raised in this interview is available in the companion “How to expose media lies and have fun doing it” on Wikiversity. Copyright 2026 Teressa Wilke, Ann Suellentrop, and Spencer Graves, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 international license.

Yonty Friesem discusses media literacy education and the Media Education Lab, of which they are Executive Director. Friesem is an award-winning educator, scholar and filmmaker and an Associate Professor of Communication at Columbia College Chicago. The Media Education Lab is an online community working to advance digital and media literacy education through leadership development, scholarship, and community engagement. It was founded in 2003 by Renee Hobbs, then at Temple University. It has team members, faculty and graduate students in many different countries. A moderated discussion of the issues raised in this interview is available in the companion “Yonty Friesem on media education” on Wikiversity. Copyright 2026 Yonty Friesem and Spencer Graves, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 international license.

Susan Schnall and Bryson Ripley discuss Veterans for Peace including their 2026 annual convention, August 6-9, in the UMKC student union. Schnall and Ripley are Presidents of the national Veterans for Peace organization and their Kansas City chapter, respectively. They are interviewed by Spencer Graves.  You do not have to be a veteran to join Veterans for Peace. They accept allies. The website of the national Veterans for Peace organization is veteransforpeace.org. That of the Kansas City chapter is vfpkc.org. The local has a hybrid meeting the first Saturday of each month at noon, currently at the Vietnam Veterans of America Hall, 3027 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO. For the Zoom link or with any questions, email [email protected]. Anyone is welcome to visit these meetings and decide later if they would like to join.  More information about this convention is available at the convention website vfpconvention.org, which can also be reached from veteransforpeace.org by clicking "Convention" (top right).  Or email [email protected].  Susan Schnall was court-martialed in 1969 for having had a leadership role in an antiwar demonstration while in uniform as a US Navy Lieutenant JG. She was convicted and sentenced to six months of hard labor, forfeiture of all pay and dismissal from the Navy.  Bryson Ripley joined the US Marine Corps in 2014 and spent five years as a "correction specialist" -- a military prison guard. He saw military personnel incarcerated for offenses he thought should not have resulted in prison time. His military experience contributed to a major change in worldview.  Ripley said he has suffered from "moral injury", from feeling extreme guilt from having done things that violate one's moral code. Some victims of moral injury suffer homelessness, addiction and domestic violence, though perhaps not at the same rates as those with PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder.  Schnall said that post-traumatic stress is real, but the disorder is with the society that send humans to war, not with the humans who suffer from  post-traumatic stress. The symptoms of post-traumatic stress include recurring nightmares about where they've been, the fact that they have faced life or death situations, or the harm that they perpetrated on other individuals, drug addiction, alcoholism, social violence, suicide, etc.  Shnall said that Veterans for Peace recently published a report1 on Agent Orange, a defoliant used to clear the jungle in Vietnam between 1962 and 1971 that is still contributing to birth defects today from residues sprayed over half a century ago. She also noted that humans are still killed today from bombs dropped sixty years ago that only now get detonated.  _______ VeteransForPeace.org > "Our Work" > "National Projects" > "Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign".  Copyright 2026 Susan Schnall, Bryson Ripley, Spencer Graves, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 international license.

Wyandotte County division 5 Judge Tony Martinez tells Craig Lubow why he thinks Wyandotte County Democratic voters should vote for him in the August 5 Democratic primary.  All registered candidates for that office were invited. Reginald Keith  (Reggie) Davis was not interviewed because of a scheduling mixup. Kayla Roehler was not available. Copyright: 2026 Public domain

Robert Corn-Revere, Chief Counsel at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), discusses their mission and activities and his recommendations for changes in media law to improve democracy.  Corn-Revere has appeared on multiple lists of best lawyers since 2017. Some of his expertise is summarized in his (2021) The Mind of the Censor and the Eye of the Beholder : the First Amendment and the Censor's Dilemma, building on his extensive research and experience including three earlier books. He is interviewed by Spencer Graves. More on Corn-Revere and FIRE is available in the companion “Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression” on Wikiversity, which also supports a moderated discussion of the issues raised in this interview. Copyright 2026 Robert Corn-Revere and Spencer Graves, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 international license.

Ethan Corson is a Democrat running for governor of Kansas in the August 4 primary. Three Democrats have filed to compete in this primary: Ethan Corson: https://ethanforkansas.com/ Cindy Holscher: https://cindyforkansas.com/ Curt Skoog: https://curtskoog.com/ The interviews with Senator Holscher and Mayor Skoog air June 30 and July 14, respectively. Copyright: The comments of the candidates are all in the public domain. The composition is copyright 2026 Spencer Graves and Craig Lubow Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 international license.

Cindy Holscher is a Democrat running for governor of Kansas in the August 4 primary. Three Democrats have filed to compete in this primary: Ethan Corson: https://ethanforkansas.com/ Cindy Holscher: https://cindyforkansas.com/ Curt Skoog: https://curtskoog.com/ The interviews with Senator Corson and Mayor Skoog air July 7 and 14, respectively. Copyright: The comments of the candidates are all in the public domain. The composition is copyright 2026 Spencer Graves and Craig Lubow Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 international license.

Katerina Canyon describes the Peace Economy Project (PEP), their vision and activities. Canyon is PEP's Executive Director. She holds a BA from Saint Louis University and a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (MALD) from the Fletcher School. Her publications include two recent books of poetry, a novel, and numerous shorter pieces of political commentary disseminated in a variety of outlets. PEP works to "Cut Military Spending [and] Fund Human Needs." They are "guided by the belief that true security is built through care, dignity, and a shared well-being—not punishment, militarization, or fear." Their work is grounded in 8 core values: Human Dignity. Nonviolence. Peaceful and Civic Engagement. Community Safety Over Militarization. Accountability and Transparency. Care-Centered Policy. Solidarity Across Difference. Thoughtful, Strategic Action. Canyon is interviewed by Spencer Graves. A moderated discussion of the issues raised in this interview is available in the companion “Peace Economy Project” on Wikiversity. Copyright 2026 Katerina Canyon and Spencer Graves, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 international license.

Dimitar ("Dimi") Zagorski discusses the European Commission's targeted public consultation on copyright law and other issues that concern the Wikimedia Foundation. Zagorski is Policy Director for Wikimedia Europe in Brussels. He is interviewed by Spencer Graves. A moderated discussion of the issues raised in this interview is available in the companion “Wikimedia concerns with European copyright rules including AI and scientific research” on Wikiversity. Copyright 2026 Dimitri Zagorski and Spencer Graves, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 international license.