KMUD - Global Stuff

On this podcast episode of Global Stuff, host Jimmy Durchslag talks with Sam Rosenthal, the political director at RootsAction.org, about the recent meeting of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to consider resolutions that affect the direction of the party moving forward into the midterm elections and beyond. Two resolutions relating to ICE—one to abolish and one to reform—both passed. Sam attended the DNC meeting and discusses the conversations around these resolutions and other DNC actions. Sam also talks about the recent primary victories by progressive Democratic candidates and the pushback by congressional party leaders Schumer and Jeffries despite current voting trends. The chances for a Democratic victory in November, Trump’s unpopularity, and what can be done to reverse the authoritarian militaristic actions of the current administration are all part of the conversation. Sam Rosenthal is the political director at RootsAction and serves on the Democratic Socialists of America’s National Electoral Committee. He was formerly a staffer at Our Revolution and lives in Washington, D.C. He previously served as the political director at Our Revolution. RootsAction. Their petition “Tell Democrats in Congress to Uphold DNC Resolutions to Abolish ICE and Block Weapons to Israel” is now active at rootsaction.org. Jimmy Durchslag has been the host of “Global Stuff”, a monthly guest driven talk show, for over 20 years. He has interviewed many prominent scholars and leaders who clarify complex issues and provide suggestions for positive change. He has a long experience as a manager of several for profit and non-profit organizations. He is one of the founders of Redwood Community Radio, the parent organization for KMUD. He recently served as the Director of the Mainstream Media Project, a nonprofit organization that scheduled expert guests for interviews on talk shows both nationally and internationally.

On this podcast of Global Stuff, host Jimmy Durchslag talks with two people who are very active in local fire safe organizations and who work to help residents harden their homes to protect against fires. Dave Kahan has been advocating for integration of adequate defensible space with structures hardened to resist ignition, especially from wind borne embers. Camilo Stevenson has been a wildland firefighter since 1999 and with Briceland VFD for 10 years, serving currently as a Fire Apparatus Engineer and PIO (Public Information Officer). They bring their expertise to discuss all the ways homeowners can prepare their properties to promote fire safety. They also share the many resources available through local volunteer fire departments, fire safe councils, Cal-Fire and other organizations to provide support and help assess the fire prevention status of any property. Although focused on the local community in Northern California, the information is applicable to fire safety measures in any community. Dave Kahan is the owner of Full Circle Forestry. He contracts with private individuals, public land management agencies, and non-profit organization to do timber felling, wildfire hazard tree mitigation, logging, forest health enhancement, timber stand improvement, fuel reduction, and infestation around homesteads and campgrounds. Dave has managed and supervised crews of up to 18 people on thinning projects,  designed and implemented prescriptions for defensible space around homesteads and shaded fuel breaks, presented at forest related workshops and authored or co-authored several documents on defensible space and related topics. Camilo Stevenson has been a wildland firefighter since 1999 and with Briceland VFD for 10 years, serving currently as a Fire Apparatus Engineer and PIO (Public Information Officer). His wife Ingrid is also a BVFD firefighter and they have both worked with Kai Ostrow on weather and fire effects monitoring for prescribed burns on the Huestis project, a 102 acre prescribed fire located on Mail Ridge near Dyerville Loop Road. They joined the Prescribed Burn Association early in the formation of the group and have worked in collaboration with them on numerous burn projects. Camilo previously worked with the Mattole Restoration Council as a technician with the Humboldt county FLASH (Fire-Adapted Landscapes And Safe Homes) program which assisted local residents with home hardening and wildfire risk assessments. Jimmy Durchslag has been the host of “Global Stuff”, a monthly guest driven talk show for over 25 years. He has a long experience as a manager of several for profit and non-profit organizations. He is one of the founders of Redwood Community Radio, the parent organization for KMUD. He recently served as the Director of the Mainstream Media Project, a nonprofit organization that scheduled expert guests for interviews on talk shows both nationally and internationally.

On this podcast of Global Stuff, host Jimmy Durchslag talks with Martha Mendoza, distinguished investigative journalist and PBS “Frontline” reporter. Ms. Mendoza, was the moderator of the “Scams and Scammers” session during the 14th Global Investigative Journalism Conference held in Geneva on November 20-24, 2025. Martha discusses the pervasive proliferation of International Scams, their devastating impact on victims, and how many of the people making the scam calls are also victims, held in virtual captivity by various an international crime syndicates.  This is a multi-billion dollar annual industry. Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Philippines, Laos and other countries are frequently manipulated by Chinese and other international criminals with the collaboration of local law enforcement. Jimmy and Martha also talk about some of the most common scams and how to avoid them. Martha Mendoza: A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Martha Mendoza’s reports have prompted Congressional hearings and new legislation, Pentagon investigations and White House responses. She was part of a team whose investigations into slavery in the Thai seafood business led to the freedom of more than 2,000 men. And she was part of a team that uncovered a US Army massacre of hundreds of civilians during the Korean War. Currently a FRONTLINE correspondent, Mendoza won a 2020 Emmy for “Kids Caught In The Crackdown,” about the detention of migrant children. A year later she won an Investigative Editors and Reporters award for “America’s Medical Supply Crisis,” a documentary holding those responsible for deadly shortages during the pandemic. During her Associated Press career, Mendoza covered the war on drugs while based in Mexico City, and focused on human trafficking while working in Bangkok. She spent years covering tech inequality, booms and busts in the Silicon Valley. Mendoza earned her second Pulitzer Prize in 2016 as part of the AP reporting team, along with Esther Htusan, Margie Mason, and Robin McDowell, that exposed the use of forced labor in the fishing industry in Southeast Asia and its connections to seafood sales in the United States. This was the AP's first Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in its history. Their work also earned them the 2016 Gerald Loeb Award for Investigative business journalism.[ Jimmy Durchslag has been the host of “Global Stuff”, a monthly guest driven talk show for over 25 years. He has a long experience as a manager of several for profit and non-profit organizations. He is one of the founders of Redwood Community Radio, the parent organization for KMUD. He recently served as the Director of the Mainstream Media Project, a nonprofit organization that scheduled expert guests for interviews on talk shows both nationally and internationally.

On this podcast of Global Stuff, host Jimmy Durchslag talks with Norman Solomon, an author, activist and political strategist. Norman returns to discuss how we got to the current state of affairs in our nation and our government. His latest book, THE BLUE ROAD TO TRUMP HELL: How Corporate Democrats Paved the Way for Autocracy is a compilation of articles written over the last 10 years that traces the path to the elections of Donald Trump and how the Democrats have enabled this eventuality by failing to support Bernie Sanders and other progressive leaders within their own party who promote policies that will improve the lives of most Americans, not just the wealthy elite. Norman Solomon is IPA’s executive director (accuracy.org). He is the author of twelve books, including War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine and War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death, and with Reese Ehrlich, Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn’t Tell You. Norman is also the co-founder and national coordinator of RootsAction.org. and a nationally syndicated columnist on media and politics. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and many other newspapers. A frequent guest on television and radio, he was featured in Bill Moyers’ recent documentary Buying the War and a full-length film adaptation of War Made Easy produced by the Media Education Foundation. Solomon is a recipient of the George Orwell Award, which honors distinguished contributions to honesty and clarity in public language. Jimmy Durchslag has been the host of “Global Stuff”, a monthly guest driven talk show for over 25 years. He has a long experience as a manager of several for profit and non-profit organizations. He is one of the founders of Redwood Community Radio, the parent organization for KMUD. He recently served as the Director of the Mainstream Media Project, a nonprofit organization that scheduled expert guests for interviews on talk shows both nationally and internationally.

On this podcast episode of Global Stuff, host Jimmy Durchslag talks with Jennifer Lowenstein who lived with her parents in Israel as a child. Loewenstein is a member of the USA board of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and founder of the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project. Jennifer clearly describes the devastation of Gaza and the determination of its residents in the midst of the rubble. She gives a perspective on the prospects for a continuing ceasefire and a possible path to the end of the war. The discussion also covers the support that the US gives to the Netanyahu government and how this perpetuates the conflict. Jennifer Loewenstein is a journalist and activist, a member of the USA board of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and founder of the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project. She lived in Israel in 1963 as a child when her father played first trumpet in the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. She returned in 1981 as a junior in college, and later as an adult. Loewenstein has lived in Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut and traveled in the Palestinian Territories, where she worked for five months in 2002 at the Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza City. She has returned to Gaza several times since then.  As a local political activist, Lowenstein has helped organize demonstrations in Madison. On the day after Ariel Sharon's election as Prime Minister of Israel, she was among the organizers of an anti-Likud demonstration. She helped organize protests against the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, and she occasionally makes arrangements for political activists or journalists to speak at American universities. Jimmy Durchslag has been the host of “Global Stuff”, a monthly guest driven talk show for over 20 years. He has interviewed many prominent scholars and leaders who clarify complex issues and provide suggestions for positive change. He has a long experience as a manager of several for profit and non-profit organizations. He is one of the founders of Redwood Community Radio, the parent organization for KMUD. He recently served as the Director of the Mainstream Media Project, a nonprofit organization that scheduled expert guests for interviews on talk shows both nationally and internationally.