Interview with Martha Guzman Aceves, former Region 9 EPA administrator, conducted by Melinda Tuhus.

On May 21, an overheating chemical tank holding 6,500 gallons of methyl methacrylate at an aerospace facility in Garden Grove, California, triggered mandatory evacuations affecting 50,000 residents across Orange County. The tank was later safely cracked and depressurized, ending the immediate threat, where no one was injured. But five days later, on May 26, another chemical disaster struck when a tank holding 600,000 gallons of a caustic chemical known as “white liquor” exploded at a paper mill in Longview, Washington. Eleven workers were killed at the site.

Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Martha Guzman Aceves, the former Region 9 administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Biden, which covers California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, three U.S. territories and 148 tribal nations.

She’s currently a volunteer expert with the Environmental Protection Network, made up of hundreds of former EPA staffers from all levels of the agency. Here she talks about the importance of protecting workers and communities from toxic emissions, spills and explosions and her concern that under the Trump administration, safety regulations and inspections are being rolled back.

Interview with Sam Rosenthal, political director of Roots Action, conducted by Scott Harris.

Sam Rosenthal talks about his recent commentary, “Establishment Democrats Still Don’t Get Why They Lost in 2024,” and the critical importance—in this moment of Donald Trump’s multi-front violent attack on U.S. democracy—of having a viable political party to stand as an alternative to Trump and the Republican party’s authoritarian project.

Interview with Connecticut state Rep. Josh Elliott, deputy House speaker, conducted by Scott Harris.

Josh Elliott talks about his candidacy, the policies he’s advocating and his strategy to win the Aug. 11th primary. Elliott represents the 88th District, which comprises residents of Hamden’s Spring Glen, Whitneyville, parts of Centerville and Shepherd Hill neighborhoods. As deputy House speaker and Majority Caucus co-chair, Elliott won 25 percent of the delegates at the state’s Democratic Convention last month, clearing the 15 percent threshold to force an August primary election against incumbent Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont. Lamont won the party’s official endorsement with about 75 percent of the delegate vote.

Interview with Ben Grazda, advocacy manager with Reporters Without Borders, conducted by Scott Harris.

Ben Grazda examines some of the long-term challenges facing American journalists including economic pressure leading to the disappearance of many local news outlets; concentration of ownership; political attacks on government critics and the January 2026 FBI raid on Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson’s home, which sets a dangerous precedent for the future prosecution of journalists doing their jobs. Grazda summarizes Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontières) World Press Freedom Index tracking the decline in freedom of the press around the world, and the steep decline here in the U.S.

Interview with Peter Kornbluh, author and director of the Cuba Documentation Project at the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C., conducted by Scott Harris.

Peter Kornbluh talks about his recent Nation magazine article, “The CIA Goes to Cuba” and what the Trump regime may be planning after its indictment of Raúl Castro in Florida, possibly kidnapping the aging Cuban leader as they did with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January—or a U.S. military invasion.

Kornbluh is a co-author with William M. LeoGrande of Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana. Kornbluh is also the author of The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability.

The Monthly Labor Report welcomes long-time labor leader John Braxton. co-founder of Labor Against the War, to talk about the ongoing fight against the militaristic foreign policy of the US and the systemic structures that support it.
Hosts: Michael Zweig and Richard Hill

Interview with David Holtz, coordinator of the Oil & Water Don't Mix coalition, conducted by Melinda Tuhus.

David Holtz, coordinator of the Oil & Water Don’t Mix Coalition, talks about the history of the pipeline and the fight to decommission Line 5 before it ruptures and contaminates the Great Lakes, one of the largest sources of fresh water in the world.

Interview with Paul Street, an independent radical-democratic policy researcher, journalist, historian and author of This Happened Here: Amerikaners, Neoliberals, and the Trumping of America, conducted by Scott Harris.

Paul Street talks about his recent Counterpunch.org commentary, “Why Trump Is So Indifferent to Public Opinion in an Election Year.” Street is author of This Happened Here: Amerikaners, Neoliberals, and the Trumping of America.