The Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade has allowed states to restrict access to abortion. Adoption has been presented by anti-abortion advocates as a way to solve the problems created by these restrictions. Gretchen Sission interviewed hundreds of women who gave up their children for adoption. The impacts of those decisions are outlined in her book Relinquished.

Tensions have been growing between Mainland China and Taiwan. Like a lot of current political situations it’s difficult to understand without historical context. My guest today is Eve J. Chung. Her book, Daughters of Shandong, is fiction but it’s based on her grandmother’s flight from Communist China to the Island of Taiwan.

SADI MUKTADIR was born and raised in Toronto, a second-generation immigrant. His debut novel is Land of No Regrets which follows a group of four boys living in an Islamic boarding school. Their parents hope they’ll become religious leaders.

Laura Schmidt and Aimee Lewis Reau founded the Good Grief Network to help people rediscover meaning, joy, and connection as the tumult around us increases. In this episode of the Progressive Page Turner we talk about their book How to live in a Chaotic Climate which unpacks the social, political, and spiritual nuances of the climate emergency, step by step. It’s based on the Good Grief Network’s 10 Steps to Resilience and Empowerment in a Chaotic Climate.

In February there was an NBC poll that found 40% of registered voters said Trump’s presidency was better than expected and in light of that I thought it would be important to remind people of how he handled the pandemic. Nina Burleigh is a journalist, best selling author, documentary producer and publisher of substack on politics called American freak show. Her book is Virus: Vaccinations, the CDC and the Hijacking of America’s response to the pandemic

Every year since 1993 Project Censored has published a yearbook highlighting stories ignored or obscured by the news establishment. The yearbook also promotes the best independent journalism, research, and activism. In this podcast I’m talking with Mickey Huff who along with Andy Lee Roth co-edited Project Censored’s State of the Free Press 2024.

Walk down the street of any city or town near you and the idea that humans will become extinct in the near future seems pretty far-fetched. We are everywhere and we dominate everything but Lyle Lewis, an endangered species biologist, makes the case that we’ve degraded our life support systems to the breaking point in his book Racing to Extinction Why humanity will soon vanish.

In a special show for International Women's Day I interview two women in an unlikely friendship. Miriam was born in Nazareth and lives in Israel.Haneen was born in Gaza but now lives in Portugal. They came together when Miriam wanted to learn Arabic so she could understand the people of Gaza. Haneen's family is in Gaza struggling to survive the on-going assaults from the Israeli army. Miriam is working to create an organization that will bring Israelis and Palestinians together in peace.