The Signal
The Signal, a podcast by The Bucks County Beacon, will shine a light on the right-wing extremist currents streaming though Bucks County and beyond. Twice a month we will talk to guests who will help listeners navigate these perilous political waters by providing insight, analysis, and organizing solutions so that we can steer the community toward calmer, saner progressive routes.
Episodes
On this week’s episode of the Signal we welcome back Bucks County’s Steve Nolan. Steve spent 30 years in the military and 25 years as a mental health professional. He is the author of the 2020 book American Carnage, An Officer’s Duty to Warn, and today Steve is here to warn us again about the MAGA-fication of the military and How Pete Hegseth is running Trump’s Department of War.
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...Malcolm Burnley is a staff writer for The Philadelphia Citizen. He has been a journalist in Philadelphia since 2013, contributing to outlets such as Philly Mag, WHYY, and Politico Magazine. Five days before the election he published, “What a Bucks County Sheriff's Race Can Tell Us about U.S. Politics.” He joins us today to talk about that race which Democratic challenger Danny Ceisler won handily, the Blue Wave that washed away so ...
Megan Goodwin is senior editor for Religion Dispatches, nerd-in-chief at Feral Nerd Consulting, and media & tech consultant for The Crossroads Project. Goodwin is the author of Abusing Religion: Literary Persecution, Sex Scandals, and American Minority Religions (Rutgers 2020). With Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst, she cohosted Keeping It 101: A Killjoy’s Introduction to Religion Podcast; and their first co-authored book, Religion Is ...
Garen Meguerian is a civil rights, free speech lawyer, with 30 years of experience, practicing in the state and federal courts in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Since 2016, Garen has volunteered with grassroots groups, primarily in Chester County, to preserve democratic institutions. He joins us today to raise the alarm about the threats against Pennsylvania's independent judiciary and the importance of the PA Supreme Court’s retenti...
“In 2025, book censorship in the United States is rampant and common. Never before in the life of any living American have so many books been systematically removed from school libraries across the country. Never before have so many states passed laws or regulations to facilitate the banning of books, including bans on specific titles statewide. Never before have so many politicians sought to bully school leaders into censoring acc...
On this week's episode of The Signal I welcome two guests: Bill V. Mullen, Professor of English and American Studies at Purdue University and Christopher Vials, an Associate Professor of English at the University of Connecticut, where he also serves as Director of American Studies. Together they co-edited the book The U.S. Anti-Fascism Reader. Today we talk about their book, the history of fascism and anti-fascism in America, and l...
Cyril Mychalejko is the Editor-in-Chief of the Bucks County Beacon. He has over two decades of journalistic experience. His work has appeared in The Bucks County Courier Times, The Intelligencer, Upside Down World, Common Dreams, TruthOut, and other publications.
Today, Cyril joins The Signal as a guest to reflect on the week that Charlie Kirk was killed, the disturbing history of Turning Point USA, the failure of the mainstream me...
Jordan Green is an investigative correspondent based in Greensboro, N.C., who covers right-wing extremism for Raw Story. His work has been featured in a host of publications, including the Washington Post, The Daily Beast, The Nation, In These Times and Sojourners. Today he joins us to talk about his recent article in The Assembly “I’ve Seen How the Neo-Nazi Movement Is Escalating. You Should Worry,” and to talk about covering, a...
State Rep. Roni Green’s professional life has been about helping people climb out of poverty and fighting for working class families.
She began her career serving the people as a human services caseworker with the Glendale County Assistance Office, working for nearly two decades to ensure that Philadelphia’s most vulnerable residents have access to a path out of poverty. Her experience has deeply informed her understanding of the ...
Photojournalist Michael Nigro reported a piece for the Bucks County Beacon earlier this month from the streets of Los Angeles which were turned into a war zone after Trump sent in the National Guard and Marines to quash anti-ICE protests. He was actually shot in the head with nonlethal bullet by police, though thankfully he was wearing a helmet. This multimedia journalist based in Brooklyn, New York joins us today to talk about his...
Jessica Pishko is a journalist and lawyer with a JD from Harvard Law School and an MFA from Columbia University. She is the author of The Highest Law in the Land: How the Unchecked Power of Sheriffs Threatens Democracy. She has been reporting on the criminal legal system for a decade, with a focus on the political power of sheriffs since 2016.
In addition to her newsletter Posse Comitatus, her writings have been featured in The Ne...
On this special Earth Day episode of The Signal, we welcome Ben Price, education director at the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, where he has worked at since 2004. Ben is a trailblazer in the Rights of Nature movement and has a new book out: Wouldn’t You Say? A Collection of Essays About Environment and Community.
In this conversation, we discuss his book and how the rights of nature movement challenges us to rethink o...
Pennsylvania State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta was recently elected Vice Chair of the DNC. He joins us today to speak about the Trump administration’s dangerous and disastrous first few months in power and what Democrats are going to do to save our economy, our constitution, our democracy, and our future.
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On this week's episode, we welcome Larissa Hopwood, also known widely as “Lolly,” to the show. Larissa has lived in Bucks County since 1999. In addition to being a local activist and Democratic Committee Person, she's also a children's musician, author, teacher, designer, and proud mother of a trans son.
Recently, Larissa co-founded the Doylestown Action League, which has been organizing rallies and community forums in the County ...
Shoumita Dasgupta is the daughter of Bengali immigrants, a woman of color in STEM, and a scientist, educator, and geneticist. She is Professor of Medicine and Assistant Dean of Diversity & Inclusion at Boston University, a Fulbright Specialist, and a member of the inaugural cohort of faculty affiliates at the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research.
Cyril first came across Shoumita’s work when the Beacon republished a...
Kadida Kenner is the founding Chief Executive Officer of the New Pennsylvania Project. Kadida is a tireless advocate for social and economic justice issues and is motivated to empower and excite the electorate to enthusiastically vote in every election — all the way down the entire ballot.
Kadida has led efforts to stop the passage of a judicial gerrymandering constitutional amendment, raise the minimum wage, fairly fund public ed...
Elaine Weiss is an award-winning journalist, author, and public speaker. She is the author of The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote and Fruits of Victory: The Woman’s Land Army of the Great War. She joins us today to talk about Her new book, Spell Freedom: The Underground Schools That Built the Civil Rights Movement, which comes out March 4th. Her book, which tells the story about how four ordinary citizens through soci...
Karen Downer recently stepped down as president of Bucks County NAACP after holding the position for six years. In this conversation, Downer shares her experiences growing up as a Black girl in Bucks County, her early involvement in civil rights activism, and her leadership role and work with the local NAACP. She discusses the challenges faced by the Black (and broader) community, particularly in education and policing. She emphasi...
Katherine Stewart is the author of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism, the award-winning book upon which the documentary feature, God & Country, produced by Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner, is based. She has covered the intersection of faith and politics for over 15 years; her work appears in the New York Times, The Washington Post, the New Republic, the Guardian, and Religion News Service a...
Dr. Anita Varma is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Media at UT Austin where she focuses on media ethics. She leads the Solidarity Journalism Initiative at the university’s Center for Media Engagement. She received her Ph.D. in Communication from Stanford University, and her dissertation, Solidarity in Action: A Case Study of Journalistic Humanizing Techniques in the San Francisco Homeless Project, received th...
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