Law/Court/Crime

Old Mole Variety Hour for January 26, 2026

Airs at: Mon, 01/26/2026 at 9:00am - 10:00am

Produced for: Old Mole Variety Hour

Frann Michel hosts this episode, which features these segments: Zunes on Iran, Gaza, Colonialism: Laurie Mercier speaks with Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics and Director of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco, about recent protests in Iran,... Read more

Left and the Law under Trump

Produced for: Old Mole Variety Hour

Jan Haaken and Mike Snedeker consider what's happening to law under Trump, including the regime's dismantling of international law, the state of federal and state law, and resistances through the courts and in the streets. Image: "Lady Justice is not happy" by ... Read more

Letter from a Birmingham Jail

Airs at: Mon, 01/19/2026 at 6:30pm - 7:00pm

Produced for: Prison Pipeline

On April 12, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and nearly 50 other protestors and civil rights leaders were arrested after leading a Good Friday demonstration as part of the Birmingham Campaign, designed to bring national attention to the brutal, racist treatment suffered... Read more

News In Depth: Street Roots Article "Unreckoned" and Portlanders Testify on Proposal to Unmask Law Enforcement

Airs at: Wed, 01/14/2026 at 5:30pm - 6:00pm

Produced for: News In Depth

On this edition of KBOO News in Depth: KBOO's Althea Billings speaks with Street Roots reporter Jake Thomas about his article, "Unreckoned: Oregon is supposed to provide cash compensation to people sent to prison for crimes they didn’t commit. With many still waitin... Read more

Deportation Nation

Airs at: Mon, 01/19/2026 at 9:00am - 10:00am

Produced for: Old Mole Variety Hour

Luisa Martinez speaks with immigration lawyer and activist Daniel Kanstroom about the political economy of labor migration, the historical antecedents of current US immigration policy, the racialization of immigration enforcement, and immigration policy through the lense... Read more

Derf - Expanded Audio

Airs at: Thu, 01/08/2026 at 11:30am - 12:00pm

Produced for: Words and Pictures

In this 75% longer conversation with graphic novelist Derf Backderf, we dive deeper into Derf's origins as a student journalist; his immersion in Ohio's underground music scene, which inspired the book Punk Rock and Trailer Parks; and his popular alternative comic The... Read more

Derf: Remembering Kent State and Jeffrey Dahmer - from the Archive

Airs at: Thu, 01/08/2026 at 11:30am - 12:00pm

Produced for: Words and Pictures

With the deployment of National Guard troops once again in the news, we revisit our August 2021 conversation with graphic novelist Derf Backderf. Derf's graphic novel Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio won the 2021 Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work. Inspired by the ... Read more

Six Months of ICE Protests in Portland

Airs at: Wed, 12/31/2025 at 5:00pm - 6:00pm

Produced for: Evening News

On June 04th, activists in Portland, Oregon, began demonstrating in front of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Facility at the intersection of Macadam Avenue and S Bancroft Street. The protests were in response to an escalation of deportation tactics from the ... Read more

Judith Arcana, 1943-2025, a Lifelong Troublemaker

Produced for: Old Mole Variety Hour, In Memory of Judith Arcana

The left community lost one of its stalwarts on winter solstice of 2025. Judith Arcana was a writer, poet, teacher and feminist activist. She is most well known for being one of the Janes, a pre-Roe, underground collective in Chicago that provided 11,000 illegal, but saf... Read more