Social Justice Podcasts (2020-present)

Our Peabody-nominated 70 Million documentary podcast investigates how locals are addressing the role of jails in their backyards. Our reporters travel around the country and hear from people directly impacted by encounters with jails and adjacent policies, and from those committed to reversing the negative effects on people and communities. 70 Million was recognized as the bronze winner in the Narrative/Documentary Podcast category of the 2019 New York Festivals and Silver winner in the 2020 competition. Now in its third season, it is made possible by a grant from the Safety and Justice Challenge at the MacArthur Foundation. 70 Million is a member of The Democracy Group, a collective of podcasts exploring the meaning of democracy today.

The podcast that brings abolition to the culture. Hosts Vic Mensa, Indigo Mateo and Richie Reseda discuss how abolition isn't just about dismantling the prison industrial complex, but that it's also about imagining a world based on community, accountability and healing. In every episode, incarcerated people, organizers and artists address how abolition intersects with different aspects of culture — from housing to hip hop — and leave us with a new vision of how we can treat ourselves and each other outside of revenge and punishment. Listen on Spotify.

ACCESS is a documentary podcast that answers all the questions you were afraid to ask about abortion in the U.S., including some you never knew you had. Hosted by Garnet Henderson.

A radio show, podcast, and radical media hub reshaping Chicago and beyond for the more equitable and creative. Listen to longform humanizing conversations with artists, organizers, performers, comedians, scholars, and more who are reimagining Chicago and beyond toward liberation. Hosted by Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger.

How do we build an inclusive world? Hear intimate and in-depth conversations with changemakers on disability rights, youth mental health advocacy, prison reform, grassroots activism, and more. First-hand stories about activism, change, and courage from people who are changing the world: from how a teen mom became the Planned Parenthood CEO, to NBA player Kevin Love on mental health in professional sports, to Beetlejuice actress Geena Davis on Hollywood’s role in women’s rights. All About Change is hosted by Jay Ruderman, whose life’s work is seeking social justice and inclusion for people with disabilities worldwide. Join Jay as he interviews iconic guests who have gone through adversity and harnessed their experiences to better the world. This show ultimately offers the message of hope that we need to keep going. All About Change is a production of the Ruderman Family Foundation.

The All About Girls of Color (AAGOC) Podcast unites individuals passionate about youth equity and inclusion to maximize evidence-based practices for supporting and engaging girls of color. Our mission is to provide an ecosystem of engaged stakeholders to support girls of color within the various systems that prohibit their growth and development. Our vision is one in which women and girls of color can thrive in a society absent of structural barriers and opportunity gaps.

All Inclusive is a podcast focused on inclusion, innovation, and social justice. Join Jay Ruderman as he interviews leaders and experts on the latest news, technology and advocacy for social justice. In order to make progress that will lead to an innovative future, honest discussions must be held. That is what All Inclusive is all about. All Inclusive is a production of the Ruderman Family Foundation.

All My Relations is a podcast hosted by Matika Wilbur (Swinomish and Tulalip), and Desi Small Rodriguez (Northern Cheyenne) [previously by Dr. Keene] to explore our relationships— relationships to land, to our creatural relatives, and to one another. Each episode invites guests to delve into a different topic facing Native American peoples today. We keep it real, play some games, laugh a lot, and even cry sometimes. We invite you to join us!

Most Americans learn one, specific version of the history of woman suffrage: that a few bold, white women led a movement for equal voting rights and achieved victory 100 years ago, when the United States ratified the 19th Amendment. That, we’re told, enabled all American women to vote. But history is never as simple as the stories we tell about it. After that historic milestone, more women could cast a ballot than ever before, and yet the fight for women’s equal voting rights was, and still is, far from over. Amended travels from the 1800's through to the present day to show us a quest for women’s full equality that has always been as diverse, complex and unfinished as the nation itself.

Today's news and action items for a more equitable tomorrow. Hosted by Nicole Cardoza. Five minutes a day, seven days a week, ready by 6am EST.

At Liberty is the American Civil Liberties Union's weekly podcast that explores the most pressing civil rights and civil liberties questions of our time.

Interference Archive is a social space, exhibition venue, and open stacks archive of movement culture, based in Brooklyn. Audio Interference is a podcast dedicated to the activists, artists, and organizers whose histories make up the archive.

Bad Faith is two shows in one: it's a panel show about politics and pop culture with a rotating cast of performers and politicians, artists and activists, writers and radicals; and it's a two-way podcast where two people from two very different parts of the left make the case for one less terrible world. Gray is a former attorney, National Press Secretary for the Bernie Sanders campaign and co-host of campaign podcast Hear The Bern. Texas is an internet user and co-host of Chapo Trap House.

In this award-winning investigative podcast, host Maren Machles explores how accountability failures in Washington D.C. impact the lives of people all over the country, and she showcases the investigators, experts, and activists who keep our government working for the people. In the second season, Maren and POGO’s investigative reporters take a look at the Department of Homeland Security. They trace how an agency established to protect the nation from security threats has doubled down on detaining migrants, sometimes in horrifying conditions, while failing to address the more immediate security threat caused by far-right extremism — even within the agency’s own ranks. In the first season, Maren focused on the department’s Office of Inspector General, revealing a shocking pattern of misconduct that resulted in a failure to investigate some of the most troubling events in recent history. In 2024, Bad Watchdog won a silver medal for investigative journalism podcasting at the New York Festivals Radio Awards and was nominated for the Ambie Awards' Best Politics or Opinion Podcast. If you enjoy Bad Watchdog, consider signing up for emails from the Project On Government Oversight to learn more about POGO’s mission and work. Bad Watchdog is a member of the Airwave Media network and a part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Be Antiracist imagines what an antiracist society might look like and how we all can play an active role in building one. Dr. Ibram X. Kendi is the author of How to Be an Antiracist, the book that spurred a nationwide conversation redefining what it means to be antiracist, and in this podcast, he guides listeners how they can identify and reject the racist systems hiding behind racial inequity and injustice. Alongside notable guests, Dr. Kendi continues his journey towards building a just and equitable world and proposes how we can all help create it with him.

There's a reason the History Channel has produced hundreds of documentaries about Hitler but only a few about Dwight D. Eisenhower. Bad guys (and gals) are eternally fascinating. Behind the Bastards dives in past the Cliffs Notes of the worst humans in history and exposes the bizarre realities of their lives. Listeners will learn about the young adult novels that helped Hitler form his monstrous ideology, the founder of Blackwater's insane quest to build his own Air Force, the bizarre lives of the sons and daughters of dictators and Saddam Hussein's side career as a trashy romance novelist.

Better to Speak: The Podcast is a bi-weekly conversation with Kési Felton, founder of Better to Speak, that explores sociopolitical issues affecting Black people through the lens of young Black storytellers and changemakers. Better to Speak is a community media platform that works with young Black storytellers and changemakers to – in the words of Audre Lorde's 1984 essay featured in "Sister Outsider" – transform silence into language and action. Learn More + Take Action!

Hosts Kim Wilson and Brian Sonenstein interview activists, artists, scholars, and impacted people about prison abolition and transformative justice.

The Blackbelt Voices podcast tells stories from and about Black folks down South that honor our history, celebrate our culture, and shape our future. Through first-person narratives and in-depth conversations, Blackbelt Voices shares the experiences of Black Southerners living in, loving, and reconciling with the region we call home.

Black Feminist Rants: Conversations on Reproductive Justice and Activism is a podcast that centers the experiences of Black women and femmes navigating social justice spaces and the world. BFR will cover topics within the Reproductive Justice framework and beyond. Black Feminist Rants is created and hosted by LaKia Williams and supported by SisterSong.

Learning your history makes you - and your people - stronger. As Black people, we know we’re left out of the history books. That the media images are skewed. That we need access to experts, information and ideas so we can advance our people.

Black in Appalachia offers research, local narratives, public engagement and exhibition to highlight the history of the Black Communities of the mountain South. It is an East Tennessee PBS initiative.

A weekly deep dive with guests to inform about Black culture, empowerment, entrepreneurship, and history.  Guests include Black tech leaders, college presidents, community leaders, trail blazing business and social entrepreneurs, educators, and cultural icons. 

The Black Women’s Dept. of Labor is a project and podcast by Taja Lindley examining the intersections of race, gender and the double entendre of labor: to work and to give birth. Produced by Colored Girls Hustle. Formerly known as the Birth Justice Podcast NYC, this work is rooted in Black feminism and committed to reproductive justice. Available wherever you listen to podcasts, including Youtube.

In this six-episode narrative podcast, WNYC’s KalaLea considers the life of these remarkable 35 blocks of Tulsa through the stories of the people who lived there and their descendants. We’ll revisit the founding of Oklahoma, the discovery of oil and the subsequent explosion of wealth and possibility; and we’ll re-examine how that wealth (and the laws governing it) flowed from Native Americans into the hands of whites. We’ll find out what made Greenwood thrive and track the forces hellbent on its demise. We’ll hear from people whose lives the attack transformed once and for all. We’ll visit Greenwood today and try to understand the legacy of the Massacre—its lasting impact on Tulsa, and our country. As Tulsans are reckoning with their history as never before, we’ll ask what justice looks like and how it might be achieved.