15 Best Chicago Activist Podcasts

1. This Is Hell!

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Manufacturing Dissent since 1996
Host Chuck Mertz
Producer/Network This Is Hell!
Email ****@thisishell.com
Estimated Monthly Listeners 50k-250k
Recent Guests Tanvi Misra, Shana Marshall +27 more
Apple Rating 4.9/5Apple Reviews 1.1K Avg Length 95 min Format Extended Get Email Contact Get access to full database of 2.7M podcastsCreate podcast lists, export in spreadsheet or CSV file with email contacts and start your podcast outreach in minutes.Sign Up for Free with Email Continue with Google

2. AirGo

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Subscribe on Apple Podcasts! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/airgo/id1016530091 Since 2015, a podcast reshaping culture for the more liberatory 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 A. Williams and Daniel Kisslinger.more Hosts Damon A. Williams, Daniel Kisslinger
Producer/Network Respair Production & Media
Email ****@gmail.com
Estimated Monthly Listeners 1k-10k
Apple Rating 4.9/5Apple Reviews 123 Avg Length 66 min Format Long form Get Email Contact

3. Movement Memos

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An ongoing call to action for movement work and mutual aid efforts around the country. Kelly Hayes connects with activists, journalists and others on the front lines to break down what's happening in various struggles and what listeners can do to help.more Host Kelly Hayes
Producer/Network Truthout
Email ****@truthout.org
Estimated Monthly Listeners 10k-50k
Recent Guests Rebecca Solnit, Tanuja Jagernauth +10 more
Apple Rating 4.9/5Apple Reviews 303Facebook 846.1KTwitter 180.8KInstagram 48.9K Avg Length 73 min Format Long form Get Email Contact

4. The Ben Joravsky Show

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Chicago journalist Ben Joravsky starts each show by riffing on the news of the day with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty. Then he talks politics with activists, elected officials, journalists and all sorts of political know-it-alls. We talk Chicago, Illinois, national (lots of national), international and lefty politics. Find The Ben Joravsky Show wherever you download podcasts.more Host Ben Joravsky
Email ****@chicagoreader.com
Location Chicago, Illinois, United States
Estimated Monthly Listeners 1k-10k
Recent Guests Rummana Hussain, Almas Hussain +35 more
Apple Rating 4.7/5Apple Reviews 133 Avg Length 57 min Format Long form Get Email Contact

5. Haymarket Books Live

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Haymarket Books Live is a regular online series of urgent political discussions, book launches, organizer roundtables, poetry jams, and more, hosted by Haymarket Books. The podcast features recordings of our livestreamed video event series.Haymarket Books is a radical, independent, nonprofit book publisher based in Chicago.more Producer/Network Haymarket Books
Email ****@haymarketbooks.org
Location Chicago, Illinois, United States
Estimated Monthly Listeners 1k-10k
Recent Guests Paul Kirk-Davidoff, Feben Ghilagaber +50 more
Apple Rating 5/5Apple Reviews 121Facebook 81.4KTwitter 151KInstagram 125.8K Avg Length 83 min Format Long form Get Email Contact

6. Bourbon 'n BrownTown

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Powered by SoapBox Productions and Organizing, Bourbon 'n BrownTown is a conversation-based podcast that fosters radically imaginative dialogues on media, culture, politics, and our various social movements through a liberatory lens. With a Chicago focus, filmmakers and movement workers Caullen Hudson and David A. Moran unpack complex social issues and topics while building relationships with artists, activists, community organizers, educators, social entrepreneurs, and others working towards a better world...more Hosts Caullen Hudson, David A Moran
Producer/Network Caullen Hudson & David A Moran
Email ****@gmail.com
Estimated Monthly Listeners 1k-10k
Recent Guests Dina Amin, Kiera Battles +18 more
Apple Rating 4.9/5Apple Reviews 39Facebook 60Twitter 176Instagram 684 Avg Length 83 min Format Long form Get Email Contact

7. Labor Express Radio

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Labor Express Radio is Chicago's only English language labor news and current affairs radio program. 'News for working people, by working people.' Our program covers issues in the labor movement locally, nationally, and internationally. The program also addresses issues of concern to working people such as housing, education, health care, immigrants rights, the environment and U.S. foreign policy, from a working class viewpoint. Labor Express Radio airs Sunday nights at 8:00 PM on Chicago's Lumpenradio, WLPN, 105.5 FM. The program is streamed live at http://lumpenradio.com/. Archived programsmore Host Jerry Mead-Lucero
Producer/Network Jerry Mead - Lucero
Email ****@gmail.com
Estimated Monthly Listeners 100-1k
Recent Guests Don Villar, Zohran Mamdani
Apple Rating 5/5Apple Reviews 4 Avg Length 58 min Format Long form Get Email Contact

8. Socialism Conference

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The Socialism Conference is a four-day conference bringing together thousands of socialists and radical activists from around the country to take part in discussions about social movements, Marxism, abolition, working-class history, and the debates and strategies for organizing today. Every year, the Socialism conference aims to be a place where activists can share lessons from their struggles—from the BDS campaign for Palestine to the fight for gender liberation, from strike organizing and support to the struggle to stop the destruction of the planet, the fight against racism, and more...more Producer/Network Socialism Conference
Estimated Monthly Listeners 1k-10k
Recent Guests Maria Gabrielle, Renette Bradley +20 more
Apple Rating 4.9/5Apple Reviews 19 Avg Length 57 min Format Long form Get Email Contact

9. Hitting Left

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Website Apple Episodes
Each week brothers Mike and Fred Klonsky, bloggers and activists engage in conversation, often with in-studio guests. Topics may be local, national or international, but always with a Chicago sensibility and perspective, and always from 'the Left side of the plate.'more Producer/Network Klonsky brothers.
Email ****@mac.com
Estimated Monthly Listeners 100-1k
Recent Guest Colin Kramer
Apple Rating 4.9/5Apple Reviews 12 Avg Length 58 min Format Long form Get Email Contact

10. Respair Presents: Quantum Entanglements

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Respair Production & Media is a movement journalism and media organization reshaping culture toward liberation. Rooted in Chicago, we build media projects about, in partnership with, and in support of communities challenging power, reconfiguring public life, and reimagining our world. From producing award-winning podcasts and films to supporting and advising collaborators across our ecosystem, we're building new media infrastructure for collective justice and liberation...more Producer/Network Respair Production & Media
Email ****@respairmedia.com
Apple Rating 5/5Apple Reviews 1 Avg Length 48 min Format Long form Get Email Contact

11. Chicago Justice Podcast

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The Chicago Justice Podcast challenges the stories we're told about crime, public safety, and justice. Instead of accepting headlines, political talking points, or conventional wisdom at face value, we dig deeper to uncover what the data, research, and lived experiences actually reveal. Each episode features candid conversations with journalists, researchers, advocates, policymakers, and people working to transform the justice system from within. Together, we examine the policies, institutions, and power structures that shape who is criminalized, who is protected, and who is left behind...more Host Tracy Siska
Email ****@chicagojustice.org
Location Chicago, Illinois, United States
Estimated Monthly Listeners 100-1k
Apple Rating 4.3/5Apple Reviews 3Facebook 2.1KTwitter 1.4KInstagram 644 Avg Length 40 min Format Long form Get Email Contact

12. Strong Towns Chicago Podcast

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On the Strong Towns Chicago podcast we interview local urbanist activists, educators, practitioners, and public officials about their efforts to make Chicago a stronger city.
Email ****@gmail.com
Estimated Monthly Listeners 100-1k
Apple Rating 5/5Apple Reviews 5 Avg Length 48 min Format Long form Get Email Contact

13. The Missing Exhibition: Building Aquí

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When students at a predominantly Latino/a/e alternative high school in Chicago (Instituto Justice and Leadership Academy) realized that Chicago's major history museum had no information about the Latino/a/e third of the city in its permanent exhibition, they took a stand—and made history. Building Aquí is a 4-part podcast that follows the students' protest, the exhibition it inspired, and the long, rich legacy of Latine resistance, migration, and culture in the city...more Producer/Network The Chicago History Museum
Email ****@rivet360.com
Estimated Monthly Listeners 100-1k
Recent Guests Gary Rivlin, Adriana Portillo-Bartow +2 more
Apple Rating 5/5Apple Reviews 7 Avg Length 51 min Format Long form Get Email Contact

14. Unite and Win: A Guide to Workplace Organizing

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Unite and Win: A Guide to Workplace Organizing is a 13-part podcast series by the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC), produced in partnership with Haymarket Books. This podcast is split up into two parts: an audiobook version of EWOC's 'Unite & Win' handbook and discussions with labor organizers across industries moderated by labor journalist and author Kim Kelly. These discussion episodes use real-world examples to illustrate the themes we raise in the handbook, including just how much a union can help us accomplish when we come together and *fight*.more Estimated Monthly Listeners 100-1k
Recent Guests Atulya Dora-Laskey, Clarissa Redwine +6 more
Apple Rating 5/5Apple Reviews 10 Avg Length 27 min Format Medium form Get Email Contact

15. Help This Garden Grow

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Help This Garden Grow is a new podcast docuseries telling the story of Hazel Johnson, a visionary of the Environmental Justice movement and a resident of the Altgeld Gardens community on the far South Side of Chicago. Hazel is the founder of People for Community Recovery, a 40 year-old organization that fights to address the toxic industrial pollution that has been killing the members of her community...more Producer/Network Respair Production & Media
Email ****@respairmedia.com
Estimated Monthly Listeners 1k-10k
Apple Rating 5/5Apple Reviews 30 Avg Length 43 min Format Long form Get Email Contact