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The Red Nation Podcast

News & Politics Podcasts

The Red Nation Podcast features discussions on Indigenous history, politics, and culture from a left perspective. Hosted by Nick Estes and Jen Marley with help from our friend and comrade Sina. The Red Nation Podcast is also the home of Red Power Hour, hosted by Melanie Yazzie and Elena Ortiz. Our show is entirely supported by our patrons on Patreon, support the show and get access to bonus content and other patron exclusive benefits here: Patreon.com/redmediapr Website: therednation.org Follow the hosts on Twitter @nickwestes and @JenMarley1680 and the Red Nation @The_Red_Nation. ​ Theme song: "Dead Horse" by Weedrat https://weedrat.bandcamp.com/

Location:

United States

Description:

The Red Nation Podcast features discussions on Indigenous history, politics, and culture from a left perspective. Hosted by Nick Estes and Jen Marley with help from our friend and comrade Sina. The Red Nation Podcast is also the home of Red Power Hour, hosted by Melanie Yazzie and Elena Ortiz. Our show is entirely supported by our patrons on Patreon, support the show and get access to bonus content and other patron exclusive benefits here: Patreon.com/redmediapr Website: therednation.org Follow the hosts on Twitter @nickwestes and @JenMarley1680 and the Red Nation @The_Red_Nation. ​ Theme song: "Dead Horse" by Weedrat https://weedrat.bandcamp.com/

Language:

English


Episodes
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Ritual Human Sacrifice: Normalizing Genocide in Gaza

9/22/2025
A new UN report confirms what the world has known for the last 23 months: Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. This solo episode from TRN Podcast host Nick Estes breaks down the report and asks the larger questions: How did we get here? And if we've normalized this crime, what comes next? Read more Watch the video edition on The Red Nation Podcast YouTube channel Empower our work: GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/empower-red-medias-indigenous-content Subscribe to The Red Nation Newsletter: https://www.therednation.org/ Patreon www.patreon.com/redmediapr

Duration:00:56:15

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Oñate: the Zombie Conquistador symbol that just won't die w/ Christina Castro

9/15/2025
Red Power Hour co-host Elena Ortiz speaks with Christina Castro from the Three Sisters Collective about the pageantry and symbols of conquest in Northern New Mexico and why the Hispanic population in northern New Mexico hangs onto these concepts of conquest and whiteness. Watch the video edition on The Red Nation Podcast YouTube channel Empower our work: GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/empower-red-medias-indigenous-content Subscribe to The Red Nation Newsletter: https://www.therednation.org/ Patreon www.patreon.com/redmediapr

Duration:00:57:14

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RPH vs. The Wind and the Reckoning (2022)

9/8/2025
Red Power Hour is back! Co-hosts Melanie Yazzie and Elena Ortiz review The Wind and the Reckoning (2022), which dramatizes the colonization of Kanaka Maoli' lands and the Native resistance to it. Watch the video edition on The Red Nation Podcast YouTube channel Empower our work: GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/empower-red-medias-indigenous-content Subscribe to The Red Nation Newsletter: https://www.therednation.org/ Patreon www.patreon.com/redmediapr

Duration:01:14:27

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Doing American Indian Studies w/ Jerome Clark and Elise Boxer

9/1/2025
TRN Podcast host Nick Estes is joined by Jerome Clark, Assistant Professor of American Indian Studies at ASU, and Elise Boxer, Associate Professor of History and Director of the Institute of American Indian Studies at USD, to discuss some critical questions around the future of the discipline of American Indian Studies. Check out their book, From the Skin: Defending Indigenous Nations Using Theory and Praxis (2025) Watch the video edition on The Red Nation Podcast YouTube channel Empower our work: GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/empower-red-medias-indigenous-content Subscribe to The Red Nation Newsletter: https://www.therednation.org/ Patreon www.patreon.com/redmediapr

Duration:01:32:33

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The Book of Genocide: The Bible and settler colonialism w/ Justin Podur

8/25/2025
TRN Podcast host Nick Estes in conversation with Justin Podur (@justinpodur) from The Anti Empire Project on the role of the Bible and the Book of Joshua in particular in enabling the genocide in Gaza. Check out Justin's projects: Personal website: https://podur.org/ Substack: https://justinpodur.substack.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/justinpodur Watch the video edition on The Red Nation Podcast YouTube channel Empower our work: GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/empower-red-medias-indigenous-content Subscribe to The Red Nation Newsletter: https://www.therednation.org/ Patreon www.patreon.com/redmediapr

Duration:01:32:02

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"Indigeneity is simply a relationship to settler colonialism" : Justline Teba live on Radio Tomada

8/18/2025
Comrade Justine joins Radio Tomada at the 2025 Pathways Indigenous Arts Festival to explain the work of Red Media and The Red Nation. Empower our work: GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/empower-red-medias-indigenous-content Subscribe to The Red Nation Newsletter: https://www.therednation.org/ Patreon www.patreon.com/redmediapr

Duration:00:32:46

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Nick Estes on "Manifest Destiny"

8/11/2025
TRN Podcast host Nick Estes hosts a solo episode on the US imperialist doctrine of "Manifest Destiny." Check out Moussa al-Sadah's article "Palestinian Peoples: on Disintegration and the Conditions for Intifada Palestinian Peoples: on Disintegration and the Conditions for Intifada" Watch the video edition on The Red Nation Podcast YouTube channel Empower our work: GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/empower-red-medias-indigenous-content Subscribe to The Red Nation Newsletter: https://www.therednation.org/ Patreon www.patreon.com/redmediapr

Duration:01:05:27

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Movies with Comrades: How to Blow Up a Pipeline

8/4/2025
A special screening event hosted by the DSA in Santa Fe, NM for local charitable causes included a panel of special guests on the film How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022) in which a group of young environmental activists execute a daring mission to sabotage an oil pipeline. Hosted by actor Jasper Keen, with special guest panelists including Alma Castro, Santa Fe City Councilor; Elena Ortiz, Co-Host of the Red Power Hour on The Red Nation Podcast; and Wren Sharkey, a local activist and community organizer. Watch the video edition on The Red Nation Podcast YouTube channel Empower our work: GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/empower-red-medias-indigenous-content Subscribe to The Red Nation Newsletter: https://www.therednation.org/ Patreon www.patreon.com/redmediapr

Duration:00:32:14

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On John Carpenter's They Live (1988) w/ Sina Rahmani

7/30/2025
***TRN Podcast host Nick Estes did an episode with producer Sina Rahmani for an episode on his new SubStack project, Red Scare. This is a preview. To listen/watch the entire episode, subscribe to Red Scare*** Nick Estes in conversation with TRN Podcast producer and host of The East is a Podcast Sina Rahmani (@UrOrientalist) explore what John Carpenter’s They Live (1988) can teach us how the ruling class uses ideaology to govern our everyday—and how to break free of that control!

Duration:00:25:09

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Fourth of YOU STOLE OUR F****** LAND event w/ John Redhouse

7/28/2025
The third and final livestream of the book tour celebrating the publication of Bordertown Clashes, Resource Wars, Contested Territories: The Four Corners in the Turbulent 1970s Hosted by Red Power Hour co-host Melanie Yazzie at the Inspired Moments Event Center Farmington, New Mexico. Watch the video edition on The Red Nation Podcast YouTube channel Press Release: "From the late summer of 1972 to the late summer of 1974, John Redhouse and many other Navajo and Indian rights activists threw all they had into mass movement organizing and direct action. And they were pretty good at it too in terms of effectiveness and impact. Written in the first-person and above all, with a collective spirit of generosity and witness, John Redhouse describes the hot temper of the times in the racist and exploitative border towns in the Four Corners area of the Southwest region. As John Redhouse says, “Without the People, you have nothing. But back then, we had a lot of people WITH us.” Yes, the Power of the People, the collective human spirit of the emerging local and regional Indian civil movement, thousands of us marching in the streets of Gallup and Farmington in northwestern New Mexico with our demands. A bold citizen's arrest at city hall, a downtown street riot, burning images of enemy leaders in effigy. And more marches, demonstrations, and direct actions. Above all, though, there was that Spirit—that unbroken, unconquerable spirit—that moved us, that drove us, that led us. And that was just in the border towns. In that turbulent decade, there was also the rapidly rising and spreading with-the-people, on-the-land resistance struggles in the coal, uranium, and oil and gas fields, and in disputed territories in the San Juan and Black Mesa basins that were targeted for ethnic cleansing and mineral extraction. Bordertown Clashes, Resource Wars, Contested Territories: The Four Corners in the Turbulent 1970s brings readers to the enduring issues of the day, traced over half a century ago, where John Redhouse and many more were in the middle of a revolution that unfolds to this day." Empower our work: GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/empower-red-medias-indigenous-content Subscribe to The Red Nation Newsletter: https://www.therednation.org/ Patreon www.patreon.com/redmediapr

Duration:01:49:55

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"Historians are the camp followers of the imperialists" w/ Alex Aviña

7/21/2025
TRN Podcast host Nick Estes welcomes back comrade, colleague, and oft-returning guest of the show Alex Aviña to discuss the Trump regime's widening attack on higher education and how it is being waged through a class of neoliberal administrators largely identifying as Democrats. Alex is the author of Specters of Revolution: Peasant Guerrillas in the Cold War Mexican Countryside Check out Anti-Imperialists.com Video edition coming soon! Empower our work: GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/empower-red-medias-indigenous-content Subscribe to The Red Nation Newsletter: https://www.therednation.org/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/redmediapr

Duration:01:35:26

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Warrior intellectualism w/ John Redhouse and Jennifer Denetdale

7/14/2025
The John Redhouse book tour makes its way to Albuquerque where comrades from Red Nation, Dr. Jennifer Denetdale and Red Power Hour co-host Melanie Yazzie join author John Redhouse to discuss his new book, Bordertown Clashes, Resource Wars, Contested Territories: The Four Corners in the Turbulent 1970s Watch the video edition on The Red Nation Podcast YouTube channel Press Release: "From the late summer of 1972 to the late summer of 1974, John Redhouse and many other Navajo and Indian rights activists threw all they had into mass movement organizing and direct action. And they were pretty good at it too in terms of effectiveness and impact. Written in the first-person and above all, with a collective spirit of generosity and witness, John Redhouse describes the hot temper of the times in the racist and exploitative border towns in the Four Corners area of the Southwest region. As John Redhouse says, “Without the People, you have nothing. But back then, we had a lot of people WITH us.” Yes, the Power of the People, the collective human spirit of the emerging local and regional Indian civil movement, thousands of us marching in the streets of Gallup and Farmington in northwestern New Mexico with our demands. A bold citizen's arrest at city hall, a downtown street riot, burning images of enemy leaders in effigy. And more marches, demonstrations, and direct actions. Above all, though, there was that Spirit—that unbroken, unconquerable spirit—that moved us, that drove us, that led us. And that was just in the border towns. In that turbulent decade, there was also the rapidly rising and spreading with-the-people, on-the-land resistance struggles in the coal, uranium, and oil and gas fields, and in disputed territories in the San Juan and Black Mesa basins that were targeted for ethnic cleansing and mineral extraction. Bordertown Clashes, Resource Wars, Contested Territories: The Four Corners in the Turbulent 1970s brings readers to the enduring issues of the day, traced over half a century ago, where John Redhouse and many more were in the middle of a revolution that unfolds to this day." Empower our work: GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/empower-red-medias-indigenous-content Subscribe to The Red Nation Newsletter: https://www.therednation.org/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/redmediapr

Duration:02:06:06

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"The Red Power movement had been going since 1492" w/ John Redhouse and Carol Wright

7/7/2025
Red Media Press and Common Notions are proud to announce our second co-publication! Bordertown Clashes, Resource Wars, Contested Territories: The Four Corners in the Turbulent 1970s by legendary warrior John Redhouse is a one-of-a-kind lyrical and fast-paced memoir of the frontlines and trenches of Native liberation in the Four Corners and Southwest in the 1970s. This episode is a recording of the first in a series of events celebrating the publication of the book. John and his wife Carol spoke with Red Power Host Melanie Yazzie about their lives and work. We will be publishing more episodes of these events in the coming weeks! Watch the video edition on The Red Nation Podcast YouTube channel Press Release: "From the late summer of 1972 to the late summer of 1974, John Redhouse and many other Navajo and Indian rights activists threw all they had into mass movement organizing and direct action. And they were pretty good at it too in terms of effectiveness and impact. Written in the first-person and above all, with a collective spirit of generosity and witness, John Redhouse describes the hot temper of the times in the racist and exploitative border towns in the Four Corners area of the Southwest region. As John Redhouse says, “Without the People, you have nothing. But back then, we had a lot of people WITH us.” Yes, the Power of the People, the collective human spirit of the emerging local and regional Indian civil movement, thousands of us marching in the streets of Gallup and Farmington in northwestern New Mexico with our demands. A bold citizen's arrest at city hall, a downtown street riot, burning images of enemy leaders in effigy. And more marches, demonstrations, and direct actions. Above all, though, there was that Spirit—that unbroken, unconquerable spirit—that moved us, that drove us, that led us. And that was just in the border towns. In that turbulent decade, there was also the rapidly rising and spreading with-the-people, on-the-land resistance struggles in the coal, uranium, and oil and gas fields, and in disputed territories in the San Juan and Black Mesa basins that were targeted for ethnic cleansing and mineral extraction. Bordertown Clashes, Resource Wars, Contested Territories: The Four Corners in the Turbulent 1970s brings readers to the enduring issues of the day, traced over half a century ago, where John Redhouse and many more were in the middle of a revolution that unfolds to this day." Empower our work: GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/empower-red-medias-indigenous-content Subscribe to The Red Nation Newsletter: https://www.therednation.org/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/redmediapr

Duration:01:54:51

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Kuskalla#26: Karumanta Qamurqani w/ Jonathan Ritter [English]

7/6/2025
***Producer's note: This is a preview of the latest episode of Kuskalla, a trilingual (Quechua-Spanish-English) podcast produced by Red Media and hosted by our comrades Yojana Miraya Oscco and Renzo Aroni. Listen to the full episode on the Kuskalla podcast feed*** In this episode, I talked with Jonathan Ritter, who is the Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology and Chair of the Department of Music at the University of California, Riverside. We discussed his viral Quechua Pumpin song “Karumanta Qamurqani” (I have come from far away). Characterized by a carnivalesque style, Pumpin is often interpreted as testimonial music from the Fajardo province in Ayacucho, a central region deeply impacted by the Peruvian internal armed conflict between the Maoist Shining Path guerrillas and Peruvian state security forces, lasting from 1980 to 2000. This conflict resulted in nearly 70,000 deaths, primarily affecting Quechua-speaking Indigenous peasants in this region, as noted in the 2003 report of Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In 2001, shortly after the conflict ended, the Truth Commission began its efforts in communities throughout the Pampas River valley in central Ayacucho, where the Pumpin enjoys popularity. A year earlier, Jonathan Ritter started his fieldwork in the village of Colca for his dissertation focused on this music. After mastering the Pumpin guitar, he composed his song “Karumanta Qamurqani” to perform at the newly relaunched Pumpin contest held on the Waswantu plateau in February 2001. This contest had been on hold since 1983 when government security forces shut it down, targeting locals for allegedly supporting the Shining Path guerrillas. In February 2002, he performed his song again, and Asto Producciones filmed it for the first time on video cassette. In this episode, we talk about how Pumpin transforms from traditional music into a powerful form of testimony that recounts wartime experiences and survival in the aftermath. We then examine the lyrics of “Karumanta Qamurqani,” discussing their meanings and the song’s reception both during the live performance in Waswantu and after its 2008 upload to YouTube. The response from Peruvians sheds light on issues of race, class, and identity, as well as the reclamation of Quechua language and culture in the post-war context. This episode is dedicated to Alejandro Mendonza Alca from Colca, Jonathan Ritter’s mentor and maestro of Pumpin, who sadly passed away a few years ago. For more information on Pumpin music and its history, check out Jonathan Ritter’s articles, including “Carnival of Memory: Songs of Protest and Remembrance in the Andes,” published by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings in 2013. Thank you for tuning in to the Kuskalla Podcast. If you enjoy this podcast, you can support it by sharing it, hitting subscribe, or leaving a review. Our podcast is produced by Red Media and Red Nation; please consider supporting our work if you don't already on Patreon: www.patreon.com/redmediapr Follow us on social media: @KuskallaPodcast on Twitter; @KuskallaPodcast on IG Kuskalla Abya Yala https://kuskallaabyayala.weebly.com/

Duration:00:35:25

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SLAPP’d: Green NGOs, Pipeline Mercenaries, and reporting on the Water Protector movement w/ Tristan Ahtone and Alleen Brown

6/30/2025
TRN Podcast host Nick Estes interviews Allen Brown (@AlleenBrown) from Drilled and Tristan Ahtone (@Tahtone) from Grist about their investigation into the legal war waged on the Standing Rock Water Protectors and their allies years after the end of the encampments. Check out Tristan's article "A court ordered Greenpeace to pay a pipeline company $660M. What happens next?" Check out the video edition on The Red Nation Podcast YouTube channel Empower our work: GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/empower-red-medias-indigenous-content Subscribe to The Red Nation Newsletter: https://www.therednation.org/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/redmediapr Join us for our book launch and tour as we release Red Media's second publication! Bordertown Clashes, Resource Wars, and Contested Territories: The Four Corners in the Turbulent 1970s by John Redhouse Find events and link to livestream here: https://redmedia.press/events/

Duration:01:04:43

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No War on Iran! w/ Nina Farnia and Ali Alizadeh

6/23/2025
**Note: This episode was recorded before the American aggression on Iranian nuclear facilities** TRN Podcast host Nick Estes is joined by guests Nina Farnia (@ninafarnia) and Ali Alizadeh (@ali7adeh) to discuss the Zionist aggression on Iran and the looming specter of the US joining the war. Watch the video edition on The Red Nation Podcast YouTube channel Check out Nina's recent article, "The Iranian-American Intelligentsia in U.S. Foreign Affairs: Ahistoricism, Anti-Structuralism, and the Production of Idealism" Follow Ali on his English-language YouTube channel Empower our work: GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/empower-red-medias-indigenous-content Subscribe to The Red Nation Newsletter: https://www.therednation.org/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/redmediapr Join us for our book launch and tour as we release Red Media's second publication! Bordertown Clashes, Resource Wars, and Contested Territories: The Four Corners in the Turbulent 1970s by John Redhouse Find events and link to livestream here: https://redmedia.press/events/

Duration:01:17:30

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RPH vs. Sinners (2025)

6/16/2025
Red Power Hour is back! RPH co-hosts Melanie Yazzie and Elena discuss Ryan Coogler's new horror film, Sinners (2025) Empower our work: GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/empower-red-medias-indigenous-content Subscribe to The Red Nation Newsletter: https://www.therednation.org/ Patreon www.patreon.com/redmediapr

Duration:01:14:06

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Red Power Hour - The banality of colonial evil

6/9/2025
Red Power Hour is back! Co-hosts Melanie Yazzie and Elena survey the burning tirefire of US imperial decline and ask the perennial question, what is even left to say? Video edition coming soon! Empower our work: GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/empower-red-medias-indigenous-content Subscribe to The Red Nation Newsletter: https://www.therednation.org/ Patreon www.patreon.com/redmediapr

Duration:01:10:11

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Anti-Imperialism and Indigenous methodologies w/ Sardana Nikolaeva and Masha Kardashevskaya

6/2/2025
TRN Podcast host Nick Estes is joined by Sardana Nikolaeva and Masha Kardashevskaya, two researchers from the Sakha Republic and hosts of Red Media's newest media project, TYMSYY. Make sure to check out Sardana's earlier episodes of the show! Watch the video edition on The Red Nation Podcast YouTube channel Empower our work: GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/empower-red-medias-indigenous-content Subscribe to The Red Nation Newsletter: https://www.therednation.org/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/redmediapr

Duration:01:38:51

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Best of 2022 Mixtape (pt.1)

5/26/2025
Celebrate five years of The Red Nation Podcast with us! This mixtape is a part of our "best of" series. This tracklist features some of the best of the show from the year 2022. Part two will be available on our Patreon as patron exclusive content! Much gratitude to our patrons who have kept the show alive these past five years! Please support the show and gain access to bonus content on the Red Media Patreon! Every episode can be found on our channels and will be listed on therednation.org Tracklist: TRN-KREZ Solidarity is Medicine w/ Samia Assed No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies w/ Julian Aguon No War, No NATO in Ukraine w/ Onyesonwu Chatoyer and Austine Gonzalez The life and death of Larry Casuse w/ David Correia and Ursula Casuse Carrillo Mess with the seal, get the flipper w/ Malia Lum-Kawaihoa Marquez Remembering the Reign of Terror at Oglala The spirit of resistance w/ Petuuche Gilbert Empower our work: GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/empower-red-medias-indigenous-content Subscribe to The Red Nation Newsletter: https://www.therednation.org/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/redmediapr

Duration:01:36:18