Green & Red Podcast: American Beauty. Our End to 2025 Episode (G&R Ep 452)

Date: December 31, 2025
Hosts: Bob Buzzanco & Scott Parkin

Main Theme & Purpose

This end-of-year wrap-up episode serves as both a reflective look at 2025’s political, cultural, and activist landscapes and a highlight reel of Green & Red’s most impactful episodes and recurring themes. With a characteristic mix of humor and seriousness, hosts Bob Buzzanco and Scott Parkin discuss state repression under Trump, environmental and anti-capitalist struggles, media and culture, the spirit of resistance in 2025, and pay tribute to significant figures who passed this year. The overarching focus: sustaining and celebrating radical, independent media and activism in a reactionary era.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Year in Review: Podcast Milestones and Mission

Timestamps: [01:38]-[05:47]

• Six years running: Green & Red continues as a hub for radical analysis—"We're not the Brooklyn hipster media industrial complex," Bob jokes, but a space for real organizing and direct action (08:58).
• Both hosts emphasize the importance of grassroots support for independent media.
• Their mission has remained: giving voice to "folks you probably won’t hear about otherwise," from street organizers to dissident scholars ([07:47]).

2. The Political Climate of 2025

[11:47]-[12:45]

• Surge in political violence, economic divide, ICE resistance, state repression, and foreign conflicts (Venezuela, Gaza).
• Nearly 100 episodes this year, covering these fraught developments.
• Bob summarizes: “Recurring themes this year have been political violence, resistance to ICE...economic collapse, war with Venezuela, genocide in Gaza, and state repression.” ([11:48])

3. Top Podcast Episodes & Why They Mattered

[13:42]-[30:02]

a. Repression & the New McCarthyism

• Title: Worse than McCarthyism: Ellen Schrecker on Trump’s Repression
  "The repression what we’re seeing, not just with ICE but now...everybody’s at risk." – Bob ([14:08])
  • Schrecker, leading McCarthyism historian, frames today’s repression as in some ways worse than the 1950s ([13:42]-[14:54]).
• Series of state repression episodes with guests Will Potter, Adam Federman.

b. Latin America & U.S. Imperialism

• Rodrigo Auna and Aviva Chomsky discuss Venezuela and U.S. interventionism ([15:35]-[16:18]):
  "Venezuela: The Cost of Challenging an Empire."

c. The Encampments: Crackdown on Campus Protest

• Documentary filmmakers on the wave of campus encampments against the Gaza genocide and subsequent crackdowns ([16:18]).
• Civil rights attorney Ron Kuby analyzes new executive orders—“This executive order means absolutely nothing, and it has gone absolutely nowhere.” ([17:37])

d. Comedy, Satire, and State Power

• "Trump vs. Comedy: Colbert and South Park" with Sophia McClellan:
  "If that many people can mobilize without any notice to save Jimmy Kimmel’s job...you can do that, help the people in Chicago or LA or your neighbors." – Bob ([18:16]-[20:19])
  • On the power (and limitations) of satire as resistance.

e. Military Dissent

• “Military Dissent Against Trump” with Zach Henson (About Face).
  • The military is not monolithic; About Face and others are organizing “telling [soldiers], you don’t have to do this” ([21:19]-[22:48]).

f. Disaster & Mutual Aid

• Katrina at 20: Scott Crow on Common Ground Relief and the legacy of direct action in disaster ([23:57]-[24:43]).

g. Challenging Greenwashing & Systemic Failure

• "The Fraud of Recycling" with Rebecca Johns & Davis Allen:
  “Industry is promoting advanced recycling as a false solution to the plastic crisis...I think it’s also important to understand that by itself really is doing pretty much nothing.” – Bob ([25:40]-[26:40])

h. Decline of Youth Incarceration

• Nell Bernstein on the reduction of incarcerated youth and the book "In Our Future We Are Free" ([26:59]).

i. Palestinian Resistance & Voices

• Physician-poet Fady Joudah and Prof. Omar Zaza on the genocide in Gaza and Big Tech censorship ([27:37]-[30:02]).

j. Global Uprisings

• George Katsiaficas on movement history (1968–Occupy–Asia Uprisings).

4. Host History/Politics Episodes

[30:02]-[33:07]

• Annual JFK mythbusting & conspiracy critique
• “Vietnam Then, Palestine Now” – connecting historic liberation struggles
• “The Department of Defense was an agent for empire”
• U.S. role in WWII challenged Trump triumphalism

5. Pop Culture & Political Movies

[33:16]-[33:47]

• Most popular: "Conspiracy Thrillers Shaped by 1970s America" (Three Days of the Condor, The Parallax View, All the President’s Men)
• Also notable: pop culture’s connection to resistance and state paranoia

6. In Memoriam: Lives and Legacies Lost in 2025

[35:18]-[51:10]

• Actors & Directors: Robert Redford, Rob Reiner, Gene Hackman, Diane Keaton, Robert Benton.
  "Diane Keaton...the best female actor I’ve ever seen," Bob ([37:07])
• Satirists & Writers: Tom Lehrer, Jules Feiffer.
• Journalists & Broadcasters: Bill Moyers ("If liberals were like Bill Moyers, we wouldn’t have nearly as much to bitch about" – Bob [41:48])
• Musicians: Jimmy Cliff, Sly Stone, Peter Yarrow.
• Political & Movement Figures:
  • Pope Francis ("His last phone call was to a priest in Gaza..." – Bob [45:39])
  • José Mujica (Uruguayan ex-president, "did not leave office wealthy like most world leaders")
  • Assata Shakur ("No one’s going to give you the education you need to overthrow them...if they know that the knowledge will set you free." [47:43])
• Intellectuals: Robert J. Lifton (trauma/PTSD scholar)
• Environmentalists: Jane Goodall

7. Satirical 2025 Green & Red Awards

[52:22]-[57:02]

• Nick Riviera Prize in Medicine: RFK Jr.
• St. Francis of Assisi Award (for animal welfare): Kristi Noem
• Frank Burns Military Award: Pete Hegseth
• Sexiest Couple Alive: J.D. Vance & Erica Kirk
• Leonard Zelig Award: Marjorie Taylor Greene ("from batshit rightwing conspiracy lunatic to the main opposition to Trump in less than twelve months" [55:54])
• Memorial Pee Wee Himmler Award: Stephen Miller
• Crazy Fox Grandpa Award: Donald Trump
• Leather Daddy Award: Trump & the Republicans
• Honorable mention: “Three Wise Men and a Virgin Award” – No recipients found in D.C. this year.

8. State of Resistance: Direct Action & Community Organizing

[57:45]-[73:11]

• Green & Red prioritizes featuring “organizing and direct action” – in deliberate contrast to mainstream/soft-left podcasts who “think activists are boring” ([57:54])
• Praise for “no kings” rallies as entry-points for new activists; strong defense of street-level resistance especially in blue cities vs. Trump’s militarized crackdowns.
• “Teachers in Chicago and LA are just fucking inspirational.” – Bob ([60:52])
• Community defense: “It’s not even activists... the whole neighborhood came out” ([60:47])
• Electoral efforts (“massive waves at the ballot box”) seen as connected but distinct from organizing.
• Harsh critique of Democrats: “They’re authoritarians with rainbows and pronouns.” – Bob ([62:18])
• Media and mainstream left accused of ignoring street-level resistance.
• International solidarity: direct actions for Palestine in UK, Spain, Italy.
  But: disappointment with American labor’s silence on Gaza ([69:50])

9. Final Reflections & Call to Action

[71:27]-[74:37]

• Encourage collective action—“The antidote to despair is action” (paraphrasing Edward Abbey, [71:27])
• Empathy and hope: “When you see other people standing up, that’s a lesson. You’re not alone,” Bob ([72:08])
• Importance of accompaniment, even if not a frontline activist.
• Closing calls for continued organizing and supporting independent left media in 2026.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• "If that many people can mobilize without any notice to save Jimmy Kimmel’s job... you can do that to help the people in Chicago or your neighbors." – Bob, [18:16]
• "As lefties, we have this image of this monolithic military...but the Pentagon right now isn’t all that thrilled [with Trump]." – Bob, [21:19]
• “Industry is promoting advanced recycling as a false solution to the plastic crisis.” – Bob, [25:40]
• “No one’s going to give you the education you need to overthrow them. Nobody’s going to teach you your true history... if they know that the knowledge will set you free.” – Assata Shakur (quoted by Scott), [47:43]
• “You’re not alone. If you look at the public opinion polls, we’re the majority. Unfortunately, the media goes along with them and the Democrats go along with them.” – Bob [71:27]
• “People on the left who are activists are actually way better off than anybody... it does [alleviate despair].” – Bob [72:08]

Important Segment Timestamps

• 02:00 – Show intro, fundraising pitch, independence of Green & Red
• 11:47 – Major themes & list of 2025’s political crises
• 13:42 – Discussion of top podcasts, especially on repression and state violence
• 18:16 – Comedy as resistance, Jimmy Kimmel and South Park analysis
• 21:19 – Military dissent against Trump & About Face
• 25:40 – The "fraud of recycling" and greenwashing
• 27:37 – Gaza & Palestinian voices
• 33:16 – Pop culture/conspiracy thriller film analysis
• 35:18 – Notable deaths, in-memoriam section
• 52:22 – Annual Green & Red satirical award ceremony
• 57:54 – Resistance and organizing vs. mainstream/soft-left avoidance
• 60:52 – Community defense stories & teachers' strikes
• 69:50 – Disappointment with U.S. labor’s silence
• 71:27 – Hope, despair, and the power of solidarity
• 72:08 – Accompaniment and the importance of "being there"
• 74:19 – Outro and last calls for support
• 74:37 – “Think globally, guillotine locally.” – Bob’s closing rhetorical jab

Tone & Style

• wry, irreverent, unsparing in criticism (especially towards mainstream/“hipster Brooklyn” left media and Democratic Party);
• earnestly radical—celebrating militant action, direct organizing, and people’s (not politicians’) resistance;
• equal parts humor and alarm about the state of U.S. politics and the global order;
• highly referential, packed with satirical awards and cultural asides.

For Those Who Haven’t Listened

This episode is a dynamic, unfiltered retrospective of a radical podcast’s guide through the maelstrom of late-Trump America. It highlights grassroots resistance, critiques of mainstream left media, crucial episodes with major thinkers and activists, and pays tribute to the movement’s lost elders and icons. It’s also a call to keep organizing, keep fighting, and keep independent analysis alive. If you want a snapshot of how U.S. radical culture sees itself at the crossroads of 2025, this is your roadmap.