Stories of Resistance is a new podcast featuring vignettes pulled from journalist Michael Fox’s 20 years of interviews, research, and reporting from across the Americas. Each week, we’ll bring you stories that remind us of the struggles that have come before, and the ones we are living now. Inspiration for dark times.
Each episode is an example of investigative journalism, prose, poetry, historical memory, reflection on struggle—and, above all, story. Stories about workers’ struggles; resistance to dictatorship; alternative media; Indigenous and environmental organizing; and more. Eduardo Galeano-inspired vignettes for a Trump 2.0 world.
Stories of Resistance is co-produced by The Real News Network and Global Exchange.
Recent Episodes
Reforesting the Andes: One tree at a time
There has been a huge push to plant native trees across the Andes in recent years. And it’s been a success. This is episode 23 of Stories of Resistance, in honor of Earth Day.
Tamara Pearson: Writing as an act of resistance
Tamara Pearson is a writer and journalist who, in both her work and her activism, demonstrates the words that she lives by. This is episode 22 of Stories of Resistance.
Poetry and resistance: Breaking through the digital cacophony
Poetry is resistance. Standing up to the cyber mayhem. Breathing art into the void. Today, we celebrate Poetry month. This is episode 21 of Stories of Resistance.
Eduardo Galeano: Latin America’s poet-historian
10 years since his passing, Galeano’s oeuvre casts a long shadow—not only in Latin America’s letters, but in the region’s political identity. This is episode 20 of Stories of Resistance.
Venezuela, 2002: When the people overturned a coup
The streets of Caracas flowed with blood when officers in Venezuela’s Chamber of Commerce attempted a coup against Hugo Chavez in 2002—only to be ultimately stopped by mass mobilization.
The Cochabamba Water War: Bolivia’s rebellion against neoliberalism
In early 2000, Cochabamba, Bolivia, exploded when water rates spiked overnight following the city’s privatization of the municipal water supply. This is episode 18 of Stories of Resistance.
Chile’s Roma community: Maintaining an identity through resistance
As much as 10% of the world’s Roma, or Romani, people live in Latin America. In Chile, this community carries on with its traditions to this day. This is Episode 17 of Stories of Resistance.
Free Lula: The vigil that freed a president
When President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was jailed on trumped-up corruption charges, his supporters held a vigil for his release that lasted 580 days.
Brazil’s military dictatorship seemed invulnerable—until metalworkers went on strike
Brazil’s military dictatorship ruled through fear and terror. Then, massive metalworkers’ strikes in 1979 and 1980 led by current President Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva changed everything. This is episode 15 of Stories of Resistance.
The soundtrack to the resistance against the Brazilian dictatorship
Musicians responded to the Brazilian dictatorship by writing songs of resistance and hope. The military regime fought back with censorship and repression. But still the music sang on. This is episode 14 of Stories of Resistance.
Cesar Chavez and the Delano Grape Strike
Cesar Chavez was born on March 31, 1927. He would grow to lead strikes and become one of the greatest US farmworker organizers of the 20th Century. This is a bonus episode of Stories of Resistance.
Trump targeted Mahmoud Khalil to inspire fear—the opposite may be happening
Thousands of people have rallied across the country for weeks to demand Khalil’s release from ICE detention.
Stories of Resistance: Trump wants the Panama Canal—but Panamanians won’t surrender without a fight
Centuries of foreign occupation and exploitation have taught Panamanians to fiercely guard their sovereignty, as a recent national mobilization against a Canadian copper mine showed.
Stories of Resistance: Mothers of Argentina’s 30,000 disappeared half-century struggle for justice
Today is the Day for Memory, Truth & Justice in Argentina, honoring the victims of the military dictatorship. The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo are still marching.
Stories of Resistance: Monsignor Óscar Romero, El Salvador’s Bishop of the Poor
Assassinated by El Salvador’s military dictatorship 45 years ago in 1980, Óscar Romero remains an icon of the country’s working class.
Stories of Resistance: The Saint Patrick’s Battalion
On St. Patrick’s Day, Mexicans celebrate in honor of the Irish battalion that defended their country against the invading United States Army in the 1840s.
Stories of Resistance: Celebrating Indigenous roots in Chile’s Arica Carnival
The largest carnival celebration in Chile reflects a long history of Indigenous resistance to colonization—a struggle that continues to this day.
Stories of Resistance: Standing for trans rights in Uruguay
A transgender person’s life expectancy in Uruguay is just 35 years—and yet this country was the first in Latin America to pass a trans rights law in 2018, thanks to fighters like Collette Spinetti Nuñez.
Stories of Resistance: Venezuela’s communal pharmacy challenges US sanctions
In 2019 Venezuela, US sanctions are wreaking havoc. Health supplies are hard to find. In particular, medicine.
Stories of Resistance: Two Mayan Warriors
In the Caribbean jungles of Quintana Roo, two Mayan brothers lived. They were fierce warriors. And they are still defending their land, in the forest of present-day Mexico.
