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Our Story

The Laura Flanders Show began in 2001 as a daily radio program on Air America Radio to engage listeners in a deep dive of the most pressing issues of the times. In 2008, supported by Free Speech TV, Laura moved to television, beginning GRITtv, a daily national news show that covered the Financial Crisis from the grassroots up. After several years, the show moved to KCET/Link TV and teleSUR, where it ran as a weekly program called The Laura Flanders Show. The Laura Flanders Show launched on PBS stations in the United States in 2020, airing in 23 of the country’s top 25 television markets. To find your local listing, check out our TV schedules.

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Cultural Freedom
Fellowship,
Lannan Foundation

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Pat Mitchell Lifetime Achievement Award, Women’s Media Center

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Urban Journalist
of the Year,
City Limits

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Izzy Award
Park Center
at Ithaca College

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Most Valuable
Multimedia Maker
The Nation

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Communicator of
the Year Award
NY Metro Labor Press Council

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Stonewall Award
Stonewall
Community Foundation

Our Host

Laura Flanders

Host & Executive Producer

Laura is a best-selling author, broadcaster and host of The Laura Flanders Show on public television. The weekly public affairs program airs on over 300 public television stations via PBS and WORLD Channel, and reaches 225 million Americans on public television. It is also available on public radio, major podcast platforms and YouTube. After many years in public and commercial radio, she founded The Laura Flanders Show / GRITtv in 2008 to serve as an online channel for in depth conversations with forward-thinking people from the worlds of politics, economics, business and the arts. A primetime, daily broadcast, GRITtv with Laura Flanders aired for three years on Free Speech TV before moving to KCET/Linktv and teleSUR, as a weekly program. Flanders is a contributing writer to The Nation and Yes! magazine. She is also the author of six books including the New York Times best-seller, BUSHWOMEN: Tales of a Cynical Species (Verso, 2004) and Blue GRIT: True Democrats Take Back Politics from the Politicians (Penguin Press, 2007). The Laura Flanders Show aired nationally on Air America Radio (2004-2008) before which she was the founding host of Your Call, on public radio, KALW, and CounterSpin, the nationally-syndicated radio program from the mediawatch group FAIR.

Our Co-Hosts

S. Mitra Kalita

Co-Founder, URL Media;
CEO & Publisher, Epicenter-NYC

S. Mitra Kalita is a veteran journalist, media executive, prolific commentator and author of two books. She is the co-founder/ CEO of URL Media, a network of Black and Brown community news outlets that share content and revenue. URL Media, a for-profit company, has received funding from the International Women’s Media Foundation and Archewell, the nonprofit arm of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex (aka Prince Harry and Meghan Markle). URL Media works with mainstream newsrooms to syndicate content and partner on diversity initiatives in content, staffing and culture. Mitra is also the co-founder and publisher of Epicenter-NYC, a newsletter to help New Yorkers get through the pandemic, and an inaugural member of the URL Media network. Epicenter has helped more than 5,000 people (and likely countless more) navigate vaccine registration. These efforts and innovations on new models in community journalism have been covered by the NY Post, Vice, WNYC, among many others.

Sara Lomax

Co-Founder, URL Media;
President & CEO, WURD Radio

Sara Lomax-Reese is the President and CEO of WURD Radio, LLC, Pennsylvania’s only African-American owned talk radio station. She is credited with transforming WURD Radio from a legacy talk radio station to a multimedia communications company providing cutting edge, original programming on air, online, through video and community events. In 2017, Sara led the expansion of 900AM-WURD to the FM dial, now simulcasting on both 900AM and 96.1FM. In 2018, Sara spearheaded the launch of an environmental justice journalism platform called ecoWURD.com. And in 2019 she launched a new initiative called Lively-HOOD focused on jobs, career readiness and entrepreneurship to address the persistent wealth gap in the Black community. Most recently, she co-founded a new media company called URL Media, a network of Black and Brown owned media organizations that share content, distribution and revenues to increase their long-term sustainability.

Our Collaborators

S. Mitra Kalita

CEO & Co-Founder URL Media

Judith LeBlanc

Director Native Organizers Alliance

Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis

Senior Minister Middle Church

Sara Lomax-Reese

Co-Founder URL Media

Scot Nakagawa

Senior Partner Change Lab

Our Board

Dara Baldwin

Director Policy Center for Disability Rights, Inc.

Terry McGovern

Director Global Health Justice and Governance Columbia University School of Public Health

Isaiah Poole

VP, Communications The Democracy Collaborative

Adrienne Torf

CFO Consultant

Gus Spheeris

Consul

Darrel Frost

Communications Consultant Frost Creative

Kim Conner

Social Media Consultant

Hesu Coue-Wilson

Advisory Board
Brenda Coughlin headshot

Brenda Coughlin

Advisory Board
Gina Kim headshot

Gina Kim

Advisory Board

Our Staff

Sabrina Artel

Supervising Producer

Sabrina Artel is an artist and a journalist. Her works explore community-based practices through the lens of social justice and direct storytelling. She has taught at Brooklyn and Hunter Colleges in their journalism and media studies departments and has been a guest speaker at the OTIS School of Art and Design, The School of Visual Arts and the School of Public Health at Columbia University in NYC. Her interdisciplinary 19-year project, Trailer Talk includes a radio show and live performative events using new models for participatory communication, narrative building, and dialogue to support community engagement. Her work has been recognized by the Puffin Foundation, NYSCA and Art Matters among others.

Janet Hernandez is an early-career journalist and music enthusiast based in New York City. With her writing expertise and passion for storytelling, she’s on a mission to support and uplift change makers and creatives who are doing things differently.

Janet Hernandez

Communications Director

Jeannie Hopper

Audio Director

Jeannie Hopper pioneers media strategies for community focused platform building. She produced several podcast series, radio shows and streaming stations. As former program director at WBAI she developed new shows and training programs. Hopper developed and managed Clocktower Radio, a premiere podcast, live stream and on demand platform for PS1-MoMA. She currently produces the radio/podcast edition of the Laura Flanders Show, and hosts and produces Liquid Sound Lounge-on WBAI-Pacifica in New York City, targeting youth via underground music and culture along with annual ‘social dance’ focused events including annual boat parties.

Nat shoots, edits and animates manifestations of people and their ideas be they in the High Himalayas, the craziness of Caracas, peculiar to Portland or nuevo in New York. He’s worked with Democracy Now, Al Jazeera, San Francisco Chronicle and enjoys eating Ethiopian food with his wife.

Nat Needham

Creative Designer & Video Editor

David Neumann

Senior Video Editor

Before joining The Laura Flanders Show, David was a freelance editor. He has edited for Globalvision since 2009. His projects include two six-part documentary series for international distribution, America’s Surveillance State and Who Rules America; PBS NewsHour reports on the digital divide; a series of programs on the 2018 midterm elections for satcaster Free Speech TV; and, most recently, programs for The Laura Flanders Show.

In addition to his work with Globalvision, previous production and post-production experience includes narrative and documentary films (short and feature length), news segments, commercials, corporate videos and internal communications spanning a variety of settings, ranging from commercial production companies, advertising agencies and corporate production companies.

Our Partnerships