Resistance reporting from the capital.
On the Ground w Esther Iverem is a Washington, D.C.-based politics program built around resistance movements, street voices, and sharply argued antiwar reporting. Recent episodes move from Supreme Court protests and ICE opposition to Iran, Lebanon, Palestine, Cuba, media criticism, and the legacy of Black freedom organizers.
PRESS PLAY
On the Ground w Esther Iverem is a politics and movement-media program rooted in Washington, D.C. The show follows the news from the street upward. Recent episodes open with headlines, but the center of gravity is often a protest, a public testimony, a memorial, or a confrontation with state power. Its reporting favors people speaking at microphones outside the White House, the Supreme Court, and neighborhood meetings over the polished grammar of official briefings. The perspective is openly antiwar and internationalist. U.S. military action, Israeli bombing campaigns, sanctions, ICE expansion, threats to birthright citizenship, and corporate media narratives are treated as connected fronts in a broader struggle over power and human dignity. The show is blunt. It also has a clear moral cadence, returning often to children, hospitals, food, housing, clean water, public health, and the cost of diverting tax dollars into bombs. Iran, Lebanon, Palestine, Cuba, Venezuela, and the Persian Gulf monarchies appear not as abstractions but as sites where U.S. policy has consequences. Domestic stories are just as central. Supreme Court protests over the 14th Amendment, D.C. residents opposing a new ICE headquarters, tributes to Reverend Graylin Hagler, and discussions of D.C. statehood give the program a local spine. The guest mix is built from activists, elected officials, writers, historians, media critics, faith leaders, and people directly touched by war or policy violence. Gerald Horne supplies historical scale. Jon Jeter scrutinizes news coverage and political spin. Chris Hedges appears in a rebroadcast on Christian fascism. Rashida Tlaib and Doctors Against Genocide are heard in the context of antiwar and accountability demands. The show’s sound includes chants, speeches, interview fragments, headlines, and music credits, preserving some of the texture of public organizing. It is strongest for listeners who want politics with a point of view. Its editorial stance will not suit anyone looking for institutional neutrality or a both-sides cable-news frame. The appeal is its consistency: every episode asks who is harmed, who benefits, and who is raising a voice against it.
Made for: For listeners who follow antiwar organizing, racial justice, civil liberties, and international politics from a left movement perspective. It suits people who want protest audio, historical context, and sharp media criticism in one weekly current-affairs feed.
What sets it apart: The show blends Washington, D.C. street reporting with global anti-imperialist analysis, keeping local D.C. struggles connected to Iran, Palestine, Lebanon, Cuba, and broader fights over empire. Its edge comes from hearing activists and community voices alongside historians, writers, elected officials, and media critics.
“On the Ground: Voices of Resistance from the Nation’s Capital” covers social justice activism about local, national and international issues.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Esther Iverem connects Washington policy, antiwar dissent, constitutional disputes, and field voices through a consistently anti-imperialist frame.
On the Ground w Esther Iverem moves from headline briefings into interviews, political commentary, and recordings from protests in Washington, D.C.
The headlines end; near the White House, Esther Iverem lets you hear the antiwar chants.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Protest voices and a Chris Hedges rebroadcast link war spending, religious politics and dissent.
On the Ground opens with Esther Iverem's headlines on the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran and a reported ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel. Activists and members of Doctors Against Genocide speak before a rebroadcast interview with Chris Hedges on the Christian right and wars in…
A Supreme Court protest brings birthright citizenship and the Fourteenth Amendment into focus.
Outside the Supreme Court, protesters denounce Trump's challenge to birthright citizenship. A speaker traces the Fourteenth Amendment from its origins to its protections for citizenship, due process, and equal protection, with particular attention to immigrant communities.
Protest voices near the White House and Mohsen's fears for family in Iran anchor this antiwar broadcast.
Esther Iverem brings On the Ground to a March 2 protest near the White House against the U.S. and Israel's attack on Iran. Speakers from the Palestinian Youth Movement, the National Iranian American Council and American Muslims for Palestine call for justice and oppose the…
Esther questions the language of Iran coverage, alongside a look at Ethiopian resistance on film.
In this episode of On the Ground, Esther and media critic John Jeter discuss coverage of a possible war with Iran. Esther presses on a question behind familiar talk of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles: who gets to decide which defenses another country may have?
Esther Iverum links Caribbean strikes and protest to a critique of U.S. power.
Esther Iverum opens this edition of On the Ground with U.S. strikes on small boats in the Caribbean and protesters outside the first meeting of Trump's so-called Board of Peace. She then asks a guest to place current events in the longer history of U.S. imperialism.
A Chicago teacher's shooting gives this wide-ranging episode its sharpest challenge to official claims.
A Chicago school teacher's shooting gives this edition of On the Ground its center. Host Esther Ivarum presents bodycam footage that challenges federal officials' account, then turns to an attorney for the teacher.
Asia’s headlines, explained with context.
Christian-conservative talk with moral urgency.
Congress, strategy, and the spectacle behind governing.
Left politics with history in the frame.
["On the Ground with Esther Ivarum's April 17, 2026 episode ties Tax Day protests to Lebanon, Iran, and Christian-right politics.", "The show opens with headlines on a Lebanon ceasefire, the Strait of Hormuz, and U.S.
This episode covers faith leaders protesting the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, a ceasefire analysis by Gerald Horne, and headlines including Pakistan-brokered talks and Israeli strikes on Lebanon and Iran.
On the Ground with Esther Iverem centers its April 3, 2026 hour on the Supreme Court fight over birthright citizenship and the widening U.S.-Iran war.
A survivor recounts the 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, and Jon Jeter critiques media coverage of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
The episode covers the U.S.-Israel attack on Iran disrupting global order, D.C.
This episode covers opposition to the U.S.-Israel war on Iran, DC residents protesting a new ICE headquarters, and criticism of Gulf monarchies.
Esther Iverem opens "On the Ground" with reporting on the U.S.
On the Ground w Esther Iverem for February 27, 2026 centers on John Jeter's critique of Iran coverage, a House hearing revealing 200 Starlinks sent into Iran, and the D.C.
Esther Iverem opens with protests outside Trump's first "Board of Peace" meeting, then ties U.S.
Body camera footage in the Marimar Martinez case is used to challenge DHS claims that a Chicago schoolteacher "rammed" Border Patrol agents and was a "domestic terrorist." Chris Parenti says Charles Exum steered into Martinez, Gregory Bovino praised the shooting in a message hours later, and Kash Patel left a linked post up after the claim was disputed.
This episode covers protests against ICE, an interview with historian Gerald Horne on fascism, and federal workers rallying for union rights.
This episode covers a march for International Migrants Day in DC, an interview on fascism with Gerald Horne, and headlines on Gaza, Venezuela, and DC residents speaking out against federal occupation.
Interview with historian Gerald Horne about his new book on Washington DC as the capital of slavery from 1800 to 1865, plus headlines on Gaza ceasefire and other news.
This episode of On the Ground discusses the U.S.