Edwin is joined by David Pepper, lawyer, political activist, author (of fiction and nonfiction), and former chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party. He discussed the growing resistance against authoritarianism in America and highlighted the story of an Ohio nurse named Valerie who recently started organizing rallies in Cincinnati. Pepper said she had "really never been to a rally before January. It gave her courage. She felt like the courage was sort of contagious in the crowd. And so they needed to do one in Cincinnati and she went to a website and signed up, and . . . a couple weeks ago, she had about 4,500 people" show up at the April 5 "Hands Off" rally.  

Pepper called for broader participation from institutions and individuals to counteract the administration's attacks on higher education and drew a line from Viktor Orbán's Hungary to Donald Trump's America. "What did Orbán do with higher ed in Hungary? He converted it all to right-wing higher ed," Pepper told WCPT. "The end goal here -- this is why you can never comply. They'd rather destroy current higher ed than have it be as it is. But their ultimate goal is to put higher ed and its infrastructure to work for their cause." 

Catch “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/the-big-picture).   

And find “The Big Picture (Full Episodes)” podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, YouTube, Amazon and TuneIn.