With just one week from Election Day we had an exciting show last night on The Agenda with Joe Solmonese. Co-host Mary Breslauer was still in California on the No on Prop 8 campaign, so I stepped in to assist Joe on the air.

Leading off the evening we talked to Vidur Kapur – a fantastic comedian who entertains audiences with social commentary of a one-man culture clash. Raised in a conservative upper middle class family in New Delhi, he talked about Indian culture, how it’s changing and how he finds humor in it. Download parts one and two or listen:
Part one:
Part two:

With record voter turnout expected in many places, protecting the integrity of the electoral process is a critical task. To discuss election protection activities, we were joined by Jonah Goldman, the Director of the National Campaign for Fair Elections in the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law’s Voting Rights Project. He discussed the Election Protection Coalition – of which the Human Rights Campaign is a member – which is an unprecedented non-partisan effort of over 100 hundred organizations to protect the rights of voters. Download or listen:

Then it was our pleasure to welcome Randi Weingarten to the show. She is the newly elected president of the more than 1.4-million-member American Federation of Teachers – representing teachers, school-related personnel, higher education faculty and staff and many others. She discussed Obama and McCain’s education policy as well as her thoughts on creating safe schools for LGBT students. Download or listen:

We had a real treat last night in welcoming back Gail Collins to the show. Now a must-read New York Times columnist, she joined the paper in 1995 as a member of the editorial board and in 2001 became the first woman ever appointed editor of the Times editorial page. She and Joe discussed the state of the presidential race in its final week. Download or listen:

Turning to some state issues, a ballot question with serious consequences for children is on the ballot in Arkansas. Debbie Willhite of the Arkansas Families First campaign joined us to talk about Act One which would amend the Arkansas constitution to prohibit unmarried couples from fostering or adopting a child – placing thousands of children at a disadvantage who already have a hard enough time finding a permanent, stable family. Download or listen:

Finally, we wanted to take a look at marriage in Connecticut and efforts to set the stage for undoing marriage equality there. Anne Stanback, Executive Director of the Connecticut group, Love Makes a Family joined us to discuss the recent victory and a proposed constitutional convention on the ballot next week. Download or listen: