This Week on WURD: Faith, Oscars, monument removal & global shifts

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II joined guest host Candace Johnson on the Midday Break Room to argue that the church belongs in the public square as protests, immigration enforcement, and policy decisions reshape daily life. Drawing on Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy, he challenged Christian nationalism, defended protest inside sacred spaces, and called for organizing rooted in love, truth, and public accountability.

Attorney Michael Coard joined Evening WURDs after the National Park Service removed the President’s House slavery memorial in Philadelphia. Coard confirmed the coalition anticipated the move, outlined a pending legal challenge, and emphasized the site’s historic significance as the first federal slavery memorial—warning that further dismantling could follow without public and legal pressure.

Dr. Nola Haynes, a former Biden administration national security official, joined Wake Up With WURD to assess President Trump’s remarks on NATO, Greenland, and tariffs. Haynes warned U.S. alliances are fracturing, described tariffs as coercive rather than economic policy, and said foreign and domestic policy are increasingly shaped by Trump’s personality rather than strategic interests.

University of Texas law professor Mechele Dickerson joined Solutions with Amadee Braxton to discuss her book The Middle-Class New Deal: Restoring Upward Mobility and the American Dream. She detailed how rising education and housing costs, “domestic outsourcing,” and gig work erode economic stability, and outlined proposals to rebuild upward mobility through schools-as-hubs, job benefits reform, and zoning changes.

Civil rights attorney and past Minneapolis NAACP President Nekima Levy Armstrong joined Evening WURDs with Dr. James Peterson to share details of ICE abuses of Minnesotans, including Black U.S. citizens. She also discussed her participation in a church protest, for which she was arrested by federal agents the day after her interview on WURD.

Oscar nominations were announced this week and the film “Sinners” led the field with 16 Academy Award nominations, the most ever for a single film. On Wake Up With WURD, Solomon Jones spoke with film critic Tim Gordon about the full slate of nominees and the cultural impact of Sinners, and what its historic showing signals for the industry and the culture.

Geeta Gandbhir, director of the Oscar-nominated documentary “The Perfect Neighbor,” had a conversation with URL Media co-founders Sara M. Lomax and Mitra Kalita. Gandbhir discussed her work on the film, which uses largely third-party footage from police body cams, cell phones and interrogations to tell the story of Ajike Owens — a Black mother of three who was shot and killed by her white neighbor Susan Lorincz in Ocala, Fla.