Democracy, but make it dance
Host, creator, interviewer, democracy defender
The Civil Rights Movement is a living guide for confronting disinformation, division, and abuses of power today.
That's the lens I bring as a creator, interviewer, and regular caller on Rev. Al Sharpton's Keepin' It Real.
I'm a white Christian married into a Jewish family who believes the Black–Jewish alliance has been one of the great engines of American democracy. Hatred has always sought to fracture that alliance. My work is dedicated to helping strengthen it.
I've been a liberal. A progressive. A democratic socialist. An anarchist. Every chapter taught me something—and revealed blind spots. Today, I distrust ideological certainty. I care less about political labels than whether my words and actions align with my deepest values: respect, kindness, empathy, love, the pursuit of truth, and solidarity across difference.
Featured
Even dressed up in the prettiest Dolly drag, hate still stinks. In Dolly Parton’s honor, we’re building a love-centered movement to wage war on hate — through satire, solidarity, pranks, and occasionally offensive joy.
Breaking Points had Congressman Adam Smith on and left the real questions on the table. Disco Brian breaks down what should have been asked — and what the miss says about media incentives.
Rep. Chris Rabb called Disco Brian “fake nice.” Here's the double standard hiding inside that jab — and what it says about who gets to be civil in politics.
Disco Brian brings up the civil-rights-era Black–Jewish alliance on Keepin' It Real — and Rev. Al Sharpton didn't see it coming. A look at a coalition history keeps misplacing.
The Maine Senate candidate's record keeps quacking, and most Democrats keep quiet. Disco Brian on what the silence costs a party that says it draws lines.
Disco Brian digs into the DNC autopsy — Kat Abughazaleh, MS NOW/Morning Joe, and how an algorithm-shaped left mistakes engagement for organizing.
PA-03 is turning into a test of what “progressive” actually means. Disco Brian on Chris Rabb, Sharif Street, AOC's endorsement politics, and branding versus record.
Michelle Obama, Dave Chappelle and Kanye — Disco Brian on the cultural amnesia that lets celebrity charm launder a record we watched happen.
Carolyn Ruff on Laquan McDonald, Jesse Jackson, and why young people can't sit this one out — a conversation about memory, movement history and the vote.
From Prince to politics — Disco Brian on the “colonized mind” idea and how it shows up in today's Democratic debate over culture, power and who gets to lead.
Call-ins
My latest calls into Rev. Al Sharpton's Keepin' It Real — each one cued up to the moment I get on the air.
Disco Brian calls into Keepin’ It Real to reject collective blame — arguing that Jewish Americans are no more responsible for Stephen Miller than Black Americans are for Clarence Thomas or Israelis for Netanyahu. He points to the rabbis at the March on Washington who recommitted to the historic Black-Jewish alliance, then introduces Rev. Sharpton to Israeli liberal writer Hen Mazzig and his essay: “Israel Didn’t Create Antisemitism. Antisemitism Created Israel.” Rev’s response: “I’m going to look at that one.”
Disco Brian calls into Keepin’ It Real after Palestinian-American commentator Rula Jebreal called Hakeem Jeffries an “AIPAC monkey,” arguing that the slur was both racist and entangled with antisemitic conspiracy tropes. He contrasts condemnations from the Congressional Black Caucus, Ayanna Pressley, Ritchie Torres, Shontel Brown, the ADL, and Republican Randy Fine with the silence he says he saw from prominent progressive Democrats. Rev. Sharpton agrees that this is a case where drawing a line matters: “I think you’re right to call them out… I don’t think that’s an overreaction here.”
Calling from Asbury Park, Disco Brian reflects on his own journey from Chomsky-influenced far-left politics toward the civil-rights tradition he says he once mistakenly assumed he already understood. Using John Lennon’s later reflections on his early-’70s revolutionary period as a parallel, Brian talks about regret, listening to Black and older civil-rights voices, and the difference between ideological identification and actually learning from the movement. He closes by thanking Rev. Sharpton, Dominique and the National Action Network for offering forgiveness, grace and a path back to the work.
Disco Brian calls into Keepin' It Real to challenge a strategist's claim that “Democrat” is as toxic as “DSA” — pointing to six purple-state Democrats polling ahead while running proudly as Democrats. Rev. Sharpton's response: if you're asking people to trust you with power, don't get offended when they ask you questions.
Disco Brian calls into Keepin' It Real on algorithm-driven podcast culture, the Ukraine narrative nobody amplified — a Jewish president and a Muslim defense minister defending Europe's most diverse democracy — and a pitch for NAN to host the conversation Democrats keep avoiding.
An early happy birthday to Keepin' It Real hostess Dominique Sharpton, delivered via the number one songs on the pop and R&B charts the day she was born. Then: Trump pulling Ukraine support until 2029, Ritchie Torres's “axis of useful idiots,” and a proposal for NAN to host the dialogue Democrats keep refusing to have. Her response — coalition building, and strategy.
On Ashley Jackson's conversion to Judaism, her father dancing to Hebrew prayers, and a congregation rising to honor him. Rev. Sharpton responds with Heschel, Selma, and signed books he's kept for fifty years — and with what it costs to be miscast as an enemy of a community you've spent a life beside.
Disco Brian calls in about Van Jones's warning of DSA positions that alienate voters Democrats need, and on commentators arguing their strategy of appearing on Fox News is deliberate. Rev. Sharpton asks the question himself, unprompted: is it possible some of these figures are plants, going on Fox with extremist-left positions to turn voters against Democrats?
On record antisemitic incidents, desecrated Brooklyn synagogues, and families still fighting for Black lives to be treated with urgency — two struggles, one lesson: hatred grows where institutions dismiss the targeted. Rev. Sharpton on why the Black–Jewish–Muslim coalition can't be allowed to break, and why being against Netanyahu isn't being against Jews.
On socialism, capitalism, and why neither label tells you whether a government is humane. Disco Brian invokes Dr. King's 1962 speech and argues the real question is whether people can protest their own rulers and survive it. Rev. Sharpton's answer runs through the Black community's historical exclusion from capital — and through a conversation with Fidel Castro that ended with Castro admitting the revolution hadn't ended racism in his own hometown.
Why I left DSA: Zoom calls in the most diverse city in the country, and not one Black member in the room. Dominique Sharpton on why NAN is an action network — and on the lineage that made these conversations possible.
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