As we celebrate the remarkable life and legacy of Frederick Douglass on his 201st birthday, we are joined by Ibram X. Kendi, a professor of history and international relations and founding director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. Kendi spoke Thursday night at the Library of Congress at an event honoring Frederick Douglass. He is the National Book Award-winning author of "Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America" and a contributing editor at The Atlantic.

This month marks the 201st birthday of the renowned abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass was born into slavery around 1818. He died a free man in 1895. Thursday night, leaders from around the country gathered at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., to honor the life and legacy of Frederick Douglass as part of a ceremony culminating a year of events marking the bicentennial of the birth of the celebrated abolitionist, politician, writer, feminist, educator, entrepreneur and diplomat. We are joined by Kenneth Morris Jr., Frederick Douglass's great-great-great-grandson, president of the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives, and also the great-great-grandson of Booker T. Washington. He says the lesson he hopes young activists will take from his great-great-great-grandfather Frederick Douglass is: "Agitate. Agitate. Agitate. ... It's really important that activists and young people understand that they can lift their voices and agitate."

As Trump plans to declare a national emergency, we look at what some have called the real humanitarian crisis at the border. Riot police in northern Mexico blocked hundreds of desperate Central American migrants Wednesday as they tried to escape an abandoned factory complex where they've been imprisoned while waiting for the U.S. to process their asylum claims. More than 1,700 migrants have been held in the maquiladora in the Mexican border town of Piedras Negras since February 5, after they arrived in a caravan of people seeking asylum in the U.S. The vast majority have remained prisoners at the site, after the Trump administration adopted a "Remain in Mexico" policy for asylum seekers—processing just 15 asylum applications per day at the nearby Eagle Pass border crossing. We hear from a migrant adult and child who spoke with the Texas-based immigrant rights group RAICES, and get an update from Erika Andiola, chief advocacy officer for RAICES, the Texas-based Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services.

President Trump is expected to declare a national emergency today to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border despite opposition from Congress, after he signs the latest spending bill, which includes nearly $1.4 billion to build 55 miles of new border barriers out of steel, far less than the $5.7 billion he requested. Congressmembers Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib issued a statement that they voted against the bill because it gives more funding to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "That is the right thing to do. We've been pushing for Democrats to do the right thing, to stop playing [Trump's] games," says our guest Erika Andiola, chief advocacy officer for RAICES, the Texas-based Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services.

FEATURING BRYANT WELCH – Millions of Americans have spent the last two years in a prolonged state of anxiety over the state of our nation. Donald Trump’s Presidency has been antithetical to so many of our expectations for who a President should be, how they should function and preside over the Republic, that it has...

FEATURING COREY BRETTSCHNEIDER – Donald Trump may be the least politically experienced person in modern history to assume the office of President. From the moment he started his job constitutional experts warned that he was in violation of various parts of our Constitution, particularly the Emoluments Clause. Since January 2017 he has engaged in what...

 UPDATED: President Donald Trump on Friday morning made an announcement from the White House that he was declaring a national emergency to obtain the funds to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. PLAY VIDEO. That’s Trump on Friday announcing he is declaring a national emergency to obtain funds for a border wall. The US...

FEATURING RAHUL MAHAJAN – The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to end US support for Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen in a rebuke to President Donald Trump. The vote was 248-177 with 18 Republicans siding with Democrats. The Senate had passed a similar measure last year 56 to 41 but the previous Republican leadership...

Butterfly refuge in south Texas files restraining order to stop border wall construction Abuse of Faith: Investigation reveals 700 victims of Southern Baptist sexual abuse over 20 years * * * Perry Dorrell blogs as PDiddie at Brains and Eggs, usually on topics concerning the strange brew of Texas politics. He's also on Twitter @PDiddie.

On today's BradCast, I'm in for Brad and Des, dropping by from my own show, In Deep with Angie Coiro. Today's Rose Garden press conference was drenched in irony: a faltering, incoherent, angry man declaring a "national emergency", even as he demonstrated that he's the crisis. Donald Trump yelled at reporters to sit down, fell into [...]

On today's BradCast: Seriously, coal miners should have voted for Hillary, as we learn once again today. But those who voted for progressives in Congress are getting their money's worth already! [Audio link to show is posted below.] Leading off today's rather lively show: The federal utility board known as the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), now [...]

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Banning cars, cows and ice cream?! Republicans move quickly to demonize the Green New Deal; New study warns insects are declining at an alarming rate; Massive public lands bill passes in the Senate; PLUS: Los Angeles ditches natural gas for electricity... All that and more in today's Green News Report! Listen online [...]