Ripples of Rebels

About Ripples of Rebels

The stories of rebels and the ripples of impact they've had on the world. delaneyxclara.substack.com (https://delaneyxclara.substack.com/s/ripples-of-rebels?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

Delaney Clara

Category

education · history

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

9 Feb 2025

Latest episode

23 Aug 2026

Latest episodes

39 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   23 Aug 2026

   37: The Flamingo Revolution Is Still Happening, Here’s What We Can Learn

   Albania is in the middle of its largest civil uprising since the fall of communism — and it started with flamingos. In this episode, we trace the “Flamingo Revolution” from a Trump-Kushner-backed luxury resort planned for a protected wetland and a Cold War-era island, all the way back through five centuries of Ottoman rule, fascist occupation, and Enver Hoxha’s isolationist dictatorship, to explain why leaderless, sustained protest is new in Albania — and why so many Albanians want their entire government gone, not just a real estate deal. We cover the environmental and archaeological stakes, the corruption investigation now underway, where the movement stands after 80+ consecutive days of protest, and what organizers everywhere can learn from it. Plus: concrete ways to support the movement and organize similarly at home. Support the Movement: * PPNEA (Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment in Albania) — Albania’s first and leading environmental NGO, working directly to protect the Vjosa-Narta wetlands and its species. Donate, volunteer, or follow their campaign work: ppnea.org (https://ppnea.org/?lang=en) * BIRN / Balkan Insight — the investigative outlet that broke much of the reporting on the resort deal’s ownership network and corruption allegations. Support independent Balkan journalism: balkaninsight.com (https://balkaninsight.com) * CODEPINK: Women for Peace — international solidarity coverage and campaign support for the movement: codepink.org/long_live_albania_s_flamingo_revolution (https://www.codepink.org/long_live_albania_s_flamingo_revolution) * Diaspora solidarity protests — ongoing in Berlin, Rome, London, Cologne, and Paris; check local Albanian community and diaspora organizing pages for the nearest action. Sources & Further Reading: * Wikipedia — Flamingo Revolution (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamingo_Revolution) * Foreign Policy — Albania’s Flamingo Revolution Against Billionaires and Autocrats (https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/07/20/albania-flamingo-revolution-jared-kushner-sazan-island-resort/) * Balkan Insight — Albania’s Flamingo Movement Said ‘No’, Now It Needs the Courage to Say ‘Yes’ (https://balkaninsight.com/2026/08/20/albanias-flamingo-movement-said-no-now-it-needs-the-courage-to-say-yes/bi/) * European Western Balkans — Protesters continue to repeat demands for the resignation of Albanian PM Rama (https://europeanwesternbalkans.com/2026/08/19/protesters-continue-to-repeat-demands-for-the-resignation-of-prime-minister-rama/) * Human Security Centre — “Stop the dictatorship of dirty money”: Albania’s Flamingo Revolution (https://www.hscentre.org/europe/ndaloni-diktaturen-e-parave-te-pista-stop-dictatorship-dirty-money-albanias-flamingo-revolution/) * New Eastern Europe — Making sense of the Flamingo Revolution in Albania (https://neweasterneurope.eu/2026/07/07/making-sense-of-the-flamingo-revolution-in-albania/) * OSW Centre for Eastern Studies — The Flamingo Revolution: anti-government protests in Albania (https://www.osw.waw.pl/en/publikacje/analyses/2026-06-23/flamingo-revolution-anti-government-protests-albania) * Democracy Now! — Albania’s Flamingo Revolution: Protests Against Kushner-Trump Luxury Resort Could Bring Down Gov’t (https://www.democracynow.org/2026/7/9/albania_protests) * ABC News (Australia) — Flamingos, oligarchs and the Trumps: The battle for an untouched slice of the Mediterranean (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-02/albanias-flamingo-revolution-awash-with-trump-greed-oligarchs/106924816) * Courthouse News Service — As bulldozers roll, ‘flamingo revolution’ erupts in Albania against Kushner-Trump luxury resort (https://courthousenews.com/as-bulldozers-roll-flamingo-revolution-erupts-in-albania-against-kushner-trump-luxury-resort/) * National Geographic — Albania’s Sazan Island has been fought over for millennia (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/sazan-island-history) * UnHerd — Inside the Albanian revolution (https://unherd.com/2026/08/inside-the-albanian-revolution/?edition=us) Get full access to Ripples of Rebels at delaneyxclara.substack.com/subscribe (https://delaneyxclara.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

2. 

   9 Aug 2026

   36: Should Homeschooling in America be Illegal?

   The LaBrant Family went viral this week for talking about their homeschooling routine. A lot of people have opinions on this topic — including me, a former educator who went to grad school for a masters in none other than Education. So today we’re going to go through why Germany banned homeschooling in 1938 — and never repealed it. How Sweden followed in 2011. About how the Netherlands regulates it almost out of existence. Meanwhile, a dozen U.S. states require zero oversight of homeschoolers at all. We trace the real history of homeschooling regulation in Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the United States — from the Wunderlich family’s forced removal by German police to the Supreme Court case that built modern U.S. homeschool rights. We dig into what the data actually shows: adult literacy scores (PIAAC) reveal American adults trailing Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands — but the real driver isn’t homeschooling law. It’s America’s property-tax-funded public school system, which still channels thousands more dollars per student to wealthy, majority-white districts than to low-income and rural ones. We trace U.S. education history back to its colonial, church-and-home-based roots, through Horace Mann’s Common School Movement, to today’s fifty-state patchwork of homeschool regulation — and ask what closing the real accountability gap would actually require. Support public education — donate directly to programs serving low-income and rural schools: DonorsChoose (fund specific classroom projects at underfunded schools nationwide): https://www.donorschoose.org/student-focus/ (https://www.donorschoose.org/student-focus/) AdoptAClassroom.org (100% of donations go directly to teachers, prioritizing high-needs schools): https://www.adoptaclassroom.org/ways-to-give/ (https://www.adoptaclassroom.org/ways-to-give/) First Book (books and learning materials for classrooms serving low-income kids): https://firstbook.org/us/support-us (https://firstbook.org/us/support-us) Kids In Need Foundation (school supplies for under-resourced teachers and students): https://www.kinf.org/ SHOW NOTES / SOURCES * Wunderlich v. Germany, ECHR (2019) — HSLDA and Strasbourg Observers case coverage * Regent University Law Review, “Verboten: Forbidden Homeschooling in Germany” — on the 1938 Reichsschulpflichtgesetz origin * Sweden’s Education Act (2010/2011) — HSLDA and Washington Times coverage; “How Sweden Is Failing Its Children” on school-refusal data gaps * Netherlands Leerplichtwet — Dutch government (rijksoverheid) exemption guidance; HSLDA Netherlands country report * Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972); Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510 (1925) * Coalition for Responsible Home Education, “Inside Homeschool Policy” (state regulation database, updated 2026) * Child Abuse & Neglect (2025), “Homeschooling and child maltreatment: A review of the regulatory context and research evidence in the United States” * OECD, PISA 2022 Results Volume I; NCES Fast Facts, “International Comparisons of Achievement” * OECD, Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), 2023 results, Education at a Glance 2025; Education GPS country profiles (USA, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands) * Alfred, M. et al., “Social Trust, Literacy, and Lifelong Learning: A Comparison of the U.S. and Nordic Countries” (NCBI/PMC) * National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI), overview of homeschool academic achievement studies * Cremin, Lawrence A., American Education: The Colonial Experience, 1607–1783 (1970); Encyclopedia.com and Social Welfare History Project entries on the Common School Movement and Horace Mann * Education Law Center, “Making the Grade 2024: Education Funding Disparities Persist” * Learning Policy Institute, “How Money Matters: Education Funding and Student Outcomes” (2025 fact sheet) * NCES, “Adult Literacy in the United States” (Data Point, PIAAC 2012/2014); NCES/PIAAC 2023 results via Education Week and New America coverage * Migration Policy Institute, “Through an Immigrant Lens: PIAAC Assessment of the Competencies of Adults in the United States” Topics covered: homeschooling laws by country, Germany homeschool ban history, Sweden education act 2011, Netherlands compulsory education, U.S. homeschool regulation by state, Wisconsin v. Yoder, Horace Mann common schools, PISA vs PIAAC literacy scores, U.S. school funding inequality, rural and low-income education gaps. Get full access to Ripples of Rebels at delaneyxclara.substack.com/subscribe (https://delaneyxclara.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

3. 

   12 Jul 2026

   35) French Revolution Explained: Wealth Inequality Then vs. Now

   With Bastille Day coming up, it was only right to do an episode on the French Revolution.In 1789, 96% of France was legally locked out of power while a tiny, tax-exempt elite lived off wealth built partly on the backs of enslaved workers thousands of miles away in the French colony of Saint-Domingue — modern-day Haiti. Sound familiar? In this episode: * Why France’s tax system exempted the wealthiest and taxed everyone else — and why that structure took a fiscal crisis and a famine to finally crack * The uncomfortable, often-erased truth: how the wealth of Saint-Domingue (Haiti) — the most profitable colony on Earth, built on enslaved labor — funded the French elite the Revolution rose up against, and why the Haitian Revolution deserves to be centered, not footnoted * How the Estates-General, the Tennis Court Oath, and the fall of the Bastille turned decades of tension into an actual tipping point * Why revolutions without a plan for what comes next can curdle into new authoritarianism — the Reign of Terror and Napoleon’s rise, explained honestly * The specific U.S. laws and court rulings fueling modern wealth concentration: the carried interest loophole, the “stepped-up basis” (angel of death) loophole, the gutted estate tax, the 1999 repeal of Glass-Steagall, and Citizens United v. FEC * Real, non-performative ways to fight wealth inequality in your own community — legislatively, economically, and locally Sources & Citations On the French Revolution & colonial wealth: * Alpha History, “Taxation as a Cause of the French Revolution” (https://alphahistory.com/frenchrevolution/taxation/) * World History Encyclopedia, “The Three Estates of Pre-Revolutionary France” (https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1960/the-three-estates-of-pre-revolutionary-france/) * Colonial Williamsburg, Slavery and Remembrance: “Haiti (Saint-Domingue)” (https://slaveryandremembrance.org/articles/article/?id=A0111) and “Haitian Revolution” (https://slaveryandremembrance.org/articles/article/?id=A0066) * U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian: “The United States and the Haitian Revolution, 1791–1804” (https://history.state.gov/milestones/1784-1800/haitian-rev) * Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (Beacon Press, 1995) * David Patrick Geggus, Haitian Revolutionary Studies (Indiana University Press, 2002) On U.S. wealth inequality & the laws behind it: * Federal Reserve, Distributional Financial Accounts (https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distribute/chart/) * Institute for Policy Studies, Inequality.org — “Wealth Inequality” (https://inequality.org/facts/wealth-inequality/) * Jacob S. Hacker & Paul Pierson, Winner-Take-All Politics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winner-Take-All_Politics) (Simon & Schuster, 2010) * Center for Public Integrity, “How Four Decades of Tax Cuts Fueled Inequality” (https://publicintegrity.org/inequality-poverty-opportunity/taxes/unequal-burden/how-four-decades-of-tax-cuts-fueled-inequality/) * Americans for Financial Reform, Fact Sheet: Close the Carried Interest Loophole (https://ourfinancialsecurity.org/resources/close-the-carried-interest-loophole-that-is-a-tax-dodge-for-super-rich-private-equity-executives/) * Brennan Center for Justice, Citizens United, Explained (https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/citizens-united-explained) * Roosevelt Institute, Citizens United and the Decline of US Democracy: 15 Years Later (https://rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/citizens-united-15-years-later/) * Campaign Legal Center, How Does the Citizens United Decision Still Affect Us in 2026? (https://campaignlegal.org/update/how-does-citizens-united-decision-still-affect-us-2026) Take Action — Beyond the Food Bank Charity treats the symptom. These are ways to push on the actual structure: Push on the legislation directly * Americans for Tax Fairness (https://americansfortaxfairness.org/) — tracks and campaigns on the carried interest loophole, estate tax, and other wealth-tax legislation; sign up for action alerts * Patriotic Millionaires (https://patrioticmillionaires.org/) — wealthy Americans organizing specifically for higher taxes on wealth; regularly mobilizes public pressure on Congress * Brennan Center for Justice (https://www.brennancenter.org/) — litigation and advocacy pushing back on Citizens United‘s effects; state-level campaign finance reform trackers * Campaign Legal Center (https://campaignlegal.org/) — nonpartisan legal advocacy on money-in-politics issues, with tools to see what’s happening in your state Build power at the economic level * US Federation of Worker Cooperatives (https://www.usworker.coop/) — find or start a worker-owned cooperative business near you * Grassroots Economic Organizing (GEO) (https://geo.coop/) — resources and network for the broader worker co-op and solidarity economy movement * Shelterforce: Tenant Union Organizing Guide (https://shelterforce.org/2026/05/06/stalled-in-state-houses-tenant-unions-organize-against-landlords-directly/) — reporting and strategy on organizing building-level and citywide tenant unions Go local * Search “[your city] + participatory budgeting” or “community land trust” to find local programs letting residents directly allocate public funds * Look up your nearest credit union or Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) via the National Credit Union Administration locator (https://www.ncua.gov/consumers/credit-union-locator) — move savings out of mega-banks and into community-controlled finance * Find a mutual aid network in your area (search “[your city] + mutual aid network”) for immediate, material solidarity work alongside the longer legislative fight Get full access to Ripples of Rebels at delaneyxclara.substack.com/subscribe (https://delaneyxclara.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

3.5 / 5

6 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

6 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 31 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

51

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

30

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