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"The American people should see that corporations have abandoned them long ago," says scientist, environmentalist, and food justice activist Dr. Vandana Shiva, named one of the seven most influential women in the world by Forbes magazine. "The people will have to rebuild democracy as a living democracy." Dr. Shiva has been fighting corporate takeover in every area in her native India, combating a nuclear plant one week and patented, genetically modified seeds another. She joins Laura in studio to advise American activists how they can fight the merging of corporations and government here at home and around the world. A 9-year-old child faces down Sheriff Joe Arpaio in this week's featured documentary, Two Americans. Katherine Figueroa is a US citizen born to immigrant parents, and when Arpaio targets them for deportation, she becomes the center of a fight against the sheriff's plans. In Arizona, the immigration battle has its ground zero, and this documentary follows the people at the center of it all. Singer-songwriter Phoebe Snow died this week at the age of 58. Her powerful voice will certainly be missed, and we bring you this performance of her classic hit "Poetry Man" to remember her too-often forgotten work. Distributed by Tubemogul.

"What's at stake is whether assaults on working people will prevail," says Ellen Bravo, who fought with the Family Values @ Work Consortium to get paid sick leave for Milwaukee's workers only to see it banned in the state legislature--and the ban broadened to include the entire state. Meanwhile, to heighten the already tense situation in that state, Sarah Palin was there this weekend to speak to a Tea Party crowd. Laura spoke with Ellen via Skype from Milwaukee on the continuing importance of Wisconsin's place in the fight for workers' rights, and why she thinks that Wisconsinites, anyway, have a clear plan for success--as the third recall petition for a Republican State Senator is filed. On April 15, thousands of miles away from Bahrain, protests took place in Washington D.C. going from the Saudi Embassy to the White House, and finally ending in Central Park as thousands of Muslims and sympathetic Americans from around the world attended to show their support of the "forgotten oppressed." "Justice requires that we learn the lessons from these past disasters," says Tracie Washington of the Louisiana Justice Institute. And Antonia Juhasz, author most recently of Black Tide: The Devastating Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill, points out that nothing that we saw happen in the Gulf has been addressed, and clearly we have learned nothing from the disaster that occurred a year ago this week. Antonia joins Laura in studio, and Tracie by phone from New Orleans, to discuss what lessons need to be learned, what Gulf activists and advocates are doing to fight back, and why the US government is still subsidizing oil and gas drilling. Finally, it's tax day, and as corporations dodge paying, everyday folks moan and groan as they pony up cash. But Laura reminds us that taxes can be a mechanism for creating a more equitable society as well. Distributed by Tubemogul.

Hundreds of workers in the Gulf Coast cleaning up BP's oil disaster have reported symptoms of nausea, vomiting, nose bleeds, and headaches, but those almost all have been heat related, according to Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Jordan Barab. So reported Michael Whitney for FireDogLake, who has been following the struggle of workers and Gulf Coast natives affected by the disaster. Whitney joins us along with Jordan Flaherty, via Skype from Louisiana, to discuss the ongoing struggle of fishermen and the other local communities that make their living and run their lives around the water in the Gulf.

Anyone But Me is a hit teen show, viewed over 4.5 million times in its first two seasons. That's pretty impressive for a show that is only available on the Web. The drama, which was financed for two seasons by a private investor, was created by Susan Miller and Tina Cesa Ward to do something different, and with few models for a successful Web TV show to follow, they have had to chart their own course. Anyone But Me, they say, is not just a show but a community, and its LGBT-friendly themes have struck a chord with the show's loyal audience. They join Laura in studio to talk about the third season of the show, how they got started, and their upcoming web-a-thon to raise funds to keep going. Expectations were high following the end of South African apartheid. Yet, even though the ANC promised to redistribute 30% of the land in 5 years, by 2000, less than 5% of the land was redistributed. Despite the alleged end to the apartheid regime, there were still familial and ancestral ties to the land compounded by pervading racism. Yoruba Richen made the film, “Promised Land,” to explore the black, the white, and the shades of gray of post apartheid tensions. The film follows the Mekgareng, and impoverished tribe, removed from their land forty years ago as they try to reclaim their land from wealthy, white farmers and developers. The land issue becomes a “ticking time bomb,” posing an ever-present threat to volatile post-apartheid South Africa. Yoruba Richen joins us in the studio to describe the politics and process of her research and film-making, and South Africa as it exists today. Finally, Courtney Young just returned from her hometown in Louisiana, and has some words on exactly what BP's oil is killing in the Gulf.