The Green New Deal and Unions; plus: Elizabeth Warren in Minnesota -- Harold Meyerson reports on labor opposition to fighting global warming--mostly in the building trades and a few other locals. Next: Trump is trailing badly in the polls--so how does he think he can win? Jeet Heer explains. Plus: Star Wars, Ghost Busters, Rocky and Dirty Harry -- we talk with J. Hoberman author of "Make My Day: Movie Culture in the Age of Reagan".
Aug 30, 2019•54 min
Aug 14, 3:00 PM If Bernie does NOT get the nomination, the Democratic Socialists of America will not endorse the Democrat who does. “Bernie or Bust” was what they decided at their recent convention – but is that a good idea? Harold Meyerson comments--he’s editor-at-large of The American Prospect and a regular contributor to the LA Times op-ed page. Also: Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted pedophile and accused sex trafficker - who surrounded himself with an elite network of political leaders, wannab...
Aug 23, 2019•36 min
Trump gets worse every week. Two years ago we had massive nationwide protest demonstrations -- so why don’t more people take it to the streets these days? Nation columnist Katha Pollitt has been thinking about that. Plus: last month was the 50th anniversary of Americans walking on the moon-what would it take to get a similar mobilization today of money & effort—and vision–-to combat climate change? D.D. Guttenplan comments – he’s editor of The Nation. Also: Fifteen Minutes without Trump – we wan...
Aug 16, 2019•41 min
The best responses to Trump on the El Paso killings came from Beto O'Rourke: “He’s not tolerating violence, he’s inciting racism and violence in this country.” Joan Walsh, National Affairs Correspondent for The Nation, examines the mainstream media’s failures in covering Trump. Beto, of course, represented El Paso in Congress. Plus: Seymour Hersh—he’s won dozens of awards for his reporting on My Lai, Abu Graib, and CIA surveillance of the anti-war movement in the Nixon years. He’s also written a...
Aug 09, 2019•38 min
Trump’s target in the 2020 election will be immigrants, ‘The Other Americans’—that’s the title of the new novel by Laila Lalami. Her last novel, “The Moor’s Account,” won the American book award and was a Pulitzer finalist. She’s written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, Harper’s, and The Guardian, and she’s a columnist for The Nation. Plus: we talk about organizing to defeat Trump--about movement strategies and tactics, & political issues and campaigns. Our guest is Michael Walzer --...
Aug 02, 2019•46 min
Democracy is not doing well these days – we have Trump, and Brexit, and a host of other examples. Astra Taylor has been thinking about that: she talks about the paradoxes of rule by the people, the many ways it’s being frustrated, and why it remains at the center of our hopes for the future. Her new book is “Democracy may not exist, but we’ll miss it when it’s gone.” Also: Trump will make hatred and fear of refugees and immigrants a central theme of his reelection campaign next year – and so we ...
Jul 26, 2019•36 min
Racial anxiety was more important than economic anxiety in motivating Trump’s voters, Joy Reid of MSNBC argues. A key factor in Trump’s victory was nostalgia for a white, Christian America where men were still in charge. And of course Hillary fell short not only with male voters but with voters of color overall. Joy’s new book is The Man Who Sold America: Trump and the Unraveling of the American Story. Also: Jared Kushner’s Mideast Peace Plan, announced in Bahrain to an audience of billionaires ...
Jul 19, 2019•34 min
Today, Trump admitted defeat on is effort to add a citizenship question to the 2020 United States Census -- as he addressed cameras live from the White House Rose Garden, we turned to John Nichols for comment. Next: Walls have been used against immigrants to the US before -- historian Linda Gordon talks about the 1920s, when anti-immigrant hostility conquered Congress. Plus: MAD Magazine (1952 - 2020): Jeet Heer on the death and influence of "one of the major showcases for media criticism in Ame...
Jul 12, 2019•56 min
Campaigning in Iowa, Elizabeth Warren has made her story an American story, Joan Walsh says, and thereby found a good way to connect her policy proposals to her own life, and thereby to other people’s lives--and also to refute critics who say she’s an out-of-touch policy wonk. Also: Joe Biden and his friends: he says some of them were segregationist senators – and he thinks that was a good thing, something that made it possible for him to pass important legislation. Jeet Heer says that’s a fanta...
Jul 05, 2019•27 min
The Supremes gave the green light to gerrymandering--a disaster, but blocked the census citizenship question; and, the first round of 2020 Democratic nominees debated last night -- John Nichols reports. Next up, Trump and war with Iran: not this week: comment from Jeet Heer, the newly-appointed national-affairs correspondent at The Nation. Plus: The re-enfranchisement of felons who have served their sentences in Florida is law now and the Republicans are attacking it (again) -- Sasha Abramsky re...
Jun 28, 2019•57 min
For most Americans, the question “Which is worse: Trump or Brexit?” has an easy answer: of course it’s Trump! But D. D. Guttenplan, The Nation’s new Editor, says it’s more complicated than that: for starters, Americans can get rid of Trump in next November’s elections, but it’s almost impossible now for the Brits to get rid of Brexit. Next up, Elon Musk wants us to go to Mars. Should we join him? Katha Pollitt explains why not – she wrote about zillionaires and space travel in this week’s Nation...
Jun 21, 2019•56 min
During Bernie's speech in Washington yesterday he defined democratic socialism as: "Requiring and achieving political and economic freedom in every community in this country." He also proposed a 21st century economic bill of rights -- for comment we turn to Harold Meyerson. Next up, the Democrats in California: Joe Biden was MIA -- David Dayen reports. 6/13/19 Also: The Indivisible Pledge; what is it and why didn't Joe Biden sign? Ezra Levin of the Indivisibles, explains.
Jun 14, 2019•58 min
Over 8,000 names are engraved on the Middle East Conflicts Wall Memorial, and each year, more are added. The wall is unlike any other war memorial in the US -- particularly because of its location: not in Washington DC but in Marseilles, Illinois, a small prairie town with a population of about 5,000. We talk with historian Andrew Bacevich about his recent visit to the memorial. Also: Isn't abortion rights a women's issue? Katha Polllitt says, 'no' and explains what men should be doing different...
Jun 07, 2019•57 min
May 22, 3:00 PM Bernie is back on Page One of the New York Times, but their report last weekend was not about his new plan to save public schools–the most progressive education program in modern American history–or his proposal to end all subsidies for oil and gas companies. Instead, it was about a trip he made to Nicaragua in 1985, more than 30 years ago. They didn’t like it. How do we explain the New York Times’s coverage of Bernie Sanders? Amy Wilentz comments. Plus: There are 1,000 redaction...
May 31, 2019•27 min
Joe Biden has one thing in common with Donald Trump: a campaign promising “restoration” of a lost past, rather than the kind of transformation we need to deal with our current problems—that’s what Harold Meyerson says. Of course, the past Biden wants to restore is not the white man’s 1950s, but rather the pre-Trump America of the Clintons and Obama. Harold is executive editor of The American Prospect and a regular contributor to the LA Times op-ed page. And we talk about immigrants with Nation m...
May 24, 2019•30 min
The ‘debate’ over global warming was always phony. Bill McKibben says the fossil fuel industry knew everything there was to know about climate change back in the 1980s. And they believed what their scientists were telling them. Exxon started building all its drilling rigs to compensate for the rise in sea level it knew was coming. But of course the thing they didn’t do was tell any of the rest of us. Just the opposite. They’ve spent billions of dollars building the architecture of deceit and den...
May 17, 2019•34 min
When Joe Biden finally declared his candidacy, he immediately pulled way out in front in the polls of Democratic candidates. The polls also show him the one most likely to beat Trump. Joan Walsh points to some of the problems with Biden—a centrist who is focusing on older white male voters--and considers the alternatives. Also: the case for impeachment—starting with the Mueller Report, and what Trump has done since its release. The politics of impeachment may be debatable, But congress’s duty is...
May 10, 2019•41 min
Today, the AG is defying the House of Representatives -- after a day of lies and deception with the Senate Judiciairy Committee yesterday. we turn to John Nichols for comment. Plus, Michael Walzer on his seminal how-to guide for political activists: "Political Action: A Practical Guide to Movement Politics".
May 03, 2019•1 hr 33 min
New York v. US Dep't of Commerce, the challenge to adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census, was heard on Tuesday -- would such a question be unconstitutional? Harold Meyerson comments --Also, Joe Biden announced his campaign for the presidency--he says he can win back the older white working class men in PA, MI and WI that Hillary lost. Next up, Stacey Abrams talks about her life and shares advice from her book, 'Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change'. Als...
Apr 26, 2019•58 min
The Mueller Report--we have the evidence, especially on obstruction; now Congress needs to do its part. John Nichols reports. Plus: Our Climate Moment: we talk with Bill McKibben about balancing fear and hope in the face of the grim realities of climate change -- his new book is "Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?" Also: Gary Stewart, activist, organizer, and popular music maven, passed away last week -- we remember him, with an interview from 2005--on Girl Groups.
Apr 19, 2019•6 hr 33 min
Israel's 2019 election results are in, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to serve a record fifth term -- what does this mean for the United States and American Jews? Harold Meyerson comments Next, "Reconstruction: America After the Civil War" premieres on PBS this week; we talk with historian Eric Foner about the first interracial democracy in the world--and how it was destroyed. Plus: Stephen Miller went from being a shy middle school kid in Santa Monica to Trump's top advisor, the e...
Apr 12, 2019•1 hr 35 min
Democrats, Republicans and 'Socialism' -- John Nichols talks about Milwaukee, America's socialist city for 50 years. Also: Plastics and Petrochemicals: An estimated 8 tons of plastic end up in the oceans per year. But the real problem is the manufacturing of plastics. Zoë Carpenter explains. Plus, Climate Change in the City: Ben Ehrenreich reports from Commerce, CA. on a community movement fighting for environmental justice.
Apr 05, 2019•58 min
The Mueller Report: a three page summary of the 300-plus page report has been released -- that's less than one percent of Mueller's findings -- Harold Meyerson reports. Today marks the 50th Anniversary of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Bed-In for Peace at the Amsterdam Hilton. We talk with Dick and Mickey Flacks about their book "Making History Making Blintzes: How Two Red Diaper Babies Found Each Other and Discovered America". Plus: Jane Mayer on Mike Pence - and his mother. Would Pence be worse? J...
Mar 29, 2019•58 min
The Democrats' candidates who are not progressives, from Beto to Biden -- Harold Meyerson on the alternatives to Bernie and Elizabeth Warren. Plus Amy Wilentz on the college admissions scandal. Also: What if Trump got his way with dissenters, critics and immigrants? Adam Hochschild on lessons from WW I era policies and parallels between Woodrow Wilson and Trump.
Mar 22, 2019•58 min
To replace coal and oil, do we need nuclear power? Is switching from coal powered electric plants to natural gas a step in the right direction? And what lessons can we draw from the recent victories—and setbacks--for the climate movement in California? Bill McKibben comments--and talks how to get to a Green New Deal. Bill’s new book, “Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?” will be published on April 16. Also: what can we do to reduce the death toll in the current epidemic of opioi...
Mar 15, 2019•29 min
The time is right for a Green New Deal, says New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg. Trump’s presidency is not the end of Democracy, as some of our friends have suggested. Instead we are seeing the end of a political cycle, the one that began in 1980 with Reagan. And now, it’s time for something new. Also: For years Elizabeth Warren has been talking about how the political system is rigged by the rich and powerful. But suddenly her position seems almost mainstream among Democrats--almost eve...
Mar 08, 2019•41 min
Naomi Klein says the Green New Deal needs to follow the example of the New Deal of the 1930s, when nothing would have happened without “massive pressure from social movements” that “changed the calculus of what was possible.” Naomi is a contributing editor at The Nation and author of several number one bestsellers, including “This Changes Everything.” Plus Dahlia Lithwick talks about the national challenge to Trump’s “national emergency”—the constitutional issues, the political issues, and the d...
Mar 01, 2019•29 min
Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, free college tuition, a $15 minimum wage – and now it's time to add Child care for all to the Progressive agenda. That’s Katha Pollitt’s proposal—she argues it will help huge numbers of people. (And Elizabeth Warren just made it a campaign issue of hers.) Also: Bernie’s foreign policy: in 2016 he ran on domestic issues almost exclusively. This time around, he’s going to say more about foreign policy—a lot more. David Klion explains; he’s profiled Bernie’s fore...
Feb 22, 2019•31 min
The Green New Deal in California: bad news is that the governor seems to be pessimistic about high-speed rail; meanwhile, in Los Angeles, the mayor had good news about stopping natural gas plants - David Dayen reports. Next up, February is Black History Month in America - we revisit an interview with Pulitzer-prize winning author, Isabel Wilkerson, where she talks about her book 'The Warmth of Other Suns' and the great migration of Black people out of the South.
Feb 15, 2019•43 min
The State of the Union is not good -- Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect on the president's speech Tuesday night -- and whether "socialism" is as big a negative for Americans as Trump thinks it is. Also: as of October, 2018, California had filed 44 lawsuits against Trump, and more are expected for 2019. We talk with Manuel Pastor about climate, immigration and the future of California v. Trump. Plus Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer-prize winning author of The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural Hist...
Feb 08, 2019•58 min
