Rachel Kushner reports on Palestinian life inside the refugee camp that's inside Jerusalem, and on the current crisis--her new book of essays is "The Hard Crowd." also: Harold Meyerson comments on Gavin Newsom's plan to give money to almost all Californians, and to provide massive funding for homeless housing and universal preschool. and our critic Ella Tayor talks about “The Underground Railroad,”premiering Friday on Prime video--10 one-hour episodes of a historical drama about American slavery...
May 14, 2021•1 hr 6 min
Mazie Hirono, Senator from Hawaii: She’s the only immigrant currently serving in the Senate, and she was the first Asian American woman elected to that office, starting in 2013. She talks about the need for filibuster reform and Supreme Court reform, about the storming of the capitol on January 6. Her new autobiography is Heart of Fire: An Immigrant Daughter’s Story. Plus: Harold Meyerson talks about the politics of the billionaires in LA, starting with Eli Broad, who died last week – he co-chai...
May 07, 2021•57 min
Joe Biden's American Families Plan, his Covid Relief bill, his infrastructure proposal, and his vaccine rollout mark him as the boldest and most successful president since FDR--Harold Meyerson explains. Also: Republicans keep complaining about Hunter Biden--Amy Wilentz comments on his memoir of suffering and addiction. Plus: The Oscar for Best Documentary went to "My Octopus Teacher" -- Ella Taylor has a critique.
Apr 30, 2021•57 min
The guilty verdicts in the Derek Chauvin trial in Minneapolis made history—and came only after millions of people took to the streets, for months, in hundreds of cities across America; and only after a decade of sustained organizing by Black Lives Matter. Jody Armour comments—he’s the Roy Crocker Professor of Law at the University of Southern California, and author of "N*gga Theory: Race, Language, Unequal Justice, and the Law." Plus: Harold Meyerson argues that compelling video of police abuse ...
Apr 23, 2021•56 min
At the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, the union lost the vote by more than 2 to 1. What happened? Harold Meyerson has our analysis—also comment on hazard pay for grocery store workers, and corporations for voting rights. Plus: Should Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer retire? That would give Biden a chance to nominate a younger replacement – he’s promised a Black woman. Also, our TV critic Ella Taylor comments on “Our Towns,” a documentary about good things in smaller cities across Ame...
Apr 16, 2021•1 hr 2 min
For nearly half a century, America’s leading corporations have offshored work -- to lands where labor is cheap, and they’ve also offshored profits -- to lands where taxes are low. Now Joe Biden and the Democrats are trying to do something about that. Harold Meyerson explains. Also: Protest continues to grow over the recent displacement by the LAPD of the homeless encampment at Echo Park Lake, which the mayor declared a success. Ananya Roy comments--she’s a professor of Urban Planning, Social Wel...
Apr 09, 2021•59 min
Joe Biden has redefined "infrastructure" to include workers - Harold Meyerson explains what's in the biggest 'public works' bill in 50 years. Also: Big Pharma profits while the Global South waits for covid vaccines: Gregg Gonsalves comments. And Ella Taylor talks about "Bloodlands," a BBC thriller set in Northern Ireland 20 years after the end of "The Troubles" -- when a murder investigation threatens to bring them back. Also: "Keeping Faith," a BBC thriller set in Wales - both on Acorn TV.
Apr 02, 2021•1 hr 2 min
Biden’s next big thing: after the success of his $1.9 trillion covid relief bill, Biden’s economic recovery bill is ready for prime time. Harold Meyerson explains. Also, the Democrats’ voting rights bill – and the unlikely union organizing Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama. Also: Michelle Obama’s memoir is out now in paperback - It’s called “Becoming,” and it has sold more than 14 million copies worldwide in hardcover. The book avoids politics—which seems strange for the person the New York Ti...
Mar 26, 2021•58 min
Bernie Sanders and Biden’s $1.9 trillion covid relief bill: it’s the most important piece of social legislation at least since Medicare in 1966, 55 years ago. The bill that became law is nothing like Joe Biden’s politics over the last 30 years--nothing like the Democrats under Obama, or Clinton--and very much the culmination of Bernie’s politics over the same period. Plus: Black Lives Matter versus the LAPD: a new official report in Los Angeles says the police in LA violated the law by attacking...
Mar 19, 2021•1 hr 4 min
Joe Biden’s 1.9 trillion dollar covid relief bill is about to become law, seven weeks into Biden’s presidency. It’s a huge achievement. Harold Meyerson comments. Also, Chesa Boudin, the recently elected progressive district attorney of San Francisco, talks about prisoners as parents—he grew up with parents in prison (David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin). And our TV critic Ella Taylor talks about “Night of the Kings,” a drama set inside a men's prison in Ivory Coast –-- it’s been shortlisted for the O...
Mar 12, 2021•1 hr 6 min
Joe Biden is becoming a working class hero, after the strongest statement in support of unions since FDR: Harold Meyerson talks about support for Amazon workers in Alabama. Also: Katha Pollitt takes up the question, what can we do about the 74 million people who voted for Trump? Plus: Eric Foner will talk about Will Smith’s new 6-part series on Netflix--it’s about the 14th Amendment, which established birthright citizenship, and guarantees equal protection to “all persons” in the United States –...
Mar 05, 2021•53 min
Biden’s Pandemic Relief Bill should pass the House Friday–-it includes child benefit payments for every family with children. But in order for Biden’s plan to be included in the bill, it can only be for a year. Mitt Romney has proposed a permanent program – that’s what we really need. Also: Rick Perlstein talks about the future of the Republicans with Trump defeated – how divided are leaders over Trump’s continued domination of the party? Rick’s new book is “Reaganland.” And Ella Taylor critique...
Feb 26, 2021•55 min
Biden’s economic recovery plan: Harold Meyerson comments, starting with the latest obstacles to keeping the $15 minimum wage in the Senate bill that goes to reconciliation – also, is aid to state governments a “blue-state bailout”? Also: UCLA has gotten a multi-million dollar grant to establish an archive of the age of mass incarceration, starting with 177 boxes of LAPD records from the seventies through the 2000s –Kelly Lytle Hernandez and Shannon Speed explain the project and how they will be ...
Feb 19, 2021•1 hr 2 min
Harold Meyerson says the devastating new footage of the rioters shown on Day Two of the impeachment trial underlines Trump's failure to try to stop them, the most undeniable grounds for a guilty verdict on his impeachment trial. Also, Alan Minsky of Progressive Democrats of America makes the case for the $15 minimum wage, and looks ahead at Biden's plans for reviving American manufacturing. And Ella Taylor reviews "The Mauritanian," the new film about a Guantanamo detainee and his attorney, play...
Feb 12, 2021•55 min
Biden's $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill: Harold Meyerson says he won't reduce it. Also: the Republicans, and the impeachment. Plus: Biden and Black America: Barbara Ransby comments. And Ella Taylor reviews "Dear Comrades!", the Russian film about a massacre of striking workers in Russia in 1962. Finally, we remember Rennie Davis -- he died on Feb. 2.
Feb 05, 2021•53 min
Biden's first week was filled with bold and necessary executive orders, and a plan to pass pandemic economic relief without Republican support--Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect explains. also: Gary Younge talks about the coming fight with Trump and Trumpsim, starting with the insurrection of January 6. plus: Ella Taylor reviews "White Tiger," the Indian rags-to-riches film that combines satire, melodrama and action film.
Jan 29, 2021•47 min
The inauguration of Joe Biden was delightfully normal--Harold Meyerson comments on what happened -- and what didn't. Plus: Alan Minsky, Executive Director of Progressive Democrats of America, discusses the challenges facing the Congressional Progressive Caucus--and the opportunities. And our film and TV critic Ella Taylor reviews "Assassins," an amazing documentary about the assassination of the brother of Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, in Kuala Lampur airport, by two teenage girls.
Jan 22, 2021•57 min
The impeachment vote barely papered over the growing crisis in the Republican party, says Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect. Harold comments also on security at the Biden inauguration. Also: Eric Foner provides some historical perspective on the attack last week on the capitol. Plus: Ella Taylor talks about the new documentary “MLK/FBI”, on J. Edgar Hoover’s attempt to “destroy” Martin Luther King--“destroy” is the FBI’s own term. And finally, the PGA is cancelling their longstanding plan...
Jan 15, 2021•58 min
The Trump mob attack on the capitol should have been expected, says Harold Meyerson--Trump himself had been calling for it for weeks. But it signals an irreparable split in the Republican Party. Also: Priorities for vaccination against covid-19 need to be based both on science and on ethics - Gregg Gonsalves explains. And Ella Taylor talks about the documentary "Dissident," on the murder of Jamal Kashoggi, and the Tom Hanks western, "News of the World."
Jan 08, 2021•58 min
A year, and a decade, of political challenges: Joan Walsh reviews the fall and rise of Kamala Harris, the return of Joe Biden, and the deepening problem posed over the last decade by white voters who now support Trump. Also, Amy Wilentz looks back on how things went in 2020 for Ivanka, Jared, Don Junior and Little Eric. And Ella Taylor talks about her favorite films of 2020 – starting with Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, starring Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman—his last film.
Jan 01, 2021•59 min
2020 began with Kamala Harris dropping out of the first primary, and is ending with Trump blowing up the Republican Party - it was also the year of the biggest protests in American history, organized by Black Lives Matter. Harold Meyerson comments. And we're still thinking about John le Carré, who died last week—he was 89, and one of the greats, author of two dozen books people called “spy novels,” although they were much more than that. John Powers comments -- he’s critic-at-large on Fresh Air ...
Dec 25, 2020•38 min
This week the US began vaccinating people against covid-19, and we consider proposals to establish a coronavirus commission, empowered to investigate the many failures in the fight against covid-19: is that something progressives should fight for? Mike Davis says “Yes” – and explains what’s at stake. Also: Will Donald Trump pardon Ivanka and Jared—and Don Junior and Eric? What exactly are their crimes? It sounds like it's time for another episode of The Children’s Hour—with Amy Wilentz. Plus: Jo...
Dec 18, 2020•52 min
L.A. elected a new progressive district attorney last month – George Gascon – and he just announced the sweeping changes he will make, starting with an end to cash bail and to sentencing “enhancements.” Jody Armour explains: he’s the Roy Crocker Professor of Law at USC, and his new book is “N*gga Theory: Race, language, unequal justice, and the law.” Also: last week the Supreme Court heard arguments on Trump’s effort to change the way seats in the House of Representatives are apportioned. It has...
Dec 11, 2020•45 min
Joe Biden got six million more votes than Donald Trump—so how come the Democrats did so poorly in the Senate and House elections? Harold Meyerson has an analysis – and some comments on how the Dems could win the Georgia Senate runoff. Also: how are the Trump kids dealing with the refusal of their father to admit he lost the election? Amy Wilentz will comment—on another episode of The Children’s Hour, stories about Ivanka, Don Junior, Little Eric—and Lara. But who IS Lara Trump? Answers, later in...
Dec 04, 2020•49 min
All eyes are on Georgia now, as the campaigns for both senate seats are underway to determine which party will control the US Senate. For Democrats, the starting point for winning in Georgia is the historic work of Stacey Abrams. When she ran for governor of Georgia in 2018 as the first African American and the first woman candidate, she got more votes than any Democrat in Georgia history, including Obama and Hillary Clinton. But because of Republican vote suppression she was not elected. Nevert...
Nov 26, 2020•24 min
Mike Davis on Trump voters: Latinos in south Texas and white workers in the rust belt—and Biden’s big mistake: allowing Trump to claim "the economy" as his issue, instead of connecting jobs to controlling the pandemic. Also: Monday we had good news on a covid vaccine from Moderna, created with a billion dollars of taxpayer funding. Gregg Gonsalves takes up the question, Why does Moderna get to keep all the profits? And Ella Taylor talks about this season’s guilty pleasure on TV: “The Crown” – in...
Nov 20, 2020•58 min
Harold Meyerson argues that none of Trump’s tactics to hold on to the White House will succeed—the lawsuits are ridiculous, the proposals for Republican state legislatures to send their own Trump electors to Washington won’t work. But the fact that Trump got more votes than any Republican in history gives him a lot of power over the party. Also: the huge victories Black Lives Matter won at the polls in L.A. County: Jody Armour explains, starting with electing a progressive District Attorney, Geo...
Nov 13, 2020•57 min
Harold Meyerson considers the consequences of failing to win control of the Senate--and points to dozens of far-reaching executive actions Biden could take without Senate approval. Plus: Joan Walsh of The Nation says, 'It shouldn't have been so close." and TV critic Ella Taylor reviews "The Queen's Gambit," the proto-feminist story about the first female chess champion in Cold War America.
Nov 06, 2020•57 min
Harold Meyerson reviews Biden’s excellent recent poll results in swing states, and looks at the Democrats’ long standing problem with white male voters, and what can be done to bring them back into the party. Also: The one union that’s doing door-to-door precinct work during the pandemic. Also: ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ – the new Aaron Sorkin film - is the most-widely reviewed movie in America right now; 250 critics have written about it. Of course it’s about the trial of leaders of the antiw...
Oct 30, 2020•55 min
Maybe the November election will have a big enough vote for Biden so that it can’t be challenged in court; maybe the Republicans won’t dispute the outcome. But maybe they will – we’ve had other disputed elections in our history -- of course we had the Supreme Court stopping the count in Florida in 2000--and there was another one, much less well known–the election of 1876. For some comparisons we turn to Eric Foner -- he’s won the Pulitzer prize, the Bancroft Prize and the Lincoln prize for his w...
Oct 23, 2020•40 min
