Minimum wage initiatives on the ballot in battleground states could mobilize potential Democratic voters who are unenthusiastic about Biden. Saru Jayaraman of One Fair Wage is on the podcast to explain the strategy, and reports on organizing in Arizona, Michigan, and Ohio. Also: 100 American cities and towns have formally called for a cease-fire in Gaza—ranging from Chicago, the biggest, to small towns in Vermont. John Nichols has our report. Plus: The ideological roots of the January 6 insurrec...
Mar 28, 2024•57 min
In the Ohio primary this week, Sherrod Brown got the opponent he wanted - a MAGA car salesman who's never won anything. Harold Meyerson comments. Plus: In the campaign to end American funding for Israel’s war in Gaza, a key front is the fight against AIPAC. This week, more than a hundred prominent American Jews have joined in a statement opposing AIPAC and its efforts to defeat Democratic candidates who have criticized Israeli government policy toward Palestinians. The signers include author Ari...
Mar 21, 2024•1 hr 2 min
Thanks to a referendum passed by Long Beach voters, hotel workers there will now get the highest minimum wage in the nation – Harold Meyerson comments. Next: After gangs took over most of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s acting prime minister, Ariel Henry, agreed to step aside. Long-time Haiti observer Amy Wilentz analyzes the forces at work shaping the country’s next steps. Also: The polls and the pollsters are missing the political potential in 9 million people who have turned 18 since the last electio...
Mar 14, 2024•58 min
The presidential election began for real this week – and the Supreme Court is once again involved in presidential election politics – helping Trump – Harold Meyerson comments. Also: After Super Tuesday: John Nichols reports on the evidence of weaknesses of both Biden and Trump, as well as some signs of strength, in the wake of voting in primaries in 16 states. Plus: Now is the time to add the right to vote to the constitution – that’s what Richard Hasen says. And, he argues, there are good reaso...
Mar 07, 2024•1 hr 7 min
An abortion rights amendment to Florida’s Constitution has gotten enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot. Now, it’s up to the state’s Supreme Court to decide whether people will get to vote on it, potentially transforming the electorate there in November. The Nation ’s abortion access correspondent, Amy Littlefield, reports. Plus: Stories from the early days of HIV & AIDS: that’s the focus of a new podcast Called Blindspot: The Plague in the Shadows . It's about how the epidemi...
Feb 29, 2024•57 min
The Supreme Court has decided NOT to challenge rent control – a huge victory for the progressive renters' rights movements across the country. Also, the Supreme Court will leave in place the diversity-oriented admissions plan for Thomas Jefferson High School – Harold Meyerson comments. Next: A political battle is underway in Los Angeles, where landlords, multi-millionaires, and the police are trying to defeat the leading progressive on the city council. Their key issues are protection for r...
Feb 22, 2024•58 min
The special election this week on Long Island, to replace the disgraced fraud George Santos, resulted in a win for Democrat Tom Suozzi – in "one of the most Republican areas in the United States" – Harold Meyerson reports. Also, discussed: two centennials this week: one of immigration law and, one of "a landmark in the rise of the culture of urban diversity," George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" – the first recording. Plus: Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon is one of our leading progressives, and o...
Feb 15, 2024•50 min
Trump's immunity defense has been denied by the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals; the Republican-controlled House has failed to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas; and other GOP failures – Harold Meyerson comments. Also: The case for disqualifying Trump as a candidate, based on the 14th Amendment banning those who have engaged in insurrection from holding public office. That case went before the Supreme Court this week. Princeton historian Sean Wilentz h...
Feb 08, 2024•58 min
Trump's legal and financial crises are deepening, and Nikki Haley isn't quitting - his mental deterioration is becoming more evident, and she is making it a campaign issue. Harold Meyerson comments. Also: California moved one step closer to universal healthcare on January 1, when it expanded coverage to all low-income residents, regardless of immigration status. Sasha Abramsky will report. Plus: Adam Shatz will talk about Franz Fanon, whose books Wretched of the Earth and Black Skin, White Masks...
Feb 01, 2024•57 min
In the New Hampshire Republican primary, the first in the nation, Trump got 54%, Nikki Haley got 43% – and, 42% of NH Republicans say that if Trump is convicted of a crime, they would not vote for him – Harold Meyerson comments. Also: John Nichols talks about Biden's big win in NH, and Trump's furious victory speech. Plus: Mazie Hirono, Senator from Hawaii: Last week, out of a 100-member chamber, only 11 Senators supported Bernie Sanders' measure that would require Israe...
Jan 25, 2024•57 min
John Nichols reports on Monday’s Republican caucuses in Iowa, and explains why Iowa is the state with the biggest shift from blue to red between Obama in 2008 and Trump in 2020. Also: The new film "American Fiction," starring Jeffrey Wright, takes up the question, do Black writers have to "write Black"? The film is based on the novel "Erasure" by Percival Everett, which is considerably wilder and more uncompromising than the film. John Powers comments—he’s critic at Large on NPR’s Fresh Air with...
Jan 18, 2024•59 min
“Trump’s Lawyers Invite Biden to Assassinate Him.” That's the headline at Prospect.org -- Harold Meyerson explains. Plus: Only Joe Biden can stop the war in Gaza: Israel's war in Gaza has been going on now for three months, and the IDF said over the weekend they plan to keep the war going for another year. Amy Wilentz talks about Netanhayu’s use of the war to hold on to power. Also: the lies that protect profit, power and wealth in America: they are documented, and dealt with, in a wonderfu...
Jan 11, 2024•58 min
For many, the upcoming presidential election is a source of dread and pessimism. Harold Meyerson talks about sources of hope in 2024 – including Trump's upcoming trial for attempted insurrection and the promise of ongoing progressive political action by America's youth. Also: Hope is different from optimism – it’s an embrace of uncertainty, and a basis for action. The polls look bad for Joe Biden, but Democrats’ chances are much brighter in the House, and perhaps the...
Jan 04, 2024•57 min
Our holiday giving list: Katha Pollitt presents her list of groups that need—and deserve—our support: Gaza aid, abortion assistance, and organizing against Trump. Also: On Christmas Day, 1914, after five months of unparalleled industrial-scale slaughter, British and German soldiers stopped fighting and exchanged gifts, sang Christmas carols, and played soccer. It’s a unique event in the history of modern warfare. Adam Hochschild comments – originally recorded on the 100th anniversary in 20...
Dec 27, 2023•56 min
Harold Meyerson comments on the Colorado supreme court's ruling that the constitution prohibits Trump from serving as president because he participated in an insurrection. Also - class struggle in 2023 - the year in review. Plus: Why have some feminists been reluctant even to acknowledge that Hamas members raped Israeli women and girls on Oct. 7? Katha Pollitt comments. Also: "parents rights" failed as a Republican political tactic in the 2023 elections - but what about 2024? Randi Weingarten ha...
Dec 21, 2023•50 min
The War against Gaza: How we got here, where we need to go: David Myers comments. Also: The left in Israel today. Also: Joe Biden has historic achievements as president, but polls show him to be the candidate least able to defeat Donald Trump in the 2024 election. Democrats need someone else to run and an open primary. Harold Meyerson will argue that Biden must not run again. Plus: the story of an immigrant sweatshop worker who became one of the most charismatic radical leaders of the early...
Dec 14, 2023•52 min
Striking hotel workers have occupied Century Blvd., the approach to LAX, and are planning a posada, reenacting Mary and Joseph's search for lodging in Bethlehem, on Friday evening--Harold Meyerson comments. Also: Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT, spent Thanksgiving weekend in Israel. She will report on meetings with shared society groups and peace movement leaders. She’ll also discuss the role of the US in moving toward not only peace but also toward equality and justice for Palestinians. ...
Dec 07, 2023•52 min
Trump doesn't have a platform, he has an enemies list; but the Heritage Foundation has 922 pages on its to-do list if Trump should return to the White House in 2025. Harold Meyerson explains. Also: People with very different visions of what a just peace between Israel and the Palestinians might look like must work together to stop the war: That’s what D.D. Guttenplan argues. He’s Editor of The Nation. plus: “Slow Horses,” the British spy series based on the books by Mick Herron, is startin...
Nov 30, 2023•57 min
Joe Biden faces a split in the Democrat electorate over Israel and Palestine--Harold Meyerson has some recommendations. also: Why we need the Israeli left now more than ever: Dahlia Scheindlin explains. plus--California is a place to write home about. David Kipen reads some examples - his new book is "Dear California: Letters and Diary Entries."
Nov 23, 2023•59 min
Today we have two segments from the archives about Palestinians; neither is about the current war—and one about Trump and refugees. Rachel Kushner reports on her visit to a Palestinian refugee camp in 2016; Adam Shatz talks about Edward Said, the leading voice of Palestinians in the US before he died in 2003. And later in the show: One of the defining features of Trump’s politics has been the way he’s appealed to hatred and fear of refugees and immigrants. Pulitzer-prize winning writer Viet Than...
Nov 16, 2023•59 min
John Nichols has our analysis of Tuesday's election victories in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky. But those victories came right after a series of very bad polls for Biden - especially a new NYTimes Poll that shows Trump leading in 5 out of 6 swing states. Could Biden’s poll numbers really be that bad? Harold Meyerson comments. Later in the show: What is Israel’s endgame in its war with Hamas? Over the past 50 years, it has tried two radically different strategies in Gaza, a...
Nov 09, 2023•58 min
Victory for the United Auto Workers in their strike against the big three automakers, GM, Ford, and Stellantis. Harold Meyerson, editor-at-large of The American Prospect , explains what’s in the new contract, and what it took to get there. Also: A cease-fire in Gaza is only the beginning of what Israel and the Palestinians need. D.D. Guttenplan, The Nation ’s editor, argues that “both peoples will have to find a way to share the land—in peace, yes, but also with justice.” Plus: Adam Hochschild: ...
Nov 02, 2023•58 min
The Biden administration says Israel's planned invasion of Gaza "lacks achievable military objectives." And yet Biden supports it. Harold Meyerson examines this contradiction. Also: Adam Shatz says Israel’s disregard for Palestinian life after the Oct. 7 terror attacks has never been more callous or more flagrant. But Israel can’t extinguish Palestinian resistance by violence any more than the Palestinians can win an Algerian-style liberation war. The only thing that can save the people of Israe...
Oct 26, 2023•43 min
Biden's trip to Israel, Israel's attack on Gaza, politics in the US and Israel: Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect comments--and talks about why he left DSA; and Amy Wilentz, former Jerusalem correspondent for The New Yorker, provides analysis.
Oct 19, 2023•51 min
The UAW won a historic victory when GM agreed that workers in EV and battery factories would be covered by the union contract. Harold Meyerson comments on that, and on Israel’s war with Hamas. Plus: Voters in Maine will decide next month whether to turn the state’s private utilities public. If that happens, it would be a huge step toward dealing with the climate crisis, and a model for other states. Bill McKibben will explain. Also: Two girls grew up in the 1980s and ’90s in a small town i...
Oct 12, 2023•50 min
Kaiser Workers' strike this week is the largest by healthcare workers in US history. Harold Meyerson comments. Also: ethnic politics in California. Plus: Our politics today is haunted by the failures of Bill Clinton—the “centrist” who "triangulated” with Republicans, lost on healthcare, and proclaimed that “the era of big government is over.” Nelson Lichtenstein will explain Clinton’s turn to the right, and the lessons for today’s Democrats. His new book on Clinton has the wonderful ti...
Oct 05, 2023•49 min
Joe Biden joined a UAW picket line on Tuesday – the first president ever to do so. Harold Meyerson comments. Plus: the right-wing supermajority on the Supreme Court has returned to a case about racial gerrymandering in Alabama, where Republicans have defied the Court’s order. Dahlia Lithwick will comment about that, and about her book Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America —it’s out now in paperback. Also: Adam Hochschild reports on visiting a gun show, and expl...
Sep 28, 2023•57 min
The UAW is being criticized by the corporate-Wall Street wing of the Democratic Party for seeking ‘too much’ in their current strike. Harold Meyerson responds. Plus: We face two kinds of insecurity in our lives today, Astra Taylor argues: existential insecurity, the unavoidable issues of life and death, and manufactured insecurity—intended to make workers more submissive to authority. Communal action can do a lot to reduce the second kind. Astra's new book is “The Age of Insecuri...
Sep 21, 2023•57 min
Harold Meyerson reports on a major victory in the California state legislature that will raise pay for fast food workers from $15.50 to $20. Also: those Trump polls. Plus: the news from Haiti, where the UN, with US support, is authorizing a new security force. Made up of mostly Kenyan troops, it's supposed to restore “law and order” in Port-au-Prince. The Nation's Amy Wilentz reports. Also: Gary Younge, the award-winning former columnist for The Guardian , talks about Black writing and Black wri...
Sep 14, 2023•58 min
Harold Meyerson analyzes Biden’s weak poll numbers, and our historic upsurge in labor activism. Plus: September 11th is the 50th anniversary of the coup that overthrew Salvador Allende in Chile, ending 150 years of democracy there and putting the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Power. Marc Cooper will comment. Also: Every night, more than a million people read Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter about the day’s political events. We’ll talk with her about her new book...
Sep 07, 2023•58 min
