It’s been only a couple of weeks since the No Kings 3 protests, but we can see now how protest and resistance are changing in America: that one it wasn't just bigger than the previous No Kings. It was different: Deeper and more connected. Rebecca Solnit argues that to understand resistance and change today, we need a much longer perspective than a couple of years. Her new book is The Beginning Comes After the End. Also: Minneapolis made history with its mobilization against ICE. But what about t...
Apr 15, 2026•41 min
Danny and Derek welcome to the show writer Paul Heideman to talk about the transformation of the Republican Party from the main party of business interests to a fragmented, personality-driven coalition. They discuss the historical relationship between Republicans and capital, the disorganization of American employers, the political economy of the 1970s crisis, Reagan-era fragmentation, Gingrich and fundraising, globalization and bipartisan neoliberalism in the 1990s, the Koch network and Tea Par...
Apr 14, 2026•1 hr 14 min
Aaron and Matt are joined by Nation columnist David Klion to talk about the role that Israel has played in the rise of American fascism and what it all means for American Jews like Aaron, David, and not Matt. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Apr 13, 2026•1 hr 15 min
Danny “Hollywood” Bessner and Derek “Bethesda” Davison are back with the news. This week: Israel bombs Lebanon and kills hundreds (2:09) as Iran halts traffic through the Strait of Hormuz in response (5:43); the U.S. and Iran prepare for peace talks in Pakistan (8:26); Trump threatens to resume the war if talks fail (13:02); the Gaza Board of Peace demands Hamas provide a disarmament response (14:56); Afghanistan and Pakistan pause talks and agree to avoid escalation (17:16); Myanmar’s parliamen...
Apr 10, 2026•45 min
Paris Marx is joined by Amanda Mull to discuss the effects of constantly “monitoring the situation” through custom news, social, or live feeds, including higher rates of anxiety and disconnection, and what can be done to recalibrate. Amanda Mull is a senior reporter at Bloomberg Businessweek and writes the Buying Power column. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy...
Apr 10, 2026•1 hr 3 min
Minnesota changed everything: how Minnesota’s resistance to ICE provides a model and inspiration for a national pro-democracy movement. Deepak Bhargava will explains; he’s president of the Freedom Together Foundation. Also: July 4 will mark the 250th anniversary of the United States, which Trump is celebrating with a campaign to “eliminate” what he calls “divisive anti-American ideology” from American’s historic sites, national parks, and the National Zoo. Historian Beverly Gage has another idea...
Apr 08, 2026•42 min
Danny and Derek welcome to the show Eldar Mamedov , foreign policy expert and non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute, to talk about Europe’s response to the war in Iran. They discuss European support and hesitation toward the US-Israel attack, inconsistencies in international law, shifts in European rhetoric as the war continues, fears over economic fallout and energy disruption, Europe’s loss of leverage after the nuclear deal collapsed, dependence on the United States for security, domest...
Apr 07, 2026•47 min
Aaron, Matt, and Jonathan are joined by Morris Katz, lead strategist for Zohran Mamdani and Graham Platner, to talk about why the Democratic Party sucks so much and how we can make it suck less. Topics include lessons from Zohran’s campaign, our favorite Morris ads, the importance of naming a villain, 2028 prognostication, and that one time three years ago when Aaron and Morris had to pull a sunken canoe out of a pond. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: ht...
Apr 06, 2026•1 hr 19 min
Derek is monitoring The Situation, so Always at War ’s Alex Jordan is back to deliver the news with Danny. This week: Trump extends the Iran war without an exit plan (4:02); the U.S. weighs a commando raid to seize Iranian uranium (10:04); Iran threatens U.S. companies after striking a Kuwaiti tanker (13:17); the Hormuz closure drives shortages and price shocks across the global economy (18:43); Europe sees NATO tensions rise as France blocks U.S. overflights and Trump threatens Ukraine aid (22:...
Apr 03, 2026•45 min
Paris Marx is joined by Sam Biddle to discuss what it means for data centers to become targets in a war, and how Silicon Valley is aiding the US war against Iran. Sam Biddle is a technology journalist at The Intercept. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Apr 02, 2026•1 hr
We’re still thinking about No Kings 3 day on Saturday: 8 million people. 3,300 events. ‘No Kings’ protests in almost every city and town in the country. 100 towns in Texas alone had No Kings protests! It was the largest single-day nonviolent protest in American history. John Nichols analyzes the possibilities for what comes next. Also: No one expected that revoking the constitutional right to abortion would wind up expanding access to it. But ever since the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision in 2022...
Apr 01, 2026•43 min
In lieu of a standard episode today, we are premiering the first episode of Marx Prestige , a series where Danny, Derek, and historian Andrew Hartman discuss Karl Marx and how the philosophy and politics he created shaped and reshaped the United States. Subscribe now at the annual tier for free access to series like this one! In this first episode of Marx Prestige , Danny, Derek, and Andrew Hartman talk about how Karl Marx understood the United States as a testing ground for capitalism and...
Mar 31, 2026•58 min
Welcome to Fighting Fascism, a new podcast hosted by The Nation. Long-time political organizers Aaron Regunberg and Jonathan Smucker, and their normie friend Matt DaSilva, discuss the history of fascist takeovers, the conditions enabling them, and the resistance movements that have defeated them, to find lessons for today’s fights against Trump, MAGA, and the growing threat of modern authoritarianism. Want to piss off fascists? This is the podcast for you. In the first episode, Aaron, Matt, and ...
Mar 30, 2026•1 hr 19 min
As millions of Americans protest Donald Trump under the slogan of “No Kings,” it is worth asking how the nation ended up with such an authoritarian president. David Sirota and the team at The Lever have provided a great answer to this question in their new podcast series Master Plan: The Kingmakers , which looks at the revival of the Imperial Presidency after the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s. I talked to David about the history uncovered in this podcast and why Trump is merely a symptom ...
Mar 29, 2026•38 min
In the Season 3 finale, Jo sells Charlotte on Alan Warner’s “amazingly textured” Movern Callar , which leads the hosts to reflect on some of the season’s recurring themes. They’re then joined by the radically reflective William C. Anderson, who explains how the Buddhism transmitted in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Zen Battles t, a commentary on the teachings of Master Linji, informed his political development. William C. Anderson is a writer and activist from Birmingham, Alabama. His work has appeared in Th...
Mar 28, 2026•1 hr 5 min
Just a reminder: there was too much Iran news to fit into this episode, so we gave it a standalone special you can find here . Otherwise, this week around the world: in Israel-Palestine, the Gaza Board of Peace negotiates a Hamas disarmament agreement (1:54) while the West Bank sees settler violence surge around Nablus (3:35); Pakistan resumes its war with Afghanistan after the Eid ceasefire expires (7:09); Trump reschedules his China trip for May (8:26); in Sudan’s Blue Nile State, RSF and SPLM...
Mar 27, 2026•35 min
Paris Marx is joined by Spencer Ackerman to discuss the US and Israeli war on Iran, including the history that led to this moment and what we might see from here. Spencer Ackerman is the author of Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump and the forthcoming book The Torture and Deliverance of Majid Khan. He also write the Forever Wars newsletter. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy...
Mar 27, 2026•1 hr 7 min
The No Kings 3 protests this Saturday are going to be big – maybe the biggest day of protest in American history. Leah Greenberg, co-founder and co-director of Indivisible, will explain—starting with the plans for St. Paul, site of the day's flagship event. Also: Trump has renewed his year-long campaign against universities that have been resisting his authoritarian rule - he’s focused his attacks on the most prestigious private university, Harvard, and the most prestigious public university, UC...
Mar 25, 2026•40 min
Danny and Derek welcome back to the show historian Udi Greenberg to talk about Israeli public opinion, politics, and its strategy vis-à-vis the war with Iran. They discuss the overwhelming public support for military operations, the underlying strategic consensus across Israeli politics prioritizing military dominance over negotiation, the absence of meaningful debate over a two-state solution or Palestinian sovereignty, the stability of Israeli domestic political divisions despite the war, how ...
Mar 24, 2026•45 min
The US/Israel war against Iran has been devastating to many US allies, both in the Middle East and the wider world. It could easily lead to a Global Depression. Even before the war, Annelle Sheline of the Quincy Institute noted that countries such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia had good reason to wean themselves away from a close reliance on the US. I talked to Annelle about the current state of the war and why it will only intensify the alienation of traditional US allies. Advertising Inquiries: htt...
Mar 22, 2026•39 min
Charlotte puzzles over who exactly wrote Brighton Rock before Jo shares a newfound fascination with big machines, spurred in part by Don Gillmor’s On Oil . A conversation with the preternaturally wise Rayne Fisher-Quann starts with Iris Owens' After Claude , then opens up into a rousing feminist seminar on Margery Kempe, sexual obsession, and women’s humor of past and present. Rayne Fisher-Quann is a Brooklyn-based writer. Her blog is called Internet Princess , and her first book, COMPLEX FEMALE...
Mar 21, 2026•51 min
Derek wore his Fitbit to a CIA black site, both exposing the security state and meeting his daily step goal. This week’s news: in the Iran war, Israel assassinates Ali Larijani and other senior Iranian officials (1:15), U.S. allies refuse Trump’s demand that they help reopen the Strait of Hormuz by force (5:41), and the Pentagon seeks roughly $200 billion for the war (8:32) as it considers new deployments to the region (13:27); in southern Lebanon, the IDF begins its ground invasion (14:41); Isr...
Mar 20, 2026•46 min
Paris Marx is joined by Ed Niedermeyer to discuss the years-long relationship between Elon Musk and Jeffrey Epstein, and how their relationship sheds light on the murky inner workings of the one percent. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Mar 18, 2026•1 hr 19 min
Trump’s war in Iran is bringing economic chaos and suffering to much of the world, but for American voters, the biggest effect is the soaring price of gasoline – and the political implications for Republicans in the midterms are clear to everyone. Meanwhile Minneapolis has shown how Americans can resist unjust and illegitimate power. John Nichols comments. Also: The Working Families Party is organizing voters not just to win a Democratic majority in Congress but for a movement election, a histor...
Mar 18, 2026•35 min
Writer and former U.S. Army intelligence officer Harrison Mann joins the show to talk about the U.S–Iran war and what a ground invasion could actually look like. They discuss Harrison’s resignation from the Defense Intelligence Agency over U.S. support for the Gaza genocide, his assessment of the first weeks of the conflict with Iran, internal divisions within the military and intelligence community, and the risks of shifting the rules of engagement and permissive attitudes toward civilian casua...
Mar 17, 2026•47 min
Former Nation editor Don Guttenplan is now bringing municipal politics to the magazine with a weekly column tracking the progress of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. I spoke to Don about how Mamdani is balancing pragmatism and principles as he deals with policing, Donald Trump and a tough budget. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy...
Mar 16, 2026•41 min
Jo and Charlotte turn their attention to Nobel Laureate Kenzaburo Oe’s mindblowing A Personal Matter and Troubled Lands: Stories of Mexico and Cuba , a collection translated by Langston Hughes, before they’re joined by Gothic-literature-loving writer-of-all-modes Nicholas Russell, who puts the spotlight on Algernon Blackwood’s unsettling preoccupation with mysterious forces in the natural world. Nicholas Russell is a writer and critic from Las Vegas. His work has been featured in McSweeney's, Th...
Mar 14, 2026•1 hr
We’re putting out, what, an episode a day at this point? But the news roundup must go on. This week: In the Iran war, casualty and displacement figures rise across Iran and Lebanon (1:20), Iran mines and threatens to close the Strait of Hormuz (4:31), Iranian officials threaten to expand the war by targeting financial institutions across the Gulf (7:47), and new supreme leader Mustafa Khomeini delivers his first address (10:27); in Gaza, aid shortages deepen as food supplies run low (16:01); esc...
Mar 13, 2026•43 min
Paris Marx is joined by Gita Jackson to discuss why the left’s hatred of AI is justified, why a different approach to technology is necessary, and how they’re reassessing their own relationships with digital tech. Gita Jackson is a co-founder of Aftermath. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Mar 12, 2026•1 hr 3 min
Derek welcomes back legal scholar Maryam Jamshidi to discuss the legal aspect of the U.S.–Israel war on Iran. They talk about the administration’s shifting legal justifications, why the administration’s claims about Iranian threats and nuclear weapons fail under international law, the legal limits of self-defense, how the conflict fits within the laws of war, and the broader humanitarian and political consequences of the war for Iranian civilians and the country’s future. Advertising Inquiries: ...
Mar 11, 2026•35 min
