President Biden announced sanctions against Russia on Tuesday while referring to President Vladimir Putin’s recent actions as the “beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.” CNN’s senior international correspondent Matthew Chance, who is currently reporting out of Kyiv, joins us to discuss what’s happening on the ground in Ukraine. And in headlines: Ahmaud Arbery’s killers were found guilty of committing federal hate crimes, members of the U.S. Women’s Soccer team reached a $24 million settlem...
Feb 23, 2022•22 min
The Russia-Ukraine crisis ramped up this past weekend, and in a controversial address on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of two Russian-backed territories in eastern Ukraine: the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. In response, the White House announced sanctions on Ukraine’s separatist regions but not yet Russia, as there had been hopes of further diplomatic solutions. Michael McFaul, the former U.S. Ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014 and professor a...
Feb 22, 2022•18 min
On Thursday, there was a big spike in shelling across the front line between the Ukrainian military and Russian-backed separatists within Ukraine. The separatists claim that Ukrainians are the ones firing at them, and the fear is that Russia could use this as a “justification” for military action to invade. The Beijing Winter Olympics conclude this Sunday. Ava Wallace, who has been in China reporting on the Olympic Games for the Washington Post, joins us to discuss what it’s been like to cover t...
Feb 18, 2022•22 min
On Wednesday, federal officials announced upcoming guidance changes, which reflects yet another new stage of the pandemic. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, epidemiologist and host of Crooked Media’s “America Dissected,” joins us to discuss what these new policies might look like and answers other questions about the future of COVID. And in headlines: Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva took first place in the women’s short program, San Francisco voters overwhelmingly ousted three members of the city’s schoo...
Feb 17, 2022•17 min
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that the military has ordered some Russian troops near the borders of Ukraine to return to their bases, signaling the potential for a further de-escalation. However, President Joe Biden later said that “an invasion remains distinctly possible,” and that the U.S. had not yet verified if Russian troops are actually falling back. Matthew Chance, CNN’s Senior International Correspondent, joins us from Kyiv to discuss what things look like on the groun...
Feb 16, 2022•21 min
Monday marked the start of in-person early voting in Texas ahead of the state’s March 1st primary. Texas is just one of nearly 20 states that will hold elections this year with more restrictive voting laws in place, a result of Republican-led efforts to validate former President Trump’s lies about the 2020 presidential election. James Slattery, a senior staff attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project, joins us to discuss what’s happening in the state, what’s to come and what the rest of the c...
Feb 15, 2022•17 min
Canadian police began arresting those who were part of the ongoing so-called “Freedom Convoy” protests, yesterday. It’s been almost a week since demonstrators blocked the Ambassador Bridge between the U.S. and Canada as an objection to vaccine mandates for truckers doing business across the border. We recap what led us to this moment. The U.S. has reduced its Ukrainian embassy to a skeleton crew and continues to draw down national guard troops stationed in Ukraine, in the likely scenario that Ru...
Feb 14, 2022•15 min
The House January 6th Committee has found gaps in official phone logs from the White House on the day of the insurrection, during times when investigators know that former President Trump was making calls. Plus, new details have emerged regarding Trump’s handling of White House documents, causing concern that he may have destroyed or stolen “top-secret” materials. Representative Zoe Lofgren, one of the members of the Jan. 6 committee, joins us to discuss what this will for the House investigatio...
Feb 11, 2022•20 min
Several states announced plans to lift mask mandates this week, but the federal government is taking a more cautious approach, and has communicated that hospitalizations and deaths are still high enough that relaxing guidelines at this point would be premature. Dr. Céline Gounder, a clinical assistant professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at NYU who has been in touch with the White House, joins us to discuss what comes next in this new, slightly less-masked phase of the pandemic. And in ...
Feb 10, 2022•19 min
This weekend's Super Bowl LVI comes as the NFL is being sued by Brian Flores, a former head coach of the Miami Dolphins who has accused the league racial discrimination in hiring practices. To discuss the lawsuit and racism in the NFL, we're joined by Tyler Tynes, a staff writer for GQ who covers the intersection between race, politics, and sports. The nominees for the 94th Academy Awards were announced yesterday and Netflix’s "Don’t Look Up" is up for Best Picture. The climate change satire has...
Feb 09, 2022•25 min
The White House released a report yesterday detailing how it wants to increase union participation and collective bargaining in the workforce amid historic lows in union membership across the U.S. This is happening while workers at an Amazon facility in Bessemer, Alabama are in the midst of a union election process after last year’s election result was overturned. Reyn McGuire, an employee at the warehouse who is actively organizing her coworkers, joins us to discuss how this vote is and isn’t d...
Feb 08, 2022•15 min
The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled on Friday that Republican-drawn congressional and state legislative maps constituted partisan gerrymanders that violated the state’s constitution. This is just the latest example of courts recently acting as a line of defense against maps that are very clearly drawn to increase Republicans' electoral odds. Michael Li, the senior counsel for the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program, joins us to discuss the impact of redistricting efforts across the country. An...
Feb 07, 2022•18 min
South Dakota became the first state to pass an anti-trans bill in 2022 yesterday, and according to a report by the Human Rights Campaign, roughly 280 anti-trans bills will likely move through state legislatures nationwide this year. Chase Strangio, a lawyer for the ACLU and transgender activist, joins us to discuss how we can get involved in the fight to combat these measures across the country. President Biden said that the U.S. had conducted a raid in Syria during which Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi ...
Feb 04, 2022•19 min
Roe v. Wade was issued just over 49 years ago, and in the months ahead, we're faced with the very real possibility that the Supreme Court could effectively overturn it. Plus, conservative lawmakers in at least 29 states have been racing to pass new anti-abortion restrictions. We're joined by Destiny Lopez, co-president of All* Above All, to discuss what abortion justice organizers are doing to defend the right to choose and how we can support them. The Pentagon announced that 3,000 additional U....
Feb 03, 2022•20 min
The NAACP is urging the Justice Department to bring federal civil rights charges against Jason Van Dyke, the Chicago police officer who murdered 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in 2014. Zooming out, it's not uncommon for people to look to the federal justice system when state courts or local law enforcement decline to hold police officers responsible in cases like these. The same avenues were pursued in the case of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who also was killed by police in 2014, though the DOJ has ann...
Feb 02, 2022•16 min
As we celebrate the beginning of Black History Month, conservatives are actively and aggressively silencing educators’ ability to talk honestly about history. Book bans are gaining steam with schools banning everything from "The 1619 Project," to Toni Morrison’s "Beloved," to Art Spiegelman’s "Maus." Journalist and activist George M. Johnson joins us to discuss the issue from an author’s perspective after their book, "All Boys Aren’t Blue," was targeted for removal in at least 14 states. And in ...
Feb 01, 2022•18 min
Concerns of a possible Russian invasion into Ukraine continue to mount, with Britain moving this week to broaden the sanctions it could impose in case of a Russian offensive. The U.S. has reportedly considered its own set of sanctions, which could have severe ramifications for individuals in Russia and conceivably others in Europe as well. Michael McFaul, the former US Ambassador to Russia, joins us to discuss everything we know and everything we don’t. And in headlines: New data suggests the om...
Jan 31, 2022•20 min
President Biden reaffirmed his commitment to nominating a Black woman to the Supreme Court yesterday, and said that he would announce his choice by the end of February. Plus, Justice Stephen Breyer formally announced his retirement. We were joined by Dan Pfeiffer, former White House Communications Director during the Obama administration and one of the hosts of Pod Save America, to discuss the impact the SCOTUS shakeup could have for Democrats as we head into midterm election season. And in head...
Jan 28, 2022•22 min
The 83-year-old Justice Stephen Breyer intends to retire at the end of this Supreme Court term in June, according to multiple reports yesterday. The oldest justice on the court, Breyer has been under enormous pressure to retire while Democrats have the slimmest control of the Senate. Leah Litman, a law professor at the University of Michigan and co-host of the podcast Strict Scrutiny, joins us to discuss what comes next. And in headlines: San Jose passed the first U.S. law requiring gun owners t...
Jan 27, 2022•17 min
Russia conducted a series of military drills yesterday while Ukraine received a shipment of weapons including antitank missiles from the U.S. These were some of the latest turns since diplomatic negotiations between the U.S. and Russia have faltered and now both are accusing the other of ratcheting up tensions. Ben Rhodes, a former deputy national security adviser in the Obama administration and co-host of Pod Save the World, joins us to discuss how we got here and what’s next. And in headlines:...
Jan 26, 2022•20 min
The Supreme Court announced yesterday that it will hear cases on the right of universities to consider race in admissions. The court has historically ruled that universities have a limited right to consider an applicant’s race during the admission process, but the court’s conservative majority could upend decades of precedent. Lawyer and journalist Jay Willis joins us to discuss what we can expect, what this might mean for affirmative action, and the future of higher education. And in headlines:...
Jan 25, 2022•17 min
New U.S. cases of COVID are down slightly from the peak brought on by the Omicron variant. Average daily cases are closer to 700,000 than 800,000, which is where they were earlier in the month, and hospitalizations are at a record high but have started to level off. We look at the numbers and discuss new data on the efficacy of booster vaccine doses. The Sarah Palin v. The New York Times libel case goes to trial today. Palin filed the suit after the New York Times suggested that an ad placed by ...
Jan 24, 2022•17 min
A number of inquiries into former President Trump’s interference in the 2020 election are advancing. Yesterday, the House committee investigating last year’s insurrection asked Ivanka Trump to testify. Meanwhile, a Georgia District Attorney asked a judge to convene a special grand jury in a separate, ongoing criminal investigation into the former president. Famed fashion journalist and editor André Leon Talley passed away this week at age 73. He was American Vogue’s first Black male creative dir...
Jan 21, 2022•21 min
Today is the first anniversary of President Biden taking office. Yesterday, he held his first formal news conference in months to discuss his administration’s accomplishments and progress over the past year. We share our biggest takeaways from the speech that covered COVID to Congress to Afghanistan, and more. Verizon and AT&T agreed to turn on nationwide 5G service yesterday, except near airports and runways due to ongoing safety concerns from the Federal Aviation Administration. Despite this d...
Jan 20, 2022•19 min
Tensions between the U.S. and Russia are rising after last week’s summit in Geneva ended with no resolution between the two countries over Ukraine. We hear an excerpt of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s exclusive interview with Pod Save The World just hours before he went overseas yesterday to meet with Ukraine’s president and Russia’s foreign minister. Tomorrow, jury selection is expected to start in the federal trial of three former Minneapolis police officers charged with violating George ...
Jan 19, 2022•17 min
Yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In addition to fighting racial inequality, working to pass major civil rights laws, and more, Martin Luther King Jr. was also well known for critiquing capitalism and how it disenfranchises the working class. Andrew Douglas and Jared Loggins, authors of the book, “Prophet of Discontent: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Critique of Racial Capitalism,” join us to dive deeper into the economic legacy of King’s words and ideas. And in headlines: The gunman who...
Jan 18, 2022•17 min
The Supreme Court yesterday blocked the Biden administration’s attempt to enforce a vaccine or testing mandate for private employers. Meanwhile, Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin said that they, again, will not support changing the filibuster rules to pass new voting rights measures. More than 8,000 grocery store workers in Colorado have begun a strike against their employer, the Kroger-owned chain King Soopers. Kim Cordova, head of the workers’ union that represents them, joins us to disc...
Jan 14, 2022•21 min
Hollywood is going through some massive changes. The Golden Globes, usually the start of awards show season, was a non-event when it took place earlier this week because of problems that face the organization that puts it on, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Plus, theatres continue to struggle to lure back moviegoers except with big tentpole films. The Hollywood Reporter’s Senior Film Editor Rebecca Keegan joins us to discuss what’s going wrong and what the future of the film industry lo...
Jan 13, 2022•16 min
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Atlanta, Georgia yesterday to make a stand for voting rights. Absent from the audience to Biden’s speech were several Georgia voting rights groups that refused to attend. Black Voters Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown joins us to discuss why activists like her sat this one out and what they’re concerned about ahead of this year’s midterm elections. And in headlines: Russia will begin withdrawing its troops from Kazakhstan this week, ...
Jan 12, 2022•22 min
Former Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud investors, last week. U.S. prosecutors declared the high-profile verdict a win, despite her not being found guilty on a number of other charges. New York Times reporter Erin Griffith joins us to discuss what’s next in the sentencing, and the case’s implications for Silicon Valley. And in headlines: Several universities were sued for allegedly violating antitrust laws in order to limit student financial aid...
Jan 11, 2022•14 min
