This week, the British ambassador to the United States resigned after private cables leaked with his frank assessment of the White House and its occupant. Sir Kim Darroch described the administration as “clumsy” and "inept" and said President Trump "radiates insecurity." In response, the president called Darroch “wacky,” a “very stupid guy,” and a “pompous fool.” The episode is another in a long string of public feuds for Trump. But the departure of the ambassador from America's closest ally is ...
Jul 11, 2019•50 min•Ep 100•Transcript available on Metacast Former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld has experience taking down a Republican president. He began his career in politics as one of the first lawyers hired to investigate Watergate for the House. Working alongside another low-level staffer named Hillary Clinton, his job was to define what constituted an impeachable offense for a president. Now, he’s one of the rare Republicans who thinks Donald Trump’s actions have met that definition. He’s called for the president to be impeached, and even to ...
Jun 27, 2019•36 min•Ep 99•Transcript available on Metacast On Wednesday—for the first time in a decade—Congress held a hearing on reparations for slavery. It was a crystallizing moment for an issue that has gained prominence since Ta-Nehisi Coates’s 2014 Atlantic essay. Coates and others testified before a House committee on June 19th—Juneteenth—a day the nation celebrates emancipation from slavery. Every year, Atlantic staff writer Vann R. Newkirk II writes a Juneteenth essay. He joins Isaac Dovere to discuss the history of the holiday, the importance ...
Jun 21, 2019•35 min•Ep 98•Transcript available on Metacast The 2020 race is on. Staff writer Edward-Isaac Dovere, who covers Democratic politics, was in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for the unofficial kick-off of the fight to replace Donald Trump. Elaina Plott, who covers the White House, will be in Orlando on Tuesday when the president officially announces his re-election campaign. On this week’s Radio Atlantic: two reporters inhabiting two very different universes discuss what the coming months have in store. Who does President Trump want to face? Who has the ...
Jun 13, 2019•38 min•Ep 97•Transcript available on Metacast In the coming days, the Supreme Court will announce its decisions on two cases that ask the same basic question: how far should partisan politics go? One will determine whether a citizenship question will appear on the 2020 census. The other asks whether partisan gerrymandering is constitutional. With these decisions imminent, that same question about partisanship in non-partisan institutions hangs over the court itself. Still wounded by Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation battle, the nation’...
Jun 06, 2019•34 min•Ep 96•Transcript available on Metacast Recent weeks have seen unprecedented anti-abortion bills pass in states across the country. In Alabama, abortion is now banned under state law, without any exceptions for rape or incest. Georgia, Ohio, and Kentucky have all passed so-called ‘heartbeat’ bills making abortion illegal six to eight weeks into pregnancy. On Wednesday, Louisiana's legislature passed its own heartbeat bill without any exceptions for rape or incest. In Missouri, abortion has been outlawed after eight weeks. And on Frida...
May 30, 2019•35 min•Ep 95•Transcript available on Metacast Privacy is now the most important idea on the internet—so what exactly is it? And if we care about our privacy, why aren’t we willing to pay to keep it? This week’s Radio Atlantic is a preview of the new season of Crazy/Genius, The Atlantic’s podcast about technology and culture. Staff writer Derek Thompson joins Isaac Dovere to discuss Season 3, which kicks off with an episode about privacy. Subscribe to Crazy/Genius: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Play Learn more about your ad ch...
May 23, 2019•37 min•Ep 94•Transcript available on Metacast Trump isn’t like most Republican presidents, but his views on trade have been an unusually firm departure from his party. Despite long championing free trade, the GOP is now led by a man who seems deeply skeptical of it. Last week, he upended trade negotiations with China by levying tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods, carrying out a threat he’d issued just before a Chinese delegation visited the White House. On Monday, China retaliated with tariffs on $60 billion in U.S. goods. A trade war...
May 16, 2019•33 min•Ep 93•Transcript available on Metacast Franklin Foer joins Isaac Dovere to discuss his story in the June issue of The Atlantic about Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Orbán described his vision of Hungary as an "alternative to liberal democracy," and, in recent years, cemented his power by undermining civil society. When Orbán’s party won a majority last year, it rewrote parts of the constitution, redrew parliamentary districts, and stacked courts. Foer details how one of the last independent institutions—a university in Buda...
May 09, 2019•48 min•Ep 92•Transcript available on Metacast Last weekend’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner was the first one in years without a comedian. In the Trump era, comedians have struggled to adjust — are things too serious? Too biased? Too absurd? Is any of it funny anymore? Jordan Klepper has been on three very different political comedy shows in three years. He was a fake news correspondent on The Daily Show, then a parody conspiracy theorist on The Opposition, to now playing himself in a new documentary series called simply: Klepper. He jo...
May 02, 2019•42 min•Ep 91•Transcript available on Metacast Atlantic Ideas Editor Yoni Appelbaum and Vox editor-at-large Ezra Klein have both deeply researched the question of impeachment — and each came to a different conclusion. Appelbaum argued in The Atlantic’s March cover story that the House of Representatives “must immediately open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump, and bring the debate out of the court of public opinion and into Congress, where it belongs.” Klein argues that “impeachment will be a partisan war over the president’s...
Apr 25, 2019•55 min•Ep 90•Transcript available on Metacast On Tuesday, Attorney General William Barr ordered immigration judges to stop releasing asylum seekers on bail. The move signals an even fiercer immigration policy that could include the return of family separations. A few weeks ago, the president threatened to close the southern border. Days later, he fired his Homeland Security chief, who reportedly lost out to hardliners in the White House. Isaac Dovere interviews Taylor Levy, the Legal Coordinator at Annunciation House, a Catholic charity bas...
Apr 20, 2019•42 min•Ep 89•Transcript available on Metacast The crowded race for the Democratic nomination includes both frontrunners and long-shots, but how do we know which is which? Some big names have trailed in fundraising and polls. And some written off early have found surprising support. On this week’s Radio Atlantic, Isaac Dovere is joined by one of the biggest long-shot successes in recent Democratic politics: Howard Dean. The former Vermont governor was an unlikely frontrunner for the presidency, but for a time in the 2004 race, he was the man...
Apr 12, 2019•42 min•Ep 88•Transcript available on Metacast In recent days, three women have accused former Vice President Joe Biden of inappropriate contact. On Wednesday, Biden announced in a video that he is going to be “mindful” about personal space going forward, that he hears what these women are saying, and that he "gets it." While a number of prominent women have come to Biden's defense, there are plenty of critics who have said he has no place representing a diverse, empowered, progressive electorate in the coming presidential race. When it come...
Apr 04, 2019•41 min•Ep 87•Transcript available on Metacast Last week, the special counsel submitted his report to Attorney General Bill Barr. And this week, Barr shared his brief summary of the big conclusions: there was no collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. As for obstruction of justice, Mueller left that question unresolved. In his letter, Barr said the DOJ had decided the evidence presented didn’t merit criminal charges. More could change with the release of the actual report. In fact, six House committee chairs have demanded it by next...
Mar 28, 2019•43 min•Ep 86•Transcript available on Metacast When elected, most presidents either sell their assets or put them in a blind trust. Isolating a president’s financial interests from their time in office has been a norm for decades: from Jimmy Carter giving up his peanut farm to Barack Obama liquidating his assets. But Donald Trump is not like most presidents. He’s said he won’t divest from his businesses, even though his real estate deals around the world open up countless opportunities for conflicts of interest. His unprecedented decision ma...
Mar 23, 2019•35 min•Ep 85•Transcript available on Metacast Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort will spend around seven years in federal prison — far less than the nineteen to twenty-four years recommended by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The sentences prompted a backlash when a federal judge in Virginia said Manafort deserved leniency for his “otherwise blameless life.” But it’s not just the punishment that has people talking. Manafort’s crimes only came to light after the unlikely events that led to the Mueller investigation. Manafort’s own ...
Mar 14, 2019•44 min•Ep 84•Transcript available on Metacast The Democratic party is in a battle with itself. After devastating losses in 2016, the party was resurgent in 2018, but the lessons from both elections remain unclear: should the Democratic party be one of progressive grassroots activism or should it try to win back suburban and moderate voters? Dan Pfeiffer — former senior advisor to President Obama and co-host of Pod Save America — thinks the choice is a false one. He joins Alex Wagner to discuss what lessons Democrats should carry into 2020. ...
Mar 07, 2019•39 min•Ep 83•Transcript available on Metacast On Wednesday before the House Oversight Committee, Michael Cohen called the president a racist, a conman, and a cheat. He also brought documents. Trump’s onetime confidant testified for seven hours. He laid a trail of legal breadcrumbs that are likely to be followed by House Democrats and federal investigators, among others—long after Robert Mueller hands in his report to the Attorney General. Fordham Law Professor Jed Shugerman joins Alex Wagner to explain the legal problems President Trump now...
Feb 28, 2019•34 min•Ep 82•Transcript available on Metacast Last week, President Trump declared a national emergency to get funding for the wall. The move gave him elevated power to move money around, but it was immediately met with lawsuits from 16 states. What exactly is a national emergency? Why is this one different? And just how far do a president’s emergency powers really go? Alex Wagner speaks with Liza Goitein, Co-Director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center. Months before the president’s announcement, Goitein looke...
Feb 21, 2019•32 min•Ep 81•Transcript available on Metacast Amazon founder Jeff Bezos recently accused the National Enquirer of “extortion and blackmail” over private photos of him obtained by the tabloid. In a Medium post, Bezos shared emails from the Enquirer that threaten to publish those photos unless he accedes to their demands. How did a celebrity magazine get into the rough and tumble world of extortion? Jeffrey Toobin, New Yorker staff writer and CNN’s Chief Legal Analyst, joins Alex Wagner to share insights from his 2017 profile of the man who r...
Feb 14, 2019•38 min•Ep 80•Transcript available on Metacast Recently, news broke that Virginia’s Democratic governor and attorney general both wore blackface in the 1980s. The controversy now enveloping the state has seemed all too familiar, as blackface photos of even more politicians have come out in recent years. Alex Wagner sits down with staff writers Vann R. Newkirk II and Adam Serwer to ask: how does this keep happening? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 06, 2019•36 min•Ep 79•Transcript available on Metacast Senator Kamala Harris has drawn criticism for beginning her 2020 campaign by pitching herself as a ‘progressive prosecutor’ despite a more mixed record. Alex Wagner sits down with two people who have thought deeply about the power of prosecutors in America: Georgetown Law Professor Paul Butler and New York Times Magazine staff writer Emily Bazelon. What exactly is Harris’s record? How does race inform the debate about prosecutorial power? And what does it all mean for the broader conversation in...
Feb 01, 2019•39 min•Ep 78•Transcript available on Metacast The government shutdown is now the longest in U.S. history, but President Trump seems no closer to a deal to resolve it. Why does the “master dealmaker” -- as he sold himself on the campaign trail -- seem at a loss in his first negotiation with a Democratic House? New York Times White House Correspondent and ‘Trump whisperer’ Maggie Haberman joins Alex Wagner to explain how his business career actually predicted his performance during the shutdown. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megapho...
Jan 24, 2019•37 min•Ep 77•Transcript available on Metacast On Friday, the New York Times published a startling story: In 2017, days after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, the bureau opened an inquiry into whether the president was secretly working on behalf of Russia. It was an explosive development in an already major story. Since this news came out, it’s informed how we see two other very big new stories: On Sunday, the Washington Post reported that Trump has gone to “extraordinary lengths” to conceal details of his conversations with Vladimir Pu...
Jan 17, 2019•38 min•Ep 76•Transcript available on Metacast Social media platforms once promised to connect the world. Today’s digital communities, though, often feel like forces for disunity. Anger and discord in 2018 seemed only amplified by the social media institutions that now dictate our conversations. Executive editor Matt Thompson sits down with staff writer Alexis Madrigal to find out how we got to this point and whether we can do anything to solve it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jan 10, 2019•56 min•Ep 75•Transcript available on Metacast Observing antidemocratic ‘power grabs’ by state Republicans, Atlantic staff writer George Packer writes that “the corruption of the Republican Party in the Trump era seemed to set in with breathtaking speed. In fact, it took more than a half century to reach the point where faced with a choice between democracy and power, the party chose the latter.” To understand how the party of Lincoln became the party of Trump, Alex Wagner spoke with Packer on this week’s episode of Radio Atlantic. Listen to...
Dec 20, 2018•42 min•Ep 74•Transcript available on Metacast On Thursday, Maria Butina became the first Russian national convicted of seeking to influence the 2016 election. As part of Russia’s years-long effort to cozy up to the American right, Butina gained access to conservative circles through the National Rifle Association. And as the NRA is under scrutiny for ties to Russian operatives, it appears the organization illegally coordinated with the Trump campaign. Alex Wagner catches up on the week’s developments with Atlantic staff writer Natasha Bertr...
Dec 14, 2018•38 min•Ep 73•Transcript available on Metacast A Chinese researcher recently touched off a global controversy when he announced the birth of the world’s first genetically edited babies. The claims remain unverified, but the news shocked and dismayed scientists around the world. Atlantic staff writers Ed Yong and Sarah Zhang join Matt Thompson to discuss the news and what it means for the future of genetic editing. Links - The CRISPR Baby Scandal Gets Worse by the Day (Ed Yong, December 3, 2018) - Chinese Scientists Are Outraged by Reports of...
Dec 06, 2018•34 min•Ep 72•Transcript available on Metacast Paul Manafort’s cooperation with the Mueller probe has collapsed. In a Monday filing, the special counsel’s office said he repeatedly lied to federal investigators, nullifying the plea agreement and exposing him to new charges. Not soon after, news stories broke reporting that Manafort had met with Julian Assange in 2016, that a meeting between Manafort and Ecuador’s then-president was under scrutiny by Mueller, and that Manafort’s lawyer was briefing Trump’s attorneys. All this comes as the inv...
Nov 29, 2018•39 min•Ep 71•Transcript available on Metacast 
