The Breach

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Episodes

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Episodes

Does President Trump Suffer from Narcissistic Personality Disorder?

It’s no secret that Donald J. Trump is possessed of an outsized ego. Some psychiatrists speculate that he suffers from a psychiatric condition known as Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), which is defined by grandiosity, insecurity, callousness, and a predatory approach to human relationships. Dr. Allen Frances, who helped write the criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder for psychiatry’s diagnostic bible, argues that Trump does not meet the criteria for NPD because he doesn’t suffer...

May 09, 2017•31 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast

America’s B.S. Artist-in-Chief

Jeet Heer is a senior editor at the New Republic, an award-winning author, and one of Canada’s foremost public intellectuals. He swears he didn’t invent the Twitter essay, but he perfected the genre. As Donald J. Trump’s political fortunes began to gel, Jeet was among the first to grasp the philosophical significance of the tycoon-candidate’s unconventional relationship to the truth. Trump is not a liar, he argued, but rather a "bullshitter," as described in Harry G. Frankfurt’s classi...

May 02, 2017•31 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast

Trump's New Drug Czar Will Make Things Worse

This month, the White House leaked that Rep. Tom Marino (R-PA) was in the final stages of vetting to become the nation’s Drug Czar. Marino’s record as a prosecutor and legislator is in line with the punitive approach Donald Trump has promised to tackling illicit drugs. Sanho Tree is the director of the Drug Policy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, where he has spent nearly two decades envisioning alternatives to the "war on drugs." He explains why a border wall won’t stop dr...

Apr 25, 2017•34 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast

Unmasking America’s Secret Court System with Liza Goitein

Last week, we learned that a FISA court gave the government permission to monitor the communications of Carter Page, a foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign. Such warrants are only granted when there is probable cause that the target is operating as an agent of a foreign power. In Page’s case, it’s not hard to guess which foreign power. In 2013, Page admitted to the FBI that he gave documents to a Russian spy ring. On the latest episode of The Breach, Liza Goitein joins host Lindsay Beyer...

Apr 18, 2017•28 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast

In the Shadow of Putin with Sarah Kendzior

President Donald Trump regularly flatters Vladimir Putin and has promised warmer relations between the United States and Russia, but tensions between the two nuclear powers rose last week after Trump ordered an airstrike in Syria. How might this situation play out, and what can we learn from studying Putin's tactics at home and abroad? This week on The Breach, journalist Sarah Kendzior joins us to talk about the weaponization of information in Putin’s Russia. The full extent of Russia’s influenc...

Apr 11, 2017•34 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast

Interrogating the Emoluments Clause with Zephyr Teachout

This week on The Breach, we take a closer look at those 49 words that mean so much: the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the United States Constitution. Law professor Zephyr Teachout joins host Lindsay Beyerstein for an in-depth discussion of one of our founding document’s most critical anti-corruption clauses. Teachout and her legal colleagues at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) have launched a groundbreaking lawsuit against Trump to stop him from taking cash from foreign...

Apr 04, 2017•28 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast

Coming April 4th: The Breach Episode #1!

Welcome to the new series from Rewire Radio, The Breach! Listen to this short promo to hear more about the show from host Lindsay Beyerstein, then subscribe and share this feed with everyone you know who should be vigilant and informed on authoritarianism, corruption and overreach in our government.

Mar 27, 2017•26 sec•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast