Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

There’s a reason we keep revisiting identity on WITHpod. From Brittney Cooper to Alex Wagner to Michael Tesler to Amy Chua and on, it’s a topic worth circling back to because it’s one of the most fundamental axes of conflict in our society today. Identities themselves are as old as we as a species are, but the concept of identity is relatively recent. Our ideas of identities are shifting and chang...

Is it too late for us? Scientists have spent decades sounding the alarm on the devastating effects of climate change. And for decades, society decided to do pretty much nothing about it. In fact, over the past 30 years, we’ve done more damage to the climate than in all of human history! Now, there’s a real chance we may have waited too long to avoid widespread tragedy and suffering. In his book “T...

It’s our second live edition of WITHpod, featuring special guest Stacey Abrams! Just a heads up, this is one of those episodes that'll make you laugh out loud in public. A lot. If you want to get to the heart of the most fundamental question facing the Democratic Party right now – what is the future of the coalition – look no further than Stacey Abrams. Her historic 2018 campaign for Georgia Gover...

How soon after waking up do you check your phone? Do you compulsively refresh your Twitter feed? Can you find your way around without Google Maps? There are many obvious and tactile ways in which Silicon Valley has its hooks in our everyday lives. And as we see Big Tech face increased scrutiny, people are becoming more conscious of their interactions with technology: limiting screen time, quitting...

**Listen for details on how to win tickets to our live WITHpod recording with Stacey Abrams!** Why is it so hard to raise taxes on the rich? From freshmen firebrands to Presidential hopefuls, taxing the wealthy has become the Congressional conversation du jour of 2019 that has no signs of slowing down. But before even getting into the policy debates and the ideological disputes, there’s one import...

Why do we summarize things into ‘tweet length versions’? It requires the flattening of nuance and personality and information that we need to talk about complicated things. Whether it’s the 280 characters of a tweet or a clickbait headline, we’re trafficking in hollowed out means of communicating that lack space for depth and complexity. While society is in a crucial moment of trying to figure out...

Presale tickets available TODAY starting at 10a ET >>> Buy tickets here < < < < To access presale tickets, use special code -- WITHPOD Sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads. You'll also get exclusive bonus content from this and other shows. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collect...

*We have a new live show on the calendar! Listen for details.* If you care about battling climate change, then you might want to pay attention to the New York City subway system. We know there’s an urgent need to cut our carbon emissions and a big part of that is going to be transportation. We need to radically reimagine the way we get around in the coming years because we cannot continue to have...

We have a Census update! When last we left you, Dale Ho was headed to court to argue against the Trump administration’s plan to add a citizenship question on the 2020 census. Now, Dale Ho is back to tell us what the court decided and what happens next. If you haven’t listened to the original episode, make sure to check that out first! The Trump Scheme to Rig the Census with Dale Ho (released Novem...

What does Amazon want from us? For consumers, Amazon can be a frictionless gateway to find everything from bed frames to dog food, baby clothes to award winning original tv series. There’s nothing quite like it – a position they’re in not by accident but by design. Amazon became the behemoth we know it to be by targeting and absorbing any competition, leveraging favorable government treatment, and...

What was so bad about NAFTA? If you ask the President, it was one of the worst deals ever made. A common 2016 campaign riff was him promising to bring jobs back, get companies to return production to the U.S., and scrap NAFTA. This anti-trade campaigning caught the attention of many voters struggling to find work. Interestingly, it also got the attention of progressive trade critics on the left wh...

How can Democrats win in deep red America? During the midterms, momentum behind progressive candidates in red states garnered national attention – Beto O’Rourke in Texas, Andrew Gillum in Florida, and Stacey Abrams in Georgia. These were no overnight successes. They were the culmination of, among many things, the tireless efforts of grass roots organizers. Organizers like George Goehl, Director of...

You asked, Chris answered! In our inaugural mailbag episode, we talk about the organizing power of county fairs, why members of Congress contradict each other on Yemen, whether there’s any hope for the Internet, and more. Can you guess which WITHpod revelation Chris thinks is the most shocking yet? Also, the first ever appearance of WITHpod producer Tiffany Champion. EPISODES WE TALKED ABOUT Who B...

Listen for a couple of WITHpod announcements! Since his first day in office, Donald Trump has been testing the boundaries of the law on multiple fronts. From his open hostility towards the investigation into his campaign’s involvement with a foreign adversary, to his policy prescriptions by way of executive order, to the way Donald Trump runs his own White House, this President has challenged the...

Will America’s reputation survive President Trump? A common trend underlying President Trump’s policy decisions is to undo whatever President Obama accomplished. For former Secretary of State John Kerry, that means watching years of his hard-earned achievements in the international community come apart. Hear Kerry explain what it’s like to watch President Trump on the world stage, why he refuses t...

Imagine what would happen if your Senator was beaten bloody on the Senate floor. Or if your Congressperson pulled a gun on a member of the opposition party. Our current political climate is ugly but that kind of violence would be unfathomable today. In the early and mid-1800s however, it was a whole different story. Joanne Freeman spent 17 years wrenching out the hidden history of just how endemic...

How can you be sure that the things you know are true… are actually true? We have access to more information than any humans in history but we can't process it on our own. In fact, almost all of what we know comes from others. We come to rely on people and institutions to tell us what to believe and not to believe. And it turns out there are huge consequential differences in how Americans form tho...

In our first ever live edition of WITHpod, Chris interviews one of the most important non-fiction writers in America - Ta-Nehisi Coates. His books and essays drive national conversations about issues like systemic racism, blackness, white privilege, and the legacy of President Obama. Chris and Ta-Nehisi sit down to talk about how the current political moment tells us where we stand in the American...

Listen to Rachel Maddow talk about her new podcast, what it’s like to be covering the news in this political moment, how we can use history to make sense of current events, and why are you even still reading this description – it’s Rachel and Chris! What more do you need to know! Email us at WITHpod@gmail.com Tweet using #WITHpod Read more at nbcnews.com/whyisthishappening Sign up for MS NOW Premi...

What can soil tell us about election results? After every election, analysts pore over piles of data in order to better understand political trends. But what if a better place to search for answers is the ground beneath our feet? More specifically, whether that soil was conducive to crops worked by slaves over 200 years ago? Listen to Maya Sen and Matthew Blackwell trace southern racial conservati...

In many cases the Trump Administration isn’t shy when it comes to undermining the Constitution of the United States. But while fights over things like the Muslim ban or ending birthright citizenship play out in public, there are other massive Constitutional erosions happening under the radar. This is the story of how Wilbur Ross and the Trump Administration went about trying to change the way peop...

It’s a bonus mini-episode of #WITHpod! Daniel Nichanian joins Chris to talk about what he has his eyes on ahead of election day. Read his much more extensive list at Whatsontheballot.com and find out what’s happening in your state. Sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads. You'll also get exclusive bonus content from this and other shows...

Just one week left until the midterms and race and identity politics are playing a major role in the messaging of both parties. For Republicans, it comes in the shape of fear-mongering about the threat imposed by anyone ‘other’, a play ripped directly from the campaign that won Donald Trump the presidency. While these candidates are following in the steps of President Trump, they are tapping in to...

What would it mean to have Medicare for All? The issue of healthcare emerged as a key campaign fight in the coming midterm elections, with ads and debate questions centered on coverage of pre-existing conditions. While Republicans dig deeper into a fear mongering campaign that Medicare for All means Medicare for none, a growing number of Democrats are throwing their support behind single payer hea...

Why are Republicans so obsessed with voter fraud? Study after study finds no evidence of any large-scale voter fraud in the country, yet we keep hearing about necessary changes to voting systems in order to combat this major threat to democracy. Here’s the thing - it’s a sleight of hand trick, just the latest in a long history of racist voter suppression laws. By crying ‘voter fraud’, the governme...