Executive Dysfunction

In the season finale of Executive Dysfunction , Amanda Nelson tells the story of the 1886 Haymarket Affair, when a massive labor movement in Chicago collided with police violence, a mysterious bombing, and a trial that put anarchism itself on the stand. Eight men were convicted despite no proof that any of them threw the bomb, and four were ultimately executed. It's a story of class warfare, immig...

In this episode of Executive Dysfunction , Amanda Nelson traces the birth of America's two-party system, from the bitter feud between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson to newspaper propaganda, congressional brawls, the Alien and Sedition Acts, and the first constitutional crisis over a presidential election. Along the way, she reveals how fights over slavery, wealth, and foreign policy harde...

Who was America's most anti-First Amendment president? It wasn't Richard Nixon. It wasn't Donald Trump. It was Woodrow Wilson. In this episode of Executive Dysfunction, Amanda Nelson traces how the Espionage Act, government propaganda, postal censorship, and political prosecutions turned criticism of the government into a crime and why the legal framework Wilson built still echoes in America today...

What if the FBI invented a fake billionaire just to see which politicians would sell their office? In this episode of Executive Dysfunction, Amanda Nelson tells the unbelievable true story of ABSCAM, the undercover operation that caught members of Congress accepting bags of cash on hidden camera. It's a story about corruption, accountability, and the uncomfortable question that still haunts Americ...

Welcome to Season 1, Episode 1 of Executive Dysfunction: a deep dive into the presidential election of 2000, in which a butterfly ballot, a discriminatory voter purge, a staged riot by dorks in khaki, and a Supreme Court ruling that its own authors said should never be used as precedent combined to hand the presidency to George W. Bush...by 537 votes in Florida. Oh, and did we mention his brother...

History doesn't stay in the past—it keeps shaping the present. Hosted by creator and political storyteller Amanda Nelson (Amanda's Mild Takes), Executive Dysfunction is a weekly narrative podcast exploring the most fascinating chapters of American political history and why they still matter today. From disputed elections and political corruption to constitutional crises, government overreach, and...