Left Anchor

Subscribe now to hear the whole episode!

We've got Professor Matt Karp of Princeton on to discuss his new Catalyst article on " The Mass Politics of Antislavery ," his first preview of a new book on the history of the 1850s that is in progress. Then we turn to the debate about Bernie, Warren, and the upper-middle class, starting with another article: " A Socialist Party in Our Time? " by Abbott and Guastella. Check out his book This Vast...

Subscribe now to hear the whole episode !

Today we've got Heidi Sloan , a DSA member who is running for Congress in Texas' 25th district. We chat about what got her into politics, what it's like running as a DSA member, what is most important to her about politics, what attracted her to the People's Policy Project's Family Fun Pack , and more. (PPP has also endorsed her candidacy .) Enjoy!

Subscribe now to hear the whole episode!

Today we've got Professor Harvey Kaye on to discuss his upcoming book Take Hold of Our History: Make America Radical Again . We discuss how many of the grim realities of American reality and history are totally at odds with our founding values and aspirations -- but also how on many occasions Americans have made serious efforts to live up to them, and changed this country for the better. Enjoy!

Subscribe now to hear the full discussion!

Today we've got Professor Jedediah Purdy on to discuss his new book This Land Is Our Land: The Struggle for a New Commonwealth . We talk about how he distinguishes a socialist society from a commonwealth, the advanced case of political rot in the United States, what is to be done about climate change, and more. Enjoy!

Subscribe now to hear the full discussion !

Here's a little excerpt from a story by Ryan's father about running the Little Colorado during a flood. Find the whole thing here !

If a Democrat wins the White House next year, they will almost certainly not have 60 votes in the Senate, or perhaps even a majority. New bold legislation like a Green New Deal will face a near-impossible uphill struggle. But hang on -- it turns out there are gigantic reams of statutory authority just waiting to be picked up. We've got David Dayen , executive editor of The American Prospect, on to...

In this excerpt we discuss how Republican electoral cheating reveals their lack of power in an Arendtian sense. Subscribe now to hear the full episode!

Today we've got on Liza Featherstone to chat about her article on the families of 2020 candidates. From there we move onto a broader discussion of the merits of Bernie vs. Warren, how FDR became a class traitor, whether Lincoln was any good, and more! Also links to her books:  Divining Desire and Selling Women Short .

We've got writer David Klion on to discuss the freshly updated magazine Jewish Currents , Center for American Progress chief Neera Tanden's decision to bust the ThinkProgress union, the prospects for imperial rollback after 2020, how far the new Koch- and Soros-funded Quincy Institute should be trusted, and the evolution of Bernie Sanders' foreign policy thinking. Here are his Nation articles: on...

We bring on Dr. Jamaal Green -- otherwise known as the Surly Urbanist -- to talk about the ongoing debate about the role of slavery in early capitalism. Was it necessary to get capitalist development started, or did it actually slow down economic growth? Moreover, why is this an important question, and what does the gruesome history of slavery tell us about the nature of capitalist institutions? T...

Listen to Ryan's petty rant about how Bret Stephens has the easiest job on the planet, but can't even enjoy it. Subscribe here to hear the full episode!

We've got a gen-u-ine lefty preacher, Rev. John Thornton Jr., on the podcast to talk about what it's like participating in organized leftist Christianity in 2019. We discuss " The Class Struggle and Christian Love ," by Herbert McCabe, plus two of John's articles on the failure of "compassionate conservatism" and why there has so far been no appearance of a serious religious left .

Subscribe now to hear the full episode!

Today former press secretary for Hillary Clinton and spokesman for Chuck Schumer Brian Fallon jumps into the Left Anchor lion's den to advocate for his proposal for all 2020 Dem candidates to promise the following: "[no] more corporate lawyers on the federal bench during the next Democratic administration." We discuss the plague of corporate lawyer logrolling, how Brian came to believe in the need...

Something is happening in the Texas legislature's Republican delegation ... but what it is ain't exactly clear. We bring on Chris Hooks to talk about his Texas Monthly article explaining how the state's GOP Speaker of the House Dennis Bonnen punched himself directly in the dick through the medium of a loony right-wing crank, and how that bodes for the political future of Texas.

Adam Gaffney is the president of Physicians for a National Health Program and a doctor at the Harvard Medical School. He talks to us about the prospects for Medicare for All, whether moderate Democrats are serious about reform, and the best way to cut down America's ludicrously high health care costs.

Svalbard is a huge island about halfway between the north coast of Norway and the North Pole, which has the unusual characteristic of being accessible to anyone in the world without a visa (with some exceptions). Atossa Araxia Abrahamian joins us to talk about her trip there for an article in The Nation , as well as her book The Cosmopolites . The article in The Intercept about the late Jimmy Alda...

Harris County (home of Houston, Texas) recently entered into a consent decree to overhaul the cash bail process in its courts -- which among other things makes it much harder to lock up poor people for minor offenses. Famed Judge of the Harris County Criminal Court No. 8 Franklin Bynum joins us for the second time , together with his friend, adviser, and fellow organizer Bryan LaVergne , to tell u...

In this excerpt , we've got  Professor Rob Larson on the podcast to talk about his new book Capitalism vs. Freedom: The Toll Road to Serfdom. Subscribe now to hear all bonus episodes! 

This time we have some actual breaking news on the podcast! After discussing the Pelosi/Squad dispute ( TNR article here ) and the Mueller testimony today ( NR article here ), we turn to Senator Josh Hawley's (R-Mo.) speech at the National Conservative Conference a few days ago. We discuss the deeply anti-Semitic overtones of singling out 3 Jewish academics (out of 4 mentioned) to blame for "cosmo...