Burn the Boats

Amanda Weinstein is a Professor of Economics at the University of Akron who studies the quality of life in suburban America. She is also the co-host of the podcast, The Suburban Women Problem. You can find her on twitter at @ProfWeinstein Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Pepper is an author and the former Chair of the Ohio Democratic Party. In his new book, Laboratories of Autocracy, David argues that the greatest threat to American Democracy is not the alt-right, January 6th, or even Donald Trump, but rather, the corrupt politicians in state houses across the country.  You can find David on Twitter @DavidPepper Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaph...

Today’s episode consists of two interviews. First we’re joined by Anna, a Ukrainian student who was supposed to be finishing her senior year of high school. On the first day of the invasion, her city was targeted, and she fled to Poland. She was helped by our second guest, Nico Marseillan, a volunteer aid worker who has been assisting refugees at the border. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...

Olga Lautman is a researcher and analyst who has been monitoring Russian and Ukrainian internal politics for years. She’s a Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, and the co-host of the Kremlin File, a podcast that details the rise of Putin and the spread of authoritarianism across the globe, including the Trump White House. You can Olga on Twitter @OlgaNYC1211, and make sure to...

David Chasteen is a former CIA officer on the covert action staff. While at the agency, David conducted overseas operations, guided human intelligence collection, evaluated foreign threats to computer systems, and provided analysis on cyber issues to the president. David was also a consultant for the Amazon Prime series, Jack Ryan, starring John Krasinski, and the show is heavily influenced by Dav...

Stephen Marche is an author and columnist whose work has appeared in Esquire, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and elsewhere. His new book, “The Next Civil War: Dispatches from the American Future,” details ways in which a civil war could realistically break out in this country. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we interviewed Nikolay, who’s a volunteer soldier in Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces. Shortly after the war began, his family was able to flee to the U.S., but despite having no military experience, Nikolay decided he had to stay and fight for his country.  Please visit our website for a transcript of this interview. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ward Carroll spent 20 years in the U.S. Navy as an F-14 Radar Intercept Officer, retired at the rank of commander, and went on to serve as the editor of Military.com. He now hosts a popular YouTube channel on military aviation.  To hear more from Ward, visit his YouTube channel, or follow him on Twitter @wardcarroll Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shannon Watts is the founder of Moms Demand Action, a grassroots organization that advocates for and passes common sense gun laws. We’ve invited her back on the show to check in on the status of gun safety efforts and to learn what they might mean for candidates in the 2022 midterms. Visit MomsDemandAction.org and Everytown.org to learn more about Shannon and gun safety efforts. You can find these...

Dan Barkhoff is a former Navy SEAL with multiple combat deployments, and an expert in urban warfare. In this interview, he discusses what the Russian invasion force is likely to face. This episode is a part of a series of special, unedited episodes that are separate from our normal content. As the invasion of Ukraine unfolds, we’ll be releasing these to provide you with timely insights from the ex...

Oliya Scootercaster is a Ukrainian Video Journalist who has lived and reported around the globe, but recently returned to her hometown of Kyiv to document the ongoing conflict with Russia.  We interviewed her right before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 23rd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Billy Ray is an award-winning film producer, director, and writer whose credits include The Comey Rule, Captain Phillips, The Hunger Games, and a project in development titled J6, about the assault on the US Capitol. In his free time, he works with Democratic candidates to improve their messaging and communication, specifically as they relate to independents and disillusioned republicans.  Learn m...

Josh Remillard is an Army Vet running for congress as a Democrat in North Carolina’s 13th congressional district. His campaign focuses on education, healthcare, and sustainability, and defeating Madison Cawthorn. For more information about his campaign, visit joshremillard.com Find Josh on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Kate Starbird is an Associate Professor at the University of Washington, where she co-founded the Center for an Informed Public, which is dedicated to resisting strategic misinformation, promoting an informed society, and strengthening democratic discourse. Her academic research focuses on how people use social media platforms during crises such as natural disasters, mass shootings, and lately...

This week, to mark the one year anniversary of the January 6th Insurrection, we are re-airing the story of someone who was in the Capitol during the attack.  Rep. Crow served as a House impeachment manager during Trump’s first impeachment trial in early 2020. In the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection, he has been hailed by his colleagues in Congress as “one of the heroes of that day,” for his ac...

On the one year anniversary of the January 6th insurrection, we’re sharing clips from six Burn the Boats interviews that delve into the causes and consequences of the attack.  Here are the guests featured in this Bonus episode, with links to their full interviews: Anne Nelson, an award-winning war correspondent and author. Congressman Jason Crow, who was in the House Gallery during the attack Chri...

Lucas Kunce is a Marine Corps veteran running to fill Missouri's vacant Senate seat in 2022. Lucas served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and eventually went on to become an international negotiations officer at the Pentagon. He's now running a campaign that focuses on taking power out of the hands of corporate monopolies and putting it back in the hands of working people. To learn more about his c...

Heidi Heitkamp is a former Senator who represented North Dakota from 2013 to 2019. She was one of the only Democrats in the Senate representing a state that voted overwhelmingly for President Trump.  Now, she helps lead the One Country Project, an organization dedicated to reopening dialogue with rural communities and advancing opportunities for rural Americans. You can find Heidi on Twitter at @H...

Fred Wellman is the former Executive Director of the Lincoln Project. He is a Westpoint and Harvard graduate, and served in the Army as an aviator and public affairs officer for 22 years.  The Lincoln Project is a political action committee that was founded in 2019 by former and present Republicans, with the goal of preventing the re-election of Donal Trump and defeating ‘Trumpism.’ You can find F...

Tyler Merritt is an Activist, Author, Actor, and public speaker. His video monologue, “Before You Call the Cops,” garnered national attention after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, and has been viewed tens of millions of times.  In his new book, I Take My Coffee Black, Tyler talks about his experiences as a black man in America, as well as privilege, religion, multiculturalism, and even musical...

Kareem Crayton is an attorney, law professor, and academic whose work explores the effects of state-sanctioned racial discrimination on campaigns, elections, and governance. He served as the Executive Director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, and is the founder and Managing Partner of Crimcard Consulting, which is now advising the Virginia Redistricting Commission.  You can learn more...

Chris Harnisch was the Deputy Coordinator for Countering Violent Extremism at the State Department during the Trump Administration. Among other various national security roles, he also was the Director for Transnational Threats and the Director for Afghanistan at the National Security Council. Chris also is a part of the Army reserves. He served for 14 months in Kabul, Afghanistan, and worked for...

Shontel Brown is the Chairwoman of the Cuyahoga County Democratic party, and was both the first woman, and the first African American elected to the position. She recently won a heated primary in Ohio’s 11th congressional district, which gained national attention and has been seen as an indicator for the direction of the Democratic Party. Find Shontel on Twitter at @ShontelMBrown Learn more about...

In 2018, Miles Taylor anonymously authored a New York Times op-ed titled “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration”. At the time, Miles worked in a senior role in the Department of Homeland security.  Eventually, after Trump asked him and other officials to break the law, Miles quit. He decided to author a book, again anonymously, titled A Warning, which described in detail the...

Amy McGrath talks about her new book, Honor Bound: An American Story of Dreams and Service, which details her groundbreaking time in the military, her tough political campaigns, and the challenges we face as a country. Follow Amy on Twitter at @AmyMcGrathKY  Check out her interview from last year here For more details about her time in the Marine Corps, listen to her interview on our other podcast...