Chris Riback's Newsletter

I first met Dan Perry in Romania 1990. He was the AP Bureau Chief, and I was freelancing for the summer. There’s no one I’ve met who better understands collectively Israel, the Middle East, and the U.S. So after the Hamas attack and Israel’s declaration of war, I knew whom to call. Dan was awoken on Oct. 7 “by rocket fire over central Tel Aviv, with the Iron Dome system zapping the incoming missil...

For eight years, Ben Rhodes served as Deputy National Security Advisor to President Obama.  Now Rhodes has written a book — After the Fall: Being American in the World We've Made — about his personal post-Obama journey that sought to answer a simple question: What happened to the world, America, and himself as the undertow of history pulled us into the currents of nationalism and authoritarianism...

(Click audio player above to listen) 6 Minutes or Less: Can America Run a Fair Election? This newsletter-only feature will be available only to paid subscribers: I ask a thought leader or expert to educate/enlighten/explain an issue via audio in 6 Minutes or Less. Issue:  Following the latest voting disaster this week in Georgia’s primary – broken machines, inadequate poll workers, 8-hour lines, v...

6 Minutes or Less: Einstein & Investment Risk This newsletter-only feature will be available only to paid subscribers: I ask a thought leader or expert to educate/enlighten/explain an issue via audio in 6 Minutes or Less. Issue:  Einstein said that the most powerful force in the universe is compound returns. Question: Was Einstein right? And if we’re told to diversify our holdings to manage risk,...

6 Minutes or Less: Gene Sperling on His Parents, Race & Economic Dignity This newsletter-only feature will be available only to paid subscribers: I ask a thought leader or expert to educate/enlighten/explain an issue via audio in 6 Minutes or Less. Issue:  Gene Sperling’s new book is “ Economic Dignity ." He also wrote a moving tribute to his mother, Doris, who died last month. The two pieces conn...

( Click player above to listen) 6 Minutes or Less: The Neurobiology of Altruism This newsletter-only feature will be available only to paid subscribers: I ask a thought leader or expert to educate/enlighten/explain an issue via audio in 6 Minutes or Less. Issue:  As protests and the ongoing COVID-19 threat upend notions of safety and unleash deep-seated fury and grief, stress and worry abound, par...

( Click player above to listen) DocuPod: Gen. James Mattis’ Statement This newsletter-only feature will be available only to paid subscribers. This is a DocuPod. No conversation; no interview. Just a reading of the document itself. I offer DocuPods because with our democracy under stress, certain documents are interesting and essential. And it’s really hard to find time to read them. Today, Gen. J...

( Click player above to listen) 6 Minutes or Less: The Oxygen-COVID Discovery This newsletter-only feature will be available only to paid subscribers:  I ask a thought leader or expert to educate/enlighten/explain an issue via audio in 6 Minutes or Less. Issue:  Doctors made the incredible discovery that putting COVID patients on their stomachs significantly reduced the need to intubate and should...

( Click player above to listen) 6 Minutes or Less: Poverty in Coronavirus Age This newsletter-only feature will be available only to paid subscribers: I ask a thought leader or expert to educate/enlighten/explain an issue via audio in 6 Minutes or Less. Issue:  People living in NYC’s poorest neighborhoods are “dying from coronavirus at more than double the rate of more affluent neighborhoods,” Pol...

6 Minutes or Less: 1918 Pandemic & Today’s This newsletter-only feature will be available only to paid subscribers:  I ask a thought leader or expert to educate/enlighten/explain an issue via audio in 6 Minutes or Less. Issue:  All 50 states reopened. U.S. coronavirus deaths approach 100,000. The virus swells in South America. Question: What lessons should we apply today from the 1918 flu pandemic...

( Click player above to listen) 6 Minutes or Less: Putin and the Pandemic This newsletter-only feature will be available only to paid subscribers: I ask a thought leader or expert to educate/enlighten/explain an issue via audio in 6 Minutes or Less. Issue:  Russia faces falling oil prices and rising COVID-19 cases. Question: How are Russia and President Vladimir Putin managing the pandemic? Guest:...

6 Minutes or Less: Austin Mayor Steve Adler This newsletter-only feature will be available only to paid subscribers:  I ask a thought leader or expert to educate/enlighten/explain an issue via audio in 6 Minutes or Less. Issue:  Austin, TX is the state capital, 11th-most populous city in the U.S., and the country’s fastest-growing city. Mayor Steve Adler (D) took office in 2015, winning reelection...

6 Minutes or Less: ‘Enemy of the People’ This newsletter-only feature will be available only to paid subscribers:  I ask a thought leader or expert to educate/enlighten/explain an issue via audio in 6 Minutes or Less. Issue:  The phrase “enemy of the people” was used in 1793 revolutionary France by Maximilien Robespierre. It helped lead to public executions and the 1794 law eliminating all sentenc...

6 Minutes or Less: Kim Jong Un This newsletter-only feature will be available only to paid subscribers:  I ask a thought leader or expert to educate/enlighten/explain an issue via audio in 6 Minutes or Less. Issue:  After reports surfaced that North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un was in “grave danger” and even may have died, more recent reports state he is alive. Question: If, as the latest reports ind...

6 Minutes or Less This newsletter-only feature will be available only to paid subscribers:  I ask a thought leader or expert to educate/enlighten/explain an issue via audio in 6 Minutes or Less. Issue:  Nancy Pelosi’s father Thomas D’Alesandro was a US Representative and Baltimore mayor. But the book “ Pelosi ” describes her mother, Annunciata D’Alesandro, as the one who ran the political organiza...

6 Minutes or Less This newsletter-only feature will be available only to paid subscribers:  I ask a thought leader or expert to educate/enlighten/explain an issue via audio in 6 Minutes or Less. Issue:  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested that states struggling to cope with coronavirus should be able to file for bankruptcy. Question: Can a state bankruptcy code be constitutional?  Gue...

This is a special live Zoom edition of Chris Riback’s Conversations, the first in our new series of political book conversations sponsored by Cornell’s Institute of Politics & Global Affairs. What does it mean for democracy when the President attacks the free press as fake news? How should journalists balance the need to avoid becoming the “opposition party,” as Steve Bannon described them, while...

6 Minutes or Less Today I’m introducing a new newsletter only feature that, as I refine it, will be available only to paid subscribers: I will ask a thought leader or expert to educate/enlighten/explain an issue via audio in 6 Minutes or Less. Issue: President Trump said states should “seriously consider” reopening public schools before the end of the year. New York today became the latest state t...

Chances are, you may not have heard of New Rochelle, NY before about a month ago. It’s New York’s 7th largest city, located just 30 minutes north of Manhattan. It was founded by refugee Huguenots – French Protestants – who were fleeing religious persecution in France in 1688. During the 1930s, New Rochelle was the wealthiest city per capita in New York state and the third wealthiest in the country...

When I first scheduled an election analysis discussion with former U.S. Representative Steve Israel, it’s fair to say that my initial set of questions had nothing to do with how to run for President in a time of Coronavirus. That’s where this conversation begins, but not where it ends. Because while we all navigate this new reality, we’re also still trying to understand the Democratic primary: Wha...

Today we continue with our check on the state of American democracy. We began with Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt to get an update on “ How Democracies Die ” and the question: How much more can our institutions take? Today we’ll look at the cornerstone of our democracy and a question that’s as shocking to ask as it sounds: Can America run a fair election? I told you – crazy....

It’s time for a democracy check. With the Trump Impeachment Trial over and the 2020 presidential primaries in full bloom, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I imagine many other people are wondering, too: How’s our democracy doing? Are America’s democratic norms still valid? How much more can our institutions take? And this was even before the Roger Stone sentencing reduction news broke. So I dec...

The first time he said it – or rather tweeted it – was in January 2018. In describing his business, television, and political accomplishments, President Trump typed: “I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius… and a very stable genius at that!” He said it again at a NATO meeting that July. Again the following July 2019. And again in September. And October. It’s become one of this era’s d...

Rick Wilson – the sharp-witted, wise-cracking Republican political strategist, ad-maker, analyst, columnist, and crazy-good tweeter – joined me in Westchester County, NY for a live conversation about the 2020 election, impeachment, and his new book, “ Running Against the Devil: A Plot to Save America from Trump – and Democrats from Themselves .” It was a terrific event, and we discussed everything...

As our 2020 Presidential campaign becomes more intense and pointed, it’s clear there is a battle going on for, among other things, America’s economic soul. Politically, the debate has exploded a revival of -isms… Populism, authoritarianism, socialism. But through the issues – from Trump’s tax cuts to Elizabeth Warren’s Health Care Plan – the complicated arguments largely can be simplified to this:...