Deconstructed

Starting Tuesday, a U.K. court will review Julian Assange’s appeal against extradition to the United States. At the center of the extradition controversy is concern that Assange will be tortured and put in solitary confinement in what’s known as a CMU — communications management unit — in federal prison. This week on Deconstructed, Ryan Grim is joined by Martin Gottesfeld , a human rights act...

Gen. Prabowo Subianto, who has expressed a desire to rule the country as a fascist, declared victory Wednesday in Indonesia's presidential election. This week on Deconstructed, Ryan Grim is joined by Allan Nairn, a longtime investigative journalist focusing on U.S. intervention around the world. Nairn, reporting from Indonesia, describes the current election process in the country and the crimes P...

Within the first 100 days of its war on Gaza, the Israeli military systematically destroyed every single university on the strip. International human rights monitors have found significant evidence that Palestinian scholars and intellectual figures have been targeted by Israeli strikes. The Israeli military has decimated Gaza’s education system and its infrastructure. This week on Deconstructed, N...

Amid ongoing congressional negotiations for a new immigration bill, a bipartisan effort is underway to deter migration through measures such as immediate detention and deportation, as well as more stringent restrictions on asylum-seekers. This week on Deconstructed, John Washington, a staff writer at Arizona Luminaria and contributor for The Intercept, argues the humane — and economically sound —...

This week on Deconstructed, Munir Akram, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations, joins Ryan Grim and Murtaza Hussain to discuss a wide array of topics, including the escalating conflict in Yemen and Israel’s attacks on Palestine. Akram also discusses the complicated relationships between Pakistan and some of its neighbors, including India, China, and Iran, as well as Pakistan's own internal i...

Today we're sharing an episode from Counter Points, where Ryan Grim speaks to Guillaume Long, who served as Ecuador's foreign minister under former President Rafael Correa. They discuss the narco gangs rebellion in Ecuador, and how Trump-and-then-Biden-driven austerity in the country has hollowed out the state and let narcos fill the vacuum. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informat...

This week on Deconstructed, Ryan Grim speaks to the filmmakers behind “Israelism,” a new documentary that takes a narrative look at the unique relationship between the American Jewish community and an idealized version of the state of Israel. Grim is joined by “Israelism” co-directors Erin Axelman and Sam Eilertsen. Axelman and Eilertsen are two first-time Jewish filmmakers who share a similar sto...

Humanitarian aid into Gaza faces "near insurmountable challenges,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday at a news conference in Geneva. Amed Khan, a humanitarian relief activist who has helped deliver aid in war zones around the world, said the refugee situation in Gaza is unlike any other: "There is no safe place to go.” Khan joins Ryan Grim...

Today, we’re sharing an episode of the podcast “Lever Time” from our friends at the reader-supported investigative news outlet The Lever. On this week’s episode of “Lever Time,” Lever producer Frank Cappello and senior editor and reporter Andrew Perez are joined by health care journalist Bob Herman , who recently co-authored a report for the health care industry news organization STAT detailing ho...

More than 18,600 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s latest wave of attacks began just over two months ago, following the October 7 Hamas attack that killed some 1,200 Israelis. While the Biden administration continues to support Israel in its devastation, politicians and heads of state around the world are calling for a ceasefire. The last extended war on Gaza, in 2021, would reshape t...

The 2008 economic crisis changed the world. In the United States, the meager response by Barack Obama and the Democratic Party produced a recovery that was far too slow, drove an eviction crisis, and fueled a populist backlash. On the left, it took the form of Occupy Wall Street, which put the problem of wealth and income inequality — the 99 percent versus the 1 percent — into the national politic...

When Bernie Sanders launched his first presidential campaign in early 2015, the political world could not have been more different than it is today. His run set in motion a movement — or, really, a series of movements that clashed and blended over the ensuing years, reshaping both the Democratic Party and the country. On today’s episode of Deconstructed, we’re trying something new: Host Ryan Grim...

Ryan Grim has a new book out called "The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution." This week on Deconstructed, Grim's "Breaking Points" co-host Krystal Ball, a former MSNBC host, interviews him about his latest book. The conversation was held at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C. Like we did earlier with our Naomi Klein interview, we’re running the conversation here as...

This week, theaters around the country will begin to screen “Napoleon,” a historical drama film based on the story of Napoleon Bonaparte. The film, starring Joaquin Phoenix in the titular role, chronicles Bonaparte’s rise to power and his relationship with Joséphine Bonaparte, his first wife, played by Vanessa Kirby. This week on Deconstructed, author Sandra Gulland joins Ryan Grim to talk about J...

In late October, after a six-week strike, the United Auto Workers reached a historic contract deal with the big three Detroit automakers. This week, as membership votes to approve the contract are underway, President Joe Biden rallied with the UAW president in Illinois to celebrate the tentative agreement between the union and the automakers. This week on Deconstructed, UAW President Shawn Fain jo...

Fourteen Democratic senators called for a "short-term cessation of hostilities” on Thursday, as Israel’s airstrikes continued for the fourth week and a ground invasion intensified. So far 18 House members have signed on to a resolution, introduced weeks earlier, with stronger calls for an "immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Israel and occupied Palestine.” Pro-Israel lobbying groups have alre...

The Gaza Ministry of Health has calculated that more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed, including nearly 3,000 children, by the latest Israeli bombing on Gaza. Those living in Gaza are under the constant threat of airstrikes, with little food, water, or access to medical care. This week on Deconstructed, Maram Al-Dada, an aviation engineer based in Florida, joins Ryan Grim; Al-Dada’s family...

The new book “Silent Coup: How Corporations Overthrew Democracy” by investigative journalists Claire Provost and Matt Kennard reveals how the world actually works: the international structures and laws that preempt most attempts at any kind of economic democracy in most of the countries around the world. This week on Deconstructed, Provost and Kennard join Jon Schwarz to discuss this "silent coup"...

This week on Deconstructed, Ryan Grim is joined by Intercept reporter Alice Speri, who has frequently reported from occupied Palestinian territory, and Palestinian American writer and political analyst Yousef Munayyer. Speri and Munayyer discuss the history behind the violence that exploded Saturday, with Hamas capturing and killing an unprecedented number of Israelis, including hundreds of civili...

The 2010s bore witness to a decade of massive global protests, from the seismic events of the Arab Spring to the birth of Occupy Wall Street and the fervor of the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong. But what tangible accomplishments emerged from these impassioned movements? This week on Deconstructed, Ryan Grim is joined by Vincent Bevins, a veteran foreign correspondent and author of “ If We Burn: Th...

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and 17 state attorneys general filed a antitrust lawsuit against Amazon on Tuesday. Meanwhile the U.S. Department of Justice's trial against Google is shrouded in secrecy. This week on Deconstructed, we break down the antitrust lawsuits the federal government has brought against Google and Amazon, and the anticompetitive and monopolistic practices on tri...

The U.S. orchestrated a secret arms deal to send weapons to Ukraine, helping Pakistan reach the threshold needed for an International Monetary Fund loan to save the country's economy, according to two sources with knowledge of the arrangement and documents leaked to The Intercept. This week on a special Deconstructed and Intercepted crossover episode, Ryan Grim and Murtaza Hussain discuss their re...

Naomi Klein, author, professor, journalist, and contributing editor at The Intercept, has ventured into the far-right “mirror world,” exploring the movements and figures promoting conspiracy theories, misinformation, and its hold on large segments of society. This week on Deconstructed, we bring you a live conversation between Ryan Grim and Klein at the George Washington University Amphitheater, o...

The U.S. and Venezuela are in talks to further relax sanctions in exchange for a free and fair election next year. This week on Deconstructed, Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, joins Ryan Grim to discuss the recent trip he, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and other progressive Democrats took to Latin America, visiting with leaders and discussing the impact of past and present U.S. policies in the region — and h...

Insulin, the lifesaving drug for tens of millions of Americans, is among the 10 drugs Medicare will negotiate for lower prices, by the power vested in the White House through the Inflation Reduction Act. This week on Deconstructed, Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, joins Ryan Grim to discuss the decadeslong struggle against the pharmaceutical lobby to lower drug prices and...