Gaslit Nation

In a world awash with disinformation and fear-based politics, what cuts through the noise isn't perfection; it's authenticity. As  Erin Reed , a trailblazing journalist and trans rights advocate, puts it: the most effective leaders and allies are the ones who show up with sincerity, values, and courage. Reed knows this from experience. Alongside her wife, Montana state legislator Zooey Zephyr, the...

We opened with "Papaoutai" by Belgian artist Stromae , a powerful performer who inspires this week's guest, Jamila Raqib. She once saw him live in an unforgettable setting: the ancient Roman ruins of Carthage, Tunisia. Jamila Raqib is a powerhouse for peace and democracy. As Executive Director of the Albert Einstein Institution, she has spent years training people across the globe in militant nonv...

They want us to believe that silence is strength. That if we keep our heads down, the storm will pass. But we are the storm. And our storm doesn't need fists. It needs strategy, courage, and the fire of militant nonviolence. In the latest episode of Gaslit Nation, Jamila Raqib, the executive director of the Albert Einstein Institution , delivers a masterclass in radical defiance without a single w...

We opened with the legendary James Baldwin, because this week, we're passing the mic to someone walking boldly in Baldwin's footsteps: Amber Wallin, Executive Director of the State Revenue Alliance and a fearless fighter for tax justice, equity, and economic power from the ground up. Whether she's calling out lawmakers, organizing communities, or reshaping policy, Amber is part of a new generation...

We are told that if we tax the rich, that jobs will disappear. That prosperity will dry up. But the numbers tell a different story. In the latest Gaslit Nation, Amber Wallin, executive director of the State Revenue Alliance, joins Andrea to expose the lie at the heart of our economic system. The rich are not fleeing. They are flourishing. And when we make them pay their fair share, everyone flouri...

On July 14, 1789, ordinary French citizens stormed the Bastille, shattering the myth of royal divine right. Three months later, thousands of women marched on Versailles, demanding bread, justice, and dignity, driving the revolution forward with courage and resolve. As Ursula K. Le Guin reminds us, "We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human powe...

Chrissy Stroop, a leading voice in the #Exvangelical movement, brings historical insight and personal experience to a conversation that traces the Christian right's rise to power from the Reagan era to its disturbing alignment with Russian authoritarianism today. This week's bonus show explores how evangelical leaders used strategic alliances, particularly the anti-abortion movement, to unite cons...

What if the American Revolution wasn't a noble birth of liberty, but a costly wrong turn? Before muskets were raised at Lexington and Concord, the British Empire was already inching toward something remarkable: the abolition of slavery. In 1772, just three years before the war began, the landmark Somerset decision in England ruled that slavery had no basis in common law. While it didn't outlaw sla...

Trump's "Big Evil Bill" sped through Congress, to sell off public lands, gut healthcare, destroy rural hospitals, outlaw state AI regulation for a decade, make it harder to take out loans to go to college, and unleash an immigration enforcement regime bigger than anything we've ever seen. ICE will now have a budget bigger than the FBI, DEA, U.S. Bureau of Prisons combined. This is an oligarchy fev...

This week on Gaslit Nation, we're joined by the fearless, brilliant Carter Sherman, an award-winning journalist at The Guardian and one of the sharpest voices covering reproductive rights and sexual politics. Her new book,  The Second Coming: Sex and the Next Generation's Fight Over Its Future , is a battle cry for Gen Z, a generation navigating the fallout of a stolen Supreme Court, Me Too, incel...

After Trump's return to power in January 2025, Gaslit Nation launched a book club not just to inform, but to fortify. Each selection is a lifeline offering strategy, moral clarity, and community in an age of disinformation and despair.  This isn't just a book club. It's a survival toolkit for our time.  Read with us. Build with us. Let's overcome the chaos together. Join us on the last Monday of e...

At a time when democracy is under siege from Kremlin-backed strongmen to MAGA disinformation machines, this week's Gaslit Nation bonus show offers much-needed hope. We unpack the NATO summit, celebrate a major grassroots victory in New York City, and also discuss how to contain Russia with security expert Candace Rondeaux, author of  Putin's Sledgehammer. First up: NATO is finally stepping up. All...

With the world on the brink of another war, there's no one more essential to hear from than Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author of Gulag, Iron Curtain, Red Famine (which cites Andrea's grandfather, a Holodomor survivor), Twilight of Democracy, and Autocracy Inc. In this urgent conversation, we go to the frontlines of authoritarianism, from MAGA's playbook at home to Putin's...

Welcome to the skeptic's guide to impeachment. Why is a third impeachment effort of Trump necessary? Because demanding impeachment puts every member of Congress on trial, revealing who we can trust and who is bought off.  Meet unanimous consent: the Senate's dirty little secret, and the power Democrats refuse to use. Imagine if all it took to stop the Senate in its tracks was one simple word: No....

This week, Gaslit Nation welcomes a leading expert on the future of warfare and U.S. national security  Candace Rondeaux , author of the new book Putin's Sledgehammer: The Wagner Group and Russia's Collapse into Mercenary Chaos . Before there was Trump vs. Musk, there was Putin vs. Prigozhin. It turns out the oligarchs trying to kill us are just a couple of scorpions trapped in a jar.    Two years...

A message from Gaslit Nation to our listeners about the political assassinations in Minnesota. When something bad happens that's clearly meant to intimidate people into silence, the best course of action is to shock and demoralize the perpetrators by channeling your rage and grief into standing up and speaking out. Don't back down. You're not alone in this. We have our community, and countless oth...

Yes, things are dark. But if history has taught us anything, it's this: regimes fall, because people rise. Some soldiers will follow orders. Others won't. And that fault line? It's where dictatorships begin to crack. Just ask Romania in 1989, as we discussed in our March episode, "How to Overthrow a Dictator." Meanwhile, Trump's team can't even staff the Pentagon, according to reports . No one who...

This week, we're joined by the brilliant Chrissy Stroop , a scholar, writer, and all-around truth-teller. Chrissy is a leading voice in exposing the Christian nationalist movement, the exvangelical uprising, and the growing marriage between the American and Russian far-right. She also happens to be a trans woman with a PhD in Russian history and a wild journey that took her from a fundamentalist C...

Today marks the 81st anniversary of D-Day–the Allies landing on the beaches of Normandy to liberate Europe from fascism. As we remember the heroes, we salute the Nazi hunters of then and now. Our resistance lives on. This week, just like early June 1944, was a great week for the resistance. Welcome to the second Gaslit Nation block party of the week. Ukraine launched a stealth campaign, destroying...

Happy Russia Military Transport Aviation Day, everyone! This June 1st, all Nazi hunters celebrated as Ukraine destroyed 34% of Russia's warplanes. We're throwing a Gaslit Nation block party, featuring an old friend from the war, warning the world what comes next.  Splitting his time between the frontline in Ukraine and his animal sanctuary in South Africa, conservationist Lionel De Lange runs aid...

In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood before a group of students and asked them: What is your life's blueprint? Nearly 60 years later, that question still echoes louder than ever. We're living in a time of weaponized exhaustion. Democracy is being undermined, basic human rights are under attack, and billionaires are playing dictator, gleefully sentencing millions to death by slashing desperat...

This past year, what feels like a hundred in Trump years, Gaslit Nation listeners have asked the same question: How did we get here? The answer, though deeply unsettling, is vital to understand. It's the story of a 40-year campaign waged by far-right Christian nationalists, Big Oil, and corporate power to undermine our democracy. To help us all make sense of this crisis moment, as a firehose of co...

A 2021 Department of Justice investigation concluded that former Governor Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed 13 women, fostering a toxic workplace culture defined by power abuse, intimidation, and retaliation. In 2020, Lindsey Boylan did something brave and necessary. After years of working under former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, she became the first woman to publicly accuse him of sexual harassm...

The Fox News Supreme Court is a political weapon, and it's being wielded to wreck what remains of American democracy. What happens if Trump declares martial law?  This week on Gaslit Nation, Andrea interviews Leah Litman, a constitutional law professor at the University of Michigan Law School, co-host of the award-winning Strict Scrutiny podcast, and author of the new book LAWLESS: How the Supreme...

How much have the Trumps made since returning to power? According to The New York Times, a staggering $2 billion in the last month alone. From Russia to the Middle East, the Trumps have long cultivated ties with the global oligarchy, welcoming support from some of the world's most repressive regimes to gain power in 2016 and, now, to enrich themselves. You've likely heard about the infamous June 2...