Impolitic with John Heilemann

John welcomes back New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman to discuss her runaway No. 1 bestseller, “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump,” co-authored with Jonathan Swan; why the story of second-term Trump is less about how he’s changed than how he’s the same as ever, only more so; the degree to which retribution and self-enrichment are animating impulses...

John welcomes longtime Democratic strategist Tad Devine to discuss his new book “How the Democrats Screwed Bernie” and the long shadow cast by the 2016 primary between Sanders and Hillary Clinton. Devine, who served as Bernie’s chief strategist in that race, argues that his party has failed to learn its lessons, why it must, and how that failure helps explain the recent primary wins of democratic...

John welcomes Avett Brothers bassist Bob Crawford to discuss his new book, “America’s Founding Son: John Quincy Adams, From President to Political Maverick.” Crawford explains how JQA, after a mediocre single term in the Oval Office, blossomed into America’s “most extraordinary ex-president” and arguably its greatest all-around public servant; the evolution of his popular history podcast The Road...

John welcomes Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen to discuss the increasingly deep fault line among Democrats over U.S. policy towards Israel. Van Hollen, who published a recent New York Times op-ed about why his party must abandon its “reflexive and unconditional” support for Israel, argues that Joe Biden’s handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a stain on his foreign policy record; that...

John welcomes Guy Cecil, former chairman of Priorities USA Action and executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, to discuss his party's prospects for taking control of the US Senate -- and the national implications of Zohran Mamdani's endorsement trifecta in the New York Democratic primary. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.auda...

John welcomes Princeton professor Eddie Glaude, Jr. to discuss his new book, "America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversaries.” Glaude lays out the historical pattern of evasion and erasure that the impending MAGA-soaked Semiquincentennial celebration fits into; the meaning of the book’s incendiary opening sentence (”I do not love America, and never have, especially now”); and Junetee...

John welcomes back Bulwark podcast host Tim Miller to discuss the putative deal to end the war in Iran and the efforts of J.D. Vance to sell it (and himself). Tim dissects the blowback to the deal within the GOP, Donald Trump's senescence, and Vance’s weeklong media blitz as he hawks his new book about Catholicism. Meanwhile, John describes his visit to the algae bloom on the Washington Mall, Tim...

John welcomes back Maya Wiley, president and CEO of the Leadership Council on Civil and Human Rights, to discuss the assault on the nonprofit sector by Donald Trump’s Justice Department. Wiley explains why the recent indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center isn’t just baseless and transparently political but part of a broader pattern. She also weighs in on Trump’s intent to undermine the midt...

John welcomes back Pablo Torre, the Pulitzer Prize-winning host of Pablo Torre Finds Out to discuss the collision between the New York Knicks and Donald Trump—and why the team's electrifying Game 4 comeback was even more meaningful and miraculous than it looked. Pablo also explains why the World Cup has generated scant excitement so far, the long-run threat to the cultural primacy of sports posed...

John welcomes former Reuters head of West Coast news and global technology coverage Jonathan Weber to discuss his new book “City on the Edge: Technology, Politics, and the Fight for the Soul of San Francisco”—along with last week’s California primary, the rivalry between (and presidential ambitions of) Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom, and the rise of San Francisco’s popular new mayor, Daniel Lurie....

John welcomes back former top Justice Department and FBI official Andrew Weissmann to discuss his recently published New York Times No. 1 best-seller  “Liar’s Kingdom: How to Stop Trump’s Deceit and Save America.” Weissmann lays out the book’s proposals to criminalize election lies or disqualify politicians found guilty of them from seeking office again. He also weighs in on the Trump administrati...

John welcomes back Democratic Senator Chris Murphy to discuss his new book “Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America.” Murphy lays out his book’s argument that America is in the grip of a set of interlocking cults (the Cult of Profit, Cult of Everywhere, Cult of Technology, Cult of Consumerism, Cult of Credentialism, and Cult of Corruption) that have unde...

John welcomes back Politico’s Jonathan Martin to discuss the Texas Senate race: how scandal-soaked Attorney General Ken Paxton thrashed incumbent Senator John Cornyn in the GOP primary run-off; Democratic nominee James Talarico’s “race against time” to define himself before Paxton's effort to cast him as a weak, weird, ultra-woke vegan sinks in with voters; and whether Democrats are once again cha...

John welcomes author James Traub to discuss his latest book, “The Cradle of Citizenship: How Schools Can Help Save Our Democracy.” Traub describes the year he spent reporting in K-12 classrooms across the country; the fierce culture wars after the Covid-19 pandemic in many school systems around race, gender, curricula, and library collections; the debate over the 1619 Project and 1776 Report; and...

John welcomes former Bloomberg Businessweek editor and current Atlantic staff writer Josh Tyrangiel to discuss his new book, “AI for Good: How Real People Are Using Artificial Intelligence to Fix Things That Matter.” Tyrangiel, who until recently wrote a column on AI for The Washington Post, weighs in on the verdict against Elon Musk in his $150 billion lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI; why t...

John welcomes Brookings Institution fellow and erstwhile neocon luminary Robert Kagan to discuss his buzzy recent piece in The Atlantic about the inevitability of American defeat in Iran. Kagan argues that the U.S. is not only losing the war now but has no plausible path to victory; that simply throwing in the towel is the least bad option available to Donald Trump, though its implications are bey...

John welcomes back Pod Save America cohost and Obama White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer to discuss the forbidding political climate facing Republicans six months out from the midterm elections. Pfeiffer weighs in on Donald Trump’s avowal this week that he doesn’t think about how the Iran war is affecting Americans (“not even a little bit”); the shifting fortunes of Ds and Rs in the r...

John welcomes Council on Foreign Relations president Michael Froman to discuss the three central topics in American foreign policy today: the war in Iran, U.S.-China relations, and the war in Ukraine. Froman offers his interpretation of the Trump administration’s mixed messages, glib metaphors, and ever-shifting strategy in its military campaign against Tehran; previews this week’s summit in Beiji...

In the second installment of this week’s special two-part episode featuring Wu-Tang Clan’s sonic Svengali and de facto leader, RZA discusses the seminal hip-hop collective’s recent, first-ballot inclusion in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; the group's ongoing farewell tour and lasting cultural legacy; how RZA’s self-described dictatorial tendencies were key to making it all happen; and why it’s stil...

John welcomes acclaimed rapper, producer, composer, actor, filmmaker, and Wu-Tang Clan prime mover RZA to discuss his new movie “One Spoon of Chocolate,” which opened in theaters across the country last week. In Part One of this special, two-part episode, RZA describes the decade-plus odyssey of the film, which he wrote and directed, from idea to premiere; how the shifting state of race relations...

John welcomes Pennsylvania Democratic congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan to discuss Pete Hegseth’s testimony before the House and King Charles’s address on Capitol Hill this week. Houlahan, a former active duty Air Force officer and member of the House Armed Services and Intelligence committees, also weighs in on the state of the war in Iran as it passes the 60-day mark—and Donald Trump’s increasingly...

John welcomes The Economist's editor-in-chief, Zanny Minton Beddoes, to discuss the economic fallout from the war in Iran, her magazine’s midterm election special issue, and more. Zanny outlines the scale of the coming global oil supply shock due to the two-month closure of the Strait of Hormuz; why the U.S. stock market has remained buoyant regardless; whether Kevin Warsh will be an independent F...

John welcomes back U.S. Naval War College professor emeritus and Atlantic staff writer Tom Nichols to discuss the Iran war at the eight-week mark—where things stand, what comes next, and whether there’s any end in sight. Tom weighs in on Donald Trump’s strategic incoherence and tactical flailing; the embarrassing spectacle of Iran jerking J.D. Vance around; Pete Hegseth's holy roller cosplay and o...

John welcomes author Sebastian Mallaby to discuss his new bestselling book, “The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence.” Mallaby explains why Hassabis, the leader of Google’s efforts in artificial intelligence, remains an obscure and under-covered figure compared with Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and Elon Musk, the poster boys of the A.I. revolution; why, des...

John welcomes his partner and Puck Superfriend Peter Hamby to discuss former California congressman and gubernatorial candidate Eric Swalwell’s ignominious implosion and its implications for the race to succeed Gavin Newsom. Hamby also weighs in on Donald Trump and J.D. Vance’s ongoing battle with Pope Leo XIV and whether it might cause lasting damage to MAGA with Catholic voters—and Hamby’s highl...