Start Making Sense Clips

After gangs took over most of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s acting prime minister, Ariel Henry, agreed to step aside. Longtime Haiti observer Amy Wilentz analyzes the forces at work shaping the country’s next steps. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

You might think Republicans would take a breather after banning abortion in the states they control; but no: they’ve set their sights on a new target: no-fault divorce. Katha Pollitt explains. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Black family under slavery and after -- down to Barack and Michelle and Sasha and Malia. Historian Brenda Stevenson explains; her new history of the enslaved black family is “What Sorrows Labour in My Parent’s Breast.” Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Climate change is raising sea levels, and soon low-lying coastal areas will be under water. But the most severe threat, the brunt of the suffering, is coming first to low-lying islands around the world -- even though they are least responsible for global warming. Christina Gerhardt comments – her remarkable new book is “Sea Change: An Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean.” Advertising Inquiries: htt...

What does it mean to be a politically committed writer? Adam Shatz talks about that—it’s the focus of his new book, “Writers and Missionaries: Essays on the Radical imagination.” He’s The Nation’s former literary editor and US editor of the LRB. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Ron DeSantis is campaigning for president promising to “stop woke history” – stop teaching about slavery and its legacy of institutional racism. Adam Hochschild found the history curriculum DeSantis wants—the Hillsdale College “1776 Curriculum.” He reports on what’s in it—and what’s not. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

11,500 members of the Writers Union are on strike--against the film, TV and streaming companies--with picket lines up in L.A. and New York. Both sides have prepared for a months-long conflict; award-winning TV writer Josh Gondelman explains the issues. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Joe Biden announced that the theme of his reelection campaign will be that the Democrats are the party of “freedom.” But the Republicans claim THEY are the defenders of freedom. Who is right? Eric Foner has the answer -- he's the author of "The Story of American Freedom." Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

How a neighborhood in Port-au-Prince fought back against the gangs: Amy Wilentz comments on the news from Haiti. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Abortion rights will be a key issue for Democrats in the 2024 election, especially after Republican judges have tried to ban medication abortions. John Nichols comments. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Afghan girls who escaped from the Taliban: the story of a boarding school that evacuated its students from Kabul during the chaotic withdrawal of the Americans, and moved -- to Kigali, Rwanda. SOLA, the School of Leadership Afghanistan is the place where Afghan girls study to become members of the generation that will one day lead a peaceful and united Afghanistan. The founder, Shabana Basij-Rasik...

34 felonies - will that change the 2024 election, or has everyone already made up their minds about Trump? Chris Lehman comments. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

For a century, thousands of young baseball players have lived with low wages, overcrowded housing, and all-night rides in uncomfortable buses in order to play in baseball’s minor leagues, hoping to eventually make it to the majors. Now their lives are changing—because they organized a union. Kelly Candaele and Peter Dreier report. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-O...

The largest anti-war demonstrations in American history were protests in the fall of 1969--with more than two million people in the streets demanding “End the War in Vietnam.” But did those demonstrations help end the war? Historian Chris Appy comments on the new documentary, “The Movement and the ‘Madman,’” on PBS American Experience March 28. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands P...

Do masks work -- to help stop the spread of covid? A New York Times columnist recently said that they don’t, and cited an authoritative review of research as his source. But it turns he was wrong about that study. Gregg Gonsalves explains. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Sunday is Oscar night in America--and, as usual, we have a lot of complaints about the nominations. So does John Powers - he’s Critic at Large on the NPR show Fresh Air with Terry Gross. We talk about this year’s films we didn’t like – and some we thought were wonderful. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The worst thing that happened to Black History during Black History Month was not Ron DeSantis banning critical concepts and approaches - it was the College Board revising its new African American Studies curriculum to meet all of his demands. But now scholars in Black History, Black Studies and related fields are fighting back--Kimberlé Crenshaw will explain. She founded the African American Poli...

Covid remains the number 3 cause of death in the US, after heart disease and cancer, with almost 3,000 deaths every week. But Biden and the Democrats are ending the federal covid emergency. Is that really a good idea? Gregg Gonsalves comments—he’s The Nation’s public health correspondent and he teaches epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/b...

The Royal Family and “The Crown”– you know, Queen Elizabeth and Charles and Diana, and the Netflix series about them. Gary Younge explains why he loathes the monarchy in Britain, but loved “The Crown” on Nexflix. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Ireland since the fifties: how a country dominated by a corrupt Catholic church came to legalize gay marriage and abortion -- by referendum. Fintan O'Toole's much-honored ‘personal history’ of Ireland, titled “We Don’t Know Ourselves,” is out now in paperback. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

We’re still thinking about Victor Navasky, who died on Jan. 23. He was editor or publisher of The Nation for 27 years, starting in 1978, and author of several books, including one about his life in magazines, titled “A Matter of Opinion.” We’ll listen to our conversation about that book, recorded in 2006. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/...

What if government provided a basic income to all residents?  Something like $1000 a month? How much could that change inequality and poverty? Sasha Abramsky reports on the experiment in Los Angeles with Universal Basic Income. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Walmart is the biggest employer in America, and the Walton family, the children of Walmart founder Sam Walton, is the richest family in the world. The company has raised wages and become more socially conscious-but it provides a case study of the limits of socially conscious capitalism. Rick Wartzman will explain – his new book on Walmart and its workers is titled “Still Broke.” Advertising Inquir...

Who’d want to see a movie about Harvey Weinstein? But the film “She Said,” about the two New York Times reporters who broke the Harvey Weinstein story, is not about Harvey; it’s about the system that protected him. And it’s really good. Katha Pollitt comments. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Andrew Bacevich talks about our “very long war,” going back at least to the sixties, and about the relative insignificance of Donald Trump. His new book is "On Shedding an Obsolete Past: Bidding Farewell to the American Century.” Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy