Start Making Sense Clips

“Bad Mexicans” – that’s what the revolutionaries of 1910 were called as they fought on both sides of the US-Mexico border against the robber barons and their political allies. UCLA historian Kelly Lytle Hernandez tells that story, and talks about her book on race, empire, and revolution in the borderlands. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com...

Our Christmas music special: Bob Dylan fans have been puzzled and troubled by his Christmas album, “Christmas in the Heart”, ever since he released it in 2009. To help figure out what Dylan was doing, we turned to Sean Wilentz--he’s the official historian at the official website BobDylan.com, and he also teaches American history at Princeton. (Originally broadcast in 2009) Advertising Inquiries: h...

The largest strike in the nation entered its fifth week: 36,000 grad student employees of the University of California, including teaching assistants who are not grading final exams. The union agreed to mediation—which seems unlikely to succeed. Nelson Lichtenstein has our update. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The largest strike in the country this year, and the largest in the history of higher education, entered its fourth week at the University of California. Historian Nelson Lichtenstein explains what's happening with grad student Teaching Assistants, Research Assistants, Tutors and Postdocs. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Should Supreme Court base its decision on what it can discern about the original intent of the framers? That’s what the “originalists” say – and they dominate today’s court. Erwin Chemerinsky comments; he’s dean of the law school at UC Berkeley and the author most recently of “Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism.” Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & O...

The fight against pollution in LA’s port communities, where 300,000 people, mostly Latino, live next door to oil refineries, chemical facilities, and one of the largest oilfields in the nation. For decades they’ve been fighting for basic rights and a cleaner environment. Eliza Moreno has that story. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privac...

In Los Angeles the terrible sheriff has lost his re-election campaign. Gustavo Arellano, the LA Times columnist, comments, and reports on how the billionaire developer running for mayor campaigned for the Latino vote. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

A story about Black landownership, starting in Piney Woods, North Carolina, one of the oldest examples of uninterrupted land ownership by Black people, going back to before the Civil War. Cameron Oglesby has that report. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Mike Davis, author and activist, radical hero and family man, died on Tuesday, Oct. 25. After talking about his life and work, we play part of an interview with him on this podcast from November, 2016, one week after Trump was elected. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Trump years are not the only time American democracy has been threatened – the World War One years, when Democrat Woodrow Wilson was president, were another. That’s what Adam Hochschild argues –his new book is “American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis.” Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privac...

Greil Marcus talks about Bob Dylan, from “Blowin in the wind” in 1962 to“Murder Most Foul” in 2020. His new book is called “Folk Music: A Bob Dylan Biography in 7 Songs.” Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Dahlia Lithwick talks about some of the heroes of the Trump years: the women lawyers who fought him on the big issues—the Muslim ban, neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, and voting rights. Her new book is “Lady Justice.” Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Ken Burns has a new documentary on PBS: “The US and the Holocaust.” it’s the most politically engaged and relevant work of his career. Historian David Nasaw comments. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

20 years before the January 6 attack on the capitol, a Republican mob attacked a central hub of government operations claiming the vote count in the presidential election that year was fraudulent, and trying to reverse the results. That was the “Brooks Brothers Riot” in Miami, a Republican effort long before Trump. Chris Lehmann reviews that history; he’s DC Bureau chief for The Nation. Advertisin...

A new episode of “The Children’s Hour”: stories about Ivanka, Jared, Don Junior and Little Eric. This week: Jared writes a book! He called it “Breaking History.” We have comment from our Chief Jared Correspondent, Amy Wilentz Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

We’re still thinking about Barbara Ehrenreich, who died last week. She was one of our best. We’ll listen to an interview with Ehrenreich from 2002, about “Nickel and Dimed,” her unforgettable book about trying to live on low-wage work which had just been published.  Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Patrick Leahy of Vermont has been a senator for almost 50 years. He describes how, on January 6, when senators took refuge from the mob attacking the capitol, they prepared to complete the work of counting the electoral votes in their underground bunker--until he insisted they should wait until they could return to the Senate chamber. His new book is ”The Road Taken.” Advertising Inquiries: https:...

Dirty work—and the people who do it: the low-income workers who do our most ethically troubled jobs. What does that have to do with the rest of us? Eyal Press explains—his book “Dirty Work” is out now in paperback. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Organization of American States released a statement admitting, finally, that the international community was responsible for the crisis ravaging Haiti today. But what is to be done now? Amy Wilentz comments. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Orange County, California: Ronald Reagan called it “the place all good Republicans go to die.” But there’s another history of Orange County--a history of white supremacy and right wing power, and of people’s battles to resist—especially immigrants. LA Times columnist Gustavo Arellano will explain--he’s one of the authors of the new book “A People’s Guide to Orange County.” Advertising Inquiries: h...

Historian Eric Foner talks about about voting rights and voter suppression, about who gets to be a citizen, the rights of undocumented immigrants, and about the roots of mass incarceration -- --they all relate to the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, part of the country’s attempt to redefine citizenship after the end of slavery. His book, “The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Re...

The synergy between politics and popular culture has never been clearer or stronger than in the Age of Reagan – J. Hoberman will explain, he’s the author of a wonderful book called “Make My Day: Film Culture in the Age of Reagan.” Hoberman was a legendary film critic for the Village Voice for 30 years - now he writes for the New York Review, the New York Times, and The Nation.  Advertising Inquiri...

Ivana Trump, the mother of Ivanka, Don Junior and Little Eric, died last week – Amy Wilentz comments on her memoir, “Raising Trump” (first broadcast in 2017). Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It’s not too late to act to slow climate change--that’s what Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua say. Their new project invites newcomers to join the climate movement, and guides people from despair to possibilities. Find them at www. NotTooLateClimate.com/ ; on Facebook at @NotTooLateClimate and on Twitter at @NotTooLate_hope. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy &...

The people who say “America is a Christian Nation” had some big victories at the Supreme Court last week, on school prayer, and on taxpayer funding of religious schools. Sarah Posner comments on the endgame of the Christian Nationalists; she’s the author of Unholy: How White Christian Nationalists Powered the Trump Presidency, and the Devastating Legacy They Left Behind. Advertising Inquiries: htt...