The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath

In this WCPT 820AM conversation, I talk with my friend Jill Wine-Banks . She is an MSNBC legal analyst . Author of The Watergate Girl and host of the podcast Sisters In Law . Talented young women today do not know how much they owe to women like Jill, and that’s as it should be but only is because of decades of hard work and commitment. In this podcast, we talked about two main topics: The Trump l...

Yasmin Radjy is the Executive Director at Swing Left. She is one the top political organizers in the country and we are so lucky to have her using all of that experience & energy to help Democrats win. She is also one of my all-time favorite guests. In this recent WCPT-820AM conversation, we talked about: * Swing Left’s new targets for the 23/24 cycle * Adjustments to those targets after the recen...

Meagan Hatcher-Mays is the Indivisible Guide’s Director of Democracy Policy, leading the organization’s advocacy on impeachment, the courts, and democracy reform. She is attorney and an advocate for a more progressive judiciary, and she has been fighting to prevent us from coming to precisely this spot. In this recent WCPT-820AM conversation, we talked about the various outrages at the U.S. Suprem...

Chris Jones spent much of his career as Research Engineer with the University of Iowa. He is avid outdoorsman and one of the nation’s experts on the Upper Mississippi River ecosystem. He’s the author of The Swine Republic , a book that explains the damage being caused by Iowa’s agriculture industry. Recently on WCPt 820Am, we talked about: * How Chris has a double story to tell. One is the story o...

David Pepper , author of Laboratories of Autocracy , has spent at least a decade trying to turn our attention to state capitals where, unseen by most of us, partisan legislatures were doing great damage to our democracy. As David is the first to admit, it is a dark book that does not fully square with his own optimism that we have still the power to save the democracy we love. So he wrote a new bo...

Donald J. Wuebbles is the Harry E. Preble Professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Illinois. He is also a Presidential Fellow at the University of Illinois, with the aim of helping the university system develop new initiatives in urban sustainability. From 2015 to early 2017, Dr. Wuebbles was Assistant Director with the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the Executive Office o...

* David DeWitt is the Editor-in-Chief of the Ohio Capital Journal. He’s been covering the goings on in that state for more than 15 years. In this conversation, we are talking about the important and controversial election in Ohio this coming August. Earlier this month, the Ohio State Supreme Court ruled that the election could go ahead as the Cap Journal reported : Along party lines, the Ohio Supr...

Ruth Ben-Ghiat is Professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University. She writes frequently for MSNBC and other media outlets on threats to democracy around the world. Her latest book , Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present examines how illiberal leaders use corruption, violence, propaganda, and machismo to stay in power, and how resistance to them has unfolded over a century. She...

Holly McCall , the Editor and Chief at the Tennessee Lookout is back with me to talk politics & much more. She is a real expert in Tennessee media and politics. She is exactly what a great journalist should be: unafraid, skeptical but not cynical, and, as I learned the last time we spoke, never unmindful that there are better angels out there, if only we would listen. In this conversation, we talk...

Chris Geidner is a journalist who covers the law. His substack publication, Law Dork , is really a good read. We spoke a couple of weeks ago, but his focus on the court is so relevant and important I wanted to get him back with us. I’m sure, after you hear from him, you will want to sign up for his newsletter. In this conversation, we talk about: * A round-up of court cases before SCOTUS so far th...

Jill Lawrence is an opinion writer for The Bulwark and author of the book, The Art of the Political Deal . In the course of a full career paying attention to our politics, she has covered Washington for the AP and of USA Today, and as managing editor at the National Journal . Plus, she’s becoming a regular visitor to our WCPT 820AM show! During our recent conversation, we discussed GOP culture- wa...

The on-going attack on books, libraries and higher ed was the focus of my recent WCPT 820AM conversation with Jeremy Young, Senior Manager of PEN America’s Free Expression and Education Program. I hope you’ll give it a listen and then go here to learn more about how you can support PEN America: https://pen.org/ Thanks for reading It's the democracy, stupid! Subscribe for free to receive new posts...

Anderson Clayton is Chair of the NC Dems. At 25 she is the youngest state party leader in the country, and someone who has the sense and the energy to fight for rural as well as urban votes.  Recently on WCPT 820AM , I had a chance to talk to Anderson about: * Her journey into political organizing * The latest political issues in North Carolina including the party switch by State Senator Trisha Co...

Lavora Barnes leads the Michigan Democrats . She first took the position when the GOP controlled the governor’s office and the state legislature. Today, Democrats have a trifecta in the state, and are moving to gain seats in counties and municipalities from the edge of Lake Superior to border with Ohio. Recently in a WCPT 820AM conversation, I talked with Lavora about many things including her rec...

Mark Maxwell reports on politics and government as the political editor for KSDK in St. Louis. He is a great reporter and sharp observer of American politics.  In our recent conversation, we talked about the difference between governing and politics, and how the two impact each other. Mark is in a great place to talk about the differences in outcomes between blue states like Illinois and red ones...

Per Democracy Docket : This week “the Ohio House is voting on a resolution that would restrict voters' ability to amend the state constitution. The resolution would raise the threshold to pass citizen-led ballot measures from 50% to 60%.” This is effort is designed to thwart voter efforts to restore abortion rights & end gerrymandering through state-wide referendums. Protests at the Ohio Statehous...

Like many, I am worried about Iowa and Iowans. It feels like a formerly generous, conservative sensible and state had become radically untethered from reality and is now full-on MAGA- with all its cruelty and its disregard for the actual effects of policies that are made for FOX News sound-bites. In this conversation, Iowa Starting Line Senior Editor Ty Rushing talked about recent moves on a serie...

Dan Shafer, Wisconsin Political Columnist Here’s a link to Dan’s substack. Sign up to stay on top of everything Wisconsin politics. Thank you for reading It's the democracy, stupid. This post is public so feel free to share it. Get full access to It's the democracy, stupid at edwineisendrath.substack.com/subscribe

Earlier in March, I talked with Beth Lewis, a teacher and now the director of Save Our Schools Arizona , and was, frankly stunned by what she told me. (The link to that conversation is below.) The attack on public education is so thorough and thoroughly subversive that I knew I needed to better understand its origins and its connections to other ideas animating the autocratic right.  That brought...

-Read more about the voucer disaster in Arizona in this opinion piece by Beth Lewis in the Arizona Capitol Times: Nation watches as Arizona’s universal ESA voucher fiasco fails https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2023/02/06/nation-watches-as-arizonas-universal-esa-voucher-fiasco-fails/ -Find out more about Arizona Save Our Schools and how you can help at: https://sosarizona.org/learn-more/. Follow on...

Thanks for reading It's the democracy, stupid! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Get full access to It's the democracy, stupid at edwineisendrath.substack.com/subscribe

Get full access to It's the democracy, stupid at edwineisendrath.substack.com/subscribe

Happily, democrats have proven faithful and up to the long fight. And few Americans demonstrate that better than the great organizer and head of the Wisconsin Dems, Ben Wikler. In this interview, we talk about the midterm results in WIsconsin and why the fight continues. Learn more about what the WIsconsin Democrats are doing in the on-going fight to save democracy at https://wisdems.org/ . You ca...

My radio show, The Big Picture on WCPT 820 is full of interviews like this. Tune in Saturday's 1-4pm Central time Get full access to It's the democracy, stupid at edwineisendrath.substack.com/subscribe

this is a segment from my radio show, The Big Picture on WCPT 820 Get full access to It's the democracy, stupid at edwineisendrath.substack.com/subscribe