The Chauncey DeVega Show

Jonathan Metzl is the Frederick B. Rentschler II Professor of Sociology and Psychiatry, and the director of the Center for Medicine, Health, and Society, at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. He is the author of several books, including Prozac on the Couch and The Protest Psychosis . His new book is Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America's Heartland . Dr. Met...

Rachel Bitecofer is an Assistant Director of the Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University, where she teaches political science She explains how much of the conventional wisdom about American politics, voting, and elections is incorrect. Bitecofer also highlights how the Democratic Party is wasting time, energy, and resources in a losing effort to win over independent voters...

Greg Palast is an investigative journalist whose work has been featured by the BBC, The Guardian, the Nation Magazine and Rolling Stone Magazine. He is also the author of the bestselling books  Billionaires & Ballot Bandits  and  The Best Democracy Money Can Buy . Palast is one of the country's foremost experts on voter fraud and the many other ways that elections are rigged – almost always by Rep...

Walter Koenig portrayed the character "Pavel Chekov" on the original  Star Trek  series and in seven of the subsequent canonical films.  Generations  was Koenig's final appearance in the official  Star Trek  films. Koenig shares his deep worries and concerns about the state of the world and American society in the Age of Trump. He also reflects on both the power and dangers of hope in troubled and...

Tochi Onyebuchi explains how his new book Riot Baby is an act of liberation where black rage, black anger, and feelings of just revenge for injustice are acts of liberation against the White Gaze. He also reflects on science fiction, the burdens of representation and why imagining black people with superpowers is so important in a world where the lives of black people are devalued by dominant Amer...

Dr. Justin Frank is a former clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center and a physician with more than 40 years of experience in psychoanalysis. He is the author of the bestselling books  Bush on the Couch  and  Obama on the Couch . His most recent book is  Trump on the   Couch: Inside the Mind of the President . Dr. Frank explains how Donald Trump's non-co...

Vince Houghton is the historian and curator of the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. He is also the host and creative director of the Museum's podcast, SpyCast . His new book is Nuking the Moon: And Other Intelligence Schemes and Military Plots Left on the Drawing Board . Houghton explains how the Cold War spawned fantastical science fiction-like weapons programs and plans by the United...

Rabbi Michael Lerner is editor of  Tikkun , chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, and rabbi of Beyt Tikkun Synagogue-Without-Walls in Berkeley, California. He is the author of eleven books, including The Left Hand of God  and  Jewish Renewal: A Path to Healing and Transformation . His most recent book is  Revolutionary Love . Rabbi Lerner reflects on what it means to be a truth-teller an...

William Cohan is a New York Times bestselling author of several books about finance and Wall Street which include, Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World and House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street . His most recent book is Why Wall Street Matters . Cohan is also a special correspondent at Vanity Fair and a columnist for the New York Times . His writi...

Harvey J. Kaye is the Ben & Joyce Rosenberg Professor of Democracy and Justice Studies at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay. He is the author of many books including The American Radical, Are We Good Citizens?; Thomas Paine and the Promise of America ; and The Fight For The Four Freedoms: What Made FDR And The Greatest Generation Truly Great . Professor Kaye explains how the history of America...

Ruth Ben-Ghiat is a historian at New York University who specializes in authoritarianism, aesthetics, cultural politics, and Italian history. She is the author of numerous books including an upcoming project on authoritarianism and political strongmen. Ben-Ghiat is also a regular contributor to CNN, The Atlantic, and The Huffington Post. Professor Ben-Ghiat explains how Donald Trump is continuing...

Psychiatrist Dr. David Reiss is the guest on this week's very special New Year's 2020 episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show which focuses on goal setting, making and keeping personal resolutions and promises, self-reflection, and forging our best way in life during these very challenging and perilous times. Dr. Reiss is a longtime friend of The Chauncey DeVega Show . He is a contributor to the bests...

This week's special Christmas holiday season episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show focuses on the new movie Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Chauncey DeVega and his fellow Star Wars expert and life traveler Bill the Lizard offer a very critical and spoiler-filled discussion of The Rise of Skywalker and the movie's many problems with plot, narrative, characters, and emotion. They are also deeply con...

Stephen Kinzer is the author of many books including Overthrow and All the Shah's Men . His new book is Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control . Kinzer explains how the CIA conducted horrific experiments involving LSD and other drugs during the Cold War with the goal of determining if they could destroy the human mind and then reprogram it for their own purposes. Ki...

There are two guests on this week's very special December fundraising-month episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show . Ronald E. Purser is a Professor of Management at San Francisco State University. His new book is McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality . Purser is also the author of the widely-read essay at the Huffington Post," Beyond McMindfulness ". Purser explains h...

Chris Hedges is the author of numerous award-winning and bestselling books including "Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle," "Death of a Liberal Class," "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning," "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America" and "Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt." His newest book is "America: The Farewell Tour." Hedges explains how...

David Cay Johnston has been writing about and observing Donald Trump for more than thirty years. He is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and author of the bestselling book "The Making of Donald Trump." His recent book is "It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration is Doing to America." Johnston explains why the Ukraine scandal should not be a surprise given Donald...

Timothy Snyder  is a professor of history at Yale University and author of the bestselling book  On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century.  Professor Snyder is one of the most insightful and bold truth-tellers about Donald Trump's movement and the dangers of authoritarianism in America and around the world. Dr. Snyder reflects on the health of American democracy in the third year of T...

Christian Picciolini is an award-winning television producer, a public speaker, author, peace advocate, and a former violent extremist. After leaving the hate movement he helped create during his youth in the 1980s and 90s, he began the painstaking process of making amends and rebuilding his life. Christian's life since leaving the white‑power movement over two decades ago has been dedicated to he...

Tom Nichols is a professor of national security affairs at the United States Naval War College and also teaches at the Harvard Extension School. He is the author of seven books including "No Use: Nuclear Weapons and U.S. National Security" and  "The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters." He is also a political columnist for USA Today.  Tom Nichols share...

Cornel West is one of the United States' and the world's leading public intellectuals and truth-tellers. He is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University and holds the title of Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He has also taught at Union Theological Seminary, Yale, Harvard, and the University of Paris. Cornel West is the author of several bestselling books incl...

There are three great guests on this very special episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show . Walter Mosley is one of America's greatest writers. He is the author of more than 43 critically acclaimed books, including the major bestselling mystery series featuring Easy Rawlins. His nonfiction has appeared in  The New York Times Magazine  and  The Nation , among other publications. Walter Mosley is the wi...

Kevin Levin is an award-winning historian and educator whose work has been featured by The Washington Post , The New York Times , The Boston Globe , Wall Street Journal , C-SPAN and NPR . His new book is Searching For Black Confederates: The Civil War's Most Persistent Myth . Levin explains how the Internet has allowed lies and disinformation about American history and the Civil War to spread so e...

Philip Zimbardo is one of the world's leading authorities on the psychology of cruelty, groupthink, and evil. Most famous for  the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment , Dr. Zimbardo has written dozens of books and articles including the powerful and disturbing book The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil .    Dr. Zimbardo explains how America under Donald Trump is fully devolving i...

Dr. Justin Frank is a former clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center and a physician with more than 40 years of experience in psychoanalysis. He is the author of the bestselling books  Bush on the Couch  and  Obama on the Couch . His newest book is  Trump on the Couch . Dr. Frank's work has appeared in Time magazine and the Daily Beast and he has appeare...