The Intercept Briefing

ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection have become authoritarian shock forces, operating with impunity, ripping children from their parents’ arms, and enforcing the anti-immigrant edicts of Trump and Sessions. But the horrors did not start with Trump. This week on Intercepted: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is challenging one of the most powerful Democrats in the country for his Congressional seat....

Journalist Allan Nairn analyzes Trump's rise to power, the agenda of the extremist Republican Party, and dissects the latest on the Trump/Russia investigation. Author and retired psychologist Dr. Jeffrey Kaye discusses the U.S. Army Field Manual and its Appendix M. This document is the current U.S. policy on the treatment of foreign detainees. Kaye explains why some of its currently “approved” tac...

Blacklisted academic Norman Finkelstein discusses his meticulous, scholarly documentation of the collective punishment of Gaza, “the largest concentration camp in the world.” The son of two Nazi concentration camp survivors, Finkelstein is an incendiary academic whose work has infuriated the Israeli government for decades. His latest book, "Gaza: An Inquest Into its Martyrdom," has not been review...

As a bipartisan gaggle of spies and politicians lobby for Gina Haspel to become CIA director, we look at how after World War II, the U.S. and its allies prosecuted Japanese soldiers for waterboarding American POWs. Journalist Matt Taibbi talks about Trump, Russia, Putin, Stormy Daniels and the liberal embrace of authoritarianism. Sarah Jaffe reports on the teachers’ strikes across the U.S., the fi...

Trita Parsi of the National Iranian American Council confronts the lies and propaganda emanating from Israel and the White House on Iran and nuclear weapons. As Trump prepares his Nobel Peace Prize tweets and the afterparty for his upcoming summit with Kim Jong-un, Christine Ahn looks at U.S. war crimes in Korea, Pyongyang's strategy, and the quiet revolution that swept Moon Jae-in into power in S...

Ralph Nader is the best known public advocate in modern U.S. history, and has run for president four times. On this special episode of Intercepted, we are going to dig deep into several issues facing the country and the world right now. Nader rose to prominence in the 1960s after blowing the lid on extreme safety issues with General Motors and other car manufacturers’ products. His book, "Unsafe a...

Ralph Nader analyzes the state of the Democratic Party, the DNC lawsuit against Russia, and lays out the John Bolton threat. Whistleblower and Senate candidate Chelsea Manning talks about prison, comparisons to Edward Snowden, and her campaign. And artist Ricardo Cortés ("Go the Fuck to Sleep") talks about the secret history of the coca and cola in your Coke, his post-9/11 coloring book about xeno...

Intercepted presents "Evening at the Talk House", an original play by Wallace Shawn.  Part 3 of 3.  All it takes is complacency to enable the dirty work of an authoritarian regime. Cast: JANE - Annapurna Sriram; DICK - Wallace Shawn; ROBERT - Matthew Broderick; TED - John Epperson; NELLIE - Jill Eikenberry; TOM - Larry Pine; ANNETTE - Claudia Shear; BILL - Michael Tucker Based on the original U.S....

Intercepted presents "Evening at the Talk House", an original play by Wallace Shawn.  Part 2 of 3.  As drinks and hors d’oeuvres are consumed, small talk evolves into more sinister topics. Cast: JANE - Annapurna Sriram; DICK - Wallace Shawn; ROBERT - Matthew Broderick; TED - John Epperson; NELLIE - Jill Eikenberry; TOM - Larry Pine; ANNETTE - Claudia Shear; BILL - Michael Tucker Based on the origi...

Intercepted presents "Evening at the Talk House", an original play by Wallace Shawn.  Part 1 of 3.  A group of writers and actors reunite to celebrate a collaboration from their past. But the world is now very different. And so are they Cast: JANE - Annapurna Sriram; DICK - Wallace Shawn; ROBERT - Matthew Broderick; TED - John Epperson; NELLIE - Jill Eikenberry; TOM - Larry Pine; ANNETTE - Claudia...

Historian Andrew Bacevich and Jeremy make the case against escalating U.S. military action in Syria even if Assad’s forces were behind the attack. The acclaimed novelist Arundhati Roy talks about her new novel, "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness," and offers insights on Kashmir, Narendra Modi, Trump, and more. Actor and writer Wallace Shawn (My Dinner with Andre, The Princess Bride) talks about the...

Yousef Mema, a 24-year-old nursing student in Gaza who witnessed the massacre, describes the killings and the aftermath and he has a message for U.S. lawmakers. Then, key narratives about the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooter, Omar Mateen, and his motives and alleged accomplices are falling apart. The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald talks about the new information. We speak to two DA candidates in Calif...

Famed women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred, who has a case against Trump that may result in her deposing the president, analyzes the legal battles ahead for the president. Former national security briefer to George HW Bush, Ray McGovern, talks about John Bolton, Russia, and the CIA’s twitter account engaging in domestic propaganda. The Intercept’s Ryan Grim and Alex Emmons talk about Kushner, the...

In the debut episode of The Intercept’s new podcast, Mehdi Hasan sits down with independent senator and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to discuss why the mainstream press ignores so many of the economic issues that affect the lives of average Americans: poverty, homelessness, and inequality. Subscribe at theintercept.com/deconstructed or search for Deconstructed on your podcast platf...

Jeremy digs deep into the U.S. legacy in Iraq.  Mehdi Hasan, host of the new Intercept podcast "Deconstructed," talks about the commercial that 60 Minutes ran for the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and the war in Syria. Matthew Cole talks about how, before becoming FBI director, Chris Wray supervised an investigation that found that Blackwater founder Erik Prince likely broke U.S. laws. Th...

The Intercept’s Matthew Cole and Jeremy analyze the major re-shuffle in Trumpland and what it means for the future of the planet. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who led the investigation of Erik Prince and Blackwater for years in Congress, analyzes the ongoing scandal over his alleged role in the Trump era. Musical artists Ana Tijoux and Lila Downs talk about the politics of colonialism, neoliberalism, and...

This week we're taking a step back to look at the larger implications of the Trump administration. Rebel historian and professor Alfred McCoy breaks down the history of America's geopolitical maneuvering and how it has shifted under Obama and Trump. He explains why Trump reminds him of disgraced former British Prime Minister, Sir Anthony Eden. We also speak to acclaimed hip-hop artist Felipe Coron...

In 1958, a Virginia couple, Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving, married in the District of Columbia. About four months after their marriage, the Virginia county they lived in issued a criminal indictment charging the Lovings with violating Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage. Mildred was black and Richard was white. Their case, Loving v. Virginia, eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court. And it...

Historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz argues that the Second Amendment is rooted in genocide, slave patrols and says it should be abolished. Artist Tanna Tucker and historian Nestor Castillo take us on an audio tour of their new graphic history for The Nib , “Black and Red: The History of Black Socialism in America.” And acclaimed novelist Mat Johnson talks about guns, the NFL, the Black Panther film, an...

James Risen and Glenn Greenwald have both won Pulitzer prizes. They both have found themselves in the crosshairs of the U.S. government for their journalism. And they both write for The Intercept. But Jim and Glenn have taken very different approaches to covering the Trump/Russia story. This week on Intercepted, they go head-to-head in a debate. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more info...

The Trump presidency is itself a provocation. But is he the most dangerous president ever? Is he really so outside the norm of the policies of his predecessors? The short answer, when it comes to substance and policy, is: not yet.  There is a particular risk in erasing the line between horrible things Trump does with horrible things the U.S. has done for a long time and acting like it is all Trump...

As Trump continues his obsession with the MS-13 street gang, The Intercept’s Alice Speri reports on how this “war on gangs” has given the green light for federal agents to target high school students for deportation. NYU professor Nikhil Singh talks about race and America’s long war, and offers a provocative perspective on some of the golden calves of "American exceptionalism." Iran analyst Holly...

The legendary national security reporter James Risen has a fascinating new expose detailing how U.S. intelligence agencies opened a secret communications channel with Russian operatives, who were offering to sell damaging or compromising intelligence on Donald Trump. In this special bonus episode of Intercepted, James Risen lays out the whole story. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...

Former State Department official Peter van Buren and civil liberties advocate Julian Sanchez offer provocative analysis the Nunes memo. Academy Award winner Errol Morris and actor Peter Sarsgaard talk about their new hybrid-documentary series Wormwood and present their case that a US Army scientist was murdered by the CIA in 1953. Yemeni analyst Nadwa al Dawsari details the key events of the past...

This year in the National Football League, there have been 281 recorded concussions that players have suffered — spanning from the pre-season right up to the last playoff games. This weekend is Super Bowl Sunday. That is a macabre sort of record — it represents the most concussions in a season since the NFL started keeping track six years ago. The hits that these players take over and over during...