The Nation Podcasts

While Danny remains in talks with Russia, Alex Jordan again helps Derek bring you the headlines. This week: Israel targets Hamas negotiators in a Doha strike (3:30), effectively ending ceasefire talks (8:43); the IDF orders the evacuation of Gaza City (13:11) while reports emerge that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation hired an anti-Islam biker gang for “security” (15:42); in Russia-Ukraine, Russian...

Paris Marx is joined by Aaron Benanav to discuss his vision for a multi-criterial economy and how it would alter the type of technology our society creates. It’s a plan to center human experience through democratic discourse while driving true social and technological innovation. ⁠Aaron Benanav⁠ is an Assistant Professor at Cornell University and the author of ⁠ Automation and the Future of Work⁠...

Trump had four major court decisions against him in a single week last week: on tariffs, defunding Harvard, sending troops to LA, and deporting Venezuelans, different courts and appellate panels said he was violating the law. Erwin Chemerinsky comments – he’s Dean of the Law School at Berkeley. Also: The new film “Caught by the Tides” by Jia Zhangke, considered worldwide to be the most important d...

Danny and Derek welcome actor Morgan Spector ( The Gilded Age , The Plot Against America ) to the show for a conversation on politics, Hollywood, and capitalism. They trace his political development from the Iraq War and Obama era to Bernie Sanders and democratic socialism, discuss his documentary The Big Scary “S” Word , and reflect on how Hollywood politics skew liberal but not radical (particul...

On August 27, journalist Taylor Lorenz reported for Wired on a dark-money project funded by anonymous Democratic Party donors to shape social media. Her article documented that, "In a private group chat in June, dozens of Democratic political influencers discussed whether to take advantage of an enticing opportunity. They were being offered $8,000 per month to take part in a secretive program...

Danny is in talks with the Kremlin to unfreeze his accounts, so Derek is joined instead by the Quincy Institute’s Alex Jordan to bring you the news. This week: a new study warns that the Atlantic circulation system could collapse (2:32); Ukraine introduces AI-driven drone swarms, raising the prospect of autonomous killing machines (5:55); in Israel-Palestine, Israel declares Gaza City a “dangerous...

Paris Marx is joined by Brian Merchant to discuss whether the AI bubble is about to burst and how bosses are deploying AI tools to kill jobs and degrade work. Brian Merchant is the author of  ⁠ Blood in the Machine⁠  and writes a  ⁠newsletter⁠  of the same name. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

At a time when almost everything seems to be going wrong, Bill McKibben sees one thing that is suddenly going right – a really big thing: solar power, and wind, which now provide cheaper electricity than fossil fuels. Bill’s new book has the wonderful title “Here Comes the Sun” – he says solar is “A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for civilization.” Also: historian Eric Foner provid...

Danny and Derek welcome back to the program historian Udi Greenberg to discuss his reinterpretation of modern Christianity in The End of the Schism: Catholics, Protestants, and the Remaking of Christian Life in Europe, 1880s–1970s . They explore the alliances Catholics and Protestants forged under the pressures of fascism, the Cold War, and decolonization, and how both Christian Democracy and radi...

The Iran-Israel conflict in June was terrifying but brief: it lasted 12 days. But that war is not over. Trita Parsi , vice president and cofounder of the Quincy Institute, has been warning that both the United States and Israel are planning for another round , with their European allies providing the groundwork. I spoke to Parsi about the likelihood of war, the rationale behind the current sabre-r...

Danny and Derek get in one last news update before Danny moves to an undisclosed American Prestige satellite campus. This week: In Israel-Palestine, the IPC formally declares a famine in Gaza (3:21), Israel bombs Nasser Hospital (6:34), and Trump hosts a White House “day after” meeting (13:25); Europe moves to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran (16:16); Trump’s 50% tariff on Indian goods goes into effe...

Paris Marx is joined by Kate Mackenzie and Tim Sahay to discuss the geopolitics behind China’s investments in green tech and electrification, and how it presents the prospect of a new development model based on renewables instead of fossil fuels. Kate Mackenzie is an adjunct fellow at Macquarie University. Tim Sahay is co-director of the Net Zero Industrial Policy Lab at Johns Hopkins University....

What is Trump’s strategy in deploying the National Guard to L.A., then D.C., and now probably Chicago and New York? Does he want the military in the street of blue cities for the midterms next year? They will still elect Democrats to the House. John Nichols comments. Also: ‘Huckleberry Finn’ is America's great anti-slavery novel, but there's a secret behind it: Mark Twain, the author, wasn...

Danny and Derek welcome historian Rashid Khalidi back to the program, this time to talk about Columbia University’s agreement with the Trump administration. They discuss the university equating criticism of Israel with antisemitism, the school bringing in outside monitors, bipartisan U.S. support for Israel despite shifting public opinion, and how donor influence and neoliberal management are both...

Subscribe now to skip the ads and hear the full interview on the Bolivia election. Don’t forget our Welcome to the Crusades and Of This World series! Derek took away Danny’s iPad, so now Danny has to help with the news. This week: the great Trump-Putin summit takes place (1:39) as Zelensky visits the White House (5:44); Hamas accepts the newest ceasefire (9:39), the IDF appears to have begun its G...

Paris Marx is joined by Cecilia Rikap to discuss how countries’ dependence on US tech companies is harming them and why they need to get serious about digital sovereignty. Cecilia Rikap is Associate Professor in Economics at University College London and Head of Research at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https...

In The Nation’s interview with Zohran Mamdani, he talks how he won the New York City Democratic primary for mayor, by addressing the city’s affordability crisis—and what the Democrats can learn from his victory. Katrina vanden Heuvel and John Nichols, who conducted the interview, introduce our excerpts and set the stage. Also: It’s time to take a step back from the daily barrage of bad news to loo...

Danny and Derek Davison welcome to the program economist Glenn Loury, host of The Glenn Show , to talk about the re-release of his 1994 book Self-Censorship . They discuss the reasons he originally wrote the book, including self-censorship among intellectuals in late 1980s Eastern Europe as well as the response to Glenn’s critiques of US debates on race and civil rights at the time. They then tie...

In April, the Liberal Party of Canada, under the leadership of Mark Carney, won an election that heartened opponents of the right-wing. Carney had run on the promise of fighting Donald Trump’s threats to annex Canada and also to bolster the Canadian state to deal with issues like affordable housing. But in office, Carney has been delivering something different than his rhetoric suggested: he has b...

Don't forget to check out our series "Welcome to the Crusades" and "Of This World." Danny and Derek’s The Life of a Go-Go Boy album is shelved indefinitely. Meanwhile, in world news: Armenia and Azerbaijan sign a U.S.-brokered peace deal (1:35); Israel prepares for an operation in Gaza City as it continues its search for countries willing to take in expelled Palestinians (8:36)...

On a special edition of American Prestige , Mohammad Alsaafin, journalist at AJ+, returns to the program to discuss recent events concerning Palestine. He and Derek talk about journalists killed by Israel in Gaza, including Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif; the broad dehumanization of Palestinian journalists by many mainstream outlets; the planned military occupation and potential ethnic clean...

In WWII, Denmark rescued a larger proportion of their Jewish population than any other country – 95%. How they did it suggests how we can resist Trump’s attacks on undocumented residents. Sarah Sophie Flicker explains – she’s an organizer who’s a co-founder of the Women’s March on Washington. Also: Donald Trump is demanding that UCLA pay a $1 billion fine for antisemitism on campus – in addition t...

In lieu of a typical Tuesday episode this week, we are happy to present the first episode of our new miniseries with Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins,   ⁠⁠ Of This World .⁠Subscribe now⁠  at the annual tier for access to this series and other AP series going forward. First, Danny Bessner speaks with Daniel about what inspired this series. In the episode itself (6:25), Daniel speaks with Carlo Invernizzi A...

Almost everyone who is on line or even has a cell phone has encountered a familiar and perplexing nuisance: an email or text with a job offer to make lots of money while working from home. These messages seem like obvious scams but how do they work? Alexander Sammon, a feature writer for Slate, conducted a personal experiment to find out by taking one of the jobs he was offered. The result is a hi...

Don't forget to  ⁠purchase our "Welcome to the Crusades" miniseries⁠ ! The AP team will wear formal Tevas to the new White House ballroom. Otherwise, in this week’s news: Danny and Derek reflect on the 80th anniversary of the US dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima (1:46); in Israel-Palestine, Netanyahu announces his “full occupation” plan (8:24) as the US expands the Gaza Humanitaria...