The Nation Podcasts

Pramila Jayapal is head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and represents Seattle in the House. She will explain how, as a young immigrant from India, she went from being an investment banker to a lifelong organizer. Her book, “Use the Power You Have: A Brown Woman's Guide to Politics and Political Change,” is out now. Also historian Eric Foner talks about about voting rights and voter su...

Jordan Peterson’s books of advice for men have sold five million copies – he says men should work hard, be responsible, demand more of themselves—and make their beds.”  Katha Pollitt joins the Start Making Sense podcast to discuss. Also: The synergy between politics and popular culture has never been clearer or stronger than in the Age of Reagan. J. Hoberman, author of “Make My Day: Film Culture i...

The Supreme Court next term will take up a case that could make Trump’s fake electors scheme the law of the land. Daniel Squadron explains the situation – and how winning majorities in state legislatures in swing states is the key to preserving democracy in 2024. Squadron is the co-founder and executive director of  The States Project . Also: Ivana Trump, the mother of Ivanka, Don Junior and Littl...

On Tuesday the January 6 committee held yet another dramatic hearing, this one on the origins of the ‘Stop the Steal” rally and the events that provoked that 1:30 am tweet of Trump’s urging supporters to come to Washington, where it “will be wild.” John Nichols has our analysis. Also on this week's episode, Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua say it’s not too late to act to slow climat...

What is to be done about The Supreme Court? David Cole , national legal director of the ACLU, and legal affairs correspondent for the Nation, has the best answer: organize, and vote. Also: 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 t...

The end of abortion in 26 states will be deadly for many poor women, especially poor women of color. Law professor Michele Goodwin explains, reviewing the history of forced pregnancy under the slave regime in antebellum America, and how it was banned by the 13 th  Amendment’s prohibition of “involuntary servitude.” Also: How will the war in Ukraine end? The Russians have failed to install a puppet...

In understanding the January 6 insurrection, much of the focus has been on white nationalist militias like the Proud Boys. But white evangelicals also played a big part on January 6. Sarah Posner, author of Unholy: How White Christian Nationalists Powered the Trump Presidency, and the Devastating Legacy They Left Behind , joins the podcast to discuss religion's role in the riots. Also: Republi...

The January 6 committee hearings have been powerful and devastating, explains John Nichols .  We’re also still thinking about Chesa Boudin's recall in San Francisco. Pundits everywhere are saying it means Democrats need to abandon their commitment to reforming the police and the criminal justice system. Peter Dreier doesn’t agree, explains why this week's on the podcast.  Subscribe to The...

The results of Tuesday’s primaries in L.A. and San Francisco, according to the New York Times, were “a stark warning to the Democratic Party about the potency of law and order as a political message in 2022.” John Nichols disagrees. Also: our preview of the live TV hearings of the House committee on the January 6 insurrection . Plus: sex, politics, and the Southern Baptists: Southern Baptists have...

The coming repeal of constitutional protection for abortion leaves us with a lot of work to do--to protect and expand abortion rights in the states where it will remain legal, and to help women in states where it will be banned. Katha Pollitt joins the Start Making Sense podcast to explain what we need to do now – in politics, health care, and funding. Plus: “Bad Mexicans” – that what the revoluti...

The next 6 months will be crucial in determining what happens to American democracy in 2024. Republicans are preparing to challenge the popular vote in many of the states they control by empowering state legislatures to pick electors for the electoral college rather than voters. To do that, they also need to elect Republican governors. The Nation's national affairs correspondent, John Nichols,...

Tuesday’s Democratic primaries for the House were flooded with money from pro-Israel groups seeking to defeat progressive candidates. It worked in North Carolina, but not Pennsylvania, where Summer Lee won.  John Nichols has our analysis. Also in this week's show, a discussion with Lynn Garafola about Bronislava Nijinska, the ballet dancer, choreographer, and long-neglected sister of the legen...

It’s all up to the states now, where activists are fighting to elect pro-choice candidates and strengthen laws protecting abortion rights, and grassroots groups are preparing an enormous logistics operation to move people across entire regions of the country that are about to go dark on abortion access. Amy Littlefield ,  The Nation ’s abortion access correspondent, weighs in. We also have the ele...

Why did we stop believing that people can change? Don’t we want people who did bad things to understand the damage they caused? Don't we want them to acknowledge it and make reparations? Bestselling author, Rebecca Solnit explains. Also on this week's show, Historian Eric Foner comments on the ways Republicans have made the teaching of American history a key battleground in their culture w...

Biden’s “new and improved” procedure for admitting Ukrainian refugees to the U.S. is “disgraceful." Historian and Nation contributor , David Nasaw joins us to discuss the shortcomings of the policy, and how it excludes all asylum-seekers who aren’t white and European.  Also: Abortion and its opponents. Do opponents of abortion really believe abortion providers are “baby-killers”? There’s some...

The Amazon workers on Staten Island have won a historic victory—but now they must prepare to strike, and to win support for their strike from the community power structure. The Nation’s Strikes Correspondent, Jane McAlevey explains why, and how Also on this week's show, we have a conversation with Margo Jefferson about her new memoir, “ Constructing a Nervous System. ” Her earlier memoir, “ Ne...

The sheriff of Los Angeles County: he’s got 10,000 deputies, in America’s biggest county, with 10 million people - and he’s become LA’s biggest political problem as he faces reelection. LA Times columnist Gustavo Arellano , recently interviewed the LA sheriff, Alex Villanueva, and is on the show to talk about the LAPD's war on L.A.'s black community. Also: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson won’t...

How could the war in Ukraine end? Anatol Lieven says Russia could gain control of the entire Donbass region and then declare a cease-fire – but if we want Russia to withdraw, we’ve got to give it incentives to do so. Lieven is a senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and a  contributor  to  The Nation . Also: What if everybody voted? What if voting was a duty, not just a...

Ginni Thomas , the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, will be called to testify before the House Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. Joan Walsh  has our analysis of the text messages she sent supporting the riot, and of their significance for the court ––as well as our politics. Also: Monday April 4 is the Day Of Action to Abolish Student Debt, when thousands of young p...

The Senate confirmation hearings for Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, have been following a familiar script: opponents look for scandal, and nominees say very little about how they’ll decide cases. Progressives instead should be arguing—inside and outside the hearings—that the Constitution requires protecting our “republican form of government” from becoming a “moneyed aristoc...

Bhaskar Sunkara, the founder of Jacobin, has become President of The Nation . He joins us to talk about what independent media can and should do during wartime. Also: “the Left in Purgatory”-- at the end of a period of rapid politicization, settling into either gradual decline or slow advance. Plus: the changing politics of comic books, from WWII to today: critic J. Hoberman explains how comics se...

Jamie Raskin , member of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, talks about the committee’s evidence against Trump –and the committee’s future if Republicans prevail in the midterms. He represents Maryland’s 8th District in the House, and was manager of Trump’s second impeachment trial. His new book is “ Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy...

Putin’s indefensible invasion of Ukraine has revived the Cold War, and renewed militarism and nuclear threats. We need Russia to negotiate a ceasefire—but we also can’t forget about fighting pandemics and climate change, editorial director Katrina vanden Heuvel says.  Also on this episode, our justice correspondent Elie Mystal talks about his new book, Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to th...

Now that Canada's "Freedom Convoy" has come to an end, we're wondering: was this protest really a working-class movement? As Jeet Heer explains on this week's episode, the leadership and funding for the protest came from right-wing networks, and the “truckers” were mostly owners of trucking firms rather than drivers. Nevertheless, it was a movement that gained significant suppo...

Mitch McConnell thinks Republicans are going to lose the Senate in November if Trump's candidates and issues dominate the election. Is McConnell right? Our national affairs correspondent John Nichols weighs in. Also this week, Peter Richardson discusses Hunter S. Thompson, the writer credited for inventing “Gonzo Journalism." Thompson wrote a classic book about Richard Nixon, Fear and Loat...