Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

Chris’ book, “The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource” is out in paperback now. As part of the release of the paperback, Chris sat down with author and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt to discuss the attention economy in this moment. We're thrilled to share the event, which was held at The Strand bookstore in NYC, with you.    Sign up for MS NOW Premium on App...

Symone Sanders Townsend and Eugene Daniels were once at odds as White House staffer and White House reporter. Now they’re friends and colleagues—each co-hosting their own shows at MS NOW. But their off-air conversations are where the real action is. Their new show, “MS NOW Presents: Clock It” is an invitation to their groupchat, the liveliest—and most informative—in news. Whether it’s ICE getting...

So much has unfolded in Minneapolis over the past few weeks following the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. There’s a lot to unpack in the aftermath. Jacob Soboroff, MS NOW senior political and national reporter and Alex Wagner, MS NOW senior political analyst, discuss on the ground reporting in Minneapolis, the implications of what has happened and more. Sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple...

Almost every aspect of our life from the likes we get on social media to the professional metrics we receive have been in some ways gamified. Games are basically everywhere. What impact does this gamification have on our lives? C. Thi Nguyen is a philosophy professor at the University of Utah and the author of “The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else's Game.” He joins WITHpod to discuss why w...

It was only a year ago that Los Angeles was devastated by some of the worst wildfires in recent recorded history. Jacob Soboroff is the Senior Political and National Reporter for MS NOW and the New York Times best-selling author of "Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America’s New Age of Disaster.” He joins WITHpod to discuss his own personal connection and story with his childhood home bu...

It's been a little more than a week since the United States invaded Venezuela and abducted its president Nicolás Maduro. Trump has contended that Venezuela, which reportedly has the world’s largest known oil reserves, has "unilaterally seized and sold American oil." There's a lot to discuss about the geopolitical context and how it intersects with new energy developments. Senator Ruben Gallego (D-...

Listen to this special invitation from Rachel Maddow and sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to take advantage of a 3-month free trial! With MS NOW Premium, you can get our entire suite of podcasts – everything from “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” to “The Best People with Nicolle Wallace” – all ad-free. As a subscriber, you also get early access to select shows, plus exclusive bon...

Autonomous vehicle technology and safety has changed drastically recently. Once thought of as a far off goal, we’re now at a point where self-driving cars have begun operating at quite a sophisticated and high level. But there's still a lot of work to be done before these vehicles become more mainstream. Tim Lee is a journalist and the founder of Understanding AI. He joins WITHpod to discuss advan...

Happy New Year! Given the holidays, we're re-sharing one of our most memorable conversations. You’ve probably come across content online that seems real but is actually fake. And that experience is becoming more common with the proliferation of AI generated content. Our guest this week points out that the mental gymnastics of this starts to take a toll. Jia Tolentino, a staff writer at The New Yor...

We’re approaching the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2026. There’s been a few inflection points recently, including talks of a peace deal amidst the gruesome conflict. Tim Mak is a journalist and the founder of The Counteroffensive, which covers the war in Ukraine from a human interest perspective. He joins WITHpod to discuss what life has been like for him living in Kyiv...

Saudi Arabia has executed more than 335 people this year, according to a tally by international news agency AFP. It’s something that hasn’t gotten much coverage in the U.S. What’s behind this killing spree? Ebtihal Mubarak is a journalist from Saudi Arabia, who now lives in the U.S. She joins WITHpod to discuss what’s been driving this trend, relations with the U.S., the role that Saudi Arabia’s e...

Political violence has become an increasingly urgent issue in Trump 2.0. Elected officials continue to grapple with what’s driving this. Why does it flummox officials from both parties so much? That’s the subject of a recent piece, “In The Line of Fire,” written by Benjamin Wallace-Wells, a staff writer at The New Yorker. He joins WITHpod to discuss the marked rise of political violence in the U.S...

Senator Chuck Schumer posted this week in part, “Trump’s only principles are hypocrisy and corruption. Bombing unmarked boats in the Caribbean one day, pardoning notorious drug traffickers the next.” How can such high levels of corruption happen and what has led us to this point? Journalist and author David Sirota points out that the staggering levels of corruption that we’re seeing within U.S. po...

Rachel Maddow’s new series lays bare one of the most shocking decisions in American history. It’s story that reveals how an executive order authorizing the mass roundup of innocent Japanese Americans came to be, the powerful players who engineered it, and the burn order that tried to erase it from history. Stay right here to listen to a special preview of “Rachel Maddow Presents: Burn Order.” And...

Well, the government shutdown is over, but if you ask most Democrats about the unresolved challenge that the shutdown was about, the answer would be healthcare. This week the White House postponed its planned rollout of a new proposal to address health care costs. And with open enrollment season upon us, millions of Americans are already seeing higher health insurance costs as subsidies are set to...

"Rachel Maddow Presents: Burn Order" is the story of one of the most shocking decisions in American history: the executive order to target and round up innocent citizens, Japanese Americans, at the outbreak of World War II. This six-episode narrative podcast will examine and shed new light on how that policy came to be, who was behind it, who attempted to stop it, and the heroism needed to end the...

Since this summer, we’ve seen a massive deployment of federal agents deployed for the purposes of aggressive- and often violent- immigration enforcement. And what happened in Los Angeles has represented a turning point of sorts for the U.S. Memo Torres is a multimedia journalist and the director of engagement at LA TACO. He joins WITHpod to discuss immigration raids consistently ramping up in Los...

The U.S. has carried out multiple strikes on boats in the Caribbean off of Venezuela, killing dozens of people. And yet there’s very little legal rationale for the military action we’ve seen. Benjamin Gedan is a senior fellow and director of the Latin America Program at the Stimson Center and Adjunct Lecturer and Fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He also served as t...

The UN has warned of an alarming rise in violence and restrictions by Israeli settlers and security forces in the West Bank. American journalist Jasper Nathaniel has spent time in the region and captured a recent brutal attack on a Palestinian woman- one incident among a growing number of violent acts. He joins WITHpod to discuss key inflection points, his thoughts on formal annexation, observatio...

We’ve seen a growing political and ideological divide between urban and rural populations in America. What has happened in Urbana, Ohio is a case study in how politics can shake a town to its core. Beth Macy is the author of “Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America.” She joins WITHpod to discuss how Urbana has changed from the time she grew up there, themes that connect othe...

Cars play such a big part in contemporary life. But why? And to what effect? Our guests this week point out that it's an incredible moment to rethink our relationship to cars. Sarah Goodyear and Doug Gordon are the co-hosts of the “War on Cars” podcast and the authors, along with Aaron Naparstek, of “Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile.” They join WITHpod to discu...

Jen Psaki is on a mission to show us how the Democratic party can use this political moment to fight and win again. On Season 2 of her podcast, “The Blueprint,” she interviews the people reshaping the party, starting with Texas Congressman Greg Casar, Chair of the Progressive Caucus.   The first two episodes of “The Blueprint with Jen Psaki” are available now, and will continue to drop every Wedne...

On October 8, 2025, President Trump deployed the Texas National Guard to the Chicago area – marking yet another instance of military force being used domestically under his leadership. This follows earlier deployments of federal troops to states like California and Oregon. These actions point to a deeply troubling pattern: the use of U.S. military forces – trained to defend the nation from foreign...

In the Trump-era, and within the public health narrative shaped by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a debunked but persistent myth has taken hold: that infant vaccinations cause autism. Despite overwhelming scientific evidence disproving this claim, the narrative remains central to anti-vaccine rhetoric. Professor Richard Grinker, a cultural anthropologist and director of The George Washington University In...

A few years ago, MSNBC contributor and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Trymaine Lee, though healthy and only 38, nearly died of a heart attack. That experience forced him to confront the multitude of factors that almost killed him. In his new book, “A Thousand Ways to Die: The True Cost of Violence on Black Life in America,” he discusses the weight of being a Black man in America, of bearing wit...