Current Affairs

Middle East analyst Mouin Rabbani joins Nathan J. Robinson to discuss the ongoing genocide in Gaza. They examine the illusion of ceasefire negotiations, the weaponization of humanitarian aid through the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and the eugenic logic underpinning Israel’s military campaign. They also explore how death tolls are systematically undercounted, how Palestinian voices are...

MAGA followers say they want to expose powerful, predatory billionaire elites. But Donald Trump is the exact person who should be their enemy. 🏝️ Read the article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-epstein-case-reveals-the-fraud-of-trumpism  🦩SUBSCRIBE TO CURRENT AFFAIRS MAGAZINE: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership  🦩 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/c/CurrentAffairs  🦩THE MYTH OF...

Honor Cargill-Martin, a historian of the ancient world, discusses how myths about the Roman empire originated and continue to warp our political discourse. 🏛️ Honor's Substack: https://allancienthistory.substack.com/ 🏛️ Honor's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqRIbS3NQ4ksTUrMiaMVQ-Q 🏛️ Interview Transcript: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/what-the-right-doesnt-know-about-rome 0:00-4:...

Kishore Mahbubani is a renowned diplomat, scholar, and one of the most insightful analysts of global power dynamics. He served as Singapore’s Ambassador to the United Nations and as President of the UN Security Council, and is the author of books including "Has China Won?" and "Has the West Lost It?" Mahbubani joins Current Affairs to explain why the United States is losing ground to China--not be...

He has shown that a socialist message can win people over. His campaign is a model that should be emulated everywhere. 🗽 Read the article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/zohran-mamdanis-victory-is-just-what-the-left-needed 🦩SUBSCRIBE TO CURRENT AFFAIRS MAGAZINE: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership 🦩 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/c/CurrentAffairs 🦩THE MYTH OF AMERICAN IDEALISM: ht...

The latest Democratic fad sidelines equality and justice in favor of a focus on cutting red tape. This is not the path forward. 🌎 Read the article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/abandon-abundance 🦩SUBSCRIBE TO CURRENT AFFAIRS MAGAZINE: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership 🦩 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/c/CurrentAffairs 🦩THE MYTH OF AMERICAN IDEALISM: https://www.penguinrandomhou...

Ralph Nader is one of the most important and successful activists in American political history. He played a key role in creating the consumer rights movement in the 1960s and ’70s, and his push for auto safety regulation led to measures that saved countless lives. He has also run multiple insurgent campaigns for president, challenging the two-party system and offering powerful criticisms of corpo...

Katrina vanden Heuvel is the publisher and editorial director of The Nation, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and an advocate for diplomacy, disarmament, and international cooperation. She returns to Current Affairs to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine, the erosion of U.S. diplomacy, and the bipartisan consensus around militarism. She outlines the details of the Quincy Institute’s U....

Even by the standards of right-wing rhetoric, Miller’s public statements are uncommonly shameless. He treats his audience as stupid and gullible.  🦎 Read the article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-brainless-propaganda-of-stephen-miller  🦩SUBSCRIBE TO CURRENT AFFAIRS MAGAZINE: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership  🦩 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/c/CurrentAffairs  🦩THE MYTH OF...

Andrew Cuomo is not just unfit for office—he’s dangerous. In this interview, Lindsey Boylan, the first woman to publicly speak out about Cuomo’s abusive behavior, explains how his pattern of harassment, retaliation, and intimidation mirrors the authoritarian tactics of Donald Trump. Boylan describes how Cuomo weaponized state resources, silenced critics, and surrounded himself with enablers, all w...

The former governor is a corrupt abuser of power with a pro-corporate agenda and a proven track record of deadly negligence. He will do nothing to improve New Yorkers’ lives. Why on Earth is he a contender for mayor?  Nathan J. Robinson, editor of Current Affairs Magazine, reads his article "Andrew Cuomo Is Worse Than You Even Know"  🗽 Read the article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/andrew-...

🦩 This episode originally aired on May 30, 2025. Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs Professor Richard Wolff is the host of the weekly program Economic Update, co-founder of Democracy at Work, and the author of numerous books including Understanding Marxism, Understanding Socialism, Capitalism Hits the Fan, and The Sickness Is the System. He joins Current Affairs to explain how e...

This panel was recorded on October 16th, 2024 A special event hosted by Current Affairs Magazine at The New School in New York City to celebrate the release of The Myth of American Idealism, the new book co-authored by Noam Chomsky and Nathan J. Robinson. The panel explores Chomsky’s lifelong critique of U.S. foreign policy—from Vietnam and Iraq to Ukraine and Gaza—and examines why his radical ana...

🦩 This episode originally aired on May 20, 2025. Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs John Cassidy, staff writer at The New Yorker and author of Capitalism and Its Critics, joins Nathan J. Robinson to explore the history of capitalism. Cassidy examines why capitalism has been criticized from its inception, the diverse range of critiques it has faced, and how these criticisms have...

The Democratic Party is sclerotic. It’s easy to heap blame on Joe Biden now that he is weak and powerless. But that’s a convenient way of avoiding a major reckoning.  Nathan J. Robinson, editor of Current Affairs, reads his article "The Problem Goes Well Beyond Biden"  🦚 Read the article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-problem-goes-well-beyond-biden  🦩SUBSCRIBE TO CURRENT AFFAIRS MAGAZI...

🦩 This episode originally aired on May 16, 2025. Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs Chas Freeman is one of the most insightful voices in U.S. foreign policy, with a distinguished career as a diplomat and a deep expertise in U.S.-China relations. In this conversation with Nathan J. Robinson, Freeman offers a searing critique of America's current approach to diplomacy, the global...

🦩 This episode originally aired on May 14, 2025. Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs Ted Rall is one of the most influential political cartoonists on the left today. In his new book “What’s Left: Radical Solutions for Radical Problems," he presents a manifesto for left-wing politics in 2025, blending incisive analysis with his political cartoons. Rall outlines what it means to be...

🦩 This episode originally aired on April 18, 2025. Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs America is in crisis, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Around the world, other countries have already solved many of the problems we’re told are unsolvable here: from unaffordable healthcare to lack of parental leave, crumbling infrastructure, climate disaster, and more. So why can’t the U.S...

In “On Democracies and Death Cults,” Murray offers a straightforward “good versus evil” account of the Israel-Palestine conflict. He does this by excluding every piece of information that undercuts his thesis and even spreading outright falsehoods. 🦚 Read the article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/douglas-murrays-expertise-is-a-sham  🦩SUBSCRIBE TO CURRENT AFFAIRS MAGAZINE: https://www.curr...

🦩 This episode originally aired on May 6, 2025. Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs Lorne Michaels might be the most powerful figure in American comedy — and yet, most people barely know who he is. In this episode, New Yorker editor Susan Morrison joins us to discuss her new book Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live, a deeply reported, wildly entertaining biography of...

🦩 This episode originally aired on April 29, 2025. Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs! Liberalism and socialism are often treated as opposites — but what if they’re actually part of the same fight for freedom, equality, and democracy? We’re joined by political theorist Matt McManus, author of The Political Theory of Liberal Socialism, a new book that challenges conventional narr...

🦩 This episode originally aired on April 22, 2025. Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs Most people never think twice about shrimp. But as it turns out, these creatures make up the majority of animals alive on farms at any given time—hundreds of billions every year. And the conditions they endure are often horrifying: overcrowding, eye mutilation, and inhumane slaughter methods ar...

A bit of a change of pace for the CA podcast today: We're going to be doing SCIENCE instead of politics. We're joined by one of the world's leading popular science writers, physics professor  Sean Carroll , whose bestselling books include The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself  and Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime . His lates...

🦩 This episode originally aired on April 4, 2025. Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs! Sophia Rosenfeld is a distinguished historian and the author of Common Sense: A Political History. She joins Nathan to discuss how the idea of “common sense” has been used as a political weapon—from Thomas Paine to Donald Trump. Rosenfeld explains how appeals to common sense can both empower or...

🦩 This episode originally aired on April 8, 2025. Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs! Zohran Mamdani represents the 36th District in the New York State Assembly. A member of the Democratic Socialists of America, he is currently running for mayor of New York City, hoping to unseat the controversial Eric Adams, who recently escaped federal corruption charges after signaling a will...