The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer

Republican congressman George Santos seems to have lied about everything: about his ancestry, his education, his career, his charitable work, his medical history, and other things. Many people have taken delight in the Santos story as an over-the-top example of a con-man who rose to the top.But Moira Donegan, a columnist for the Guardian, pushed the discussion about Santos deeper in a recent column by asking what purpose Santos’ lies serve and what we are to make of a political system where a liar like Santos can flourish?The Santos story is about more than just one fibber, but a deeper and more systematic corruption. I was happy to talk to Moira on this episode of The Time of Monsters to tease out the meaning of the scandal. Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Good news is easier to notice if you consider the alternatives. On Monday, the Biden offered “unwavering” support of Brazil president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the aftermath of an right-wing coup. It’s easier to imagine earlier presidents, not just Republicans like Donald Trump but also Democrats like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, taking a very different stand when a socialist government in Latin America is facing a right-wing attempt at regime change.In a recent article in The New Republic, Matthew Duss and Stephen Wertheim note that the rising progressive movement in the Democratic Party has usefully pushed Biden to partially move beyond the failed policies of the past. This can be seen especially in the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the retreat from drone warfare. But there’s still much work to be done, with USA foreign policy still to militarized.For the latest episode of The Time of Monsters podcast, I talked to Duss and Wertheim about Biden's foreign policy record. Duss is a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former foreign policy advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders. Wertheim is also affiliated with Carnegie, where he is a senior fellow. He’s the author of Tomorrow, the World: The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy. Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In recent years, ads from companies such as 23andMe and AncestryDNA have become a staple on television and social media. They promise customers a chance to find out family secrets through DNA collection. What’s rarely emphasized is that the real DNA data goldmine is selling the information gathered by customers to big pharma, which can then be better positioned to sell its products.To look into how DNA became a multibillion dollar industry, I talked to Myles W. Jackson, the inaugural Albers-Schönberg Professor in the History of Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Myles is the author of three books, Spectrum of Belief (2000), Harmonious Triads (2006), and The Genealogy of a Gene (2015). In our conversation, we take up Myles’ fascinating new essay “Ownership, Knowledge, and Genetic Information” which will appear next year in a book titled Ownership of Knowledge: Beyond Intellectual Property, edited by Dagmar Schäfer, Marius Buning, and Annapurna Mamidipudi.In our wide-ranging discussion, we talk about how the courts have opened the door to corporate ownership of DNA data and how the DNA industry ends up promoting a regressive idea that ethnic identity is a matter of bloodlines. There are many reasons to be wary of the corporate ownership of DNA data, not least that it ends up replicating racism in a new way.Myles and I are joined in this conversation by journalist Doug Bell, a frequent guest on the podcast who can be found here. Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

On a previous podcast, the TV critic Sean T. Collins and I discussed how we were both surprised that Andor, the latest iteration of the Star Wars franchise, was actually a good TV program rather than just fan service. Now, the first season of Andor is over and there’s room for a larger appraisal. David Klion, writing in The New Republic, makes the bold claim that the show deserves to be seen as great TV, in the same league as shows like The Wire and The Sopranos. David and I share our enthusiasm for Andor on this week’s podcast.Among other topics, we discuss the way the show draws on the history of revolutions, including the Russian revolution; the extraordinary acting of Stellan Skarsgård, Denise Gough, Kyle Soller, and Genevieve O’Reilly; and the shaping role of writer/director Tony Gilroy, the mastermind behind the series.Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Kanye West’s appearance on the Alex Jones show, where the singer praised Hitler and Nazism, has brought the problem of antisemitism to the fore. To take up the issue, I spoke with Sarah Posner, a columnist at MSNBC and author of the valuable book Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump. Sarah is a particularly valuable voice in this conversation because the fraught and complex relationship between the religious right and right-wing Zionists is part of the story. We talk not only about West and Jones but also the right turn of the Supreme Court.Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe. Credits:Host: Jeet HeerExecutive Producer: Ludwig HurtadoAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The collapse of FTX, a crypto currency exchange that went from a valuation of $32 billion to bankruptcy, is sending shockwaves not just through the economy but also politics. FTX's founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was the second biggest donor to the Democratic party in 2022. He has many complex ties with Democratic politicians, policymakers and pundits. In a recent column, I wrote about how Democrats have a crypto problem.On this week’s episode of The Time of Monsters podcast, I talked with David Klion, an editor at Jewish Currents who writes for many publications, including The Nation. We had a wide-ranging conversation on not just the crypto crash but the philosophies of effective altruism and longtermism (supported by some of the players in the story), the dangers of plutocratic philanthropy, and the role writers like Matthew Yglesias played in whitewashing Sam Bankman-Fried. Along the way, we take up Frank Herbert’s science fiction novel Dune and ask whether it, too, is an example of longtermism.Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s victory over Jair Bolsonaro in the Brazilian presidential election is the latest evidence of the resurgence of the Latin American left. This is a one of the most hopeful stories in the world, since the left and center-left parties that now govern most of Latin America have the potential to seriously address issues like climate change and inequality. But it’s a complex story too, since the populist right is also gaining force. Bolsonaro’s supporters did well in elections below the presidential level. The right is also organizing effective opposition in many other countries in the region, forcing the left to govern in coalitions with centrists.To survey the prospects for the left in the region, I sat down with journalist Doug Bell to interview Jeremy Adelman, the Henry Charles Lea Professor of History at Princeton University. He is also the director of the Global History Lab at Princeton. Both have spoken to me in a previous podcast. During the podcast, we talked about a UN address on the war on drugs and climate with Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Doug Bell can be found here. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The midterm of 2022 is almost over, with only some counting and the Georgia run-off remaining. But it’s seismic impact will be felt for years to come. It was the first nation wide election since the Supreme Court eviscerated the right to reproductive choice in the Dobbs decision. The election confirmed the Dobbs decision has sent a shockwave through the electorate, energizing pro-choice voters to deliver a stinging rebuke to Republican ambitions.Among political analysts, Moira Donegan, USA columnist for the Guardian, has been a major voice insisting on the centrality of the abortion issue, which she links not only to personal choice but also economic and political freedom. I talked to Moira about how abortion has changed this election and is likely to remain crucial to politics in the future.Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Elon Musk’s first few days as the head of Twitter have proved rocky, with advertisers leaving in droves after he spread a conspiracy theory about the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, followed by a round of firings and rehirings, all in the service of a murky agenda. Whether Musk will be able to make Twitter an ongoing concern is an open question.The question of why the world’s richest man wants to control an influential social media platform is more urgent. To solve this riddle, I talked to Jacob Silverman, who profiled a group he calls "the Paypal mafia” in The New Republic. This group consists of leading Silicon Valley plutocrats like Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and David Sacks, as well as sundry hanger-ons. Jacob and I talk about how this group is reshaping US politics on a host of issues including hate speech and criminal justice reform.Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Joe Biden’s executive action on college student debt is both the culmination of a long political struggle and the possible start of a new era of debt relief not just for college students but for many other people weighed down by money they owe for hospital stays, housing and other essentials.To talk about the potential of debt relief as the basis for an energized new left politics, I talked with Astra Taylor, the documentary filmmaker who has been an active player in these debates since the days of Occupy Wall Street. Astra is the co-founder of the Debt Collective. In her writings and speeches, she’s made many key points about how debt relief is grounded in organizing and solidarity, how economic equality (including making sure people aren’t burdened with undue debt) is crucial for democracy, and how we need to free people from the unjustified guilt that prevents them from fighting for their rights.I should note that I was coming out of the cold when I recorded this podcast, so my voice is raspy. But I think Astra’s eloquence more than carries the show.Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe.  Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy