The Nation Podcasts

How can Democrats win back at least some white working class swing voters? We have some striking new research about that. Katie Rader joins the Start Making Sense podcast to discuss the issues that are most likely to mobilize them.Also on this episode: Doctors these days are caught between caught between the Hippocratic oath--“first, do no harm” -- and “the realities of making a profit from people at their sickest and most vulnerable.” Eyal Press is on the show to report on the ways doctors are fighting back.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In this episode of Edge of Sports, host Dave Zirin highlights two takes on the gender politics of sports culture. Dr. Cheryl Cooky joins the Ask a Sports Scholar segment to discuss the history of sports and gender equality, as well as her book, No Slam Dunk: Gender, Sport, and the Unevenness of Social Change. Finally, W. Kamau Bell climbs aboard for a special interview looking back on his career as a media personality, from the early days of Totally Biased to United Shades of America.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The debate over the causes of inflation is heating up and showing an important divide in the discipline of economics. Mainstream economists like Larry Summers blame it on rising wages and recommend interest rate hikes to cool the economy by raising unemployment. But other scholars, notably Isabella Weber of the University of Massachusetts, have a different theory: they argue inflation is due to price gauging made possible by the Covid emergency and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Weber’s ideas, which are gaining traction, suggest the solution is price control.The possibility that establishment economics is losing its dominance over policy is making some economists angry. There’s been a vicious backlash to Weber’s work. To talk about the inflation debate and other examples of heterodox thinking on the rise, as well as the circling-the-wagon approach of the discipline, I talked to Marshall Steinbaum, an economist at the University of Utah and a Senior Fellow at the Jain Family Institute. On this episode of The Time of Monsters, we range widely over the discipline of economics and the unseemly hissy fit of many leading practitioners. Marshall’s twitter account can be followed here. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Cornel West is running for president as a third party candidate, so he’s not going to get many votes. Nevertheless, Joan Walsh argues, he could discourage Democrats from voting, which would make Trump’s election more likely. Also on this episode of Start Making Sense: you might think Republicans would take a breather after banning abortion in the states they control, but no! Instead, they’ve set their sights on a new target: no-fault divorce. The Nation's Katha Pollitt is on the podcast to discuss.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

Pat Robertson, who died at age 93, was a much hated figure on the left and for good reason. For many decades, through his television show, The 700 Club, and in his frequent interventions in political debates, he’s been one of America’s most prominent voices for the religious right: a sexist and homophobic preacher with a wide audience.Unfortunately, Robertson left a large legacy, which we need to reckon with. To do so, I spoke with the journalist Sarah Posner, who writes frequently on the intersection of politics and religion. She is the author of the book Unholy, about white evangelical support for Donald Trump. Sarah also wrote a very fine essay for Talking Points Memo about Robertson’s role in creating an infrastructure of right-wing lawyers who are pushing the religious right’s agenda through the courts and the policy ranks of the Republican Party. On this episode of The Time of Monsters, Sarah and I talk about Robertson’s background as the son of Democratic senator, his distinctive brand of charismatic Christianity which has been gaining force, his conspiracy theories and sundry bigotries, and the support he gets from more mainstream institutions such as AIPAC. 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

Shasta County, California, north of San Francisco, is a pretty place, but right wing extremists have taken over the Board of Supervisors there. They’ve driven out public health workers and pushed to make the county what they call a “Second Amendment sanctuary.” They're dubbing it a blueprint for the rest of the nation. The Nation's Sasha Abramsky reports.Also on this episode of Start Making Sense, historian Brenda Stevenson dissects the Black family both under slavery and after. Stevenson is the author of a new book on the history of the enslaved black family, titled “What Sorrows Labour in My Parent’s Breast.”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

Accelerating the shift to electric vehicles (EVs) is a centerpiece of Joe Biden’s climate policy. In making this push, the most likely choke point will come not from the car companies but from car dealers. Slate writer Alexander Sammon recently attended the annual conference of the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) and filed a fascinating report detailing just how adamantly opposed dealers are to EVs on both ideological grounds (most dealers are staunch conservatives) and economic ones (EVs require less repair, a major source of dealer profit). The article is unusually rich and I highly recommend reading it. I talked to Alexander about his report and the larger politics of auto dealership. We discuss how dealers are rent seekers who benefit from policies that stifle change and harm the consumers. They also form the economic and organizing backbone of the GOP. We also address a critique of his piece by policy analyst Matt Stoller.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

The polls about the 2024 election are not good. Democrats lack enthusiasm for Biden, especially after his debt limit deal. The Nation's editor in chief, D.D. Guttenplan argues that the president needs to remake his candidacy—now.Also on this episode of Start Making Sense: Climate change is raising sea levels, and soon low-lying coastal areas will be under water. But the most severe threat, the brunt of the suffering, is coming first to low-lying islands around the world, even though they are least responsible for global warming. Christina Gerhardt, author of the new book, Sea Change: An Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean, is on the show to discuss. 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

After months of teasing voters and reporters, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has finally launched his presidential bid. He did it on an unusual platform: Twitter Spaces. The launch was widely viewed as a bungle because of its small audience and many technical glitches.Even if was a fiasco, it was significant as an example of Elon Musk trying to remake himself as a right-wing media mogul, a Rupert Murdoch of the digital age. To better understand what DeSantis and Musk are up to, I talked with Parker Molloy, who runs the fine newsletter The Present Age.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 this episode of the Edge of Sports podcast, we chat with the great Washington Post journalist, Michael Lee, about what makes the Denver Nuggets and their star player, Nikola Jokic, so special.We also have a lot of Choice Words about the passing of Jim Brown.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