Bernie Sanders recently spoke with our John Nichols about the importance of doing big things in politics--and now Senate Democrats have agreed on a $3.5 trillion budget proposal that would dramatically expand Medicare, provide for paid family leave, subsidize child care, make community college free, and fund some meaningful climate crisis initiatives.  Big things! John Nichols comments. Also: A comic novel about Ethel and Julius Rosenberg?  Who’d have thought that was possible?   Now Francine Prose has written one:  it’s called “The Vixen,” and it’s terrific. 

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Bernie's Big Deal: John Nichols on the budget, plus Francine Prose on Ethel Rosenberg

World politics after the Biden-Putin Summit: Katrina vanden Heuvel argues that we need to rethink what real security means, and that it can't mean a new cold war, but joint action with Russia and China on climate change, pandemics, and the threat of nuclear war. Also: Amy Wilentz comments on Haiti after the assassination of its unloved president—and the necessity of following grassroots progressive civil society groups in finding a path forward towards free and fair elections. Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe. 

Rethinking global security: Katrina vanden Heuvel; plus Amy Wilentz on Haiti

"Utopian" has been a term of abuse in politics for a long time now, synonymous with “irrational” and “impossible.” Instead, we are told, we should focus on realistic plans to improve things. But The Nation is publishing a special issue in defense of utopia. Jeet Heer explains how the dreams of a good society keep hope alive and expose the inadequacy of present structures. Also: the Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights is known today as the heartland of Chicano culture. Historian George Sanchez explains how its multicultural, interracial past made it a bastion of progressive democracy. His new book is Boyle Heights. Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe. 

Why We Need the Utopian Imagination: Jeet Heer; plus George Sanchez on LA’s Boyle Heights

“Critical Race Theory” has been attacked on Fox News nearly 1300 times.  It’s being banned from public schools and colleges in something like 15 Republican states.  But what IS “critical race theory”?  And why is this happening now?  Kimberlé Crenshaw explains; she teaches law at Columbia and UCLA, and she’s probably the most prominent figure associated with critical race theory—she coined the term 30 years ago.  She’s also creator of the concept “intersectionality.”  Also: there’s a new book about the sixties--about the heroism, and the disasters, of the movements of that decade.  The authors are the brother and sister team David Talbot and Margaret Talbot--David is the founder of Salon.com, and Margaret writes for the New Yorker.

The Attack on “Critical Race Theory”: Kimberlé Crenshaw; Plus David Talbot and Margaret Talbot on the Sixties

Voting rights suffered a defeat in the Senate this week, but really it's just the latest battle in a continuing struggle—and if anything, it clarifies the real problem: the filibuster must go, at least for voting rights legislation. John Nichols says it’s now up to grassroots groups to go to work on reluctant Democrats during the July 4 break. Also, here's an idea: Create a new Federal Writers Project, hiring a thousand out of work writers and journalists to document American lives during the pandemic year. It’s in a bill proposed in the House by Los Angeles Representative Ted Lieu. David Kipen explains; he’s former director of literature for the National Endowment for the Arts, and it was his idea. Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe.   

It's Time to Mobilize for Voting Rights: John Nichols; plus David Kipen on a new Federal Writers Project

Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are not the only Democrats opposed to filibuster reform—Dianne Feinstein says she won’t vote for it, either. And there are more Democrats in the Senate staying the same thing. But without filibuster reform, the rest of the Democrats’ agenda is dead—starting with protection of voting rights and elections. What’s wrong with these people? Joan Walsh comments. Also: Many people think of Jimmy Carter as a failure as president, the Democrat who opened the door to Reagan, and the only president whose work after leaving office was better than his work in office. Kai Bird says that’s wrong—Carter had more accomplishments, and was more complicated, than people realized. Kai’s new book is called The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter. Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe.   

It’s Not Just Joe Manchin: Joan Walsh on ‘Moderate’ Democrats, plus Kai Bird on Jimmy Carter

Republicans are not just making it harder to vote—they’re making it easier for judges and state legislatures to reverse the results of elections they have lost.  Congressional action could block these changes—but that requires filibuster reform, and Joe Manchin says he won’t vote for filibuster reform.  What does Joe Manchin want?  John Nichols comments.Also: Amy Wilentz comments on the earthquake in Israeli politics: the end of Bibi Netanyahu, after 12 years as Prime Minister, and a new governing coalition that includes for the first time in Israeli history and an Israeli Palestinian Islamist party as part of the government.  Amy, who was Jerusalem bureau chief for The New Yorker, talks about what this might mean for Palestinians inside Israel, and on the West Bank and in Gaza. 

What Does Joe Manchin Want? John Nichols on Filibuster Reform, plus Amy Wilentz on Israeli Politics

Joe Biden went to Tulsa on Tuesday to commemorate the fact that, one hundred years ago this week, in 1921, a white mob attacked an all-Black neighborhood there. It was one of the worst episodes of racial violence in U.S. history.  Historians think it left 300 dead and 10,000 homeless. David M. Perry comments on the political issues around the historical facts -- he’s a journalist and historian whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and The Nation. Plus: Katha Pollitt talks about a new book of advice for men – Jordan Peterson’s “Rules” start with “stand up straight, with your shoulders back.” 

White Politics and Black History in Tulsa: David Perry on the Tulsa Race Massacre Commemoration, plus Katha Pollitt on Advice for Men

While Joe Biden has pledged an “ironclad commitment to Israel's security," many Democrats in Congress, and outside of Congress, have been moving away from unquestioning support for Israel since the Israeli attacks on Gaza last week. John Nichols reports. Plus: It’s probably the most radical show that’s ever been on TV: Exterminate All the Brutes, the 4-part, 4-hour documentary about colonialism and genocide, by Raoul Peck, playing now on HBO Max. Historian Robin D.G. Kelley comments. Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe. 

Democrats, Israel, and Palestine: John Nichols, plus Robin D.G. Kelley on "Exterminate All the Brutes"

Palestinians and Israel: Saree Makdisi talks about what Netanyahu has called “the second front”: Palestinian citizens of Israel, who are increasingly subject to attack by right-wing Jewish mobs, and who are increasingly active in support of Palestinians in East Jerusalem and Gaza. Saree is a professor of English and comparative literature at UCLA and his work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, and the London Review of Books, as well as The Nation. Also: The big TV event of the month-—maybe of the year—is The Underground Railroad, a ten-part series on Amazon Prime Video, directed by Barry Jenkins and based on the Colson Whitehead novel. It’s being called “the most ambitious take on American slavery since Roots”—and that was on TV almost 40 years ago. Eric Foner comments on the imagined and real history in the series; he wrote the book on the hidden history of the underground railroad: it’s called Gateway to Freedom. Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe.   

Palestinians' "Second Front': Saree Makdisi, plus Eric Foner on "The Underground Railroad"

Conflict between Israel and Palestine has been escalating this week.  For this podcast we have two segments about Palestinians; neither is about the current crisis, which changes daily. Rachel Kushner visited a Palestinian refugee camp in 2016 – Shuafat, the only one inside Jerusalem – alongside a community organizer as he tried to solve massive problems. Her report, published originally in the New York Times Magazine, appears in her new book of nonfiction, “The Hard Crowd.” And Adam Shatz talks about Edward Said, the leading voice of Palestinians in the US before he died in 2010.  Said was also The Nation’s classical music critic, and Adam Shatz, now an editor for the London Review of Books, was The Nation’s literary editor--his work included editing Edward Said’s pieces for the magazine. 

Palestinian Lives--and Deaths: Rachel Kushner on refugees and Adam Shatz on Edward Said

Blake Bailey’s new book about Philip Roth was taken out of print by the publisher after Bailey was accused of rape and attempted rape and “grooming” his teenage students for sex with him when they reached 18. Nation columnist Katha Pollitt argues that, while she believes the women—Bailey probably was a rapist, as well as a misogynist and a creep—readers should nevertheless have the chance to buy the book and come to their own conclusions. Also: Literature, art, and the idea of ‘freedom’ during the Cold War, from George Orwell to James Baldwin to The Family of Man: Louis Menand has been thinking about all of this. His new book is The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War. Menand teaches at Harvard and writes for The New Yorker. Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe.   

Rapists, Misogynists, Creeps, and their Books: Katha Pollitt on Blake Bailey, plus Louis Menand on Cold War Culture

Mazie Hirono, Senator from Hawaii: She’s the only immigrant currently serving in the Senate, and she was the first Asian American woman elected to that office, starting in 2013. She talks about the need for filibuster reform and Supreme Court reform, about the storming of the capitol on January 6, and about her vote on Amy Coney Barrett: “Hell No.” Her new autobiography is Heart of Fire: An Immigrant Daughter’s Story. Also: Bill Gates, the second richest man in the world, has spent the last 20 years giving away his money—through a $50 billion foundation. But who exactly has he been giving that money to? Tim Schwab has some answers—his three reports in The Nation on the Gates Foundation just won this year’s Izzy Award, named after I.F. Stone and awarded by the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College “for outstanding achievement in independent media” during 2020. Plus: We’re still thinking about how Dr. Seuss Enterprises took six of his books out of print because they contained racist drawings. Right-wing media were pushing this story nonstop; according to a recent poll, more Republicans said they’d heard “a lot” about the move to withdraw some Dr. Seuss books than said the same about Biden’s huge Covid-19 relief bill. Katha Pollitt comments. Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe.   

Senator Mazie Hirono: Reform the Filibuster—and the Supreme Court; plus Tim Schwab on Bill Gates and Katha Pollitt on Dr. Seuss

Guilty, guilty, guilty! The verdicts in the Derek Chauvin trial in Minneapolis made history—and came only after millions of people took to the streets, for months, in hundreds of cities across America; and only after a decade of sustained organizing by Black Lives Matter. Jody Armour comments—he’s the Roy Crocker Professor of Law at the University of Southern California, and author of N*gga Theory: Race, Language, Unequal Justice, and the Law. Also: Earth Day 2021 is the world’s largest civic event—three days of climate action by millions of people around the world, including Joe Biden hosting a global climate summit on April 22: and pledging to take bold action to slash greenhouse gas emissions in the US in the next ten years. Mark Hertsgaard, The Nation’s environmental correspondent, says that for starters we need to start using the term “climate emergency” rather than “climate issue” or “climate crisis.” Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe.   

The Chauvin Verdicts and the Movement That Made Them Possible: Jody Armour on Minneapolis, plus Mark Hertsgaard on Earth Day

The union organizing campaign at the Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, was defeated by a vote of 1798 against and 738 in favor. Jane McAlevey argues that the biggest factor in the vote was the laws that give tremendous advantages to the corporate side—but the union itself made a series of tactical and strategic errors. Jane is The Nation’s strikes correspondent. Also: Hunter Biden was the target of a massive Republican attack campaign for more than a year leading up to the election; at the same time, the gossip pages seized on his disastrous private life. They made the most of his decades of alcohol addiction and drug abuse, and his subsequent affair with the widow of his brother. Now he’s written a book—it’s called Beautiful Things: A Memoir. Amy Wilentz comments. Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe.   

Organizing at Amazon: What Went Wrong? Jane McAlevey, plus Amy Wilentz on Hunter Biden

Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the week in news. Hosted by Jon Wiener and presented by The Nation Magazine.

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