Living in the USA

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The Biggest news from the NLRB in decades: Harold Meyerson reports – also: the auto workers prepare to strike.

Also: Harvard’s first woman president, Drew Faust, talks about how she became a civil rights and anti-war activist in the sixties: her new book is “Necessary Trouble.”  8-31-2023

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There seems to be progress toward a settlement of the strikes by Hollywood writers and actors–Harold Meyerson reports.

Also: if it was a good strategy for Special Prosecutor Jack Smith to charge Trump with four felonies, is it also a good idea for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to charge Trump and 18 other people with a total of 41 felonies? Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at UC Berkeley, explains.  8-24-2023

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Public Libraries are often wonderful places, but they have become targets of right-wing attack in the culture war. Sasha Abramsky reports on the battle in one small town in Eastern Washington state.

Also: Cornel West should not run as a 3rd party candidate, but in the Democratic Primaries – that’s what D.D. Guttenplan says – he’s editor of The Nation.

Plus: A comic novel about Ethel and Julius Rosenberg?  Who’d have thought that was possible?  Francine Prose has written one:  it’s called “The Vixen,” and it’s terrific. (recorded in July, 2021) 8-17-2023

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Ohio voted on a referendum that would make it harder to amend the state constitution – including the addition of the right to abortion. The amendment lost, abortion rights won – Harold Meyerson comments.

Next: Should Trump have been charged with incitement of insurrection, or at least violence? What’s the line between free speech and incitement? If Trump sincerely believed he’d won the election, can he still be prosecuted for conspiracy? Erwin Chemerinsky explains – he’s dean of the law school at UC Berkeley.

Plus: What’s bad about Barbie the doll, and what’s good about “Barbie” the movie—Katha Pollitt comments.  8-10-2023

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Finally we have Trump’s indictment for his crimes around January 6. Harold Meyerson comments; also; Trump’s continued support among voters.

Also: A conversation with John Powers about the two hit movies of the summer, “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.” John is critic at large on the NPR show “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross.  8-3-2023

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The Teamsters won a historic victory in the new contract with UPS, setting the stage to take on Amazon. Harold Meyerson reports. Also: where is Melania?

Plus: Hollywood actors and writers have been on strike–the Writers Guild of America since May, and the Screen Actors Guild since July 14. The studios are showing no signs of settling. WGA member and Nation writer Ben Schwartz joins the show. He argues that the studios and streamers are likely to fracture before the unions do.

Also: Fintan O’Toole’s personal history of Ireland since the fifties: how a country dominated by a corrupt Catholic church came to legalize gay marriage and abortion — by referendum. His much-honored ‘personal history’ of Ireland, titled “We Don’t Know Ourselves,” is out now in paperback.  7-27-2023

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At last Trump will face charges for his real crimes – insurrection on Jan. 6. Harold Meyerson comments. Also, an update on the Hollywood strikes.

Plus: Florida’s war on Black Studies – historian Robin Kelley talks about the resistance.

And Joan Walsh recalls her experience of RFK Jr. a decade ago at Salon.  7-20-2023

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130,000 actors are joining 12,500 screenwriters in the biggest Hollywood strike since 1960. Harold Meyerson reports.

Also: the Supreme Court in 2023 wasn’t all bad — David Cole explains.

Plus: D.D. Guttenplan argues that Cornel West should run, not as the Green Party candidate, but in the Democratic primaries.  7-13-2023

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The Summer of Strikes in Los Angeles continues, with hotel workers picketing hotels from Santa Monica to downtown on July 4 weekend, plus Teamsters preparing to strike UPS and Actors in negotiations with the studios. Harold Meyerson reports.

Also: After affirmative action: what should progressives do to help people of color and other working class students attend college, and pay for it? John Nichols comments.

Plus: what does it mean to be a politically committed

writer? That’s the central question of Adam Shatz’s new book, “Writers and Missionaries: Essays on the Radical imagination.” Adam is The Nation’s former literary editor and the US editor of the London Review of Books.  7-6-2023

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There are two big strikes in the works in L.A. right now: hotel workers and actors. 15,000 hotel workers are preparing to strike; and 200 people – including City Council and State Assembly members – were arrested during a UNITE HERE local 11 protest. Also, 160,000 actors are on the verge of joining the 11,500 writers already on strike. Harold Meyerson comments.

Next: Crossing the abortion borderland from Texas to New Mexico: Amy Littlefield describes the heroic work being done in both states to provide help to people seeking abortions, one year after the repeal of Roe, and reports on the new obstacles being raised by anti-abortion forces.

Plus: From the archives: Katha Pollitt learned to drive at age 51 – she wrote about that experience for The New Yorker; and in 2015, she was played by Patricia Clarkson opposite Ben Kingsley in the film version, Learning to Drive. This interview was first recorded in 2007.  6-29-2023