Living in the USA

Listen HERE 
How can Democrats win back at least some white working class swing voters? We have some striking new research about that. Katie Rader discusses the issues that are most likely to mobilize them.

Next: 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 reports on the ways doctors are fighting back.

Plus: When Joe Biden announced the theme of his reelection campaign he said that the Democrats are the party of “freedom.” But the Republicans claim that they are the defenders of freedom. Who is right?  Eric Foner has the answer – he’s the author of “The Story of American Freedom.”  6-22-2023

Listen HERE 
Cornel West is running for president – he can only help Trump win, argues Joan Walsh, National Affairs Correspondent for The Nation.

also: 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 reports.

Also: historian Brenda Stevenson talks about the Black family under slavery and after. Her book, a history of the enslaved family in America. is “What Sorrows Labour in My Parent’s Breast.”

And we have an episode of Your Minnesota Moment: the state joins National Popular Vote!  6-15-2023

Listen HERE 
On Strike: An Actors strike looms as the Writers in LA and New York enter the sixth week of their strike. Meanwhile, 12,000 dock workers walked off the job in Southern California after contract talks deteriorated in recent days; they also shutdown operations in Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma.

Also, Biden’s achievements include infrastructure, economic recovery from the pandemic, investment in high-tech, investment in climate. . . how come other people, even the Democrats, have trouble remembering that? Harold Meyerson comments.

Next: 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.

Plus: From the archives: Isabel Wilkerson on her unforgettable book about the Great Migration, “The Warmth of Other Suns” – recorded in 2010.  6-8-2023

Listen HERE 
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.  5-31-2023

Listen HERE 
Biden’s debt limit deal has left progressives unhappy–Harold Meyerson says it’s the best we could have expected under the circumstances.

Also: The ideological roots of the January 6 insurrection go back decades before Trump entered politics — back to the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995. Jeffrey Toobin will explain. His new book is ‘Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism.’

Also: a conversation with Margo Jefferson about her memoir, “Constructing a Nervous System.” It’s out now in paperback.  5-31-2023

Listen HERE 
The Minnesota legislature has passed a sweeping pro-worker labor bill that will require paid sick days, ban captive audience meetings during union drives, and more – Harold Meyerson reports.

Also: Has Planned Parenthood gotten too cautious and too corporate? Are the risk managers running the organization? Eyal Press reports on the courage of independent abortion services, and the failures of Planned Parenthood.

Plus: The secret history of the Koch Brothers: how the key to their empire, and their fortune, is a refinery south of St. Paul. “Kochland” author Christopher Leonard has that story.  5-25-2023

Listen HERE 
Workers won union recognition is some significant places in the past week.  Harold Meyerson reports on interns and residents in Philadelphia joining the SEIU, a bus factory—in Georgia!—joining the Steelworkers, and dancers at a strip club in LA joining Actors Equity.

Plus: Progressives and Biden: what is to be done—about the 2024 election? Bhaskar Sunkara, president of The Nation, comments.

Also: Ron DeSantis is campaigning for president promising to “stop woke history.” That is, to stop teaching about slavery and its legacy of institutional racism. Adam Hochschild found the history guide DeSantis wants: the Hillsdale College “1776 Curriculum.” He reports on what’s in it —and what’s not.  5-18-2023

Listen HERE 
The latest polls indicate voters think Biden is too old. Should the Democrats nominate someone else? Harold Meyerson comments.

Also: an update on the Writers’ Guild strike against the hollywood studios, with Josh Gondelman – he’s an Emmy-award winning writer for his work on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, on HBO. He’s also a regular on NPR’s news quiz show, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me.

Also: one of the Senate Democrats up for reelection in 2024 is Sherrod Brown of Ohio, one of our heroes –we spoke with him in 2020 about politics and history, and how he has won reelection in a state that is increasingly Republican.  5-11-2023

Listen HERE 
At midnight on Monday, 11,500 Writers’ Guild of America writers went on strike seeking a new film and TV contract. The writers voted for the strike by a historic margin: 98% in favor; 2% opposed. Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect comments.

Also: Anatol Lieven is back after three weeks in Ukraine, where he found soldiers determined to win, and Russian bombardment doing surprisingly little damage.

Plus: D.D. Guttenplan argues that it’s time to impeach Clarence Thomas, on the grounds of misconduct; also, it’s time to remove and replace Diane Feinstein, on the grounds of her inability to perform her duties, especially on the Judiciary Committee, where her absence has denied the Democrats a majority.  5-4-2023

Listen HERE 
Tucker Carlson’s audience, 3.5 million, is a lot smaller than his pioneering predecessors in right-wing media; Harold Meyerson comments. Also: recent labor victories in LA.

Plus: A neighborhood in Port-au-Prince fights back against the gangs. Amy Wilentz comments on the news from Haiti.

Also: Anatol Lieven is back after three weeks in Ukraine, where he found soldiers determined to win, and Russian bombardment doing surprisingly little damage.  4-27-2023