Inside the Hive

On this episode of Inside the Hive, the co-hosts of Showtime’s The Circus, which premiers its fifth season this weekend, stop by to talk about how quote-on-quote traditional campaigns may be extinct; how Joe Biden will handle a more progressive Democratic party; and the intricacies of filming their show during a global pandemic. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On this week’s “Inside the Hive," author and journalist Kurt Andersen discusses his new book, “Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History,” which is both the story of how the GOP spent the last 50 years reengineering the economy to favor big business at the expense of the working class, and also a crucial primer for the 2020 election. Andersen argues that we’re at a crossroads not unlike 1980, when Reagan ushered in the rightward tilt of our economic lives, selling the idea that unfettered greed would magically lift all boats. The plan was long in the making, a counterstrike against the 1960s, and it was all too successful. To understand what must be done in a post-Trump America — which is the only America with a future — you have to understand the crucial history that brought us here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On this week’s episode of Inside the Hive, Nick Bilton comes back to talk with Emily Jane Fox about Congress’s tech mess, Trump’s tweeting, and the loss of our beloved editor, John Homans. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On this week’s Inside the Hive, Emily Jane Fox and Joe Hagan go deep into everything you need to know about the governments “retaliation” against Michael Cohen, Trump’s mental acuity test, and the major roadblocks standing in the way of his re-election. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

GOP consultant and Never-Trumper John Weaver talks to “Inside the Hive” about the origins and aims of the Lincoln Project, the PAC that’s kicking out incendiary viral ads aimed at exploiting Trump’s self-regard and paranoia and keeping him on the defensive. Weaver analyzes the Biden campaign and argues that a relentless barrage of negative advertising will weaken Trump and help “clear the air” for Biden’s positive message. He also implores nervous Democrats to stop fretting and follow their lead: “They’re more worried about losing than winning,” Weaver says of Democrats. “Stop worrying about November and beat the shit out of him now.”Also listen in for the exclusive premiere trailer to the new HBO movie, The Swamp. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On this week's episode of *Inside the Hive*, Emily Jane Fox talks with Randi Weingarten of American Federation of Teachers about the biggest question on everyone's mind: will schools safely open in September? They discuss what needs to be done to protect teachers, whether it makes sense to pay for remote college this fall, and how the Trump administration dropped the ball. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week on Inside the Hive, CNN’s Jake Tapper joins Joe Hagan for a wide-ranging conversation, from his role covering Trump to the gripping new war movie “The Outpost," based on Tapper’s 2012 nonfiction book about a harrowing battle between 53 U.S. forces and 400+ Taliban in which eight Americans were killed. Tapper talks of his emotional reaction to reports that Trump ignored intelligence about Russia paying Taliban insurgents to kill U.S. soldiers. Tapper also addresses the theory that CNN itself is partially culpable for Trump's rise and explains what motivates his reporting in a world where Watergate-sized revelations rarely move the needle of public opinion. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On this week's Inside the Hive, Nick Bilton comes back to talk about social media during COVID19 and the Black Lives Matter movement, how Mark Zuckerberg will be remembered in the history books, and why we shouldn't trust the newest polls. Plus, Bilton reveals his matchmaking abilities. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

As President Donald Trump stares down a global pandemic, an economic catastrophe, protests following George Floyd's murder, and John Bolton and Mary Trump's books, the general election hangs in the balance. Former Trump advisor Sam Nunberg joins this week's *Inside the Hive* to talk about what the campaign is getting wrong, the last time Trump called him, whether the president even wants to be reelected, and who's on his list of enemies. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On this week’s Inside the Hive, cohost Joe Hagan talks to two lawyers on the front lines of the battle over the integrity of November's election. It’s a worrisome picture. Marc Elias, a veteran lawyer for the DNC, and Dale Ho of the ACLU, discuss their respective court battles to establish and protect mail-in voting and expand the rights of voters in the face of well-funded GOP efforts to limit and even purge voters, especially African-American and younger voters. Will Republicans follow Trump’s lead and restrict mail-in voting in crucial swing states as COVID-19 surges and depresses turnout? And what about the suspicious new postmaster general appointed by Trump? Joe Biden’s fear that Trump will steal the election is the daily nightmare of lawyers Elias and Ho. If Trump should challenge the results by zeroing in on mail-in votes, says Ho, “we’re really in uncharted territory.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week, cohosts Emily Jane Fox and Joe Hagan bring you important voices from two fronts of the ongoing struggle for justice after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. First, Fox interviews Maya Wiley, the Brooklyn-based civil rights activist and MSNBC legal analyst, who dissects and interprets the murder charges against four policemen involved in the killing, and explains how to reform policing in this country. Next, Joe Hagan interviews Brandi Collins-Dexter, the senior campaign director for Color of Change, the largest online civil rights group in America, to discuss the group’s years-long battle with Facebook over hate speech and disinformation, including the company’s attempts to discredit their work and last week’s contentious talks with Mark Zuckerberg about removing the President’s incendiary lies from the site. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Kushner, the President's son-in-law, is one of the Trump West Wing's only survivors, having outwitted, outplayed, and outlasted his rivals as he stayed in his father-in-law's good graces while keeping an eye on his comically large portfolio. But before he was finding peace in the Middle East, defining the Republican agenda, and handling a global pandemic, he was a lowly newspaper publisher. On this week's *Inside the Hive*, co-host Emily Jane Fox sits down with Tom McGeveran, Elizabeth Spiers, and *Vanity Fair's* own Michael Calderone, all former *New York Observer*-ites, to talk about Kushner's attitude towards the press, his favorite band and books, his arguing style and value system, and what he'll do next. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On this week’s episode, Joe Hagan talks to Crazy Rich Asians director Jon Chu and film editor Myron Kerstein to discuss the wrenching decision to push their new tent-pole film, the Lin Manuel Miranda musical In the Heights, to summer 2021 instead of opening on a streaming service. With movie production in Hollywood halted, studios and the producers, directors, actors and film crews they employ are groping for answers as to how films get made again, where their next paychecks will come from, and whether audiences will ever return to theaters in the numbers they once did. Jon Chu is betting that theater-goers will come back once the crisis has passed: "I have to believe in that. I can't give up. I can't give up on that dream. And so our job is to give reasons for it to exist." Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On this week's episode of Inside the Hive, co-host Emily Jane Fox sits down with Sarah Feinberg, the Interim President of the New York City Transit Authority, to talk all things transit in the midst of coronavirus: how to keep 51,000 workers and millions of riders safe in the midst of a highly contagious virus, how the agency can make money if people stay working from home forever, and how the Trump administration has failed to protect the American public. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On this week's episode of Inside the Hive, co-host Joe Hagan talks to Rebecca Traister, author of "Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger," about the Joe Biden/Tara Reade imbroglio, analyzing the thorny implications for the former VP's female allies, the problem with the #believewomen movement, and how Joe Biden might have better handled the allegation that he sexually assaulted Reade 27 years ago. Whatever Biden's shortcomings, the feminist columnist for The Cut vows she'll "crawl over broken glass" to vote for him in November. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week, Emily Jane Fox and Joe Hagan are back for an interview with Danny Meyer, founder of Union Square Hospitality Group and Shake Shack. Meyer and Fox discuss the controversy around Shake Shack applying for—and returning—a $10 million Paycheck Protection Program loan and the wreckage restaurants are wading through to survive through COVID-19. Meyer elucidates the government’s many failures, his suggestions for helpful legislation, and what restaurants will look like once diners can return to full rooms and menus: which establishments will survive and what people will want to eat. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The first episode under new co-hosts Emily Jane Fox and Joe Hagan features an exclusive interview with Chris Matthews, former host of HARDBALL on MSNBC, who discusses with Hagan his controversial exit after 20 years and analyzes a presidential election thrown into chaos by the pandemic. Can Joe Biden break through? Was Bernie Sanders right? Why does Matthews prefer Amy Klobuchar over Stacey Abrams for Biden’s VP? An in-depth conversation on the “highly unpredictable” politics of 2020. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

After 150 episodes, Nick Bilton is handing over the reigns of Inside the Hive to Vanity Fair’s Emily Jane Fox and Joe Hagan. In today’s episode, all three join together for a round-table discussion on Trump’s attempt to blame everyone—from Barack Obama to the World Health Organization—for his floundering response to COVID-19; how Joe Biden and the Democrats should respond; and if Americans have too much freedom (and an aversion to wearing masks) to truly stop the spread until there’s a cure. Stick around for a little heart-to-heart at the end, and—of course—a brief discussion about making sourdough bread in the middle of the apocalypse. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On this week's Inside the Hive we talk to Sydney Gressel, a nurse at UCSF's Benioff Hospital in San Francisco who has started a new nonprofit to help feed doctors and nurses around the country as they fight on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic. Then, Vanity Fair contributor Joe Hagan sits down with Illinois governor J. B. Pritzker to parse the Trump White House’s missteps in fighting the virus and how the state is trying to combat the disease. Finally, Nick sits down with Sarah Frier, a reporter for Bloomberg, to discuss her new book, "No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram," which gets into the details of how Instagram went from a scrappy startup to the most important social network in the world, and what tech companies are doing to help stop misinformation around COVID-19. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Is coronavirus on track to play out like the movie Contagion? Scott Z. Burns, the writer of the film, and Ian Lipkin, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University, join Nick to explain how much of the research that went into the film is playing out in real time; how the states and countries that ignore social distancing will pay the ultimate price; why this particularly insidious virus is unlike anything we've seen in recent history; and how an FDA-approved vaccine could take a lot less time than we’ve been told. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Does Trump's response to COVID-19 hurt or help his reelection bid? Gabriel Sherman, Vanity Fair special correspondent, and Don Winslow, crime novelist, join Nick to talk about what's going on deep inside the White House, why Trump (thankfully!) can't fire Dr. Fauci, and how the media is responding to the Trump Coronapocalypse. Plus, a bonus discussion on Joe Biden, and if Andrew Cuomo could end up as the Democratic presidential pick in a draft nomination. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Are we nearing another Great Depression? Kai Ryssdal, host of Marketplace, joins Nick to explain how COVID-19 is going to decimate the global economy, how rapidly job loss will occur, and why this is unlike anything we've seen in recent history. Nick also elucidates the latest numbers and projections around mortality rates and global impact. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

First thing's first: Coronavirus! A request from listeners and a short PSA. Second: Are we at the beginning of a massive nationwide housing crisis in America that will force millions into homelessness? Conor Dougherty, an economics reporter at The New York Times, joins Nick to talk about his new book, “Golden Gates,” which tells stories of eviction, gentrification, an eroding middle class, a financial system that could be on the brink of driving families from their homes, and how to stop such a disastrous situation from happening. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Are Americans on the left and right simply destined to hate each other forever? Ezra Klein, cofounder of Vox and author of the new book, “Why We’re Polarized,” joins Nick to explain how we became a country so divided, if the current media landscape is causing more harm than social media does, and why Biden pulling ahead in the primary flipped everything upside down this week. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

x`Over the past three years, Trump has become a pox on America, both at home and abroad, and changed politics forever. Daniel Pfeiffer, former Senior Advisor to President Obama, joins Nick to explain how we can "UnTrump America," how the Democrats have a slim, but possible, chance of winning in November, why beating Mitch McConnell might be more important than defeating Donald Trump, and how to roll back the disastrous judges that the Republicans have appointed over the past three years. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Let’s talk Trump, Tinseltown, and Parasite! Franklin Leonard, creator of “The Black List,” joins Nick to discuss what effect (if any) Parasite will have on the movies and TV shows that will be created in Hollywood in the coming years, if the tech industry can truly disrupt the most broken creative business model in the world, and which Democratic candidate Tinseltown is backing to go up against Trump in the coming election. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

What brought Hope Hicks back into the fold? Why have Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg succeeded, while Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren have failed (so far)? And what on earth is happening with the Michael Avenatti trial and the sentencing of Roger Stone? Emily Jane Fox joins Nick to decode what happened this week in politics, crime and punishment, and why—as Nick puts it—the Democratic Party needs to get its s**t together. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Trump didn't get impeached! Iowa was a disaster! A virus is getting ready to destroy humanity! What's next? Bess Levin, a columnist for Vanity Fair, joins Nick to discuss why this week sucked so much, why the economy still hasn't gone into a Trump-induced recession, whether this is all part of Mike Bloomberg's master plan, and why Donald Trump Jr. not being hugged enough as a child means he’ll probably be president one day. Oh, and stick around until the end when Nick surprises Levin with the most difficult question ever asked on Inside the Hive. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Is American retail about to go through its most apocalyptic change since the invention of Main Street, U.S.A.? Larry Ingrassia, a former editor at The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times, joins Nick to talk about his new book, "Billion Dollar Brand Club," to discuss how the country’s corporate giants are finally getting what they deserve, how the Razor Wars, Mattress Wars, and Eyeglass Wars are a sign of what's to come for businesses everywhere, and why Trump's economic upswing will inevitably eventually fall. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

It’s finally here! No, the impeachment—we’re talking about the Iowa Caucus. After what feels like 30 years of speculation (but has really been three), Jordan Brown, a political consultant and fundraiser who has spent time on the ground with almost all of the Democratic nominees, joins Nick to explain how the Democratic primary could play out from Iowa to New Hampshire to Super Tuesday, why the country is at its biggest crossroads in history, and whether impeachment, which likely won’t end in Trump’s removal, will help or hinder his prospects of winning a second term. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Are you about to lose your job to a robot? Adam Davidson, creator of NPR's "Planet Money," joins Nick to talk about his new book, "The Passion Economy: The New Rules for Thriving in the Twenty-First Century," where he argues that capitalism isn't dead, a (coming) recession won't destroy America, and the world isn't in as terrible shape as we've all been led to believe—although, in order to survive the coming job apocalypse, you might need to become Amish. Stick around when Adam and Nick get meta-meta-meta as they talk about the future of media and the business of podcasting. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Is the Iran skirmish over? Or is this the beginning of something bigger? Gabriel Sherman, special correspondent for Vanity Fair, joins Nick to explain how this all went down inside the Trump White House, why anti-immigration scribe Steven Miller still has a job, why Don Jr. will go on to run for office, but Ivanka won't, and—perhaps most importantly—what Donald J. Trump told a Republican pollster last week when asked what the "J" in his middle name stood for. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Thanks to the rise of the smartphone, the last decade saw the most dramatic technological change in centuries. Over the next ten years, the same thing will happen to science, healthcare, and space travel. D.A. Wallach, a former rockstar turned biotech investor, joins Nick to kick off the year by debating the scientific predictions for the next decade, including whether we will soon be able to print human organs, if healthcare will become so advanced that living past 100 will become routine, or if only the rich will be afforded such advancements, and whether humans will live on Mars by 2030. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Is the American prison system the most broken part of this country? Believe it or not, prison reform might be the one issue Republicans and Democrats can agree on. Scott Budnick, the producer behind The Hangover and Just Mercy, joins Nick to elucidate the many pitfalls of the U.S. incarceration system, why over 6 million Americans are under correctional supervision, why America is the only country that jails kids for life, and why we need to start giving people a second chance. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

As the #MeToo movement continues to roil corporate boardrooms and Hollywood studios, the New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow has been at its forefront. The author of Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators, joins Nick to take listeners behind the scenes of his years-long reporting on Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, and Les Moonves, among others. The two also discuss Jeffrey Epstein’s death, why Donald Trump and Bill Clinton still haven’t gone down, and why cancel culture sometimes misses the point. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Does the $120,000 sale of a banana duct-taped to a wall at Art Basel signify the decline of capitalism, or is just really clever P.R.? Stefan Simchowitz, the notorious art dealer, joins Nick to not only defend the banana, but to (genuinely) argue that it may be the greatest work of art since the Mona Lisa. Stick around to hear Nick and Stefan discuss an egg, consumerism, and the collective banality of social media. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Should we shut down the media complex in order to save democracy? Dylan Byers, senior media reporter at NBC News and MSNBC, joins Nick to talk about why news has become so divisive, why Bloomberg isn’t just another annoying billionaire, how to get Trump out of our heads, and why he thinks Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg aren’t as bad as the rest of America does. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Will 2020 be “The Battle of the Mayors,” in which former Mayor Mike Bloomberg takes on Mayor Pete Buttigieg to be the 2020 Democratic nominee? Senior Hive correspondent Emily Jane Fox joins Nick to talk about why the Democrats hate each other, if impeachment will hurt or hinder Trump’s reelection bid, and if the other former Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, really has an insurance policy on Trump. Stick around until the end of the show to talk turkeys and what we’re all grateful for this year. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The chaos inside the White House, from immigration to Ukraine, would still be a big secret if not for whistleblowers in the Trump administration. John Tye, a former government official turned whistleblower himself, joins Nick to talk about the rise of people leaking information from all corners of America, from the MeToo movement to Trump’s misdeeds to employees at Google decrying projects they see as uniquely evil. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Is Bernie right—has capitalism broken America beyond repair? Yancey Strickler, former CEO of Kickstarter and author of the book, “This Could Be Our Future,” joins Nick to explain how Wall Street, game theory, and the disgusting modern day-business habit of maximizing shareholder value, has destroyed our democracy, and how we can fix it. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Is Steve Bannon a white nationalist, a patriot, or something way more sinister? Academy Award-winning filmmaker Errol Morris joins Nick to discuss his new film about the Trump White House, the rise of the alt-right, and why Bannon might be the biggest hypocrite in the history of politics. Plus: the latest juicy gossip about disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Should we boo and yell “Lock Him Up!” at Donald Trump? Or should we go high when they go low? DeRay Mckesson, the inimitable, Patagonia vest-wearing civil rights activist who helped start the Black Lives Matter movement, joins Nick to discuss how to effectively protest the Trump administration, who might be able to beat Trump in 2020, and why Kanye West and Kim Kardashian just need to go. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Take a deep breath and forget about Donald Trump. On this week’s show, Nick sits down with renowned neuroscientist and author Sam Harris to discuss the science of meditation, why free will is an illusion, and how to get through 2020 without losing your mind. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Joel Stein, a writer for The Los Angeles Times and author of a new book, “In Defense of Elitism,” joins Nick to explain how impeachment could backfire on Democrats, why the best chance to win in 2020 is a bipartisan ticket, and why “ozone chambers” are the hottest new health fad. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

And why wasn’t the movement been able to touch Brett Kavanaugh? Nick talks to New York Times reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly about their new book, “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh,” which includes new allegations against the Supreme Court justice and shines a light on whether he could be impeached if Trump loses reelection in 2020. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Or will it cause Trump to unravel? David Plouffe, former campaign manager for Barack Obama, joins Nick to discuss the chances of Trump winning a second terrifying term, whether Dems can retake the Senate, and why 2020 will be the most important election in a hundred years. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Forget impeachment, let’s talk hidden government torture programs and shell corporations stealing money from the poor! Filmmakers Steven Soderbergh and Scott Z. Burns join Nick to talk about writing and directing “The Laundromat” and “The Report,” two films that explore the dark world of the Panama Papers, and how the Bush and Obama administrations hid post-9/11 CIA torture programs from the public. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

And was Meek Mill targeted by a rogue judge? Tyler Maroney, a former journalist-turned private investigator with QRI, talks about some of the most bizarre and infuriating cases he’s covered as a P.I., as well as his upcoming book, “Corporate Dick.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Travis Kalanick did unspeakable things to grow his company. But is the rest of Silicon Valley any better? Mike Isaac, a tech reporter at The New York Times, joins Nick to discuss all the insider drama, boardroom knife-fighting, and other juicy details in his new book, “Super Pumped.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

As the election nears, Republicans are going full Mao Zedong on the media. Can journalism as we know it survive? Joe Pompeo, Media Correspondent for Vanity Fair, joins Nick talk about the new right-wing plot to expose reporters’ old tweets, how fake news can be a weapon of war, and why Americans are giving up on the truth. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices