Living in the USA

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.”

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Fox News created a frankenstein - and the story isn't over yet: Harold Meyerson comments on the Dominion Voting Systems settlement.Also: Afghan girls who escaped from the Taliban: the boarding school that evacuated its students from Kabul during the chaotic withdrawal of the Americans. SOLA, the School of Leadership Afghanistan is the place where Afghan girls study to become members of the generation that will one day lead a peaceful and united Afghanistan. The founder, Shabana Basij-Rasikh, will explain.Plus: John Nichols will comment on how the fight for abortion rights will be a key issue for Democrats in the 2024 election, especially after Republican judges have tried to ban medication abortions.

The latest move by a Republican judge to ban the abortion drug Mefipristone is likely to turn out more Democratic voters, says Harold Meyerson. Also: Trump's Easter Sunday tweet.Plus: We know a lot about the bad things J. Edgar Hoover did, but it turns out there’s a lot we didn’t know. Historian Beverly Gage joins the podcast to explain. Her new book is “G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover & the Making of the American Century" -- it's been nominated for an LA Times Book Prize, which will be awarded next week.

Progressive Brandon Johnson won the Chicago mayoral election: Harold Meyerson explains how he did it, and the lessons for progressives.Also: The landslide victory of the progressive candidate in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race, Janet Protaisewicz, ten times bigger than Biden's, shows how abortion wins elections--John Nichols explains. plus: Will Trump's indictment on 34 felonies change anything in the 2024 election? Or had everybody already decided what they think about Donald Trump? Chris Lehmann reports.

Last week's 3-day strike in LA by public school custodians, food service workers, teachers' aides and bus drivers won a 30% pay increase--Harold Meyerson reports.Also: How minor league baseball players organized a union for the first time in history: Kelley Candaele and Peter Dreier report.And Dahlia Lithwick talks about some of the heroes of the Trump years: the women lawyers who fought him on the big issues—the Muslim ban, neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, and voting rights. Her book is “Lady Justice” has been nominated for an LA Times book award.

Harold Meyerson comments on the fed, the banks, and the billionaires; also, the coming indictment of Donald Trump.Plus: American women in 2023: the news is bad, but it’s not all bad. Katha Pollitt explains.Also: the largest anti-war demonstrations in American history were protests in the fall of 1969--with more than two million people in the streets demanding “End the War in Vietnam.” But did those demonstrations help end the war?  Historian Chris Appy comments on the new documentary, “The Movement and the ‘Madman,’” on PBS American Experience March 28.

Harold Meyerson reports on the Democrats who supported reducing regulation of mid-sized banks like Silicon Valley Bank – and on the Democrats who are taking a stand against Netanyahu’s moves against democracy for Israeli Jews.Also: John Nichols reports on the promising situation in the most important election before the 2024 presidential race: the Wisconsin Supreme Court election coming up on April 4, which could switch the court from conservative to liberal control, legalizing abortion and ending gerrymandering. Plus: the Democrats who tried to block the 2019 bill that reduced regulation on banks like Silicon Valley Bank. And: Do masks work -- to help stop the spread of covid?  A New York Times columnist recently said that they don’t, and cited an authoritative review of research as his source. But it turns he was wrong about that study.  Gregg Gonsalves of the Yale School of Public Health, will explain.

Kamala Harris is not a popular figure in American politics, and the vice presidential candidate for Biden's reelection campaign in 2024 is unusually important because of his age. What to do? Harold Meyerson comments.Plus: COVID remains the number 3 cause of death in the US, after heart disease and cancer, with almost 3,000 deaths every week. But Biden and the Democrats are ending the federal COVID emergency. Is that really a good idea? Greg Gonsalves doesn’t think so -- he’s the Nation’s public health correspondent and a professor of epidemiology at Yale..Also: Sunday is Oscar night in America! and, as usual, we have a lot of complaints about the nominations. So does John Powers, critic at large on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross. We’ll talk about this year’s films we didn’t like—and some we thought were wonderful.Finally: Your Minnesota Moment: the story of the Japanese temple bell that ended up in Duluth.

Israel’s new far-right government, headed, again, by Benjamin Netanyahu, is working to undermine democracy for Israelis and advance Israel’s annexation of Palestinian land. Provocations by Israel in the West Bank have been followed by settler pogroms against Palestinian villages. Saree Makdisi provides comment and analysis of how Israel is “destroying the fantasies of liberal Zionism.”  Also: the worst thing that happened to Black History during Black History Month was not Ron DeSantis banning critical concepts and approaches - it was the College Board revising its new African American Studies curriculum to meet all of his demands. But now scholars in Black History, Black Studies and related fields are fighting back. Kimberlé Crenshaw will explain. Plus: Walmart is the biggest employer in America, and the Walton family, the children of Walmart founder Sam Walton, is the richest family in the world. The company has raised wages and become more socially conscious-but it provides a case study of the limits of socially conscious capitalism. Rick Wartzman will explain – his new book on Walmart and its workers is titled “Still Broke.” 

Harold Meyerson says American Jewish organizations haven't said much about the recent attacks by the Netanyahu government on Palestinians, and on Israeli democracy. The big exception is J Street, which is leading a delegation of members of Congress to Israel this week.Also: John Nichols reports on the good news from Wisconsin, where the liberal candidate came out way ahead in the primary for a new state Supreme Court Justice.Plus: Our Black History month feature this week: Elie Mystal explains why “our constitution is not good.” He's The Nation's justice correspondent, and his book is "Allow Me to Retort."

"The 1619 Project" miniseries on Hulu sets a new standard for documentaries about Black life and history in America: Robin Kelley explains. Also Black history, banned in Florida—and excluded from the College Board’s recommended AP Black Studies course. Robin is one of the historians whose work has been targeted. Also: the Royal Family and “The Crown”– you know, Queen Elizabeth and Charles and Diana, and the Netflix series about them. Gary Younge explains why he loathes the monarchy in Britain, but loved “The Crown” on Netflix.Plus: Should the Supreme Court base its decisions on what it can discern about the original intent of the framers? That’s what the “originalists” say – and they dominate today’s court. Erwin Chemerinsky disagrees. He’s dean of the law school at UC Berkeley and author of many books, most recently “Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism.”

Joe Biden's State of the Union – where shouts and jeers from the wild and crazy Republicans seemed to end up helping him – Harold Meyerson comments.Next: “The government, media, and financial worlds in the U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation”—that’s QAnon’s crazy idea, and 30 million Americans say they mostly agree. Chris Lehmann comments.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.Plus: For Black History Month we revisit an interview with Isabel Wilkerson on her book about the great migration of Black people out of the South: "The Warmth of Other Suns".

House Republicans are refusing to raise the debt limit, threatening that the US will default on its bond payments.  But the Constitution has the solution for President Biden – that’s what historian Eric Foner says.  He joins the podcast to shed light on a little-known section of the 14th Amendment. Next: Republicans continue to work to limit teaching about Black Americans’ place in our history. Meanwhile, the 1619 Project, the book offering what the authors call “a new origin story” about the United States, was released as a docuseries on Hulu.  Martha Jones, a historian at Johns Hopkins University, and one of the contributors, talks about the battle, the book, and the larger project. Also: we’re still thinking about Victor Navasky, who died on Jan. 23. He was editor or publisher of The Nation for 27 years, starting in 1978, and author of several books, including one about his life in magazines, titled “A Matter of Opinion.” We’ll listen to our conversation about that book, recorded in 2006.  Plus: Oliver Sacks was a professor of neurology at the NYU School of Medicine, and wrote widely about the brain; the NY Times called him "the poet of laureate of medicine."  We revisit an interview with him about tripping in Topanga – and his book "Hallucinations" – recorded in 2012, he died three years later.

Every Republican voted against the clean energy tax credits that made up the bulk of the Inflation Reduction Act.  Yet, the clean energy projects, for solar, wind and battery technology – are going to Republican states.  Why?  Harold Meyerson comments. Plus: Kyrsten Sinema, the Arizona senator who quit the Democratic Party in December, is up for reelection next year, and will be challenged by progressive Democrat Ruben Gallego. Steve Phillips points to evidence that her chances of reelection are poor. His new book, “How We Win the Civil War,” has a chapter on Arizona politics.Also: What if government provided a basic income to all residents? Something like $1000 a month? How much could that change inequality and poverty? Sasha Abramsky reports on the experiment in Los Angeles with Universal Basic Income.

Senator Bernie Sanders gave a major speech on Tuesday about the lives of working Americans – Harold Meyerson comments. Also: the coming primary for Diane Feinstein's senate seat.Plus: the UC TA strike: just when you thought you were out, they pull you back in – with "attestation" forms to dock back pay. Nelson Lichtenstein explains.Also: Abortion remains a potent force mobilizing liberal and progressive voters in the upcoming 2023 state legislative races – John Nichols has our analysis.And Joshua Holland explains why people in Denmark are so much happier than people in the USA.

After a 30-year campaign, Yale finally recognized UNITE-HERE as the union representing TAs. Harold Meyerson reports - and also on the Teamsters as they prepare to strike against UPS in August.Plus: If you were planning a future coup, what could you learn from the failure of Trump’s efforts on January 6? Fintan O’Toole says it would need a better story—not attacking Congress, but “defending democracy.” He teaches at Princeton, and is the author most recently of We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland.Also: who’d want to see a movie about Harvey Weinstein? Well, the film She Said, about the two New York Times reporters who broke the Harvey Weinstein story, is not about Harvey; it’s about the system that protected him. And it’s really good. Katha Pollitt comments.

Harold Meyerson analyzes the Republican failure to elect a Speaker of the House - and what it tells us about the future of the new Congress.Teaching Assistants and other grad student employees at the University of California won a historic victory in their strike last month. What does that mean for other universities and other union organizing campaigns? Nelson Lichtenstein joins the show to comment. Also this week, Andrew Bacevich talks about our “very long war” going back to the sixties, and the relative insignificance of Donald Trump. Bacevich's new book is On Shedding an Obsolete Past: Bidding Farewell to the American Century.

For our end-of year show we are featuring some of our favorite book segments from 2022, starting with Elie Mystal, The Nation’s Justice Correspondent, who says our constitution is not good.  His new book is “Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution.”Plus: “Bad Mexicans” – that’s what the revolutionaries of 1910 were called as they fought on both sides of the US-Mexico border against the robber barons and their political allies. UCLA historian Kelly Lytle Hernandez tells that story, and talks about her book on race, empire, and revolution in the borderlands.Also: We know a lot about the bad things J. Edgar Hoover did, but it turns out there’s a lot we didn’t know. Historian Beverly Gage explains; Her book is “G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover & the Making of the American Century.”

The biggest strike in the country this year, and the biggest in the history of American universities, may be over-- after five weeks of picketing and protests, the union representing 48,000 grad student employees at the University of California announced a settlement offer by the university, and members are voting this week. Nelson Lichtenstein has our analysis.Also: For our holiday show, we want to talk about the Christmas Truce of World War I -- it’s a unique event in the history of modern warfare.  Adam Hochschild will explain.Plus, our Christmas music special: Bob Dylan fans have been puzzled and troubled by his Christmas album, “Christmas in the Heart”,  ever since he released it in 2009. To help figure out what Dylan was doing, we turned to Sean Wilentz--he’s the official historian at the official website BobDylan.com, and he also teaches American history at Princeton. 

The new mayor in LA, Karen Bass, the former community organizer and former head of the Congressional Black caucus, LA’s first woman mayor, was sworn in on Sunday, and her first act was to declare a state of emergency to address homelessness.  Harold Meyerson comments.plus: In the biggest strike in the nation this year, the strike by University of California graduate student employees, one group of strikers—the postdocs--settled, and another agreed to go into mediation—the Teaching Assistants, who are refusing to grade final exams for tens of thousands of students. Nelson Lichtenstein has our report.Also: We know a lot about the bad things J. Edgar Hoover did, but it turns out there’s a lot we didn’t know. Historian Beverly Gage explains; Her new book is “G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover & the Making of the American Century.”

National Politics after the Raphael Warnock victory in Georgia - Harold Meyerson comments. Also, the UAW after the UC strike.Plus: historian Nelson Lichtenstein on the divide-and-conquer strategy of the University of California administration in facing grad student employees on strike.And Joan Walsh on how Warnock won - she's National Affairs correspondent for The Nation.

Hundreds of thousands of young immigrants brought here by their undocumented parents since 2007 are not eligible for DACA. But now they are eligible for jobs–at the University of California. UCLA law professor Ahilan Arulanantham explains.Also: The left has hated J. Edgar Hoover for a hundred years ever since the Palmer Raids of 1919, the attacks on radicals that began his career. Now there’s a terrific new biography of Hoover, called “G-Man” - the author is Beverly Gage.Also: the fight against air pollution in the port communities of Los Angeles, where 300,000 people, mostly Latino, live next door to oil refineries, chemical facilities,  and one of the largest oilfields in the nation. For decades they’ve been fighting for basic rights and a cleaner environment.  Eliza Moreno has that story.

48,000 Grad student employees at the University of California are on strike in the largest strike in the history of higher education and the largest strike anywhere in the US this year. But how come the auto workers' union represents teaching assistants and research assistants? Harold Meyerson explains.Plus: For Thanksgiving we chat with Father Greg Boyle of Homeboy Industries, a beacon of hope for young men in LA coming out of gangs and prison. (originally broadcast in January, 2018).

How the best Democratic candidates won - Harold Meyerson comments. Also, the inevitable announcement from Donald Trump.Plus: LA Times columnist Gustavo Arellano on the defeat of sheriff Alex Villaneuva, Rick Caruso's campaign for Latino votes, and red-baiting in Orange County.Also: Joan Walsh of The Nation says Herschel Walker looks like a loser in the Georgia senate runoff.

Barack Obama lost 63 seats in his first midterm. Trump lost 40. Biden will lose 6 or 8. How did the Dems do it? Harold Meyerson has been thinking about that.Also, The Nation‘s top political writers analyze the good, the bad, and the ugly of the midterm elections, and find keys to building a winning coalition for 2024: D.D. Guttenplan, Elie Mystal, Joan Walsh, John Nichols, and Chris Lehmann.

In the key swing states of Arizona, Pennsylvania and Nevada, the union UNITE-HERE has the biggest ground game of any organization - Harold Meyerson explains what they do, how they do it, and why they are so good at it.Also: How can we save democracy from white nationalism and right-wing authoritarianism? Steve Phillips argues we need to organize and turn out the millions of non-voters – people of color and young people – with a long-term, data-based strategy. Steve’s new book is “How We Win the Civil War: Securing a Multiracial Democracy and Ending White Supremacy for Good.”Plus; Stacey Abrams, running for governor in Georgia, is behind in the polls of likely voters. But her whole strategy is to organize and mobilize people who do NOT vote regularly – to expand the electorate with young people, people of color, and those the political scientists call “low-propensity voters.” She explains in this interview, from April, 2019, after her first campaign for governor.

Election day is less than two weeks away. What should the Democrats' closing message be? Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect comments.Also: Mike Davis, author and activist, radical hero and family man, died on Tuesday, Oct. 25. After talking about his life and work, we play part of an interview with him on this podcast from November, 2016, one week after Trump was elected.Plus: The Trump years are not the only time American democracy has been threatened – the World War One years, when Democrat Woodrow Wilson was president, were another. That’s what Adam Hochschild argues –his new book is “American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis.”

Latino voters hold the keys to Democratic victories in the swing states of Arizona and Nevada, Harold Meyerson argues. New polling data highlights the possibilities - and the problems.plus: Joe Biden has just made marijuana legalization a campaign issue–the Democrats should run with it, says John Nichols.Also: Greil Marcus talks about Bob Dylan, from “Blowin’ in the Wind” in 1962 to “Murder Most Foul” in 2020. Greil has a new book out, it’s called “Folk Music: A Bob Dylan Biography in 7 Songs.”

LA's political scandal is about the racism of some Latino politicians. Harold Meyerson has the big picture: Ethnic succession is the history of urban politics in the US. In America today, progressives need ethnic and racial alliances, and the participants in this taped conversation have to go.Also: Nurses have taken the lead in the wave of this year’s labor activism. The largest private-sector nurses’ strike in American history took place recently in Minnesota. Bryce Covert reports a key front in the fight for better health care in America.Plus: There’s a novel, which is sort of about the murder of Emmett Till in Money Mississippi in 1955, written by a professor at USC, that’s been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. The author is Percival Everett, and the book is called “The Trees.” John Powers comments. (originally broadcast in October 2021).

Should Bernie Sanders run in the Democratic primaries in 2024? Bhaskar Sunkara, President of The Nation, says “yes” IF Biden doesn’t. Sanders transformed American politics and, Bhaskar argues, he remains a uniquely important figure for Democrats and the left.Plus: can Republicans win control of the Senate? Trump’s candidates are the GOP’s biggest problem, starting in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin. The Nation’s National Affairs Correspondent, John Nichols has our analysis.Also: 20 years before the January 6 attack on the capitol, a Republican mob attacked a central hub of government operations claiming the vote count in the presidential election that year was fraudulent, trying to reverse the results. That was the “Brooks Brothers Riot” in Miami, a Republican effort long before Trump. The Nation’s DC Bureau Chief, Chris Lehmann reviews that history.

To increase young voters' turnout, we need to appeal not only to abortion rights but also to economic issues, Harold Meyerson concludes after reading the polls.Also: Ken Burns’ new documentary on PBS, “The US and the Holocaust,” searches for heroes and happy endings - but there aren't any, Historian David Nasaw argues.Plus: "Bad Mexicans”—that's what the revolutionaries of 1910 were called as they fought on both sides of the US-Mexico border against the robber barons and their political allies. UCLA historian Kelly Lytle Hernandez tells that story, which is the subject of her new book--it's been long-listed for the National Book Award.

We’re still thinking about LA County Sheriff Alex Villaneuva ordering a raid on the home of Sheila Kuehl last Wednesday--she’s one of the county supervisors who has called for his resignation. He says she’s the target of an investigation of corruption in the award of contracts by the supervisors - but he says all kinds of things, many of which are lies. Gustavo Arellano reports - he's a columnist for the LA Times.Plus: Dirty work—and the people who do it: the low-income workers who do our most ethically troubled jobs. What does that have to do with the rest of us? Eyal Press will explain—his book “Dirty Work” is out now in paperback.  Also:Historian Eric Foner comments on the ways Republicans have made the teaching of American history a key battleground in their culture war against Democrats in the upcoming elections —especially the history of the American revolution.And we’ll also have Your Minnesota Moment: the Pillow Guy and the FBI.

Republican moves on abortion continue to strengthen Democratic candidates, says Harold Meyerson--especially in Michigan. Also: Amazon workers organize in the Inland Empire, and nurses are on strike in Minnesota.Plus: The transformation of the Southern Baptist Convention into a powerful right wing political force developed over the last 50 years. Before 1973, when abortion became a constitutional right, the Southern Baptists did not have a political position on abortion. Then came what they call the “conservative resurgence”—we call it the “fundamentalist takeover.” Sarah Posner explains that history.Also: a new installment of The Children’s Hour: stories about Ivanka, Jared, Don Junior and Little Eric. This week: Jared writes a book! He called it “Breaking History.” We have comment from our Chief Jared Correspondent, Amy Wilentz.

The president and the governor of Calif arguing about who is more pro-labor - that's something new: Harold Meyerson comments. Also: the organizing that won that huge abortion rights victory in Kansas: Amy Littlefield reports. And we remember Barbara Ehrenreich, who died last week - we did this interview with her in 2002, when "Nickel and Dimed" had just been published.

Harold Meyerson on the labor breakthrough in California: a statewide panel to set standards for wages and working conditions for the 550,000 fast food workers in the state. Also: Republicans are making plans if they win control of the House in November--Chris Lehmann reports that their top targets include the NLRB and the Department of Labor. Chris is The Nation’s new D.C. Bureau Chief. Plus: Patrick Leahy of Vermont has been a senator for almost 50 years. He describes how, on January 6, when senators took refuge from the mob attacking the capitol, they prepared to complete the work of counting the electoral votes in their underground bunker--until he insisted they should wait until they could return to the Senate chamber. His new book is ”The Road Taken.”

The fight for abortion rights and against a resurgent Donald Trump are mobilizing Democrats for the midterms; student debt cancellation helps. Harold Meyerson reports. Also: The Supreme Court next term will take up a case that could make Trump’s fake electors scheme the law of the land. Daniel Squadron explains the situation – and how winning majorities in state legislatures in swing states is the key to preserving democracy in 2024. Squadron is the co-founder and executive director of The States Project. And John Nichols reports on Wisconsin, where Mandela Barnes is challenging the horrible Ron Johnson for the Senate, and the indispensable Tony Evers is running for reelection as governor.

Liz Cheney's big loss in Wyoming marks the end of the traditional GOP, says Harold Meyerson; also: Amazon workers on strike in the Inland Empire. Plus: Some surprising abortion rights victories in red states: Katha Pollitt reports. And what is to be done about the gangs in Port-au-Prince - send in the marines? Amy Wilentz comments.

Harold Meyerson explains Biden's big achievement--it's mainly a climate change bill with a side helping of health reform and some additional taxation of corporations. Also: Liz Cheney is way behind in the polls leading up to next week’s Wyoming primary. John Nichols went to Wyoming to see her in action, and reports that she’s “fighting to outlast and replace Trump as the manager of the right-wing franchise in American politics.” And Peter Richardson talks about the life of the legendary historian and editor Carey McWilliams.

Pramila Jayapal is head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and represents Seattle in the House. She will explain how, as a young immigrant from India, she went from being an investment banker to a lifelong organizer. Her book, “Use the Power You Have: A Brown Woman's Guide to Politics and Political Change,” is out now. Also historian Eric Foner talks about about voting rights and voter suppression, about who gets to be a citizen, the rights of undocumented immigrants, and about the roots of mass incarceration -- --they all relate to the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, part of the country’s attempt to redefine citizenship after the end of slavery. His book, “The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution,” is out now in paperback.

Jordan Peterson’s books of advice for men have sold five million copies – he says men should work hard, be responsible, demand more of themselves—and make their beds. Katha Pollitt has some comments about that. Also: The synergy between politics and popular culture has never been clearer or stronger than in the Age of Reagan. J. Hoberman, author of “Make My Day: Film Culture in the Age of Reagan," explains how this came to be. Hoberman was a legendary film critic for the Village Voice for 30 years and now writes for the New York Review, the New York Times, and The Nation.

Biden's clean energy plan was our best chance for addressing the climate emergency for the next several years; but Joe Manchin killed it, he says, because he's concerned about inflation. Harold Meyerson comments. Also: Addressing Climate Despair: how taking action is an act of hope. Thelma Young Lutunatabua and Rebecca Solnit talk about their new project @NotTooLate_Hope https://www.nottoolateclimate.com Plus: Ivana Trump, mother of Don Jr., Ivanka and Eric Trump, has died. She was 73. In 2017, her memoir "Raising Trump" was published. Amy Wilentz comments.

On Tuesday the January 6 committee held yet another dramatic hearing, this one on the origins of the ‘Stop the Steal” rally and the events that provoked that 1:30 am tweet of Trump’s urging supporters to come to Washington, where it “will be wild.” Harold Meyerson has our analysis. Also: the people who say “America is a Christian Nation” had some big victories at the Supreme Court this term: on school prayer, and on taxpayer funding of religious schools. Sarah Posner comments on the endgame of the Christian Nationalists; she’s the author of the book Unholy, about Christian Nationalists and their politics. Plus: What is to be done about The Supreme Court? David Cole, national legal director of the ACLU, and legal affairs correspondent for the Nation, has the best answer: organize, and vote.