The Mother Jones Podcast

There are many alternate futures. But what if there were also ... alternate pasts? That's the premise of William Gibson's latest novel, Agency. Gibson is the pioneering science fiction writer who coined the word "cyberspace" and whose 1984 debut novel, The Neuromancer, is the book that inspired The Matrix. In, Agency, the second novel in Gibson's Peripheral trilogy, we've arrived back in 2017, at a fork of the past, called a "stub," in which Trump was never elected and Brexit never happened. In this universe, an app-whisperer named Verity Jane is testing a beta super-AI named Eunice, and crisis communication expert named Wilf Netherton has teamed up with a cop named Ainsley Lowbeer to try to avert nuclear war. In other words, it's a novel that looks unflinchingly at the importance of choice and the complex decision trees that could precipitate, or prevent, the end of the world as we know it. Mother Jones Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery sat down for a conversation with William Gibson at Public Works in San Francisco last January to talk about his new book. They discuss how politics has influenced his writing, how he uses his imagination to predict future realities, and how the real-life climate crisis intersects with his fictional imaginings of the end times. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Our Super Tuesday Mother Jones Podcast special is all about the knock 'em down, drag 'em out battle for the Democratic party! If you're a math nerd, you might be in heaven. But if you thought tonight was going to provide some simple answers, no such luck. Because just as we're releasing this, it's all about the numbers—a bare knuckle-fight for delegates in a race for who will be the Democratic nominee. After a broad field and innumerable debates the race has basically boiled down to two men: former Vice President Joe Biden, and Vermont senator Bernie Sanders So on this week's Mother Jones Podcast, we're counting votes and analyzing the results with our Senior Reporter Tim Murphy, who joins the show from where Bernie's political career began in Burlington, Vermont. Also in the show: Inside Bernie Sander's California ground operation that he hopes will turn out a historic turnout of nonvoters and new voters determined to kick Trump out. Fernanda Echavarri reports from the Coachella Valley, California, where a band of young Latinx activists are knocking on doors, phone-banking, nagging their relatives, and trying to unleash the kind of wave of enthusiasm Bernie touts as his biggest strength. Did these efforts make a difference in the Golden State on Super Tuesday? Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Pramila Jayapal, the freshman Democratic congresswoman from Washington, dubbed a" rising star in the Democratic caucus” by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has been fighting for immigrants’ rights since waves of xenophobia swept the nation after 9/11, and is now one of Congress’s leading critics of President Donald Trump’s draconian immigration policies. Following a hectic few months serving on the House Judiciary Committee, championing Bernie Sanders as one of his campaign’s leading surrogates, and pushing Medicare for All legislation in Congress, Jayapal sat down with Mother Jones’ Editor-in Chief Clara Jeffery to discuss the 2020 race, whether or not “Bernie Bros” really exist, Trump’s immigration policy horror show, and so much more. Listen to this special Friday bonus edition of the Mother Jones Podcast to hear the conversation, recorded on stage in front of a live audience at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco earlier this month. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Remember "Pizzagate"? That far-right fever dream about Hillary Clinton's allies running a pizza parlor child-sex ring turned out to be a precursor to QAnon, a bizarre and sprawling trove of pro-Trump conspiracy theories. Its strains have been mutating and adapting ever since 2017, finding new ways to infect our politics. Mother Jones' disinformation reporter Ali Breland and digital producer Mark Helenowski will take you inside the Trump rallies that served as offline nerve centers for the movement to ask supporters clad in Q-paraphernalia if the conspiracy is still alive and thriving, or has it peaked? They found that this once unmissable presence has faded to a crew of Q-diehards as a decline in the volume of related social media content took hold. But in an election year, QAnon is still shaping Trump's base and could be just one presidential tweet away from roaring back to life stronger than ever. Listen to hear how this far-right mega-conspiracy lives on, and about the danger it poses to an election already steeped in disinformation. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In March 2014, Carol Coronado was a new mother who committed an unthinkable act of violence: She stabbed and killed her three daughters, who were all under the age of three. Coronado's lawyer unsuccessfully argued that she was in the grip of an acute mental illness when she attacked her children. The judge said he thought Coronado was suffering from a mental condition and then sentenced her to three consecutive life terms without parole. In this week’s episode of the Mother Jones Podcast, host Jamilah King is joined by KQED health reporter April Dembosky to talk about her yearlong investigation into a devastating but under-reported condition called postpartum psychosis. The condition afflicts one to two moms out of 1,000 births, but psychiatrists believe that could underestimate the frequency because the symptoms are so easy to miss. Dembosky constructs and analyzes the data behind postpartum psychosis and looks into how the health care and legal systems could better serve women affected by this frightening condition. This radio documentary was first aired on KQED's California Sunday Magazine show earlier this month. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Mother Jones is on the ground in New Hampshire, reporting from the candidates’ after-parties following Sen. Bernie Sanders’ second win in the state’s Democratic primary. Calling in from Sanders’ victory party is senior reporter Tim Murphy, who weighs in on the tight race between the Vermont senator and former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg. Reporter Russ Choma fills us in on the latest from Buttigieg's celebration, who came in second in New Hampshire following a narrow delegate win over Sanders in last week’s Iowa caucuses. And for the word on Amy Klobuchar’s surprising third-place finish, we’ll hear from politics reporter Kara Voght. Following a chaotic first week of the primary season, Mother Jones’ reporters iron out all the details you need to know as the race for the nomination moves forward. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

We're putting the Mother Jones Podcast out early this week to bring you the very latest from the Iowa caucuses. Democratic officials are scrambling to tabulate final results, blaming “inconsistencies” in the reporting data. But precinct-based volunteers running the contest slammed the party’s reporting app and said even calling in on the phones was causing problems. Tim Murphy has been criss-crossing Iowa reporting for Mother Jones, and in this show we'll take you right there, to his car, for his immediate reaction, and to hear what voters are saying. You'll also hear from our voting rights reporter (and Iowa native) Ari Berman, who analyzes what the debacle foretells for voting in America in 2020. And while we wait to assess the actual votes, Micah Cohen, the managing editor of FiveThirtyEight, examines the trends, as election season gets underway. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

President Donald Trump’s lawyers have now concluded his impeachment defense on the floor of the Senate. A verdict—probably acquittal—is nigh. Or is it? In these final days and hours of the Trump impeachment saga, new bombshells keep exploding. A leak this week of a draft book manuscript by former National Security Adviser John Bolton's book heightened pressure on the handful of Republican senators able to green-light new evidence, or allow the trial to come to a speedy conclusion. On today’s show, you’ll hear from Mother Jones DC bureau chief David Corn who attempts to answer questions at the center of this week's drama: What does John Bolton know? Will any Republican Senators defect from the party line? What's the deal with Kenneth Starr and Alan Dershowitz? The Trump presidency has been marked by scandal, corruption, and dirty deals. These next few days will determine whether it can survive impeachment intact. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

America is hopelessly divided. That's what we're told. Look no further than the Senate impeachment trial for evidence: If Republicans work with Democrats, Fox News and tribal partisans will expose them to Trumpian fury, or so the narrative goes. But how true is this dim view of America's future, really? On this week's episode, we feature a guest who has received backlash and back-slaps for trying to knit together disparate interests in a deeply partisan world: Van Jones. The CNN star worked in the Obama White House as the “Green Jobs Czar” and currently heads the Reform Alliance, which advocates for criminal justice reform. While Jones has repeatedly called out Trump for being a bigot and a bully, he caught major heat from fellow progressives when he publicly praised Trump and the Republican party for their work on the First Step Act, an important reform that ultimately led to around 7,000 people leaving prison. Late last year, our Washington DC bureau chief David Corn joined Van Jones onstage for a live event at George Washington University and asked him: When do you compromise? When do you cooperate? And what to do when you find yourself caught in brutal partisan crossfire? Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

As the 2020 presidential election approaches, efforts to suppress the vote are endemic. In this week’s episode, Mother Jones reporter Ari Berman talks to President Barack Obama’s attorney general, Eric Holder, about some of the most insidious voter suppression tactics, from draconian voter ID laws to partisan and racial gerrymandering, in a wide-ranging conversation moderated by "Broad City" star Ilana Glazer. The shindig, co-presented by Mother Jones, is part of a live event program run by Glazer called "The Generator Series", during which she attempts to break down complex ideas about democracy, policy, and being a good American citizen. Glazer invited Holder to discuss his recently launched campaign, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC), which fights to create fair voting districts, and Berman, whose work illuminates the history behind why we vote the way we do in the US. Together, they identify flash points in the ongoing battle for this foundational American right. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Australia's wildfire emergency has no end in sight. This is what scientists warned would happen, and now it is: runaway wildfires of unprecedented scale and destruction are raging around Australia. At least 25 people have been killed, and about 3,000 military personnel have mobilized to assist in the evacuation of about 100,000 residents across the country's South East. The toll on the ecosystem remains less clear, but a widely reported estimate puts the number of wildlife killed at 480 million (not including frogs, bats, or insects.) Today, you'll hear from Marc West, the brother of our executive producer James, who managed to evacuate with his family from one of the hardest hit regions just as the crisis mounted. You'll also hear from one of the world's most prominent scientists studying the intersection of climate change and extreme weather, Michael Mann, who happens to be in Australia witnessing this disaster unfold firsthand. Note: since recording parts of this episode, the reported death toll from the bushfire crisis has risen to at least 25. The estimated numbers of homes destroyed and acres burned have also continued to increase. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Happy 2020. Today, we’re bumping an episode from May 2019 back to the top of your feed because it’s about a fight that will come to define so much of what happens this year in American political life: Voting rights. One Supreme Court case discussed in this episode is about adding a question to the U.S. Census that would have asked everyone if they were a citizen. The other case is about partisan gerrymandering. Since we first recorded this episode, both major cases have been decided. Census ballots have been sent to the printer without the citizenship question. And the Supremes rejected efforts to rein in partisan gerrymandering. But the underlying issues are still very much at play. The first votes in the Democratic primary get cast just next month, so we wanted to remind you of some of the biggest hurdles facing voters this year. We get into it with the director of ACLU’s voting rights project, Dale Ho, and our very own Ari Berman. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On this Christmas Day edition of the Mother Jones Podcast, we replay our August conversation between veteran science journalist Ziya Tong and Mother Jones’ D.C. bureau chief, David Corn. Tong explains exactly how—despite the many wonders of the human brain—our minds can be hardwired to melt in the face of vast global problems by only allowing us to see what’s right in front of us. When considering tectonic movements of the global financial system, or the complex dynamics of climate change, humanity suffers from “scale blindness,” Tong writes in her book, "The Reality Bubble: Blind Spots, Hidden Truths, and the Dangerous Illusions that Shape Our World." She calls it a “warped perspective,” preventing us from seeing the enormity of what’s coming “until it’s a little bit too late.” But there is hope for busting out of the powerful systems we take for granted. A way to do this is to design a new “mental blueprint” for how we view the world, she says. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

For the third time in American history, the House of Representatives has voted to impeach the president. In this breaking news edition of the Mother Jones Podcast, our Washington DC Bureau Chief David Corn joins host Jamilah King to break down the political prospects for President Donald Trump as the Republican-controlled Senate prepares for its impeachment trial. Will it be fair? Will impeachment ultimately alter Trump’s 2020 prospects? And what about all his other misdeeds? Tune in to learn what happens next in Washington, and what we can expect from Trump as he aims to preserve a presidency hanging in the balance. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Some of the people who screwed over American families during the Great Recession of 2008 are still around, and they're lurking in the shadows: they're in President Donald Trump's orbit, and in his cabinet. Steve Mnuchin. Wilbur Ross. These are just two swamp-dwellers who foreclosed on the sick and elderly during a time when millions of jobs were lost in the biggest layoffs since 1945. Now, some of these modern-day robber barons are helping write national housing policies. What does that mean for the American dream? Soon after the crash, Aaron Glantz, a senior reporter for Reveal, started going around San Francisco knocking on doors, meeting people who were falling back on their skyrocketing mortgages and about to give into the banks. He noticed something strange. These homes were being foreclosed on, bought, and sold by the same few people, and they were making a killing. Glantz wrote about it in his recent book "Homewreckers", which was released in October. On this show, he tells host Jamilah King how the swamp creatures from the mortgage crisis are being resuscitated by Trump. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In just under two months, the first votes will be cast in the Democratic presidential primary. While the epic national drama of impeachment plays out in Washington, candidates are charging through town halls, living rooms, diners, stadiums, and community centers. There are spats and drop-outs and surprises and, yes, even new entrants, as dividing lines, new and old, are litigated and dirty laundry is aired. In other words: a campaign. And Mother Jones reporters are there. For today's show, host Jamilah King is joined by Mother Jones politics reporters Tim Murphy and Kara Voght to talk about Kamala Harris's shock drop-out and what it says about diversity amongst the Democratic field frontrunners; the entrance of billionaire Michael Bloomberg; the surge of Pete Buttigieg in Iowa, and the Great Transparency Wars of 2020; and so much more. Get on the campaign train with Mother Jones. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

President Donald Trump has said he welcomes "brilliant" skilled immigrants to the United States. In this week's episode, Mother Jones senior data reporter Sinduja Rangarajan investigates the Trump administration's efforts to build a bureaucratic wall to keep out these very immigrants. As part of a 8-month collaboration with Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, she reports on how the administration has been rejecting record numbers of applications for coveted H-1B "tech visas," spreading confusion and panic among visa holders, some of whom have lived in the country for years. She also built a database that documents an unprecedented flurry of lawsuits alleging that the administration is applying the H-1B rules arbitrarily and in violation of the spirit of the law. Listen as Sinduja profiles an Indian immigrant who saw his life suddenly upended and as she talks about her own connection to the story. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The Trump administration touts its “Remain in Mexico” policy as resounding success. Critics call it cruel and illegal. What’s unquestionable is that Trump has made it virtually impossible for migrants to seek asylum in the United States, leaving tens of thousands of migrant families stuck in limbo in crowded shelters and tent camps in Mexico’s border cities. Reporters Fernanda Echavarri and Julia Lurie travel to Ciudad Juárez to examine the colossal impact of a policy that has become the new normal at the border. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On our first big impeachment podcast show, Mother Jones Washington D.C. Bureau Chief David Corn gives you the latest news direct from the hallway outside the House Intelligence Committee room on Capitol Hill, reacting to the partisan theatrics as they unfold on live television, while detailing the mounting case against Trump. Then you’ll hear from editor and reporter Hayes Brown, the host of the new daily podcast from BuzzFeed and iHeartRadio, Impeachment Today. Brown will help you get to the bottom of one of the biggest emerging themes: the weaponization of conspiracy theories and misinformation to intimidate and incriminate witnesses. It can be mind-boggling to understand all the moving pieces and multitudinous cast members on this impeachment stage, but Hayes breaks it down with a big shot of energy, and lots of laughs. And finally: you know how everyone compares Trump to Richard Nixon? In fact, MoJo podcast favorite Tim Murphy returns to the studio to explain why the closest historical precedent to this Trump scandal is not Watergate, but the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. Keep up-to-date with all things impeachment on our daily Impeachapalooza blog at MotherJones.com/impeachment. And here are some of the stories you heard during this episode: “Republicans Spent the First Day of Impeachment Hearings in an Alternate Reality”, by David Corn. “Impeachment Day 3: Republicans Continue Their Attack on Reason and Reality," by David Corn. Buzzfeed + iHeartRadio’s Impeachment Today Podcast “Trump’s Not Richard Nixon. He’s Andrew Johnson," by Tim Murphy. Follow us on Twitter @MoJoPodcast. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Hong Kong resembles a war zone. Twenty-four weeks after millions demonstrated against a Chinese extradition bill, violent clashes between protesters and police are worse than ever. For this episode of the Mother Jones Podcast, host Jamilah King talks with Denise Ho, one of the most prominent leaders of the pro-democracy movement. Ho is an award-winning singer and songwriter who has been putting out hit albums since the late 1990s. But now, since becoming a political activist, her music has been banned in mainland China. Listen for a detailed analysis of what it’s like in Hong Kong today, Ho's opinions about the NBA Twitter dust up, and thoughts on the role of celebrity in this moment of political crisis. (And stay for a special performance, right at the end.) Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Climate change is quickly becoming the defining issue of the 2020 presidential election. How the next American president confronts that threat will define where we live, what we eat, and how nations will survive. Despite the urgency, there hasn’t been a true forum for presidential candidates of both parties to thoughtfully discuss their plans to halt current climate. That changes Thursday night.⁠ The Weather Channel has teamed up with Climate Desk, a partnership of 18 media organizations working together on covering climate change (started by Mother Jones), to deliver an hour of climate conversations with nine candidates—five Democrats and three Republicans. It's called “2020: Race to Save the Planet,” and the special airs with limited commercial interruption Thursday, November 7 at 8 p.m. ET.⁠ On today's episode of the podcast, you'll get an exclusive preview from ⁠hurricane expert Dr. Rick Knabb from the Weather Channel, alongside Mother Jones's climate reporter Rebccea Leber, and you'll hear from candidates who visited communities on the frontlines of the current climate crisis: in the floodplains of Charleston, South Carolina; in South Bend, Indiana, and Dubuque, Iowa; as well as in Paradise, California, which was devastated by the Camp Fire almost exactly a year ago. We asked the top frontrunners to participate, and six Democrats and three Republicans said yes. We met with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) The Weather Channel interviewed Republican presidential hopefuls, too, including ex-Massachusetts governor William Weld, former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh, and former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Ronan Farrow’s reporting on Harvey Weinstein’s serial predatory behavior has earned a Pulitzer Prize. But in the months leading up to publication, a major news behemoth tried to kill the story. In Farrow’s latest book, "Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators", he tells the story of how NBC executives worked for months to try to kill the Weinstein story. Farrow unspools the remarkable tale with Mother Jones Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery at a live event in San Francisco earlier this month. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The US Marshals Service detains tens of thousands of people every day in jails across the United States, and thanks to President Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policies, that number is approaching historic highs. The Marshals are supposed to safeguard pre-trial detainees, but journalist Seth Freed Wessler's reporting reveals that America’s oldest law enforcement agency is suffering from a massive dereliction of duty—telling the story of widespread neglect, and deaths inside a system plagued by a lack of accountability. Seth teamed up with the award-winning radio producers behind NPR's Latino USA to produce this radio documentary based on his explosive reporting. For the full story for Mother Jones, reported in partnership with Type Investigations, visit http://www.motherjones.com/marshals. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

President Donald Trump's sudden withdrawal of United States forces from Syria last week has pitted US allies against each other, liberated ISIS prisoners and terrorist detainees, strengthened the positions of Syria and Russia, and left the region in turmoil. Without US troops preventing Turkish forces from attacking the Kurds—who had been longtime US allies in the fight against ISIS in northern Syria—Turkey has swept into the region, with 160,000 civilians on the run, according to the United Nations. Now Turkey is bombing Kurdish territory and attacking Kurdish fighters and civilians. In 2018, Mother Jones reporter Shane Bauer traveled to Syria to document merica's involvement in one of the 21st century's bloodiest conflicts. He met the Kurds who Trump effectively gave Turkey permission to kill. On this week's episode of the Mother Jones podcast, Bauer talks to host Jamilah King about what it's like on the ground—and what's next. Also on the show, our sister podcast Bite has a new series about how climate change is affecting your food. Hosts Maddie Oatman and Kiera Butler give you the highlights from "Eating in Climate Chaos." Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Naomi Klein is a veteran activist and environmentalist, and author of the new book, “On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal,” which argues that the dire urgency of the climate crisis is now a global five-alarm fire. Klein details the entrenched systems, social prejudices, and political patterns that have now fused into a singularly existential threat—and shows how those in power, on every level, have refused to act against impending peril. Klein joins Mother Jones editor-in-chief Clara Jeffery on stage for this special live (and lively) recording in Oakland, California. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Donald Trump’s massive debts—he owes hundreds of millions of dollars—are the subject of continuous congressional and journalistic scrutiny. But for years, one Trump loan has been particularly mystifying: a debt of more than $50 million that Trump claims he owes to one of his own companies. According to tax and financial experts, the loan, which Trump has never fully explained, might be part of a controversial tax avoidance scheme known as debt parking. Yet a Mother Jones investigation has uncovered information that raises questions about the very existence of this loan, presenting the possibility that this debt was concocted as a ploy to evade income taxes—a move that could constitute tax fraud. On today's show, host Jamilah King interviews Mother Jones investigative reporter Russ Choma about his dogged Trumpworld financial reporting, and the fresh questions it raises about Trump's debt. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday afternoon announced plans to launch formal impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. In recent days, a growing number of Democrats have argued that Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukrainian leaders to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son could be grounds for removing the president from office. “This is a violation of his constitutional responsibility,” Pelosi said in televised remarks on Tuesday evening, accusing Trump of betraying his oath of office. “This is a violation of law." Washington DC bureau chief David Corn, and foreign influence and national security reporter Dan Friedman join host Jamilah King to discuss how a secret whistleblower complaint against Donald Trump rapidly transformed from a trickle of news into a full blown torrent that finally broke the dam. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

For most of his life, Ibram X. Kendi admits he was a racist. He’s a black man, raised predominantly in black neighborhoods, and received an undergraduate degree from Florida A&M University, a historically black college. His upbringing was solidly middle class and Christian. He was not particularly focused on showing the world that black people could be twice as good as their white counterparts. Even so, he calls himself a racist. In his new book, "How to Be An Antiracist," author and professor Kendi combines searing autobiography with pointed analysis to show just how deeply racism is woven into our national—and global—fabric. He argues that the opposite of a racist isn’t someone who’s not racist, but instead an antiracist—someone who acknowledges how race has been constructed, and works actively against it. This week’s episode of the Mother Jones podcast features Kendi’s thoughts on antiracism, his writing process, and why this conversation is especially important in Trump’s America. Later in the show, we talk to Elizabeth Warren supporters at a big New York City rally about how they would convince Trump fans to switch their votes and back the Senator from Massachusetts in 2020. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On the 18th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, a new book recasts one of America's darkest days in strikingly personal terms by weaving together survival stories in minute-by-minute detail. National security and politics reporter Garrett Graff joins Mother Jones D.C. Bureau Chief David Corn to talk about his new work of oral history, “The Only Plane in the Sky: The Oral History of 9/11”, which unearths untold stories of those who experienced the attack first-hand, and paints the events of that world-shifting day in new and vibrant ways. "9/11 was the hinge upon which our modern world turned," Graff tells Corn. "It's unfathomable to me how you understand America in 2019 without understanding that Tuesday morning in September, 18 years ago." Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Late last year, Senator Jeff Merkley was one of the first national politicians to blow the whistle on the Trump administration's detention of unaccompanied migrant children on the southern border. The Democratic senator sat down with Mother Jones editor-in-chief Clara Jeffery at the Commonwealth Club last week, where he spoke in no uncertain terms about the administration's pattern of targeting of immigrants, the trauma caused by incarceration, and why the future of the United States hinges on kicking Trump out of office. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Grammy-nominated rapper Rapsody joins host Jamilah King to discuss art, politics, and what keeps her going in these turbulent political times. Her new album, Eve, pays homage to a diverse number of black women and the mark they’ve made across generations of music and culture—from Sojourner Truth, to Oprah Winfrey, and Michelle Obama. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Science journalist Ziya Tong joins Mother Jones D.C. Bureau Chief David Corn to explain how, despite the many wonders of the human brain, we suffer from "scale blindness", a dangerous state that hardwires us to melt in the face of vast global problems. Her new book, "The Reality Bubble: Blind Spots, Hidden Truths, and the Dangerous Illusions that Shape Our World," is about our many in-built inabilities to combat complex issues like climate change—and what we can do to bust out of the powerful systems we take for granted. “I want to start from scratch," Tong tells Corn. "I want to start thinking about things in a way that is a little bit more focused and clear-headed—once you're able to see through the reality bubble, that is.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Just hours after financier Jeffrey Epstein’s apparent death by suicide, President Donald Trump retweeted a conspiracy theory alleging the Clinton family’s involvement in killing the accused sex trafficker. So what better time to bring you this in-depth conversation with writer Anna Merlan, whose book "Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power" has only become more and more relevant as the conspiracist in chief amplifies yet another sinister lie. Merlan has spent years diving deep into the world of conspiracy theories. The result is a meticulously researched firecracker of a book, documenting incidents as early as the burning of ancient Rome, and as recently as the many conspiracy theories that bedeviled the 2016 election. Our assistant news editor Becca Andrews talked to Merlan to understand the roots of this increasingly powerful phenomenon, and discuss how inequality and racism beget conspiracy—and why empathy is important when writing about true believers. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In the wake of twin shooting tragedies that killed 31 people last weekend, Mother Jones takes you to El Paso, Texas. Host Jamilah King speaks to MoJo immigration reporter Fernanda Echavarri, who spent time at a makeshift memorial outside the Walmart where chaos erupted on Saturday at the hands of an anti-immigrant killer, to hear from a community reeling from its worst nightmare come true. Also in this episode, Jamilah speaks to MoJo disinformation reporter Ali Breland about the inspiration mass shooters derive from uncensored message boards in the darkest corners of the web, and what can be done to stem the flow of white nationalist hate. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Longtime US diplomat Richard Holbrooke was many things: Ambassador to Germany, Assistant Secretary of State, the man who resolved the intractable war in Yugoslavia, and, to many… a womanizing, social-climbing jerk. While the storied career statesman saw “power the way an artist sees color,” as one former military leader put it in 2009—the year before Holbrooke died at 69—another former colleague described him as the “diplomatic equivalent of a hydrogen bomb,” leaving few survivors after being deployed. On this week’s episode of the Mother Jones Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery sits down with award-winning journalist George Packer from the Atlantic, whose new book, "Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century," chronicles the life of this American foreign policy giant, whose career and trajectory extended from Vietnam to Afghanistan. His story is particularly timely, just as Trump’s GOP pulls the country ever-further into isolationism and nativism, alienating allies and praising dictators. In a narrative that manages to toggle between being deeply learned and a beach-book page-turner Holbrooke is revealed as an undeniable icon of America’s global influence, but also as a flawed operator who often let his ego get in the way amid bouts of “dick-swinging diplomacy.” This conversation was recorded in front of a live audience at City Arts and Lectures in San Francisco in May, and is featured here as part of the Mother Jones Podcast’s summer series of fascinating conversations with journalists, artists, and activists about how their work interacts with some of the biggest debates of the day. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On today's show, Shannon Watts discusses her meteoric rise from stay-at-home mom to the NRA's worst nightmare, with Mother Jones’ editor-in-chief Clara Jeffery, during a taped live event at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco in June. After the Sandy Hook massacre, Watts created a Facebook page and was soon inundated by others from all over the country who wanted to get involved. In the six years since, the grassroots organization, Moms Demand Action, has grown into one of the most effective gun reform groups in the country. Legions of dedicated mothers show up in red shirts to lobby members of Congress, state legislatures, and companies into supporting gun reform. So far, they’ve pushed 20 states into passing gun-safety legislation and have successfully persuaded Starbucks, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and other businesses into banning to ban firearms from their stores. Now, with her new book, "Fight Like a Mother"—part-memoir, part-guide for activists—Watts hopes to continue to empower more people ahead of the all-important 2020 election season. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On today’s show, we interview one of our favorite writers and thinkers, Emily Nussbaum, the Pulitzer prize-winning TV critic for the New Yorker. Nussbaum is the author of a new collection of essays called “I Like to Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution”, released last month. The book is full of language she thinks we’re lacking in this so-called Quality Television era: language about unabashedly loving the TV shows you love, without being shamed into calling them “guilty pleasures” by snooty cultural gatekeepers. Nussbaum talks to Mother Jones assistant news editor, Becca Andrews, about being Jane the Virgin mega-fans, and the messy task of critics who need to wrestle with certain male artists as the MeToo era forces painful new assessments of their work. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Coming of age inside America's immigration nightmare: As a 17-year-old, Carlos fled Honduras with hopes of seeking asylum in the United States. He did so on his own, as an unaccompanied minor, without a parent or guardian looking out for him—and that’s how it’s been for most of his life. When Carlos was four, his father was killed and, soon after, his mother left him by a dumpster, abandoning him to a life on the streets. Carlos grew up homeless in a city where a teenage boy is expected to work with gangs or be killed by them. So last fall, he joined the migrant caravan and made the trek north. But once he reached the US border he was forced to wait for months, and with his 18th birthday fast approaching, he grew anxious at the possibility of not being able to ask for asylum as a minor. Carlos is one of more than 56,000 unaccompanied children and teens US Customs and Border Protection encountered along the border with Mexico since October. We bring you his story of survival and how he turned to Facebook to make a family of his own. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Exclusive interview: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has used social media and a cunning instinct for politics and publicity to build a megaphone that rivals Donald Trump’s—especially regarding the US detention of migrants who enter the country at its southern border. On Monday, Ocasio-Cortez was part of a 16-member congressional delegation that got a rare glimpse inside three highly fortified migrant detention facilities, which she has referred to as “concentration camps.” Congressional staffers had privately worried that officials would sanitize and curtail their tour inside, but the visit turned out to be more revealing than anyone had expected. A Mother Jones contributor, Jonathan Katz, accompanied the delegation to the sites, though reporters were not permitted inside. Later, he sat down with Ocasio-Cortez to get her perspective on what had happened during the day, how we got here, and where things might go next. Listen to our Q&A with the congresswoman who has catapulted the issue to national attention Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On this week’s episode, we take you deep inside the system that sustains the world’s harshest punishment. Mother Jones reporter Nathalie Baptiste travels to Tennessee where a death row inmate was recently put to death, a community leader speaks about forgiveness in the face of heinous crimes, and the daughter of an executed man pleads with the state to test DNA evidence that could clear her father’s name. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The finale of "Behind the Lines": An American woman says she was tortured by ISIS, survived the US-led assault on Raqqa, escaped the Islamic State, and now wants to go home. Senior reporter Shane Bauer meets Samantha Elhassani at a sprawling refugee camp in northeastern Syria. But two months later, she is sent to the United States on a military cargo plane and brought before a federal judge, becoming the first American woman to be charged with terrorism-related crimes after living inside ISIS territory. Bauer traces her story back to Indiana and looks at the events leading to her husband’s decision to take her and their young family to Syria’s front lines. Bauer investigates Elhassani’s role in her husband’s enslavement of three Yazidi children, and looks at how her and the government’s competing claims may play out in her upcoming trial. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Beneath a crumbling soccer stadium in Raqqa, in northeast Syria, is a maze of narrow corridors and underground cells where ISIS once held its prisoners. In this installment of our “Behind the Lines” podcast series, Mother Jones senior reporter Shane Bauer tours these abandoned tunnels with a former prisoner who recounts the atrocities that happened beneath the stands where he’d watched soccer matches as a boy. Pro-ISIS graffiti still covers the walls of the cramped rooms were prisoners were kept in darkness, released only to be interrogated, tortured, and fed ISIS propaganda. While some prisoners made false confessions and were beheaded, others tried to save their lives by accepting their captors’ religious message; some escaped by joining ISIS. In this episode, Bauer provides an inside look at the place where ISIS held its captives and created new recruits. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Introducing "Behind the Lines", a Mother Jones Podcast series featuring senior reporter Shane Bauer’s exclusive, on-the-ground reporting in Syria. A year in the making, this series contains never-before-heard audio from one of the 21st century’s bloodiest conflicts, including an interview with the first American woman charged with terrorism-related crimes for joining her husband in ISIS territory. Bauer takes listeners inside an abandoned ISIS prison; hunts for clues about a devastating US-led air strikes; and travels to a battlefront where a proxy battle between superpowers is fueled by oil and gas fields. Episode One goes to the bombed-out city of Raqqa, the former ISIS stronghold, where forensics teams conduct the harrowing work of uncovering thousands of bodies from the rubble. The city was liberated in 2017 following an intensive four-month siege and bombardment by US-led forces as part of President Donald Trump’s aggressive escalation of the war against ISIS in Syria. By early 2018, when Bauer visited, as much as 80 percent of the city’s buildings had been destroyed or damaged; Amnesty International called it “the most destroyed city in modern times.” Bauer follows the heartbreaking daily routine of 16 rescuers with no more lives to save; now their grim task is retrieving bodies throughout the city. In this episode, Bauer talks about why he embarked on this risky trip into Syria and discusses the shifting web of combatants that makes the war so difficult to comprehend. Our podcast series is being released at the same time as an in-depth package on MotherJones.com presenting Bauer’s in-depth report and riveting videos from behind the lines. For more, visit: motherjones.com/syria. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Happy Pride Month! This week marks the start of annual celebrations for the LGBTQ community in what has been a turbulent year in the fight for equality. On the one hand, queer communities are more visible than ever. Pete Buttigieg, the openly gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is running for president, and the 2018 midterms ushered in an unprecedented number of LGBTQ elected officials at all levels of government. On the other hand, President Donald Trump has become more aggressive in pushing forward with banning transgender people from joining the military. It’s also a historic pride year, marking half a century since the revolution at a small New York City bar that started it all. On this show, you’ll hear from two Stonewall veterans who were there, and a filmmaker who chronicled the making of the LGBTQ movement before the uprising. You’ll also take a trip to Jacob Riis Beach, a historic summer haven for queer New Yorkers, where sun-lovers answer a simple yet surprisingly provocative question: What makes a queer space in 2019? Finally, a quick correction: In the podcast, we say the Stonewall uprising was half a decade ago. It was clearly half a century ago. Our excuse? Gays don’t age. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

There are 7,383 state legislators in the United States, and many of them, it seems, want to do something about the border. But there’s only one state lawmaker who actually lives there. Poncho Nevarez can’t just see Mexico from his house; when the breeze is right, he can hit a golf ball there. That makes the 46-year-old trial lawyer and four-term Democratic state representative from Eagle Pass, Texas, a unique voice in the debate over border security. Getting the border right, in Poncho’s opinion, starts with listening to the people who live there. And Poncho has a lot to say. Buckle up: you’re going to Texas as our host, Jamilah King, interviews senior reporter Tim Murphy about his recent visit to Eagle Pass, Texas. You can read (and watch) more about Tim’s travels with Mother Jones’ digital producer Mark Helenowski at MotherJones.com. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The key to covering the 2020 election? More women. From the #MeToo movement to the fight for workplace equality to the dystopian abortion bills popping up around the country, male supremacy is plainly on the agenda in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election. How should the media, particularly women in media, cover such a fraught moment? To help guide us toward an answer, MoJo's Jamilah King recently hosted two live events in New York City that brought together five women journalists of various ages and backgrounds. First, Jamilah spoke with Jessica Yellin, CNN’s former White House chief correspondent, at The Wing DUMBO, a women-only space in New York City, to discuss Yellin’s new novel, Savage News; the 2020 presidential election; the not-so-secret bro culture of cable news; and life after TV news. This week’s episode of the Mother Jones Podcast also contains highlights from another live event Jamilah hosted at Manhattan’s New School. The conversation features some of today’s leading women in media discussing the challenges and the hope of achieving equality in the industry: Imara Jones, a black transgender woman and host of The Last Sip on Free Speech TV; Antonia Hylton, correspondent and producer for Vice News Tonight on HBO; Kat Aaron, an organizer and producer at Pineapple Media; and Allie Maloney, senior politics editor at Teen Vogue. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Democratic presidential hopeful Julián Castro spoke with Mother Jones for this exclusive interview at one of his favorite restaurants in San Antonio. He told our immigration reporter Fernanda Echavarri that he’s still preaching patience—even though he’s recently been polling at around one percent in a very crowded field. This week, we hear from Castro, who remains upbeat and on message, on his top policy priorities: pushing universal health care with Medicare-for-All, addressing climate change while investing in sustainability, and putting forward “bold immigration legislation” that would give millions of undocumented immigrants a legal path to citizenship. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The US census is conducted every 10 years and determines how hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding is allocated, how much representation states receive, and how political districts are drawn. But next year’s could be different: The Trump administration wants to add a question asking for the respondent’s citizenship. Voting rights experts say such a move has the potential to derail the entire census—and shift power to the Republican Party for the next decade—because it will greatly reduce the number of people willing to participate. If large numbers of immigrants, for example, don’t respond to the census, which has not asked about citizenship since 1950, the areas where they live could lose federal funding and representatives in Congress, and economic and political power could shift to whiter and more Republicans areas. Three federal courts have struck down the citizenship question so far, and it was recently in front of the Supreme Court. On this week’s show, host Jamilah King talks about what’s at stake now with Dale Ho, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s voting rights project who recently went up against the government in oral arguments at the high court, and Mother Jones’s voting rights guru Ari Berman. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week, we take a hard look at the strange, swampy saga of President Donald Trump and a Florida spa entrepreneur. Li “Cindy” Yang is the former owner of the Jupiter, Florida, massage parlor where New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft was busted in February for allegedly soliciting prostitution. (She sold this location around 2012, and Kraft has denied the allegations.) Yang landed in the news after the Miami Herald published photos of Yang posing with President Trump and other Republican notables. But there was more to the story. In 2017, Yang and her husband had formed a business, GY US Investments LLC, that offered clients opportunities to “interact with the president…and other political figures” at Mar-a-Lago. Host Jamilah King chats with Dan Schulman, our deputy bureau chief in Washington D.C., and Dan Friedman, our foreign influence and national security reporter, about what know so far. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In a nail-biting Alabama special election in 2017 to fill the Senate seat formerly held by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Doug Jones made history when he narrowly won against former state Supreme Court justice Roy Moore, who was accused of sexual misconduct, to become the state's first Democrat elected to the US Senate in 25 years. Jones’ improbable victory was celebrated nationally by Democrats because it represented a powerful, rare opportunity—the potential for Democrats to regain a foothold in the Deep South. The freshman senator has been in Congress for a little over a year, during which time he has served on committees that shape policy affecting senior citizens, health care, banking, and defense. He's kept a relatively low profile, particularly in comparison to more vocal freshmen like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her cohort, but he tells Mother Jones that's just not his nature. Jones, who plans to run for reelection next year, spoke with the Mother Jones Podcast earlier this month about what he’s learned since taking office and how the Dems can turn the tide in the South. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices