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The Nation Podcasts
Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.
Episodes
The Nation PodcastsThe Religious Right Is Loving the Middle East Apocalypse | Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
On this episode of the Time of Monsters podcast, Chris Lehmann and Jeet Heer discuss Pentecostal beliefs about the Middle East, the Cold War, Trumpism, the…
The Nation PodcastsAbortion and the Democrats: John Nichols, plus Gaza and History: Fintan O'Toole | Start Making Sense with Jon Wiener
Tuesday’s vote tested the potency of abortion rights as an issue for Democrats, with a referendum in Ohio and the election of a new state legislature in…
The Nation PodcastsTrans Athletes Fight for Inclusion in Sports | Edge of Sports with Dave Zirin
Inclusion for trans athletes in sports has become a flashpoint in the culture war that extends from schools to international competitions. Katie Barnes joins…
The Nation PodcastsScorsese’s Indigenous Epic | Time of Monsters
On this episode of The Time of Monsters, I am joined by David Klion to talk about this fascinating movie. David wrote about the movie for The New Republic and…
The Nation PodcastsAfter a Gaza Ceasefire: D.D. Guttenplan; plus the UAW Victory
A cease-fire in Gaza is only the beginning of what Israel and the Palestinians need. D.D. Guttenplan, The Nation’s editor, argues that “both peoples will have…
The Nation PodcastsAdam Shatz on Israelis, Palestinians, and Hamas | Start Making Sense with Jon Wiener
In response to Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7, Adam Shatz says Israel’s disregard for Palestinian life has never been more callous or more flagrant. But Israel can’t…
The Nation PodcastsWhat Makes Deion Sanders Deion Sanders | Edge of Sports with Dave Zirin
This week on the Edge of Sports podcast, we speak to Jean Jacques Taylor, author of the new book, Coach Prime. With near total access to Deion Sanders, Taylor…
The Nation PodcastsHow Canada Became a Nazi Haven | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
Last month, the Canadian parliament embarrassed itself during an official visit by Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelensky when the entire legislative body…
The Nation PodcastsGaza and Us: Amy Wilentz | Start Making Sense
Israel and Gaza, Hamas and the Palestinians, war crimes and mideast history: On this episode of the Start Making Sense podcast, we have comment and analysis…
The Nation PodcastsThe Moral and Policy Catastrophe in Israel/Palestine | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
The Hamas massacres that started last Saturday and the ensuing retaliation by the Israel government deserve both a moral witness and policy analysis. On this…
The Nation PodcastsThe UAW’s Historic Victory, plus Elon Musk and American Democracy | Start Making Sense with Jon Wiener
The UAW won a historic victory in their strike against GM—an agreement that EV workers will be covered by the union contract. Harold Meyerson explains, and…
The Nation PodcastsLen Bias and the 1980s War on Drugs | Edge of Sports
This week on the Edge of Sports podcast, we welcome back Arya Shirazi to discuss another basketball butterfly effect: what if the NBA had handled the death of…
The Nation PodcastsThe GOP Congressional Clown Show | Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
A government shutdown has been temporarily avoided, but congress remains a mess. Kevin McCarthy has been ousted from his position as House Speaker. The…
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Bill McKibben: Power to the People in Maine, plus Clinton’s ‘Fabulous Failure’ | Start Making Sense
Voters in Maine will decide next month whether to turn the state’s private utilities public. If that happens, it would be a huge step toward dealing with the…
The Nation PodcastsWhy Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf Didn't Stand For The Anthem | Edge of Sports
In the early 90s, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf had a promising career ahead of him in the NBA as an up-and-coming star. That all changed in 1996 when he refused to stand…
The Nation PodcastsThe Auto Strike Upturns Politics | Time of Monsters
The United Auto Workers union has launched an innovative strike against all three major automakers, a major disruption that is upturning American politics, as…
The Nation PodcastsDahlia Lithwick on Voting Rights, plus Katha Pollitt on ‘The Forgotten Girls” | Start Making Sense
The right-wing supermajority on the Supreme Court has returned to a case about racial gerrymandering in Alabama, where Republicans have defied the Court’s…
The Nation PodcastsTrump and the Auto Strike, plus 'Manufactured Insecurity' | Start Making Sense
The UAW strike against Detroit’s Big Three is rapidly becoming a major political battle as Donald Trump speaks to auto workers in Detroit, challenging Biden’s…
The Nation PodcastsNorthwestern's hazing scandal with Byron Hurt | Edge of Sports with Dave Zirin
Officially, hazing is illegal and unwelcome just about everywhere you turn—but it continues as an open secret in far too many fraternities, sports teams, and…
The Nation PodcastsThe Triumph and Tragedy of Betty Friedan | Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique (1963) and one of the founders of the National Organization for Women (NOW), was a hero of feminism, but a…
The Nation PodcastsGary Younge: from Mandela to Black Lives Matter; plus Amy Wilentz on Haiti in September | Start Making Sense
Gary Younge, the award-winning former columnist for The Guardian, talks about Black writing and Black writers—and his own writing about Mandela, Obama, Travon…
The Nation PodcastsChamique Holdsclaw on Depression and Fame | Edge of Sports
Chamique Holdsclaw's legendary status was apparent from the moment she entered professional sports. After helping the US National Team win the Gold Medal in…
The Nation PodcastsNaomi Klein and Her Doppelganger | Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
On this episode of the Time of Monsters podcast, Laura Marsh discusses Noami Klein's new book, Doppleganger, about Noami Wolf. Advertising Inquiries…
The Nation PodcastsHeather Cox Richardson on ‘Our Authoritarian Experiment,’ Plus Chile Since Allende | Start Making Sense
Every night, more than a million people read Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter about the day’s political events. Now she has a new book out, “Democracy…
The Nation PodcastsBasketball Butterfly Effect Part III: MJ in Portland? | Edge of Sports with Dave Zirin
This week on the Edge of Sports Podcast, part three of our discussion with basketball savant Arya Shirazi about basketball butterfly effects. This time we're…
The Nation PodcastsOppenheimer’s Inopportune Opportunism | Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is the rarest of things: a summer blockbuster that is super-smart and repays close analysis. Two weeks ago, this podcast teamed…
The Nation PodcastsOur Hot Labor Summer, plus Melania, Ivanka, and the Indictments | Start Making Sense
Our hot labor summer continues. Harold Meyerson, editor at large of The American Prospect, comes on the Start Making Sense podcast to discuss the coming auto…
The Nation PodcastsThe Trump Wannabees | Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
The GOP held their first presidential debate for the 2024 election cycle and the crowded stage was notable for a significant absence. Former president Donald…
The Nation PodcastsDrew Faust Remembers the Sixties, plus Erwin Chemerinsky on Trump and Georgia | Start Making Sense
Drew Faust grew up in Virginia in the ’50’s, in the segregated south, in a family that was part of the white elite—and went on to make “necessary trouble” as a…
The Nation PodcastsDelegitimize The Supreme Court | Contempt of Court with Elie Mystal
This is the eighth and final episode of Contempt of Court, our podcast series about reforming the Supreme Court. On this episode, we’re going to talk about the…
The Nation PodcastsThe Jewishness of "Oppenheimer" | Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
Christopher Nolen’s Oppenheimer, a biopic about the famed scientist who oversaw the Manhattan Project and the creation of the atomic bomb, is a surprise hit of…
The Nation PodcastsRight-Wing Attacks on Small-Town Libraries; plus “The Snow Leopard” | Start Making Sense
Public Libraries are often wonderful places, but they have become targets of right-wing attack in the culture war. On this episode of the Start Making Sense…
The Nation PodcastsBasketball Butterfly Effect | Edge of Sports
This week we speak to basketball savant Arya Shirazi about what could have happened if the Detroit Pistons had drafted Carmelo Anthony instead of Darko Milicic…
The Nation PodcastsStripping The Court of Its Power | Contempt of Court with Elie Mystal
Instead of reforming how the Supreme Court uses its power, what if we took its power away? Harvard Law School professor, Ryan Doerfler, and Michigan Law School…
The Nation PodcastsIt’s a Barbie World But Is That a Good Thing? | Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
Barbie has smashed through the glass ceiling. Greta Gerwig’s new movie based on the popular Mattel doll is the big summer film of 2023. It’s made more than $1…
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Erwin Chemerinsky on The Trump Indictment, plus Katha Pollitt on “Barbie” | Start Making Sense
Should Trump have been charged with incitement of insurrection, or at least violence? What’s the line between free speech and incitement? If Trump sincerely…
The Nation PodcastsHow to Fix The Supreme Court’s Ethics Problem | Contempt of Court with Elie Mystal
The Supreme Court has a serious ethics problem—actually, ethics problems. The justices have been dogged by allegations of corruption. They’ve been peppered…
The Nation PodcastsThe Secret Origins of Marvel | Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
Disney has released a new documentary which myself and many others have criticized for regurgitating a mythical version of history that extolls Stan Lee as…
The Nation PodcastsTrump’s Trials, plus Barbie and Oppie | Start Making Sense
This month, Donald Trump will be facing four indictments in four different jurisdictions at the same time, each for multiple felonies. Yet, Republicans still…
The Nation PodcastsFinding the Balance | Contempt of Court with Elie Mystal
Beyond raw court expansion, or the (probably unconstitutional) big stick of forced term-limits, there are a number of other ways one might go about balancing…
The Nation PodcastsThe Case For Abolishing Harvard | Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
It’s no secret that the rich have an outsized role in Ivy League colleges, both as students and alumni. But a new study, by a group of Harvard-based…
The Nation PodcastsWhat Happened to Black Activism in Professional Sports? | Edge of Sports
The growth of the Black Lives Matter movement through the 2010s catalyzed a resurgence of Black activism in professional sports that had its climax in 2020…
The Nation PodcastsThe Class Struggle This Summer | Start Making Sense
The Teamsters reached a historic agreement for UPS workers this week, protecting and rewarding more than 340,000 UPS Teamsters nationwide. We had been headed…
The Nation PodcastsReform the Media | Contempt of Court with Elie Mystal
The court ended its most recent term completely off the chain. Having already killed reproductive rights, it accomplished another longstanding conservative…
The Nation PodcastsYoung Americans for Freedom Hates Freedom | Time of Monsters
There’s an old joke that the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor even an empire. The right-wing student group Young Americans for Freedom (YAF)…
The Nation Podcasts150 Years of Black Activism In Sports | Edge of Sports
The central place of sports in American life lends immense influence to athletes to shift the culture of the country—and for more than 150 years, Black…
The Nation PodcastsThe War on Black Studies, plus Hollywood on Strike | Start Making Sense
Remember how the state of Florida banned the African-American studies curriculum proposed by the College Board on the grounds that it might cause guilt…
The Nation PodcastsYou're Wrong About Term Limits | Contempt of Court with Elie Mystal
Term limits are by far the most popular form of Supreme Court reform. According to a recent poll from the Associated Press, two-thirds of Americans favor term…
The Nation PodcastsStart Making Sense: Cornel West Should Run as a Democrat, plus Supreme Court Wins and Losses
Cornel West is running for president as the Green Party candidate. On this episode of Start Making Sense, editor in chief, D.D. Guttenplan, explains why he…
The Nation PodcastsEdge of Sports: Solomon Hughes on playing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 'Winning Time’
From 1979 to 1991, the Los Angeles Lakers would become a dominant force in the world of professional basketball and in American culture more broadly. Led by…
The Nation PodcastsTime of Monsters: Moms For Liberty and Its Media Apologists
Although only formed in 2021, Moms For Liberty, a group agitating for reactionary policies in schools, is already a major player in national politics…
The Nation PodcastsElie Mystal's Court Packing Plan | Contempt of Court
When most people talk about expanding the Supreme Court, they're talking about adding a few justices. Two or four to the bench. But I am not most people. I do…
The Nation PodcastsEdge of Sports: 1968 Olympian Dr. John Carlos on the Legacy of the Black Athletic Revolt
The year 1968 was a time of rebellion across the US and the wider world. Tremendous demonstrations and rebellions shook American cities in opposition to the…
The Nation PodcastsStart Making Sense: Summer of Strikes, plus After Affirmative Action: Jane McAlevy on Labor, John Nichols on Education
Two nationwide strikes may be in the works right now. The Teamsters have been negotiating with UPS for a new contract, and the Auto Workers have been preparing…
The Nation PodcastsTime of Monsters: Moira Donegan on the Reactionary Vision of the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court ended its term last week with a spate of extremely right-wing decisions that included severely restricting affirmative action in elite…
The Nation PodcastsPacking the Court! | Contempt of Court with Elie Mystal
On this episode, we start with the most powerful reform available: court expansion. As a matter of Constitutional structure, Court expansion has always been…
The Nation PodcastsStart Making Sense: The Battle on the Abortion Borderland, plus RFK Jr.
Crossing the abortion borderland from Texas to New Mexico: Amy Littlefield describes the heroic work being done in both states to provide help to people…
The Nation PodcastsEdge of Sports: Aaron Maybin: "Athletes aren't superheroes, we're human beings"
After four years as a professional linebacker for football teams in the U.S. and Canada, Aaron Maybin put down his helmet and picked up a range of new hats off…
The Nation PodcastsTime of Monsters: The State of the Left in Chile, El Salvador and Nicaragua
This week we return to Central and South America with Jeffrey Gould, a scholar and filmmaker who has a long history of documenting social movements in the…
The Nation PodcastsWelcome to Contempt of Court with Elie Mystal!
If you have a problem with how the Supreme Court operates and how much power it is allowed to hold over the rest of us: welcome! On this show, we'll look at…