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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 End of the PKK w/ Gönül Tol and Djene Bajalan | American Prestige
Derek welcomes back to the program Gönül Tol, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, and Djene Bajalan, associate professor of history at Missouri State…
The Nation PodcastsTrump Upturns American Foreign Policy w/ Stephen Wertheim | Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
On this episode of the Time of Monsters, Jeet Heer is joined by Stephen Wertheim to discuss how 'America First' went from rhetoric to policy. -- During his…
The Nation PodcastsPKK Disarmament, US/Ukraine Mineral Deal, German Election | American Prestige
Danny and Derek, the greatest news anchors since Lennon/McCartney. This week's American Prestige News Roundup: Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah…
The Nation PodcastsProtesting Tesla Can Hurt Elon Musk w/ Ed Niedermeyer | Tech Won't Save Us
On this episode of Tech Won't Save Us, Paris Marx is joined by Ed Niedermeyer to discuss the trouble with Tesla’s business model and how that makes Elon Musk’s…
The Nation PodcastsRo Khanna and Thomas Geoghegan on What Is To Be Done | Start Making Sense
House Progressive leader Ro Khanna says “economic empowerment” for the working class should become the Democrats’ “defining cause.” And he comments on this…
The Nation PodcastsMAGA Defense Cuts? w/ William Hartung | American Prestige
On this episode of American Prestige, William Hartung — senior research fellow focusing on the arms industry and US military budget at the Quincy Institute for…
The Nation PodcastsUS-Ukraine Tension, RSF in Sudan, and Trump's Proposed Defense Budget Cuts | American Prestige
Danny and Derek are back with the news, but without much of a choice. This week's American Prestige News Roundup: the US and Russia meet in Riyadh to discuss…
The Nation PodcastsHow DOGE is Remaking the US Government w/ Makena Kelly | Tech Won't Save Us
Paris Marx is joined by Makena Kelly to discuss how Elon Musk’s DOGE is reshaping the US government and the consequences that has for government employees and…
The Nation PodcastsElon Musk’s First Political Contributions of 2025; plus The History of Culture Wars | Start Making Sense
The first big election of 2025 will be in Wisconsin, which elects a new Supreme Court Justice on April 1. Elon Musk is spending hundreds of millions in that…
The Nation PodcastsA Stable, Post-Unipolar World w/ Trita Parsi and Aslı Bâli | American Prestige
On this episode of American Prestige, Danny and Derek are joined by Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, and Aslı Bâli, professor of…
The Nation PodcastsTrump and Putin Talk Ukraine Ceasefire, M23 Continues DRC Advance, Sudan's Military Makes Gains | American Prestige
On this week's news roundup from American Prestige: Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin agree to start bilateral peace talks for the war in Ukraine (1:05), with…
The Nation PodcastsThe Tech Oligarchy’s Campaign Against the Media | Tech Won't Save Us
Paris Marx is joined by Eoin Higgins to discuss how tech billionaires changed the media ecosystem and made it profitable for influential voices to shift to the…
The Nation PodcastsThe Courts v. Trump and Musk | Start Making Sense
Trump has lost a series of major legal battles in the last week, where courts have ruled that key executive orders of his are unconstitutional. But what…
The Nation PodcastsAmerican Jews, Israel, and Palestine w/ Peter Beinart | American Prestige
On this episode of American Prestige, Peter Beinart speaks with Danny and Derek about his book Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning…
The Nation PodcastsRubio in Latin America, M23 Ceasefire Ends, Trump Proposes Gaza Takeover | American Prestige
On this week's news roundup from American Prestige: Donald Trump proposes the US take over the Gaza Strip (0:32), prompting mixed responses at home (9:16) as…
The Nation PodcastsHow Spotify Remade the Music Industry w/ Liz Pelly | Tech Won't Save Us
On this episode of Tech Won't Save Us, we're joined by Liz Pelly to discuss how Spotify changes how we listen to music and the broader impacts it has on the…
The Nation PodcastsMobilizing Against Trump in Week 3: Rebecca Solnit and Leah Greenberg | Start Making Sense
Understanding our power: “If you’re always consumed by the next outrage, you can’t look closely at the last one.” (Ezra Klein) Last week, Trump tried to stop…
The Nation PodcastsM23, the DRC, and Rwanda w/ Marie-Rose Tshite | American Prestige
On this episode of American Prestige, Derek speaks with Marie-Rose Tshite, a peacebuilding advocate and Ph.D. student in Political Science with a concentration…
The Nation PodcastsProject 2025 For Real w/Chris Lehmann | Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
Running for president last year, Donald Trump disowned Project 2025, the laundry list of radical demands gathered together by right-wing think tanks. Trump…
The Nation PodcastsSudan Army Advances, IDF Remains in Lebanon, US Foreign Aid Freeze | American Prestige
This week: in Israel-Palestine, detainees were exchanged on Thursday (0:31), the IDF continues its operation in the West Bank (6:05), an update on the…
The Nation PodcastsThe Problem With Cyberlibertarianism w/ Chris Gilliard | Tech Won't Save Us
On this episode of Tech Won't Save Us, Paris Marx is joined by Chris Gilliard to discuss David Golumbia's final book Cyberlibertarianism and how right-wing…
The Nation PodcastsChris Hayes: How Trump Wins the Battle for Attention | Start Making Sense
Our attention is limited. That makes it valuable, Chis Hayes says– not just to us, but to those who’d like to exploit it. Chris’s new book is The Sirens’ Call…
The Nation PodcastsDecolonization as Advocacy, Pt. 2 w/ Lydia Walker | American Prestige
On this episode of American Prestige, Lydia Walker, historian at Ohio State University, is back with Danny and Derek to conclude the conversation about her…
The Nation PodcastsTrump's First Week, Colombia Rebel Fighting, M23 Advances in DRC | American Prestige
On this week's American Prestige news roundup: in Gaza, the ceasefire takes effect (0:37), allowing a surge of humanitarian aid (3:51), the latter being partly…
The Nation PodcastsThe New Tech Oligarchy w/ Gaby Del Valle | Tech Won't Save Us
On this episode of Tech Won't Save Us, Paris Marx is joined by Gaby Del Valle to discuss the inauguration of Donald Trump and what the tech oligarchy hopes to…
The Nation PodcastsHow We Got Here, plus Thanking the Undocumented | Start Making Sense
How Trump ‘won’: In 2024, 244 million Americans were eligible to vote. 31.5% voted for Trump, 30.6 % voted for Harris, 38% did not vote. Trump won the same…
The Nation PodcastsDecolonization as Advocacy, Pt. 1 w/ Lydia Walker | American Prestige
On this episode of American Prestige, we speak with Lydia Walker, historian at Ohio State University, about her book States-in-Waiting: A Counternarrative of…
The Nation PodcastsGaza Ceasefire, Yoon Arrested, & Farewell to Biden | American Prestige
On this week's news roundup from American Prestige: the terms and concerns of the Gaza ceasefire (0:30); Lebanon elects new PM Nawaf Salam (8:02); worries…
The Nation PodcastsHow to See Tech Like a Luddite w/ Jathan Sadowski | Tech Won't Save Us
On this episode of Tech Won't Save Us, Paris Marx is joined by Jathan Sadowski to discuss the relationship between technology and capitalism, and what lessons…
The Nation PodcastsThe DNC v. Trump, plus Solidarity v. Trump | Start Making Sense
As we prepare for Trump to take office next week, we're getting ready to challenge him and his people in the upcoming elections later this year. But before…
The Nation PodcastsIsraeli Domestic Politics w/ Udi Greenberg | American Prestige
On this episode of American Prestige, Udi Greenberg, associate professor of history at Dartmouth, is back on the podcast to talk about the state of politics…
The Nation PodcastsJustin Trudeau’s Exit and Canada’s Rocky Future in the Trump Era | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
On this episode of The Time of Monsters, Jeet Heer and Nora Loreto on how political disarray in Canada’s political elite in the face of MAGA taunting…
The Nation PodcastsLebanon Elects a President, Afghanistan and Pakistan Skirmish at the Border, and Trump Embraces Imperialism | American Prestige
On this episode of American Prestige, Danny and Derek return to the newsroom for the first time in 2025! This week for our news roundup: the transition process…
The Nation PodcastsWhat Netflix Has Done to Movies w/ Will Tavlin | Tech Won’t Save Us
On this episode of Tech Won’t Save Us, Paris Marx is joined by Will Tavlin to discuss how the Netflix model transformed film into the Typical Netflix Movie and…
The Nation PodcastsDefending the Undocumented, plus Uncovering Hidden Wealth | Start Making Sense
On this episode of Start Making Sense: Trump’s ‘dictatorship on day one’ will feature executive orders to deport undocumented residents. Ahilan Arulanantham…
The Nation PodcastsY2K: The Future That Never Was w/ Colette Shade | American Prestige
On this episode of American Prestige, Danny and Derek speak with Colette Shade, who just released her debut collection of essays Y2K: How the 2000s Became…
The Nation PodcastsThe Paranoid Style of David Samuels | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
On this episode of The Time of Monsters, David Klion and Matt Duss on a popular right-wing fabulist. Has former president Barack Obama secretly been running…
The Nation PodcastsThe Dylan Movie, plus the Trump Books | Start Making Sense
The endlessly elusive Bob Dylan seems an unlikely candidate for a Hollywood biopic. John Powers, Critic-at-Large on NPR’s “Fresh Air,” talks about how the new…
The Nation PodcastsBob Dylan's Xmas Album | Start Making Sense
Bob Dylan fans have been puzzled and troubled by his Christmas album ever since he released it in 2009. To help figure out what Dylan was doing, we turn to…
The Nation PodcastsRussian General Assassination, Turkey-SDF Tensions, Israel in Syria | American Prestige
On this episode of American Prestige, our last news roundup before the holidays —but stay tuned for other fun AP programming! This week: in Palestine-Israel…
The Nation PodcastsWorking Class Wins, plus Hot Rod Racing | Start Making Sense
Hotel and restaurant workers in Los Angeles won a $30 minimum wage last week, Disneyland workers are getting $233 million in back pay, and Wisconsin public…
The Nation PodcastsThe Financialization of Modern Media w/ Andrew deWaard | American Prestige
On this episode of American Prestige, Danny speaks with Andrew deWaard, assistant professor of media and popular culture at UC San Diego, about his book…
The Nation PodcastsHottest Year on Record, Syria's Transition, Yoon Weathers Impeachment | American Prestige
On this week's American Prestige news roundup: 2024 is officially the hottest year on record (0:57), particularly because the Arctic is no longer a carbon…
The Nation PodcastsHow Data Is Changing Air Travel w/ Amanda Mull | Tech Won’t Save Us
On this episode of Tech Won’t Save Us, Paris Marx is joined by Amanda Mull to discuss the data-informed decisions that are changing the way we all experience…
The Nation PodcastsWhy Kamala Lost, plus Trump Family Activities | Start Making Sense
Kamala Harris lost not because Democratic voters switched to Trump, Steve Phillips shows, but because of a massive failure of the Democrats to turn out their…
The Nation PodcastsUS Sanctions as Economic Warfare w/ Jeff Stein | American Prestige
On this episode of American Prestige, Danny and Derek speak with Jeff Stein, White House economics reporter for The Washington Post, about his series on US…
The Nation PodcastsMatthew Yglesias and the Problems of Popularism | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
Matthew Yglesias, a very influential journalist and proprietor of the Slow Boring substack, has emerged as a divisive figure within the Democratic party. To…
The Nation PodcastsShould Australia Ban Teens from Social Media? w/ Cam Wilson | Tech Won't Save Us
On this episode of Tech Won't Save Us, host Paris Marx is joined by Cam Wilson to discuss Australia’s plan to ban under-16s from social media, the interests…
The Nation PodcastsWhat Can Stop Trump, plus Project 2025--the Dumb Parts | Start Making Sense
“Our worst enemy right now is not Trump himself, but fatalism about our ability to stop him.” That’s what David Cole says – he recently stepped down as…
The Nation PodcastsDrugs in America, Pt. 1 w/ Ben Fong | American Prestige
On this episode of American Prestige, hosts Derek Davison and Daniel Bessner are joined by Ben Fong of Arizona State University for a two-part discussion of…
The Nation PodcastsFactchecking Won’t Save Democracy | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
For this week's edition of The Time of Monsters podcast, we're posting a talk that host Jeet Heer gave at Carleton University earlier this November on how the…
The Nation PodcastsNuclear Won’t Meet Tech’s Energy Demands w/ MV Ramana | Tech Won't Save Us
On this episode of Tech Won't Save Us, Paris Marx is joined by MV Ramana to discuss the tech industry’s push to have nuclear energy power its data centers and…
The Nation PodcastsExploiting Trump’s Weaknesses; plus Mass Deportation in US History | Start Making Sense
Matt Gaetz dropping out as Attorney General nominee was a major setback for Trump, which exposes his vulnerabilities and weaknesses. Harold Meyerson reports on…
The Nation PodcastsMass Politics, the Economy, and the US Election w/ Anton Jäger | American Prestige
On this episode of American Prestige, Anton Jäger, historian of political thought, returns to the program to speak with Danny about "the big picture"…
The Nation PodcastsDon’t Believe the Election Myths | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
On this episode of The Time of Monsters, Jeet Heer is joined by Branko Marcetic to discuss media narratives that misrepresent what happened. Advertising…
The Nation PodcastsBiden Green-Lights US Weapons Against Russia, ICC Issues Warrants for Israeli Leadership, Leftist Victory in Sri Lanka | American Prestige
On this week's American prestige world news roundup: One more news episode before us Yankees have a holiday. Note: Although we will not have a news roundup…
The Nation PodcastsThe Forgotten Story of How Conservatives Shaped the Internet w/ Becca Lewis | Tech Won't Save Us
On this episode of Tech Won't Save Us, Paris Marx is joined by Becca Lewis to discuss the right-wing project to shape the internet in the 1990s and how we’re…
The Nation PodcastsTrump Voters for Abortion; and Learning from John Lewis | Start Making Sense
A lot of people who voted for abortion rights referenda this year also voted for Trump. What were they thinking? How do they understand politics? Amy…
The Nation PodcastsThe First Barbary War and America on the Global Stage | American Prestige
On this episode of American Prestige, Abby Mullen, assistant professor at the US Naval Academy, joins the program to talk about her book To Fix a National…
The Nation PodcastsUN Petrol State Climate Summit, Israel Ready to Annex Palestinian Territories, Japanese PM Remains in Power | American Prestige
On this episode of American Prestige, your weekly news roundup. This week: struggles at the UN COP29 climate change conference (1:48), not the least of which…