Shows / Current Affairs
Current Affairs
A podcast of politics and culture, from the editors of Current Affairs magazine.
Episodes
- Current Affairs
Why Students Are Rising Up for Gaza
Today we have a documentary episode examining and analyzing the ongoing pro-Palestine uprisings at campuses around the country. We look at the horrifying facts…
- Current Affairs
The Meaning of "Security" (w/ Astra Taylor)
Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs ! Astra Taylor is a filmmaker, writer, and activist whose latest book is The Age of Insecurity: Coming…
- Current Affairs
A Philosopher Explains Why It's Rational To Be Angry (w/ Myisha Cherry)
Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs ! Myisha Cherry is a philosopher at UC-Riverside whose book The Case for Rage: Why Anger Is Essential to…
- Current Affairs
How is Capitalism Like a Bad Relationship? (w/ Malaika Jabali)
Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs ! Malaika Jabali is Senior News and Politics Editor at Essence magazine. She is also the only previous…
- Current Affairs
How to Spot Corporate Bullshit (w/ Nick Hanauer)
Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs ! Today we take a dive into the world of "corporate bullshit" with Nick Hanauer, who has become an expert…
- Current Affairs
Your Money or Your Life: A Physician on the Miseries of Medical Debt
Get new episodes early at patreon.com/currentaffairs ! Dr. Luke Messac is an emergency physician and historian whose new book is Your Money or Your Life: Debt…
- Current Affairs
How Four Billionaires Are Creating A Horrible Future For All of Us (w/ Jonathan Taplin)
Jonathan Taplin has had a fascinating career, from being a tour manager for Bob Dylan and the Band to a film producer for Martin Scorsese to running the…
- Current Affairs
The Rise and Fall of Crypto Lunacy (w/ Zeke Faux)
Zeke Faux of Bloomberg News is the author of a fascinating and hilarious new book about the crypto world and the collapse of the Sam Bankman-Fried empire…
- Current Affairs
How The Occupation Shapes Everything (w/ Nathan Thrall)
Nathan Thrall, the former Director of the Arab-Israeli Project at the International Crisis Group, is the author of two books on Israel and Palestine: The Only…
- Current Affairs
The Current Israel-Palestine Crisis Was Entirely Avoidable (w/ Jerome Slater)
Political scientist Jerome Slater is the author of one of the best one-volume summaries of the background of the Israel-Palestine conflict, Mythologies Without…
- Current Affairs
Why Wars Happen (w/ Michael Mann)
Michael Mann is a sociologist who has spent his life trying to understand how power works. His latest book, On Wars, surveys the entire history of warfare…
- Current Affairs
A McKinsey Whistleblower on Life Inside The Secretive Consulting Firm
Several years ago, Garrison Lovely wrote an insider account of McKinsey & Co. for Current Affairs. At the time he published using a pseudonym, but he's now…
- Current Affairs
How Big Pharma Makes a Killing From Letting People Die (w/ Nick Dearden)
Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs ! Nick Dearden's Pharmanomics is an essential primer on how the pharmaceutical industry works, taking a…
- Current Affairs
What Makes For a "Strong Town"? (w/ Allison Lirish Dean)
Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs ! Allison Lirish Dean is a journalist and urban planner in North Carolina. She is the author of a recent…
- Current Affairs
How White Supremacist Ideology Made Its Way Into Music Theory (w/ Philip Ewell)
Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs ! Philip Ewell is a professor of music theory and the author of the new book On Music Theory, and Making…
- Current Affairs
Gary Younge's 30-Year Panorama of the African Diaspora
Gary Younge spent three decades as a reporter and columnist for The Guardian, where he became one of the publication's most incisive and widely-read…
- Current Affairs
Why The Cop City Indictment Threatens Everyone's Freedom (w/ Christopher Bruce)
Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs ! Originally aired 9/19/2023 Dozens of protesters in Atlanta have recently been hit with serious charges…
- Current Affairs
Why We Need Utopias (w/ Kristen Ghodsee)
Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs ! Kristen Ghodsee is Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and…
- Current Affairs
ZINNOPHOBIA - Why So Many Still Fear "A People's History of the United States" (w/ David Detmer)
Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs ! David Detmer is the author of the book Zinnophobia: The Battle Over History in Education, Politics, and…
- Current Affairs
Why Do We Have Any Poverty In America When It's Such a Solvable Problem? (w/ Matt Desmond)
Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs ! Matthew Desmond's bestselling book Poverty, By America poses a straightforward question: Why is there…
- Current Affairs
Mini-Cast: Ending Period Poverty Through the "Menstrual Equity for All" Act (w/ Grace Meng)
"I’m pretty sure that some of my colleagues have signed on to my bill because they wanted me to stop talking about periods on the floor of the House." — Grace…
- Current Affairs
There Is No Alternative to Ending Fossil Fuel Use (w/ Lorne Stockman)
Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs ! Lorne Stockman is the research co-director at Oil Change International, which is dedicated to exposing…
- Current Affairs
Why "Climate Optimism" Is Irrational and What Global Climate Justice Requires (w/ Jag Bhalla)
Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs ! Jag Bhalla is a contributor to Current Affairs who has also written for Scientific American and Big…
- Current Affairs
Is Being "Moderate" Actually How Democrats Win? (w/ Alex Bronzini-Vender)
Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs ! Alex Bronzini-Vender has contributed several articles to Current Affairs, about progressive politics in…
- Current Affairs
The Many Layers of Injustice in American Criminal Punishment (w/ Stephen Bright & James Kwak)
Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs ! Today we are joined by Stephen Bright and James Kwak to discuss their new book The Fear of Too Much…
- Current Affairs
Can The Concept of "Philanthropy" Be Saved? (w/ Amy Schiller)
Philanthropy is a problem. Lots of contemporary philanthropy is either useless (Rich people funding new buildings for Harvard) or shouldn't have to happen in…
- Current Affairs
What Would It Take To Have a Democracy? (w/ Thom Hartmann)
Thom Hartmann is America's #1 progressive radio host and the author of the "Hidden History" series of books. His latest, The Hidden History of American…
- Current Affairs
How Did the Idea of Being "Self-Made" Come About? (w/ Tara Isabella Burton)
Tara Isabella Burton is a novelist and the author of the new nonfiction book Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians, a history of…
- Current Affairs
Our Plan to Make It Actually Enjoyable to Read The News
Current Affairs has recently launched a new project: the Current Affairs News Briefing, a twice-weekly digest of important (and often neglected) news stories…
- Current Affairs
The Role of Drugs in American Life (w/ Benjamin Fong)
Benjamin Y. Fong is the associate director of the Center for Work & Democracy at Arizona State University and the author of the new book Quick Fixes: Drugs in…
- Current Affairs
The History of Arab-Jews Can Change Our Understanding of The World (w/ Avi Shlaim)
Avi Shlaim is a distinguished historian and Emeritus Professor of International Relations at Oxford University. He is one of the Israeli "New Historians" whose…
- Current Affairs
A HEATED Encounter with Chris Rufo: Critical Race Theory, The Left, and American History
Originally aired 7/23/2023. Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs ! Today we have another in our Contentious Arguments series, as Nathan clashes…
- Current Affairs
The Dark Side of Fashion (w/ Alyssa Hardy)
Alyssa Hardy is a fashion journalist whose work has turned in recent years to exposing the underbelly of the industry, from the labor conditions of those who…
- Current Affairs
How To Make Schools That Children Actually Enjoy Going To (w/ Lauren Fadiman)
School sucks. But why? And must it? For our print magazine, Lauren Fadiman writes about how radical leftists have historically tried to rethink schooling…
- Current Affairs
How Rupert Murdoch Killed The Only Good Social Media Platform (w/ Michael Tedder)
Perhaps only those between the ages of about 30 and 35 will remember the golden years of MySpace, which dominated social media before Facebook, Twitter, and…
- Current Affairs
How Labor Can Drive a Hard Bargain (w/ Jane McAlevey and Abby Lawlor)
On this program, we have previously discussed the inspiring fight waged by the Amazon Labor Union on Staten Island, and the confrontational tactics that can…
- Current Affairs
Learning From Neglected Novels By 1900s Radicals (w/ the Rickard Sisters)
The Rickard Sisters, Sophie and Scarlett, have produced two wonderful graphic novel adaptations of books by early 20th century radicals. First they made The…
- Current Affairs
Why Minimalism? (w/ Kyle Chayka)
Kyle Chayka is a cultural critic and staff writer for the New Yorker. (Incidentally, he also wrote a piece back in 2017 that covered the early years of Current…
- Current Affairs
Is U.S. Democracy Just Going To Be Dysfunctional Forever? (w/ Benjamin Studebaker)
Benjamin Studebaker's new book The Chronic Crisis of American Democracy: The Way is Shut is a provocative critique of contemporary American politics…
- Current Affairs
What Happens to the Disappointed When Social Movements Fail? (w/ Sara Marcus)
Sara Marcus is the author of Political Disappointment: A Cultural History from Reconstruction to the AIDS Crisis. A lot of studies of social movements look at…
- Current Affairs
The Disaster of Privatizing Everything (w/ Donald Cohen)
You name it, it's been privatized somewhere in the United States. Schools, roads, libraries, courts, prisons, and even the law itself have been outsourced to…
- Current Affairs
The Process of Leaving Jordan Peterson Behind (w/ Benjamin Howard)
Benjamin Howard is a Current Affairs reader who was once a huge fan of Canadian psychologist, pundit, and self-help guru Jordan Peterson. But Howard eventually…
- Current Affairs
How The Super-Rich Really Live (w/ Michael Mechanic)
Michael Mechanic is a senior editor at Mother Jones and the author of Jackpot: How the Super-Rich Really Live—and How Their Wealth Harms Us All. Michael's book…
- Current Affairs
How to Explain Socialism To People Who Aren't Socialists (w/ Danny Katch)
Danny Katch is the author of the most accessible and entertaining existing introduction to socialist ideas, Socialism...Seriously: A Brief Guide To Human…
- Current Affairs
Exposing the Spurious Anti-Semitism Accusations That Helped Bring Down Corbyn (w/ Asa Winstanley)
Asa Winstanley of The Electronic Intifada is the author of the new book Weaponising Anti-Semitism, a bombshell exposé of how the burgeoning socialist movement…
- Current Affairs
Dreaming of a World Without Wells Fargo (w/ Terri Friedline)
Terri Friedline is an associate professor of Social Work at the University of Michigan. She's also a contributor to Current Affairs, where she published one of…
- Current Affairs
How "Influencing" Became an Industry (w/ Emily Hund)
Emily Hund is the author of The Influencer Industry: The Quest for Authenticity on Social Media. Today she joins to discuss how "influencing" turned from…
- Current Affairs
Why Americans Don't See Or Talk About Their Wars (w/ Norman Solomon)
Today Norman Solomon returns to the program to discuss his new book War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine. Norman is one…
- Current Affairs
What "Economic Freedom" Would Look Like (w/ Mark Paul)
Mark Paul is an economist who argues that there can be no meaningful freedom without economic freedom—by which he does not mean the libertarian idea of the…
- Current Affairs
Can The Love of Menswear Be Justified? (w/ Sam Miller McDonald)
Samuel Miller McDonald is a regular contributor to Current Affairs, where he has written about such disparate subjects as collectivism, the food system, Game…
- Current Affairs
On Musical Plagiarism: The Case of Ed Sheeran vs. Marvin Gaye
Today on the podcast, we dive into the question of what kinds of musical borrowing constitute "influence" versus "plagiarism." In the news at the moment is a…
- Current Affairs
How Socialists Took Over The Cities (w/ Shelton Stromquist)
Today we hear a little-told story, the story of how idealistic socialists around the world, starting around 1890, took over city governments. Prof. Sheldon…
- Current Affairs
Why Does The Law Fail Women So Badly? (w/ Julie Suk)
Julie Suk is a professor of law at Fordham University. Her new book After Misogyny: How the Law Fails Women and What to Do about It is about why the law has…
- Current Affairs
Are "Family Values" The Problem? (w/ Sophie Lewis)
Sophie Lewis is a radical critic of the family. In Lewis's books, Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family and Abolish The Family, she argues that families…
- Current Affairs
Why Our Healthcare System Needs to Do More than Just "Fairly" Distribute Scarce Resources (w/ Lily Sánchez)
Lily Sánchez is the managing editor of Current Affairs, and also a physician. In a new article for the magazine, Lily draws on her experiences practicing…
- Current Affairs
Understanding Reactionary Political Philosophy (w/ Matt McManus)
Today we are joined by political philosopher Matt McManus of the University of Michigan. Matt has contributed to Current Affairs and collaborated with Nathan…
- Current Affairs
Why the Labor Movement Needs to be Creative and Disruptive (w/ Jono Shaffer)
Jono Shaffer is a legendary labor organizer who was instrumental in the Justice for Janitors campaign. J4J successfully unionized Los Angeles janitorial…
- Current Affairs
Can Our Times Even Be Satirized? (w/ Matt Bors and Ben Clarkson)
Ben Clarkson is an illustrator and animator who has produced work for some of the best magazines in the country, including our own Current Affairs. Matt Bors…
- Current Affairs
How The "Big Myth" That Markets Will Solve Everything Was Foisted on the World
Naomi Oreskes is a historian of science at Harvard University. Erik M. Conway works as the historian at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Together they have…
- Current Affairs
How to Win Every Argument (w/ Mehdi Hasan)
Mehdi Hasan, who hosts The Mehdi Hasan Show on MSNBC, is known as one of the most formidable interviewers in journalism. He has tangled with Blackwater's Erik…