Boundary Issues

Passover is a holiday about oppression, liberation, immigration, and the nature of the diaspora. How should we think about it in 2025? Paul talks with Rabbi Yael Ridberg to wrestle with the religious, sociological, and political implications of the holiday more Jews celebrate than any other.

Joe Biden made more policy progress on climate change than any president in history, so it might not have been crazy to think what he accomplished would be difficult to unwind - or that Donald Trump might not put too much effort into it. But if that's what you thought, you were wrong. Paul is joined by Jillian Goodman, deputy editor of Heatmap.news, to examine the damage Trump is doing and consider what makes policy change durable and what makes it vulnerable. The news isn't good.

I talk with Henry Farrell, one of the most trenchant observers of the ground where politics, technology and commerce meet, to explore the intellectual and personal roots of Silicon Valley's right-wing turn. 

Amid the daily horrors emanating from the Trump/Musk White House, you may not have given much thought to the possibility of a rapid, nationwide economic downturn fed by hundreds of thousands of layoffs of federal workers. Jesse Rothstein has, and he has a warning. Rothstein, a UC-Berkeley economist who was a top economic advisor in the Obama administration, says we could see the signs of a new recession in a matter of weeks.

Amid the assault on the American government currently underway from Donald Trump and Elon Musk, we've all asked ourselves this question: Wait, can they do that? To help answer the question, I'm joined by University of Michigan law professor Sam Bagenstos, who until recently was general counsel of the Department of Health and Human Services, and prior to that the general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget. We discuss Donald Trump, Elon Musk, the Supreme Court, and what happens when the party in power decides that obeying the law is optional.

Ayelet and Paul are joined by Talia Lavin, author of Wild Faith: How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America to talk about the origins and spread of Christian nationalism, and how spanking your kids might just turn them into foot soldiers for the next authoritarian takeover.

Earlier this year, Palestinian-American filmmaker Mo Husseini went viral with a Medium post about Israel-Palestine titled 50 Completely True Things. In a discussion that is probing, thoughtful, humane and even hopeful, he joins us to talk about what people on both sides are thinking, what the future might look like, and his new film, The Path Forward, which profiles Israelis and Palestinians who have lost family members in the conflict and have come together to work for peace.

We interview labor reporter Hamilton Nolan, author of The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor about the recent rise in union organizing, the trouble with the big unions, and the bizarre fact that Donald Trump enjoys strong support among union members.

Do you overreact to every poll that comes out, endangering your mental health as the election approaches? Do the words "New York Times/Sienna poll" send you into a cold sweat? We're here to help. Ayelet and Paul talk to Michael Podhorzer, former political director of the AFL-CIO, about what to take - and not to take - from the ups and downs of each day's polls and where the election really stands.

"Kamala is brat!" If you have no idea what that means, you may not be aware that Democrats seem to be winning the war of memes in the 2024 presidential campaign. Why are they doing better at this battle of online signs and signifiers than they have in the past? And does it make a difference? Paul and Ayelet are joined by Amanda Marcotte, senior politics writer at Salon.com and author of  of Troll Nation: How The Right Became Trump-Worshipping Monsters Set On Rat-F*cking Liberals, America, and Truth Itself, and Jennifer Stromer-Galley, professor in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University and author of Presidential Campaigning in the Internet Age, to discuss what's happening in the meme war and what it all means.

Ayelet and Paul unpack Democrats' bright new dawn, with Kamala Harris now their presumptive nominee. Is she a better candidate than she was four years ago? Will Democrats now be united forever? And what's the deal with JD Vance and the childless cat ladies?

Is the president too old to win? Are we mad at him? What happens now? Ayelet and Paul work through their feelings and look toward the bleak future.

Ayelet and Paul are joined by showrunner, screenwriter, comic book writer, and novelist Marc Guggenheim, the man behind shows including Arrow, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, and Tales of Arcadia, to talk about why Hollywood is going down the tubes and everything is terrible for writers!

Ayelet and Paul are joined by Peggy Orenstein to discuss her recent viral New York Times article about young people, sex, and choking. Parents, tune in to get freaked out about what Kids Today are doing!

With so much attention focused on Gaza since October 7, an important story is being ignored: Harassment and violence against Palestinians who live on the West Bank has intensified, as far-right Israeli settlers and the soldiers and police who protect them have felt new permission to mistreat their Palestinian neighbors. Issa Amro, a well-known Palestinian human rights activist and advocate of non-violent resistance, tells Ayelet and Paul about his recent arrest and torture, and what the situation is like today in his home of Hebron.

In this shorter bonus episode, Paul interviews Dominic Erdozain about his new book, One Nation Under Guns: How Gun Culture Distorts Our History and Threatens Our Democracy. We talk about what the Framers really thought about a well-regulated militia, the myth of the "law-abiding citizen," and the rights we all have to live in safety.

Just how bad is the Supreme Court? Can anything be done about it? Ayelet and Paul are joined by Sarah Lipton-Lubet, president of Take Back the Court, to discuss how and why the Supreme Court is doing such damage to the country, why so many Democrats are so cowardly in confronting it, and what the solution might be.

Ayelet and Paul are joined by historian Natalia Mehlman Petrzela for a wide-ranging discussion on masculinity, in both politics and personal lives.

White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy is now on sale! Ayelet and Paul welcome Paul's co-author Tom Schaller to discuss the book: What doing their reporting was like, what's going on with the politics of rural America, and whether democracy can be saved.  

What happened to liberal Zionism? This issue is personal for Ayelet and Paul: Their father was a committed Zionist and socialist who fought in the War of Independence and founded a kibbutz. Reading from letters he wrote home in 1948, they explore the leftist origins of Zionism, its blind spots, and what happened to the dream. With David Myers, professor of Jewish History at UCLA.

Ayelet and Paul are joined by Monica Potts, senior politics reporter at FiveThirtyEight and author of The Forgotten Girls: A Memoir of Friendship and Lost Promise in Rural America. Potts's book tells the story of her childhood in rural Arkansas and how her fate diverged from that of her childhood best friend, who suffered through many of the struggles that are damaging and shortening rural lives today. They discuss how much luck matters in rural communities, what holds women back, and how the image of rural America differs from the reality.

With the war in Gaza still raging, Ayelet and Paul are joined by Avner Gvaryahu, the executive director of Breaking the Silence, an Israeli organization dedicated to exposing the reality of the occupation. Through the testimony of soldiers who have served in the West Bank and Gaza, BtS forces Israelis to confront the ongoing cost of occupation not only to Palestinians but to the Israelis who administer oppressive policies and come home asking what it does to them and their society.

Why are we so attracted to misinformation, oversimplified narratives, and questionable ideas that reinforce our beliefs? When we venture into the online world, what are we communicating about ourselves? Ayelet and Paul discuss these questions with University of Delaware professor Dannagal Goldthwaite Young, author of Wrong: How Media, Politics, and Identity Drive Our Appetite for Misinformation.

Welcome to Boundary Issues! In this brief preview episode, siblings Ayelet and Paul Waldman introduce themselves and discuss their plans for the show.