Diane Rehm: On My Mind

Diane Rehm started her career at WAMU 52 years ago as a volunteer.  In 1979, she began hosting WAMU's local morning talk show, Kaleidoscope, which was renamed The Diane Rehm Show in 1984. The Diane Rehm Show grew from a local program to one with international reach and a weekly on-air audience of nearly 3 million. In 2016, Diane decided to step away from daily live radio, and brought her unique mix of curiosity, honesty, intimacy and four decades of hosting experience to the podcast world with On My Mind.In 2020, during the heart of the pandemic, Diane launched a new project to help engage an audience stuck at home. The Diane Rehm Book Club met monthly on Zoom and featured panel discussions, as well as author interviews. Guests included Ann Patchett, Isabel Wilkerson, Anthony Doerr and Isabel Allende.  Now, she takes the microphone one last time at WAMU to say farewell.You can find an archive of interviews from The Diane Rehm Show and On My Mind at dianerehm.org. You can find an archive of book club discussions on Diane's YouTube channel.

This is Diane's final episode of On My Mind. She will be moving on from WAMU on May 2, after more than 50 years at the station. So, who better to have as her guest for this last interview than Susan Page? Susan Page and Diane have both traced the comings and goings of Washington for decades, Page at USA Today, Diane in public radio. And they often had the good fortune of sitting down together to talk about politics, and more importantly, what the actions of our government mean to you, the public. Diane says she can't think of another time in the history of this country when those types of conversations that lay out facts and seek truth meant more than they do today. Susan Page joins Diane as she bids farewell to public radio to talk about the first hundred days of the Trump presidency – and what to expect from the next hundred. 

Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin was first elected to the House in 2016, just as Donald Trump ascended to the presidency for the first time.Since then, few Democrats have worked as aggressively to hold the president accountable for what he sees as violations of law and constitutional order. Raskin led the second impeachment trial of President Trump for his actions on January 6th and now acts as the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. When elected to the position in December, Raskin vowed to use what power he had to “advance the legislation, amendments and arguments that will block a further descent into MAGA chaos.” Though he acknowledges the criticism from many Democratic voters that the party seemed stunned into silence during early days of Trump's second term, he tells Diane, “It's not like that anymore, nobody is asleep now!”On this week's episode of On My Mind, Diane speaks with Rep. Raskin about Trump's defiance of court orders, DOGE's access to private data and the Democratic response.

Can the courts act as a check on the Trump administration's power? Though this question is not new, it has taken on an urgency as the case of a Maryland man accidentally deported to a prison in El Salvador has highlighted the White House's increasingly combative stance towards the judiciary. This week Trump's team appeared to flout a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court that said the government must “facilitate” Kilmer Abrego Garcia's return to the U.S. Days later, a federal court judge threatened to hold the government in contempt for “doing nothing.”“This country was built on checks and balances,” says Joan Biskupic, chief Supreme Court analyst for CNN and author of several book about our judicial system, including Nine Black Robes. “If we don't have checks on what a very powerful executive branch is doing right now,” she warns, “we don't have the same democracy we had.” Biskupic joins Diane to talk about what might come next in the legal showdown over the administration's recent deportations and what it means for the legitimacy of the courts. 

President Trump announced yesterday he is delaying the reciprocal tariffs he had imposed on dozens of countries for 90 days. But, he said, he is ratcheting up pressure on China, which he has accused of ripping off the United States for decades. This came a week after “Liberation Day,” when Trump declared a national emergency to pave the way for the most sweeping trade duties since 1910. This move had sent global markets into a tailspin and unleashed a flood of concern from the business community. Though Trump's announcement caused an initial recovery on Wall Street, Jeff Stein warns that it might not last. Stein is the White House economics reporter at The Washington Post.  He warns, “We could still very well still be flirting with a recession, we could be flirting with permanent damage to our relationship with our allies, to our credibility to get things done on the world stage.”Stein joins Diane to explain what all this chaos means for global trade, the U.S. economy and what could happen next. 

Johnson and Johnson was founded in the late 1800s and grew into one of the most trusted brands in America for its baby powder, Tylenol, Band-Aids, then cutting edge pharmaceuticals. Today, the company is worth more than $380 billion.But behind the success, says investigative journalist Gardiner Harris, lies a wake of deceitful and dangerous corporate practices that have threatened the lives of millions.“These guys are incredibly intimidating,” he says of the company. “And when they don't succeed in buying you off, which is what they have done over the decades for  doctors, journalists and lawyers, they sue.”Harris is a former pharmaceutical reporter for The New York Times. He has spent decades looking into the long history of lies, cover-ups and malfeasance of Johnson and Johnson. He joins Diane to talk about his new book, No More Tears. 

The pressure campaigns of the Trump administration are beginning to bear fruit. Last week saw two major institutions acquiesce to the president's demands after actions taken by the White House threatened to undermine their budgets, workforce and, in some cases, ability to perform core business. The first was Paul Weiss, a major law firm that some accuse of trading pro bono work on behalf of Trump causes to maintain business ties to federal agencies. The second was Columbia University, which agreed to terms laid out by the government in exchange for the restoration of funding that had been slashed earlier this month. Hailed as victories by Donald Trump, Isaac Stanley-Becker, staff writer at The Atlantic, says these are just two of the highest profile examples of the ways the president has learned to wield fear as a political tool.While Donald Trump has always used scare tactics in his exercise of power, Stanley-Becker explains, what we are seeing now is different from his first term, marked by name-calling and social media bullying. “What I think is especially significant,” says Stanley-Becker, “is the use of government assets and government resources -- and denying those as a bargaining chip to bring these institutions to heel.”Stanley-Becker joins Diane to talk about his recent piece for The Atlantic, “The United States of Fear.” 

Nearly 7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease. By 2050, this number is projected to rise to nearly 13 million. For years, research into the disease remained underfunded -- and patients who received a diagnosis had few options when it came to treatment. But in recent years, that has begun to change. “There are exciting developments in the research field at each stage of our lives that affect the strength of our brain and the ability of the brain to resist brain challenges,” says George Vradenburg.Vradenburg is chairman of the non-profit UsAgainstAlzheimer's, which he co-founded in 2010 with his late wife, Trish. He joins Diane for a conversation about his hopes and fears for Alzheimer's research, and how the Trump administration could change those. 

Donald Trump's love-hate relationship with the news media was on full display throughout his first term. He screamed “fake news” at negative coverage and labeled journalists the “enemy of the people.” But lately, he has taken his campaign beyond the court of public opinion, filing lawsuits against ABC, CBS, The Des Moines Register, and the Pulitzer Board.David Enrich is the business investigations editor for the New York Times. He says Trump's legal actions are part of a broader conservative movement to undermine First Amendment protections for the press. The effort is being led, he says, by politicians, billionaires and corporations – and may soon make its way to the Supreme Court. He joins Diane tells the story in new book, “Murder the Truth.”

In the weeks preceding President Trump's address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night, the administration was busy – taking an axe to federal agencies, imposing tariffs on neighboring countries, and reversing course on U.S. support for Ukraine. But we heard little about these issues from the president in this speech. What the president did do was tick off a list of accomplishments, including money saved through contracts cancelled and fraud exposed – many of these examples exaggerated or simply untrue. Norman Ornstein is a political scientist and co-author of several books on our politics, including the 2012 New York Times bestseller It's Even Worse Than It Looks. He says that many Trump voters couldn't see the ways that government impacted their lives. But, he adds, “If Trump succeeds as he's already doing in disrupting so many of these areas, Americans are going to be jolted.”Norman Ornstein joins Diane on today's episode of On My Mind to offer his take on what he sees coming and the Democrats' response. 

On February 7, billionaire Elon Musk posted a message on his social media platform X: “CFPB RIP,” along with a tombstone emoji.In the days that followed, the workings of the government's financial industry watchdog created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis essentially ground to a halt. More than a hundred and fifty employees were let go, with more layoffs expected. Donald Trump has explicitly said he wants to get rid of the agency. And when you try to access the CFPB's website, you get an error message. So, can the Trump administration actually kill the CFPB? Mallory SoRelle says no. SoRelle is an assistant professor of public policy at Duke University and author of “Democracy Declined: The Failed Politics of Consumer Financial Protection.” She explains that only Congress can shutter the agency. But, she adds, the actions the Trump administration have taken so far are “fundamentally shifting the playing field in favor of the financial industry and away from consumer protection.”SoRelle joins Diane on this week's episode of On My Mind to talk about the history of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and what would happen if it went away. 

First it hit poultry farms, forcing farmers to cull millions of hens.  Egg prices jumped, and some grocery stores began to ration the number of cartons per customer. Next infections spread to dairy cows, stoking fears of a wider outbreak. Now, avian influenza has been detected in domesticated cats, and humans, with about seventy confirmed cases in in the U.S. Lena Sun is a staff writer for the Washington Post who covers public health and infectious disease. She's been tracking the spread of bird flu over the last few years and says the experts she talks to are worried. “If the country doesn't do more to get a handle on how the virus is spreading,” she says, “it will be harder and harder to figure out ways to contain it.”Lena Sun joins Diane on this week's episode of On My Mind. 

Earlier this month Donald Trump stood next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and announced that the United States would take over Gaza. The Palestinians who live there, he explained, would be sent to Jordan and Egypt. He went on to describe a vision of the war-torn land being transformed into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” Since then, Trump has stood by his comments about the U.S. taking ownership of Gaza, much to the shock of leaders around the world, and even those in his own party. And it comes at a time when the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel is at risk of falling apart.Aaron David Miller is a former State Department Middle East analyst and negotiator and a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He says Trump's proposal doesn't need to be implemented to have an effect. “The idea alone has already undermined the Israel-Hamas agreement.”Miller joins Diane on this week's episode of On My Mind. 

Elon Musk and his team at DOGE have moved at a remarkable pace over the last two weeks, bringing slash and burn tactics to the federal government. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has signed more than fifty executive orders, the most in a president's first hundred days in more than forty years. With Republicans holding power in both chambers of congress, there are seemingly few checks on the administration's actions – even as questions remain about how lawful they are.“The one venue that remains is the courts,” says Naftali Bendavid, senior national political correspondent for the Washington Post. He points out that we have already seen Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship put on hold, and Thursday afternoon a federal judge postponed the deadline for federal workers to take the administration's “buyout” offer. Naftali Bendavid joins Diane on this week's episode of On My Mind to talk about this week's news and the resistance that is taking shape to counter the powers of the president. 

It has been ten days since Donald Trump was inaugurated for his second term as president. Since then, he has signed a flurry of executive orders, pardoned every January 6th defendant, pushed through controversial cabinet picks, and made moves to completely reshape the federal workforce. And by most accounts, the Democratic response has been ... tepid.“Donald Trump is charting new ground for a president,” says Susan Glasser, staff writer at The New Yorker. “He is daring opponents: 'Come and get me!'"So far, Glasser adds, nobody has taken him up on the dare. But this week's federal funding debacle might have changed the equation and given Democrats an opening.Glasser is also co-author of a book about Trump's first four years in the White House titled The Divider, and says he seems poised to take advantage of this opportunity for a do-over. She joins Diane to talk about what we've seen from the new administration so far and what, if anything, Democrats can do to put a check on his power. 

Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde delivered a sermon at the National Cathedral on Tuesday in honor of Donald Trump's inauguration. She ended with a direct address to the president.“Let me make one final plea, ” she said. “In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.”She went on to mention gay, lesbian and transgender children “in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives.” She talked about families in the country without documentation who are terrified of being torn apart. In response, the president demanded an apology, claiming Budde brought politics into the church. But Bishop Budde says she stands by her words, and that reminding the country of our shared humanity is part of her duty as a member of the clergy.Bishop Budde is Diane's faith leader, and she joins her today to explain why she felt she had to speak up and why she feels no need to apologize.

What's behind Donald Trump's obsession with Greenland? Most of the island is covered in ice, less than sixty thousand people live there and, until recently, it was best known for snowy photos of polar bears. But climate change has changed the equation and thrust the island into the middle of global politics. Donald Trump has repeatedly said he'd like to buy the territory, and last week at a news conference he said that taking military action to acquire it was not off the table. Sherri Goodman is secretary general of the International Military Council on Climate and Security. She is also a senior fellow at the Wilson Center and author of a new book, “Threat Multiplier: Climate, Military Leadership, and the Fight for Global Security.” 

For the last year The Wall Street Journal has been investigating the Medicare Advantage program. It was originally created to make healthcare for seniors and the disabled more efficient. The idea was to outsource insurance to private companies to save taxpayer dollars -- and avoid providers gaming the system as they had in the traditional Medicare program.“Some of those good intentions did not foresee how companies would respond to the financial incentives that had been created,” says Christopher Weaver, one of the Journal reporters who looked at the issue. He says companies have bilked the system for billions of dollars using tactics like over diagnosing patients. Christopher Weaver joins Diane on this episode of On My Mind to share the results of his investigation – and discuss the future of the Medicare Advantage program.For more on The Wall Street Journal's series on the Medicare Advantage program: https://www.wsj.com/news/author/christopher-weaver

A note from Diane: Over the years I had the chance to interview President Jimmy Carter more than 10 times. We talked about his faith, his rural childhood, his triumphs and challenges as president, and his work as a global humanitarian after his years in the White House.He was always kind, warm, gracious and thoughtful. But what made him such an interesting person to talk to was that he never stopped learning, never stopped evolving. You could see this in how he approached the issues he cared about: housing and homelessness, the peace process in the Middle East, and international health, to name a few.Now, as we look back on his legacy, I wanted to share excerpts of our conversations with you.You can find many of Diane's conversations with President Carter in their entirety here: https://wamu.org/series/diane-rehm-in-conversation-with-president-carter-through-the-years/

January 20 will mark the end of the presidency of Joe Biden. Biden came into office as the man who stopped Donald Trump, with promises of serving one term then passing the torch to the next generation. His administration led the country out of the Covid crisis and included some blockbuster legislative successes, as well as a great deal of partisan gridlock. But it might be his decision to run again that will come to define his legacy.“He decided to seek a second term and that proved a perilous decision,” says Susan Page, Washington bureau chief at USA Today, pointing out that many Democrats blame him for Trump's victory in November. And yet, she tells Diane on today's episode of On My Mind, she considers Joe Biden to be a transformative president whose accomplishments could be felt for decades to come. 

Thousands of years ago humans learned to control the power of water – and civilization was born. Now, in a new book, Jeremy Rifkin argues climate change has shifted that equation, and water is once again controlling us – with floods, droughts, hurricanes and typhoons. “The waters are rebelling,” he says. “They are literally taking down the infrastructure of our civilization in real time.”Rifkin is the author of more than 20 books about the influence of scientific and technological changes on the economy, the workforce, and the environment. He has advised governments around the globe on how to adapt economies and infrastructure to a changing world. He joins Diane to talk about his new book, “Planet Aqua,” a plea to radically rethink our relationship to water and its impact on our future.

Earlier this week Diane hosted a special edition of The Diane Rehm Book Club, her monthly series held on ZOOM in front of a live audience. This month she asked some of her favorite book lovers to join her to talk about their favorite reads of year. And they did not disappoint. Her guests were Ann Patchett, novelist and owner of Parnassus Books, Eddie Glaude Jr., professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and author of several books on race and politics, and Maureen Corrigan, book critic on NPR's Fresh Air. She also teaches literary criticism at Georgetown University. See below for a list of each guest's top books of the year, along with all of the titles discussed during this conversation. Maureen Corrigan's top books of 2024: “James” by Percival Everett “Colored Television” by Danzy Senna “Long Island” by Colm Tóibín “Tell Me Everything” by Elizabeth Strout “Martyr!” by Kaveh Akbar “Creation Lake” by Rachel Kushner “Cahokia Jazz” by Francis Spufford “The God of the Woods” by Liz Moore “A Wilder Shore” by Camille Peri “The Letters of Emily Dickinson” edited by Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell Ann Patchett's top books of 2024: “James” by Percival Everett “Martyr!” by Kaveh Akbar “Colored Television” by Danzy Senna “Sipsworth” by Simon Van Booy “Tell Me Everything” by Elizabeth Strout “Mighty Red” by Louise Erdrich “Time of the Child” by Niall Williams “An Unfinished Love Story” by Doris Kearns Goodwin “The Backyard Bird Chronicles” by Amy Tan “Hotel Balzaar” by Kate DiCamillo (middle grade book)  “Water, Water: Poems” by Billy Collins Eddie Glaude Jr.'s top books of 2024: “Slaveroad” by John Edgar Wideman “Recognizing the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative” by Isabella Hammad  “We're Alone” by Edwidge Danticat Other titles mentioned in the discussion: “Wide Sargasso Sea” with introduction by Edwidge Danticat “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver “The Dog Who Followed the Moon: An Inspirational Story with Meditations on Life, Experience the Power of Love and Sacrifice” by James Norbury “Afterlives” by Abdulrazak Gurnah “Someone Knows My Name” by Lawrence Hill “Moon Tiger” by Penelope Lively “Sandwich” by Catherine Newman “Windward Heights” by Maryse Condé “There's Always This Year” by Hanif Abdurraqib “Mothers and Sons” by Adam Haslett (publication date in January 2025) “Memorial Day” by Geraldine Brooks (publication date in February 2025) “33 Place Brugmann” by Alice Austen (publication date in March 2025) “Cloud Atlas” by David Mitchell “Independent People” by Halldor Laxness “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald “Beloved” by Toni Morrison “Sing, Unburied, Sing” by Jesmyn WardTo find out more about The Diane Rehm Book Club go to dianerehm.org/bookclub.

Donald Trump has tapped Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.They say they will cut one third of the federal budget, slash regulations, reduce the federal workforce ... and that it “will be easy!”David Fahrenthold is an investigative reporter at The New York Times and has covered government spending for years. He says there are certainly places where government can run more efficiently, and where waste and fraud can be eliminated. However, he adds, “It's really hard to find places where you can cut a trillion or 2 trillion dollars and not drastically cut back the services people expect from the government. Fahrenthold joins Diane to talk about what the leaders of DOGE have in mind andwhat it will take to accomplish their goals. 

For years experts have warned about a looming crisis facing the Social Security system. According to current estimates, the program will become insolvent by 2034, at which time benefits would be automatically cut.  During the campaign, President-elect Trump positioned himself as an advocate of the program, which remains highly popular among voters. But economist Teresa Ghilarducci says that if you dig into his proposals, a different picture emerges. A recent analysis shows his policies would move up the date of insolvency from 11 years to 9 years. “It's kind of a shocker,” she says. “He's very bold in his policies.”Teresa Ghilarducci is a professor of economics at The New School and author of the new book "Work, Retire, Repeat: The Uncertainty of Retirement in the New Economy.” She joins Diane to explain the urgency of addressing Social Security's finances and why Trump's proposals would make the situation worse.

For years, legendary folk singer Joan Baez wrote poems and tucked them away in notebooks and on scraps of paper. She started this decades ago, around the time memories surfaced of childhood abuse at the hands of her father. Baez says poetry was a way to explore the reasons behind her lifelong phobias, insomnia and panic attacks – and to come to terms with a diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder, which for her meant she lived with several other voices in her head. Now 83, Baez has taken these musings about her life, her trauma, and her passions for nature and art, and is sharing them with the world. “When You See My Mother, Ask Her to Dance” reads like a diary in verse, and offers deep insight into the experiences and creativity of one of our nation's most beloved folk musicians.Diane spoke to Joan Baez on Zoom in front of a live audience as part of The Diane Rehm `Book Club in August of this year. They talked about the book, as well as the recent documentary about Baez's life, “Joan Baez: I Am a Noise.”Find out more about The Diane Rehm Book Club here: dianerehm.org/bookclub

Donald Trump has tapped Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services. It's an appointment that has many public health experts more than a little concerned. For years Kennedy has spread misinformation about vaccines, calling into question their safety and efficacy. He has promoted controversial or debunked medical treatments. He has falsely linked antidepressants to school shootings. And he has accused the federal agencies he will oversee as having an interest in “mass poisoning the American public.” Dr. Céline Gounder is an infectious disease specialist, epidemiologist and currently the editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News. She joins Diane to separate the facts from falsehoods and outline just how much power Kennedy might have over our healthcare system. 

Promises of mass deportations were a centerpiece of Donald Trump's campaign. His fiery – and false -- rhetoric painted undocumented immigrants as murders, rapists and other violent criminals. He vowed to throw them out of the country by the millions starting on day one. Last week's appointment of Tom Homan as “border czar” and Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff for policy send a clear signal that Trump hopes to follow through on those promises. “I think we can expect that something dramatic is likely coming,” says Nick Miroff. He covers immigration enforcement and the department of homeland security for The Washington Post. Miroff joins Diane to explain whether Trump can put his words into action and just how much his policies could transform the nation's immigration system.

During the run up to the election, Donald Trump made big promises about immigration, about the economy, about remaking the bureaucracy of the United States government. And now it seems he will get a chance to follow through on those promises. “This is a much broader rejection than a rejection of Biden and by extension Harris,” says Norman Ornstein, emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. “It is a rejection of a larger sense of who has been running the country, all the elites.”Few know the workings of the U.S. government as well as Ornstein and though he says “the elites” (himself included) have much to learn from the extent of Trump's victory, he warns that people might not understand what they have gotten themselves into. “For a lot of Americans who think that you can get rid of the bureaucracy, get rid of government and all will be fine," he say Ornstein, "they're going to discover what it does in terms of disruption to their daily lives.” Ornstein joins Diane to make sense of what we saw on Tuesday – and what a Trump second term will look like. 

The term “fascist” has been lobbed at Donald Trump since he entered the race for president in 2015 with talk of Mexican rapists and drug dealers. Now the label has become central to the argument against Trump in the closing days of this year's election. It's been used to describe him by his former chief of staff John Kelly, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley and Vice President Kamala Harris. Jason Stanley is a philosophy professor at Yale University. He's the author of the 2018 book How Fascism Works. His latest is Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future. He joins Diane to talk about what fascism is and why voters should care. 

Four years ago, Donald Trump spread the lie that Democrats stole the election.  He filed lawsuits, led protests and spearheaded misinformation campaigns in an attempt to overturn the result. Since then, Trump and his allies have been laying the groundwork to question this year's contest if the numbers don't go his way. In other words, a Stop the Steal 2.0. “I'm nervous,” says Rick Hasen, a leading expert on election law and director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA. “But I'm not as nervous as I was in 2020.” Hasen says the chaos created by Trump's Big Lie taught the country's lawmakers and election officials valuable lessons about how to secure the vote. He joins Diane to explain why he feels this year's election will, indeed, be free and fair. 

Does Kamala Harris have a Black voter problem? For nearly four decades Black voters have been among the most consistent voting bloc for Democrats. Yet recent polling suggests that support may not be quite as reliable as it was in the past, particularly among Black men. This week Harris made a push to stop the bleeding, talking to Black radio hosts and announcing policy proposals directly targeting the Black community.“The path to victory for the Harris campaign has always been boosting turnout among base voters,” says Maya King, politics reporter with the New York Times. And because the race for president is so close, she adds, “if she's underperforming with any corner of that bloc it is sort of an emergency situation.” Maya King joins Diane to talk about Harris's current focus on Black voters and whether it will work.  

It's been thirty years since Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act. This set of laws revolutionized the way we think about – and deal with – abuse between intimate partners. While advocates celebrate progress made, they worry we might be starting to head in the wrong direction. A recent study showed reduced access to reproductive care can increase risk for women in abusive relationships. Meanwhile, conservatives like vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance have spoken out against no-fault divorce, a proven tool for women to leave potentially dangerous marriages. Rachel Louise Snyder is a journalist who has covered the issue of domestic violence for years. Her 2019 book “No Visible Bruises” looked at the question of when abuse becomes not just dangerous, but deadly. Snyder joins Diane to take stock of progress made over the last three decades to address intimate partner violence, and the work left to do. 

Dr. Francis Collins has dedicated his life to easing human suffering – and has often succeeded. He made his mark as the man who led the team that mapped the human genome, unlocking a new world of possibilities in medicine. He went on to head the National Institutes of Health under three different presidents. Collins says he was always guided by an optimism based in his belief in science and his evangelical Christian faith.But that optimistic view of society was shaken during the Covid-19 crisis as he saw people reject a lifesaving vaccine based on profound mistrust. Since then, Collins has embarked on a journey to understand how our divisions became so deep – and how we can bridge them. His new book is titled The Road To Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, And Trust.

The Louisiana gubernatorial election of 1872 might not take up prime real estate in most U.S. history books, but it holds the title as the deadliest the country has ever seen. In the late 1860s, a new South was emerging from the wreckage of the Civil War. The passage of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments promised an era of multiracial equality in the region. As the 1870s began, white Southern resistance was on the rise and the nation's political parties became deeply divided. Then came the election of 1872. Though tensions flared throughout the South, in Louisiana chaos ensued – two governors claimed office, warfare broke out in the streets of New Orleans, and hundreds were killed in political violence. Dana Bash, CNN anchor and chief political commentator, says these events changed the course of politics in our country -- and provide a cautionary tale for today. She and her co-writer David Fisher tell the story in a new book titled “America's Deadliest Election.”

In poll after poll voters say economic issues top their concerns when it comes to this year's vote. They worry about inflation, the price of housing, whether their family can afford the bill at the grocery store. “Americans are going to want to know how each candidate will help them in their personal situations,” says Damian Paletta. He leads The Wall Street Journal's coverage of Washington and says that the economy is strong, but on shaky ground, which has complicated Kamala Harris and Donald Trump's messaging around the economy and issues like inflation and taxes. Paletta joins Diane to look at the economic proposals of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, and break down what they would mean for our country – and your pocketbook. 

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris met on stage for their first, and likely only, debate of the campaign Tuesday night, just a week before early voting kicks off in Pennsylvania, one of the most critical battleground states of the election.Over an hour and a half Harris needled Trump on everything from crowd sizes to getting “fired” by the American people.With each jab the former president seemed to become more enraged, his anger distracting him from his own talking points and allowing Harris to set the agenda.Headlines across the country declared a clear victory for Harris and Trump now says that he will not debate her again. But how much will all this matter at the polls? The New Yorker's Susan Glasser joins Diane to help answer that question.  

Donald Trump began his political career with demands to see Barack Obama's birth certificate, based on the false claim that the he had been born outside of the United States. In other words, a lie. The former president concluded his term in office with an even bigger lie, namely that the 2020 election was rigged. In between, Trump fibbed thousands of times about things big and small. And keeping track of these mistruths and exaggerations were political fact-checkers, journalists whose job it is to call out not only Donald Trump's lies – but the lies all politicians tell. Glenn Kessler has been the chief writer and editor of the Fact Checker column for The Washington Post since 2011. In it he examines the “truth behind the rhetoric.”Kessler joined Diane to talk about how his job has changed since Donald Trump entered politics and the challenges of covering the 2024 presidential election. 

If you're a reader of the New York Times – or a lover of books – you might know about the paper's project this summer counting down the top hundred books of the century so far. Number one on the list? “My Brilliant Friend” by Elena Ferrante. It is the first of four novels that tell the story of the friendship between Lila and Elena, two working class girls growing up in post-World War II Naples. In 2018 HBO adapted the series for television. Diane hosted a discussion of “My Brilliant Friend” as part of her Readers Review series back in 2015 on The Diane Rehm Show. She and her guests dug into the characters, the setting, and the mystery surrounding the author's identity. Diane's guests included Maureen Corrigan, book critic for NPR's Fresh Air, and The Nicky and Jamie Grant Distinguished Professor of the Practice in Literary Criticism at Georgetown University; Louis Bayard Author, "Roosevelt's Beast." His other books include "The Pale Blue Eye," "The School of Night" and "Mr. Timothy," a New York Times Notable Book. He teaches fiction writing at The George Washington University; and Professor of contemporary Italian culture, Georgetown University; author of "The Tigress in the Snow: Motherhood and Literature in Twentieth-Century Italy" and of the novel "Un Paese Di Carta."

Kamala Harris currently leads Donald Trump in national polls by more than 3 percentage points according to the website 538. But if there's one thing that recent elections have taught us, it is that a victory in the popular vote does not guarantee a spot in the oval office. This is, of course, thanks to the Electoral College. In two of the last six elections, more Americans punched their ballots for the eventual losers than the men who went on to claim the presidency. And the same could happen again this year.  “My opinion is that it is a fundamentally unfair system because of the way it erases so many millions of Americans' votes,” says Jesse Wegman, a member of the editorial board of the New York Times.  In 2020 Wegman joined Diane to talk about his book, “Let the People Pick the President,” and made his case for abolishing the Electoral College. With the 2024 election less than 75 days away, we revisit their conversation. 

If you count yourself among the majority of Americans who own at least one pet, you might have noticed that your vet bill is quite a bit bigger than it once was. In fact, over the last decade the cost of pet care has risen by more than 60%.Helaine Olen is a journalist who has written about personal finance and the financial industry for years. In 2020, her aging dog fell ill, and she found herself shelling out big bucks to keep her beloved pup alive. She knew she wasn't the only one who was willing to open her wallet in a big way for her furry friend and started looking into the big business of veterinary care. What she found was an industry going through a major shift, with a flood of private equity investment and corporate consolidation. Olen joins Diane to discuss what she says can be called the era of Big Vet. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci became a household name during the Covid-19 pandemic. To many, he was a hero for his efforts to relay potentially lifesaving information. But he also found himself at the center of conspiracy theories -- and became the target of a vitriolic political backlash. He says of the experience that it was “very painful and tragic to see people make decisions that led to their detriment.”Dr. Fauci served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022. He has advised seven presidents, guiding the nation's response to threats like Zika, Ebola, AIDS, and Anthrax.  His work on a 2003 plan to address the global HIV/AIDS crisis helped save more than twenty-five million lives. Dr. Fauci's new memoir is titled “On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service”.  He joins Diane to talk about his career in public health and share his thoughts on the threats ahead. 

President Biden laid out a series of proposals to change some fundamental aspects of our nation's highest court this week. This included term limits, a code of ethics and a constitutional amendment that would say nobody is above the law. Though the Supreme Court's approval ratings are stuck at historic lows, Republicans said the reforms are “dead on arrival.” Democrats, on the other hand, see this as a winning issue among the American public for this election cycle, and beyond. “I think Biden and the people advising him are playing the long game,” says Harry Litman. Litman is the senior legal affairs columnist at the Los Angeles Times, a former U.S. attorney and deputy assistant attorney general, and host of the podcast “Talking Feds.” He joined Diane to break down Biden's proposed reforms, what impact they would have, and why the president is proposing them now. You can find "Talking Feds" wherever you listen to podcasts or on YouTube. 

For years experts have warned of a wave of politically motivated violence in America. And, some might argue, that threat of violence has become a reality. There were the events of January 6th when one woman was killed, police officers were beaten, and the Vice President Pence's life threatened. There was the foiled kidnapping plot against Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer that ended in multiple convictions. And there was the recent assassination attempt of Donald Trump, when bullets narrowly missed ending the former president's life. “You certainly see by every possible measure that it's worsening,” says Adrienne LaFrance, executive editor of The Atlantic. LaFrance has written extensively about political violence in the U.S. She joins Diane to talk about her new essay titled “American Fury,” in which she asks if the situation will get worse before it gets better. 

The Republican National Convention convention wrapped up last night with a speech from Donald Trump that lasted more than 90 minutes. It capped a week that was heavy on rhetoric, short on specifics. Enter Project 2025. If you haven't heard of it, it's a document created by the conservative Heritage Foundation that lays out a vision for the next Republican president. “Project 2025 has gotten a lot of attention,” says Andrew Prokop, a senior political correspondent at Vox. He notes that Democrats in particular point to it as “a stand in for a lot of Trump's extreme plans for dictatorship.”Though Trump has distanced himself from the document, experts say much – or even most of its proposals will likely be on the agenda for a possible second Trump term. Andrew Prokop joined Diane to talk about the myths and the facts about Project 2025. 

Sheila Johnson is known as the nation's first black female billionaire. She first rose to prominence as the co-founder of Black Entertainment Television, or BET. Since then, she has become a widely recognized business leader, a hotel mogul, and the co-owner of three professional sports teams. But, Johnson says, her triumphs masked deep trauma and pain that she carried for decades. That included fear and self-doubt, an emotionally abusive 33-year marriage, and a severe depression following her divorce. Johnson joined Diane in April at WAMU's Black Box Theater for a special in-person Diane Rehm Book Club Conversation. They talked about her memoir, “Walk Through Fire.” 

Judge David Tatel sat on the bench of the powerful D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals for nearly three decades. Appointed by Bill Clinton, he became a prominent, liberal-leaning voice in the judiciary, widely considered a top candidate for the Supreme Court had Al Gore won the 2000 election. Tatel was known as a brilliant legal mind, whose opinions helped shape laws affecting voting rights, the environment, internet regulations and press freedoms. But he was also known for another reason: he was blind.David Tatel retired from the bench in January. He joins Diane to discuss his new book, "Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice." In it, he opens up about his experience as a blind judge – and his grave concerns about the Supreme Court. 

Last night President Biden and former president Donald Trump took to the debate stage.  Hosted by CNN, the conversation focused more on personal attacks than policy. Throughout the night, Trump rattled off strings of lies that largely went unchecked. Biden, meanwhile, sounded meandering and unsteady, raising questions about his fitness as a candidate.Jamelle Bouie is a columnist for The New York Times who writes about politics, with an eye towards history. He joined Diane on Friday morning to help make sense of what happened last night and what it will mean for the 2024 election. 

Once upon a time television news was dominated by men like Walter Cronkite, Chet HUntley and David Brinkley. Some might call it an old boys club. Today, the sight of a woman in the anchor's chair is commonplace. For this, we can thank Barbara Walters. In 1976 she became the first female host of a network nightly news program – and it did not go well. She was shunned, ridiculed, glared at by her co-anchor and eventually replaced. Instead of giving up, Walters transformed herself, becoming a legendary longform interviewer. She talked to presidents, celebrities and, famously Monica Lewinsky. Walters went on to host ABC's “20/20" for 25 years and “The View” for 17 more. She died two years ago at the age of 93. Journalist Susan Page has long been fascinated by Walters, her drive to succeed, and how she changed our understanding of news. Page wrote about her in the new book, “The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters.”

Almost half the tap water in the United States contains PFAS, also called forever chemicals. This class of compounds never fully break down in nature and have been linked to serious health problems. In April the Environmental Protection Agency required the removal of PFAS from drinking water. Now industry is pushing back. This week a group of chemical and manufacturing companies sued the EPA, saying it overstepped its authority. ProPublica's Sharon Lerner has been reporting on these substances for years. Her latest piece appears in The New Yorker and is titled “How 3M Discovered, then Concealed, the Dangers of Forever Chemicals.” Lerner joins Diane on this episode of On My Mind to talk about the history of PFAS and how they became so ubiquitous.  

After a New York jury found former President Donald Trump guilty of 34 felonies last week, the reactions were swift and vehement. The former president's calls for vengeance became louder. GOP attacks on the justice system became nearly universal, backed by specific threats and proposals. And Democrats seemed to struggle to find a way to respond. Susan Glasser writes a weekly column about life in Washington for The New Yorker, and is co-author of the book, “The Divider,” a best-selling history of Donald Trump in the white house, co-written with her husband, Peter Baker. Susan Glasser joins Diane to talk about what has happened in the presidential race since Trump's verdict and the starkly different worldviews the candidates are offering to the American people. 

In 1939 fascism was on the march around the world and America found itself at a crossroads. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt believed Hitler and the Nazis posed an existential threat to democracy. But the American public, still reeling from the Great Depression, remained wary of getting involved. Fascist sympathizers and powerful right-wing media groups egged on the isolationists. Famed aviator Charles Lindbergh became the voice of this opposition and over the ensuing two years a war of words played out between Lindbergh and Roosevelt. Paul Sparrow, the former director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, tells this story in a new book, “Awakening the Spirit of America.”“Awakening the Spirit” will be released on June 4, 2024.