Start Making Sense

Danny and Derek welcome to the show Alex Zakaras, professor of political science at the University of Vermont, to talk about the history and future of radical liberalism. They discuss liberalism's relationship to republicanism, the American liberal tradition, equal freedom, defensive liberalism after 2016, neoliberalism, Cold War liberalism, socialism, racial hierarchy, labor power, democratic crisis, and whether liberalism can still offer a politics of freedom and equality.Be sure to grab a copy of Alex's book ⁠Freedom for All: What a Liberal Society Could Be⁠.Don't miss our livestream this Wednesday, May 6, at 8 pm ET on ⁠our YouTube channel⁠.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Tara Raghuveer joins us to talk about her work building tenant unions, her belief that tenant unions can be to working-class people in the 21st century what labor unions were in the 20th century, and her faith that, if we have a chance to beat fascism, the chance lives in the tenant union. Tara rocks. Listen to this conversation with her right now.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

King Charles paid his respects at AP HQ, but was put off by Danny's pet ferrets. In this week's news: Iran talks collapse as Trump weighs a blockade and strikes (1:56); the UAE leaves OPEC (7:45); Mali rebels and jihadists seize Kidal (16:49); Derek interviews Alex Thurston about Mali's escalating rebel offensive and the implications for the junta government (18:08); Israel kills civilians and expands evacuation zones in Lebanon (33:43) as the US and Israel demand a Hezbollah disarmament plan from Lebanon (35:25); Israel adds an orange line to its Gaza map (37:08); Afghanistan and Pakistan exchange border fire (38:59); China blocks the sale of AI startup Manus to Meta (40:46); Sudan's Blue Nile faces a humanitarian crisis (44:23); King Charles visits the United States and addresses Congress (46:27); Trump and Putin discuss a Ukraine ceasefire (48:53), plus Ukraine accuses Israel of procuring stolen grain (48:53); and the United States charges Sinaloa Governor Ruben Rocha (52:18).Don't forget to download our latest miniseries Marx Prestige. All episodes out now!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Paris Marx is joined by Brian Merchant to discuss Apple's announcement that Tim Cook is stepping down as CEO, including his history and legacy, and what may be next for the company.Brian Merchant is the author of The One Device and Blood in the Machine and writes a newsletter of the same name.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In this week's political rundown, John Nichols explains why Trump may never succeed at building any of his ICE prison camps, and how this Friday's May Day strike is a test of our power to resist.Also: MOCA's “Monuments” show in LA critiques Confederate monuments that have been taken down in response to protests. Critic Christopher Knight has our evaluation. The show closes Sunday. (Originally broadcast Oct. 31, 2024.)Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Derek speaks with Danny and Mike Brenes about Cold War liberalism, its shaping of the American empire, and more from their new co-edited volume. They discuss the meaning of “Cold War liberalism,” the book's essays, the relationship between liberalism and mass democracy, emergency politics, the continuity between New Deal liberalism and Cold War liberalism, military Keynesianism, US empire, neoconservatism, Joe Biden, and the persistence of Cold War liberal ideas in long after the end of the Cold War itself.Buy the volume Cold War Liberalism: Power in a Time of Emergency and use discount code BESSNER26 Don't forget to download our Marx Prestige miniseries. Final episode out today!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Aaron and Matt are joined by Eric Rauchway, author of Why the New Deal Matters, to discuss America's OG antifascist, FDR. What lessons can we learn from his successes in battling back the threat of American fascism in the 1930s?Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The conflict in the Middle East is currently in an intermittent holding action with an extended ceasefire but no diplomatic breakthrough. To assess where things are going, I sat down with the foreign policy analyst Anusar Farooqui, who runs an excellent substack called Policy Tensor and posts on Twitter here. We discussed the resiliency and growing stature of Iran, as well as the signs that unipolar US hegemony is coming to an end, to be replaced by a multipolar world. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Danny and Derek will livestream from Route 3 as they take to the World Cup on foot. This week's news: in Iran, Trump extends the ceasefire after talks fail (1:02), Iran reimposes its Strait of Hormuz blockade (6:05), the Islamic Republic's leadership rejects unilateral concessions (9:11), and Persian Gulf mines and oil spills threaten commerce (13:13); the UAE seeks a currency swap after the Iran war's economic shocks (16:28); Israel violates the Lebanon ceasefire amid extension talks (18:11) while the IDF punishes soldiers over crucifix desecration (21:00); Gaza's reconstruction costs cause problems, plus governance delays (24:13); the U.S. offers to send Afghan refugees to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (26:33); Japan lifts its lethal arms export ban (28:59); the Sudanese army retakes Moja from the RSF (30:22); the TPLF reasserts control over the Tigray government (32:55); Ukraine reopens the Druzhba pipeline for an EU loan (34:51); CIA deaths expose the United States' role in Mexico drug raids (37:55); and boat strike survivors allege mistreatment in U.S. custody (40:59).Be sure to subscribe to our newest miniseries, Marx Prestige.And check out our series on Christian Zionism with Daniel Hummel. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Paris Marx is joined by Karl Bode to discuss how tech journalists coupled with corporate interests are irresponsibly boosting the profile of tech CEOs, further damaging public trust in institutional journalism and highlighting the need for publicly funded media organizations.Karl Bode is a freelance reporter and writes The Fine Print newsletter.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

We need an AI revolution that works for the people, not just the billionaires. That's Ro Khanna's “AI Manifesto.” He's the member of Congress who represents Silicon Valley, and also a leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. His manifesto is the cover story in The Nation magazine's new issue.Also: Trump's support continues to decline on everything he does, especially the war with Iran. But as he becomes weaker, he becomes more dangerous. Harold Meyerson comments; he's editor-at-large of The American Prospect.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Danny and Derek welcome to the show Oren Ziv to talk about Israeli settlement expansion and political changes in the West Bank. They discuss the legal and political structure of Areas A, B, and C; the proliferation of settler outposts; displacement of Palestinian communities; state support for settlers; Bezalel Smotrich's sovereignty plan; new settlement approvals; the weakening of the Palestinian Authority; and potential future scenarios for the territory.Read Oren's article in The Nation, “Erasing the Lines.”Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

We have, of course, always been experts on Hungary…but just in case we're missing something, we brought on two actual experts. Senior Vox reporter Zack Beauchamp and political scientist Dr. Jennifer McCoy help us understand the rise and—hurray, it finally happened!—fall of Viktor Orban. How did Peter Magyar beat Hungary's longtime authoritarian leader? What lessons does this victory hold for our fight here in the U.S.? And, of course, how much does all of this prove our priors and agenda and nobody else's? If you were excited about the news out of Hungary, you're gonna like this episode.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

As negotiations proceed in ending the Iran War, the question of the relationship between the US and Israel becomes more salient. I spoke with Middle East expert Yousef Munayyer on the agenda of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose interest in a securing his country's hegemony in the region is now in conflict with efforts to end the war.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Subscribe now to get lots of bonus content (and no ads).Danny and Derek are considering attending the Met Gala. In this week's news: Iran talks amble along despite U.S. forces building up in the region (1:55); the U.S. blockade restricts oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz (9:49); Lebanon and Israel declare a 10-day ceasefire (12:23); Hamas meets U.S. officials in Cairo to advance the talks over Gaza (19:37); Iraq's parliament elects Nizar Ahmed as president (21:52); Sudan's war enters its fourth year as Berlin pledges aid (25:21); Libya's rival governments approve a joint national budget (27:20); Hungary's opposition defeats Viktor Orbán in parliamentary elections (30:28); Britain suspends the Chagos handover after Trump objects (33:39); Peru's election continues into a second day and heads to a runoff (36:39); Trump and J.D. Vance feud with Pope Leo over the Iran war (39:39), leading Italian PM Giorgia Meloni to distance herself from Trump (43:49); and the Trump administration prepares military plans for an operation in Cuba (46:17).Check out our Marx Prestige miniseries— new episodes drop on Tuesdays!And join our Discord. Subscribers get access to all channels.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Paris Marx is joined by Dara Kerr to discuss how Elon's decision to prioritize aesthetics over safety has created a safety crisis, causing people to burn alive in their Cybertrucks and other Tesla vehicles.Dara Kerr is a technology reporter at Guardian US.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's been only a couple of weeks since the No Kings 3 protests, but we can see now how protest and resistance are changing in America: that one it wasn't just bigger than the previous No Kings. It was different: Deeper and more connected. Rebecca Solnit argues that to understand resistance and change today, we need a much longer perspective than a couple of years. Her new book is The Beginning Comes After the End. Also: Minneapolis made history with its mobilization against ICE. But what about the rest of the state, where the immigrant population has been growing for a couple of decades? What kind of resistance has developed there? Emma Janssen went to small town Minnesota to find out. She's a writing fellow at The American Prospect.  Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Danny and Derek welcome to the show writer Paul Heideman to talk about the transformation of the Republican Party from the main party of business interests to a fragmented, personality-driven coalition. They discuss the historical relationship between Republicans and capital, the disorganization of American employers, the political economy of the 1970s crisis, Reagan-era fragmentation, Gingrich and fundraising, globalization and bipartisan neoliberalism in the 1990s, the Koch network and Tea Party, Republicanism after Romney, the conditions that enabled Trump's rise, and much more.Read Paul's book Rogue Elephant: How Republicans Went from the Party of Business to the Party of Chaos.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Aaron and Matt are joined by Nation columnist David Klion to talk about the role that Israel has played in the rise of American fascism and what it all means for American Jews like Aaron, David, and not Matt.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Danny “Hollywood” Bessner and Derek “Bethesda” Davison are back with the news. This week: Israel bombs Lebanon and kills hundreds (2:09) as Iran halts traffic through the Strait of Hormuz in response (5:43); the U.S. and Iran prepare for peace talks in Pakistan (8:26); Trump threatens to resume the war if talks fail (13:02); the Gaza Board of Peace demands Hamas provide a disarmament response (14:56); Afghanistan and Pakistan pause talks and agree to avoid escalation (17:16); Myanmar's parliament elects junta leader Min Aung Hlaing as president (20:04); Vietnam's National Assembly elects Communist Party chief To Lam as president (21:14); KMT leader Chiang Li-wun visits China to pursue closer ties (22:59); Burkina Faso's junta leader extends military rule (27:06); Hungarian polling projects Viktor Orban to lose power to the opposition (31:51); Chadian forces deploy to Haiti under a UN-backed mission (34:54); Haiti postpones voter registration amid ongoing violence (37:15); Trump pressures NATO to secure the Strait of Hormuz (41:51).Don't forget to subscribe to the Marx Prestige miniseries. New episodes out on Tuesdays!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Paris Marx is joined by Amanda Mull to discuss the effects of constantly “monitoring the situation” through custom news, social, or live feeds, including higher rates of anxiety and disconnection, and what can be done to recalibrate.Amanda Mull is a senior reporter at Bloomberg Businessweek and writes the Buying Power column.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Minnesota changed everything: how Minnesota's resistance to ICE provides a model and inspiration for a national pro-democracy movement. Deepak Bhargava will explains; he's president of the Freedom Together Foundation.Also: July 4 will mark the 250th anniversary of the United States, which Trump is celebrating with a campaign to “eliminate” what he calls “divisive anti-American ideology” from American's historic sites, national parks, and the National Zoo. Historian Beverly Gage has another idea – a road trip to visit some of those places where history happened. Her new book is This Land is Your Land: A Road Trip Through US History.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Danny and Derek welcome to the show Eldar Mamedov, foreign policy expert and non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute, to talk about Europe's response to the war in Iran. They discuss European support and hesitation toward the US-Israel attack, inconsistencies in international law, shifts in European rhetoric as the war continues, fears over economic fallout and energy disruption, Europe's loss of leverage after the nuclear deal collapsed, dependence on the United States for security, domestic political pressures in Europe, and the prospects for diplomacy with Iran and Russia.Find more of Eldar's work at the Quincy Institute.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Aaron, Matt, and Jonathan are joined by Morris Katz, lead strategist for Zohran Mamdani and Graham Platner, to talk about why the Democratic Party sucks so much and how we can make it suck less. Topics include lessons from Zohran's campaign, our favorite Morris ads, the importance of naming a villain, 2028 prognostication, and that one time three years ago when Aaron and Morris had to pull a sunken canoe out of a pond.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Derek is monitoring The Situation, so Always at War's Alex Jordan is back to deliver the news with Danny. This week: Trump extends the Iran war without an exit plan (4:02); the U.S. weighs a commando raid to seize Iranian uranium (10:04); Iran threatens U.S. companies after striking a Kuwaiti tanker (13:17); the Hormuz closure drives shortages and price shocks across the global economy (18:43); Europe sees NATO tensions rise as France blocks U.S. overflights and Trump threatens Ukraine aid (22:20); Israel deepens its occupation of southern Lebanon and kills UN peacekeepers (26:42); in Gaza, the Board of Peace proposes faction disarmament before reconstruction (29:28); Israel passes a race-based death penalty law for Palestinians (32:07); a Russian tanker reaches Cuba with oil despite the U.S. blockade (34:17); the U.S. and China prepare a summit amid wider global tensions (36:39); in Sudan, the RSF seizes Kermuk in Blue Nile state (39:13); South Sudan's peace process collapses as elections lose credibility (40:14); and the UK cuts aid to Africa to fund higher defense spending (41:55).Don't forget to check out our new miniseries, Marx Prestige. New episodes out weekly!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Paris Marx is joined by Sam Biddle to discuss what it means for data centers to become targets in a war, and how Silicon Valley is aiding the US war against Iran.Sam Biddle is a technology journalist at The Intercept.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

We're still thinking about No Kings 3 day on Saturday: 8 million people. 3,300 events. ‘No Kings' protests in almost every city and town in the country. 100 towns in Texas alone had No Kings protests! It was the largest single-day nonviolent protest in American history. John Nichols analyzes the possibilities for what comes next.Also: No one expected that revoking the constitutional right to abortion would wind up expanding access to it. But ever since the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision in 2022 allowed more than a dozen states to ban abortion outright, the number of abortions in this country has actually risen every year. How did that happen? Amy Littlefield explains; her new book is Killers of Roe: My investigation into the mysterious death of abortion rights.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In lieu of a standard episode today, we are premiering the first episode of ⁠Marx Prestige⁠, a series where Danny, Derek, and historian Andrew Hartman discuss Karl Marx and how the philosophy and politics he created shaped and reshaped the United States. ⁠Subscribe now⁠ at the annual tier for free access to series like this one!In this first episode of Marx Prestige, Danny, Derek, and Andrew Hartman talk about how Karl Marx understood the United States as a testing ground for capitalism and democratic development in the nineteenth century. They delve into the reception history approach to Marx in America, Marx's early views on American democracy and capitalism, his writings on the Civil War and slavery, the transition in Marx's thought from philosophy to political economy, Reconstruction and its limits, early American interpretations of Marx, and the emergence of Marxism in the late nineteenth century.Be sure to check out Andrew's Book ⁠⁠⁠Karl Marx in America⁠⁠⁠.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Welcome to Fighting Fascism, a new podcast hosted by The Nation.Long-time political organizers Aaron Regunberg and Jonathan Smucker, and their normie friend Matt DaSilva, discuss the history of fascist takeovers, the conditions enabling them, and the resistance movements that have defeated them, to find lessons for today's fights against Trump, MAGA, and the growing threat of modern authoritarianism. Want to piss off fascists? This is the podcast for you.In the first episode, Aaron, Matt, and Jonathan are joined by Astra Taylor, author of End Times Fascism, and Mark Bray, author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, for a big picture conversation about what it means to fight fascism in this historical moment. Topics include popular resistance to ICE, tensions between “radical” and “normie” mobilization, how much we all hate AI, and why it shouldn't actually be that hard to build a majoritarian coalition around the idea that like 25 creepy pedophiles shouldn't own literally everything on the planet.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

As millions of Americans protest Donald Trump under the slogan of “No Kings,” it isworth asking how the nation ended up with such an authoritarian president. David Sirotaand the team at The Lever have provided a great answer to this question in their new podcast series Master Plan: The Kingmakers, which looks at the revival of the ImperialPresidency after the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s. I talked to David about thehistory uncovered in this podcast and why Trump is merely a symptom of a muchdeeper problem.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In the Season 3 finale, Jo sells Charlotte on Alan Warner's “amazingly textured” Movern Callar, which leads the hosts to reflect on some of the season's recurring themes. They're then joined by the radically reflective William C. Anderson, who explains how the Buddhism transmitted in Thich Nhat Hanh's Zen Battlest, a commentary on the teachings of Master Linji, informed his political development.William C. Anderson is a writer and activist from Birmingham, Alabama. His work has appeared in The Guardian, MTV, British Journal of Photography, Logic(s) Magazine, and Prism, where he's a monthly columnist. He is the author of The Nation on No Map (AK Press 2021) and co-author of  As Black as Resistance (AK Press 2018). He's also the co-founder of Offshoot Journal and provides creative direction as a producer of the Black Autonomy Podcast. His writings have been included in the anthologies, Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? (Haymarket 2016) and No Selves to Defend (Mariame Kaba 2014). Please consider supporting our work on Patreon, where you can access additional materials and send us your guest (and book!) coverage requests. Questions and kind comments can be directed to readingwriterspod at gmail dot com. Charlotte Shane's most recent book is An Honest Woman. Her essay newsletter, Meant For You, can be subscribed to or read online for free. Her social media handle is @charoshane.  Jo Livingstone is a writer who teaches at Pratt Institute.To support the show, navigate to https://www.patreon.com/ReadingWritersAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Just a reminder: there was too much Iran news to fit into this episode, so we gave it a standalone special you can find here. Otherwise, this week around the world: in Israel-Palestine, the Gaza Board of Peace negotiates a Hamas disarmament agreement (1:54) while the West Bank sees settler violence surge around Nablus (3:35); Pakistan resumes its war with Afghanistan after the Eid ceasefire expires (7:09); Trump reschedules his China trip for May (8:26); in Sudan's Blue Nile State, RSF and SPLM-N militants seize Kormuk as Chad boosts its border military presence after Sudan spillover violence (11:19); in Ukraine, Russia launches a massive drone barrage as a new offensive begins (14:14), the United States ties security guarantees for Ukraine to territorial concessions (16:04), and Russia reportedly offers to end support for Iran in exchange for the U.S. ends support for Ukraine (19:00); Denmark's snap election leaves Mette Frederiksen weakened, but still in contention to govern (21:46); Raul Castro joins Cuba's talks with the United States (23:55); in Ecuador, a U.S.-backed operation reportedly destroys a dairy farm instead of a drug camp (27:12); the UN General Assembly condemns the transatlantic slave trade, the United States votes no (29:56); Trump pays TotalEnergies to halt East Coast wind projects (31:22).Be sure to check out our new series premiering Tuesday, Marx Prestige. Listen to the trailer here.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Paris Marx is joined by Spencer Ackerman to discuss the US and Israeli war on Iran, including the history that led to this moment and what we might see from here.Spencer Ackerman is the author of Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump and the forthcoming book The Torture and Deliverance of Majid Khan. He also write the Forever Wars newsletter.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The No Kings 3 protests this Saturday are going to be big – maybe the biggest day of protest in American history. Leah Greenberg, co-founder and co-director of Indivisible, will explain—starting with the plans for St. Paul, site of the day's flagship event.Also: Trump has renewed his year-long campaign against universities that have been resisting his authoritarian rule - he's focused his attacks on the most prestigious private university, Harvard, and the most prestigious public university, UCLA, suing each of them in the past week for – “antisemitism.” David Myers, who teaches Jewish history at UCLA, commentsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Danny and Derek welcome back to the show historian Udi Greenberg to talk about Israeli public opinion, politics, and its strategy vis-à-vis the war with Iran. They discuss the overwhelming public support for military operations, the underlying strategic consensus across Israeli politics prioritizing military dominance over negotiation, the absence of meaningful debate over a two-state solution or Palestinian sovereignty, the stability of Israeli domestic political divisions despite the war, how media and military messaging shapes public perception, and the relationship between Israeli strategy and continued U.S. support.Don't forget to mark your calendars for our series Marx Prestige, coming March 31.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The US/Israel war against Iran has been devastating to many US allies, both in the MiddleEast and the wider world. It could easily lead to a Global Depression. Even before thewar, Annelle Sheline of the Quincy Institute noted that countries such as Qatar andSaudi Arabia had good reason to wean themselves away from a close reliance on theUS. I talked to Annelle about the current state of the war and why it will only intensifythe alienation of traditional US allies.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Charlotte puzzles over who exactly wrote Brighton Rock before Jo shares a newfound fascination with big machines, spurred in part by Don Gillmor's On Oil. A conversation with the preternaturally wise Rayne Fisher-Quann starts with Iris Owens' After Claude, then opens up into a rousing feminist seminar on Margery Kempe, sexual obsession, and women's humor of past and present. Rayne Fisher-Quann is a Brooklyn-based writer. Her blog is called Internet Princess, and her first book, COMPLEX FEMALE CHARACTER, is forthcoming from Knopf. Please consider supporting our work on Patreon, where you can access additional materials and send us your guest and book coverage requests! Books discussed on all seasons of the podcast are aggregated here on Bookshop. Questions and comments can be directed to readingwriterspod at gmail dot com. Outro music by Marty Sulkow and Joe Valle.Charlotte Shane's most recent book is An Honest Woman. Her essay newsletter, Meant For You, can be subscribed to or read online for free, and her social media handle is @charoshane.  Jo Livingstone is a writer who teaches at Pratt Institute.To support the show, navigate to https://www.patreon.com/ReadingWritersAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Derek wore his Fitbit to a CIA black site, both exposing the security state and meeting his daily step goal. This week's news: in the Iran war, Israel assassinates Ali Larijani and other senior Iranian officials (1:15), U.S. allies refuse Trump's demand that they help reopen the Strait of Hormuz by force (5:41), and the Pentagon seeks roughly $200 billion for the war (8:32) as it considers new deployments to the region (13:27); in southern Lebanon, the IDF begins its ground invasion (14:41); Israel continues killing people in Gaza during the supposed ceasefire while Rafah reopens for medical evacuations after pressure from Hamas (17:31); Afghanistan and Pakistan agree to a five-day Eid ceasefire (21:30) as the two countries dispute the circumstances Pakistani airstrike in Kabul (22:57); Trump postpones his planned trip to China as the Iran war consumes Washington's attention (25:22); in Sudan, the RSF retakes the strategic town of Bara (27:39); the Trump administration reportedly threatens to cut PEPFAR and other health aid to Zambia unless it gets favorable mineral concessions (29:37); Russia increases its support for Tehran with drone tactics, technology, and possible intelligence sharing (33:45); the United States reopens its embassy in Venezuela as normalization moves ahead (37:11), plus Delcy Rodríguez replaces Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino with intelligence chief Gustavo González López (38:21); and Trump pressures Cuba's leadership amid a grid collapse and reports of U.S. talks about political change (40:24).Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Paris Marx is joined by Ed Niedermeyer to discuss the years-long relationship between Elon Musk and Jeffrey Epstein, and how their relationship sheds light on the murky inner workings of the one percent.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Trump's war in Iran is bringing economic chaos and suffering to much of the world, but for American voters, the biggest effect is the soaring price of gasoline – and the political implications for Republicans in the midterms are clear to everyone. Meanwhile Minneapolis has shown how Americans can resist unjust and illegitimate power.Also: The Working Families Party is organizing voters not just to win a Democratic majority in Congress but for a movement election, a historic expansion of the electorate that includes a demand for significant change. Maurice Mitchell, the party's National Director, explains.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Writer and former U.S. Army intelligence officer Harrison Mann joins the show to talk about the U.S–Iran war and what a ground invasion could actually look like. They discuss Harrison's resignation from the Defense Intelligence Agency over U.S. support for the Gaza genocide, his assessment of the first weeks of the conflict with Iran, internal divisions within the military and intelligence community, and the risks of shifting the rules of engagement and permissive attitudes toward civilian casualties. They then explore potential ground invasion scenarios, including special raids on nuclear facilities, the proposal to seize Kharg Island, the feasibility of occupying territory along the Strait of Hormuz, and the broader trajectory of the conflict.Read Harrison's piece “I Was a US Intelligence Analyst. Here's What a Ground Invasion of Iran Could Look Like.”Sign Win Without War's petition to Congress against spending more taxpayer dollars on the Iran war via an upcoming supplemental funding bill.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Former Nation editor Don Guttenplan is now bringing municipal politics to the magazinewith a weekly column tracking the progress of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. I spoke to Donabout how Mamdani is balancing pragmatism and principles as he deals with policing,Donald Trump and a tough budget.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Jo and Charlotte turn their attention to Nobel Laureate Kenzaburo Oe's mindblowing A Personal Matter and Troubled Lands: Stories of Mexico and Cuba, a collection translated by Langston Hughes, before they're joined by Gothic-literature-loving writer-of-all-modes Nicholas Russell, who puts the spotlight on Algernon Blackwood's unsettling preoccupation with mysterious forces in the natural world. Nicholas Russell is a writer and critic from Las Vegas. His work has been featured in McSweeney's, The Baffler, Conjunctions, The Nation, and Orion, among other publications. He's a long-time bookseller, a contributing writer at Defector, and managing editor at Still Alive magazine. His debut novel Observer will be published by Ecco at HarperCollins on September 15th. Please consider supporting our work on Patreon, where you can access additional materials and send us your guest and book coverage requests! Books discussed on all seasons of the podcast are aggregated here on Bookshop. Questions and comments can be directed to readingwriterspod at gmail dot com. Outro music by Marty Sulkow and Joe Valle.Charlotte Shane's most recent book is An Honest Woman. Her essay newsletter, Meant For You, can be subscribed to or read online for free, and her social media handle is @charoshane.  Jo Livingstone is a writer who teaches at Pratt Institute. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

We're putting out, what, an episode a day at this point? But the news roundup must go on. This week: In the Iran war, casualty and displacement figures rise across Iran and Lebanon (1:20), Iran mines and threatens to close the Strait of Hormuz (4:31), Iranian officials threaten to expand the war by targeting financial institutions across the Gulf (7:47), and new supreme leader Mustafa Khomeini delivers his first address (10:27); in Gaza, aid shortages deepen as food supplies run low (16:01); escalating drone warfare hits markets, towns, and civilian targets in Sudan (17:19); in Mali, the U.S. moves to restore counterterrorism cooperation and reconnaissance flights with the ruling junta (22:20); new warnings of conflict emerge in Ethiopia's Tigray region (24:51); Nepal's Rastriya Swatantra Party secures a landslide victory in the latest elections (28:26); in Ukraine, the UN accuses Russia of committing a crime against humanity through the forced transfer of Ukrainian children (30:07); far-right politician José Antonio Kast takes office as president of Chile following the end of Gabriel Boric's term (31:31); in Haiti, human rights groups warn about civilian harm from an expanding drone campaign targeting gangs in Port-au-Prince (34:05); and in these United States, investigations into the Minab elementary school strike raise questions about the use of AI-assisted targeting in U.S. military operations (35:41), plus Donald Trump hosts the first “Shield of the Americas” summit at his Doral resort (39:44).Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Paris Marx is joined by Gita Jackson to discuss why the left's hatred of AI is justified, why a different approach to technology is necessary, and how they're reassessing their own relationships with digital tech.Gita Jackson is a co-founder of Aftermath.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Derek welcomes back legal scholar Maryam Jamshidi to discuss the legal aspect of the U.S.–Israel war on Iran. They talk about the administration's shifting legal justifications, why the administration's claims about Iranian threats and nuclear weapons fail under international law, the legal limits of self-defense, how the conflict fits within the laws of war, and the broader humanitarian and political consequences of the war for Iranian civilians and the country's future.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Tom Stevenson analyzes the latest news and long-term prospects of Trump's Iran war, for both Iran and the US. Tom is a contributing editor for the London Review of Books, where he writes about, among other things, politics in the Mideast.Also: what news are people getting these days, and where are they getting it? Especially the people we call “news avoidant” & “low information” voters--the ones we want to vote for Democrats in November: what are the big stories for them? Tara McGowan explains-- she's founder and CEO of Courier Newsroom, a digital media company that operates a network of local news outlets.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Danny and Derek speak with historian Alfred McCoy about how the Cold War operated as a global conflict influenced by decolonization, covert action, and geopolitical strategy. They discuss the role of individual intelligence operatives as “men on the spot”; Cold War rivalry and the collapse of European empires; how conflicts across Asia, Africa, and Latin America produced much of the war's violence; the development of U.S. containment strategy and covert action institutions; and Iran as flashpoint in Cold War and post-Cold War geopolitics, and how Alfred interprets these conflicts through a lens of imperial decline and strategic chokepoints like the Suez Canal and the Strait of Hormuz.Buy Alfred's book Cold War on Five Continents!Reading recommendation: The Cold War's Killing Fields: Rethinking the Long Peace by Paul Thomas Chamberlin.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Paris Marx is joined by Tim Schwab to discuss the evolving story of Bill Gates and his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, as well as the issues that arise from allowing billionaires to use philanthropy to push personal political agendas and launder their reputations.Tim Schwab is the author of The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good BillionaireAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The US/Israel War against Iran is shaping out to be a much bigger mess than expectedeven by critics. As it turns into a regional conflict that has embroiled more than a dozennations, are there any possible ways Donald Trump can be forced to pull back. I spokewith international affairs scholar Emma Ashford of the Stimson Center about the warand paths to peace.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy