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When we talked to former Donald Trump lawyer and confidant Michael Cohen last week, he spoke to us in a way few people can about how he's dealing — very personally — with life under this regime. You'll want to see the entire conversation, but what really struck us was his ability to look back on his own experience of misplaced loyalty (he went to prison on campaign finance charges stemming from the Stormy Daniels payoff scandal) to find lessons for us all about living bravely through this moment.We know some of you prefer reading to watching, so we're publishing text excerpts of the conversation below. If you missed our live conversation, we encourage you to watch the video above.In the public interest, we are opening this video and transcript to all. But we're also asking candidly that folks support the half dozen or so people who now write for and edit and otherwise support the work of The Ink by becoming a paying subscriber today.Take a moment to support fearless, independent reporting, and to help us keep bringing you conversations like this one. Or give a gift or group subscription.Your support allows us to open these ideas to as many people as possible, with no paywall.How do you, given what you're holding… you've held what you've dealt with what you've gone through to fight this administration what you're holding now in terms of all the knowledge and of what's happening and the same way everybody else in this stream and everybody on the stream has not gone to prison the way you have but are experiencing the blizzard of of insanity the way you are. How do you attempt to keep healthy, keep your mind, you know, working?Like, what do you, at a very practical level, because I think a lot of people are dealing with this just when they open up the news on their phone. What are you trying to do to stay sane, given all of this?The busier that I keep myself, the less I have time to think. The more time that I have to think, the worse the PTSD gets. Sleeping is a disaster because that's when your mind works overtime. I haven't had a good night's sleep in probably seven years.Remember, as of yesterday, yesterday was the seven-year anniversary of the raid on my home, the hotel room I was staying at, and my law office by the FBI that sparked this entire chaos.My journey is not a journey that is anti-Trump. I don't care if the last name was Trump, if it was Jones, if it was Smith, if it was Cohen. It makes no difference to me what the last name of the president is. My concern is for what he is doing. So I tried to take my past affection and my loyalty to him. And I have pushed that way off to the side. I don't think of this as a Trump policy. I think of it as a President Trump policy.And it may be hard for people to understand, but you know, I was incredibly close with him, 15 years basically sitting shoulder to shoulder with him, protecting him from basically everything,providing him with advice and guidance that would only benefit him, not harm him. And sometimes, as I'm watching and I can't discern the difference between yesterday and then today.And I'm wondering, where is the Michael Cohen in this inner circle? Where is the Michael Cohen in this administration? To say to him, before he announces this willy-nilly, self-inflicted tariff policy stupidity, “Mr. President, you can't do this. Let me just give you my prediction on how this is going to end up. You, of course, you're gonna do whatever you want, but let me give you my prediction.”I did that in 2017 after Steve Miller, the immigration ban, which was really a Muslim ban. And I was in the office shortly thereafter, like a day or so, and he asked me what I thought because they were intending on doing a second round of it. And I said, “Mr. President, can I speak freely?”He goes, yeah.I said, “You're f*****g crazy.” Just like that, in his office.Are you f*****g kidding me? You know I have hundreds of friends who are Muslim, right? Some of whom are my best friends since 1984.So I said, “You're basically telling them they have to leave the country. How is it possible that you think it's OK to ban an entire religion from the country if it has to do with just Somalia? OK, I understand that. But you can't make it this broad.” And he took my advice to heart. And that's why you didn't see a 2.0.There is no Michael Cohen there. And sometimes based upon my loyalty that I had in my relationship that I had to him going back to like 2005, I sometimes I almost feel like I want to pick up the phone, call him and say, “What the f**k are you doing? Why? Knock it off. Do something that will give you a legacy that future generations with the last name Trump will be proud of. Not wrecking the global economy. Who gives a s**t if Xi Jinping comes on his f*****g knees begging to you, begging you for forgiveness? How does that benefit Trump? Your legacy, how does that benefit the American people? How does it benefit future generations?”It does not. And that's the problem. This entire group of enablers — they're only worried about themselves. This is all.Do you think you could break through to him in some way because of that history of loyalty in spite of everything that's happened? If you made that call, do you think it would go anywhere?Today?Today?No, I don't think he would even take the call. I don't think he would even take the call.If the two of us were sitting in a room, just us, and we both were able to lower the fences that we have built around us to protect ourselves from each other. Yeah, I'm certain he would have listened. It wouldn't have taken a Bill Ackman or a Jamie Dimon to get him to reverse what he was doing here.Because somebody breathed into his ear this notion that these tariffs are going to be great for him. It's gonna be a major win. And ultimately, America will be better off for it. It's gonna bring back manufacturing. No, it's not.We're never going back to being a manufacturing country. Too expensive in this country to manufacture. Other countries do it better and much cheaper.And so these are the struggles that I live with. I live with anger. I live with sadness. I live with confusion. I live with yesterday being in solitary confinement with no food, no ability to shower, no change of clothing for 51 days, or my 13 months in Otisville, the unconstitutional remand, when they first took me, because I refused to sign a counterfeit document. Imagine how far Bill Barr's administration, his Department of Justice, went in order to unconstitutionally remand me.They gave me a document that doesn't exist, that they wrote specifically for me. And when the very first paragraph is a massive First Amendment constitutional violation because I refuse to sign that document, I was handcuffed, shackled, stripped out, put into a paper jumpsuit, put into a freezer for three hours to the point I thought my teeth were gonna fall out of my jaw because I was so cold and my jaw was rattling so hard, I thought my teeth were gonna break. I've never felt cold like that before.And then to be transported back to Otisville to be put back into solitary until, thank God, a million times for Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein and my attorney, Danya Perry, who filed that habeas corpus, and the judge determined it was retaliatory and a violation of my First Amendment, constitutional rights. A federal court judge had to enjoin the United States government, the DOJ, the Attorney General, from continuing to violate my constitutional rights?How does something like this even happen? So for me, this is what unfortunately is on the loop that exists in my brain all the time.It's what I wrote in my whole book. Revenge talks about this. And that's why I think it's important for me to continue to speak up so that it never happens to anyone else ever again.That's almost the journey that unfortunately my life has taken me into. And I'm willing to accept it.Well, I know everybody watching this joins me in feeling immensely grateful for your truth-telling voice now and sorry for what you have to go through every day, not just in the limelight, but just in your own life and the quiet of your own life to do that.We are seeing in real time the opposite, generally in this society, a society with no bravery, no courage, people capitulating left and right. So it almost is like an alien phenomenon when you see someone who's willing to tell the truth, willing to stand up.As you can see from all the hearts there, a lot of people are very grateful. So thank you. Always appreciate talking to you, and always appreciate your voice, and take care of yourself.Watch the entire show, with philosopher Olufemi O. Taiwo joining Anand and Michael Cohen, at the link below.And you'll also want to see the powerful town hall Cohen hosted last night with Jim Acosta. It's not to be missed.A programming note: More Live conversations next weekWe're on the road this week, so we'll be taking a break from our regularly scheduled Live conversations. We'll be back next week with some very special guests. On Tuesday, April 22, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we'll talk with the economist Dani Rodrik. And on Wednesday, April 23, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern, we'll be speaking with the writer, lawyer, and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich. You won't want to miss either one, so mark your calendars now!To join and watch, download the Substack app (click on the button below) and turn on notifications — you'll get an alert that we're live, and you can watch from your iOS or Android mobile device. And if you haven't already, subscribe to The Ink to access full videos of past conversations and to join the chat during our live events.Readers like you make The Ink possible and keep it independent. If you haven't already joined us, sign up today for our mailing list, support our work, and help build a free and fearless media future by becoming a paying subscriber. And if you're already a part of our community, thank you! And we'd appreciate it if you'd consider giving a subscription to The Ink as a gift. Or consider sharing a group subscription with family and friends. Or pick up a mug, tote bag, or T-shirt! We appreciate it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit the.ink/subscribe

Critics on the left and the right called out Cory Booker's record-breaking speech this week for being “performative.” But what's that all about?Performance matters. Nobody wants to listen to a politician rattle off a list of statistical explanations. When you speak to people about something important, you need to make them feel a certain way, not just think a certain way. Otherwise, they are not going to act.That goes for Booker holding the Senate floor for 25 hours (and making C-SPAN must-see TV), and that also goes for you, trying to convince your friends and neighbors to get together to go out to a protest if they've never been before. And that's what we talked to political sage Anat Shenker-Osorio about this afternoon, along with what to make of the victory in the Wisconsin supreme court election, how to talk about the tariffs (and how to avoid the trap of explaining too much), why the Democrats missed the mark on the budget, and how to plan for the Hands Off! protests this coming weekend. As with anything Shenker-Osorio has to say, you won't want to miss it.We're leaving this open to all. But please support this work and subscribe if you can. When you do, it allows us to keep at it and keep reaching a wider audience. We really appreciate it!Take a moment to support fearless, independent reporting, and to help us keep bringing you conversations like this one. Or give a gift or group subscription.Stand up for media that bows to no tyrant or billionaire. Join us today. Or give a gift or group subscription.A programming note: More Live conversations!Join us again next week for two great live discussions. On Tuesday, April 8, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern, we'll be speaking with the author, documentarian, and political commentator Joy-Ann Reid, and on Thursday, April 10, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, the philosopher and author Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò will join us. We hope to see you for both!To join and watch, download the Substack app (click on the button below) and turn on notifications — you'll get an alert that we're live and you can watch from your iOS or Android mobile device. And if you haven't already, subscribe to The Ink to access full videos of past conversations and to join the chat during our live events.Readers like you make The Ink possible and keep it independent. If you haven't already joined us, sign up today for our mailing list, support our work, and help build a free and fearless media future by becoming a paying subscriber. And if you're already a part of our community, thank you! And we'd appreciate it if you'd consider giving a subscription to The Ink as a gift or for a group you belong to. Or pick up a mug, tote bag, or T-shirt! We appreciate it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit the.ink/subscribe

When Elon Musk hosted “Saturday Night Live” back in May of 2021, he went public with his Asperger's diagnosis, linking innovation and neurodivergence in a way that — in that moment — made him a role model for a community that's often struggled to find employment or acceptance. Since then, Musk has referred to that diagnosis to justify how out of touch his motivations seem with society's (or even humanity's), which is more controversial. And now that he's become arguably the world's most powerful person and his politics have turned in a direction that threatens the lives and livelihoods of millions, commentators are divided on what to make of his claims. Many accept his explanations, making sense of his political moves in terms of his autism, while others — including those in the autistic community — argue for separating his political conduct from his neurodivergence.There's more heat than light on this issue right now, so we reached out to someone who actually knows what they're talking about: Simon Baron-Cohen, a psychologist and author who is one of the world's leading experts on autism. His recent book The Pattern Seekers is essential reading for anyone interested in how people with autism or on the spectrum may have built not just Silicon Valley, but human civilization itself. Baron-Cohen joined us to discuss our changing understanding of autism, what it means to live in a tech-driven world increasingly shaped by leaders who are on the autism spectrum, and how we can balance the innovative drive of super-systematizers with the empathy that's critical to holding society together.A programming note: More Live conversations!Come back Monday, March 24, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern for a live call-in show with Anand. Then join us on Wednesday, March 26, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern for a conversation with journalist and legal analyst Elie Mystal. And on Thursday, March 27, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we'll talk to New York State Representative and New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, the progressive who hopes to succeed Eric Adams. We hope to see you there!To join and watch, download the Substack app (click on the button below) and turn on notifications — you'll get an alert that we're live and you can watch from your iOS or Android mobile device. And if you haven't already, subscribe to The Ink to access full videos of past conversations and to join the chat during our live events.In the public interest, we are opening this video to all. But we're also asking candidly that folks support the half dozen or so people who write for and edit and otherwise support the work of The Ink by becoming a paying subscriber.Take a moment to support fearless, independent reporting, and to help us keep bringing you conversations like this one. Or give a gift or group subscription.Stand up for media that bows to no tyrant or billionaire. Join us today. Or give a gift or group subscription. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit the.ink/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit the.inkRuth Ben-Ghiat has the answers so many of us have been desperate for, ever since fascism leapt out of the history pages and became a modern-day American menace, so we've been making sure to check in with her every week for a wide-ranging conversation about the Trump administration's hostile takeover of America, and what we can do about it.We'll be talking with Ben-Ghiat again this coming Monday, February 24, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time — that's an hour and a half earlier than usual, so mark your calendars — and pardon this late-breaking change! We're looking forward to it as we always do, and we'd love for you to join us. In the meantime, watch this past week's conversation above, and subscribe to Ben-Ghiat's great newsletter, Lucid, to catch up with all of her in-depth analysis of what we're facing in this moment and her thoughts on what we can learn from her study of authoritarian regimes around the world. It's an essential resource in these times.To join and watch, download the Substack app (click on the button below) and turn on notifications — you'll get an alert that we're live and you can watch from your iOS or Android mobile device. And if you haven't already, subscribe to The Ink to access full videos of past conversations and to join the chat during our live events.See you on Monday!Readers like you make The Ink possible and keep it independent. Sign up to join our mailing list, support my work, and help build a free and fearless media future by becoming a paying subscriber today. And when you join, you'll get full access to videos like these. And if you're already a part of our community, thank you!

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit the.inkHi, folks. By popular demand, we did another live chat today. I don't know what these are exactly, but they feel like good talk radio. Thank you to all who came up onstage.If you want to be part of these conversations and receive all our posts, subscribe today.

Anand was on Morning Joe today, responding to Donald Trump and J.D. Vance's continuing racist lies about Haitian immigrants in his native state of Ohio, and talking about what is real: that immigrants are among America's greatest gifts.Watch the video above, read Anand's essay below, and read some text excerpts from his comments on Morning Joe, below the fold.A request for those who haven't yet joined us: The interviews and essays that we share here take research and editing and much more. We work hard, and we are eager to bring on more writers, more voices. But we need your help to keep this going. Join us today to support the kind of independent media you want to exist.“There are concert lines around the world for people trying to get in on this dream”On Trump's recent comments on blocking immigration from “infested” countries:What I hear is a wannabe Nazi — without the organizational skills. I hear someone who is literally reclaiming language from the 1930s and 1940s in Germany — “vermin,” “infestation.”This is the language of someone who is not just trying to win an election, although they are trying to do that. This is the language of someone who is trying to build a pretext for what he might do if in office.He's talked about deporting millions and millions of people on a scale that would require 24/7 train cars and buses — and camps, to use another mid-20th century word.But also, I think — and the example of the Haitian community in Springfield illustrates this — someone who is using a modern media environment to spread information, put out lies, that will then possibly inspire other people, private actors, to do things in their own name, with deniability for Donald Trump. Activating his stand-up-and-stand-back-and-stand-by paramilitary friends to go do all manner of things to vulnerable people.Because once you're telling millions and millions of people that there's vermin around, there's infestation, they're taking over the country, there's a replacement scheme/scam happening, violence will happen.On Trump and Vance's dehumanization of Haitian immigrants in Ohio based on lies about what they ate:It was a trifecta for me. I am a native Ohioan. I am a son of immigrants. And I'm a passionate eater and cook. And so this sudden national story about this dehumanization of immigrants based on what they eat [brought up] a couple of things.First of all, in a lot of countries in the world with unstable political systems and high levels of violence, lies about what other people eat are actually crucial to how political violence happens. In India, where my family comes from, if you look at most episodes of lynchings or riots, it is Hindus and Muslims and rumors about, I smelled pork, I smelled beef, you're inappropriately smuggling something you shouldn't have been eating.A lot of countries in the world have taboos around food — and violence. So what was happening in Ohio is a playbook that is very familiar. If you've covered politics in developing countries, it is a classic dehumanization thing to say these people are the other. As Kendrick Lamar would say, “They not like us.” They eat differently from us.On what immigrants do eat:But it got me thinking: What do immigrants eat? Because immigrants don't eat what Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are lying about.One thing immigrants eat in this country is flavors that everybody else eventually eats and capitalizes on. And then you have gochujang in fancy little New American restaurants, and you have fish sauce in a vinaigrette several years later.But immigrants are people who bring that flavor to us — and what is multiracial democracy but flavor?Immigrants swallow their pride, often, to come to this country — come to places like Springfield, Ohio, often do jobs that they wouldn't have had to do back home. They are computer programmers back home, they work in a gas station in Springfield because they know that, to rise in America, you must first fall sometimes. So they eat their own pride. They often eat very little in the hope that their children will eat like kings.They eat the cheapest food they can get at Costco because they can taste what their grandchildren, unborn grandchildren, will eat one day. When I was growing up in Ohio, in my immigrant family, we ate pasta some days because my mom actually really enjoyed the freedom that America gave her as an Indian woman to not spend all the time in the kitchen, like Indian women like her would've spent back home. And sometimes we ate Indian food because she wanted us to have something of where she came from and to sustain the past forward. So these people are trying to get folks killed with lies about what immigrants eat. But I wanted to share with folks in my experience what immigrants do eat.On 7 a.m. lines worldwide and protecting not just the border but also the dreamWe're in the 7 a.m. hour, and I have an image seared in my memory. I have the privilege in my job of reporting from around the world. There is a 7 a.m. image that I have seen in many, many countries around the world, which a lot of Americans watching this may not have seen.Which is that at 7 a.m., in capitals around the world, when life is not very active in particular cities, there is a long line always outside the American embassy or the American consulate.When life is at a standstill at 7 a.m. in New Delhi, India, there is a line outside that embassy.We are sitting around this table, sitting at home, maybe in a funk about America. We may be despairing about America. We may think our democracy's unraveling, and this is happening and that's happening, and everything's going to the dogs. But even when we are in our deepest funk, that line — I have never seen that line go down.That line is like a concert line in capital after capital after capital. So instead of just having this conversation about how we protect the border, let's step back. Let's channel what Ronald Reagan said in his farewell address, where we remember that we are a country made of the world, and it is actually the secret of our greatness.And the fact that, even at our lowest lows, there are concert lines around the world for people trying to get in on this dream — it should make us buck up, but it should also make us remember not to shut this country to the energy and new blood that has always made it what it is.A request for those who haven't yet joined us: The interviews and essays that we share here take research and editing and much more. We work hard, and we are eager to bring on more writers, more voices. But we need your help to keep this going. Join us today to support the kind of independent media you want to exist.Video courtesy MSNBC/Morning Joe This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit the.ink/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit the.inkToday, we're speaking with Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg about why infrastructure matters, the challenge of communicating its importance, how supplying the material basics that improve lives is crucial to the long-term project of turning Americans away from toxic politics, the value of speaking to those on the other side of the aisle, the changing nature of fatherhood and what it means to be a man — and of course, his insights into working with Joe Biden and the prospects for a Democratic victory in November.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit the.inkToday we present for our subscribers the full audio recording of our conversation with Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal.Rep. Jayapal, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, has been one of the most visible progressives in Congress; she's long been a defender of immigrant rights and an outspoken voice for reproductive freedom and called early on f…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit the.inkToday we present for our paid subscribers the full audio recording of our conversation with Surgeon General Vivek Murthy.Earlier this week, the surgeon general intensified his call for the regulation of youth use of social media platforms, asking for the use of warning labels akin to those applied to products such as alcohol and tobacco. While some rese…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit the.inkToday we present for our subscribers the full audio recording of our conversation with the author and policy expert Heather McGhee. In her influential book, The Sum of Us, McGhee argues against the idea that progress for some must come at the expense of others. It's the opposite, she maintains, famously recounting how, when the racist response to desegr…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit the.inkToday we present for our subscribers the full audio recording of our conversation with the author and activist Naomi Klein. Klein has written a series of books — among them No Logo and The Shock Doctrine — that have met their cultural moments and changed the way people think and talk. Her work on labor, climate change, globalization, and the other criti…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit the.inkToday on The Ink podcast, our conversation with Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan. She began her career as an antitrust researcher and reporter, eventually becoming a lawyer and public servant and along the way publishing a groundbreaking paper that turned 40 years of conservative thinking on antitrust on its head.Named by President Biden to lead…

Context. Is there a less sexy word in the English language? Or a more important one?The journalist Mehdi Hasan has long been a relentless advocate for context. As a host and commentator for the BBC, Al Jazeera, and MSNBC, Hasan has always challenged assumptions and filled in historical blind spots, with a devotion to doing the extra research and a willingness to speak truth to power. Now he has left his corporate media days behind him and has launched his own, independent media company, Zeteo, which aims to take on some of the most difficult reporting challenges of our time, with a focus on democracy and human rights.In this conversation, Hasan talks to our host, Anand Giridharadas, about how he views the student protests, what American responses to the Ukraine and Gaza wars tell us about the limits of empathy, the challenges of reporting the news in an age of threats to democracy, how many admire activists only once they're dead, and why it's so so difficult to have a debate with opponents who can't even agree on basic truths. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit the.ink/subscribe