Podcast Episodes

The Syria Disaster, Seven Years In

Episode 43

Long the crossroads of civilizations, Syria has now spent seven years as the proxy warzone of great powers. With over half a million dead and millions more displaced, the conflict is  now “arguably t…

Published on 7 years, 8 months ago

Becoming White in America

Episode 42

In her new book Futureface, Alex Wagner writes that “immigration raises into relief some of our most basic existential questions: Who am I? Where do I belong? And in that way, it’s inextricably tied …

Published on 7 years, 8 months ago

News Update: Who Could Tame Facebook?

Episode 41

As Atlantic staff writer Robinson Meyer recently wrote, Facebook “is currently embroiled in the worst crisis of trust in its 14-year history.” This week, the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified b…

Published on 7 years, 8 months ago

Trumpocracy

Episode 40

“Trump gambled that Americans resent each other’s differences more than they cherish their shared democracy. So far that gamble has paid off,” writes David Frum in his new book Trumpocracy.

Along wit…

Published on 7 years, 8 months ago

King Remembered

Episode 39

In his last speech, known to history as “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” Martin Luther King Jr. began by remarking on the introduction he’d been given by his friend, Ralph Abernathy. “As I listened to…

Published on 7 years, 9 months ago

The Family Unit in a Divided Era

Episode 38

The family is where the forces that are driving Americans farther apart—political polarization, generational divides, class stratification, Facebook fights—literally hit home. Economic, ideological, …

Published on 7 years, 9 months ago

Does America Have a Monopoly Problem?

Episode 37

“Politicians from both parties publicly worship the solemn dignity of entrepreneurship and small businesses. But by the numbers, America has become the land of the big and the home of the consolidate…

Published on 7 years, 9 months ago

If We Could Learn From History

Episode 36

Discarding the limits on a leader's time in office is a classic autocrat's move. So when Xi Jinping began to clear a path for an indefinite term as China's president, he dimmed many once-bright hopes…

Published on 7 years, 9 months ago

Goodbye Black History Month, Hello Black Future

Episode 35

Moviegoers across America are filling theaters to see, as The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer describes it, “a high-tech utopia that is a fictive manifestation of African potential unfettered by slavery and c…

Published on 7 years, 10 months ago

How Innocence Becomes Irrelevant (No Way Out, Part III)

Episode 34

After Rick Magnis, a Texas judge, reviewed the evidence in Benjamine Spencer’s case, he recommended a new trial for Spencer “on the grounds of actual innocence.” But Texas’s highest criminal court to…

Published on 7 years, 10 months ago