Introduction

This week, Joe Hagan talks to James Carville, veteran Democratic strategist and cable news stalwart, about the lead-up to the midterms. On the table: abortion rights, how Ron DeSantis handled Hurricane Ian (“Do you know what Florida needs more than anything else in the world right now? I do. Immigrants," says Carville), Herschel Walker (“You cannot tell me that anybody 60 years old would trade brains with Herschel Walker, cuz you wouldn’t”), and who won the debate between Trump-approved candidate JD Vance and opponent Tim Ryan in Ohio (“That was a T.K.O.”).

Given the political environment, he says, Democrats wouldn’t ordinarily stand a chance in 2022. “You have an election with 'wrong track' for the country at 65%, presidential approval at 41%—all that is a guaranteed landslide [for Republicans],” he says. "Why has this electorate been resisting this and resisting it hard? That's the question that we should be asking ourselves."

Also this episode: Hagan talks to Narges Bajoghli, a professor of Middle East Studies at John Hopkins, about her recent story on the women leading uprising in Iran, and the implications for gender equality around the world. Hive senior editor Tara Golshan joins a conversation that asks: Where does the revolution go from here?