Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

Critically acclaimed playwright and actress Anna Deavere Smith crafts groundbreaking art at the intersection of journalism and theater. Her explosive one-woman plays centered on the Los Angeles riots and the Crown Heights riots, “Twilight: Los Angeles” and “Fires in the Mirror” respectively, took shape from hundreds of interviews conducted by Smith herself. Her newest piece, “Notes From the Field” had her traveling everywhere from Finland to the Yurok Tribe of Northern California, compiling 250 conversations about the school-to-prison pipeline. Her work requires a masterful command of storytelling, empathy, and the art of the interview, and she joins this week to describe how those pieces came together in her celebrated career.Read  We Were the Last of the Nice Negro Girls by Anna Deavere SmithFind out more about Inheritance 

This conversation starts at Grid Talk 101 (what even is an energy grid) and ends at the fragility of modern life. That can only mean one thing – David Roberts is back. An energy and climate journalist, Roberts explains that we have every reason to believe that we’ll see an increase in the freak weather events like the one that wrought havoc on Texas. And as we witnessed firsthand, one failure, one breakdown in a system, can have a deadly domino effect resulting in some truly dystopic conditions in a matter of days. So how can we avoid another Texas-sized meltdown? And what exactly went wrong in the first place? You can subscribe to the Volts newsletter here and find David Roberts on Twitter here.

A short while ago, you may have seen posts crossing your social media feeds from celebrities and activists like Rihanna or Greta Thunberg showing support for farmers in India. Right now, one of the world’s largest protest movements is taking place across India. Millions of farmers are demonstrating against a set of policy proposals passed by Narendra Modi and his government. In turn, Modi has tried to quash the movement, going so far as attempting to force Twitter to silence any critical voices. This week, journalist and Washington Post columnist, Rana Ayyub, joins to discuss the protest movement and how Modi’s reaction to it fits his pattern of illiberalism and nationalism that marches India away from democracy.     

Roughly 19 million acres of eastern Oklahoma hung in the balance in the summer of 2020. Before the Supreme Court was a case asking a question crucial to Native land rights - does the United States still honor the treaties signed in the 1800s promising that land to indigenous tribes? And in a landmark 5-4 decision penned by conservative justice Neil Gorsuch, the court ruled that yes, that land remains reservation land. It was a huge win - but what does it mean? Joining us this week is Rebecca Nagle, a member of the Cherokee tribe and host of a phenomenal podcast titled "This Land", detailing the long fight leading up to this moment.Read the McGirt v Oklahoma opinionListen to Whose Land

Come on a journey with us, dear listener, as we learn the little-known origins of Sen. Mitch McConnell’s beloved obstruction tactic. Turns out, we owe the filibuster to the efforts of John C. Calhoun, a virulent racist and spiritual father of the Confederacy, as he tried to protect the power of a minority of Senators who represented slave states. So how did the filibuster go from a tool of the South, to “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”, to today, where a single email is enough to block legislation? That’s right – a single email. With prophetic-like timing, Senate insider Adam Jentleson just released a new book examining the history of the filibuster, making the case that it’s partially responsible for turning the Senate into one of the greatest threats to our democracy. Read Kill Switch:The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy by Adam Jentleson

Content warning: This episode discusses the recent federal executions and details the circumstances of some related crimes, including abuse, assault, rape, and murder.For 17 years, the federal execution chamber in Terre Haute, Indiana, sat dormant. Then, with only six months left in his Presidency, Donald Trump and AG Bill Barr oversaw an unprecedented 13 executions. Of those 13, three took place during his final week in office. So why, with one foot out the door, did the Trump administration take extraordinary measures to rush through a historic slate of executions? This has been the center of Intercept Senior Reporter Liliana Segura’s work for a long time. One of the best people on this beat, Segura spent months traveling to Terre Haute over and over again as the spree unfolded. So when it came to learning more about what just happened, who these people were, and what it means for the death penalty more broadly, we knew who to turn to.

We have a lot to get to with legendary tech journalist Kara Swisher this week: the deplatforming of President Trump, the conservative obsession with Section 230 (what even is Section 230), why Parler went dark (what even is Parler), and why some Republicans would rather complain about losing Twitter followers than address the deadly attack on the Capitol.

One day after the attack on the Capitol, Chris Hayes and author Ta-Nehisi Coates sat down to process what we witnessed as a nation and what it reveals about the fragility of American democracy.RELATED READING:Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy by Chris HayesWe Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi CoatesThe Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

What can bourbon teach us about legacy, nostalgia, and consumer trends? Pappy Van Winkle is some of the most coveted bourbon in the world, but it took three generations of labor and loss to reach this pinnacle. Author Wright Thompson spent years with the third generation Van Winkle, who brought the family business back from the brink, studying the careful craftsmanship and rich history that goes into every barrel they produce. With a drink so inextricably tied to a distinct time and place, Wright found an opportunity to interrogate the mythology of the South, the seduction of nostalgia, and what it means to make things that last.RELATED READING:Pappyland: A Story of Family, Fine Bourbon, and the Things That Last by Wright ThompsonBourbon Empire: The Past and Future of America’s Whiskey by Reid Mitenbuler

In June 2018 Donald Trump posed with then Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou at a ground breaking ceremony for the new Foxconn facility in Mt. Pleasant, Wisconsin. Touted as “the eighth wonder of the world” by the president, the multi-billion dollar deal was supposed to produce a 20-million-square-foot manufacturing complex, thousands of jobs, and the beginning of a new well-paying manufacturing sector in the American Midwest. Over two years later, almost none of that has happened. Instead of thousands of new jobs and a promising facility, Wisconsin looks to have been left holding the bag on a deal that was over promised and under delivered. This week, investigations editor and feature writer at The Verge, Josh Dzieza, joins to talk about what happened with the Wisconsin-Foxconn deal and why its promise was doomed to fail.The Eighth Wonder of the World by Josh Dzieza Foxconn tells Wisconsin it never promised to build an LCD factory by Josh Dzieza