Living in the USA

Victory for the United Auto Workers in their strike against the big three automakers, GM, Ford, and Stellantis. Harold Meyerson, editor-at-large of The American Prospect, explains what’s in the new contract, and what it took to get there.Also: A cease-fire in Gaza is only the beginning of what Israel and the Palestinians need. D.D. Guttenplan, The Nation’s editor, argues that “both peoples will have to find a way to share the land—in peace, yes, but also with justice.”Plus: Adam Hochschild: Woodrow Wilson's threats to American Democracy. Adam's book "American Midnight" is out now in paperback.

The Biden administration says Israel's planned invasion of Gaza "lacks achievable military objectives." And yet Biden supports it. Harold Meyerson examines this contradiction.Also: Adam Shatz says Israel’s disregard for Palestinian life after the Oct. 7 terror attacks has never been more callous or more flagrant. But Israel can’t extinguish Palestinian resistance by violence any more than the Palestinians can win an Algerian-style liberation war. The only thing that can save the people of Israel and Palestine is a political solution that recognizes both as equal citizens. Shatz is the former literary editor of The Nation and now US editor of the London Review of Books, where he wrote about Israel and Gaza.

Biden's trip to Israel, Israel's attack on Gaza, politics in the US and Israel: Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect comments--and talks about why he left DSA; and Amy Wilentz, former Jerusalem correspondent for The New Yorker, provides analysis.

The UAW won a historic victory when GM agreed that workers in EV and battery factories would be covered by the union contract.  Harold Meyerson comments on that, and on Israel’s war with Hamas.Plus: Voters in Maine will decide next month whether to turn the state’s private utilities public. If that happens, it would be a huge step toward dealing with the climate crisis, and a model for other states. Bill McKibben will explain.Also: Two girls grew up in the 1980s and ’90s in a small town in Arkansas. One made it out and became a successful journalist and writer; her best friend, who had been super smart as a kid, fell into drugs, getting pregnant too young, and petty crime. How did their lives turn out to be so different?  Katha Pollitt talks about the wonderful new memoir by Monica Potts, The Forgotten Girls.

Harold Meyerson comments on the largest healthcare strike in US history, while Nelson Lichtenstein explains Bill Clinton's turn to the right. California's ethnic group politics and a new solar energy project in Minnesota are also discussed.

Joe Biden joined a UAW picket line on Tuesday – the first president ever to do so. Harold Meyerson comments.Plus: the right-wing supermajority on the Supreme Court has returned to a case about racial gerrymandering in Alabama, where Republicans have defied the Court’s order.  Dahlia Lithwick will comment about that, and about her book Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America—it’s out now in paperback.Also: Adam Hochschild reports on visiting a gun show,  and explains why the Koch Brothers are major funders of the NRA—even though they are not especially enthusiastic about guns. (Broadcast originally in April, 2018).

The UAW is being criticized by the corporate-Wall Street wing of the Democratic Party for seeking ‘too much’ in their current strike.  Harold Meyerson responds.Plus: We face two kinds of insecurity in our lives today, Astra Taylor argues: existential insecurity, the unavoidable issues of life and death, and manufactured insecurity—intended to make workers more submissive to authority. Communal action can do a lot to reduce the second kind. Astra's new book is “The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together As Things Fall Apart.”Also: Melania and Ivanka Trump have been mostly absent from the former president’s side as he rages against the 91 felony charges brought against him in four different trials. Amy Wilentz comments on the news, the rumors, and the photos.

Harold Meyerson reports on California raising pay for fast food workers. Amy Wilentz reports on the news from Haiti. Gary Younge talks about Black writing and Black writers.

Harold Meyerson analyzes Biden's weak poll numbers and historic labor activism. Marc Cooper comments on the 50th anniversary of Chile's coup. Heather Cox Richardson discusses her book 'Democracy Awakening' and Americans' fight for equality

The Biggest news from the NLRB in decades: Harold Meyerson reports - also: the auto workers prepare to strike.Also: Harvard's first woman president, Drew Faust, talks about how she became a civil rights and anti-war activist in the sixties: her new book is "Necessary Trouble."