

The Nation Podcasts
The Nation Magazine
Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.
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Aug 29, 2025 • 54min
Nasser Hospital Bombing, Trump’s Eyes on Venezuela, India Tariffs | American Prestige
Danny and Derek get in one last news update before Danny moves to an undisclosed American Prestige satellite campus. This week: In Israel-Palestine, the IPC formally declares a famine in Gaza (3:21), Israel bombs Nasser Hospital (6:34), and Trump hosts a White House “day after” meeting (13:25); Europe moves to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran (16:16); Trump’s 50% tariff on Indian goods goes into effect (12:04); changes to de minimis rules force postal services to suspend US-bound shipments (27:23); South Korea’s Lee Jae-myung visits DC and avoids the Zelensky treatment (29:45); in Sudan, RSF forces advance around Al-Fashir (33:15) as an Anne Applebaum Atlantic article sparks outrage (35:43); peace talks between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and M23 finally resume (38:36); Trump promises Ukraine continued security help, but there is still no end to the war in sight (39:50); the Danish government summons a US diplomat over Greenland (44:23); Trump might be preparing to oust Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro (47:00); and the Pentagon is interested in an AI propaganda tool (50:42).Danny on Hasan Piker’s showDerek and Eleanor Jangea on The Majority ReportThe AP DiscordAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Aug 28, 2025 • 1h 1min
How China’s Renewable Push Upends Geopolitics | Tech Won't Save Us
Paris Marx is joined by Kate Mackenzie and Tim Sahay to discuss the geopolitics behind China’s investments in green tech and electrification, and how it presents the prospect of a new development model based on renewables instead of fossil fuels.Kate Mackenzie is an adjunct fellow at Macquarie University. Tim Sahay is co-director of the Net Zero Industrial Policy Lab at Johns Hopkins University. They are the co-writers of the Polycrisis newsletter from Phenomenal World.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Aug 27, 2025 • 39min
Trump’s National Guard Strategy—Plus, the Secret Behind ‘Huck Finn’ | Start Making Sense
What is Trump’s strategy in deploying the National Guard to L.A., then D.C., and now probably Chicago and New York? Does he want the military in the street of blue cities for the midterms next year? They will still elect Democrats to the House. John Nichols comments.Also: ‘Huckleberry Finn’ is America's great anti-slavery novel, but there's a secret behind it: Mark Twain, the author, wasn't always anti-slavery and anti-racist; in fact he fought, briefly, for the Confederacy. Adam Hochschild explains how Twain changed his mind. (Adam reviewed Ron Chernow’s new bio of Twain in the latest issue of The Nation magazine.)Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Aug 26, 2025 • 1h 4min
Columbia, Trump, and the Palestine Exception w/ Rashid Khalidi | American Prestige
Danny and Derek welcome historian Rashid Khalidi back to the program, this time to talk about Columbia University’s agreement with the Trump administration. They discuss the university equating criticism of Israel with antisemitism, the school bringing in outside monitors, bipartisan U.S. support for Israel despite shifting public opinion, and how donor influence and neoliberal management are both reshaping universities and eroding the humanities. They also preview Dr. Khalidi’s upcoming free public lecture series on Palestinian history.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Aug 22, 2025 • 48min
Trump-Putin Summit, India Turns From US to China, and Bolivia Election w/ Olivia Arigho-Stiles | American Prestige
Subscribe now to skip the ads and hear the full interview on the Bolivia election.Don’t forget our Welcome to the Crusades and Of This World series!Derek took away Danny’s iPad, so now Danny has to help with the news. This week: the great Trump-Putin summit takes place (1:39) as Zelensky visits the White House (5:44); Hamas accepts the newest ceasefire (9:39), the IDF appears to have begun its Gaza City operation (12:44), and the Israeli government approves the E1 settlement in the West Bank (15:46); Wang Yi of China visits India in a sign of improving relations, as US-India relations are worsening (18:48); the Myanmar junta schedules an election (21:49); the DRC-M23 negotiations continue to falter (23:11); the US sends warships to Venezuela (25:26); and Derek goes into detail with Olivia Arigho-Stiles about the results of the Bolivia election (27:08).Read Olivia’s piece in Jacobin, “Is This the End of MAS?”Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Aug 21, 2025 • 60min
Why Countries Must Fight For Digital Sovereignty | Tech Won't Save Us
Paris Marx is joined by Cecilia Rikap to discuss how countries’ dependence on US tech companies is harming them and why they need to get serious about digital sovereignty. Cecilia Rikap is Associate Professor in Economics at University College London and Head of Research at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Aug 20, 2025 • 46min
The Mamdani Interview—Plus, Trump in Court | Start Making Sense
In The Nation’s interview with Zohran Mamdani, he talks how he won the New York City Democratic primary for mayor, by addressing the city’s affordability crisis—and what the Democrats can learn from his victory. Katrina vanden Heuvel and John Nichols, who conducted the interview, introduce our excerpts and set the stage.Also: It’s time to take a step back from the daily barrage of bad news to look at the big picture of the strategy Trump has been following: David Cole explains how he’s exploited the power of the federal government, not just to attack his political opponents – the Democratic Party - but to weaken the institutions of civil society, which form the bedrock of democracy.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Aug 19, 2025 • 1h 14min
Self-Censorship w/ Glenn Loury | American Prestige
Danny and Derek Davison welcome to the program economist Glenn Loury, host of The Glenn Show, to talk about the re-release of his 1994 book Self-Censorship. They discuss the reasons he originally wrote the book, including self-censorship among intellectuals in late 1980s Eastern Europe as well as the response to Glenn’s critiques of US debates on race and civil rights at the time. They then tie these themes to postwar economics, current debates about “wokeness,” discourse around Gaza, and academic freedom.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Aug 17, 2025 • 43min
The Great Canadian Betrayal | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
In April, the Liberal Party of Canada, under the leadership of Mark Carney, won an election that heartened opponents of the right-wing. Carney had run on the promise of fighting Donald Trump’s threats to annex Canada and also to bolster the Canadian state to deal with issues like affordable housing. But in office, Carney has been delivering something different than his rhetoric suggested: he has been servile to Trump and is promoting austerity. The journalist Luke Savage has written about Carney’s turn-around for both The Baffler and the Toronto Star. I talked to Luke not only about Carney’s policies but also why centrist technocratic liberals are so inept in fighting the far right. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Aug 15, 2025 • 43min
Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Deal, Israel Seeks Country to Expel Palestinians, Upcoming Russia-Ukraine Summit | American Prestige
Don't forget to check out our series "Welcome to the Crusades" and "Of This World."Danny and Derek’s The Life of a Go-Go Boy album is shelved indefinitely. Meanwhile, in world news: Armenia and Azerbaijan sign a U.S.-brokered peace deal (1:35); Israel prepares for an operation in Gaza City as it continues its search for countries willing to take in expelled Palestinians (8:36); Australia announces plans to recognize Palestine (12:59); Iran hosts an IAEA representative (14:58) as European states prepare to reimpose sanctions (16:45); the Thai-Cambodian border sees two new incidents (19:34); a Sudanese military leader meets with a Trump envoy (22:08); the president of the unrecognized state of Somaliland will reportedly visit the U.S. (24:12); the DRC-M23 peace talks appear to collapse (26:47); Trump agrees to a summit with Putin, leaving Ukraine and European leaders concerned, and Russia makes a breakthrough in the Ukrainian defensive line (29:19); a preview of the upcoming Bolivian election (34:55); Trump orders military force to be used against Latin American drug cartels (38:27); and the U.S. and China agree to extend their tariff détente (40:09).Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy