

Scheer Intelligence
Scheerpost
Scheer Intelligence features thoughtful and provocative conversations with "American Originals" -- people who, through a lifetime of engagement with political issues, offer unique and often surprising perspectives on the day's most important issues.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jan 29, 2021 • 46min
The FBI’s Crusade Against MLK Was Darker Than You Think
Director Sam Pollard did a deep dive into the FBI’s surveillance of MLK under the leadership of J. Edgar Hoover in his documentary “MLK / FBI,” released by IFC Films earlier this month. Listen to the full conversation between Pollard and Scheer as they discuss the implications of that question, as well as address the highly controversial summaries of the FBI’s MLK surveillance tapes discovered by King’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, David J. Garrow in 2019.

Jan 22, 2021 • 59min
Jimmy Carter’s Foreign Policy Record Reveals Both Hope and Cynicism (Part 2)
In the second part of the “Scheer Intelligence” interview with Jonathan Alter, the author of “His Very Best” examines the former president’s mixed foreign policy record.

Jan 15, 2021 • 51min
Jimmy Carter's Lifelong Efforts to Atone for White America's Sins (Part 1)
Raised in privilege amidst the barbarism of segregation, the oft-maligned president eventually embraced the New South liberalism that just swept his native Georgia’s election.

Dec 25, 2020 • 45min
Death by UFO at Heaven’s Gate: A Dark Fable for Christmas
Clay Tweel’s HBO Max documentary on the New Age “cult of cults” that claimed dozens of lives raises powerful questions about the checkered histories of various religions.

Dec 18, 2020 • 51min
How Reagan paved the way for Trump
Matt Tyrnauer, director of the devastating Showtime documentary blockbuster “The Reagans,” reveals how Donald Trump was the logical heir to the Reagan Revolution beginning with his plagiarism of the Gipper’s “Make America Great Again” slogan and ending with the abysmal failure to confront a medical pandemic.

Dec 11, 2020 • 37min
What Aaron Sorkin Got Wrong in ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’
Historian Jon Wiener, who wrote “Conspiracy in the Streets” on the subject of the Netflix film, sets the record straight on this week’s “Scheer Intelligence.”

Dec 4, 2020 • 42min
How the Democratic Party Became a Vehicle of Aristocracy
In the second part of a two-part interview, Thomas Frank explores how anti-populism made liberals comfortable with plutocracy.

Nov 27, 2020 • 34min
Benjamin Madley and a California Genocide
Robert Scheer sits down with professor and author Benjamin Madley to talk about a little known part of California's history.

Nov 20, 2020 • 55min
Don’t Believe Anything You Were Told About Populism
Thomas Frank examines the history of American populism, and how it was distorted by Democrats and co-opted by Republicans.

Nov 13, 2020 • 49min
The Real Reason the Blue Wave Never Materialized
Dennis Kucinich, former Ohio congressman and mayor of Cleveland, weighs in on what the Democratic Party keeps getting wrong.