Scheer Intelligence
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.
Latest episodes
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.
Nov 6, 2020 • 51min
The Only Meaningful Way to Save American Journalism
Publicly-funded media models make a lot of Americans nervous, but Victor Pickard argues it may be the only way to repair our tattered democracy.
Oct 30, 2020 • 46min
Tracing America’s Brutal Imperialist History Through Its Military Bases
Political anthropologist David Vine argues that the most visible evidence of the country’s global empire are the thousands of military installations it has around the world.
Oct 23, 2020 • 54min
America’s Prized Legal System Only Works for the Rich
Attorney Ronald Goldfarb offers a scathing indictment of American law and lawyers in his new book, The Price of Justice.
