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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit the.inkWe just got off a wide-ranging call with messaging guru Anat Shenker-Osorio (rejoining us after a long break to fix things in European politics and Run for Something president Amanda Litman, who has a new book out called When We’re In Charge: The Next Generation’s Guide to Leadership, which applies what she’s learned in bringing up a younger wave of Democratic leaders to any organization.We talked about the tension within the Democratic Party between the centrists who feel that they’ve gotten it right all along and only need to tweak messaging to win elections and those who see the need for a real policy change, whether postmortems of the 2024 election have value, how housing is shaping politics and leadership along generational lines, the power of showing up and protesting from the Visibility Brigades hanging signs on freeway overpasses to the activists who showed up to protest Medicaid cuts at the Rayburn Building this week, and the challenges for younger leaders — in Democratic politics and in any private or public organzation — as they try to break with the models of the past and redefine what it is to lead, work, and build in the future. We hope you’ll check out the full video above and pick up Amanda Litman’s new book for more of her insights — even if you’re not a millennial! If you appreciate these kinds of interviews, will you support independent media by becoming a supporting subscriber now?More Live conversations next week!Come back next week for a full slate of Live conversations! On Monday, May 19, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, when we will be talking with the great economist Paul Krugman. Then on Tuesday, May 20, at 12:00 p.m. Eastern, we will speak with Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut. Then for our Book Club meeting (open to supporting Ink subscribers) on Wednesday, May 21, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we’ll be joined by Abundance authors Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. On Thursday, May 22, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we’ll talk with author and finance expert Ramit Sethi, then at 4:00 p.m., we’ll be speaking with the journalist Jim Acosta. And on Friday, May 23, also at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we will talk to Working Families Party director Maurice Mitchell. We hope to see you all there!To join and watch, download the Substack app (click on the button below) and turn on notifications — you’ll get an alert that we’re live, and you can watch from your iOS or Android mobile device. And if you haven’t already, subscribe to The Ink to access full videos of past conversations and to join the chat during our live events.If you appreciate the work that goes into The Ink and haven’t already done so, we hope you’ll become a supporting subscriber.That’s how we keep the lights on, pay our writers and editors a fair wage, and build the new media we all deserve. When you subscribe, you help us reach more people.Join us today. Or give a gift or group subscription.

We just talked with Pete Buttigieg, the former secretary of transportation and once (and future?) presidential candidate, (and 8,400 of you). We got into EVERYTHING.I asked him what’s going on with air travel, why Democrats are more unpopular than Trump, whether he now favors a bolder policy approach than the one he campaigned on in 2020, whether he can imagine himself in a political partnership with AOC, if there is anything he admires about Trump, whether voters are right to feel ghosted by Democrats, how he is deciding about running for president, whether he thinks being gay is still a hindrance to his chances, and what he hopes to be able to tell his grandkids about what he did at this moment in history.He spoke in the end about the future that could be if Americans meet this right — seriously address the challenges of the crisis of democracy, of rising inequality, and the transformation of labor and society by artificial intelligence, and more.“We don’t run the risk of living in a time that doesn’t matter,” Buttigeig told us. “We want to look back from the perspective of ‘Here’s how we made it right’ rather than ‘that’s when it all went wrong forever.’”If you appreciate the work that goes into The Ink and haven’t already done so, we hope you’ll become a supporting subscriber.That’s how we keep the lights on, pay our writers and editors a fair wage, and build the new media we all deserve. When you subscribe, you help us reach more people.Join us today. Or give a gift or group subscription. Get full access to The.Ink at the.ink/subscribe

We are opening this video to all. But we’re also asking candidly that you support the work that goes into bringing you The Ink by becoming a paying subscriber.Your support is how we keep the lights on, pay our writers and editors a fair wage, and build the new media we all deserve. When you subscribe, you help us reach more people. Join us today, or if you are already a member, give a gift or group subscription. Get full access to The.Ink at the.ink/subscribe

We just got off another truly inspiring Live conversation, this time with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the former physician, epidemiologist, and public health official running for Senate in Michigan. He talked to us about what being a child of immigrants taught him about America, why he moved from public health to politics, his vision for the future, and why defeating Trump isn’t just about winning the political fight, but winning the peace with a radical empathy that addresses the insecurity MAGA voters feel, and brings them around to a shared idea of the America that could be.As El-Sayed told us:So often we are so frustrated by where we are as a society, about all the pain that we've seen at the hands of Donald Trump, that we want to go to those folks who support him and be like, “Don't you see how stupid this decision was?” And we want to prove them wrong.And I think if we're serious about the future, we've got to get them to being right. And that's a very different process.That's not about me being right and you being wrong. That's about you being right because I created a space within which you felt safe enough to have a sense where you could look at facts and reality and say, “You know what? I made a mistake.” Where we're not going to jump on them and be like, “Yeah, you did.” No, no. Hey, we're all trying to move forward here. We get that sometimes when scary, powerful people come along, that they turn other people against the truth. So let's get folks to be right.You won’t want to miss this one, and we hope you’ll share it far and wide. Let’s keep going. Let’s keep growing. Thank you, one and all.This was a great conversation, and one which we think everyone needs to hear, so we’re keeping it open to all in the spirit of public service. We’re trying to be good citizens by keeping as many of these conversations as we can open to all. A lot of other newsletters don’t do that. But we want to know if people will support our work even when we do make it available at no cost.If you appreciate this labor and haven’t already done so, we hope you’ll become a supporting subscriber.That’s how we keep the lights on, pay our writers and editors a fair wage, and build the new media we all deserve. When you subscribe, you help us reach more people.Join us today. Or give a gift or group subscription.A programming note: More Live conversation!Join us again on Monday, May 5, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, when we’ll be back with scholar of fascism Ruth Ben-Ghiat. We hope to see you all there!To join and watch, download the Substack app (click on the button below) and turn on notifications — you’ll get an alert that we’re live and you can watch from your iOS or Android mobile device. And if you haven’t already, subscribe to The Ink to access full videos of past conversations and to join the chat during our live events.Readers like you make The Ink possible and keep it independent. If you haven’t already joined us, sign up today for our mailing list, support our work, and help build a free and fearless media future by becoming a paying subscriber. And if you’re already a part of our community, thank you! And we’d appreciate it if you’d consider giving a subscription to The Ink as a gift or for a group you belong to. Or pick up a mug, tote bag, or T-shirt! We appreciate it. Get full access to The.Ink at the.ink/subscribe

When we talked to former Donald Trump lawyer and confidant Michael Cohen last week, he spoke to us in a way few people can about how he’s dealing — very personally — with life under this regime. You’ll want to see the entire conversation, but what really struck us was his ability to look back on his own experience of misplaced loyalty (he went to prison on campaign finance charges stemming from the Stormy Daniels payoff scandal) to find lessons for us all about living bravely through this moment.We know some of you prefer reading to watching, so we’re publishing text excerpts of the conversation below. If you missed our live conversation, we encourage you to watch the video above.In the public interest, we are opening this video and transcript to all. But we’re also asking candidly that folks support the half dozen or so people who now write for and edit and otherwise support the work of The Ink by becoming a paying subscriber today.Take a moment to support fearless, independent reporting, and to help us keep bringing you conversations like this one. Or give a gift or group subscription.Your support allows us to open these ideas to as many people as possible, with no paywall.How do you, given what you're holding… you've held what you've dealt with what you've gone through to fight this administration what you're holding now in terms of all the knowledge and of what's happening and the same way everybody else in this stream and everybody on the stream has not gone to prison the way you have but are experiencing the blizzard of of insanity the way you are. How do you attempt to keep healthy, keep your mind, you know, working?Like, what do you, at a very practical level, because I think a lot of people are dealing with this just when they open up the news on their phone. What are you trying to do to stay sane, given all of this?The busier that I keep myself, the less I have time to think. The more time that I have to think, the worse the PTSD gets. Sleeping is a disaster because that's when your mind works overtime. I haven't had a good night's sleep in probably seven years.Remember, as of yesterday, yesterday was the seven-year anniversary of the raid on my home, the hotel room I was staying at, and my law office by the FBI that sparked this entire chaos.My journey is not a journey that is anti-Trump. I don't care if the last name was Trump, if it was Jones, if it was Smith, if it was Cohen. It makes no difference to me what the last name of the president is. My concern is for what he is doing. So I tried to take my past affection and my loyalty to him. And I have pushed that way off to the side. I don't think of this as a Trump policy. I think of it as a President Trump policy.And it may be hard for people to understand, but you know, I was incredibly close with him, 15 years basically sitting shoulder to shoulder with him, protecting him from basically everything,providing him with advice and guidance that would only benefit him, not harm him. And sometimes, as I'm watching and I can't discern the difference between yesterday and then today.And I'm wondering, where is the Michael Cohen in this inner circle? Where is the Michael Cohen in this administration? To say to him, before he announces this willy-nilly, self-inflicted tariff policy stupidity, “Mr. President, you can't do this. Let me just give you my prediction on how this is going to end up. You, of course, you're gonna do whatever you want, but let me give you my prediction.”I did that in 2017 after Steve Miller, the immigration ban, which was really a Muslim ban. And I was in the office shortly thereafter, like a day or so, and he asked me what I thought because they were intending on doing a second round of it. And I said, “Mr. President, can I speak freely?”He goes, yeah.I said, “You're f*****g crazy.” Just like that, in his office.Are you f*****g kidding me? You know I have hundreds of friends who are Muslim, right? Some of whom are my best friends since 1984.So I said, “You're basically telling them they have to leave the country. How is it possible that you think it's OK to ban an entire religion from the country if it has to do with just Somalia? OK, I understand that. But you can't make it this broad.” And he took my advice to heart. And that's why you didn't see a 2.0.There is no Michael Cohen there. And sometimes based upon my loyalty that I had in my relationship that I had to him going back to like 2005, I sometimes I almost feel like I want to pick up the phone, call him and say, “What the f**k are you doing? Why? Knock it off. Do something that will give you a legacy that future generations with the last name Trump will be proud of. Not wrecking the global economy. Who gives a s**t if Xi Jinping comes on his f*****g knees begging to you, begging you for forgiveness? How does that benefit Trump? Your legacy, how does that benefit the American people? How does it benefit future generations?”It does not. And that's the problem. This entire group of enablers — they're only worried about themselves. This is all.Do you think you could break through to him in some way because of that history of loyalty in spite of everything that's happened? If you made that call, do you think it would go anywhere?Today?Today?No, I don't think he would even take the call. I don't think he would even take the call.If the two of us were sitting in a room, just us, and we both were able to lower the fences that we have built around us to protect ourselves from each other. Yeah, I'm certain he would have listened. It wouldn't have taken a Bill Ackman or a Jamie Dimon to get him to reverse what he was doing here.Because somebody breathed into his ear this notion that these tariffs are going to be great for him. It's gonna be a major win. And ultimately, America will be better off for it. It's gonna bring back manufacturing. No, it's not.We're never going back to being a manufacturing country. Too expensive in this country to manufacture. Other countries do it better and much cheaper.And so these are the struggles that I live with. I live with anger. I live with sadness. I live with confusion. I live with yesterday being in solitary confinement with no food, no ability to shower, no change of clothing for 51 days, or my 13 months in Otisville, the unconstitutional remand, when they first took me, because I refused to sign a counterfeit document. Imagine how far Bill Barr's administration, his Department of Justice, went in order to unconstitutionally remand me.They gave me a document that doesn't exist, that they wrote specifically for me. And when the very first paragraph is a massive First Amendment constitutional violation because I refuse to sign that document, I was handcuffed, shackled, stripped out, put into a paper jumpsuit, put into a freezer for three hours to the point I thought my teeth were gonna fall out of my jaw because I was so cold and my jaw was rattling so hard, I thought my teeth were gonna break. I've never felt cold like that before.And then to be transported back to Otisville to be put back into solitary until, thank God, a million times for Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein and my attorney, Danya Perry, who filed that habeas corpus, and the judge determined it was retaliatory and a violation of my First Amendment, constitutional rights. A federal court judge had to enjoin the United States government, the DOJ, the Attorney General, from continuing to violate my constitutional rights?How does something like this even happen? So for me, this is what unfortunately is on the loop that exists in my brain all the time.It's what I wrote in my whole book. Revenge talks about this. And that's why I think it's important for me to continue to speak up so that it never happens to anyone else ever again.That's almost the journey that unfortunately my life has taken me into. And I'm willing to accept it.Well, I know everybody watching this joins me in feeling immensely grateful for your truth-telling voice now and sorry for what you have to go through every day, not just in the limelight, but just in your own life and the quiet of your own life to do that.We are seeing in real time the opposite, generally in this society, a society with no bravery, no courage, people capitulating left and right. So it almost is like an alien phenomenon when you see someone who's willing to tell the truth, willing to stand up.As you can see from all the hearts there, a lot of people are very grateful. So thank you. Always appreciate talking to you, and always appreciate your voice, and take care of yourself.Watch the entire show, with philosopher Olufemi O. Taiwo joining Anand and Michael Cohen, at the link below.And you’ll also want to see the powerful town hall Cohen hosted last night with Jim Acosta. It’s not to be missed.A programming note: More Live conversations next weekWe’re on the road this week, so we’ll be taking a break from our regularly scheduled Live conversations. We’ll be back next week with some very special guests. On Tuesday, April 22, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we’ll talk with the economist Dani Rodrik. And on Wednesday, April 23, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern, we’ll be speaking with the writer, lawyer, and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich. You won’t want to miss either one, so mark your calendars now!To join and watch, download the Substack app (click on the button below) and turn on notifications — you’ll get an alert that we’re live, and you can watch from your iOS or Android mobile device. And if you haven’t already, subscribe to The Ink to access full videos of past conversations and to join the chat during our live events.Readers like you make The Ink possible and keep it independent. If you haven’t already joined us, sign up today for our mailing list, support our work, and help build a free and fearless media future by becoming a paying subscriber. And if you’re already a part of our community, thank you! And we’d appreciate it if you’d consider giving a subscription to The Ink as a gift. Or consider sharing a group subscription with family and friends. Or pick up a mug, tote bag, or T-shirt! We appreciate it. Get full access to The.Ink at the.ink/subscribe

We just had a deep, wide-ranging, and even inspiring conversation with more than 2,000 Ink readers and two guests from very different worlds: the philosopher Olufemi O. Taiwo and Michael Cohen, the former Donald Trump lawyer turned anti-Trump activist. Both conversations started with how to make sense of all the tariff chaos — and how Trump was finally “disciplined by reality.” But that was just the beginning.Beyond the tariffs, both Taiwo and Cohen, in their different ways, ended up talking about how essential it is going to be to get millions of everyday Americans to understand how they’re under threat, how their rights are being taken away, and why they need to defend them — and to get them into the fight against the regime.As Cohen told us, that means everyone pulling together to face Trump with no fear. And as Taiwo put it, progressives need to reach out and embrace everybody to do it. The reason Black Lives Matter provoked the far right so much is that it was truly frightened by the prospect of normies — the brunch crowd — demanding justice.Some of the other things we covered:* Look at the “pause” on tariffs as a triumph of organizing against Trump — but it was big capital doing the organizing. What can the resistance learn from that?* The attack on the universities is a lesson: staying safe by being quiet or withdrawing is not the way to win. You can’t count on individual bravery, but you can count on collective courage.* Progress is reversible! The gains of civil rights were substantial, and we can’t lose sight of what’s being taken away, but we never should have thought that they didn’t require defense.* Trump has no fear of anything and only thinks transactionally — that means he does care what the 77 million voters who backed him think. And that’s an opportunity to convince them, in the simplest terms.Want to know more? Michael Cohen will be joining Jim Acosta for a town hall in New York City next week. And be sure to check out Olufemi O. Taiwo’s book Elite Capture, which goes deep into many of the issues we talked about today.Watch the video and share it widely — you really won’t want to miss this one.In the public interest, we are opening this video to all.Though we know that we’re in uncertain times, we’re also asking that folks support the half dozen or so people who now write for and edit and otherwise support The Ink by becoming a paying subscriber.Take a moment to support fearless, independent reporting and to help us keep bringing you conversations like this one.If you can’t do that right now, we understand — but you can help in other ways, and one of the best is by sharing this conversation with five people you think will appreciate or be moved by it.Stand up for media that bows to no tyrant or billionaire. Join us today. Or give a gift or group subscription. Get full access to The.Ink at the.ink/subscribe

Critics on the left and the right called out Cory Booker’s record-breaking speech this week for being “performative.” But what’s that all about?Performance matters. Nobody wants to listen to a politician rattle off a list of statistical explanations. When you speak to people about something important, you need to make them feel a certain way, not just think a certain way. Otherwise, they are not going to act.That goes for Booker holding the Senate floor for 25 hours (and making C-SPAN must-see TV), and that also goes for you, trying to convince your friends and neighbors to get together to go out to a protest if they’ve never been before. And that’s what we talked to political sage Anat Shenker-Osorio about this afternoon, along with what to make of the victory in the Wisconsin supreme court election, how to talk about the tariffs (and how to avoid the trap of explaining too much), why the Democrats missed the mark on the budget, and how to plan for the Hands Off! protests this coming weekend. As with anything Shenker-Osorio has to say, you won’t want to miss it.We’re leaving this open to all. But please support this work and subscribe if you can. When you do, it allows us to keep at it and keep reaching a wider audience. We really appreciate it!Take a moment to support fearless, independent reporting, and to help us keep bringing you conversations like this one. Or give a gift or group subscription.Stand up for media that bows to no tyrant or billionaire. Join us today. Or give a gift or group subscription.A programming note: More Live conversations!Join us again next week for two great live discussions. On Tuesday, April 8, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern, we’ll be speaking with the author, documentarian, and political commentator Joy-Ann Reid, and on Thursday, April 10, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, the philosopher and author Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò will join us. We hope to see you for both!To join and watch, download the Substack app (click on the button below) and turn on notifications — you’ll get an alert that we’re live and you can watch from your iOS or Android mobile device. And if you haven’t already, subscribe to The Ink to access full videos of past conversations and to join the chat during our live events.Readers like you make The Ink possible and keep it independent. If you haven’t already joined us, sign up today for our mailing list, support our work, and help build a free and fearless media future by becoming a paying subscriber. And if you’re already a part of our community, thank you! And we’d appreciate it if you’d consider giving a subscription to The Ink as a gift or for a group you belong to. Or pick up a mug, tote bag, or T-shirt! We appreciate it. Get full access to The.Ink at the.ink/subscribe

I just had a great conversation with the terrific Jim Acosta. It’s great to have Jim on Substack as well. We talked with realness about what is going on, but I also gave what I think are causes for optimism and hope.I hope you enjoy the conversation. Thank you for standing up for independent media.Your support is how we keep the lights on, pay our writers and editors a fair wage, and build the new media we all deserve. When you subscribe, you help us reach more people.Join us today, or if you are already a member, give a gift or group subscription. Get full access to The.Ink at the.ink/subscribe

Last weekend, #teslatakedown had its biggest global day of action yet. This coming Saturday, April 5, nearly 1,000 “Hands Off!” rallies are scheduled across the U.S. Is this the beginning of large-scale resistance to the Trump-Musk(-Vance?) regime?We just talked to Ruth Ben-Ghiat and nearly 4,000 readers of Lucid and The Ink about their hopes and plans for the upcoming protests, about what to make of Yale intellectuals going into exile, about why so many of our power elites seem to see their f**k-you money as f**k-me money, how to deal with authoritarian trial balloons involving Greenland and a third term, and what is working in the resistance.Share this far and wide. Subscribe to Lucid. And let’s keep going. Let’s keep growing. Thank you one and all.In the public interest, we are opening this video to all. But we’re also asking candidly that folks support the half dozen or so people who now write for and edit and otherwise support the work of The Ink by becoming a paying subscriber.Take a moment to support fearless, independent reporting, and to help us keep bringing you conversations like this one. Or give a gift or group subscription.Stand up for media that bows to no tyrant or billionaire. Join us today. Or give a gift or group subscription. Get full access to The.Ink at the.ink/subscribe

When Elon Musk hosted “Saturday Night Live” back in May of 2021, he went public with his Asperger’s diagnosis, linking innovation and neurodivergence in a way that — in that moment — made him a role model for a community that’s often struggled to find employment or acceptance. Since then, Musk has referred to that diagnosis to justify how out of touch his motivations seem with society’s (or even humanity’s), which is more controversial. And now that he’s become arguably the world’s most powerful person and his politics have turned in a direction that threatens the lives and livelihoods of millions, commentators are divided on what to make of his claims. Many accept his explanations, making sense of his political moves in terms of his autism, while others — including those in the autistic community — argue for separating his political conduct from his neurodivergence.There’s more heat than light on this issue right now, so we reached out to someone who actually knows what they’re talking about: Simon Baron-Cohen, a psychologist and author who is one of the world’s leading experts on autism. His recent book The Pattern Seekers is essential reading for anyone interested in how people with autism or on the spectrum may have built not just Silicon Valley, but human civilization itself.Baron-Cohen joined us to discuss our changing understanding of autism, what it means to live in a tech-driven world increasingly shaped by leaders who are on the autism spectrum, and how we can balance the innovative drive of super-systematizers with the empathy that’s critical to holding society together.In the public interest, we are opening this video to all. But we’re also asking candidly that folks support the half dozen or so people who write for and edit and otherwise support the work of The Ink by becoming a paying subscriber.Take a moment to support fearless, independent reporting, and to help us keep bringing you conversations like this one. Or give a gift or group subscription.Stand up for media that bows to no tyrant or billionaire. Join us today. Or give a gift or group subscription. Get full access to The.Ink at the.ink/subscribe