The.Ink

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit the.inkLet’s play a game. If we win, we stay free!I’m only half joking.Readers of The Ink will know that I am obsessed with the topic of messaging. I wrote about it in The Persuaders, and of course we regularly talk to our friend, the most memeable messaging maestro in this macabre maelstrom, Anat Shenker-Osorio. (That was not a message she would approve.)Toda…

What if the way Trump has bent American elites to his will is also the key to beating him?We talked earlier this afternoon with Ruth Ben-Ghiat — and more than 5,000 readers of The Ink and Lucid — about her new piece about moral collapse under Trump. Ruth writes about how Trump has attacked the idea of America at the level of the human soul, hollowing out not just institutions but people. But that also means an organized opposition can take the moral high ground and remind Americans of what they can be, beyond Trump.What does — or could — that kind of resistance look like? Can a progressive movement get the fossilized Democratic Party to face a reckoning? Is it time for a leadership fight, even if it seems inconvenient — and could that fight within the Democratic Party help mobilize people against authoritarianism?More people want to be free than want to be chained. A real opposition has to build solidarity, and bring together a coalition of movement organizations, faith groups, and labor — but it also needs to offer a better vision of life, and of what this country can be.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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit the.inkWhat Ruth Ben-Ghiat has forgotten about authoritarianism, most of us haven’t even learned yet. And we just talked to her — and 4,250 Ink and Lucid readers — about how why Elon Musk’s role in the Trump regime is something that has proved befuddling even to her: a power-sharing agreement between two strongmen.Does Trump see Musk just as a wrecking ball?Does Musk — an even more extreme far-right ideologue — see Trump as a useful tool?Meanwhile, Democrats may want to seem normal as the Republicans plunge into even more extreme far-right weirdness, but decorum won’t win victories — nor will working across the aisle to pass a budget. They’ll be blamed anyway — so why help?Can Democrats find the courage to fight the two-headed Trump-Musk monster? Can they follow Bernie Sanders’s lead, be there for people, pay attention to how they experience Trump’s and Musk’s attacks in their everyday lives, and lead them from individual pain to a real understanding of what the threat of authoritarianism means to everyone. Freedom is still the assignment.Share this far and wide. Subscribe to Lucid. And let’s keep going. Let’s keep growing. Thank you one and all.As always, “The Ink Live!” is open to all who join. Later, we post the full videos for our supporting subscribers to rewatch and share.Above, a short preview is open to all. If you want to watch the whole thing, subscribe. That’s how we keep the lights on, pay our writers and editors a fair wage, and build the new media we all deserve.Stand up for media that bows to no tyrant or billionaire. Join us today. Or give a gift or group subscription.

If you had billions of you dollars, wouldn’t you be brave?Isn’t the whole point of F-you money that you don’t have to be afraid of anyone?So how come America’s oligarchs seem so afraid of Donald Trump?How come America’s CEOs will do whatever their Dear Leader wants?How come so many media outlets won’t call a spade a spade even if that spade has been sharpened into a knife and stuck into the heart of our liberal democracy?I talked about all of this and more with the great pro-democracy fighters at the MeidasTouch — the media network developed by the brothers Ben, Brett, and Jordan Meiselas — who now host the biggest podcast in the country. It pulls in more people than Joe Rogan does. The Meiselas brothers have a Substack, too, called Meidas+. (We highly recommend subscribing here.) Anand went live with Ben and Brett to talk democracy and money and activism and the future of this journalism thing.So if you’re wondering why the people who have F-you money are scared of their own shadows and kowtowing to a fake billionaire,Or you want to know how a few families managed to take over our information environment (and how to fight back),Or you want to know how to get in at the very ground floor of activism and start getting the people around you onboard with your cause…Don’t miss this video (and please share it widely with your people).And be sure to subscribe to Meidas+, which is teaching the pro-democracy movement how to have a fighting spirit. Let’s go!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. Get full access to The.Ink at the.ink/subscribe

Enough.Enough despair at everyone who isn’t doing enough to stop Donald Trump.Enough fatalism. Enough waiting for somebody else.The brilliant political strategist Anat Shenker-Osorio just joined us with a clarion call for you, the people, taking matters into your own hands. It’s the only thing that has ever worked in times like this, she says.Here are her marching orders for you: build people power, starting by creating social proof of how many people feel as you do, and cultivate pressure from the ground up.Her ideas involve a brilliant new catch-all slogan (Free America!), suggestions of symbols and badges (“I’m in the KNOW”), thoughts about a general strike, and more.Share this far and wide. 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. Get full access to The.Ink at the.ink/subscribe

Thank you to those who tuned into my live call-in show with Christine Cowles, Liz Figenshu, Jan Seward, Eileen O'Connor, and Mimi Evans! All of your voices were so inspiring. And here’s the video, ICYMI.Share The Ink with people you know:Subscribe, if you haven’t yet, to help us grow and reach more and more people:And join me for my next live video in the app. Get full access to The.Ink at the.ink/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit the.inkWe just talked to Congressman Ro Khanna, the progressive Democrat who represents Silicon Valley, about why Democrats have been so slow to face the real emergency of Trump and Musk dismantling American institutions, how they can talk about the threat Trump represents and what America could look like in the future — and whether the Democrats need a change…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit the.inkWe just finished talking with Ruth Ben-Ghiat — and 5,111 Ink and Lucid readers — about the world-changing meeting in the Oval Office last Friday and much more.We talked about:* Some new language from Trump that Ruth noticed in the Oval Office meeting that reeks of his being compromised* The end of the “Free World” and the new incarnation America the meeting seemed to soft launch* How the USAID and other cuts dovetail with a Kremlin agenda of reducing the American footprint in the world* Elon Musk’s DOGE rampage as the grift that keeps on giving, as captured by a surreal new photograph this week* Whether the Democratic Party even knows it has a problem* Why it’s so important to refuse the story of your powerlessness, even as you find ways to take care of yourself and yoursAs always, these Lives are open to all who join. Later, we post the full videos for our supporting subscribers to rewatch and share.Above, a short preview is open to all. If you want to watch the whole thing, subscribe. That’s how we keep the lights on, pay our writers and editors a fair wage, and build the new media we all deserve.Stand up for media that bows to no tyrant or billionaire. Join us today.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit the.inkUkraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, visited the Oval Office today for a meeting meant to seal a minerals deal meant to pay for the U.S.’s ongoing support of his country’s struggle against the Russian invasion. But it turned instead into an outright shouting match with President Trump (and Hype Man/Vice President JD Vance) that seemed a lot more lik…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit the.inkWe just finished talking with Gabriel Sherman, the screenwriter behind The Apprentice, the new film exploring Donald Trump’s formative years and his relationship with the brutal, amoral lawyer and kingmaker Roy Cohn, whose three rules shape Trump’s every move to this day:* Attack. Attack. Attack.* Admit nothing. Deny everything.* Claim victory and never admit…