The.Ink

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit the.inkToday we present for our subscribers the full audio recording of our conversation with Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal.Rep. Jayapal, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, has been one of the most visible progressives in Congress; she’s long been a defender of immigrant rights and an outspoken voice for reproductive freedom and called early on for a ceasefire in Gaza. She’s also forged an effective partnership with the President, working closely with the White House to deliver on major legislation such as the Infrastructure Bill and to shape the Inflation Reduction Act.We talked to the Congresswoman about what it’s like to work with the President, how the Gaza war has changed U.S. politics, why Biden’s empathy is both his superpower and an obstacle to some of his biggest goals and why she sees the progressive agenda as the best way to fight Trumpism and preserve democracy.To read an edited transcript of this conversation, please visit the link below.A request for those who haven’t yet joined us: The interviews and essays that we share here take research and editing and much more. We work hard, and we are eager to bring on more writers, more voices. But we need your help to keep this going. Join us today as a paid subscriber to support the kind of independent media you want to exist.Photo by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit the.inkToday we present for our paid subscribers the full audio recording of our conversation with Surgeon General Vivek Murthy.Earlier this week, the surgeon general intensified his call for the regulation of youth use of social media platforms, asking for the use of warning labels akin to those applied to products such as alcohol and tobacco. While some researchers have objected, suggesting the data isn’t yet complete enough to make that kind of decision, for Dr. Murthy the time to act is now, as today’s children and teenagers simply don’t have the luxury of waiting for further research.We spoke with Dr. Murthy in April, as he was still planning the next steps in his work to address social media harms in the face of continued legislative inaction, so the conversation provides unique insight into the thinking behind this week’s announcement.We also covered many of the other issues Dr. Murthy has been concerned with as the nation’s chief physician: the epidemic of loneliness plaguing Americans, what the way we work means for people struggling to parent, and what he thinks we need to do to reach men in crisis before the authoritarians who are offering easy answers that threaten democracy.To read our edited transcript of the conversation, just click on the link below.A request for those who haven’t yet joined us: The interviews and essays that we share here take research and editing and much more. We work hard, and we are eager to bring on more writers, more voices. But we need your help to keep this going. Join us today to support the kind of independent media you want to exist.Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit the.inkToday we present for our subscribers the full audio recording of our conversation with the author and policy expert Heather McGhee.In her influential book, The Sum of Us, McGhee argues against the idea that progress for some must come at the expense of others. It’s the opposite, she maintains, famously recounting how, when the racist response to desegregation drained public pools across America, everyone — including white families — lost out.McGhee tells us about how to argue against zero-sum politics, why reparations would provide seed capital for the future and benefit everyone, why Trump is the only political leader in America currently able to make meaning for people, and how Democrats can learn to reach voters more deeply and durably.To read an edited transcript of this conversation, please visit the link below.And for our earlier interview with Heather McGhee, on the thinking that went into her book The Sum of Us, how to combat disinformation, and the anxieties driving America’s political crises; click on this link.A request for those who haven’t yet joined us: The interviews and essays that we share here take research and editing and much more. We work hard, and we are eager to bring on more writers, more voices. But we need your help to keep this going. Join us today to support the kind of independent media you want to exist.Photo: Andreas Burgess

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit the.inkToday we present for our subscribers the full audio recording of our conversation with the author and activist Naomi Klein.Klein has written a series of books — among them No Logo and The Shock Doctrine — that have met their cultural moments and changed the way people think and talk. Her work on labor, climate change, globalization, and the other critical issues of our time has driven not just her writing and filmmaking, but a lifetime of activism.In a wide-ranging, thoughtful, and challenging conversation, Klein speaks about her most recent book, Doppelgänger, which follows a case of mistaken identity and goes on to explore how the left abandoned political territory to the right and paved the way for the resurgence of fascism. We also discuss how to break the historical cycles of trauma that lock nations into violent solutions, what people need to understand about Israeli politics and why it’s so hard to stop the war in Gaza, and how Biden and the Democrats need to think about the upcoming election.To read our edited transcript of the conversation, just click on the links below.A request for those who haven’t yet joined us: The interviews and essays that we share here take research and editing and much more. We work hard, and we are eager to bring on more writers, more voices. But we need your help to keep this going. Join us today to support the kind of independent media you want to exist.​​Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images; Naomi Klein photo by Sebastian Nevols

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit the.inkToday, we present the full audio recording of our conversation with Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan. She began her career as an antitrust researcher and reporter, eventually becoming a lawyer and public servant, and along the way publishing a groundbreaking paper that turned 40 years of conservative thinking on antitrust on its head.Named by President Biden to lead an ambitious anti-monopoly effort as the country’s top commerce enforcer, Khan has put her theory into practice, blocking major mergers, taking the fight to big tech, and issuing new rulings to protect consumers, including bans on noncompete agreements, junk fees, and other the abuses of power that limit democracy as it’s lived each day.Subscribers can listen to the interview right here in the Substack app, and we encourage you to check out the edited transcript — just click on the link below.We hope you enjoy the discussion — and please let us know what you think.A request for those who haven’t yet joined us: The interviews and essays that we share here take research and editing and much more. We work hard, and we are eager to bring on more writers, more voices. But we need your help to keep this going. Join us today to support the kind of independent media you want to exist.Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images