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Start Making Sense Clips
by Start Making Sense Clips
Start Making Sense
Episodes
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Amy Wilentz: Turmoil in Haiti
After gangs took over most of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s acting prime minister, Ariel Henry, agreed to step aside. Longtime Haiti observer Amy Wilentz analyzes the forces at work shaping the country’s next steps. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out:...
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Katha Pollitt: Republicans and no-fault divorce
You might think Republicans would take a breather after banning abortion in the states they control; but no: they’ve set their sights on a new target: no-fault divorce. Katha Pollitt explains. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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Brenda Stevenson on The Enslaved Black Family
The Black family under slavery and after -- down to Barack and Michelle and Sasha and Malia. Historian Brenda Stevenson explains; her new history of the enslaved black family is “What Sorrows Labour in My Parent’s Breast.” Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out:...
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Christina Gerhardt: Disappearing Islands
Climate change is raising sea levels, and soon low-lying coastal areas will be under water. But the most severe threat, the brunt of the suffering, is coming first to low-lying islands around the world -- even though they are least responsible for global warming. Christina Gerhardt comments – her...
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Adam Shatz on Writing and Political Commitment
What does it mean to be a politically committed writer? Adam Shatz talks about that—it’s the focus of his new book, “Writers and Missionaries: Essays on the Radical imagination.” He’s The Nation’s former literary editor and US editor of the LRB. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands...
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Adam Hochschild on Anti-Woke History
Ron DeSantis is campaigning for president promising to “stop woke history” – stop teaching about slavery and its legacy of institutional racism. Adam Hochschild found the history curriculum DeSantis wants—the Hillsdale College “1776 Curriculum.” He reports on what’s in it—and what’s not....
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Hollywood Writers on Strike: Josh Gondelman
11,500 members of the Writers Union are on strike--against the film, TV and streaming companies--with picket lines up in L.A. and New York. Both sides have prepared for a months-long conflict; award-winning TV writer Josh Gondelman explains the issues. Advertising Inquiries:...
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Eric Foner: Joe Biden, the GOP, and 'Freedom'
Joe Biden announced that the theme of his reelection campaign will be that the Democrats are the party of “freedom.” But the Republicans claim THEY are the defenders of freedom. Who is right? Eric Foner has the answer -- he's the author of "The Story of American Freedom." Advertising Inquiries:...
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Haitians Fight Back: Amy Wilentz
How a neighborhood in Port-au-Prince fought back against the gangs: Amy Wilentz comments on the news from Haiti. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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John Nichols on the Politics of Abortion Rights
Abortion rights will be a key issue for Democrats in the 2024 election, especially after Republican judges have tried to ban medication abortions. John Nichols comments. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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Afghan Girls in Exile: Shabana Basij-Rasikh
Afghan girls who escaped from the Taliban: the story of a boarding school that evacuated its students from Kabul during the chaotic withdrawal of the Americans, and moved -- to Kigali, Rwanda. SOLA, the School of Leadership Afghanistan is the place where Afghan girls study to become members of…
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Trump's 34 Felonies: Will they help or hurt him? Chris Lehmann comments.
34 felonies - will that change the 2024 election, or has everyone already made up their minds about Trump? Chris Lehman comments. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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Minor League Baseball Players Get Organized: Kelly Candaele and Peter Dreier
For a century, thousands of young baseball players have lived with low wages, overcrowded housing, and all-night rides in uncomfortable buses in order to play in baseball’s minor leagues, hoping to eventually make it to the majors. Now their lives are changing—because they organized a union.…
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Christian Appy on Vietnam War Protest in 1969
The largest anti-war demonstrations in American history were protests in the fall of 1969--with more than two million people in the streets demanding “End the War in Vietnam.” But did those demonstrations help end the war? Historian Chris Appy comments on the new documentary, “The Movement and…
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Gregg Gonsalves: Masks, Covid. and Fauci
Do masks work -- to help stop the spread of covid? A New York Times columnist recently said that they don’t, and cited an authoritative review of research as his source. But it turns he was wrong about that study. Gregg Gonsalves explains. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands…
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John Powers: Complaining about the Oscars
Sunday is Oscar night in America--and, as usual, we have a lot of complaints about the nominations. So does John Powers - he’s Critic at Large on the NPR show Fresh Air with Terry Gross. We talk about this year’s films we didn’t like – and some we thought were wonderful. Advertising Inquiries:...
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Kimberlé Crenshaw on the Battle over Black Studies
The worst thing that happened to Black History during Black History Month was not Ron DeSantis banning critical concepts and approaches - it was the College Board revising its new African American Studies curriculum to meet all of his demands. But now scholars in Black History, Black Studies and...
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The End of the Covid Emergency: Gregg Gonsalves
Covid remains the number 3 cause of death in the US, after heart disease and cancer, with almost 3,000 deaths every week. But Biden and the Democrats are ending the federal covid emergency. Is that really a good idea? Gregg Gonsalves comments—he’s The Nation’s public health correspondent and he...
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Gary Younge on "The Crown" on Netflix
The Royal Family and “The Crown”– you know, Queen Elizabeth and Charles and Diana, and the Netflix series about them. Gary Younge explains why he loathes the monarchy in Britain, but loved “The Crown” on Nexflix. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out:...
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Fintan O'Toole's 'Personal History' of Ireland
Ireland since the fifties: how a country dominated by a corrupt Catholic church came to legalize gay marriage and abortion -- by referendum. Fintan O'Toole's much-honored ‘personal history’ of Ireland, titled “We Don’t Know Ourselves,” is out now in paperback. Advertising Inquiries:...
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Remembering Victor Navasky: 'A Matter of Opinion'
We’re still thinking about Victor Navasky, who died on Jan. 23. He was editor or publisher of The Nation for 27 years, starting in 1978, and author of several books, including one about his life in magazines, titled “A Matter of Opinion.” We’ll listen to our conversation about that book, recorded...
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Sasha Abramsky: Universal Basic Income in L.A.
What if government provided a basic income to all residents? Something like $1000 a month? How much could that change inequality and poverty? Sasha Abramsky reports on the experiment in Los Angeles with Universal Basic Income. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out:...
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Rick Wartzman on Walmart
Walmart is the biggest employer in America, and the Walton family, the children of Walmart founder Sam Walton, is the richest family in the world. The company has raised wages and become more socially conscious-but it provides a case study of the limits of socially conscious capitalism. Rick...
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Katha Pollitt on "She Said"
Who’d want to see a movie about Harvey Weinstein? But the film “She Said,” about the two New York Times reporters who broke the Harvey Weinstein story, is not about Harvey; it’s about the system that protected him. And it’s really good. Katha Pollitt comments. Advertising Inquiries:...
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Andrew Bacevich: America's 'Very Long War'
Andrew Bacevich talks about our “very long war,” going back at least to the sixties, and about the relative insignificance of Donald Trump. His new book is "On Shedding an Obsolete Past: Bidding Farewell to the American Century.” Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy &...
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"Bad Mexicans": Kelly Lytle Hernandez
“Bad Mexicans” – that’s what the revolutionaries of 1910 were called as they fought on both sides of the US-Mexico border against the robber barons and their political allies. UCLA historian Kelly Lytle Hernandez tells that story, and talks about her book on race, empire, and revolution in the...
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Bob Dylan's Christmas Album: Sean Wilentz
Our Christmas music special: Bob Dylan fans have been puzzled and troubled by his Christmas album, “Christmas in the Heart”, ever since he released it in 2009. To help figure out what Dylan was doing, we turned to Sean Wilentz--he’s the official historian at the official website BobDylan.com, and...
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The U. of Cal. Strike heads for Mediation: Nelson Lichtenstein
The largest strike in the nation entered its fifth week: 36,000 grad student employees of the University of California, including teaching assistants who are not grading final exams. The union agreed to mediation—which seems unlikely to succeed. Nelson Lichtenstein has our update. Advertising...
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Nelson Lichtenstein: The U of Cal Grad Students' Strike
The largest strike in the country this year, and the largest in the history of higher education, entered its fourth week at the University of California. Historian Nelson Lichtenstein explains what's happening with grad student Teaching Assistants, Research Assistants, Tutors and Postdocs....
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Erwin Chemerinsky on Originalism
Should Supreme Court base its decision on what it can discern about the original intent of the framers? That’s what the “originalists” say – and they dominate today’s court. Erwin Chemerinsky comments; he’s dean of the law school at UC Berkeley and the author most recently of “Worse Than Nothing:...
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Latina Women Fighting Air Pollution in LA: Eliza Moreno
The fight against pollution in LA’s port communities, where 300,000 people, mostly Latino, live next door to oil refineries, chemical facilities, and one of the largest oilfields in the nation. For decades they’ve been fighting for basic rights and a cleaner environment. Eliza Moreno has that...
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The Vote in L.A.: Gustavo Arellano
In Los Angeles the terrible sheriff has lost his re-election campaign. Gustavo Arellano, the LA Times columnist, comments, and reports on how the billionaire developer running for mayor campaigned for the Latino vote. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out:...
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The Black Landowners of Piney Ridge: Cameron Oglesby
A story about Black landownership, starting in Piney Woods, North Carolina, one of the oldest examples of uninterrupted land ownership by Black people, going back to before the Civil War. Cameron Oglesby has that report. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out:...
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We Remember Mike Davis
Mike Davis, author and activist, radical hero and family man, died on Tuesday, Oct. 25. After talking about his life and work, we play part of an interview with him on this podcast from November, 2016, one week after Trump was elected. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy &...
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Adam Hochschild: Repression in the US in WWI
The Trump years are not the only time American democracy has been threatened – the World War One years, when Democrat Woodrow Wilson was president, were another. That’s what Adam Hochschild argues –his new book is “American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten...
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Greil Marcus on Bob Dylan, from "Blowin' in the Wind" to "Murder Most Foul"
Greil Marcus talks about Bob Dylan, from “Blowin in the wind” in 1962 to“Murder Most Foul” in 2020. His new book is called “Folk Music: A Bob Dylan Biography in 7 Songs.” Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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Dahlia Lithwick:Women Lawyers Who Challenged Trump
Dahlia Lithwick talks about some of the heroes of the Trump years: the women lawyers who fought him on the big issues—the Muslim ban, neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, and voting rights. Her new book is “Lady Justice.” Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out:...
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David Nasaw on Ken Burns's "Holocaust"
Ken Burns has a new documentary on PBS: “The US and the Holocaust.” it’s the most politically engaged and relevant work of his career. Historian David Nasaw comments. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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The Brooks Brothers Riot: Chris Lehmann
20 years before the January 6 attack on the capitol, a Republican mob attacked a central hub of government operations claiming the vote count in the presidential election that year was fraudulent, and trying to reverse the results. That was the “Brooks Brothers Riot” in Miami, a Republican effort...
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Amy Wilentz on Jared's Book
A new episode of “The Children’s Hour”: stories about Ivanka, Jared, Don Junior and Little Eric. This week: Jared writes a book! He called it “Breaking History.” We have comment from our Chief Jared Correspondent, Amy Wilentz Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out:...
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Remembering Barbara Ehrenreich: "Nickel and Dimed" in 2002
We’re still thinking about Barbara Ehrenreich, who died last week. She was one of our best. We’ll listen to an interview with Ehrenreich from 2002, about “Nickel and Dimed,” her unforgettable book about trying to live on low-wage work which had just been published. Advertising Inquiries:...
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The Senate in the Bunker on Jan. 6: Senator Patrick Leahy
Patrick Leahy of Vermont has been a senator for almost 50 years. He describes how, on January 6, when senators took refuge from the mob attacking the capitol, they prepared to complete the work of counting the electoral votes in their underground bunker--until he insisted they should wait until...
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Dirty Work--and the People who Do It: Eyal Press
Dirty work—and the people who do it: the low-income workers who do our most ethically troubled jobs. What does that have to do with the rest of us? Eyal Press explains—his book “Dirty Work” is out now in paperback. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out:...
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The Disaster in Haiti: Amy Wilentz
The Organization of American States released a statement admitting, finally, that the international community was responsible for the crisis ravaging Haiti today. But what is to be done now? Amy Wilentz comments. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out:...
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The Hidden History of Orange County: Gustavo Arellano
Orange County, California: Ronald Reagan called it “the place all good Republicans go to die.” But there’s another history of Orange County--a history of white supremacy and right wing power, and of people’s battles to resist—especially immigrants. LA Times columnist Gustavo Arellano will...
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Eric Foner on the Right to Vote
Historian Eric Foner talks about about voting rights and voter suppression, about who gets to be a citizen, the rights of undocumented immigrants, and about the roots of mass incarceration -- --they all relate to the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, part of the country’s attempt to redefine...
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J. Hoberman on Film in the Age of Reagan
The synergy between politics and popular culture has never been clearer or stronger than in the Age of Reagan – J. Hoberman will explain, he’s the author of a wonderful book called “Make My Day: Film Culture in the Age of Reagan.” Hoberman was a legendary film critic for the Village Voice for 30...
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Amy Wilentz on Ivana
Ivana Trump, the mother of Ivanka, Don Junior and Little Eric, died last week – Amy Wilentz comments on her memoir, “Raising Trump” (first broadcast in 2017). Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua: 'It's Not Too Late to Fight Climate Change'
It’s not too late to act to slow climate change--that’s what Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua say. Their new project invites newcomers to join the climate movement, and guides people from despair to possibilities. Find them at www.NotTooLateClimate.com/; on Facebook at…
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Sarah Posner on Christian Nationalists and the Supreme Court
The people who say “America is a Christian Nation” had some big victories at the Supreme Court last week, on school prayer, and on taxpayer funding of religious schools. Sarah Posner comments on the endgame of the Christian Nationalists; she’s the author of Unholy: How White Christian…
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Start Making Sense Clips currently has 557 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
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Start Making Sense
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