Current Affairs

Latest Episodes:

Why We’re Banning AI Oct 23, 2026

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🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

We urgently need to protect human thought and creativity. Our magazine is committing itself to remaining handmade. Ensure every publication you support does the same.

🌹 Full article by Nathan J. Robinson: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/why-were-banning-ai

🌹 Read our full union contract: https://846b2cdd-82e3-4b3b-845b-e8a090468421.filesusr.com/ugd/942719_5a7419ea2cbd45fbb225d6f3f67c7d46.pdf

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How Bill Maher Lost His Mind (w/ Kyle Kulinski) Oct 20, 2026

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🌹 Use the code "KRYSTALKYLE" for a 20% discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

Kyle Kulinski is the host of The Kyle Kulinski Show, co-host of Krystal Kyle & Friends, and a co-founder of Justice Democrats. He joins Current Affairs editor in chief Nathan J. Robinson to discuss his new article on Bill Maher, which will appear in the next print issue of Current Affairs!

🔥 Subscribe to the Kyle on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SecularTalk

0:00–4:38 Why Bill Maher Used to Matter

4:38–10:49 How Bill Maher Moved Right

10:49–16:37 “Progressive Except for Palestine”

16:37–21:20 Abdul El-Sayed

21:20–26:04 Idiocracy

26:04–27:42 When “Skepticism” Becomes Anti-Science

27:42–31:04 Apocalypse

31:04–37:18 The U.S. the World’s Biggest Terrorist

37:18–40:55 “Centrism” Isn’t Actually Moderate

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Israel’s Election Won’t End the Genocide Oct 16, 2026

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Will McCaffery is a leftist content creator focused on anti-imperialism, anti-Zionism, and anti-capitalism, and the author of a new Current Affairs article on Israel’s upcoming election.

He joins Current Affairs editor in chief Nathan J. Robinson to discuss what Israel’s elections reveal about the limits of liberal democracy, the political consensus behind apartheid and occupation, and what those same dynamics can teach us about elections and empire in the United States.

🔥 Read Will's Current Affairs article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/israels-elections-like-ours-show-how-much-the-parties-agree-on

🔥 Follow Will on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/willz.talks/?hl=en

🔥 Subscribe to Will's Substack: https://willztalks.substack.com/

0:00–4:52 How Western Media Frames Israel’s Election

4:52–7:53 Can an Apartheid State Be a Democracy?

7:53–9:54 Why Have Arab Parties in an Ethnostate?

9:54–13:37 “Pragmatic” vs. “Evocative” Fascism

13:37–19:08 The Ethnic Supremacist Consensus in Israeli Politics

19:08–22:13 Why Israel’s Far Right Is More Honest About Zionism

22:13–29:28 Bringing the Critique Home to the American Empire

29:28–32:43 The Iran War and Whose Lives American Politics Values

32:43–37:54 The Victims of Empire Don’t Get a Vote

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Drop Site's Julian Andreone on His Wildest Capitol Hill Encounters Oct 16, 2026

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Julian Andreone is a Capitol Hill reporter for Drop Site News, where he confronts lawmakers with tough questions they’re often unprepared to answer.

He joins Current Affairs editor in chief Nathan J. Robinson to discuss his approach to journalism and why ordinary people can do this kind of accountability reporting too. Julian’s piece on his experiences reporting from Capitol Hill will appear in the next print issue of Current Affairs!

🎤 Read Drop Site News: https://www.dropsitenews.com/

🎤 Follow Julian Andreone: https://www.instagram.com/thejulianandreone/

0:00–7:57 What Julian Andreone Does on Capitol Hill

7:57–14:56 How He Prepares to Confront Politicians

14:56–17:48 Exposing How Little Politicians Actually Know

17:48–23:31 John Fetterman’s Hostility to Drop Site

23:31–26:21 Shri Thanedar Chooses Party Leadership Over His Voters

26:21–30:21 James Clyburn: “I Don’t Do Foreign Policy”

30:21–34:45 Shontel Brown’s Contempt for Her Constituents

34:45–40:45 Why Anyone Can Do This Kind of Journalism

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Before Bernie and Mamdani, There Was Eugene Debs Oct 09, 2026

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Shawn Gude is the former editor of Jacobin and author of American Socialist: The Life and Legacy of Eugene V. Debs. He joins Current Affairs editor in chief Nathan J. Robinson to discuss how Debs went from moderate railroad unionist to one of America’s most influential socialist leaders.

✊ Get the book: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/American-Socialist/Shawn-Gude/9781668056738

0:00–3:51 Why Eugene Debs Still Matters

3:51–10:10 How Debs Became a Socialist

10:10–18:30 Debs’s Personality and Political Appeal

18:30–25:28 When Socialism Thrived in the Midwest

25:28–29:24 What Socialism Meant to Debs

29:24–35:31 The Defeat and Decline of Debs’s Movement

35:31–40:26 What Debs Can Teach the Left Today

40:26–43:28 What Shawn Learned About Debs While Writing the Book

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The Consultants Will Kill You Oct 08, 2026

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In Michigan and Maine, a tale of two campaigns.

🌹 Full article by Nathan J. Robinson: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-consultants-will-kill-you

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In Praise of Suit Socialism Oct 05, 2026

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🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

If there’s a visual language that connotes credibility and authority, why not take advantage of it?

🌹 Full article by Nathan J. Robinson: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/in-praise-of-suit-socialism

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Democrats Paved the Way for Fascism — Jennifer Welch on MAGA, Socialism, and Political Revolution Sep 29, 2026

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Jennifer Welch, co-host of I’ve Had It and author of Not Today, Fascists, joins Current Affairs editor in chief Nathan J. Robinson to discuss the rise of Christian nationalism, her political evolution from establishment Democrat to outspoken progressive, and why she believes the Democratic Party needs a radical overhaul.

🔥 Not Today, Fascists: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/not-today-fascists-jennifer-welch?variant=45897489088546

🔥 Subscribe to I've Had It: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ5cvDR2HhVUcdVoTvvQKLw

0:00 Trump and the Megachurch Pastor Mentality

4:08 How Should Progressives Talk About Religion?

6:27 Can Bernie-Style Populism Win in Red States?

8:21 Kamala Harris in 2028?

10:41 Gaza and the Democratic Party’s Moral Failure

13:45 Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, and Democratic Leadership

16:46 Jennifer Welch’s Political Radicalization and Kamala’s Liz Cheney Strategy

24:59 Why Democrats Need to Offer a Real Alternative

29:28 Billionaire Influence, Money in Politics, and the Supreme Court

31:50 Should Progressives Embrace the Word “Socialism”?

34:51 JD Vance and the Future of MAGA

40:19 Rapid-Fire: Newsom, Buttigieg, AOC, and More

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Israel Is Stealing the West Bank in Plain Sight (w/ Jasper Nathaniel) Sep 19, 2026

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Jasper Nathaniel is an independent journalist who recently returned from reporting in the occupied West Bank, where he documented Israeli settler violence, land seizures, military raids, home demolitions, and the daily realities of life under occupation.

🇵🇸 Subscribe to Infinite Jaz: https://www.infinitejaz.com/

🇵🇸 Follow Jasper on Twitter: https://x.com/infinite_jaz

0:00-6:01 The escalating situation in the occupied West Bank

6:01-8:29 How Israeli politics enables settlement expansion

8:29-11:32 What the West Bank’s fragmented zones feel like on the ground

11:32-13:54 Why settler violence so often goes unpunished

13:54-18:52 How violence and displacement work together

18:52-26:55 The double standard on Palestinian self-defense

26:55-30:44 Western governments’ empty posturing on settlements

30:44-37:05 Palestinian resilience under occupation

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How 9/11 Normalized Endless War Sep 15, 2026

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CODEPINK co-founders Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans, along with national co-director Danaka Katovich, join Current Affairs to reflect on 25 years of the post-9/11 War on Terror, the founding of CODEPINK, and the politics of fear that have fueled endless war.

🌸 Pam Bailey's Current Affairs Article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/9/11-began-25-years-of-nonstop-war-and-abuses-of-power

🌸 Danaka Katovich's Common Dreams Article: https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/un-american-to-care

🌸 Medea Benjamin's Common Dreams Article: https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/was-the-us-reaction-to-9-11-wrong

0:00-10:56 Barbara Lee, 9/11, and the politics of fear

10:56-19:59 How CODEPINK was born from the War on Terror

19:59-25:51 Being smeared as foreign agents and terrorist sympathizers

25:51-32:30 Fighting fear and reclaiming political power

32:30-35:12 What CODEPINK is organizing around now

35:12-37:15 Why Yemen matters to the antiwar movement

37:15-45:42 Lessons from 25 years of antiwar activism

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