Stress Test, from Mother Jones

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What the Iowa Caucus Data Debacle Means Feb 04, 2020

Show notes

We're putting the Mother Jones Podcast out early this week to bring you the very latest from the Iowa caucuses. Democratic officials are scrambling to tabulate final results, blaming “inconsistencies” in the reporting data. But precinct-based volunteers running the contest slammed the party’s reporting app and said even calling in on the phones was causing problems. Tim Murphy has been criss-crossing Iowa reporting for Mother Jones, and in this show we'll take you right there, to his car, for his immediate reaction, and to hear what voters are saying. You'll also hear from our voting rights reporter (and Iowa native) Ari Berman, who analyzes what the debacle foretells for voting in America in 2020. And while we wait to assess the actual votes, Micah Cohen, the managing editor of FiveThirtyEight, examines the trends, as election season gets underway.

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Trump Is Going to Get Off Scot-free. Or Is He? Jan 29, 2020

Show notes

President Donald Trump’s lawyers have now concluded his impeachment defense on the floor of the Senate. A verdict—probably acquittal—is nigh. Or is it? In these final days and hours of the Trump impeachment saga, new bombshells keep exploding. A leak this week of a draft book manuscript by former National Security Adviser John Bolton's book heightened pressure on the handful of Republican senators able to green-light new evidence, or allow the trial to come to a speedy conclusion. On today’s show, you’ll hear from Mother Jones DC bureau chief David Corn who attempts to answer questions at the center of this week's drama: What does John Bolton know? Will any Republican Senators defect from the party line? What's the deal with Kenneth Starr and Alan Dershowitz? The Trump presidency has been marked by scandal, corruption, and dirty deals. These next few days will determine whether it can survive impeachment intact.

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Van Jones: Liberals Can Work With Trump to Make America Better Jan 22, 2020

Show notes

America is hopelessly divided. That's what we're told. Look no further than the Senate impeachment trial for evidence: If Republicans work with Democrats, Fox News and tribal partisans will expose them to Trumpian fury, or so the narrative goes. But how true is this dim view of America's future, really? On this week's episode, we feature a guest who has received backlash and back-slaps for trying to knit together disparate interests in a deeply partisan world: Van Jones. The CNN star worked in the Obama White House as the “Green Jobs Czar” and currently heads the Reform Alliance, which advocates for criminal justice reform. While Jones has repeatedly called out Trump for being a bigot and a bully, he caught major heat from fellow progressives when he publicly praised Trump and the Republican party for their work on the First Step Act, an important reform that ultimately led to around 7,000 people leaving prison. Late last year, our Washington DC bureau chief David Corn joined Van Jones onstage for a live event at George Washington University and asked him: When do you compromise? When do you cooperate? And what to do when you find yourself caught in brutal partisan crossfire?

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Trump Is an "Existential" Threat: Ilana Glazer, Eric Holder, and 2020 Jan 15, 2020

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As the 2020 presidential election approaches, efforts to suppress the vote are endemic. In this week’s episode, Mother Jones reporter Ari Berman talks to President Barack Obama’s attorney general, Eric Holder, about some of the most insidious voter suppression tactics, from draconian voter ID laws to partisan and racial gerrymandering, in a wide-ranging conversation moderated by "Broad City" star Ilana Glazer. The shindig, co-presented by Mother Jones, is part of a live event program run by Glazer called "The Generator Series", during which she attempts to break down complex ideas about democracy, policy, and being a good American citizen. Glazer invited Holder to discuss his recently launched campaign, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC), which fights to create fair voting districts, and Berman, whose work illuminates the history behind why we vote the way we do in the US. Together, they identify flash points in the ongoing battle for this foundational American right.

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My Brother Fled Australia's Climate-Fueled Inferno: "It Was a War Zone" Jan 08, 2020

Show notes

Australia's wildfire emergency has no end in sight. This is what scientists warned would happen, and now it is: runaway wildfires of unprecedented scale and destruction are raging around Australia. At least 25 people have been killed, and about 3,000 military personnel have mobilized to assist in the evacuation of about 100,000 residents across the country's South East. The toll on the ecosystem remains less clear, but a widely reported estimate puts the number of wildlife killed at 480 million (not including frogs, bats, or insects.) Today, you'll hear from Marc West, the brother of our executive producer James, who managed to evacuate with his family from one of the hardest hit regions just as the crisis mounted. You'll also hear from one of the world's most prominent scientists studying the intersection of climate change and extreme weather, Michael Mann, who happens to be in Australia witnessing this disaster unfold firsthand. Note: since recording parts of this episode, the reported death toll from the bushfire crisis has risen to at least 25. The estimated numbers of homes destroyed and acres burned have also continued to increase.

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The Political Fight that Will Shape 2020—and Beyond Jan 01, 2020

Show notes

Happy 2020. Today, we’re bumping an episode from May 2019 back to the top of your feed because it’s about a fight that will come to define so much of what happens this year in American political life: Voting rights. One Supreme Court case discussed in this episode is about adding a question to the U.S. Census that would have asked everyone if they were a citizen. The other case is about partisan gerrymandering. Since we first recorded this episode, both major cases have been decided. Census ballots have been sent to the printer without the citizenship question. And the Supremes rejected efforts to rein in partisan gerrymandering. But the underlying issues are still very much at play. The first votes in the Democratic primary get cast just next month, so we wanted to remind you of some of the biggest hurdles facing voters this year. We get into it with the director of ACLU’s voting rights project, Dale Ho, and our very own Ari Berman.

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How to Burst Your Reality Bubble and Embrace Lasting Solutions Dec 25, 2019

Show notes

On this Christmas Day edition of the Mother Jones Podcast, we replay our August conversation between veteran science journalist Ziya Tong and Mother Jones’ D.C. bureau chief, David Corn. Tong explains exactly how—despite the many wonders of the human brain—our minds can be hardwired to melt in the face of vast global problems by only allowing us to see what’s right in front of us. When considering tectonic movements of the global financial system, or the complex dynamics of climate change, humanity suffers from “scale blindness,” Tong writes in her book, "The Reality Bubble: Blind Spots, Hidden Truths, and the Dangerous Illusions that Shape Our World."She calls it a “warped perspective,” preventing us from seeing the enormity of what’s coming “until it’s a little bit too late.” But there is hope for busting out of the powerful systems we take for granted. A way to do this is to design a new “mental blueprint” for how we view the world, she says.

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Trump's Name Will Be Stained By Impeachment Forever Dec 19, 2019

Show notes

For the third time in American history, the House of Representatives has voted to impeach the president. In this breaking news edition of the Mother Jones Podcast, our Washington DC Bureau Chief David Corn joins host Jamilah King to break down the political prospects for President Donald Trump as the Republican-controlled Senate prepares for its impeachment trial. Will it be fair? Will impeachment ultimately alter Trump’s 2020 prospects? And what about all his other misdeeds? Tune in to learn what happens next in Washington, and what we can expect from Trump as he aims to preserve a presidency hanging in the balance.

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They Made a Killing on the Mortgage Crisis. Now They Run Trump's America. Dec 18, 2019

Show notes

Some of the people who screwed over American families during the Great Recession of 2008 are still around, and they're lurking in the shadows: they're in President Donald Trump's orbit, and in his cabinet. Steve Mnuchin. Wilbur Ross. These are just two swamp-dwellers who foreclosed on the sick and elderly during a time when millions of jobs were lost in the biggest layoffs since 1945. Now, some of these modern-day robber barons are helping write national housing policies. What does that mean for the American dream? Soon after the crash, Aaron Glantz, a senior reporter for Reveal, started going around San Francisco knocking on doors, meeting people who were falling back on their skyrocketing mortgages and about to give into the banks. He noticed something strange. These homes were being foreclosed on, bought, and sold by the same few people, and they were making a killing. Glantz wrote about it in his recent book "Homewreckers", which was released in October. On this show, he tells host Jamilah King how the swamp creatures from the mortgage crisis are being resuscitated by Trump.

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We've Never Seen a Primary Season Quite Like This Dec 11, 2019

Show notes

In just under two months, the first votes will be cast in the Democratic presidential primary. While the epic national drama of impeachment plays out in Washington, candidates are charging through town halls, living rooms, diners, stadiums, and community centers. There are spats and drop-outs and surprises and, yes, even new entrants, as dividing lines, new and old, are litigated and dirty laundry is aired. In other words: a campaign. And Mother Jones reporters are there. For today's show, host Jamilah King is joined by Mother Jones politics reporters Tim Murphy and Kara Voght to talk about Kamala Harris's shock drop-out and what it says about diversity amongst the Democratic field frontrunners; the entrance of billionaire Michael Bloomberg; the surge of Pete Buttigieg in Iowa, and the Great Transparency Wars of 2020; and so much more. Get on the campaign train with Mother Jones.

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