Stress Test, from Mother Jones

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History Comes Knocking for Donald Trump Sep 25, 2019

Show notes

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday afternoon announced plans to launch formal impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. In recent days, a growing number of Democrats have argued that Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukrainian leaders to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son could be grounds for removing the president from office. “This is a violation of his constitutional responsibility,” Pelosi said in televised remarks on Tuesday evening, accusing Trump of betraying his oath of office. “This is a violation of law." Washington DC bureau chief David Corn, and foreign influence and national security reporter Dan Friedman join host Jamilah King to discuss how a secret whistleblower complaint against Donald Trump rapidly transformed from a trickle of news into a full blown torrent that finally broke the dam.

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I'm Racist. You're Racist. The System Is Racist. Now What? Sep 18, 2019

Show notes

For most of his life, Ibram X. Kendi admits he was a racist. He’s a black man, raised predominantly in black neighborhoods, and received an undergraduate degree from Florida A&M University, a historically black college. His upbringing was solidly middle class and Christian. He was not particularly focused on showing the world that black people could be twice as good as their white counterparts. Even so, he calls himself a racist. In his new book, "How to Be An Antiracist," author and professor Kendi combines searing autobiography with pointed analysis to show just how deeply racism is woven into our national—and global—fabric. He argues that the opposite of a racist isn’t someone who’s not racist, but instead an antiracist—someone who acknowledges how race has been constructed, and works actively against it. This week’s episode of the Mother Jones podcast features Kendi’s thoughts on antiracism, his writing process, and why this conversation is especially important in Trump’s America. Later in the show, we talk to Elizabeth Warren supporters at a big New York City rally about how they would convince Trump fans to switch their votes and back the Senator from Massachusetts in 2020.

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Searing 9/11 Stories from the Day that Changed Everything Sep 11, 2019

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On the 18th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, a new book recasts one of America's darkest days in strikingly personal terms by weaving together survival stories in minute-by-minute detail. National security and politics reporter Garrett Graff joins Mother Jones D.C. Bureau Chief David Corn to talk about his new work of oral history, “The Only Plane in the Sky: The Oral History of 9/11”, which unearths untold stories of those who experienced the attack first-hand, and paints the events of that world-shifting day in new and vibrant ways. "9/11 was the hinge upon which our modern world turned," Graff tells Corn. "It's unfathomable to me how you understand America in 2019 without understanding that Tuesday morning in September, 18 years ago."

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“Our President Is Unstable”: A Senator Tears into Trump's Reckless Racism Sep 04, 2019

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Late last year, Senator Jeff Merkley was one of the first national politicians to blow the whistle on the Trump administration's detention of unaccompanied migrant children on the southern border. The Democratic senator sat down with Mother Jones editor-in-chief Clara Jeffery at the Commonwealth Club last week, where he spoke in no uncertain terms about the administration's pattern of targeting of immigrants, the trauma caused by incarceration, and why the future of the United States hinges on kicking Trump out of office.

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Rapsody’s Newest Album Is a Rapturous Celebration of Black Womanhood Aug 28, 2019

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Grammy-nominated rapper Rapsody joins host Jamilah King to discuss art, politics, and what keeps her going in these turbulent political times. Her new album, Eve, pays homage to a diverse number of black women and the mark they’ve made across generations of music and culture—from Sojourner Truth, to Oprah Winfrey, and Michelle Obama.

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A Radical Idea for Reclaiming Our Toxic Reality Aug 21, 2019

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Science journalist Ziya Tong joins Mother Jones D.C. Bureau Chief David Corn to explain how, despite the many wonders of the human brain, we suffer from "scale blindness", a dangerous state that hardwires us to melt in the face of vast global problems. Her new book, "The Reality Bubble: Blind Spots, Hidden Truths, and the Dangerous Illusions that Shape Our World," is about our many in-built inabilities to combat complex issues like climate change—and what we can do to bust out of the powerful systems we take for granted. “I want to start from scratch," Tong tells Corn. "I want to start thinking about things in a way that is a little bit more focused and clear-headed—once you're able to see through the reality bubble, that is.”

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Epstein, QAnon, and the Conspiracist in Chief Aug 14, 2019

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Just hours after financier Jeffrey Epstein’s apparent death by suicide, President Donald Trump retweeted a conspiracy theory alleging the Clinton family’s involvement in killing the accused sex trafficker. So what better time to bring you this in-depth conversation with writer Anna Merlan, whose book "Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power" has only become more and more relevant as the conspiracist in chief amplifies yet another sinister lie. Merlan has spent years diving deep into the world of conspiracy theories. The result is a meticulously researched firecracker of a book, documenting incidents as early as the burning of ancient Rome, and as recently as the many conspiracy theories that bedeviled the 2016 election. Our assistant news editor Becca Andrews talked to Merlan to understand the roots of this increasingly powerful phenomenon, and discuss how inequality and racism beget conspiracy—and why empathy is important when writing about true believers.

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El Paso’s Nightmare Is America’s New Normal Aug 07, 2019

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In the wake of twin shooting tragedies that killed 31 people last weekend, Mother Jones takes you to El Paso, Texas. Host Jamilah King speaks to MoJo immigration reporter Fernanda Echavarri, who spent time at a makeshift memorial outside the Walmart where chaos erupted on Saturday at the hands of an anti-immigrant killer, to hear from a community reeling from its worst nightmare come true. Also in this episode, Jamilah speaks to MoJo disinformation reporter Ali Breland about the inspiration mass shooters derive from uncensored message boards in the darkest corners of the web, and what can be done to stem the flow of white nationalist hate.

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Trump Killed the Era of Great American Diplomacy Jul 31, 2019

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Longtime US diplomat Richard Holbrooke was many things: Ambassador to Germany, Assistant Secretary of State, the man who resolved the intractable war in Yugoslavia, and, to many… a womanizing, social-climbing jerk. While the storied career statesman saw “power the way an artist sees color,” as one former military leader put it in 2009—the year before Holbrooke died at 69—another former colleague described him as the “diplomatic equivalent of a hydrogen bomb,” leaving few survivors after being deployed. On this week’s episode of the Mother Jones Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery sits down with award-winning journalist George Packer from the Atlantic, whose new book, "Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century," chronicles the life of this American foreign policy giant, whose career and trajectory extended from Vietnam to Afghanistan. His story is particularly timely, just as Trump’s GOP pulls the country ever-further into isolationism and nativism, alienating allies and praising dictators. In a narrative that manages to toggle between being deeply learned and a beach-book page-turner Holbrooke is revealed as an undeniable icon of America’s global influence, but also as a flawed operator who often let his ego get in the way amid bouts of “dick-swinging diplomacy.” This conversation was recorded in front of a live audience at City Arts and Lectures in San Francisco in May, and is featured here as part of the Mother Jones Podcast’s summer series of fascinating conversations with journalists, artists, and activists about how their work interacts with some of the biggest debates of the day.

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Gun-Safety Activist Shannon Watts on How to Fight Like a Mom and Beat the NRA Jul 24, 2019

Show notes

On today's show, Shannon Watts discusses her meteoric rise from stay-at-home mom to the NRA's worst nightmare, with Mother Jones’ editor-in-chief Clara Jeffery, during a taped live event at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco in June. After the Sandy Hook massacre, Watts created a Facebook page and was soon inundated by others from all over the country who wanted to get involved. In the six years since, the grassroots organization, Moms Demand Action, has grown into one of the most effective gun reform groups in the country. Legions of dedicated mothers show up in red shirts to lobby members of Congress, state legislatures, and companies into supporting gun reform. So far, they’ve pushed 20 states into passing gun-safety legislation and have successfully persuaded Starbucks, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and other businesses into banning to ban firearms from their stores. Now, with her new book, "Fight Like a Mother"—part-memoir, part-guide for activists—Watts hopes to continue to empower more people ahead of the all-important 2020 election season.

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