The Nation Podcasts

Latest Episodes:

Mamdani’s Momentum, plus ‘The Radical Fund’ | Start Making Sense Nov 12, 2025

Show notes

As mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani will be the first socialist in American history to hold significant power. It’s a huge opportunity, and a huge responsibility. Bhaskar Sunkara, president of The Nation and author of “The Socialist Manifesto,” will comment.

Also: How a band of visionaries and a million dollars upended America – in the 1920s, which had some remarkable similarities to our own era. Award winning historian John Fabian Witt will explain; his new book is ‘The Radical Fund.’

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Silicon Valley and the Israeli Occupation w/ Omar Zahzah | American Prestige Nov 11, 2025

Show notes

Derek is joined by Omar Zahzah, Assistant Professor of Arab Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies at San Francisco State University, to talk about his book Terms of Servitude: Zionism, Silicon Valley, and Digital Settler Colonialism. They discuss the Sheikh Jarrah uprising and the digital front of the Palestinian struggle, the difference between “digital apartheid” and “digital settler colonialism,” Meta’s censorship, the IDF Unit 8200—Silicon Valley pipeline, how AI and tech infrastructure are being weaponized, the legacy of Edward Said’s “Permission to Narrate,” and how Palestinians have used social media to change the narrative.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Cult of the Cybertruck with Maya Vinokour | The Nation Podcast Nov 10, 2025

Show notes

Perhaps no single object embodies our dystopian, oligarchical, ugly present more than the Cybertruck—the hulking spacecraft-cum-tank that Elon Musk has foisted on the world.

The Cybertruck is unpleasant to look at, unsafe to drive, and, judging from its anemic sales, unwanted by most of the public. It has been described as an even bigger flop than the infamous Ford Edsel.

But, as writer Maya Vinokour discovered, none of that seems to matter to the Cybertruck's most loyal fans. In "What Was the Cybertruck," a piece for our November issue, Vinokour journeyed deep into the heart of the small but fierce Cybertruck cult, and found a group of people (or, more accurately, men) eager to defend the car against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The American Right’s Civil War Over Israel w/ David Austin Walsh | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer Nov 09, 2025

Show notes

Much has been written about how the Israel/Palestine conflict is dividing the left, but the

same is true of the right. Tucker Carlson’s interview with the antisemitic critic of Israel Nick

Fuentes has created an intense debate on the right about anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism,

currently playing itself out in turmoil at the Heritage Foundation. I spoke with the historian

David Austin Walsh, whose book Taking America Back: The Conservative Movement and the Far

Right provides a crucial background for this story.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Reading Writers Is BACK, with Rumaan Alam | Reading Writers Nov 08, 2025

Show notes

Reading Writers is BACK, and in partnership with Bookforum Magazine!

In this first episode of Season 3, hosts Jo and Charlotte delve into the (separate) letter collections of Vincent Van Gogh and D.H. Lawrence before they’re joined by superstar novelist Rumaan Alam to reflect on magazine eras of yore via Tina Brown’s The Vanity Fair Diaries. Also mentioned: Cat Marnell’s How To Murder Your Life, Jean Godfrey June’s Free Gift With Purchase, Michael M. Grynbaum’s Empire of the Elite, Stet by Diana Athill, the diaries of Helen Garner, and the diaries of Andy Warhol.

Rumaan Alam is the author of four novels, including, most recently, Entitlement.

Please consider supporting our work on Patreon, where you can access additional materials and send us your guest and book coverage requests! Questions and comments can be directed to readingwriterspod at gmail dot com. Outro music by Marty Sulkow and Joe Valle.

Charlotte Shane’s most recent book is An Honest Woman. Her essay newsletter, Meant For You, can be subscribed to or read online for free, and her social media handle is @charoshane.

Jo Livingstone is a writer who teaches at Pratt Institute.

To support the show, navigate to https://www.patreon.com/ReadingWriters

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Seeds of Resistance with Vivien Sansour | A People's Climate Nov 08, 2025

Show notes

In this episode of A People’s Climate, host Shilpi Chhotray sits down with Vivien Sansour, founder of the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library, for a powerful conversation about resistance in the face of Israeli militarism, occupation, and ecological devastation.

For two years, the world watched Israel’s genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing campaign across Palestine — including the annihilation of Palestinian land, contamination of water, and the carbon-intensive bombardment that has choked the air and scorched the soil. Entire food systems have been erased. And yet, so many environmentalists remain silent. Vivien makes it clear that climate conversations cannot be separated from Western imperialism and genocide.

From saving heirloom seeds to ancestral farming practices, Vivien shares how Palestinian farmers and land stewards are not only protecting the environment but also preserving culture, memory, and survival itself.

Key Themes & Topics:

The intersection of conservation, human rights, and food sovereignty
Why protecting heirloom seeds is essential for culture, memory, and survival
Israeli militarism and settler expansion in Palestine
Ancestral agricultural practices that date back tens of thousands of years
The long-standing destructive impact of industrialized agriculture on land and food systems
Global solidarity with Palestine

Resources

Palestinian Land, Heritage, and Identity - Shilpi Chhotray in conversation with Rania Batrice

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Why We Need a War on Cars w/ Doug Gordon and Sarah Goodyear | Tech Won't Save Us Nov 06, 2025

Show notes

Paris Marx is joined by Doug Gordon and Sarah Goodyear to discuss the many ways cars have negatively affected society, how tech companies seek to entrench those problems, and what can really be done to improve mobility in our communities.

Doug Gordon is a TV producer and writer. Sarah Goodyear is a journalist and author. They are the co-hosts of The War on Cars and co-authors of Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Dem Voters Triumph; plus That Springsteen Movie Nov 05, 2025

Show notes

Democratic candidates won everywhere they ran on Tuesday – Abagail Spanberger and a Democratic state legislature in Virginia, Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey, Gavin Newsom’s redistricting proposition in California, and of course Zohran Mamdani in New York City. Trump didn’t even campaign against any them. John Nichols has our analysis.

Also: Greil Marcus comments on the new film about Bruce Springsteen writing the songs for his 1982 album “Nebraska”, starring starring Jeremy Allen White of ‘The Bear.” The movie misses the context: working class decline in Reagan’s America. Greil Marcus is the author of two dozen books, including “Mystery Train,” which has just been reissued in a special 50^th anniversary edition.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Wagner Group and the New Era of Private War w/ John Lechner | American Prestige Nov 04, 2025

Show notes

Danny and Derek welcome journalist and author John Lechner to discuss his book, Death is Our Business: Russian Mercenaries in the New Era of Warfare. The conversation cuts through the mainstream narrative of the Wagner Group to explore the true history of Yevgeny Prigozhin, from his start as a product of post-Soviet "gangster capitalism" in 1990s St. Petersburg to his ascent as Vladimir Putin's de facto military entrepreneur. They analyze how Prigozhin leveraged the Russian state’s grand ambitions with limited resources to create a self-funding war machine in Syria and across Africa, ultimately turning his own military success in Bakhmut into a fatal political challenge to the decadent Moscow bureaucracy—a challenge that ended with a suspiciously accidental plane crash.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Why the Supreme Court Will Never Stand Up to Trump with Elie Mystal | The Nation Podcast Nov 04, 2025

Show notes

It can be tempting to look away from the Supreme Court. The cases are complicated, the traditions archaic, and these days the decisions are almost always devastating and the reasoning often perverse. But alas, the Court is too important to ignore, particularly as John Roberts and his five ultra- conservative colleagues have turned it into a rubber stamp for Donald Trump.

Luckily, we at The Nation are blessed to have perhaps the only person in America who can make following the Supreme Court not only bearable but entertaining — our inimitable justice correspondent, Elie Mystal. Elie's annual roundup of the court's biggest upcoming cases is the cover story in our November issue.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Key Themes & Topics:

Resources

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected