The Nation Podcasts

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Who’s Allowed Self-Determination? w/ Brad Simpson / American Prestige Jul 29, 2026

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Danny and Derek speak with historian Brad Simpson about the history and evolving meaning of self-determination in international politics and law. They talk about the Wilson-Lenin debate, the Atlantic Charter, the Nazi appropriation of ethno-nationalist self-determination, the decolonization movements of the mid-20th century, the failure of the new international economic order, and the idea's continuing relevance to places like Palestine and Greenland.

Get Brad’s book The First Right: Self-Determination and the Transformation of International Order, 1941–2000.

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Election Protection for the Midterms, plus ‘The Odyssey’ for Filmgoers Jul 29, 2026

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An impressive alliance of groups have been preparing for months to counter Trump’s threats to Democrats in the midterms. Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward and a member of The Senate Democrats’ Election Protection Tast Force, explains why “we are going to have free and fair elections” in November.

Also: Elon Musk calls Christopher Nolan’s film “The Odyssey” “part of a left-wing plan” to “destroy Western Civilization.” John Powers has a differnet view – he’s critic-at-large on NPR’s “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross.

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The People Versus Big Oil w/ Jamie Henn / Fighting Fascism Jul 27, 2026

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In recent weeks, we’ve seen our skies engulfed in dystopian haze. We’ve had lethal heat waves ruin our Fourth of July cookouts. States have announced emergency water rationing due to record-breaking droughts. Tens of thousands of Europeans have been killed by extreme heat so far this summer; hundreds of thousands are being evacuated by apocalyptic wildfires. And we know it’s just the beginning—this is, after all, not just the hottest summer of our lives, but the coolest summer for the rest of our lives.

This didn’t just happen. Climate change is overwhelmingly the result of pollution and deception from specific Big Oil companies that were predicting decades ago that their fossil fuels would cause, in their own words, “globally catastrophic” climate harms that would create “more violent weather” and cause “suffering and death due to thermal extremes.” Even as they used this knowledge to protect their own infrastructure, they orchestrated fraudulent campaigns of climate denial to lock us into the disasters we are currently experiencing.

But we’re not powerless in the face of these nightmares. We can take on Big Oil, and the fossil-fueled authoritarianism that these corporations have done so much to engender. And there are few people with more experience in these fights than Jamie Henn, director of Fossil Free Media. He joined us for a great conversation about making polluters pay, the ways clean energy developments have totally transformed the climate fight, and how to balance hope and fear in the midsts of climate chaos.

Fighting Fascism Podcast is produced by Nik Damants in collaboration with The Nation.

Intro song and music by Horse Radish.

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Iran War Heats Up w/ Matt Duss / The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer Jul 26, 2026

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The purported ceasefire in the Iran War was always tenuous and now the war is not only heating up but entering a dangerous new phase. The Iranians have closed the Strait of Hormuz and the Houthis are firing on the Red Sea while Donald Trump promises a new wave of attacks on Iran’s civilian infrastructure. I talk about the state of the Middle East and related matters with Matt Duss, vice president of the Center for International Policy.

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Iran War Kills US Troops, US-Saudi Arabia Strike Nuclear Deal, Zelensky Fires Top General / American Prestige Jul 24, 2026

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American Prestige HQ continues to roll the dice on iceberg lettuce. In this week’s news: Iranian strikes kill four U.S. service members in Jordan and Iraq, and the Pentagon conceals dozens of additional casualties (2:09); Trump threatens to hit an Iranian nuclear facility and warns of attacks on civilian infrastructure (6:32); the Houthis blockade Saudi Arabia and strike two oil tankers in the Red Sea (14:20); the U.S. and Saudi Arabia announce a civilian nuclear deal (18:23); in Lebanon, the IDF begins a “pilot” withdrawal from three southern villages (23:48); Hamas elects Khalil al-Hayya as its new political leader (25:48); Ebola deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo top 1,000 (27:44); the Trump administration considers military action against jihadists in Mali (30:09); Volodymyr Zelensky fires Ukraine's top general, Oleksandr Syrskyi (32:29); Andy Burnham becomes prime minister of the United Kingdom (35:17); Trump imposes new tariffs on Brazil and Canada (36:53); and the State Department releases a report that names Cuba a top security threat (40:46).

Don’t forget to watch a replay of last night’s livestream with special guest Alex Aviña.

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Librarians Are Helping the Public Ditch AI w/ Hannah Cyrus & Alison Macrina / Tech Won't Save Us Jul 23, 2026

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Librarians are working harder than ever to support their neighborhoods—including by teaching and promoting digital literacy. Hannah Cyrus and Alison Macrina join Paris Marx to discuss the role of library workers in the digital landscape, including how they’re helping patrons navigate privacy basics and artificial intelligence, and how the tech industry is making their jobs harder.

Hannah Cyrus is a digital media librarian at the Bangor public library. Alison Macrina is an activist librarian and the director of Library Freedom Project.

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How the New Deal Invented the National Security State w/ Andrew Preston / American Prestige Jul 22, 2026

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Danny and Derek speak with historian Andrew Preston about the origins and development of the American national security state as we know it. They discuss the original meaning of “national security” in the early days of the republic; the idea of free security; the New Deal and the relationship between social security and national security; World War II, the Cold War, and the expansion of the security state; liberalism and American empire; and what national security looks like moving forward.

Be sure to grab a copy of Andrew’s book on the subject, Total Defense: The New Deal and the Invention of National Security.

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The Plan for November—and After / Start Making Sense Jul 22, 2026

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How are we going to defeat Trump and the Republicans and win control of Congress in the midterms? How are we going to win the White House in two years? Ben Wikler has a plan – he’s published a book with the title This is the Plan. Ben was chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin for six years, ending in 2025, where he shaped what became the most powerful and effective state political party in the country.

Plus: John Nichols on the Senate Candidates in Maine and Nebraska, and the governor’s race in Wisconsin. John of course is executive editor of The Nation.

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Borderlands w/ Ken Salazar / Fighting Fascism Jul 20, 2026

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This one’s a little different. Aaron, Matt, and Jonathan talk with Ken Salazar—former US Senator from Colorado, Secretary of the Interior under Obama, and Ambassador to Mexico under Biden—about why Democrats need to rethink their approach to the US-Mexico border and start treating immigration not as a liability to be managed, but a genuine opportunity to be seized. We also discuss the politics of Mexico and Ken’s experiences with AMLO, Mexico’s former insanely popular populist president, and Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s current insanely popular populist president. Aaron even tries to get a little feisty with Ken about his climate record, but fails spectacularly due to Ken’s kind grandpa demeanor. Oh well.

Check out Ken Salazar’s new book, Borderlands.

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Fighting Monopoly Power w/ Zephyr Teachout / The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer Jul 19, 2026

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Donald Trump is practicing crony capitalism on an unprecedented scale, with the government greenlighting major mergers that benefit the president’s friends (most notably the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger). I spoke to Zephyr Teachout, who teaches constitutional law at Fordham, about this worrying development. We take up the long history of anti-monopoly politics going back to the American revolution and the trust battles of the late 19th century as well as the possibility state governments can fight the new wave of consolidation. Zephyr has often written on his subject for The Nation, notably in two recent articles.

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