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Will “Law and Order” Save Trump? Sep 02, 2020

Show notes

Nine weeks out from the presidential election, the Trump campaign is trying to make the election about “law and order.” Is that a winning strategy when the violence they’re pointing to is happening under Trump’s watch?

Guest: Will Saletan, Slate’s national correspondent

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A Democratic Mud-Fight in Massachusetts Sep 01, 2020

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The Democratic primary for a Massachusetts Senate seat is becoming a test of progressive bona fides and the strength of the Kennedy family name. So perhaps it’s not surprising to learn that, when it comes to their voting records, the two candidates are extremely similar.

Guest: Victoria McGrane, political correspondent for the Boston Globe.

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Seven Days of Unrest in Kenosha Aug 31, 2020

Show notes

One week ago, a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin shot Jacob Blake in the back seven times, paralyzing him from the waist down. In the immediate aftermath, citizens of Kenosha took to the streets in protest. Those protests later turned into more tragedy when 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse shot three protestors, killing two. How is the city of Kenosha handling the turmoil?

Guest: Gina Barton, investigative reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and host of the Unsolved podcast

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QAnon Goes Mainstream Aug 28, 2020

Show notes

Not long ago, the QAnon conspiracy theory seemed to have lost momentum. Social media mentions had decreased. 8chan had gone offline. But since March, fueled by the pandemic and social media giants, the conspiracy has taken on new life.

What’s responsible for the rapid uptake of the movement? And now that QAnon has spilled over to the mainstream, how far can it go?

Guest:

Ali Breland, reporter at Mother Jones

Host

Celeste Headlee

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TBD | QAnon Goes Mainstream Aug 28, 2020

Show notes

What’s responsible for the rapid uptake of the movement? And now that QAnon has spilled over to the mainstream, how far can it go?

Guest:

Ali Breland, reporter at Mother Jones

Host

Celeste Headlee

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

U.S. Foreign Policy Is Officially Incoherent Aug 27, 2020

Show notes

Last week, the Trump administration used shaky reasoning to pursue additional sanctions against Iran. The proposal was rejected by nearly the entire U.N. Security Council, including close allies like the U.K and France. It was just the latest example of how “America First,” and the rejection of multilateralism under Trump, has turned the U.S. into a loner state on the world stage.

Guest: Fred Kaplan, Slate’s War Stories columnist. Fred is the author of The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Fight for Belarus Aug 26, 2020

Show notes

For the past two weeks, Belarus has been gripped by political protest. The country’s longtime authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, is courting Russian intervention as a worried European Union looks on.

Guest: Julia Ioffe, GQ correspondent. Read her latest column on Belarus.

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The U.S. Can Fix Its COVID Testing Failures Aug 25, 2020

Show notes

Getting tested for the coronavirus has never been as easy as it should be in the U.S. We’ve seen equipment shortages, long delays for test results, and even mixed messages about who should be getting tested.

But there is a way to fix America’s inadequate testing. And experts say it could return some normalcy even before we have a reliable vaccine.

Guest: Robinson Meyer, a staff writer at The Atlantic. Read his latest story, The Plan That Could Give Us Our Lives Back.

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Another Crackdown On the Border Aug 24, 2020

Show notes

The pandemic hasn’t stopped the flow of migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border. But it has prompted an emergency crackdown on asylum seekers, and critics of the Trump administration say the policy is violating U.S. law.

Guest: Adolfo Flores, reporter for BuzzFeed News.

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TBD | What Went Wrong With Contact Tracing Apps Aug 21, 2020

Show notes

In the early days of the pandemic, countries around the world invested heavily in new technologies that would help track the movement of the virus. Now, six months later, contact tracing apps are all but an afterthought in the fight to contain COVID-19. What happened? The U.K. provides some answers. The country put its faith in technology to contain the virus, and paid the price.

Guest:

Gus Hosein, executive director at Privacy International

Host

Celeste Headlee

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.