Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Avoiding Election Disaster with Edward Foley Oct 13, 2020

Show notes

We are just weeks away from an unprecedented election day. In order to vote safely during the pandemic, more people than ever are voting by mail or early in person, and early numbers point to a strong likelihood of record turnout. There are hundreds of lawsuits across the country centered on access to polling places, ballot drop boxes, and deadlines for ballots. And on top of all of that, we have a President whose rhetoric is directly aimed at undermining the legitimacy of the election if he doesn’t win. This week, election law professor, Edward Foley, sits down to give an under-the-hood look at our election administration and the current logistical concerns, and walks through the worst-case legal scenarios of a contested election result.

Presidential Elections and Majority Rule: The Rise, Demise and Potential Restoration of the Jeffersonian Electoral College

Ballot Battles: The History of Disputed Elections in the United States

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Money, Democracy, and John Maynard Keynes with Zach Carter Oct 06, 2020

Show notes

How do we stabilize an economic crisis? Years before we faced the Coronavirus pandemic and the economic crises of the 21st century, the theories of British born economist John Maynard Keynes helped lead the United States out of the Great Depression. His ideas revolutionized how we looked at scarcity and invented our understanding macroeconomics. This week Zach Carter sits down to discuss his new book about the life and influence of John Maynard Keynes and the importance of Keynesian economics in this moment.

The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes by Zach D. Carter

The Economic Consequences of the Peace by John Maynard Keynes

The General Theory of Unemployment, Interest & Money by John Maynard Keynes

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FAQAnon with Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins Sep 29, 2020

Show notes

Here by popular demand – all your QAnon questions answered with two of the best reporters on the beat. Is QAnon a cult, a religion, a conspiracy theory, a state of mind? Who or what is Q? How did it gain such prominence and capture the minds of so many? Is it harmless – or is it dangerous? NBC reporters Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins help us pull on the thread of a movement that exploded off the message boards and into the mainstream, with a fervent supporter likely headed to Congress.

Follow Ben Collins

Follow Brandy Zadrozny

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Necessary Struggle with Barbara Smith Sep 22, 2020

Show notes

Barbara Smith has been doing The Work for decades. Born into the era of Jim Crow, Smith joined the civil rights movement as a teenager in the 60s, volunteered at the Congress of Racial Equality in Cleveland right out of high school, canvassed for housing rights, became part of the women’s movement after graduating college, and then co-founded a black feminist group called the Combahee River Collective in the 70s. The group grappled with issues of race, class, sex, and homophobia, and is credited with coining the term ‘identity politics’. A legendary and category-defying figure, we were lucky to have a chance to talk with Barbara Smith about her journey, what it’s like to be watching this moment, and why she says she’s optimistic about the struggle.

RELATED READING:

To Start a War by Robert Draper

Dead Certain by Robert Draper

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Keeping a Restaurant Alive with Tony Bezsylko Sep 08, 2020

Show notes

What does it take to keep a restaurant alive in the time of coronavirus? In March, restaurants across the country closed their doors in order to combat the spread of Covid-19. Left behind is an industry that is largely made up of small business owners scrambling to figure out how they can stay afloat. This week, Tony Bezsylko, co-owner of the local Chicago restaurant Cellar Door Provisions, sits down to talk about his passion for baking, how he started his own restaurant, and how he and his partners are managing to keep their restaurant alive in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

Cellar Door Provisions Is the Perfect Restaurant That is Positive It Could Be Better (Bon Appetit)

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America’s Right Turn with Rick Perlstein Sep 01, 2020

Show notes

How did America’s modern conservative movement come to power? Historian and author Rick Perlstein’s prolific work has traced the arc of modern electoral politics, and specifically has laid out how modern conservatism arose. This week, he sits down to talk about his newest book “Reaganland” and how the ideological shifts and circumstances that lead to the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan helped set the stage for the conservative embrace of Donald Trump today.

Reaganland: America’s Right Turn 1976-1980 by Rick Perlstein

The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan by Rick Perlstein

Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America by Rick Perlstein

Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus by Rick Perlstein

The Grand Old Meltdown (Politico)

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The Invisible Power Struggle with Leah Stokes Aug 25, 2020

Show notes

Whether it’s refrigerating your food or turning on the lights or connecting to the Internet, having access to power is what makes modern society possible. And yet, you likely have no choice in which company you get your power from. Whether the service is bad or they lobby against your own policy interests, it doesn’t matter – if you want power, you give them your money. It’s a sweet deal for those companies and, as Leah Stokes recounts in captivating detail, they’ll go to extreme lengths to ensure you remain a captive customer. So, who are these utility companies, how do they work, and what are they doing with your money? And oh, by the way, what will it take to reorganize this sector to transition to clean energy so we can continue to have a habitable planet? Lucky for us, Leah Stokes is an expert in all the above and answers all the questions you never thought to ask but absolutely need to know.

RELATED READING:

Short Circuiting Policy by Leah Stokes

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REVISITED China's Secret Internment Camps with Rian Thum Aug 18, 2020

Show notes

Originally Aired April 2019

Did you know there are roughly one million people currently held in internment camps in China? One million people detained against their will, facing no criminal charges, cut off from the outside world. This is the story of the Uyghurs, a small insulated ethnic minority in Western China. The predominantly Muslim group has faced growing levels of Islamophobia and paranoia from the Chinese government. Right now, roughly ten percent of the Uyghur population has been ‘disappeared’, held indefinitely in re-education camps where they are subjected to totalitarian indoctrination in an attempt to erase their identity, their language, their religion and their culture. Rian Thum, who has spent his career studying the Uyghurs, joins us to explain everything we know about the camps and how they came to be – including the prison-like surveillance state that Uyghurs outside of the camps are forced to live in.

LINKS

The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History by Rian Thum

How China Turned a City Into a Prison

"Eradicating Ideological Viruses”: China’s Campaign of Repression Against Xinjiang’s Muslims

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Caste in America with Isabel Wilkerson Aug 11, 2020

Show notes

Does the United States have a caste system? In her research on the Jim Crow South, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Isabel Wilkerson found that the word ‘racism’ fell far short in capturing the depth and totality of oppression people existed under. In her powerful new book, “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents”, Wilkerson uses caste as a lens to reexamine ourselves and the arbitrary brutality centered in the founding of America.

Caste: The Origins of our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

Hitler's American Model by James Q. Whitman

Isabel Wilkerson’s ‘Caste’ Is an ‘Instant American Classic’ About Our Abiding Sin (NYTimes)

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