#1815 Sanctioned Ignorance: The Assault on Museums, Libraries, and American Memory
Air Date: 8-16-2026
Today we look at what Toni Morrison called "sanctioned ignorance," the deliberate manufacture of a version of the past that keeps citizens from connecting the dots between what their government did then and what it's doing now. They're doing it by attacking museums, libraries, and everyone dedicated to ensuring that people have access to accurate information because that's what it takes to implement authoritarian control over a society. It's also the reason that countries under authoritarian rule suffer from the lack of benefits that comes with the free exchange of ideas.
Read more#1801 Counterfeit Populism: Trump, the 2026 Primaries, and the Era That's Ending
Air Date: 6–17-2026
Today we trace a pattern that repeated across half a dozen states this primary season: working-class candidates running on the cost of living beat the opponents party leadership hand-picked and funded. It looks like ordinary election news, but it's more pieces of a larger shift already underway; away from a politics of left against right and toward a new era of the elite vs working people.
Read more#1794 From MAHA to Measles: RFK's Public Health Purge Will Make America Sick Again
Air Date: 5–23-2026
Today we examine the real-world cost of dismantling America's public health infrastructure, the dangerous pseudoscience driving RFK Jr.'s health agenda, and the contradictions fracturing the MAHA movement from within.And now on to the show
Read more#1787 The American President vs The American Pope: Leo XIV, Trump, and the MAGA-Catholic Rift
Air Date: 4–29-2026
Today we explore the extraordinary clash between Pope Leo XIV and the Trump White House — a feud involving military threats, medieval papal history, and an American-born pope who refuses to back down. We'll hear why analysts say MAGA's religiosity is pure aesthetic, and what that hollowness means for the millions of Americans still taking their faith seriously.
Read more#1683 Oligarchy Unmasked: President Musk, the crackup of capitalism, and the MAGA meltdown (Throwback)
Re-Air Date: 04-07-26
Original Air Date: 1-15-2025
Elon Musk is leading the way for his class of tech broligarchs anxious to take over the MAGA movement and shape it to their own ends of deregulation, tax cuts, and lucrative government contracts. The disappointment that is inevitable for the MAGA populists is coming even faster than expected.
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#1768 The End of an Era: The International Rules-Based Order Gives Way to Trump's Might-Makes-Right Plutocracy
Air Date: 1-29-2026
Today we examine the collapse of the American-led, rules-based world order (such as it was) in real time. Canada’s Prime Minister pointed out that the emperor has no clothes and declared US hegemony over while Europe called Trump's bluff on Greenland... all the more reason why he would prefer a fake “Board of Peace” that he can rule over as a worldwide plutocracy.
Read more#1747 Racism in the United States, it turns out, is a problem
Air Date: 10-28-2025
As we were looking for episode topics, I came across an article making the case that racism is a real problem in the country and that there were lots of recent examples that proved the point. And I was like, "Racism? In the US?! In Trump's Republican Party?? That doesn't sound like the country I've heard of." (sarcasm) But then we looked into it and it turns out racism is everywhere and also quite bad. (true)
Read more#1731 Raw Power, the Presidency, the Courts, and Democracy in the Balance
Air Date: 8-20-2025
There's been a faction of conservatives who have been trying to instill king-like powers into the presidency for a long time, so it shouldn't be surprising that Trump is getting so much help from the packed court and the apparatchiks in the states who are more than happy to turn their precious federalism on its head as long as their king is in charge.
Read more#1727 Super-Powered Men For Good and Ill: Fascism, Media, and the Manoshpere
Air Date: 8-6-2025
Today's slate of topics may feel disjointed at first until you realize that they're not. We set out to produce an episode in which we explored powerful men and those who look up to them from various angles and so that ended up including both real and fictional men from supervillains to superheroes.
Read more#1726 Epstein Forever: Trump flails as criticism finally comes from inside the MAGA house
Air Date: 7-31-2025
Who would have thought that a political movement built almost exclusively on conspiracy theories and a cult of personality would end up being threatened by the cult leader being implicated in the biggest and worst conspiracy coverup… even though it’s been well documented for decades?
Content warning for detailed accusations leveled against Trump and Epstein by their alleged victims.
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