Episoder
-
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
Electoral victories by socialists around the country show that the Democratic establishment is weak and can be overthrown.
🌹 Read the article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-left-is-rising
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/
-
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
Jessica Burbank is an investigative journalist, content creator, and host of The Jessica Burbank Show. Her reporting for Drop Site News and The Counterprogramming Club has exposed the rapid spread of Flock Safety, a multi-billion-dollar surveillance company whose license plate readers and camera networks are being adopted by police departments and municipalities across the country.
Burbank joined Current Affairs associate editor Emily Topping to discuss how Flock’s technology works, why communities often learn about it only after contracts are approved, how surveillance data can be abused by law enforcement, and what ordinary people should know before their towns embrace a mass surveillance system.
📸 Jessica's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JessicaBurbankShow
📸 Jessica's Substack: https://substack.com/@kaburbank
0:00-9:07 What Is Flock Safety?
9:07-16:19 Why Should We Be Concerned?
16:19-20:26 Efforts to Prevent Surveillance Abuse
20:26-25:00 The Gymnastics Studio Case
25:00-26:41 ICE and Data Sharing
26:41-28:50 Why Local Police Departments Embrace This Tech
28:50-34:24 What About Communities That Want This Tech?
34:24-37:01 The Ideological Fault Lines
37:01-44:03 Lawsuits Against Flock
44:03-50:03 Are You Being Watched?
50:03-59:21 The Broader Implications of Surveillance Cameras
59:21-1:02:08 What to Consider Before Implementing This Tech
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/
-
Mangler du episoder?
-
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
Judith Butler is one of the world's leading scholars and philosophers on issues of gender, sexuality, and the cultural phenomena that surround them. They are the author of the landmark 1990 book Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, and more recently the 2024 follow-up work Who's Afraid of Gender?
Butler joined Current Affairs editor-in-chief Nathan J. Robinson to discuss the way people around the world -- mostly conservatives, but some who consider themselves leftists, too -- have become fearful and angry about what they call "gender ideology," why they're mistaken, and what might be done about it.
🏳️⚧️ Who's Afraid of Gender?: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374608224/whosafraidofgender/
0:00-4:34 How Gender Became a Right-Wing Panic
4:34-7:59 What “Gender Ideology” Really Means
7:59-13:27 Responding to Kathleen Stock
13:27-16:15 What Performativity Actually Means
16:15-23:28 Matt Walsh and the Demand for Simple Answers
23:28-26:25 Anti-Trans Politics and the Turn Toward Fascism
26:25-31:39 Feminism, TERFs, and Trans Rights
31:39-34:45 How Butler’s Views Have Evolved
34:45-40:53 Anti-Capitalism and Gender as a Distraction
🦩 Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/
-
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
Molly Crabapple is an artist, journalist, and author of the new book Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund. She joins Current Affairs editor-in-chief Nathan J. Robinson to discuss the history of the Bund, its fierce anti-Zionism, its vision of Jewish self-determination without an ethnostate, and what this forgotten socialist movement can teach us about solidarity, self-defense, and fighting fascism today.
✊ Here Where We Live Is Our Country: https://www.mollycrabapple.com/here-where-we-live-is-our-country
✊ Drawing Blood: https://www.mollycrabapple.com/drawing-blood
✊ Brothers of the Gun: https://www.mollycrabapple.com/brothers-of-the-gun
0:00-5:52 Why the Bund Matters Now
5:52-9:43 Jewish Self-Determination Without an Ethnostate
9:43-14:51 Why the Bund Rejected Zionism
14:51-20:45 Labor Organizing, Mutual Aid, and Revolution
20:45-23:11 Jewish Self-Defense Against Pogroms
23:11-26:06 The Bund’s Failure to Take Power
26:06-32:16 Were the Zionists Proven Right?
32:16-35:12 Why History Was Not Inevitable
35:12-38:05 Has Israel Made Jews Less Safe?
38:05-43:36 Why the Bund Resonates Today
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/
-
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
J. W. Mason and Arjun Jayadev are economists and authors of the new book Against Money. They join Current Affairs editor-in-chief Nathan J. Robinson to discuss why money is so widely misunderstood, how it shapes our lives in ways we often fail to see, and how rethinking money can change the way we understand debt, austerity, inequality, foreign investment, housing, and the limits of mainstream economics.
💵 Against Money: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo265118979.html
0:00-6:20 The problem with imagining a world without money
6:20-13:38 Why money is not a neutral measure of value
13:38-20:15 How rethinking money changes our politics
20:15-30:43 What capital really is
30:43-38:14 What mainstream economics gets wrong
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/
-
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
Chris Smalls is the co-founder and former president of the Amazon Labor Union and author of the new book When the Revolution Comes. He joins Current Affairs associate editor Alex Skopic in Havana, Cuba, during the Nuestra América aid mission to discuss the U.S. blockade, labor organizing, his fight against Amazon, and why struggles from Cuba to Gaza to Staten Island are connected.
Recorded March, 2026
✊ Buy When the Revolution Comes: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/724036/when-the-revolution-comes-by-chris-smalls/
0:00-5:21 Why Chris Smalls Came to Cuba
5:21-8:18 Hip-Hop, “Union Drip,” and Labor Organizing
8:18-11:09 Joe Biden’s Empty Pro-Union Promises
11:09-17:32 What Workers Should Know About Unionizing
17:32-24:02 The State of the Amazon Labor Union
24:02-26:36 Lessons From the Amazon Fight
26:36-28:15 Gaza, the Freedom Flotilla, and Israeli Apartheid
28:15-28:50 Medea Benjamin Cameo
28:50-31:56 What Comes Next for Chris Smalls
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/
-
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
Norman Finkelstein is one of the leading scholars of the Israel-Palestine conflict and author of the new book Gaza’s Gravediggers: An Inquiry into Corruption in High Places.
He joins Current Affairs editor-in-chief Nathan J. Robinson to discuss Israel’s plan to make Gaza unlivable, the racism of Israeli society, Tony Blair and Trump’s colonial “Board of Peace,” why he refuses to condemn Hamas, and why he argues that governments, human rights organizations, and international legal authorities have helped enable the Gaza genocide.
🇵🇸 Gaza's Gravediggers: https://orbooks.com/catalog/gazas-gravediggers/
0:00-9:20 Netanyahu’s plan for Gaza
9:20-20:12 Israel’s objectives in Gaza
20:12-41:41 The racism of Israeli society
41:41-45:55 Why oppressors see themselves as victims
45:55-50:18 The Cherokee removal and Palestine
50:18-1:04:21 Why this has always been Israel’s plan
1:04:21-1:25:08 Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and the right
1:25:08-1:32:34 Trump and Tony Blair’s “Board of Peace”
1:32:34-1:47:18 Who are Gaza’s gravediggers?
1:47:18-1:55:18 Refusing to judge anti-imperial atrocities in isolation
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/
-
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
Waqas Ahmed is a Pakistani journalist whose work has appeared in The Intercept and Drop Site News. He joins Current Affairs to discuss his recent reporting with Murtaza Hussain and Ryan Grim on the U.S.-Pakistan relationship, the ouster and imprisonment of Imran Khan, and how Washington went from suspicion of Pakistan to embracing its military-backed government.
🇵🇰 Read Waqas Ahmed's article in Drop Site News: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/pakistan-mediator-united-states-iran-trump-imran-khan
0:00-10:32 How Biden Soured on Pakistan
10:32-13:27 Ukraine and Imran Khan’s Break With Washington
13:27-19:35 How the U.S. Helped Push Imran Khan Out
19:35-23:37 Imran Khan’s Imprisonment Today
23:37-26:17 Pakistan’s Crackdown After Khan’s Ouster
26:17-31:32 How Washington Learned to Love Pakistan’s Military Regime
31:32-33:09 America Supports Dictatorship When It Serves U.S. Interests
33:09-38:22 Pakistan’s Role in the Iran Negotiations
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/
-
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
Nicholas Enrich worked at USAID for more than 12 years, including in its Bureau for Global Health and Bureau for Management. He joins Current Affairs to discuss his new book, Into the Wood Chipper, a whistleblower account of how the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s DOGE allies shredded one of the most important humanitarian agencies in the U.S. government.
🏥 Buy Nicholas's Book: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Into-the-Wood-Chipper/Nicholas-Enrich/9781668226957
0:00-3:02 Inside USAID’s “Wood Chipper”
3:02-7:02 What USAID Actually Did
7:02-12:23 How the Right Turned USAID Into a Conspiracy Theory
12:23-14:37 The Trump Administration’s Lies About “Life-Saving” Aid
14:37-20:33 The Human Cost of Destroying USAID
20:33-34:20 How This Catastrophe Could Have Been Avoided
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/
-
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
It’s not 2016 anymore. We can throw out the party’s sclerotic leadership.
🌹 Read the article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-democratic-establishment-can-be-defeated
🦩SUBSCRIBE TO CURRENT AFFAIRS MAGAZINE: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
🦩 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/c/CurrentAffairs
🦩THE MYTH OF AMERICAN IDEALISM: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/738224/the-myth-of-american-idealism-by-noam-chomsky-and-nathan-j-robinson/
-
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
Rania Khalek is a Lebanese-American journalist based in Beirut and the host of Dispatches on BreakThrough News. She returns to Current Affairs to give an update on Lebanon, where Israel has continued bombing, occupying territory, issuing displacement orders, and demolishing villages during what is being called a “ceasefire.”
🇱🇧 Subscribe to BreakThrough News: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakThroughNews/featured
🇱🇧 Rania's SubStack: https://substack.com/@raniakhalek?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=58m7xg
🇱🇧 Rania's Twitter: https://x.com/RaniaKhalek
🇱🇧 Rania's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raniakhalek/?hl=en
0:00-5:16 There Is No Ceasefire in Lebanon
5:16-11:52 What Israel Is Destroying in Southern Lebanon
11:52-19:13 Hezbollah and the Fault Lines Inside Lebanon
19:13-25:32 Negotiations Under Fire: Peace or Submission?
25:32-27:57 Hezbollah’s Resilience
27:57-34:02 How U.S. Media Sanitizes Israel’s War
34:02-39:16 America’s Role in Destroying Lebanon
39:16-42:37 How Americans Can Show Solidarity
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/
-
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
Abdul El-Sayed is a physician, public health official, Current Affairs contributor, and Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Michigan. He joined Nathan Robinson to discuss his campaign, the fight over Gaza and AIPAC inside the Democratic Party, Chuck Schumer’s leadership, Medicare for All, corporate money in politics, and why he believes Democrats can win by rejecting the old theory of “electability.”
〽️ Abdul's Website: https://abdulforsenate.com/
0:00-3:41 Why This Campaign Feels Different
3:41-7:05 Gaza, AIPAC, and U.S. Tax Dollars
7:05-11:45 Abdul’s Theory of Electability
11:45-15:45 Persuading Trump Voters
15:45-17:22 Schumer and Democratic Leadership
17:22-19:30 Money Out of Politics, Medicare for All, and Senate Priorities
19:30-23:05 Presidential Power and Foreign Policy
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/
-
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
Sam Miller McDonald is a writer and longtime Current Affairs contributor. He joins Nathan Robinson to discuss his new book Progress: How One Idea Built Civilization—and Now Threatens to Destroy It, a sweeping critique of the belief that history is a story of constant improvement.
🌀 Buy Sam's book: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250278319/progress/
🌀 Read Sam's articles: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/author/samuel-miller-mcdonald
0:00-8:30 critiquing the Pinker-style narrative of progress
8:30-19:43 “progress” as destruction: industrialization and ecological collapse
19:43-23:34 what actually constitutes wellbeing
23:34-30:15 why the idea of “progress” is misleading
30:15-36:42 how “progress” justifies violence (Nazism, colonialism)
36:42-41:37 imagining values beyond “progress”🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/
-
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
As Trump creates economic havoc and commits war crimes, the socialist mayor of New York City demonstrates what serious, responsible government looks like.
🗽 Read the article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/meanwhile-zohran-is-just-getting-things-done
🦩SUBSCRIBE TO CURRENT AFFAIRS MAGAZINE: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
🦩 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/c/CurrentAffairs
🦩THE MYTH OF AMERICAN IDEALISM: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/738224/the-myth-of-american-idealism-by-noam-chomsky-and-nathan-j-robinson/
-
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
After being a leading Democratic enabler of the genocide of Palestinians, Cory Booker now has the audacity to publish a book about moral virtue.
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/
-
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
Adam Johnson is a media analyst and co-host of the podcast Citations Needed, whose work has appeared in The Nation, The Intercept, and other major outlets. He joined Current Affairs Editor-in-Chief Nathan Robinson to discuss his new book How to Sell a Genocide: The Media’s Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza, an analysis of how U.S. corporate media covered Israel’s assault on Gaza.
🇵🇸 Buy Adam's new book: https://www.plutobooks.com/product/how-to-sell-a-genocide/
🇵🇸 Follow Adam on Twitter: https://x.com/adamjohnsonCHI
🇵🇸 Citations Needed: https://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/
0:00–5:51 Yes, it's a genocide
5:51–9:32 How liberal media failed
9:32–16:25 The myth of journalistic neutrality
16:25–21:40 The “Hamas-run” framing
21:40–28:03 How Hamas is portrayed as ISIS
28:03–34:22 Erasing historical context
34:22–37:46 Media double standards
37:46–47:05 Biden’s role and response
47:05–51:04 Whose voices are excluded
51:04–54:39 What happens to dissenting journalists
54:39–59:43 The Atlantic (ugh)
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/
-
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
Mouin Rabbani is a Middle East analyst and researcher, and one of the most incisive commentators on U.S. foreign policy in the region. He joined Current Affairs Editor-in-Chief Nathan Robinson to discuss the latest escalation in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, and the broader Middle East, including ceasefire negotiations, U.S.-Israel relations, and the shifting balance of power.
🇵🇸 Buy Mouin's new book: https://orbooks.com/catalog/gaza-apocalypse/
🇵🇸 Follow Mouin on Twitter: https://x.com/MouinRabbani
0:00–6:04 Trump’s ceasefire claim and what’s actually happening
6:04–10:15 Who controls U.S. policy, Washington or Israel?
10:15–14:39 Zionism and the crackdown on dissent
14:39–16:59 How criticism of Israel gets suppressed
16:59–24:46 Why the pro-Israel consensus is breaking down
24:46–29:40 The gap between Trump’s rhetoric and reality
29:40–32:26 What Trump’s threats reveal about the war
32:26–39:45 The moral case against the war
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/
-
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
Ben Cohen is the co-founder, along with Jerry Greenfield, of the Ben and Jerry's ice cream company. But he has also been involved throughout his life with a number of major activist efforts on issues of peace, social justice, anti-racism, and climate change.
He is currently heading the Up In Arms campaign to rein in military spending. Cohen was a national co-chair of Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign. He has been arrested multiple times in the course of his activism, including disrupting an RFK Jr. Senate hearing to protest the genocide in Gaza. He is the author of the book Above The Law: How Qualified Immunity Protects Violent Police (OR Books, featuring an introduction by Killer Mike) and he is currently running a campaign to "free Ben and Jerry's" from its corporate overlords to protect its social activism.
🍦 Ben's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yobencohen/
🍦 Ben's Book: https://orbooks.com/catalog/above-the-law/
🍦 Up in Arms Campaign: https://upinarms.life/
0:00–10:16 War, military spending, and moral priorities
10:16–15:10 U.S. security logic and NATO expansion
15:10–17:56 The profit motive behind war
17:56–21:16 Impunity and lack of accountability
21:16–28:12 Explaining militarism with BBs and Oreos
28:12–33:50 Ben & Jerry’s social mission explained
33:50–41:34 The Unilever/Magnum fight
41:34–46:04 Should you boycott Ben & Jerry’s?
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/
-
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
Amy Goodman is the longtime host of Democracy Now!, the independent news program she helped launch 30 years ago, which has since grown from a small network of community radio stations into a global media institution.
She spoke to Current Affairs Editor-in-Chief Nathan Robinson and Digital Editor John Ross, alongside filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin, about the new documentary Steal This Story, Please!, which traces the history of Democracy Now! and Goodman’s career in independent journalism.
🗽 Watch Steal This Story, Please!: https://stealthisstory.org/
0:00–4:51 What makes Democracy Now! different from corporate media
4:51–9:14 Amy Goodman’s approach to journalism
9:14–12:48 How antiwar voices get sidelined in corporate media
12:48–20:26 Who corporate media really serves
20:26–25:15 Objectivity vs. taking a stance
25:15–36:53 What Democracy Now! adds to the historical record
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/
-
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
Dr. Butch Ware is a historian, public intellectual, and the Green Party candidate for Governor of California. He is an associate professor at UC Santa Barbara, a former Green Party vice presidential nominee, and an advocate for universal healthcare, housing, and divestment from war.
He spoke to Current Affairs Editor-in-Chief Nathan Robinson about his campaign to get on the ballot and what he describes as efforts by the Democratic Party to block third-party candidates.
🍊 Butch Ware's website: https://www.butchware4gov.com/
🍊 Follow Butch on Twitter: https://x.com/butchware?lang=en
🍊 Follow Butch on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/butchware/?hl=en
0:00–11:37 ballot access battle
11:37–17:36 blocking third parties
17:36–23:58 UK Green Party surge
23:58–33:34 Gavin Newsom critique
33:34–37:21 abortion & trans rights
37:21–42:02 Butch Ware’s vision for California
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/
- Se mer
