Start Making Sense

House Progressive leader Ro Khanna says “economic empowerment” for the working class should become the Democrats’ “defining cause.” And he comments on this week’s battle in the House over the Republican budget.Also: Thomas Geoghegan argues that, to win back the working class, Democrats need to “promise something big – and keep it simple.” His suggestions: a bigger and better Social Security program, and an end to employers’ freedom to fire workers for any reason.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

On this episode of American Prestige, William Hartung — senior research fellow focusing on the arms industry and US military budget at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft — joins the program to discuss reports that the Trump administration is planning “sweeping budget cuts” for the Pentagon. We talk about these “cuts” being more accurately termed “reinvestments” into other areas, the enormous amount of defense spending and the culture that engendered this, how the defense industry has changed in the past 20 years, actual moves that could meaningfully reduce the military budget like reducing bloated systems (F-35s, aircraft carriers) and overseas bases, whether there exists an influential constituency to support military budget cuts, and more.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Danny and Derek are back with the news, but without much of a choice. This week's American Prestige News Roundup: the US and Russia meet in Riyadh to discuss future bilateral discussions to end the war in Ukraine (0:38); Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump feud in public comments (3:38); The Daily Telegraph reports on a US mineral rights deal that Zelenskyy rejected (8:22); in Israel-Palestine news, Saturday’s hostage exchange was successful (12:49) and Hamas offers an expedited hostage release schedule (15:08); Israel decides to ignore the withdrawal deadline in Lebanon (19:26); the US State Department decides to change the wording on a fact sheet about Taiwan and China responds negatively (21:58); in South Korea, former president Yoon goes on trial (24:43); the RSF militia in Sudan attempts to form a government and controversy ensues (26:35); in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, M23 (supported by Rwanda) takes Bukavu while continuing to advance north and south (31:10); Argentini

Paris Marx is joined by Makena Kelly to discuss how Elon Musk’s DOGE is reshaping the US government and the consequences that has for government employees and the wider public. Makena Kelly is a senior writer at WIRED and writes the weekly Politics Lab newsletter.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The first big election of 2025 will be in Wisconsin, which elects a new Supreme Court Justice on April 1. Elon Musk is spending hundreds of millions in that race. That’s both a threat, and an opportunity for Democrats. On this episode of Start Making Sense, John Nichols will comment.Also: How did we end up with Trump back in the White House? We got here in part because Republicans built a movement over several decades centered on what are called “the culture wars.” But there’s a long history behind the culture wars, going back at least a century to the Scopes Trial, in 1925, about teaching evolution. It’s still an issue today. Adam Hochschild is on the show to explain.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

On this episode of American Prestige, Danny and Derek are joined by Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, and Aslı Bâli, professor of law at Yale Law School and nonresident fellow at Quincy, to talk about the Institute’s Better Order Project, a collaboration between over 130 people from more than 40 countries creating proposals for a stable, multipolar world. They talk about the vision of moving beyond the current “rules-based” order in favor of an inclusive, global one rooted in international law, the major variables around which the project’s proposals and reforms are organized, how to address great powers prioritizing short-term, political thinking, the atmosphere in the worlds of think tanks, nonprofits, and elite law as we begin Trump 2.0, how these communities have been reckoning with the US policy on Gaza, and more. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

On this week's news roundup from American Prestige: Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin agree to start bilateral peace talks for the war in Ukraine (1:05), with anticipated fallout for the latter nation (6:17); Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth makes some frank comments on Europe, Ukraine, and NATO (8:06); an update on the situation in Israel-Palestine, including Hamas threatening to delay the next hostage release over Israeli transgressions (12:06) and Trump continuing to push a US takeover of Gaza (16:53); in Lebanon, a new government is formed (21:22) and the IDF seeks to extend its occupation there (23:28); a Washington Post report suggests Israel might be planning to strike Iran (25:33); in China news, Trump reinstates a de minimis tariff exemption, but there is still no sign of a meeting with Xi Jinping (28:46); the Sudanese military is close to driving the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) out of the Khartoum region (31:20); the so-called Islamic State group appears to be on the rise in Somalia (33:36); a reg

Paris Marx is joined by Eoin Higgins to discuss how tech billionaires changed the media ecosystem and made it profitable for influential voices to shift to the political right. Eoin Higgins is a journalist and the author of Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Trump has lost a series of major legal battles in the last week, where courts have ruled that key executive orders of his are unconstitutional. But what happens if Trump defies the courts? David Cole comments—he recently stepped down as national legal director of the ACLU to return to teaching law at Georgetown University.Also: “One of the most important lawsuits in the history of the United States” (The American Prospect): the suit brought by Public Citizen to stop Elon Musk’s attempted takeover of the Treasury Department’s payment system. Robert Weissman explains—he’s co-president of Public Citizen.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

On this episode of American Prestige, Peter Beinart speaks with Danny and Derek about his book Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning, American Jews’ conception of and relationship with Israel, and how things have changed since the start of the genocide in Gaza. They explore why Peter centers being Jewish at this moment, what he’s seen happen in the Jewish community since October 7, Palestinian dehumanization among American Jews, liberal Zionism and the two-state solution, the loss of agency for Palestinians, American Jewish institutions, and more.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

On this week's news roundup from American Prestige: Donald Trump proposes the US take over the Gaza Strip (0:32), prompting mixed responses at home (9:16) as well as abroad (15:18); the US vows to return to a "maximum pressure" Iran policy (17:08); in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the M23 ceasefire fizzles out (20:04); Trump threatens to cut off funding to South Africa over certain land policies (22:10); Ukraine offers minerals in exchange for Trump's support (25:02); Secretary of State Marco Rubio travels to Latin America, addressing tension over the Panama Canal (28:37), entertaining an offer from El Salvador to take in US convicts (30:44), as well as an offer from Guatemala to aid in deportations (32:14); China responds to Trump's tariffs (36:43); and the Trump Administration rigs Google searches concerning deportation cases (38:37). Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

On this episode of Tech Won't Save Us, we're joined by Liz Pelly to discuss how Spotify changes how we listen to music and the broader impacts it has on the wider music industry. Liz Pelly is a music journalist and the author of Mood Machine.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Understanding our power: “If you’re always consumed by the next outrage, you can’t look closely at the last one.” (Ezra Klein) Last week, Trump tried to stop payment of all federal grants and assistance. But people rose up in protest, and within a day Trump rescinded the entire effort. How did we do it? What does that tell us about him--and about our power? Rebecca Solnit comments – her new blog is “Meditations in an Emergency.”Also: Trump’s strategy of flooding the zone with executive actions is intended to paralyze the opposition. But there’s lots of grassroots mobilization underway right now, and one of the biggest organizers of that mobilization is Indivisible. Leah Greenberg will explain the group’s strategy and tactics -- and this week’s work assignments -- to get four Republicans to vote “No” on Trump’s four terrible nominees. Leah is one of the co-founders and co-executive directors of Indivisible.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

On this episode of American Prestige, Derek speaks with Marie-Rose Tshite, a peacebuilding advocate and Ph.D. student in Political Science with a concentration in Feminist Comparative and International Politics at the University of Cincinnati, about M23 and the situation in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). They explore the group’s origins, its ties with the Rwandan government, other external actors, the recent seizure of Goma, minerals and the economic factors driving the conflict, the humanitarian situation, and more.Read Marie-Rose’s recent article on Congolese women's experiences during the Second Congolese War between 1998 and 2003, “Capturing Congolese Women’s Memories of War and Peacemaking”.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Running for president last year, Donald Trump disowned Project 2025, the laundry list of radical demands gathered together by right-wing think tanks. Trump claimed Project 2025 had no influence on him and was only being raised by Democrats as a political attack. But now Trump is in power, he’s enacting an agenda of dismantling the welfare state that is following Project 2025 in close detail, as my Nation colleague Chris Lehmann documented in a recent column. Chris and Jeet Heer talk about Trump’s mobilization of Christian nationalist ideologues in the service of a making the state subservient to big business. We also take up the remarkable supine Democratic Party response, and also possible sources of resistance in the courts, the federal government and, most crucially, from outraged public opinion mobilized into protest.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week: in Israel-Palestine, detainees were exchanged on Thursday (0:31), the IDF continues its operation in the West Bank (6:05), an update on the humanitarian situation in Gaza (7:40), and Trump proposes the idea of ethnically cleansing the Strip (10:34); in Lebanon, the IDF ignores its withdrawal deadline (15:02); in Syria, the political transition continues (17:00), the IDF remains in the country’s south (19:04), and negotiations with Russia are underway over its bases in Syria as well as the fate of Bashar al-Assad (20:32); the rollout of China’s DeepSeek AI roils tech stocks (23:00); the Sudanese army sees a string of military successes around Khartoum (25:24); in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the M23 military group takes Goma while advancing south (27:59); Putin comments on peace talks regarding Ukraine (32:43); Colombia and the US get into a spat regarding deportation flights (34:12); and in US news, arms sales hit a new record in 2024 (37:16), Donald Trump vows to build a migrant detenti

On this episode of Tech Won't Save Us, Paris Marx is joined by Chris Gilliard to discuss David Golumbia's final book Cyberlibertarianism and how right-wing politics shaped how we think about the internet.Chris Gilliard is co-director of the Critical Internet Studies Institute and author of the forthcoming book Luxury Surveillance, coming in 2026.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Our attention is limited. That makes it valuable, Chis Hayes says– not just to us, but to those who’d like to exploit it. Chris’s new book is The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource; before he became host of “All in with Chris Hayes” on MSNBC, he was The Nation’s Washington Correspondent.Also: Your Minnesota Moment: officials in sanctuary cities and counties in Minnesota face threats from the Trump administration. Host Jon Wiener explains the threats to undocumented residents from Stephen Miller, and the response from Minnesota’s Attorney General Keith Ellison.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

On this episode of American Prestige, Lydia Walker, historian at Ohio State University, is back with Danny and Derek to conclude the conversation about her book States-in-Waiting: A Counternarrative of Global Decolonization. This time, the group explores post-colonial states following colonial borders, how business interests shaped things in states like Namibia, progressive capitalism, how the Cold War defined horizons of political possibility for nationalist actors, legitimacy as dictated by outside forces, and where decolonization stands in the modern day. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

On this week's American Prestige news roundup: in Gaza, the ceasefire takes effect (0:37), allowing a surge of humanitarian aid (3:51), the latter being partly facilitated by Hamas’s police force back in power (5:50). Meanwhile, an agreement on the second phase of the ceasefire remains to be seen (7:56); the IDF launches a new operation in the West Bank (14:38); negotiations between the government and SDF continue in Syria (17:11); Turkey hints at a possible thaw with the Kurdish PKK (20:13); Afghan refugees who’d already been granted asylum are stranded after Trump’s executive order (24:54); China brokers a new ceasefire in Myanmar (27:49); M23 makes a new advance in the Democratic Republic of Congo (29:31); Trump threatens myriad economic penalties against Russia if it doesn’t end the war in Ukraine (31:42); NATO’s defense spending might be on the rise (34:19); Colombia breaks off peace talks with the ELN (37:48); Mexico and Honduras react to Trump’s deportation plans (40:10); Oxfam releases a new repor