American History

It’s an EmMajority Report Thursday! She speaks with Adam Hanieh, development studies academic based in the UK, to discuss his recent book Crude Capitalism: Oil, Corporate Power, and the Making of the World Market. Then, she speaks with Greg Stoker, co-host of the Colonial Outcasts podcast, to dis...
Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speaks with Manisha Sinha, Chair in American History at the University of Connecticut, to discuss her recent book The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on the major death toll coming out of ...
Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak with Dr. Melvin Rogers, professor of political science and associate director of the Center for Philosophy, Politics, & Economics at Brown University, to discuss his recent book The Darkened Light of Faith: Race, Democracy, and Freedom in African American Poli...
Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak with Melissa Jacoby, law professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, to discuss her recent book Unjust Debts: How Our Bankruptcy System Makes America More Unequal. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on SCOTUS’ affirmation of presidential immun...
Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak with John Ganz, writer of the Unpopular Front newsletter on SubStack, to discuss his recent book When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on Netanyahu’s rejection of (suppo...
Happy Monday! Sam & Emma speak with author and historian William Hogeland, proprietor of the “Hogeland’s Bad History” newsletter on SubStack, to discuss his recent book The Hamilton Scheme: An Epic Tale of Money and Power in the American Founding. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on Mé...
Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak with Dylan Penningroth, professor of Law and History at the University of California, Berkeley, to discuss his recent book Before The Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on Iran’s military-specific retaliatio...
Happy Monday! Emma speaks with Abdul Alkalimat, professor of African American Studies & library and information science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, to discuss his book The History of Black Studies. First, Emma runs through updates on the rising Gaza death count, the crippl...
It’s Hump Day! Sam and Emma speak with Joseph Jewell, professor and department head of black studies at the University of Illinois Chicago, to discuss his recent book White Man’s Work: Race and Middle-Class Mobility into the Progressive Era.
It’s Hump Day! Sam speaks with Yohuru Williams, historian and founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas, and Michael Lansing, Professor of History at Augsburg University, to discuss their documentary project on the history of the Minneapolis Police Departm...
It’s Hump Day! First, Emma speaks with attorney Stephen Bright and James Kwak, law professor at the University of Connecticut, to discuss their recent book The Fear of Too Much Justice: Race, Poverty, and the Insistence of Inequality in the Criminal Courts. Then, she’s joined by writer Katherine ...
It’s an EmMajority Report Thursday! She speaks with Sara Marcus, assistant professor of English at the University of Notre Dame, about her recent book Political Disappointment: A Cultural History from Reconstruction to the AIDS Crisis. Then, Emma is joined by Zoya Teirstein, climate change and he...
It’s another EmMajority Report Thursday! She speaks with James Risen, senior national security correspondent at The Intercept, and co-author Thomas Risen, to discuss their recent book The Last Honest Man: The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys—and One Senator’s Fight to Save Democracy. Fir...
Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak to freelance journalist David Neiwert to discuss his recent book The Age of Insurrection: The Radical Right’s Assault on American Democracy. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on Israel disempowering their Supreme Court, offensives in Moscow and Odessa, the r...
Happy Monday! Sam and Emma host Daniel Bessner & Derek Davison, co-hosts of the American Prestige podcast, to discuss last week’s NATO summit in Lithuania. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on labor action across the US, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, AIPAC Dems’ attacks on Jayapal, a...
Happy Juneteenth! Sam and Emma speak to Imani Perry, professor of African-American Studies at Princeton University, author of South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation, to discuss the history and legacy of Juneteenth, as well as the importance of its bec...
Happy Monday! Sam and Emma host Alissa Quart, executive director of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, to discuss her recent book Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream. Then, they’re joined by Aaron Kleinman, director of research for the States Project at Future Now, to...
Emma hosts Jake Bittle, staff writer at Grist, to discuss his recent book The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration. Then, she’s joined by David Cohen, professor at Drexel Law School, to discuss the recent district court rulings on medication abortion in Texas and Was...
It’s an extra special News Day Tuesday as Sam and Emma are on Trump INDICTMENT WATCH. Then they’re joined by John Nichols, national affairs correspondent for The Nation, to discuss Tuesday’s Wisconsin State Supreme Court race. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on far-right legislation advan...
It’s another EmMajority Report Thursday! She hosts Matthew Connolly, professor of international and global history at Columbia University, to discuss his recent book The Declassification Engine: What History Reveals About America’s Top Secrets. Then, Emma speaks with Orly Noy, editor at Local Cal...
Sam and Emma host Jeff Sharlet, professor of English at Dartmouth College, to discuss his recent book The Undertow: Scenes From a Slow Civil War. First, Emma and Sam run through updates on the Manhattan Grand Jury returning to their Trump deliberations, the LA school strike, the Supreme Court dec...
Emma hosts writer Malcolm Harris to discuss his recent book Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World. First, Emma runs through updates on the EPA-enforced Norfolk Southern clean-up in East Palestine, updates on various special elections, Biden’s inhumane plans for Title 42’s ...
The MR Crew is back! Sam sits down for a pre-taped conversation with Peniel Joseph, joint professor of public affairs and history at the University of Texas at Austin, to discuss his recent book The Third Reconstruction:America’s Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-First Century First, Emma...
Sam and Emma host Gerald Horne, Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston, to discuss his recent book The Counter-Revolution of 1836: Texas Slavery & Jim Crow and the Roots of U.S. Fascism. Then later in the show, they’re joined by  Camille Gix, member of ...
Emma hosts Anastasia Curwood, Professor of History at the University of Kentucky, to discuss her recent book Shirley Chisholm: Champion of Black Feminist Power Politics. Then, she’s joined by labor and politics reporter Cole Stangler, to discuss the recent worker protests in France.  First, Emma ...
Sam and Emma host Jefferson Cowie, Professor of History at Vanderbilt University, to discuss his recent book Freedom’s Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on the GOP acting as the House majority, Ronna McDaniels winning the election for R...
Emma hosts Hal Weitzman, executive director for intellectual capital at the University of Chicago Business School, to discuss his recent book What’s The Matter With Delaware?: How the First State Has Favored the Rich, Powerful, and Criminal-and How It Costs Us All. Then, Emma is joined by Lee Har...
Emma hosts Timothy Shenk, Co-Editor of Dissent and Assistant Professor of Modern U.S. History at George Washington University, to discuss his recent book Realigners: Partisan Hacks, Political Visionaries, and the Struggle to Rule American Democracy. First, Emma runs through updates on Sinema jump...
Sam and Emma host Adam Hochschild, lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley School of Journalism, to discuss his recent book American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis. First, Sam and Emma run through this weekend’s updates on the Georgia runoff,...
Sam and Emma host Dale Kretz, visiting assistant professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to discuss his recent book Administering Freedom: The State of Emancipation after the Freedmen’s Bureau. First, Sam and Emma dive into updates on the US’ sanctions on Venezuela, E...
With one week until the midterm elections, Sam and Emma break down the biggest headlines of the day. First, they run through updates on the Supreme Court – as Chief Justice Roberts blocks Congress access to Trump’s tax returns – AIPAC’s attacks on Summer Lee, and Bolsonaro maintaining his silence...
Emma hosts Dan Bouk, associate professor of history at Colgate University, to discuss his recent book Democracy’s Data: The Hidden Stories in the U.S. Census and How to Read Them.Then, Emma’s joined by Akela Lacy, politics reporter for The Intercept, to discuss her recent reporting on the Pennsyl...
Happy Indigenous People’s Day! Sam and Emma host Claudio Saunt, professor of American History at the University of Georgia, to discuss his book Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory. Sam and Emma first run through updates on Russia’s response to...
Emma hosts author Ed Burmila to discuss his recent book Chaotic Neutral: How the Democrats Lost Their Soul in the Center. Emma first dives into updates on OPEC continuing their price gouging (and the Biden Administration’s response), a renewed attack on DACA by the right, progressive action in th...
Sam and Emma host Donald Yacovone, Associate at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, to discuss his recent book Teaching White Supremacy: America’s Democratic Ordeal and the Forging of Our National Identity. First Emma dives into Lula taking a lead ...
Emma hosts Dorothy Roberts, professor of Law, Sociology, and Civil Rights at the University of Pennsylvania, to discuss her recent book Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families–and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World. Emma first covers yesterday’s simultaneous mass shoot...
Emma hosts Brian Hochman, associate professor at Georgetown University, to discuss his recent book The Listeners: A History of Wiretapping in the United States. Then, Emma is joined by journalist Talia Lavin to discuss her recent piece in Rolling Stone ”The Buffalo Shooter Isn’t a ‘Lone Wolf.’ He...
Sam and Emma host Jon Marshall, associate professor at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, to discuss his recent book Clash: Presidents and the Press in Times of Crisis. Then, Sam and Emma are joined by Alex Speidel, organizer for the United Paizo Workers to discuss their ...
Sam hosts Kris Manjapra, history professor at Tufts University, to discuss his recent book Black Ghost of Empire: The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation, on how exploitation and racial caste systems that are buoyed by the lasting legacies of emancipations. Professor Manjapra be...
Emma hosts Sara Matthiesen, Professor of History at George Washington University, to discuss her recent book Reproduction Reconceived: Family Making and the Limits of Choice After Roe V. Wade, and how reproductive rights and the concept of choice have been manipulated and under attack in the age ...
Sam and Emma host John M. Schuessler, Associate Professor of Government and Public Service at Texas A & M University, to discuss his book Deceit On The Road To War: Presidents, Politics, and American Democracy, and how the blueprint to manufactured consent for US intervention developed over t...
Emma hosts writer Britni de la Cretaz and Lyndsey D’Arcangelo, women’s basketball writer for the Athletic, to discuss their recent book Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women’s Football League, and what they’ve uncovered in diving into the history of the league and the women that play...
Sam and Emma host Vivek Chibber, professor of sociology at New York University, to discuss his recent book The Class Matrix: Social Theory After the Cultural Turn, on the postwar shift in the left from strategic takes on the material condition of the working class to an analysis of capitalist ind...
Emma hosts Rachel Greenwald Smith, professor of English at St. Louis University, to discuss her recent book On Compromise: Art, Politics, and the Fate of An American Ideal, on compromise in art and politics, and as an American ideal. Professor Greenwald-Smith and Emma first back up and look at ho...
Sam and Emma host Sheryll Cashin, professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, to discuss her recent book White Space, Black Hood: Opportunity Hoarding and Segregation in the Age of Inequality, on how the residential caste system built up around race and geography has ingrained itself into ...
Emma hosts Paul Elliott Johnson, Assistant Professor of Communications at the University of Pittsburgh, to discuss his recent book I The People: The Rhetoric of Conservative Populism, on the transformation of the conservative populist movements over the last century, and how they worked to define...
Sam hosts William A. Blair, Professor of Middle American History at Penn State University, to discuss his recent book The Record of Murders and Outrages: Racial Violence and the Fight Over Truth at the Dawn of Reconstruction, on how the true histories of reconstruction, both in the horrible viole...
Sam and Emma host Michael Brenes, history lecturer at Yale University, to discuss his recent book For Might and Right: Cold War Defense Spending and the Remaking of American Democracy, on how the Cold War helped to ingrain the military-industrial complex within the American political, economic, a...
Emma hosts Ryan Cooper, national correspondent for The Week, to discuss his recent piece “The Most Underrated Part of the Electric Revolution”, on the connections between inflation and a green transition, and how making a shift away from gases and to electricity, especially in transportation, can...
Sam and Emma host Bart Elmore, Associate Professor of History at The Ohio State University, to discuss his recent book Seed Money: Monsanto’s Past and Our Food Future, on the role Monsanto has played in shaping our agricultural production around the sale of chemicals, and chemicals to counteract ...
Sam and Emma host Tyler Edward Stovall, Professor of History and Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Fordham University, to discuss his recent book White Freedom: The Racial History of an Idea, looking at how the construct of liberty, largely from the French and American perspecti...
Emma hosts Eric Rauchway, Professor of History at the University of California, Davis, to discuss his recent book Why The New Deal Matters, on the lessons we can take looking back on that period in US legislative history. Professor Rauchway and Emma first reflect on the laughable comparisons Bide...
Sam sits down with Marcia Chatelain, professor of history and African American studies at Georgetown University, to discuss her recent book Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America, on McDonald’s, fast food franchises, and their ties to the success and failures of Black capitalism. Professor...
Sam and Emma host Carl Lindskoog, assistant professor of history at Raritan Valley Community College, to discuss his recent book Detain and Punish: Haitian Refugees and the World’s Largest Immigration Detention System, to discuss his recent book Detain and Punish: Haitian Refugees and the World’s...
Emma hosts human rights lawyer Katherine Todrys to discuss her recent book Black Snake: Standing Rock, the Dakota Access Pipeline, and Environmental Justice, on how far the fight against DAPL has come even as it’s faded into the background of the media cycles. Todrys first discusses how she first...
Sam and Emma host Keisha Blain, Associate Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh, to discuss her recent book Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America, on how Hamer’s long life led up to a final decade and a half of incredibly influential activism. Professor Bl...
Sam and Emma host historian Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, to discuss her recent book Not A “Nation Of Immigrants”: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, And A History Of Erasure And Exclusion, on the settler-colonial roots of the US and the impossibility of obscuring them, no matter how much liberals pus...
Emma hosts writer Alex Hochuli, co-host of the Aufhebunga Bunga podcast, to discuss his recent book The End of the End of History: Politics in the Twenty-First Century that he co-authored with George Hoare and Phillip Cunliffe, taking on the establishment and breakdown of complete neoliberal hege...
Sam and Emma host public sector immigration lawyer Daniel Melo to discuss his recent book Borderlines: The Edges of U.S. Capitalism, Immigration, and Democracy, which contextualizes immigration policy within the history of the US, and exploring what we can do to push back against the unfair desig...
Sam and Emma host Amanda Montell, linguist and host of the Sounds Like A Cult podcast, to discuss her recent book Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism, on the social role of cults, how it has changed, and the influence it has on our language today. They start off by looking at the discourse around...
Sam hosts Paul Sabin, professor of history at Yale University and director of the Yale Environmental Humanities Program, to discuss his recent book Public Citizens: The Attack On Big Government and the Remaking of American Liberalism, on how the US went from eras defined by government action unde...
Sam and Emma host Richard Alba, Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York (CUNY), to discuss his recent book The Great Demographic Illusion: Majority, Minority, and the Expanding American Mainstream, on the failure of the Majority/Minority mode...
Emma hosts Karen L. Cox, Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, to discuss her recent book No Common Ground: Confederate Monuments and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice, on the history and reckoning over confederate monuments in the US. Professor Cox brings us b...
Emma hosts Jon N. Hale, Associate Professor of Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership at the University of Illinois, to discuss his recent book The Choice We Face: How Segregation, Race, and Power Have Shaped America’s Most Controversial Education Reform Movement, on the misrepresentation...
Emma hosts Dr. Nikki Usher, professor of journalism in the College of Media at the University of Illinois, to discuss her recent book, News for the Rich, White, and Blue: How Place and Power Distort American Journalism, on the troubles of both the supply and demand sides of mainstream US media. D...
Sam and Emma host Elizabeth Tandy Shermer, Associate Professor of History at Loyola Chicago University, to discuss her new book Indentured Students: How Government-Guaranteed Loans Left Generations Drowning In College Debt, which tackles the exploitative nature of US student loan programs dating ...
It’s Casual Friday! Sam and Emma host Ben Burgis, columnist at Jacobin, host of Give Them An Argument With Ben Burgis, and author of Canceling Comedians While the World Burns: A Critique of the Contemporary Left, to cover the top stories of the week. Ben, Sam, and Emma start off with a discussion...
Emma hosts Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, writer of The Incision newsletter on Substack, to discuss his recent book Medicare For All: A Citizen’s Guide, that he co-authored with Dr. Micah Johnson, which explores the story of M4A through three parts: a diagnosis and history of the problem, the policy behind ...
Emma hosts writer Jess McHugh to discuss her recent book Americanon: An Unexpected U.S. History In Thirteen Bestselling Books, which focuses on the books that shaped and grew the myth of American Exceptionalism over the last couple of centuries. Beginning with the Old Farmer’s Almanac and Webster...
Emma hosts Van Gosse, Professor and Associate Chair of History at Franklin & Marshall University, to discuss his recent book “The First Reconstruction: Black Politics in America from the Revolution to the Civil War,” on the political role of Black folks before their constitutional emancipatio...
Sam and Emma host Cristina Beltran, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at New York University, to discuss her recent book, Cruelty As Citizenship: How Migrant Suffering Sustains White Democracy, on the project of whiteness that has built the United States, and why the backlash t...
Emma hosts Jim Freeman, director of the Social Movement Support Lab, to discuss his new book, Rich Thanks to Racism: How the Ultra-Wealthy Profit From Racial Injustice, to discuss the hidden strategies behind systemic racism in America. Freeman walks through his concept of strategic racism and ho...
Sam and Emma host author Elinor Cleghorn to discuss her new book, Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World on how healthcare and medical treatment have underserved women and their health needs. They start the conversation by discussing Elinor’s personal experiences that brought her...
Sam and Emma are back from the July 4th holiday with Smithsonian curator Jon Grinspan, author of his latest book The Age of Acrimony: How Americans Fought to Fix Their Democracy, 1865-1915 on the last time partisanship was the primary driver in American democracy. Grinspan, inspired by the preced...
Sam hosts Pulitzer Prize-winning Yale Historian David Blight to discuss his recent biography of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, and how the Reconstruction era lives on in our contemporary politics. Sam and Blight take a deep dive into Frederick Douglass the orator and ...
Sam hosts Mark Joseph Stern, staff writer at Slate covering law and the courts, joins Sam to discuss the biggest cases of the recent Supreme Court term, and the implications of the rulings on cases like TransUnion v. Ramirez and Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid. They start with a discussion on SCOTU...
Sam and Emma host Duke University Economist Sandy Darity to discuss his latest book, From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century on addressing the racial wealth gap in America. After covering the modern state of the stratification, they look into the origins...
Emma hosts today’s Majority Report featuring a recent interview Sam recorded with Harvard history professor Annette Gordon-Reed on her new book, On Juneteenth, which explores the Texas roots and national consciousness of the holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the South. Beginning in the 15...
Sam and Emma host David Roediger, American Studies professor at the University of Kansas, to discuss his latest book, The Sinking Middle Class: A Political History, on the relatively recent phenomena of centering the middle class in political rhetoric and how both parties use it as a cudgel to be...
Sam and Emma host John B. Judis, Editor-at-Large at Talking Points Memo, to discuss his new book ‘The Politics of Our Time: Populism, Nationalism, Socialism,’ on the political movements in America so far in the 21st century and what conflicts and influences they might have on one another in the c...
Sam and Emma host professor of African American studies Carol Anderson to discuss her latest book The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America on how the right to bear arms has been a means to suppress black Americans. Anderson details how black Americans throughout history have organiz...
Sam and Emma are back from their Memorial Day break to discuss the top stories kicking off this week, from the anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre to the Texas Democrats’ exit, and what we hope Democrats have learned from the failures of the January 6th commission. They begin by exploring the risin...
Sam and Emma host Yale professor of history Elizabeth Hinton to discuss her new book America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s and the importance of recasting what were once considered “riots” as rebellion, and how the original framing of those eve...
Sam and Emma host Heather McGhee, a senior fellow at Demos, to discuss her new book The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together on how the legacies of slavery and systemic racism hurt all Americans in material ways. They explore her concept of “drain pool politics,” ...
Emma hosts today’s Majority Report, featuring an interview Sam recorded with Jonathan Daniel Wells, University of Michigan Professor of History, on his latest book “The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery, and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War.” They explore slavery’s deep ties to the fina...
Sam and Emma host historian Aviva Chomsky to discuss her latest book Central America’s Forgotten History: Revolution, Violence, and the Roots of Migration on the history of extraction, exploitation, and the root causes behind migration from the Northern Triangle to the southern US border, as well...
Sam and Emma host Daniel Levy, president of the US Middle East Project, and Noah Kulwin, co-creator of the Blowback podcast, to explore two of the US’ messiest and most destructive long-term foreign policy relationships in Israel and Cuba, respectively. Daniel joins to discuss the attacks in Gaza...
Sam and Emma host Elizabeth Catte, author of Pure America: Eugenics and the Making of Modern Virginia to discuss how Virginia’s embrace of eugenics allowed the state government to control its poor white population, land rights, and why we’ve memory-holed our eugenics past.
Sam and Emma host author and activist Victoria Law to discuss her new book, “Prisons Make Us Safer”: And 20 Other Myths about Mass Incarceration, on how our perception of incarceration has been wrong from the start. Sam, Emma and Victoria explore our carceral state and how racism and social contr...
Sam and Emma host Michael Mechanic, senior editor at Mother Jones, to discuss his new book, Jackpot: How the Super-Rich Really Live—and How Their Wealth Harms Us All. Sam, Emma, and Mechanic look at the rarified world of billionaires, how the average American subsidies the wealthiest members of o...
Sam and Emma host Joshua D. Rothman, University of Alabama professor of history, to discuss his new book, The Ledger and the Chain: How Domestic Slave Traders Shaped America, the myths around the slave trade industry, the deep ties between slavery and US imperialism, and Racial capitalism’s explo...
Sam and Emma host Texas State history professor Sarah R. Coleman to discuss her new book The Walls Within: The Politics of Immigration in Modern America on how immigration law has evolved in the last 50 years in America. And progressive activist Nabilah Islam joins us in the Fun Half to discuss w...
Sam and Emma host University of Detroit Mercy professor Alex Zamalin to discuss his latest book Against Civility: The Hidden Racism in Our Obsession with Civility on the need for disruptive organized pressure to combat racism and its thread through American history.
Sam and Emma host Washington Post national politics reporter Dave Weigel to discuss the on-going union organizing efforts in Alabama and how Democrats are leveraging them to their political advantage. Weigel offers his take on how the Biden administration has operated differently so far from prev...
Sam and Emma host Maurice Chammah, staff writer at The Marshall Project, and author of Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty joins the show to discuss his new book and how America might move beyond its shameful history of capital punishment. Sam and Chammah explore how th...
Sam hosts Sarah Chayes, prizewinning journalist and internationally recognized expert on corruption in government networks throughout the world, to discuss her new book On Corruption in America: And What Is at Stake. Sam and Chayes take the long view on how corruption has taken hold in society an...
On today’s show: Sam hosts Michael Sandel (@JusticeHarvard), Professor of Political Philosophy at Harvard University, to discuss his new book The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?, on the shortcomings of the “meritocratic” system and what we can do to fix it. The myth of the Ame...
Sam hosts writer and political analyst Jared Yates Sexton to discuss his new book, American Rule: How a Nation Conquered the World But Failed Its People, and why the foundational myths of American Exceptionalism have such a hold on the populace. Sam and Jared explore the stories Americans told th...
Sam hosts historian and policy analyst Christopher Shaw (@chris_w_shaw) to discuss his new book Money, Power, and the People: The American Struggle to Make Banking Democratic on how early 20th century finance shaped politics and grassroots mobilization.
Sam hosts Pulitzer Prize-winning Yale Historian David Blight to discuss his recent biography of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, and how the Reconstruction era lives on in our contemporary politics. Sam and Blight take a deep dive into Frederick Douglass the orator and ...
Sam hosts Cornell Professor of American Institutions Suzanne Mettler to discuss her latest book, Four Threats: The Recurring Crises of American Democracy and what we can learn from history to understand American democracy’s vulnerabilities. Mettler and Sam explore the moments in American history ...
Sam hosts USC Law Professor Jody Armour (@niggatheory) to discuss his new book N*gga Theory: Race, Language, Unequal Justice, and the Law and the importance of eradicating anti-black bias in America.
Sam is joined by Martha S. Jones (@marthasjones_), Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University, to discuss her new book, ‘Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All.’
Sam hosts author, radio host, and Spy Magazine founder Kurt Andersen to discuss his latest book Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History and how the last 50 years have turned the clock back on economic equality and progress in America.
Sam hosts former Republican strategist and consultant Stuart Stevens (@stuartpstevens) to discuss his new book It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump on how the GOP was always destined to become the party of Trump.
Sam hosts author and historian Rick Perlstein to discuss his latest book, Reaganland: America’s Right Turn 1976-1980, the dramatic conclusion of how conservatism took control of American political power. Sam and Rick begin their conversation discussing the role of Pat Caddell and how the Democrat...
Author Seyward Darby, “Sisters in Hate: American Women on the Front Lines of White Nationalism.”
Journalist and historian Richard Kreitner joins Sam to discuss “Break It Up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America’s Imperfect Union.”
Eddie Glaude Jr. joins the show once again to discuss his new book, Begin Again: “James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own.”
Sam hosts Eric Alterman, CUNY Distinguished Professor of English and Journalism, to discuss his latest book Lying in State: Why Presidents Lie – And Why Trump Is Worse, and the snowball effect lying has on the executive office. Sam and Alterman discuss the political efficiency of presidential lyi...
Sam hosts journalist Jean Guerrero to discuss her new book Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda on how Stephen Miller thrived in the Trump administration and successfully implemented a campaign of terror against immigrants in America.
Sam hosts historian Gerald Horne to discuss his new book The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century. 
The Majority Report returns this week as Sam hosts journalist and author Colin Woodard (@woodardcolin) to discuss his new book, Union: The Struggle to Forge the Story of United States Nationhood, on how 19th-century intellectuals forged the myth of national unity.
Sam hosts Garrett Felber, professor of history at the University of Mississippi, to discuss his new book, Those Who Know Don’t Say: The Nation of Islam, the Black Freedom Movement, and the Carceral State. Sam and Felber discuss the organizing tactics used by black nationalists from within the car...
Sam hosts NY-14 congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) to discuss her June 23rd primary and what to expect from the progressive caucus before the next round of Covid-19 relief. Historian Gerald Horne joins Sam to discuss the history of Juneteenth in the age of Trump.
Sam hosts environmental lawyer Barbara Freese to discuss her new book, Industrial-Strength Denial: Eight Stories of Corporations Defending the Indefensible, from the Slave Trade to Climate Change. Sam and Freese discuss how the psychology of corporate denial has remained the same over centuries. ...
Sam hosts Benjamin Dixon (@BenjaminPDixon) of The Benjamin Dixon Show and David Roth (@david_j_roth) of the New Republic to discuss this week’s top stories and the continued protests against police brutality.
Michael Brooks host The Nation’s John Nichols (@NicholsUprising) to discuss his upcoming book, The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party: The Enduring Legacy of Henry Wallace’s Anti-Fascist, Anti-Racist Politics. 
Sam hosts historian Walter Johnson to discuss his new book The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States and how the pandemic has disproportionately impacted black Americans. Johnson describes the history of St. Louis and his theory of western anti-black raci...
Sam hosts historian Sarah Milov to discuss her latest book, The Cigarette: A Political History. Milov and Sam walk through tobacco’s role in American culture and the government’s role in developing the cigarette market. From WWI to FDR’s New Deal and the Marshall plan, tobacco (and cigarettes) pl...
Sam hosts Chryl Laird (@chryllaird), Assistant Professor of Political Science at Bowdoin College, to discuss her book Steadfast Democrats: How Social Forces Shape Black Political Behavior, which explains why African-Americans are the most unified voting bloc in American history.
Author and historian Harvey J. Kaye (@HarveyJKaye) joins Michael Brooks to discuss how our government’s past responses to all-encompassing crises can help chart a path forward through the Covid-19 pandemic.
Author Adam Cohen joins Sam to discuss his new book, Supreme Inequality: The Supreme Court’s Fifty-Year Battle for a More Unjust America.
Political scientist Davin L. Phoenix (@Davin_Phoenix) joins the Majority Report to discuss his book, The Anger Gap: How Race Shapes Emotion in Politics, and explains how anger animates political participation amongst different demographic groups in America.
Happy Friday! Sam hosts author Joe William Trotter to discuss his new book Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America. Sam also interviews progressive candidate Jessica Scarane, who is running in the Democratic primary for Delware’s Senate seat currently held by Chris Coons.
Happy Thursday! Sam hosts Thom Hartmann to discuss his new book The Hidden History of the War on Voting: Who Stole Your Vote and How to Get It Back. 
Happy Tuesday! Sam hosts Ganesh Sitaraman of Vanderbilt Law School to discuss his new book The Great Democracy: How to Fix Our Politics, Unrig the Economy, and Unite America. Sam also interviews progressive candidate Morgan Harper, who is challenging Joyce Beatty in Ohio’s 3rd District.
Andrew Bacevich, the President of the Quincy Institute For Responsible Statecraft, joins us to discuss his book, ‘The Age of Illusions: How America Squandered Its Cold War Victory.’
Today, legal historian Martha S. Jones joins us to discuss her new book, “Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America.”
Brian Rosenwald (@brianros1), Coeditor-in-Chief of “Made by History,” a daily Washington Post history section, joins us to discuss his book, Talk Radio’s America: How an Industry Took Over a Political Party That Took Over the United States.
Journalist Todd Miller (@memomiller) joins Sam to discuss his new book, “Empire of Borders: The Expansion of the U.S. Border Around the World.”
On today’s show, Joshua Specht (@joshspecht), author of Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America. The story of beef production in America begins at the cattle ranch, which was a tool of conquest in the West. In some places, cattle ranching resembled a paramilitary op...
Tom Scocca (@tomscocca) joins the MR Crew in studio to discuss his recent piece in Slate, “Where Taking the Concerns of Racists Seriously Has Gotten Us,” and to recap the week’s biggest stories.
Jonathan M. Metzl (@JonathanMetzl), director of the Center for Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt University, joins us to discuss his book, Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America’s Heartland.
Anthony McCann, journalist and author of ‘Shadowlands: Fear and Freedom at the Oregon Standoff,’ joins us.
Matt Stroud (@MattStroud), author of “Thin Blue Lie: The Failure of High-Tech Policing,” joins us.
Daniel Immerwahr  (@dimmerwahr), an associate professor of history at Northwestern University, joins us to discuss his new book, How to Hide An Empire: A History of the Greater United States.
On today’s show, historian Greg Grandin (@GregGrandin), joins us to discuss his new book, The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America. At the foundation of America is the idea of expansionism. For centuries the United States has expanded its borders, markets, ...
Matthew Blackwell (@Matt_Blackwell), Associate Professor of Government at Harvard University, joins us to discuss his co-authored book, “Deep Roots: How Slavery Still Shapes Southern Politics.”
Historian of paramilitary social movements and author of “Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America,” Kathleen Belew joins us today to discuss her book. How a 1979 Greensboro, NC was a spiritual precursor to the recent Charlottesville, Virginia white supremacist meet-u...
First, University of Massachusetts-Lowell professor of economics Bill Lazonick joins Sam for part 2 of their discussion on stock buybacks.
Good morning, on today’s show, Michael Joseph Roberto, author of The Coming of the American Behemoth: The Origins of Fascism in the United States, 1920–1940. Roberto traces his definition of fascism to the American financial system in 1920s. Life in America in the 1920s was the epicenter of capit...
Sarah E. Igo, Associate Professor of History and Director of the Program in American Studies at Vanderbilt University, joins us to discuss her book, The Known Citizen A History of Privacy in Modern America.
Good morning on today’s show, Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) and Julian E. Zelizer (@julianzelizer), co-authors of Fault Lines A History of the United States Since 1974.
Journalist and author Rebecca Traister (@rtraister) joins us to discuss her latest book, ‘Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger.’
Andrew Delbanco, professor of American Studies at Columbia University, joins us to discuss his book, The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America’s Soul From the Revolution to the Civil War.
John Sides (@johnmsides), professor of political science at George Washington University and co-author of Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America, joins us.
Organizer and movement historian LA Kauffman (@LAKauffman) joins us to discuss her new book, How to Read a Protest: The Art of Organizing and Resistance.