It’s Casual Friday! Sam and Emma host Alex Pareene, Contributing Editor at the New Republic and proprietor of the AP newsletter on Substack, to round up the week in news. Then, Sam and Emma are joined by comedian Andy Kindler, host of the Thought Spiral podcast! Alex, Sam, and Emma dive right int...

Sam hosts James W. Russell, public policy affiliate scholar at Portland State University, to discuss his recent book The Labor Guide to Retirement Plans: For Union Organizers and Employees, on the importance of fighting for good end-of-life security and how employers and banks have capitalized of...

Sam and Emma host Claudia Goldin, Professor of Economics at Harvard University, to discuss her recent book Career and Family: Women’s Century-Long Journey Toward Equity, on the history of women’s entry into the workforce and how they transitioned from a choice between career or family, to an oppo...

Sam and Emma host journalist Ross Barkan, writer of the Political Currents by Ross Barkan newsletter on Substack, to discuss his recent book The Prince: Andrew Cuomo, Coronavirus, and the Fall of New York, which covers the rollercoaster of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s legacy since the start of the pan...

Sam chats with the Daily Poster’s David Sirota about Joe Manchin’s filibuster turn around, the Democrats’ blame game with the Senate Parliamentarian, and progressive intra-party dealmaking troubles. Sam also touches on the progressive shift in New York State politics as Cuomo continues to be embr...

Sam and Emma host Heather “Digby” Parton (@digby56) of Salon.con and Hullabaloo to discuss the Senate’s efforts to pass Biden’s $1.9T Covid relief bill, Cuomo’s fall from grace, and other top stories of the week. And Andy Kindler (@AndyKindler) joins us in the fun half.

Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian) of TYT and the Jacobin Weekend Show joins Emma on this casual Friday.

President Obama tells Democrats not to rescue Republicans on healthcare.

Bernie Sanders fights back against the false narrative of “the era of big government being over.” Sanders sharpens the differences with Hillary Clinton. Sanders talk movingly about his parents. (10:00)

Economist Jeff Madrick, author of the recent book, Seven Bad Ideas: How Mainstream Economists Have Damaged America and the World,explains why mainstream economists failed to anticipate the 2008 economic crisis. The “invisible hand” utopia myth and why it is dangerous for the economy. The myth of ...

Journalist Eric Alterman, author of the new book,  Inequality and One City: Bill de Blasio and the New York Experiment, explains how the inequality crisis finally came into public consciousness since Occupy Wall Street. Why BilldDe Blasio’s message on inequality is distinct, progressive and impor...

The Daily Beast’s London Editor, Nico Hines explains how in the 1980s the UK Government allowed for the growth of Pedophile rings in high level politics. How discrimination against Gay people led to the exploitation of young children by British politicians. When powerful politicians and Britain’s...

Mohammad Khan a Senior Policy Associate at the Washington Park Project explains the secretive New York political group behind a new Charter School push. Who is behind Families For Excellent Schools and New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s privatization agenda for pu...

Smart Floridians want to secede because of the climate crisis, Chris Christie and Andrew Cuomo enforce obscene Ebola quarantine policies, was the Cuomo Christie press conference the worst thing ever? Nurse quarantined in New Jersey in violation of her human rights, another school shooting, what’s...

Political strategist Cliff Schecter explains why Andrew Cuomo is so delusional, the best ways to vote against Cuomo in 2014, the state of play in the 2014 election, can Mitch McConnell still beat in Kentucky, why Democrats may pull off an upset in Georgia, Mary Landrieu and Mark Begich’s run smar...

Political maestro Cliff Schecter explains what the results of the New York state primary means, Zephyr Teachout’s impressive performance, Andrew Cuomo’s machine, Teachout’s revival of the New Deal anti trust message, the politics of the new gilded age, broadening the progressive coalition, Africa...

Timothy Karr Senior Director of Strategy at Free Press explains Internet Slow Down Day, why the FCC keeps getting Net Neutrality wrong, the telecom industry and FCC revolving door, why we need common carrier status, why the phone and cable lobby want to sell you more than an Internet connection, ...

Journalist and author of Amir Ahmad Nasr explains the historical and ideological legacy that created Isis, the fallout from US foreign policy in the Middle East, the role if Saudi Arabia in spreading dangerous fundamentalism and the global strategy for addressing Isis should be.

Columbia Law Professor and progressive candidate for Lt. Governor of New York, Tim Wu explains the battle for the soul of the Democratic Party, the national implications of the New York race, why Andrew Cuomo needs to be defeated, the many problems with the proposed Comcast Time Warner merger, fi...

John Marciano author of Whatever Happened to the Metric System?: How America Kept Its Feet, explains revolutionary history of the metric system, the metric system and the demands of global capitalism, how America is already a metric society, Sputnik and the push for an American metric system, the...

Journalist Patrick Cockburn explains how Isis developed out of Syria and Iraq, the origins of Isis in Al Quada in Iraq, Sunni repression in post Saddam Iraq, what Hillary Clinton misses about arming moderate rebels in Syria, what regional powers support Jihadi fighters, the strategic miscalculati...

Journalist Dana Goldstein author of the new book The Teachers Wars, explains why teachers are held responsible for the American inequality crisis, if we want teachers to make a broader impact why we need structural policy solutions, the gendered dynamics of teaching, why we can’t support teaching...

Cliff Schecter explains why the NRA isn’t defending the rights of Ferguson’s black community, the NRA’s racism, militarized police and the African American community, where the situation in Ferguson stands now, all the issues that the crisis in Ferguson raises, the militarization of American soci...

Law professor and author of Other People’s Houses: How Decades of Bailouts, Captive Regulators, and Toxic Bankers Made Home Mortgages a Thrilling Business Jennifer Taub explains the problem with the term “Cramdown”, the story of the Noblemans and fraud in the housing market, the transformation of...

New York Gubernatorial candidate Zephyr Teachout explains why she is challenging Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic Party Primary, Cuomo’s betrayals on labor, public education, immigration, his one percent agenda economic agenda, why Cuomo is making inequality worse, Zephr’s commitment to public educ...

Weekly guest and political strategist Cliff Schecter explains the importance of Montana Senator John Walsh’s plagiarism scandal, do Democrats have a pick up opportunity in the Georgia Senate race? David Perdue’s upset win in the Georgia Senate primary, economic populism in southern Senate races, ...

Legal writer Scott Lemieux explains the three prongs of Obamacare, the misleading read of the ACA that conservatives are using to attack tax subsidies under the ACA, why the writing of the ACA assumed that some states would not create exchanges, the bizarre reading given by Republicans on the DC ...

Political strategist Cliff Schecter explains why Governor Tom Corbett’s budget cuts have led to children dying in Pennsylvania Public Schools, Pennsylvania Democrats nominate a progressive in that states Governors race, are the “New Democrats” old news? Why progressive Democrats are doing well, w...

Professor and author of  Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism David Harvey explains the main contradictions in capitalism, the Neo Liberal counter attack against workers power, the move from demand side theory to supply theory, when demand side economics get into trouble, the distin...

Political maestro Cliff Schecter explains how Citizens United led to McCutcheon, what comes after McCutcheon, how Justice Robert’s is sneaky, the Court’s shocking narrowing of the definition of corruption and why they are betraying the founders, Andrew Cuomo betrays the public on clean elections,...