history

Happy Monday! Sam and Emma break down the biggest headlines 8 days away from the 2024 Election. First, they run through updates on the final countdown to election day 2024, Trump’s fascist rally at MSG, Harris’ final campaign push, GOP leads in Texas and Nebraska senate races, Jeff Bezos’ obstruc...
It’s Monday! Sam and Emma speak with Ilan Pappe, professor of history at the University of Exeter and Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies, author of Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic, to discuss the state of affairs in the Middle East a year after October 7th, 2...
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 ...
It’s an EmMajority Report Thursday! Emma speaks with Jeff Schuhrke, assistant professor in labor studies at SUNY Empire State University, to discuss his recent book Blue-Collar Empire: The Untold Story of US Labor’s Global Anticommunist Crusade. Then, she speaks with Seamus Malekafzali, freelance...
It’s Hump Day! Sam speaks with Sharon Lerner, writer covering health and the environment for ProPublica, to discuss her recent piece entitled “EPA Scientists Said They Were Pressured to Downplay Harms From Chemicals. A Watchdog Found They Were Retaliated Against.” Then, they speak with Ari Berman...
Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak with David Austin Walsh, postdoctoral associate at the Yale Program for the Study of Antisemitism and college fellow at the University of Virginia, to discuss his recent book Taking America Back: The Conservative Movement and the Far Right. First, Sam and Emma run...
Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak with Anne Kim, contributing editor at Washington Monthly magazine, to discuss her recent book Poverty For Profit: How Corporations Get Rich off America’s Poor. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on Trump-Harris polling, the fight over Harris’ platform, contin...
It’s Hump Day! Sam and Emma speak with Jennifer Berkshire, freelance journalist and co-host of the Have You Heard podcast, to discuss her recent book The Education Wars: A Citizen’s Guide And Defense Manual, co-authored with Jack Schneider.  First, Sam and Emma run through updates on the dissent ...
It’s Casual Friday! Sam speaks with Rick Perlstein, historian, writer at The American Prospect, author of his most recent book Reaganland: America’s Right Turn 1976-1980, to discuss the state of U.S. politics in 2024. And then, a blast to the past: Sam, discussing the Supreme Court with Jimmy Dor...
It’s Hump Day! Sam and Emma speak with Dr. Robert Greene, assistant professor of history at Claflin University in South Carolina & president of the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS) , to discuss his writing on Juneteenth. Then, they speak with Jaz Brisack, co-founder of St...
It’s Hump Day! Sam and Emma speak with Meron Rapoport, editor of Local Call and writer at +972 Magazine, to discuss his recent piece entitled “Surveillance and interference: Israel’s covert war on the ICC exposed”, co-authored with Yuval Abraham. First, Sam runs through updates on Biden’s blatant...
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...
It’s an EmMajority Report Thursday! Today she speaks with Dr. Eviane Leidig, postdoctoral fellow at the Tilburg University, to discuss her recent book The Women of the Far Right: Social Media Influencers and Online Radicalization. Then, she speaks with Kate Wagner, architecture critic at The Nati...
Happy Memorial Day! The MR Crew is OFF today but check out this interview from late December of last year with Peter Beinart, editor-at-large at Jewish Currents, author of the Beinart Notebook on SubStack, and professor at the CUNY School of Journalism, on a piece he wrote entitled ”Harvard Is Ig...
It’s an EmMajority Report Thursday! She speaks with Daniel J. Galvin, professor of political science at Northwestern University, to discuss his recent book Alt-Labor and the New Politics of Workers’ Rights. Then, she’s joined by Richard Beck, senior writer at n+1 Magazine, to discuss his recent p...
Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak with Tracie McMillan, editor at Capitol & Main covering worker organizing, to discuss her recent book The White Bonus: Five Families and the Cash Value of Racism in America.  First, Sam and Emma run through updates on Benny Gantz’s split with Netanyahu over Is...
It’s an EmMajority Report Thursday! She speaks with Regina Kunzel, professor of history and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at Yale University, to discuss her recent book In the Shadow of Diagnosis: Psychiatric Power and Queer Life. Then, she speaks with Beshara Doumani, professor of Pales...
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! Sam and Emma speak with David Bellos, professor of Comparative Literature at Princeton University, to discuss his recent book Who Owns This Sentence?: A History of Copyrights and Wrongs, co-authored with Alexandre Montagu. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on Israel’s targetin...
It’s News Day Tuesday! Sam breaks down the biggest headlines of the day. But first, Sam speaks with Brian Concannon, human rights lawyer and executive director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), to discuss the ongoing political instability in Haiti. First, Sam runs thro...
Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak with Rashid Khalidi, professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, to discuss his 2020 book The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017, and his views on the Israel-Gaza conflict as it stands now. Firs...
It’s News Day Tuesday! Emma speaks with Bill Deere, director of the Washington office of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), to discuss the ongoing situation with the agency in Gaza. Then, she speaks with Richard Wiles, President of The Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), to discu...
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...
Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak with Lainey Newman, research assistant at Harvard Law School, to discuss her recent book Rust Belt Union Blues: Why Working-Class Voters Are Turning Away from the Democratic Party, co-authored with Theda Skocpol. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on Israel’s...
It’s another EmMajority Report Thursday! She speaks with Mark Paul, assistant professor of economics at Rutgers University, to discuss his recent book The Ends of Freedom: Reclaiming America’s Lost Promise of Economic Rights. Then, she speaks with Guillaume Long, former foreign minister of Ecuado...
It’s Hump Day! Sam and Emma speak with independent journalist Erin Reed, author of the Erin In The Morning newsletter on SubStack, to discuss the state of anti-trans legislation moving its way around the country in 2024. Then, they speak with Margie Mason & Robin McDowell, investigative repor...
Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak with Steven Friedman, director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the University of Johannesburg, to discuss his recent book Good Jew Bad Jew: Racism, anti-Semitism and the assault on meaning. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on Biden’s strikes on ...
It’s News Day Tuesday! But first, Sam speaks with Diana Buttu, Palestinian analyst and former legal advisor to the Palestine Liberation Organization, to discuss the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s recent ruling in the case South Africa brought against Israel. First, Sam runs through update...
Happy Monday! Sam speaks with Wendy Parmet, professor of law, public policy, and urban affairs at Northeastern University, to discuss her recent book Constitutional Contagion: COVID, the Courts, and Public Health. First, Sam runs through updates on the continued expansion of Israel’s war on Gaza,...
It’s another EmMajority Report Thursday! She speaks with Juliet Hooker, professor of political science at Brown University, to discuss her recent book Black Grief/White Grievance: The Politics Of Loss. Then, she speaks with Zachary Foster, proprietor of the website Palestine Nexus, to discuss the...
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 another EmMajority Report Thursday! Emma speaks with Ussama Makdisi, professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley, to discuss the subject matter of his book Age of Coexistence: The Ecumenical Frame and the Making of the Modern Arab World. Then, she speaks with Rune Moller S...
It’s an EmMajority Report Thursday! Emma speaks with author Cory Doctorow to discuss his recent book The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation. Then, they speak with Raga Makawi, editor at African Arguments, to discuss the ongoing conflict in Sudan. First, Emma runs through updates ...
Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak with Jonathan Graubart, professor of political science at San Diego State University, to discuss his recent book Jewish Self-Determination beyond Zionism: Lessons from Hannah Arendt and other Pariahs. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on the growing death to...
Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak with Malaika Jabali, senior news and politics editor at Essence Magazine, to discuss her recent book It’s Not You, It’s Capitalism: Why It’s Time to Break Up and How to Move On. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on Israel’s siege of Shifa Hospital in Gaza, t...
Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak with Robert P. Jones, President and Founder of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), to discuss his recent book The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy: and the Path to a Shared American Future. First, Sam and Emma break down what has taken place over the wee...
It’s another EmMajority Report Thursday! She speaks with Blair LM Kelley, director of The Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina, to discuss her recent book Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class. First, Emma runs through updates on Biden’s call f...
It’s Hump Day! Emma speaks with Sophia Moccio and Aaron Habrack, ICU nurses at the Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey, to discuss the recent developments in their strike, which has lasted over 75 days. Then, Emma is joined by Bhaskar Sunkara, president of The Nation, ...
Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak with Ilan Pappe, professor of history at the University of Exeter and Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies, to discuss the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on Israel’s continuing bombardment of the peopl...
It’s another EmMajority Report Thursday! Emma speaks with Spencer Headworth, associate professor of sociology at Purdue University, to discuss his recent book Rules of the Road: The Automobile and the Transformation of American Criminal Justice. First, Emma runs through updates on the arrest of 5...
Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak with Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch, to discuss the ongoing situation on the ground in the Gaza Strip. First Sam and Emma run through updates on stalled aid to Gaza, Israel’s ongoing assault, the West’s unconditional support for I...
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 News Day Tuesday! But first, Sam speaks with Marian Schlotterbeck, professor of history at the University of California, Davis, to discuss the 50th anniversary of the U.S. backed coup in Chile against leader Salvador Allende. First, Sam runs through updates on Kevin McCarthy’s House leadersh...
It’s a special Thursday because SAM is hosting! He speaks with Samuel Moyn, professor of Law & History at Yale University, to discuss his recent book Liberalism against Itself: Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of Our Times.
Happy Monday! Sam is BACK from vacation. He and Emma speak with Richard Kahlenberg, education & housing policy consultant and non-resident fellow at Georgetown University, to discuss his recent book Excluded: How Snob Zoning, NIMBYism and Class Bias Build the Walls We Don’t See. First, Sam an...
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...
The MR Crew is back with an EmMajority Report Thursday! She speaks to David Broder, Europe editor at Jacobin, to discuss his recent book Mussolini’s Grandchildren: Fascism in Contemporary Italy. Then, she speaks to Amjad Iraqi, editor at 972 Magazine, to discuss the recent escalation of violence ...
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...
Happy Monday! Sam hosts Kidada E. Williams, associate professor of history at Wayne State University, to discuss her recent book I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War against Reconstruction. Sam begins the show by talking about the upcoming debt ceiling battle, and how i...
It’s an EmMajority Report Thursday! She hosts David Allen, historian of U.S. foreign relations, to discuss his recent book Every Citizen a Statesman: The Dream of a Democratic Foreign Policy in the American Century. Then, Emma talks to Joshua Craze, writer and researcher specializing in Sudan, to...
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...
It’s an EmMajority Report Thursday! Emma hosts Nick Seabrook, Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of North Florida, to discuss his recent book One Person One Vote: A Surprising History of Gerrymandering In America. Then, Emma’s joined by writer Tim Shorrock,...
Sam and Emma host author Steve Paxton to discuss his recent book How Capitalism Ends: History, Ideology and Progress. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on clashes in and around Atlanta’s developing “Cop City,” DHS’s illegal domestic intel program, Biden vs. the airlines, the East Palestine ...
The MR Crew are back from the long weekend! Sam and Emma host David Enrich, business investigations editor at the New York Times, to discuss his recent book Servants of the Damned: Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump, and the Corruption of Justice. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on the GOP and...
Emma is back for her first Thursday show of 2023! She hosts Neil Vallelly, researcher at the University of Otago in New Zealand, to discuss his book Futilitarianism: Neoliberalism and the Production of Uselessness. First, Emma runs through updates on a second set of classified documents being fou...
Sam hosts Clara Mattei, Assistant Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research, to discuss her recent book The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism. First, Sam runs through updates on Kevin McCarthy entering day three of House purgatory, th...
Sam and Emma host Alex de Waal, Executive Director of The World Peace Foundation and Professor at Tufts University, to discuss the ongoing civil conflict in Ethiopia and how it is affecting the Tigrayan people. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on the US funding bill, GOP killing cannabis r...
In a pre-taped conversation, Sam’s joined by Eric Alterman, Professor of English and Journalism at Brooklyn College, writer of the ”Altercation” newsletter at The American Prospect, to discuss his recent book We Are Not One: A History of America’s Fight Over Israel. Then, Emma speaks with Javier ...
Emma hosts Dr. Nicholas Kardaras to discuss his recent book Digital Madness: How Social Media Is Driving Our Mental Health Crisis-and How to Restore Our Sanity. Then, Emma is joined by Eugene Puryear, co-host of the Breakthrough News show, to discuss the recent civil and social unrest in Haiti. E...
Emma hosts Brian Mier, correspondent for teleSUR English, to discuss the upcoming 2nd round of Brazilian elections between former President Lula Da Silva and current President Jair Bolsonaro. Then, Emma is joined by Aaron Kleinman, director of research for the States Project at Future Now, to dis...
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 ...
Sam is back, and he and Emma break down the biggest headlines of the day. Then they are joined by Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President at the Quincy Institute, to discuss the recent widespread demonstrations in Iran. First, Emma and Sam walk through updates on the upcoming Fed-induced recession,...
Sam and Emma host journalist John Bartlett to discuss the recent constitutional referendum in Chile. Then, they are joined by Nsombi Lambright, executive director of OneVoiceMS, to discuss the recent water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi’s capital city. They begin by diving into updates on the Mar...
Emma hosts Dr. Heather Berg, Assistant Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Washington University St. Louis, to discuss her recent book Porn Work: Sex, Labor, and Late Capitalism. Emma hosts Dr. Heather Berg, Assistant Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Washingto...
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 ...
Emma hosts Luke Savage, staff writer at Jacobin Magazine, to discuss his new book The Dead Center: Reflections On Liberalism And Democracy After the End Of History.  Then, Emma is joined by Rana Abdelhamid, candidate for Congress in New York’s 12th Congressional District, to give us an update fro...
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 hosts Kelly Weill, reporter at the Daily Beast, to discuss her recent book Off the Edge: Flat Earthers, Conspiracy Culture, and Why People Will Believe Anything. Kelly begins by situating her research into flat earthers as a case study in people’s inclination to faith and belief, separating t...
Sam and Emma host Kimberly St. Julian Varnon, Ph.D student in history at the University of Pennsylvania, to discuss her work on Soviet-Ukrainian history and the role race has played in the wake of the fall of the USSR. They begin by walking through the history of the unification of Ukraine, which...
Sam and Emma host Ryan Cooper, national correspondent at The Week, to discuss his new book How Are You Going to Pay For That? Smart Answers to the Dumbest Questions in Politics, on how the self-immolating ideas of the free market have locked us into a vision of government that is impotent in the ...
Sam and Emma Anna Della Subin, senior editor at Bidoun Projects, to discuss her recent book Accidental Gods: On Men Unwittingly Turned Divine, on the pervasive and frequently overlooked figure that began popping up at the dawn of “New World” imperialism, and has since emerged, both through oppres...
Sam and Emma host Elizabeth Samet, professor of English at West Point, to discuss her recent book Looking for the Good War: American Amnesia and the Violent Pursuit of Happiness, on the mythology behind the Americanized narrative of WWII, how it came to prevalence, and the role Tom Brokaw and Ste...
Sam and Emma host Jonathan Levy, professor of History at the University of Chicago, to discuss his recent book Ages of American Capitalism: A History of the United States. Sam and Emma begin by discussing the newly passed defense policy bill and debt limit increase in the House, which includes a ...
Sam and Emma host David Dayen, Executive Editor at The American Prospect, to discuss his recent project ”The Great Escape”, about the mass quitting trend in the labor market, as well as his new piece “Lina Khan Cashes in Her Chips.” They begin by confronting the numbers of the recent wave of resi...
Sam and Emma host David Wengrow, Professor of Comparative Archaeology at University College London, to discuss his recent book The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity that he co-authored with David Graeber. They begin by clarifying what the old history was, which Professor Wengrow descr...
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...
Sam and Emma host  Laleh Khalili, Professor of International Politics at Queen Mary University of London, to discuss her recent book Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula, on how the maritime trade infrastructure has become a microcosm of global capitalism, and...
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 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 and Emma host Adam Tooze, Professor of History at Columbia University and author of the Chartbook newsletter on Substack, to discuss his recent book Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World’s Economy, tracing the development of the pandemic and its shockwaves from January 2020 to January 2021. Pro...
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 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 ...
Sam and Emma host Milton Allimadi, publisher of The Black Star News and the author of Manufacturing Hate: How Africa Was Demonized In Western Media, to discuss the exploitative and racist depiction of African people and governments in US media coverage, before moving on to exploring the current c...
Emma hosts Tom Zoellner, Professor at Chapman University and political editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books, to discuss his recent book “Island on Fire: The Revolt That Ended Slavery in the British Empire,” on the Jamaican rebellion of 1831 and the abolition of slavery in the British Empire....
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 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 ...
Emma hosts Haggai Matar, Executive Director of +972 Magazine, to discuss the new Israeli governmental coalition, PM Naftali Bennet’s role within it, and how its formation will impact the occupation in East Jerusalem. They pick up on their conversation earlier this year, digging into Netanyahu’s o...
Sam and Emma host Stephen Wertheim, Director of Grand Strategy at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, to discuss his recent New York Times Opinion Essay, “Sorry, Liberals. But You Really Shouldn’t Love NATO,” on NATO’s lost sense of purpose and the US’s role in the European region un...
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 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 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 Jemima Pierre, professor of African American Studies at UCLA, to unpack the long history of Haiti, the first free black republic established in 1804, and successive years of occupation and exploitation by France and the US. Then, Jemima discusses how this history has led to the ...
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...
Sam hosts Dr. Paul Farmer to discuss his new book, Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds: Ebola and the Ravages of History, and how colonialism’s legacy damages our ability to fight infectious disease. Sam and Dr. Farmer discuss the history of epidemics in the global south and how the coronavirus pandemic ...
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 speaks with Ruth Ben-Ghiat (@ruthbenghiat), professor of History and Italian studies at New York University, about her new book “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present.”
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 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 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.’
The Majority Report continues to look back at Michael Brooks’s career with a 2019 interview featuring Liz Franczak (@liz_franczak) to discuss her essay in the Baffler, “The Century of Spin,” and the origins of neoliberal sociopolitical culture. Liz Franczak recounts the story of Edward Bernays, w...
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.”
On today’s show: The Majority Report presents another retrospective on Michael Brooks’s career, featuring his 2016 interview with Marya Hannun and Sophie Spaan to discuss their article “When Europe Loved Islam” and the religion’s role in western history.
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 historian Federico Finchelstein (@FinchelsteinF) to discuss his new book, A Brief History of Fascist Lies, why fascists regard obvious and often hateful lies as truth, and why so many of their followers have believed the falsehoods.
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 Touré F. Reed, professor of history at Illinois State University, to discuss his new book Toward Freedom: The Case Against Race Reductionism and the reforms needed to address racial inequality and disparities.
Sam hosts HuffPost journalist Zachary Carter to discuss his new book, The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes. Carter and Sam explore the life of Keynes and his role in developing the concept of Macroeconomics and the social implication of economics. Keynes’ thin...
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 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 Digby (@Digby56) and comedian Judy Gold (@JewdyGold) this May Day Friday, and special guest Winsome Pendergrass (@WinsomePenderg4), a tenants’ rights organizer in NYC who is leading today’s rent strike.
Sam hosts Frank Snowden, professor of history at Yale, to discuss his new book, Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present. 
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.
Sam is joined by Alex Pareene (@pareene) of the New Republic and Brendan James (@deep_beige) of the new Iraq War podcast “Blowback,” to recap the week’s news and most important stories.
Syracuse University Professor of Political Science, Elizabeth F. Cohen, joins the Majority Report to discuss her new book, Illegal: How America’s Lawless Immigration Regime Threatens Us All. In it, Cohen chronicles the past century’s history of immigration, white nationalism, and the militarizati...
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. 
As the Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump continues into its eighth day, Sam is joined by historian Brenda Wineapple to discuss the impeachment of Andrew Johnson and her latest book, The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation. 
Happy Thursday, Michael Brooks is joined by Djene Bajalan to discuss the state of affairs in the Middle East and the United States’ history of interference in Iran. Starting in 1953, Brooks and Bajalan discuss the CIA’s role in removing Mohammed Mossadegh from power. Mosadegh was a staunch nation...
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.’
Good Thursday morning, Michael Brooks hosts anthropologist Isabel Peñaranda and sociologist Julián Gómez-Delgado to discuss the ongoing general strike in Columbia and their piece in the Jacobin, “Colombia’s New Awakening.” As Columbia joins the global wave of social unrest, can the popular uprisi...
Happy Tuesday, Sam hosts journalist and academic Anne Nelson to discuss her new book, *Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right.* Sam and Nelson begin their interview with a play-by-play of how fundamentalist Evangelical Christians rallied behind Ronald Reagan during ...
Today, legal historian Martha S. Jones joins us to discuss her new book, “Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America.”
Journalist and author Nicholas Shaxson (@nickshaxson) joins us to discuss his new book, The Finance Curse: How Global Finance Is Making Us All Poorer.
Harvey J Kaye (@harveyjkaye), Professor of Democracy at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay and author of Take Hold of Our History: Make America Radical Again, joins us.
Thom Hartmann (@Thom_Hartmann), progressive radio host and author, joins Sam to discuss his latest book, The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America. Michael Brooks hosts the Fun Half for members.
Michael Brooks is joined by two guests this Thursday on the Majority Report: Author and historian Cal Winslow joins the program to discuss his piece about the ongoing protests by Blackjewel Kentucky miners, “No Neutrals in Harlan County.” And Djene Bajalan also joins the program to discuss the Tr...
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.
Good morning, journalist Christopher Leonard joins Sam to discuss his new book The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America. Join us at noon ET. Leonard’s latest work has received high praise from leading journalists like Jane Mayer and Bryan Burrough because of its exhaus...
On today’s show, Steven Greenhouse (@greenhousenyt), author of, Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present and Future of American Labor. Sam and Greenhouse begin their conversation distinguishing the differences between labor and union power and a brief history of how labor gained strength during ...
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.
Margaret O’Mara (@margaretomara), Professor of History at the University of Washington, joins us to discuss her book, The Code: Silicon Valley And the Remaking of America.
Good morning, on today’s Majority Report, Fernando Tormos-Aponte from Scholars Strategy Network joins Michael Brooks to discuss his recent piece in the Jacobin, “Puerto Rico Rises,” to explain how the Puerto Rican people organized and mobilized for change in their government after leaks of Govern...
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.
Good Thursday morning, joining Sam on today’s Majority Report is journalist and scholar Leta Hong Fincher to discuss her book,  Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China. Through interviews with feminists and other leading Chinese activists, Hong Fincher illuminates the difficulties ...
Joining Michael Brooks on today’s Majority Report is Laura Carlsen, a political analyst and director of the Americas Program at the Center for International Policy, to discuss Mexico under the presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. While the mainstream media is happy to cover the humanitarian...
Activist and historian Dennis Lewycky joins us to discuss his new book, Magnificent Fight: The Winnipeg General Strike.
Happy Friday! Today on the Majority Report Michael Brooks is joined by Bhaskar Sunkara, editor of the Jacobin and author of the new book The Socialist Manifesto, and comedian David Feldman, host of The David Feldman Show, to recap the week’s biggest stories. Bhaskar Sunkara calls in from his book...
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.
Sam is joined by author Chloe Thurston to discuss her new book, ‘At the Boundaries of Homeownership: Credit, Discrimination, & the American State.’
Author Evan Thomas joins Sam to discuss his new book, First: Sandra Day O’Connor.
Hannah Holleman, assistant professor of sociology at Amherst College, joins Sam to discuss her piece in Monthly Review, ‘No Empires, No Dust Bowls: Ecological Disasters and the Lessons of History.’
Good Thursday morning, joining Michael Brooks on today’s Majority Report is Richard Beck to discuss his essay, “The Korean Peace Process” published in n+1. Beck breaks down American foreign policy on the Korean peninsula and it hasn’t done any real thinking in two years. Beck explains how all par...
Joining Michael Brooks on today’s show is Liz Franczak to discuss her new essay in the Baffler, “The Century of Spin,” and the origins of neoliberal sociopolitical culture. Liz Franczak recounts the story of Edward Bernays, who “pioneered the field of modern public relations after serving under W...
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.”
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.
Historian Jack Kelly, author of The Edge of Anarchy: The Railroad Barons, the Gilded Age, and the Greatest Labor Uprising in America, joins us.
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.
Juan Cole  (@jricole), Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan and author of Muhammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires, joins us.
Stephen Walt (@stephenWalt), Professor of International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School and author of The Hell of Good Intentions: America’s Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of U.S. Primacy, joins us.
On today’s show, Joseph Cirincione (@Cirincione), President of the Ploughshare Fund, joins Michael to discuss the future of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and why elected officials on both sides of the aisle are pleading with President Trump and John Bolton to keep the 30 year old C...
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.
Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University, explains what is radicalism. Why radicalism is different from liberalism and incrementalism. Has America always had radicals. The 1990s and the “end of history”. Tom Paine, America’s original radical. Radicalism in times of c...
The distinction between FDR-brand liberalism and socialist democracy. The role of liberty in FDR’s liberalism. The importance of public goods, and moving expenditures from private market to the public sector. Bernie’s democratic socialism as distinct from FDR liberalism and Bernie’s appeal to the...