Sam and Emma host Jonah Furman of Labor Notes and author of the Who Gets The Bird? newsletter on SubStack to discuss the recent negotiations between rail workers, railroad companies, and the Biden administration. Then they are joined by investigative reporter Seth Harp to discuss his recent reporting surrounding the recent deaths and opioid abuse at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Emma and Sam […]

Sam and Emma host journalist Jonathan M. Katz, author of The Racket newsletter, to discuss his recent book Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, The Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America’s Empire, which explores the founding and expansion of US imperialism in the wake of manifest destiny, as the US military looked towards Latin America and the Pacific for […]

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 Stephen Spielberg have to play. Professor Samet walks through […]

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 huge weapons sale to Saudi Arabia, […]

Sam and Emma host Dave Goulson, professor of biology at the University of Sussex, to discuss his recent book Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse, on the rampant decline of insect populations worldwide over the last few decades, and how the trend continuing could completely alter our relationships to crops and practically all plant life. Professor Goulson dives into […]

Sam and Emma host Benjamin T. Smith, professor of Latin American history at the University of Warwick, to discuss his recent book The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade. They begin by addressing the myth of the Mexican drug trade, built by both US and Mexican authorities around this moral binary of cops and federal […]

Sam and Emma host New Yorker contributor Eyal Press to discuss his recent book Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America, on the moral division of labor and the emotional burden of getting by for countless Americans. They start off with Everett Hughes’ essay “Good People and Dirty Work” and how the unconscious mandate that […]

Sam and Emma host Craig Whitlock, investigative reporter at the Washington Post, to discuss his recent book The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War. Sam and Emma first touch upon the resounding victory for Gavin Newsom in the California recall election from last night, and discuss Newsom’s nationalizing of the recall/pinning the results to the […]

Sam and Emma host Samuel Moyn, Professor of History at Yale University, to discuss his recent book Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War, on how the evolving face of the American Empire has changed the way we perceive war, and what we can do to get the conversation back on track. Starting all the […]

Sam and Emma host Spencer Ackerman, author of the Forever Wars newsletter on Substack, to discuss his recent book Reign Of Terror: How The 9/11 Era Destabilized America And Produced Trump. Sam, Emma, and Spencer jump off of a Charlie Kirk nativist clip to dive into the start of the war on terror as the rebirth of white replacement theory, […]