New Deal

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 jumping right back into working with the Right, Kari Lake’s lawsuit against Arizona, and polls revealing […]
Sam hosts William Forbath, Associate Dean for Research at the University of Texas at Austin Law School, and Joseph Fishkin,  Professor at the UCLA School of Law, to discuss their recent book The Anti-Oligarchy Constitution: Reconstructing the Economic Foundations of Democracy. Sam first runs through recent updates, from AOC and progressives pushing the White House to take action on […]
Sam and Emma host Gary Gerstle, Professor of American History at the University of Cambridge, to discuss his recent book The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era. First, Emma and Sam dive into the continued rise of mass shootings over this weekend, the Uvalde Police’s continually changing story, […]
Sam and Emma host Harvey Kaye, professor emeritus of democracy at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, and Alan Minsky, executive director of the Progressive Democrats of America, to discuss their recent mission statement published in Common Dreams, the 21st Century Economic Bill of Rights. However, Emma and Sam first dive into yesterday’s mass shooting at an elementary school […]
Sam and Emma host freelance journalist Alexander Zaitchik to discuss his recent book Owning The Sun: A People’s History of Monopoly Medicine From Aspirin To COVID-19 Vaccines, on the development of patent regimes from an attempt to democratize knowledge to a system of corporate and institutional control. Zaitchik begins by walking Sam and Emma back to the inception of […]
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 sits down with historian Christopher W. Shaw, to discuss his recent book First Class: The U.S. Postal Service, Democracy, and the Corporate Threat, on the rise of one of the most popular public services, and its precarious state in an era of privatization. They begin in the 18th century, with the beginnings of the postal […]
Sam and Emma host Will Stronge, co-director of research at the think tank Autonomy, to discuss his recent book Overtime: Why We Need A Shorter Working Week that he co-authored with Kyle Lewis. They start off by reflecting on the late night infrastructure bill passage from last Friday night, as well as Josh Gottheimer’s mealy-mouth pledge to support the reconciliation […]
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 Biden go as the “new FDR” towards the start of […]
On today’s show, labor historian Jefferson Cowie joins us to talk about his book “The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics.” While the New Deal is often held up as the model for progressives to shoot for, it came out of an exceptional period from the 1930s to the 1970s when […]