Category: 3-DailySometimeCommentary

Today, the What A Day team is off. But we’re excited to bring you a recent episode of Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams.

In the first 100 days of the Trump Administration, we’ve watched Republicans erode American democracy with alarming speed. While this political moment may feel unprecedented, it isn’t new. America has dealt its share of far-right movements, fascist provocateurs, and anti-democratic threats. But time and again, heroes have risen to meet those moments. In this episode, Stacey unpacks how we’ve fought fascism before – and won. She’s joined by the host of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism.

Subscribe to Assembly Required wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube. 

For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.

Learn & Do More:

• Be Curious: History can be an extremely useful tool to help us navigate the present. Pick up Rachel Maddow’s book Prequel — now available in paperback anywhere books are sold. Also pick up the Assembly Required Recommended Read: The Dictator’s Learning Curve by William Dobson.
• Solve problems: The best thing we can do right now is show up and use our voices. There are two key ways to do this. First: call your representatives! Democrat, Republican, Independent — it doesn’t matter. Tell them where you stand and why it matters. Second: get involved locally. Join a protest, volunteer to support a community that is particularly vulnerable right now, donate to a grassroots group in your area. Change starts with showing up, so let’s get to work.
• Do Good: Not only has Trump waged a war on books, he’s waged a war on independent businesses. So if you’re interested in reading any of the books I mentioned today, or want to pick up our weekly recommended reading, purchase them at a local bookstore. If there isn’t a local option near you, or you just prefer the convenience of online shopping, check out small businesses that operate online — like Octavia’s Bookshelf.

As What Next celebrates Memorial Day, please enjoy this episode ⁠from our colleagues at Decoder Ring⁠. What Next will be back in your feed tomorrow.

Something seems to have happened to car headlights. In the last few years, many people have become convinced that they are much brighter than they used to be—and it’s driving them to the point of rage. Headlight glare is now Americans’ number one complaint on the road. The story of how and why we got here is illuminating and confounding. It’s what happens when an incredible technological breakthrough meets market forces, regulatory failure, and human foibles.

So if you feel like everyone’s driving around with their high beams on all the time, it’s not your imagination. What once seemed like an obscure technical concern has gone mainstream. But can the movement to reduce glare actually do something about the problem?

In this episode, you’ll hear from ⁠Nate Rogers⁠, who wrote about the “headlight brightness wars” for The Ringer; ⁠Daniel Stern⁠, automotive lighting expert and editor of Driving Vision News; and Paul Gatto, moderator of ⁠r/fuckyourheadlights⁠.

This episode of Decoder Ring was written by Willa Paskin and Olivia Briley, and produced by Olivia Briley and Max Freedman. Our team also includes Katie Shepherd and supervising producer Evan Chung. Merritt Jacob is our Senior Technical Director.

If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, please email us at ⁠DecoderRing@slate.com⁠, or leave a message on our hotline at 347-460-7281.

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The crypto industry poured tons of money into the last election cycle. Is the GENIUS Act, which has bipartisan support, their big payoff?

Guest: Hilary Allen, professor at American University’s Washington College of Law.

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