Eli Lake joins us to go through the history of the resistance to the Iranian regime, what makes this moment so different, and what the United States has to do to ensure the kind of outcome that will make the world a better place.
Over the weekend, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the Department of Justice served the Fed with grand jury subpoenas. Powell says it’s all a sham. But the stakes are unprecedented: A potential criminal indictment. Central bank independence. Today on the show, the administration’s case against the Fed. How did we get here? And what comes next?
State Representative James Talarico of Texas might have been our most requested guest last year. And he seemed to come out of nowhere.
Talarico started breaking through with viral videos on TikTok and Instagram. And in those videos, he didn’t sound like your typical Democrat. He’s forthrightly Christian, quoting Scripture to defend progressive positions and challenging Christian nationalism on Christian grounds. And he is now running for Senate in Texas — in a primary field that includes U.S. Representative Jasmine Crockett — in what will be one of the most important Senate races this year.
So I wanted to have Talarico on the show to talk about his faith, his politics and the way those two have come together in this attentional moment. Because he’s clearly saying things that people are hungry to hear.
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Marie Cascione. Fact-checking by Kate Sinclair and Mary Marge Locker. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Annie Galvin, Rollin Hu, Kristin Lin, Emma Kehlbeck, Michelle Harris, Jack McCordick, Marina King and Jan Kobal. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.
As protests break out around the country over the killing of Renee Good, the administration sends even more agents to commit even more violence in Minnesota. The Justice Department launches an unprecedented criminal investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell because he won't do what Trump wants on interest rates, a move so brazen that even congressional Republicans are denouncing it. And Trump again threatens to take over Greenland "whether they like it or not.” Jon, Lovett, and Tommy discuss all the latest, including Trump's suggestion that he's the "acting president" of Venezuela, and his musings about striking Iran as the anti-government protests there heat up. Then, former Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard stops by to talk to Tommy about the investigation into Powell, and why an independent Fed is so crucial to America's economy.
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Minnesotan community member Maryam Mohamad joins us to talk about the killing of Renee Nicole Good and the siege of Minneapolis by ICE and the DHS. We talk about the events and prosecutions that put the Somali community in the crosshairs, the regime’s attempt to spin this execution as self-defense, Border Patrol and ICE’s recent history of excessive force, and the predictably weak response from Democratic electeds. Maryam also talks about the Minneapolis and Somali community’s reactions to these horrors and their unwillingness to take this lying down.
Follow Maryam on twitter @messyventura
Just a few more days to buy the 2nd printing of ¡No Pasarán!: Matt Christman's Spanish Civil War over at chapotraphouse.store
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The country has been rocked by days of large antigovernment protests. First, sparked by the crippling economy, now anger at the theocratic regime.
More than 500 people have been killed, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. NPR is unable to independently confirm that figure.
And now President Trump is considering whether to weigh in – and how.
Sanctions. Cyber attacks. Military strikes.
President Trump keeps suggesting the United States may get involved. If so, when and how?
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So much of what's been going on in this country seems performative and almost cinematic that we might need to consider how much Hollywood and pop-culture fantasy in general is leaching into our reality. Give a listen.
Founding director of the Critical Theory Workshop and professor at Villanova University Gabriel Rockhill is out with a new book that calls out many of the intellectual fathers of the academic left as insufficiently imperialist and often funded by the CIA. How have we been mislead by the "compatible left" -- a cohort of leftists that support marxism only in theory while inveighing against actually existing socialism? Where do Slavoj Zizek & Noam Chomsky fall in this analysis? How do we identify the contemporary "compatible left" in our media and political environment, and if the deep state is so effective at coopting left movements, what can we possibly do to evade them and achieve revolutionary change? This is a sprawling, three-hour episode you wont want to miss.
While Americans are known for their generosity, the U.S. government, increasingly, is not. The Trump administration’s cuts to SNAP benefits among other aid programs have forced states, foundations and donors to fill the gaps. But can they? On today’s show, the limits of philanthropic efforts to supplant federal aid.
As the deputy chief of staff for policy and one of President Trump’s longest-serving aides, Stephen Miller has been the driving force behind many of Trump’s core policies. Ashley Parker, staff writer for The Atlantic, explains why Stephen Miller has President Trump’s ear.
For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
This episode was produced by Mia Venkat. It was edited by Sarah Robbins and Rebekah Metzler. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.