Category Archives: history

John Fugelsang SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND HATE: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds

Our guest is actor, comedian, writer, political commentator, pod-caster and television host, John Fugelsang. His range is very wide … from hosting America’s Funniest Home Videos in the 1990s to his current show, Tell Me Everything, on Sirius XM Insight since 2015. His unpretentious, natural charm enabled him, for example, to lengthen his interview with George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, which led to Harrison’s impromptu last public performance at the VH1 Studios in NY city.

His book, SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND HATE: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds, was published in early September, 2025 and quickly became a NY Times best seller. At a time when Christian Nationalist extremists have taken control of many of our institutions in government, education, and information, claiming that what they do is in the name of Jesus, Fugelsang’s book is timely and crucial in reclaiming what Jesus actually preached. Whether one is religious, atheistic, or indifferent, one can’t escape the impact on our lives, our democracy and the health of our biosphere of their machinations.

I keep thinking of a statement by Gandhi, “To see the universal and all-pervading Spirit of Truth face to face, one must be able to love the meanest of creation as oneself. And a man who aspires after that cannot afford to keep out of any field of life. That is why my devotion to Truth has drawn me into the field of politics; and I can say without the slightest hesitation, and yet in all humility, that those who say that religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion means.”

John Fugelsang has the gift of seeking and telling truth with an open heart and in a humorous way that helps his message get through. As he says at the very beginning of his book, “I’ve come to view Jesus the way I’ve come to view Elvis. I love the guy, but some of the fan clubs terrify me.”
We spoke with him on October 6, 2025 via Zoom.

Articles, etc. pertinent to this interview:

‘ICE Goes Masked for a Single Reason’ https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/opinion/ice-masks-immigration.html

George Harrison July 24th 1997 VH1 Studios New York City NY. VH1 News Special “The Last Performance” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ1ytZo88IQ

‘Vertical Morality’ Might Describe Why MAGA Christians Seem So Unchristian https://www.huffpost.com/entry/vertical-morality-maga-christians_l_68dc8386e4b0b11989f00fb8?origin=home-life-unit

Pope Leo Issues Pointed Message About Immigrants After Donald Trump Critique https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pope-leo-donald-trump-immigration_n_68e38176e4b08634f761fd72?origin=home-whats-happening-unit

Sarah Mullally is named as first female archbishop of Canterbury https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/03/sarah-mullally–named-first-female-archbishop-of-canterbury

Bishop Budde Expected More Pushback After Asking Trump for ‘Mercy’ https://sojo.net/articles/interview/reconstruct/bishop-budde-expected-more-pushback-after-asking-trump-mercy

Christian group ‘deceived’ supreme court about LGBTQ+ research, cited scholars say https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/06/alliance-defending-freedom-supreme-court-conversion-therapy

He’s Young, Talented and Openly Religious. Is He the Savior Democrats Have Been Waiting for? https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/opinion/james-talarico-religious-left.html

Why MAGA Evangelicals Can Cheer Love and Hate at the Same Time https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/opinion/erika-kirk-charlie-trump-miller.html

Pope Leo Breaks Down Why MAGA Is ‘Not Really’ Pro-Life https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pope-leo-breaks-down-why-maga-is-not-really-pro-life_n_68dd802ae4b0c450ba64c434?origin=home-zone-c-unit

Transgender Americans are seeing a wave of hate unleashed by Charlie Kirk’s killing https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/25/transgender-americans-are-seeing-a-wave-of-hate-unleashed-by-charlie-kirks-killing

Autistic people could teach Donald Trump a thing or two about focus, facts and empathy https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/28/autistic-people-donald-trump-autism-us-president-rfk-jr

Oklahoma superintendent who put Trump Bibles in classrooms resigns https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/25/oklahoma-superintendent-resigns-ryan-walters

We Need to Think Straight About God and Politics https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/opinion/kirk-trump-christianity.html

The Republican Effort To Remake Schools In God’s Image https://www.huffpost.com/entry/texas-republicans-christianity-public-schools_n_68d6b186e4b0185d00688d38

Trump’s NSPM-7 Labels Common Beliefs As Terrorism “Indicators”
New directive targets “anti-Christian,” “anti-American,” and “anti-capitalism” opinions https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/trumps-nspm-7-labels-common-beliefs

Ann Fagan Ginger, Tireless Defender of Civil Liberties, Dies at 100 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/us/ann-fagan-ginger-dead.html?searchResultPosition=1

John Trudell on the Christian World View https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhpYEvZ-Oz4

Sarah Schulman: The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity

Sarah Schulman, novelist, playwright, screenwriter, nonfiction writer, and AIDS historian is the Ralla Klepak Professor of English at Northwestern University.

She was a member of ACT UP, New York from 1987 to 1992, and a co-founder of the Lesbian Avengers. Today she serves on the Advisory Board of Jewish Voice for Peace, and is co-director of The ACT UP Oral History Project ( https://www.actuporalhistory.org/).

She is the author of 21 books, including Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP, New York 1987-1993; Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility and the Duty of Repair; and The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness To A Lost Imagination.

Her latest book is THE FANTASY AND NECESSITY OF SOLIDARITY, published by Thesis.

We spoke with her on September 4, 2025.

This edition ends with excerpts from the text of a talk given by Bernice Johnson Reagon at the 1981 West Coast Women’s Music Festival in Yosemite, titled: COALITION POLITICS: TURNING THE CENTURY. https://www.rootsofjusticetraining.org/uploads/1/3/9/1/139148852/coalition-politics.pdf

The Zionist consensus among US Jews has collapsed. Something new is emerging https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2025/oct/07/american-jews-zionism

President of Northwestern, a School Attacked by the G.O.P., Will Resign https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/04/us/northwestern-president-resigns.html?searchResultPosition=1

President of Northwestern University quits amid layoffs forced by Trump cuts https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/04/northwestern-university-president-resigns-trump-cuts

‘Censorship’: over 115 scholars condemn cancellation of Harvard journal issue on Palestine https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/aug/14/harvard-journal-israel-gaza-cancellation

The chilling effect of Title VI investigations: the professors accused of antisemitism https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/11/campus-investigations-professors-gaza-antisemitism

UC Berkeley shares 160 names with Trump administration in ‘McCarthy era’ move https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/12/uc-berkeley-trump-administration-antisemitism

US imposes sanctions on Palestinians for requesting war crimes inquiry https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/04/us-sanctions-palestinian-human-rights

US reportedly suspends visa approvals for nearly all Palestinian passport holders https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/31/palestine-passport-visa-approval-suspension

Ursula von der Leyen calls for suspension of EU trade with Israel https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/10/ursula-von-der-leyen-suspension-eu-trade-israel

From Washington to Westminster, the populist right needs to erase history to succeed. It’s up to us to resist https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/09/washington-westminster-populist-right-smithsonian-nigel-farage

Leaked ‘Gaza Riviera’ plan dismissed as ‘insane’ attempt to cover ethnic cleansing https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/01/leaked-gaza-riviera-plan-dismissed-as-insane-attempt-to-cover-ethnic-cleansing

Palestinians warned of a genocide in 2023. Why weren’t we believed? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/30/israel-gaza-palestine-genocide

Democrats Wrote Off Anti-War Activists In 2024. Now Concern For Gaza Is Unavoidable. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democrats-failure-gaza-big-lesson_n_68acd3a5e4b0495eade021bf

Norway wealth fund sells Caterpillar stake over Israel allegations https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/26/norway-wealth-fund-excludes-caterpillar-over-israel-allegations

From the streets of Baghdad, I saw a clear line to the bloodshed in Gaza https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/26/gaza-iraq-baghdad-west-war-crimes

Trump unlawfully cancelled $2.2bn in Harvard research grants, judge rules https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/03/trump-administration-harvard-funding-cut

Howard French THE SECOND EMANCIPATION: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide

Joining us once again is journalist, author and professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Howard French. He has been a decades long New York Times reporter, serving as its bureau chief for the Caribbean and Central America from 1990 to 1994, covering Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and other countries. He was one of the Times’ first black foreign correspondents, and from 1994 to 1998 he covered West and Central Africa, reporting on wars in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Central Africa, with particular attention to the fall of the longtime dictator of Zaire, Mobutu Sese Seko. From 1998 to 2008 he served as the Times bureau chief for Japan, Korea and Shanghai, from which experiences he wrote Everything Under the Heavens: How China’s Past Helps Shape its Push for Global Power; and China’s Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa.

His latest book, THE SECOND EMANCIPATION: NKRUMAH, PAN-AFRICANISM, AND GLOBAL BLACKNESS AT HIGH TIDE, is being released on August 26, 2025 by Liveright. The link to our earlier interview when his book, BORN IN BLACKNESS: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War, was published is below.

His very well documented books are packed full of information and insights rarely seen outside the academic world. Best of all, his writing style is lucid, fluid and a pleasure to read.

We spoke with Howard French via FaceTime on August 19, 2025.

Links to articles, etc. pertinent to this interview:

The Man Who Saw the Future of Africa https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/opinion/africa-future-kwame-nkrumah.html

Mali’s junta arrests generals and French national over alleged coup plot https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/15/mali-junta-arrests-generals-and-french-national-over-suspected-coup-plot

Howard French BORN IN BLACKNESS: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War https://forthright.media/2022/12/22/howard-french-born-in-blackness-africa-africans-and-the-making-of-the-modern-world-1471-to-the-second-world-war/

Stuart Reid THE LUMUMBA PLOT: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination https://forthright.media/2023/12/08/stuart-reid-the-lumumba-plot-the-secret-history-of-the-cia-and-a-cold-war-assassination/

Adam Shatz THE REBEL’S CLINIC: THE REVOLUTIONARY LIVES OF FRANTZ FANON https://forthright.media/2024/03/12/adam-shatz-the-rebels-clinic-the-revolutionary-lives-of-frantz-fanon/

Birth of Ghana Lord Kitchener https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=057BmLQ9MfU&list=RD057BmLQ9MfU&start_radio=1

E.T. Mensah-Ghana Freedom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sivj_40ZaHc&list=RDSivj_40ZaHc&start_radio=1

Why Trump’s ‘anti-woke’ attack on the Smithsonian matters https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/27/why-trumps-attack-on-the-smithsonian-matters

The Guardian view on Africa and maps: drawn true, its scale and promise can’t be ignored https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/22/the-guardian-view-on-africa-and-maps-drawn-true-its-scale-and-promise-cant-be-ignored

Equal Earth • Political Wall Map https://equal-earth.com/equal-earth-projection.html

Malcolm Harris WHAT’S LEFT: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis

On this edition of Forthright Radio our guest is journalist, author, activist and critic, Malcolm Harris.

After being arrested in the October 2011 Occupy Wall Street protest on the Brooklyn Bridge, his court case became “a significant focus of attention for its involvement of posts to social networking sites and legal arguments over who controls that material” as the prosecution sought to undermine his defense using his own Twitter posts which he had deleted.

His books include Kids These Days: The Making of Millennials; Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World; and most recently What’s Left: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis, published in Spring, 2025 by Little, Brown.

We spoke with Malcolm Harris about his latest book, which includes a reference to Judi Bari, on July 21, 2025 via Zoom. He was very patient and kind, re-connecting after a couple of disruptive technical problems.

Articles, etc. pertinent to this interview:

Gil Duran on Trump, Tech, and “The Nerd Reich” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2W3tmCBEnE

What’s the Matter with Abundance? https://thebaffler.com/latest/whats-the-matter-with-abundance-harris

Kurdish leader Ocalan issues message from prison, urging PKK to disarm to make peace with Turkey https://apnews.com/article/turkey-pkk-ocalan-peace-talks-68decd55c35fa537f04b117bc9736128

Kurdish leader Ocalan told the PKK to disband, it did: Here’s what to know https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/13/kurdish-leader-ocalan-told-the-pkk-to-disband-it-did-heres-what-to-know

Trump fossil-fuel push setting back green progress decades, critics warn https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/20/trump-energy-environment-agenda

The Revolutionary and Radical Tenderness of Andrea Gibson https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/20/opinion/andrea-gibson-poetry.html

Andrea Gibson – Homesick: A Plea For Our Planet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsmKDa2qQ-w&list=RDJsmKDa2qQ-w&start_radio=1

Andrea Gibson – Say Yes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfh3z55AL9s

Andrea Gibson MAGA HAT IN THE CHEMO ROOM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCX-0zJTEbk&list=RDWCX-0zJTEbk&start_radio=1

Andrea Gibson – Living Proof https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KADJJ4W9p3c

When It Comes to Undermining America, We Have a Winner https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/opinion/trump-authoritarianism-republican-party-democracy.html

Has America learned anything from the George Floyd uprisings? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/13/has-america-learned-anything-from-the-george-floyd-uprisings

Nearly 300 pages of Atlanta’s ‘Cop City’ records released after first-of-its-kind ruling https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/20/atlanta-police-foundation-cop-city-records

Is Decarbonization Dead? https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/25/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-jesse-jenkins-jane-flegal.html

‘We were heard’: the Pacific students who took their climate fight to the ICJ – and won https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/25/pacific-students-who-won-climate-case-icj-international-court-of-justice-hague

Caribbean leaders hail ICJ climate ruling as ‘historic’ win for small island states https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/25/caribbean-leaders-hail-icj-climate-ruling-as-historic-win-for-small-island-states

Vali Nasr IRAN’S GRAND STRATEGY: A National History

Vali Nasr is the Majid Khadduri Professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. His books include THE DISPENSABLE NATION: AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY IN RETREAT; THE SHIA REVIVAL: HOW CONFLICTS WITHIN ISLAM WILL SHAPE THE FUTURE, and (with Ali Gheissari) DEMOCRACY IN IRAN: HISTORY AND THE QUEST FOR LIBERTY.

His latest book, IRAN’S GRAND STRATEGY: A POLITICAL HISTORY, which was published by Princeton University Press in late May, 2025.
We spoke with Professor Nasr from Brussels, Belgium via FaceTime .

We spoke with Professor Vali Nasr on Monday, June 9th, 2025. On Thursday, June 12, The International Atomic Energy Agency declared that Iran was not complying with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations, the first time the UN watchdog has passed a resolution against the country in 20 years. A few hours later, Israel launched what Defense Minister Israel Katz called “preemptive strikes” simultaneously in many places Iran, hitting both civilian and military targets. One remembers Supreme Leaders Khamenei’s skepticism of the value of diplomacy, when this happens as the talks in Vienna were happening.

Then, on June 21, 2025 the US military under orders of Donald Trump executed a night time bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites at Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz.

The Ayatollah Has a Plan (by Vali Nasr) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/opinion/iran-nuclear-ayatollah-cease-fire.html

How the Attacks on Iran Are Part of a Much Bigger Global Struggle https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/22/opinion/iran-israel-attack-global-struggle.html

How Iran and Israel are rethinking strategy https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/22/world/video/gps-0622-us-iran-israel-middle-east

Trump’s ‘total obliteration’ of Iran’s nuclear capabilities isn’t ‘100% accurate’: Scott Lucas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzLo1emW6Oc

Leah Litman LAWLESS: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes

University of Michigan Law Professor, Leah Litman teaches and writes on constitutional law, federal courts, and federal post-conviction review. Her research examines unidentified and implicit values that are used to structure the legal system, the federal courts, and the legal profession. With her fellow law professors, Kate Shaw and Melissa Murray, she co-hosts the popular podcast, Strict Scrutiny, providing in-depth and irreverent analysis of the Supreme Court – its cases, culture, and personalities.

Her book, LAWLESS: HOW THE SUPREME COURT RUNS ON CONSERVATIVE GRIEVANCE, FRINGE THEORIES, AND BAD VIBES, is published by Atria/One Signal Publishers. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse wrote this: “Lawless is a lively narration of how big special interests captured the Supreme Court and redeployed it to deliver on the least popular policy planks of the Republican Party. Litman ably documents the Court’s devolution, as it was yoked into service to a political party and a billionaire class.”
We spoke with her on May 6, 2025.

Trump asks Supreme Court to allow cancellation of legal status for 500,000 immigrants https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/08/trump-supreme-court-parole-00336940

Trump Administration Live Updates: U.S. Welcomes White South Africans Given Refugee Status https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/05/12/us/trump-news

David H. Souter, Republican Justice Who Allied With Court’s Liberal Wing, Dies at 85 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/09/us/david-souter-dead.html

150 Former Judges Tell Pam Bondi They’re Not ‘Deranged’ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/former-judges-pam-bondi-letter_n_6819403de4b085c2f857aeb9

Trump order targeting law firm Perkins Coie is unconstitutional, judge rules https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/02/trump-perkins-coie-unconstitutional

Ketanji Brown Jackson Gets Standing Ovation For Slamming ‘Relentless Attacks’ On Judges https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kentanji-brown-jackson-slams-relentless-attacks-on-judges_n_681486aae4b0c3c651ebe017

TRUMP’S BIGGEST BENEFICIARY: HIMSELF https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/27/opinion/trump-crypto-musk-spacex.html

Trump receives widespread backlash to social post calling himself ‘king’ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/19/trump-backlash-social-media-king

Wisconsin Judge Arrest: What We Know https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/26/us/wisconsin-judge-hannah-dugan-arrest.html

The US used to be the gold standard for press freedom. Not any more https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/28/press-freedom-us-trump

The Henchmen Strategy: What Trump Is Doing To Make The Law His Own https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-henchmen-strategy-what-trump-is-doing-to-make-the-law-his-own_n_680fe032e4b0a4f4db7f0bfd

Trump warns ‘nothing will stop me’ at rally to celebrate 100 days in office https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/29/trump-100-days-rally-michigan

Hegseth Directs 20% Cut To Top Military Leadership Positions https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ap-us-pentagon-leadership-cuts-pete-hegseth_n_681923a9e4b09d0e11f7c9a5

Judge Orders Elections Board to Certify Democrat’s Victory in Contested N.C. Race https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/05/us/north-carolina-supreme-court-federal-ruling.htm

Trump’s Justice Department Is Squandering Its Biggest Asset https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/05/06/trump-justice-department-trust-supreme-court-00329222

Judge strikes down Trump executive order punishing prominent law firm https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/02/trump-law-firms-executive-00324973

Trump asks Supreme Court to let DOGE access sensitive Social Security data https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/02/trump-doge-supreme-court-social-security-00324876

Trump’s immigration ‘shock and awe’ is losing in the court of law https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/02/trump-immigration-court-losses-00324683

US supreme court allows Trump trans military ban to take effect https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/06/trump-trans-military-ban-court

E.P.A. Plans to Shut Down the Energy Star Program https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/climate/epa-energy-star-eliminated.html

Feds Urged To Investigate Pizzas Sent To Judges Using Name Of Judge’s Murdered Son https://www.huffpost.com/entry/federal-investigation-pizza-deliveries-judges_n_681a0193e4b09d0e11f86cad

No One Has Ever Defeated Autocracy From the Sidelines https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/opinion/trump-authoritarianism-democracy.htm

Paul Pierson Liberty or Tyranny?

Paul Pierson is the UC Berkeley John Gross Endowed Chair of Political Science. He was our guest in 2022 to comment on the midterm election and in 2020 when his book, co-authored with Jacob Hacker, LET THEM EAT TWEETS: HOW THE RIGHT RULES IN AN AGE OF EXTREME INEQUALITY, was published. They also collaborated on the books, WINNER TAKE ALL POLITICS; and AMERICAN AMNESIA: HOW THE WAR ON GOVERNMENT LED US TO FORGET WHAT MADE AMERICA PROSPER.

We were curious to learn what he was thinking of the first 90 days of the second Trump administration. We spoke with him first via Skype on April 21st, and when Skype refused to function half way through, he graciously agreed to another interview via FaceTime on April 22nd.

Articles pertinent to this interview:

The rise of end times fascism https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/13/end-times-fascism-far-right-trump-musk

Trump Power Flex Over Universities, Judge Rules on Trump Admin. Contempt, Prof. David Cay Johnston https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N09BEuLMi8

Playing Chicken With the Constitution | Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAzzhPSE8i4

Heather Cox Richardson Speech – 250 Year Lantern Anniversary – Old North Church https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv5lfpOMUiE

Trump’s War on Measurement Means Losing Data on Drug Use, Maternal Mortality, Climate Change and More https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-doge-data-collection-hhs-epa-cdc-maternal-mortality

Time for a Civic Uprising https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/opinion/trump-harvard-law-firms.html

Trump administration shutters US office countering foreign disinformation http://Trump administration shutters US office countering foreign disinformation

The Trump-Harvard showdown is the latest front in a long conservative war against academia https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/20/harvard-trump-conservative-history-academia

Blackfeet tribal members sue feds over Canada tariffs https://montanafreepress.org/2025/04/07/blackfeet-tribal-members-sue-feds-over-canada-tariffs/

‘An Enormous Usurpation’: Inside the Case Against Trump’s Tariffs https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/04/21/trump-tariffs-supreme-court-legal-arguments-00299467

Six Men Are Charged After Woman Was Dragged From Idaho Town Hall https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/us/idaho-coeur-dalene-town-hall-charges.html

Don’t believe the doubters: protest still has power https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/22/protest-trump-resistance-power

The Next Terrorist Attack https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-next-terrorist-attack

Meet the new American refugees fleeing across state lines for safety https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/24/american-refugees-escape

Susanne Mueller Redwood: Competitive Autocracy in the Trump Era

Susanne Mueller Redwood is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Montana State University. Her research focuses on the international dimensions of authoritarianism. She investigates the role that economic cooperation plays in the survival and breakdown of authoritarian regimes. Her work has analyzed the role of trade, central banking, and currency politics under dictatorship, and has been published in different outlets, including the Review of International Political Economy and Cambridge University Press.

The broadcast of this Forthright Radio program ended with an interview by The Kyiv Independent’s Chris York with U.S. historian and author, Marci Shore, who had announced that she — along with her husband, historian Timothy Snyder, and colleague Jason Stanley — would be leaving their posts at Yale University and moving to Canada to teach at the University of Toronto.
It ended with John Lithgow‘s reading of Timothy Snyder‘s 20 Lessons on Tyranny. Due to copyright issues, we do not include them in this recording, however they can be accessed here:

Why this US historian is leaving Trump’s America https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noJ4rMMYvdo

20 Lessons on Tyranny: by Timothy Snyder / read by John Lithgow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXR5HLodsT8

Articles, etc. pertinent to this interview:

Democratic Senate & House members hold shadow hearing on Trump DOJ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcP8zEQgUC8

Personalism and the politics of central bank independence under authoritarianism https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09692290.2022.2127118#d1e125

To Save Democracy, Here’s a Playbook That Works https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/opinion/poland-democracy-us.html

Trump’s counter-terror cuts will harm fight against far right, experts warn https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/30/trump-counter-terrorism-cuts

Vance’s posturing in Greenland was not just morally wrong. It was strategically disastrous https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/31/trump-greenland-us-morally-wrong-strategy-disastrous

Logging is quietly ravaging US forests. Trump is taking an axe to protections https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/31/trump-logging-us-forests

Former Trump Cabinet Official Explains Why Trump Loves Tariffs: ‘It’s Personal Power’ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ryan-zinke-trump-tariffs-presidential-power_n_67ec11ade4b0c630d055461a

Fraudster-In-Chief On A Pardon Spree Of His Fellow White-Collar Criminals https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-fraud-pardon-spree_n_67eafd86e4b0d17863f2f781

If Putin Designed a Plan to Collapse America, What Would It Look Like? https://hartmannreport.com/p/if-putin-designed-a-plan-to-collapse-2ce

The Path to American Authoritarianism: What Comes After Democratic Breakdown https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/path-american-authoritarianism-trump

A turning point for the dollar is coming https://www.ft.com/content/7b97f48b-87e2-4cb3-bd3c-4e963356f109

‘Invasion’ barges, subsea cable cutters and surprise naval drills: how China is testing Donald Trump https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/14/china-taiwan-military-drills-trump-barges-asia-pacific-security