Raw Story And AlterNets Podcasts

This week, Joshua Holland kicks off the show with a roundup of recent news from America's thin blue line--and the corrupt police culture those stories reveal. Then we are joined by Joan Walsh, The Nation's national affairs correspondent, to talk about her latest column, "F*&k Civility!" Joan pushes back on the maddeningly bipartisan effort to paint…

As an author, activist and operations director at a women's health clinic in the deep South, Robin Marty knows more about the abortion wars than anyone. She joins us this week to talk about how a maximalist Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v Wade would have far-reaching impacts on people in blue states as well as those living under Republican r…

This week, we speak with the authors of two New York Times opinion pieces, published in the past week, that look at different aspects of the authoritarian far-right in Europe. First, Ilya Yablokov, a lecturer at the University of Sheffield and author of “Fortress Russia: Conspiracy Theories in the Post-Soviet World,” tells us that Vladimir Putin on…

This week, we take another dive into the fever swamps! First up, Muckrake Podcast co-host Jared Yates Sexton joins us to talk about Tucker Carlson's bizarre new obsession with America's entirely imaginary "masculinity crisis." Sexton warns that while Carlson's new program, The End of Men, is easy to mock--and indeed, was designed to earn liberal de…

This week, Joshua Holland kicks off the show with a look at Texas Governor Greg Abbott's performative approach to governing--and the very real harms it's causing all of us. Then we're joined by Oliver Willis, senior writer at The American Independent, to talk about the sad state of play heading into the 2022 midterms, and help us figure out why nei…

Joshua Holland kicks off this week's show with a look at how the media are sucking up to insurrectionist Republicans in anticipation of Democratic losses in the upcoming midterms. He also argues that Trump's social media venture, ironically called "Truth Social," has been a smashing success and considers some stunningly clueless punditry about Russ…

Joshua Holland kicks off this week's show with a look at why the war in Ukraine is likely to be intractable for a long while to come. (We hope he got this one wrong.) Then we're joined by Elie Mystal, The Nation's justice correspondent and author of the new book, Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution, to talk about this week's…

This week, Joshua Holland kicks off the show with a look at a new study which found that living in states governed by Republicans can have serious consequences for your health. Then we're joined by Have You Heard co-host Jennifer Berkshire, who reported for The Nation that the GOP and some deep-pocketed astroturf groups tried out a key midterm stra…

Joshua Holland kicks off this week's show with a look at an effort by Idaho Republicans to take over a local Democratic Party and destroy it from within. Then we're joined by University of Maryland political scientist Brian Grodsky to talk about the potential pitfalls inherent in the most punishing sanctions regime the world has ever pursued in res…

This week, Joshua Holland welcomes Global Dispatches host Mark Leon Goldberg to talk about how Russia's invasion of Ukraine is spurring a rapid and dramatic reorganization of the international order and is poised to send shockwaves through the global economy. Then we are joined by Muhlenberg College historian Jacqueline Antonovich who recently unea…

This week, Joshua Holland kicks off the show with a look at how a tough primary contest is pushing Texas Governor Greg Abbott to launch a brutal assault on not only transgender kids, but also their parents and doctors. Then we are joined by Heather Hurlburt, director of New America's New Models of Policy Change project, to talk about what caused Ru…

This week, Joshua Holland kicks off the show explaining why you should take the lazy punditry to come as we approach the midterms with more than a grain of salt. Then Mississippi Today’s Molly Minta tells us about what a stalwart young conservative in one of America’s reddest states discovered when she actually looked into what Critical Race Theory…

This week, Ryan Grim, The Intercept's DC bureau chief, joins us to talk about the parallels between the police slaying of Amir Locke in Minnesota last week and the killing of Breonna Taylor in Louisville two years ago, and run down America's long history of trampling on African Americans' right to defend themselves. Then we talk to Grid Misinformat…

This week, Joshua Holland gets a thing or two off his chest about the widespread belief that you can just wish away a historic public health crisis that is very much ongoing, and about the press's discomfort blaming right-wing propaganda for drawing out the Coronavirus pandemic. Then we're joined by Eric Umansky, deputy managing editor at ProPublic…

Joshua Holland kicks off this week's show laying out why he's ultimately bullish on American democracy--if decent people stay engaged. Then we're joined by Greg Sargent of the Washington Post to put the slew of vague, sloppily written gag orders that Republicans are passing across the country in order to whitewash history into a larger context. And…

Joshua Holland kicks off this week's show with a couple of developments in the quest for accountability for the MAGA coup attempt. Then we are joined by Marquette University political scientist Julia Azari to talk about the unique challenges Joe Biden has faced in the first year of his presidency, and the reasons why the conventional wisdom about t…

This week, Joshua Holland kicks off the show with a look at the first sedition charges filed in relation to the January 6 coup attempt, and stunning new charges that Republican officials submitted forged election documents in an attempt to keep Trump in power. Then we're joined by Justin Pickett, a professor of criminal justice at SUNY Albany, to d…

Joshua Holland kicks off this week's show with a look at yet another example of the right-wing-cop-to-conservative-media feedback loop. This time, it's new revelations about the Seattle police. Then we are joined by legal analyst Marcy Wheeler to talk about the sprawling prosecutorial efforts to bring the perpetrators of the January 6 attack, and t…

Joshua Holland kicks off this week's show with some important good news from the frontline in our battle for American democracy--and a warning. Then we are joined by Dr. William Horne, a post-doctorate fellow at Villanova and the founder and editor of The Activist History Review, to talk about why even talk of another civil war doesn't necessarily …

Joshua Holland kicks off this week's show with a look at several efforts to sue the Proud Boys and other violent extremist groups into oblivion. Then we're joined by former Assistant US Attorney Richard Signorelli to talk about some of the recent revelations about events surrounding MAGA's attempted January 6 coup. Signorelli tells us that he's fru…

Joshua Holland kicks off this week's show with a look at some of the problems that are plaguing the 4,000 bored national guard troops who were sent to the Mexican border by Red State governors to serve as props in the right's propaganda war against the Biden administration. Then we are joined by David Dayen, the executive editor of The American Pro…

Joshua Holland kicks off this week with some rare good news coming out of Georgia, a state undergoing a dramatic political shift. Then we are joined by veteran journalist Kaili Joy Gray to recap this week's arguments at The Supreme Court that are almost certain to lead to Roe v Wade being overturned and millions of women being denied access to vita…

Joshua Holland kicks off this week's show recounting how his much-needed vacation turned out to be an awkward MAGA cruise. Then we are joined by Mary Trump, who answers the pressing question of which Trump spawn is the dumbest, explains how someone who has enjoyed a pampered life of privilege like Donald Trump could be so full of resentment and say…

Guest host Michael Rogers is joined by activist Lauren Windsor to talk about how her team has used undercover video to expose the lies of public officials. Then Raw Story founder John Byrne discusses new reporting on the dark underbelly of TikTok. Playlist Bruce Springsteen: "Born in the U.S.A." Bruce Springsteen: "Born to Run"…

This week, Joshua Holland kicks off the show with a small rant about the right-wing scare campaign around what they call "Critical Race Theory." Then we're joined by WaPo's Paul Waldman to help us sift through the flood of lazy punditry that has followed this week's off-year elections. And then Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch talks to us…

Is it possible to enact $4 trillion in new spending on popular policies and piss everyone off in the process? Joshua Holland kicks off this week's show noting that Democrats are poised to achieve the unlikely feat. Then we're joined by David Pepper, former chair of the Ohio Democratic Party, to talk about his new book, Laboratories of Autocracy: A …

Joshua Holland kicks off this week's show with a rundown of the many lawsuits and scandals swirling around Facebook and its senior leadership. It's possible that the company that has contributed so much to the decline of liberal democracy may finally be facing a reckoning. Then we are joined by USA Today reporter Will Carless to talk about the Not …

Joshua Holland kicks off this week's show with a look at an internal Department of Homeland Security report detailing how senior officials politicized the agency's response to Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, Oregon and directed DHS intelligence personnel to embrace bogus right-wing conspiracy theories about antifa. We then continue to focu…

This week, Joshua Holland kicks off the show with his ongoing quest to find some positive developments in our dystopian present. Then we are joined by Lili Loofbourow to talk about the growing popularity and moral ambiguity of the Herman Cain Awards, which chronicle the Covid deaths of hardcore anti-vaxxers and belligerent anti-maskers in great det…

Joshua Holland kicks off this week arguing that getting stressed out by the endless stories about the Democratic agenda teetering on the precipice isn't going to help--and offers some reasons to be optimistic they'll get a big package of good stuff through. Then we speak with HuffPost Senior Reporter Jennifer Bendery about the Biden Administration'…

Joshua Holland kicks off this week's show with a look at some fresh crime statistics that blow up some of the media's favorite narratives. Then we're joined by HuffPost reporter Travis Waldron to talk about the growing ties between key figures in the MAGA movement and their allies in Brazil, which is standing up to a very Trumpian threat to its you…

This week, Joshua Holland kicks off the show with a report from Portland, where locals argue with their Fox News-loving parents over whether their city has really been burned to the ground--and fail to convince them that it hasn't. Then we are joined by Will Wilkinson, a senior fellow, at the Progressive Policy Institute, to talk about how America'…

Believe it or not, Joshua Holland has yet more grievances with the mainstream media's coverage of the Afghanistan withdrawal, and he kicks off this week's show airing them. Then we are joined by Imani Gandy, Rewire News Group's senior legal editor, to talk about how Texas Republicans are effectively banning abortion. No matter how extreme and ridic…

This week, we are joined once again by Dr. Stephanie Langel from Duke University's Center for Human Systems Immunology. But this time, we're going to change things up a bit and ignore the loud minority who "do their own research" on Youtube and focus instead on what people who take Covid seriously should know about this new phase of the pandemic. T…

This week, Joshua Holland kicks off the show arguing that political reporters' desperate desire to prove to their critics on the right that they weren't biased against Donald Trump is leading many of them to create a narrative of crisis around the Biden administration. Working the refs is as effective as ever. Then we decided to go outside the box …

This week, Joshua Holland kicks off the show with an accountability moment and a look at some things that he got so very wrong this week. Then Michigan Advance Editor-in-Chief Susan Demas joins us to talk about how responsible Americans are losing their patience with the anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers who are prolonging the Covid-19 pandemic and pot…

This week, we speak with science writer (and brain expert) Dana Smith about how the relentless stress and isolation of the Covid-19 crisis may have altered our brains in ways that really help explain a lot about what many people have experienced over the past year and a half. The good news is that the old noodle is really resilient, and Smith offer…

Joshua Holland kicks off this week's show with a warning to be very skeptical about the press shoe-horning local races for office into their favorite national political narratives. Then we are joined by author and political analyst Jared Yates Sexton to talk about the harrowing early testimony before the House's January 6 Commission, the right's fl…

Joshua Holland kicks off this week's show with a look at some troubling polling for the Republican Party--and for American democracy. Then we're joined by Parker Molloy to talk about how the last four years of chaos may have altered the American media landscape--and why the GOP has struggled to get traction for their endless contrived scandals. And…

This week, Joshua Holland kicks off the show with an important correction to some lazy journalism about inflation--and to the destructive conventional wisdom that it is fuelling. Then we are joined by Seth Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and former advisor to Barack Obama, to discuss the $3.5 trillion infrastructure and …

This week, Joshua Holland kicks off the show with a modest rant about the ludicrous idea that social media companies are stifling conservative voices. Then Billy Corriher, author of Usurpers: How voters stopped the GOP takeover of North Carolina's courts, joins us to discuss how North Carolina became the target of a Trumpian putsch years before Tru…

This week, Joshua Holland kicks off the show with some surprising new data on how deeply entrenched Trump's stolen election narrative has become on the right. Then we're joined by Jeet Heer, national affairs correspondent for The Nation and Substacker, to talk about the right's heavily astroturfed campaign to terrify their voters to the polls with …

This week, we have a special double-segment with Devin Burghart, the executive director of the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights. Devin and his colleagues have been tracking the rise of Ammon Bundy's sprawling anti-government movement called "People's Rights," which is spoiling for another standoff with the federal government over …

Twenty-five years ago, Carl Sagan worried that America was sliding into idiocracy. Joshua Holland kicks off this week's show with a look at whether he was prescient. Then we're joined by journalist Rachel Cohen to talk about the spike in homicides and gun violence that America has seen in recent years, and look at some good and not-so-good explanat…

This week, Joshua Holland kicks off the show with a look at a new study that helps explain how disinformation spreads so much faster and further than real news. Then we're joined by Heather "Digby" Parton to talk about how the Democrats don't seem to have the sense of urgency about safeguarding American democracy that this moment calls for. And the…

Joshua Holland kicks off this week's show by administering a much-needed dose of reality to the discourse around Black Lives Matter protests. Then we're joined by journalist and author Audrey Clare Farley to talk about her piece in The New Republic about right-wing priests weaponizing Catholic rites against the left--and in support of the Blue Live…

There's spin, there's shading the truth and then there are brazen lies that aren't even remotely grounded in reality. Joshua Holland kicks off this week's show with a look at our post-truth Republican Party. Then we're joined by Svante Myrick, the mayor of Ithaca, New York, who is leading one of the most ambitious efforts in the country--one that m…

This week, Joshua Holland kicks off the show with a look at some consequential falsehoods being peddled about the state of the economy. Then we're joined by Judd Legum, who writes Popular Information, to talk about how corporate America is trying to move past the January 6 insurrection under intense pressure from the GOP. And then Alex Kane, a cont…

Joshua Holland kicks off this week's show by throwing some shade on the idea that there is a "civil war" raging within the GOP. Then we're joined by journalist and author Natasha Lennard to talk about the right's latest phony threat, critical race theory, and the very real danger of white backlash politics. And then Vanderbilt University political …

Joshua Holland kicks off this week's show with a look at the bizarre alternative universe right-wing politicians and their alternative media has created where peaceful demonstrations are always reported as violent riots. This kind of propaganda has a far-reaching impact given that most cops believe it. Then we're joined by economist Dean Baker from…