Afleveringen
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Please listen to â â our Sino-Soviet primer episodeâ â and â part one of this discussionâ for some background!
On this episode of American Prestige, Danny and Derek welcome back Jeremy Friedman, assistant professor in the Business, Government, and International Economy at Harvard, to talk about the Sino-Soviet Split. The conversation picks up in the 1960s with the Sovietsâ push for peaceful coexistence vs the PRC and developing worldâs push for anti-imperialist armed struggle, how the Cultural Revolution affects the calculation, Maoâs growing distrust of the USSR, the split itself, ideological vanguardism vs elitism, imperialism without capitalism, whether a split was inevitable, and more.
Grab a copy of Jeremyâs bookâ â â â â â Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third Worldâ â !
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Donald Trumpâs tariff war is usually framed in terms of how it would impact consumers and Americaâs relationship with other countries, but it is also part of a larger project to remake taxation policy. Trump is very explicit that he wants tariffs to replace personal and corporate taxes with tariffs as the main source of revenue. As such, tariffs are a sales tax, of a particularly regressive sort. I talk to Marshall Steinbaum, an economist at the University of Utah, about how tariffâs fit in with Trumpâs larger social vision of a plutocratic society, something that can also be seen in how the White House is cracking down on student debt holders. We take up this and other economic matters, bringing a class analysis to the business news.
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Derek makes his grand return to the AP newsroom! This week: Pope Francis dies (0:30); India sees the worst attack on civilians in Kashmir in years, prompting fallout on India-Pakistan relations (6:35); the US carries out its deadliest airstrike on Yemen to date (14:39); Qatar and Egypt propose a new ceasefire plan for Gaza (18:07); the US and Iran see progress in their nuclear talks, but the Trump administration continues to demand zero enrichment (21:27); Trump has once again changed course on tariffs (26:28); in Sudan, the RSF closes in on Al-Fashir (29:46); it is unclear whether peace talks for the DRC-M23 conflict are making progress (32:30); Russiaâs operation in Kursk nears its end (35:10); Vladimir Putin offers to halt the war at the current front line, but this and Trumpâs peace proposal meet resistance from Zelensky (36:33); the US State Department releases a reorganization plan (45:13); and more leaks and discord are apparent at the US Department of Defense under Pete Hegseth (48:01).
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Paris Marx is joined by Laleh Khalili to discuss Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, the structural factors that allowed him to build an empire, and the many ways heâs shaped the modern tech industry.
Laleh Khalili is Professor of Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter and the author of Sinews of War and Trade and her forthcoming book Extractive Capitalism.
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J D Vance said it most clearly: for the Trump people, âThe universities are the enemy.â Thatâs why Trump is cutting billions of federal funding and making impossible demands that threaten dozens of universities. But universities have begun to resist. Michael Roth comments-- he's president of Wesleyan, and was the first university president to speak out against Trumpâs attacks.
Also: Trump is not the worst president when it comes to constitutional rights and civil liberties; Woodrow Wilson was worse. Adam Hochschild explains why â starting with jailing thousands of people whose only crime was speaking out against the president. Adamâs most recent book is 'American Midnight: The Great War, A Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis.'
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On this episode of American Prestige, we once again speak with Mohammad Alsaafin, journalist at AJ+, this time to talk about where things stand in Gaza and the West Bank. We discuss the collapse of the January ceasefire, the blockade on Gaza aid, the push for outright ethnic cleansing in Gaza, what country would be willing to aid Israel in that effort, what it would mean for Hamas to disarm, Israel taking the same approach to Jenin and its environs in the West Bank as Gaza, and more.
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On this episode of The Nation Podcast, D.D. Guttenplan and John Ganz discuss the hype, hustle, and collapse embedded in Trumpâs ghostwritten canon. "Dog Eat Dog," Ganz's review of Trump's three books, is in the May issue of The Nation.
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Even as he imposes authoritarianism on the United States, Donald Trump has given a new lease on life to the center left in many other countries. Canada is holding an election at the end of April under the shadow of the American presidents threat to turn it into the 51st state. Until Trumpâs inauguration, the Conservative Party of Canada had a commanding lead. But voters are changing their minds fast and it now looks like the Liberal Party under new leader Mark Carney will win the election.
To talk about the quick revolution in Canadian politics I spoke to Luke Savage, a widely published journalist and substracker. We take up not just Canadaâs likely rejection of Trumpism but also the question of whether Carneyâs technocratic centrism really offers an alternative. If there is to be a new Canadian nationalism, will it have more substance than Carney offers?
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One last news roundup without Derek, but Danny and Alex Jordan of the Quincy Institute are on the case!
This week: the RSF announces plans to form a parallel government in Sudan (1:33); US-Iran nuclear negotiations continue in Oman (7:21); the US and Saudi Arabia discuss giving the Kingdom access to nuclear technology (14:19); the Trump trade war continues despite him dialing back certain tariffs (18:40); Xi Jinping tours Southeast Asia (22:44); President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador visits the White House amid the controversy of Kilmar Ăbrego GarcĂaâs deportation (27:15); ICE is ramping up the arrest of pro-Palestine voices in the US (31:14); center-right candidate Daniel Noboa wins the presidential election in Ecuador (32:56); American envoy Steve Witkoff says a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia is imminent (34:36) and President Vladimir Zelenskyy appears on 60 Minutes (40:42); and the Israeli government announces that it will escalate its attack on Gaza (43:13).
Danny then speaks with Afeef Nessouli, a volunteer currently in Gaza working with Glia, a medical organization that âempowers low-resource communities to build sustainable, locally-driven healthcare projects.â
Please consider donating to Glia to help Afeef and Palestinians doing medical work in Gaza. Afeef also works with Shabab Gaza, a local project that provides food and sometimes produce for victims of the genocide. I have personally backed boxes of rice for families. You can donate if you DM them @shababgaza1 on Instagram.
And Catch Alex Jordan on X/Twitter @alexjordanatl and on the Quincy Instituteâs upcoming YouTube program âAlways at War, which he will co-host with Courtney Rawlings.
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Paris Marx is doing a solo episode this week to bring together some important issues that have been on his mind lately. This is a recording of a talk Paris gave in Auckland, New Zealand on how Silicon Valleyâs alliance with Donald Trump forces us to reassess the politics of the internet and challenge our collective dependence on US tech as it embraces the project of American empire.
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While Trumpâs attacks on the universities have broadened, and while Columbia is submitting to his requirements, Harvardâs president has declared that Harvard will not comply with the Trumpâs demands in exchange for keeping its federal funding. David Cole comments - he recently stepped down as National Legal Director of the ACLU to return to teaching law at Georgetown.
Also: Elon Muskâs obsession with rockets and robots sounds futuristic, but âfew figures in public life are more shackled to the pastâ â thatâs what Jill Lepore has found. His ideas at DOGE seem to come from his grandfather, a founder of the anti-democratic Technocracy movement of the 1930s. Jill Lepore teaches history and law at Harvard, and writes for The New Yorker.
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Please listen to our Sino-Soviet primer episode for some background!
On this episode of American Prestige, Danny and Derek welcome back Jeremy Friedman, assistant professor in the Business, Government, and International Economy at Harvard, to talk about the Sino-Soviet Split. They lay out the state of play in the mid-1950s, the potential for dĂ©tente, how the two powers are reconciling with their increasingly competing interests, the implications for the Soviet Unionâs image among other communists in the wake of Khrushchevâs âsecret speechâ, theoretical transformations in what communism means during this period, how decolonization plays into the split, why Khrushchev pulled Soviet aid when China needed it most, and more through the mid-1960s.
Grab a copy of Jeremyâs book Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third World!
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On this episode of The Nation Podcast, D.D. Guttenplan is joined by Bryce Covert to discuss her investigation in the May 2025 issue of The Nation, âMcDonaldâs Still Has a Real Sexual Harassment Problem Thatâs Not Going Away.â
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On this episode of American Prestige, We reluctantly approved Derekâs vacation time, but the news marches on, so Danny welcomes back to the show Alex Jordan of the Quincy Institute to help bring you headlines from around the world. They first take some time to catch up about where things stand with Trump 2.0 and critique what they see as premature analyses of this administration before getting into the news.
This week: Trump goes back and forth on massive tariffs (16:47); US and Iranian officials are set to meet in Oman for direct nuclear talks (24:22); the US appears to be considering a ground invasion of Yemen (29:51); the Israeli government and military seem to be moving on to a new stage in preparation for annexing Gaza (34:43); the US and the Philippines carry out military exercises in the South China Sea (40:47); South Koreaâs Yoon leaves office as the country prepares for a snap election (44:30); Trump might be considering using drones against Mexican drug cartels (48:48); and Ukrainian president Zelenskyy has accused Russia of recruiting Chinese nationals to fight (52:26) as negotiators visit DC to discuss the so-called âmineral dealâ (56:36).
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On this episode of Tech Won't Save Us, Paris Marx is joined by Aline Blankertz to discuss whether Europe is going to finally make a serious push to end its dependence on US tech and how different European interests are trying to take advantage of those debates.
Aline Blankertz is an economist working on digital policy. She currently works with Rebalance Now and was previously at Wikimedia Germany.
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Trumpâs tariffs are not really about trade, theyâre a form of blackmail â but the alternative is not a return to the free trade policies introduced by Clinton and Obama. Lori Wallach of the Rethink Trade program at the American Economic Liberties Project explains what kind of tariffs we need, combined with government support for reindustrialization.
Also on this episode: A major lawsuit challenging Trump over his efforts to deport pro-Gaza campus activists has been brought by faculty members at their universities. Jameel Jaffer reports on the AAUP case; he's executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and a former deputy legal director of the ACLU.
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On this episode of American Prestige, Danny and Derek welcome to the show Katrina vanden Heuvel, editorial director and publisher of The Nation, for a wide-ranging discussion on this moment in politics. They delve into the radicalization that led to Trump, the Democratsâ devotion to the Third Way, the need for a coherent leftwing media structure, Ukraine, NATO, the âPivot to Asiaâ, the US empire, and what comes next.
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By helping the Republicans pass a spending bill that made no compromises with the Democrats and extend Donald Trumpâs power over the government, Chuck Schumer has made himself widely unpopular in his own party. Anger at Schumer is so intense that he had to cancel parts of his tour to promote his new book Antisemitism in America: A Warning. David Klion, Nation columnist and frequent guest on the podcast, reviewed this volume for The Baffler. He joins to podcast to discuss both the book and the making of Chuck Schumer.
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This week on American Prestige's news roundup: the US and Iran are making moves risking escalation to a conflict (0:43); Israel rejects another Gaza ceasefire as it plans to carve up the Strip (7:28); the IDF resumes bombing Beirut (11:41); Myanmar suffers a devastating earthquake (13:44); the South Korea supreme court will rule on Yoonâs impeachment today (17:16); the Sudanese military secures the capital, Khartoum (18:38); the African Union sends a mediation team to South Sudan (20:26); the US approves a UK-Mauritius deal on the Chagos Archipelago (22:42); President Trump is now displeased with both Putin and Zelenskyy (24:54); President Bukele of El Salvador is reportedly in direct talks with MS-13 (29:03); the Trump administration admits innocent people were among those deported to El Salvador (31:23); far-right influencer Laura Loomer appears to have influenced Trump into firing members of the National Security Council (33:08); and President Trump announces quite a few tariffs for what he calls âliberation dayâ (34:49).
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