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Ben Rhodes is a former Senior National Security Staffer and speechwriter for Barack Obama, co-host of Pod Save the World, and author of the new book "After the Fall: Being American in the World We've Made." He joined the podcast to discuss rising authoritarianism in the world, and what it means to be an American in the world we built.
Praise for The World as It Is
“A classic coming-of-age story, about the journey from idealism to realism, told with candor and immediacy . . . [Ben Rhodes’s] achievement is rare for a political memoir: He has written a humane and honorable book.”—The New York Times Book Review
“More than any other White House memoirist, Rhodes is a creature of the man he served.”—The New Yorker
“Insightful, funny, and moving, this is a beautifully observed, essential record of what it was like to be there.”—Samantha Power
The Equal Rights Amendment is on the cusp of being adopted into the Constitution, if the Senate gets its stuff together. It’s the product of more than a century of work of women and allies, and I’ve invited my friend Julie Suk, author of the new book “We the Women: The Unstoppable Mothers of the Equal Rights Amendment” on the podcast to talk about the history of this movement. - Alyssa
“We talk as if only men make constitutions. Julie Suk changes this. She introduces us to the diverse cast of women constitution makers who supported, and opposed, the Equal Rights Amendment over the last century. Their quest showcases concerns missing in standard accounts of the Founding, and shows us how these concerns differed among women and over time. Essential reading for those interested in the future of gender justice.”
I’m so excited for this week’s episode. Raising girls in a way that empowers them to break barriers and change the world is one of the most important things we can do as parents. This week, I’m joined by Dr. Janice Johnson Dias, author of the new book Parent Like It Matters: How to Raise Joyful, Change-Making Girls. - Alyssa
“I keep a copy of the book by my bedside as a reference and as a reminder that I am working to build a reciprocal relationship with my own daughter and to ensure she goes into the world as a confident, knowing woman.”—The Washington Post
The economy has fundamentally changed, and workers have been left behind. To get into why and how, and what we can do about it, I’ve invited Sara Horowitz. Sara is the founder and executive director of the Freelancers Union and author of the new book Mutualism: Building the Next Economy from the Ground Up. After listening, learn more at Sara's website www.build-mutualism.net.
“Horowitz gives us the model to build our next progressive institutions. Her vision provides a path forward to build the next safety net that will meet the needs of all workers in the next economy—an economy that is already here!”—Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers
Wall Street is one of the largest contributors to our political system, and that translates into political power which often benefits the rich over the rest of us.
Despite the push for federal executions in the last days of the Trump regime, there is huge momentum for the elimination of the Death Penalty in America. Maurice Chammah joins the podcast this week to discuss the state of capital punishment, what it means for America, and his new book on the subject Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty.
“A searing history of the rise and fall of capital punishment . . . Let the Lord Sort Them urges readers to reckon with the ugliest aspects of Texas history, and with how the political debate over the death penalty has elided the long-lasting trauma that executions inflict on everyone involved.”—Texas Monthly
Our guest this week is Christian Picciolini. Christian is an activist, author and speaker who is a former white supremacist but is doing the hard work of reconciliation and helping other people leave hate groups through his nonprofit The Free Radicals Project. His newest book Breaking Hate: Confronting the Culture of Extremism is now available.
"This riveting narrative portrays on an intensely personal level the impacts of extremism. Encouragingly, it also identifies a method for recovery. Picciolini's experience and practice reinforce the truism that hate is a learned behavior, and it can be unlearned. Breaking Hate should be required reading for all citizens who care about dangerous behavior, want to understand it, and are committed to reducing it."—James Clapper, former US Director of National Intelligence
Disinformation is overwhelming our culture. From politics to medicine, investments to history, we’re drowning in it, and so we've invited our friend Nina Jankowicz back to the show. Nina is the disinformation fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Institute and author of How to Lose the Information war. She's the author of How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News and the Future of Conflict and a recent article in Wired titled Online Harassment Toward Women Is Getting Even More Insidious.
April 15th is normally Tax Day in America, and while COVID has prompted the IRS to extend the deadline this year, we wanted to take a look at inequities in the tax code. Dorothy Brown, Law Professor at Emory College and author of the new book "The Whiteness of Wealth" studies exactly this issue, and joined Alyssa Milano to share her insights.
“This enlightening book is a vital companion to The New Jim Crow, The Color of Wealth, and Evicted, for how it reimagines everything you thought you knew about U.S. social policy.”—Tressie McMillan Cottom, MacArthur Fellow and author of Thick: And Other Essays
“This book is a tour de force. With clarity and conviction, Dorothy Brown reveals how U.S. tax policy sustains and deepens the wealth gap between black and white Americans. As I read The Whiteness of Wealth, I found myself shaking my head as I eagerly turned the pages and shouting ‘damn’ with each revelation. If we are finally to address the long history of racism in this country, we must grapple with the arguments of Brown’s powerful book. This is a MUST read for these troubling times.”—Eddie S. Glaude Jr., New York Times bestselling author of Begin Again and Democracy in Black
“I couldn’t put it down! Dorothy Brown skillfully weaves her analysis of the racial bias in tax law with compelling personal stories of both Black and White taxpayers as well as policy recommendations for how to bring equity to our tax system.”—Beverly Daniel Tatum, PhD, New York Times bestselling author of Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
“At once passionate and analytical, The Whiteness of Wealth is a bracing contribution to the history of policy racism that takes us to the heart of taxation’s effects on patterns of economic distribution.”—Ira Katznelson, author of When Affirmative Action Was White
Nonviolence and peace are not the same thing. Nonviolent action is action. It’s not passive. It requires courage and dedication and perseverance and being very, very smart and even more strategic. It is an act of destruction, but not an act of bloodletting. It is the path we need to take to tear down the systems of oppression that are so very evident in America today and build something better and more equitable for all of us.
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