America at a Crossroads

Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta speaks with KCRW's Warren Olney about the recent mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, the Supreme Court's impending overturning of Roe v. Wade, Putin's war on Ukraine, and the upcoming midterm elections.

Max Boot with Patt Morrison: Is American Democracy at a Tipping Point?

Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Bret Stephens discusses the many challenges facing American democracy including attacks from an ever-radicalizing MAGA right, the Supreme Court's problematic shift to partisan battleground, and how social media has affected the political landscape in the United States.

Fmr Chair, Jt. Chiefs of Staff Adm. (ret) Mike Mullen speaks with KCRW’s Warren Olney to analyze the global military and geopolitical state of affairs in the new world order. 

Former US Solicitor General Neal Katyal and The Washington Post’s Carol Leonnig analyze cases across the US against former President Trump in a discussion moderated by KCRW's Madeleine Brand.

Lt. Col. (Ret.) Alexander Vindman discusses Russia's War on Ukraine, Putin's motives, and how the world order has fundamentally changed with his acts of aggression. In this insightful interview, Vindman relates how the current situation is intrinsically linked with the events leading to Trump's first impeachment in 2020. 

Judy Woodruff (PBS NewsHour, NBC, CBS) and Martin Baron (Washington Post, Boston Globe, New York Times, Los Angeles Times) with Geoffrey Cowan (Dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism). In this fascinating discussion, the best in the business discuss growing distrust of the media that is being sown by misinformation and disinformation on social media and by disingenuous political forces. In their combined many decades of experience, Woodruff, Baron, and Cowan have covered world events with objectivity and humility, asking the right questions and seeking anwsers. Hear them address the problems (and benefits) of social media and potential solutions to restoring faith in the press. 

Kathryn Stoner (Deputy Director at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University) and Minxin Pei (Chinese-American political scientist and expert on governance in China, U.S.-Asia relations) spoke with Stanford University's Larry Diamond about China and Russia's alliance of autocracies, particularly through the lens of Russia's war on Ukraine and each nation's state-run media.

The Washington Post's E.J. Dionne, author of Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country, and Miles Rapoport, former Secretary of the State of Connecticut, spoke with KPCC's Larry Mantle about the state of American democracy and what universal voting in the United States might look like. 

Rick Hasen, author of "Cheap Speech: How Disinformation Poisons Our Politics," speaks with To the Point's Warren Olney about the insidious injection of disinformation into American media, how it has degraded the political spectrum, and how vigilance can save American democracy.