Current Affairs

By Current AffairsComedy News Government

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Typical duration
41 min
per episode

Based on Podcast App listening data

Current Affairs episodes

September 15 How 9/11 Normalized Endless War
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
CODEPINK co-founders Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans, along with national co-director Danaka Katovich, join Current Affairs to reflect on 25 years of the post-9/11 War on Terror, the founding of CODEPINK, and the politics of fear that have fueled endless war.
🌸 Pam Bailey's Current Affairs Article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/9/11-began-25-years-of-nonstop-war-and-abuses-of-power
🌸 Danaka Katovich's Common Dreams Article: https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/un-american-to-care
🌸 Medea Benjamin's Common Dreams Article: https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/was-the-us-reaction-to-9-11-wrong
0:00-10:56 Barbara Lee, 9/11, and the politics of fear
10:56-19:59 How CODEPINK was born from the War on Terror
19:59-25:51 Being smeared as foreign agents and terrorist sympathizers
25:51-32:30 Fighting fear and reclaiming political power
32:30-35:12 What CODEPINK is organizing around now
35:12-37:15 Why Yemen matters to the antiwar movement
37:15-45:42 Lessons from 25 years of antiwar activism
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
46 min
September 09 How Trump Made a Broken DOJ Even Worse
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
Rachel Cohen is an attorney and organizer who previously resigned from the law firm Skadden Arps amid the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against major law firms.
She joins Current Affairs to discuss her article “Business as Usual at the Department of Injustice,” which examines how Trump has intensified the politicization of the Justice Department while relying on prosecutorial powers, institutional habits, and forms of state violence that long predate his administration.
🏛️ Follow Rachel on Instagram: https://cohen489.substack.com/
🏛️ Subscribe to Rachel's Substack: https://www.instagram.com/cohen.489/?hl=en
0:00-5:20 What’s happening at the DOJ under Trump?
5:20-8:08 Disturbing trends under Trump
8:08-13:36 What Trump didn’t change
13:36-18:21 The injustice was already built in
18:21-23:06 The problem goes beyond Trump
23:06-25:40 The “presumption of regularity”
25:40-31:26 Resistance and refusing conformity
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
32 min
September 02 MAGA Stole Animal Rights from the Left
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
Astra Taylor is a writer, activist, and co-author of End Times Fascism, and Aaron Regunberg is a climate lawyer and contributing editor at The New Republic. They join Current Affairs to discuss how the right has begun co-opting animal welfare politics, why the left has neglected animal rights, and how abandoning climate politics risks leaving an opening for a much darker ecofascist response to ecological crisis.
🐄 Read the article: https://newrepublic.com/article/213747/maga-stole-animal-rights-left
🐄 Get Astra's book: https://naomiklein.org/end-times-fascism/
0:00-8:25 How MAGA is co-opting animal rights
8:25-14:18 P’Nut the Squirrel and the right’s animal politics
14:18-18:29 MAHA and the political vacuum on animal welfare
18:29-33:05 Why animal rights belong in left politics
33:05-37:59 Why the left stopped talking about climate
37:59-42:44 Ecofascism and the politics of climate collapse
42:44-49:14 Making climate politics impossible to ignore
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
50 min
August 31 Palestinians Shouldn’t Have to Be Perfect Victims (w/ Mohammed el-Kurd)
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
Mohammed el-Kurd is a Palestinian writer from Jerusalem, The Nation’s Palestine correspondent, and editor-at-large at Mondoweiss.
He joins Current Affairs to discuss his book, Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal, which examines how even sympathetic discourse about Palestine can reproduce racist assumptions, sanitize Palestinian resistance, and demand that Palestinians prove their innocence before being granted solidarity.
🇵🇸 Get the Book: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2499-perfect-victims
🇵🇸 Article in The Nation: https://www.thenation.com/article/world/mohammed-el-kurd-book-excerpt/
0:00-3:04 deconstructing liberal solidarity with Palestine 3:04-6:30 the assumptions behind “women and children”
6:30-10:56 why Palestinian anger and resistance are legitimate
10:56-13:29 how the language of occupation shapes the debate
13:29-17:23 Ro Khanna and the double standard on resistance
17:23-19:49 the politics of the “perfect victim”
19:49-22:18 Refaat Alareer and the refusal to sanitize Palestinians
22:18-24:27 what Palestine’s allies still get wrong
24:27-27:22 Israel’s political prison system
27:22-31:46 Hamas members are entitled to human rights
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
32 min
August 27 AIPAC Knows Its Money Is Toxic (w/ Track AIPAC)
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
Track AIPAC is an advocacy and watchdog project that tracks AIPAC and other pro-Israel political spending in U.S. elections. Co-founders Cory Archibald and Casey Kennedy join Current Affairs to discuss how the Israel lobby intervenes in Democratic primaries, how its money is routed through a growing network of PACs and outside groups, and why more candidates are beginning to reject its support.
🔎 Track AIPAC: https://www.trackaipac.com/
0:00-5:53 Why Track AIPAC was founded
5:53-8:51 How AIPAC hides its money
8:51-13:04 How AIPAC intervenes in elections
13:04-17:33 How AIPAC corrupts the democratic process
17:33-21:45 Democrats are turning against AIPAC
21:45-24:58 Forcing Israel into the political conversation
24:58-31:40 Track AIPAC’s litmus test for candidates
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
32 min
August 25 Both Parties Are Failing Working People (w/ Dan Osborn)
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
Dan Osborn is an independent candidate for U.S. Senate in Nebraska and a former union leader who first gained national attention during the 2021 Kellogg’s strike. He joins Current Affairs associate editor Alex Skopic to discuss why he rejects the two-party system, the crisis facing rural hospitals, healthcare reform and Medicare for All.
🛠️ Dan's Website: https://www.osbornforsenate.com/
0:00-2:03 Why run as an independent?
2:03-5:25 Rural hospital closures
5:25-9:11 Medicare for All and healthcare monopolies
9:11-10:56 Rejecting lobbyist influence
10:56-16:19 How can we strengthen the labor movement?
16:19-19:13 The PRO Act, card check, and right-to-work laws
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
20 min
August 21 The Israel Lobby Is More Desperate Than Ever
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
Eli Clifton is an investigative journalist and co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and Ian Lustick is a political scientist specializing in U.S. foreign policy and Israel-Palestine.
They join Current Affairs editor in chief Nathan J. Robinson to discuss their new book, Israel’s Lobby: America in the Grip of a Foreign Power, which examines the history, methods, and influence of the Israel lobby on American politics and U.S. foreign policy.
🏛️ Get the book: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Israels-Lobby/Eli-Clifton/9781668210840
0:00-4:00 The Origins of Israel’s Influence on U.S. Policy
4:00-9:22 How the Israel Lobby Changes U.S. Policy
9:22-12:06 When Presidents Defy the Israel Lobby
12:06-15:43 How the Lobby Punishes Politicians
15:43-18:32 How the United Democracy Project Influences Elections
18:32-22:14 How Accusations of Antisemitism Are Weaponized
22:14-26:46 American Jews vs. the Israel Lobby
26:46-28:33 Does the Republican Party Need the Israel Lobby?
28:33-31:12 Citizens United, AIPAC, and Abdul El-Sayed
31:12-36:24 The Israel Lobby Under Biden and Trump
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
37 min
August 20 The “Silent Genocide” in Cuba (w/ Abby Martin)
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
Abby Martin is a journalist, filmmaker, and creator of The Empire Files. She joins Current Affairs editor in chief Nathan J. Robinson to discuss her new film, Cuba After Castro, which features a rare, in-depth interview with Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel.
🇨🇺 Watch Cuba After Castro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIAApY3b_i4&t=1162s
🇨🇺 Subscribe to The Empire Files: https://www.youtube.com/@UCG29FnXZm4F5U8xpqs1cs1Q
0:00-6:06 What’s Happening on the Ground in Cuba
6:06-10:22 America’s Efforts to Destroy Cuba’s Economy
10:22-12:48 How the Media Manufactures Consent
12:48-18:52 Palestine, Iran, and Cuba
18:52-27:06 The Myth of the Anti-War Right
27:06-30:09 The Legacy of Fidel Castro
30:09-41:33 The Ideals of the Cuban Revolution
41:33-46:01 The Threat Cuba Faces Today
46:01-53:11 How We Fight Back
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
54 min
August 18 Socialist Defends Medicare for All on Fox News
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Nathan J. Robinson returns to The Will Cain Show to defend Medicare for All, California’s proposed billionaire tax, and Zohran Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax.
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/
5 min
August 13 Send Ben Shapiro to Iran
🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
Why should other people’s children be the ones who die in the wars he promotes?
🌹 Full article by Alex Skopic: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/send-ben-shapiro-to-iran
🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership
🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/
14 min