As ballot counting continues from Tuesday’s midterm elections, one thing has become crystal clear: this was not the outcome anyone had anticipated.

The Republican rout that had been splashed across headlines for months never materialized. Democrats made significant gains in state houses across the country, and when all is said and done, might even have picked up a seat or two in the Senate. In fact, the question of which party will hold a majority in the House come January is also still up in the air, though the GOP is expected to hold a small majority.

Norman Ornstein is an emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a contributing editor and writer for The Atlantic. He joined Diane to make sense of the results and discuss what they say about American politics today.

Dr. Anthony Fauci is leaving his post as the nation’s top infectious disease doctor after nearly four decades.

As director of the The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), he acted as a key advisor to seven presidents. In his position, he helped the United States – and the world -- navigate the AIDS crisis, SARS, the H1N1flu virus, Zika and Ebola.

He was also a frequent guest on The Diane Rehm Show, whose list of appearances reads like a history of infectious disease in America.

This was, of course, well before the pandemic pushed Dr. Fauci into the spotlight, where he became a hero to many, a villain to some, receiving death threats and harassment even as he oversaw the race to develop a Covid vaccine.

Diane invited Dr. Fauci to join her on the podcast one last time before he steps down from his post at NIAID at the end of the year. He talked about why he feels now is the right time to change his role and start to focus on inspiring the next generation of public health professionals.

Margaret Sullivan started her career at the Buffalo News, her hometown paper. After 19 years as a reporter, she took over as top editor and ran the newsroom for more than a decade.

In 2012, Sullivan became the public editor of the New York Times, turning a critical eye on the paper’s coverage and seeking accountability for journalistic missteps.

In the heat of the 2016 election, Sullivan again switched papers — and roles. She joined the Washington Post as media columnist, where she traced the press’s role in the rise of Donald Trump, and the media’s efforts to combat the spread of misinformation.

Earlier this year, Sullivan left the Post and set out to write a memoir, which, she admits, quickly became a manifesto. In “Newsroom Confidential: Lessons (and Worries) from an Ink-stained Life,” Sullivan draws on her decades of experience to push journalism toward regaining the public’s trust and playing more of a central role in upholding America’s fragile democracy.

A majority of Republican candidates and voters question the results of the 2020 election. What does this mean for the midterms and beyond?

In the run up to November’s vote, New York Times political correspondent Nick Corasaniti’s reporting has focused on right wing efforts to shake belief in the country’s free and fair election system, and the threats those efforts pose to our democracy.

He and his colleagues have examined public opinion, tracked candidate statements, and followed campaigns across the country to see just how widespread the lies about the 2020 results have become, and the actions that doubt is inspiring as voting begins in the midterms.

How can a country built on the backs of enslaved people compensate for past wrongs? That is the question at the heart of Andrew Delbanco’s upcoming Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities.

Each year the National Endowment for the Humanities selects a scholar to give an address, an act the NEH calls “the highest honor the federal government confers for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities.”

This year, on the program’s 50th anniversary, Delbanco, a professor of American Studies at Columbia University, will explore “The Question of Reparations: Our Past, Our Present, Our Future.”

He traces the history of the debate about reparations that began before the Civil War and stretches to today, and tells Diane he hopes understanding our history can help inform the country’s choices about its future.

The Supreme Court is back in session.

The fallout from last term’s blockbuster rulings on abortion and gun laws continues to play out on the ground -- and in the courts. Yet, this week saw the kick off of a new SCOTUS term, one in which the 6-3 conservative supermajority is poised to deliver another set of opinions that could profoundly alter American life. This time, the cases deal with issues like voting rights, election law, environmental protections and the constitutionality of affirmative action.

Kate Shaw is a professor of law at Yeshiva University's Cardozo School of Law and a co-host of the podcast Strict Scrutiny. She joined Diane to preview this term, and talk about the court’s shift to the right.

The clock is ticking on the House Jan. 6 committee.

With the midterm elections a little more than a month away and control of the House uncertain, experts are beginning to wonder what the endgame is for the investigation, even as Hurricane Ian postponed the ninth, and perhaps last, public hearing.

By most accounts, the committee's efforts thus far have proven more successful than anticipated in both unearthing new evidence and drawing attention to the role of former President Trump in enflaming the violence at the Capitol.

The question now becomes, what kinds of recommendations will the committee make to shore up democratic institutions in the U.S.? And will they push for criminal charges against Donald Trump?

Quinta Jurecic is a fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution and a senior editor at Lawfare. She joined Diane to talk about what the committee has learned so far, and what we might expect to see in the coming weeks.

Susan Glasser and Peter Baker are veteran political journalists who closely covered Donald Trump’s rise years in the oval office. He as the New York Times chief White House correspondent, she as a staff writer for The New Yorker.

Yet, the husband-and-wife team felt there was more to know – more the American public should know about what went on behind the scenes.

The result is their new book, “The Divider.” They say it is an attempt to create a comprehensive historical record of the era – and in doing so highlight lessons for America’s political future.

Could Ukraine win the war with Russia?

For months it looked like Russia was waging – and winning -- a battle of attrition. But last week Ukrainian forces made dramatic gains on the battlefield, retaking vast areas of land, including Ukraine’s second largest city. And now some experts say this could be the beginning of a victory for Kyiv.

Angela Stent is a longtime Russia analyst and author of “Putin’s World: Russia against the West And with the Rest.” She joined Diane to help explain whether this is truly a turning point, what a Ukrainian victory might look like, and what it would mean for the future of Russia and its role in the world.

David Corn is a veteran reporter at Mother Jones Magazine who has watched the evolution of politics in Washington for decades. In a new book he argues the extremism that led to January 6th goes back at least 70 years to Sen. Joseph McCarthy and his high profile hunt for alleged Communists inside the State Department, the White House, the Treasury, and even the US Army.

Corn outlines a series of deliberate choices by the Republican Party between the 1950s and today that he says nurtured and exploited fear and loathing, and capitalized on misinformation and political paranoia until it became a central tenet of the party. He joins Diane on On My Mind to discuss “American Psychosis.”