Trent and Caitlin talk with author, journalist and historian Adam Hochschild about the historical periods that most inform his view of today's disturbing American politics. What tactics and goals does Trump 2.0 have in common with Woodrow Wilson's post-WWI administration? What is different? What inspiration and warnings can we take from that dark period to help us survive this one?

Resources:

https://journalism.berkeley.edu/person/adam_hochschild/

https://www.harpercollins.com/products/american-midnight-adam-hochschild?variant=41003534123042

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/12/grip-there-are-many-programs-trying-to-reduce-recidivism-this-one-works/

https://www.harpercollins.com/products/bury-the-chains-adam-hochschild

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/000271627240300155

"radicals awaiting deportation" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Radicals_awaiting_deportation.jpg

Trent and Caitlin ask Steven Monacelli about his recent work documenting the history and present of the American anti-vaccination movement. Who is drawn into it? How did we get here? What happens now that representatives of anti-vaccine beliefs now have the power to cut off the funds and regulatory processes that allow us to access immunization and disease management?

Resources:

Podcast: "Anti-Vax America" https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-it-could-happen-here-30717896/episode/anti-vax-america-viral-texas-281085170/

Steven Monacelli on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/stevanzetti.bsky.social

Pox by Michael Willrich https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/298913/pox-by-michael-willrich/

RFK Jr. on experts, free speech https://www.scrippsnews.com/health/rfk-jr-in-interview-with-scripps-news-trusting-the-experts-is-not-science

CDC shooting https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/09/us/gunman-cdc-shooting-vaccines.html

mRNA research defunded https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/08/06/nx-s1-5493544/rfk-defunding-mrna-vaccine-research

H1N1 research canceled https://www.npr.org/2025/05/28/nx-s1-5414642/trump-vaccine-bird-flu-mrna

RFK Jr. is executing Trump’s vision https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/9/how-rfk-jrs-vaccine-funding-cuts-fit-with-trumps-vision

Trent and Caitlin chat with James Palmer about China, the current state of America's relationship with China, and what it means for the U.S. to be constantly proposing wild tariff hikes, changing and pausing those hikes, and effectively withdrawing from international trade.

Caitlin and Trent check in with Hagen Blix about the ways we talk about AI, the most prominent angle its critics take, and the angle that’s often missing. When AI is advertised as a tool for generating journalism or research, what is the social and political order that use would entail? When the press hypes AI weapons dealers as the new vanguards of technology, what does it mean in terms of a vision for the world to come?

Resources:

Palmer Luckey speaks to Taiwan students https://www.thefp.com/p/palmer-luckey-i-saw-the-future-of-war-taiwan

Anduril gets big US contracts https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/startup-anduril-becomes-third-us-srm-supplier-amid-rising-defense-demand-2025-08-05/

Peter Thiel and tech fascism https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/13/end-times-fascism-far-right-trump-musk

Grok makes nonconsensual nudes https://gizmodo.com/groks-spicy-mode-makes-nsfw-celebrity-deepfakes-of-women-but-not-men-2000639308

American Historical Association https://www.historians.org/resource/guiding-principles-for-artificial-intelligence-in-history-education/

British MP launches bot of himself https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy5pr3q6lrpo

Automating Inequality https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250074317/automatinginequality/

Mutually Assured AI Malfunction https://dev.ua/en/news/eksholova-google-zasterihaie-proty-agi

Trent and Caitlin talk with communications strategist Lexi Koren about the Democratic Party obsession with blaming wokeness and “the groups.” Should they be listened to? Why not? What should Democrats do instead?

Resources:

The Rhetoric of Reaction https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674768680

Bill Maher on Pod Save America https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEKyn9NL46U

Trans rights as “hard to defend” https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/transgender-rights-election-public-opinon/680813/

NYT on immigration https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/06/us/politics/democrats-immigration-trump.html

Third Way on immigration https://www.thirdway.org/memo/running-on-immigration-the-gallego-blueprint

Briahna Joy Gray: Not the hill to die on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyIqL2Jh8xk

Trent and Caitlin talk to Greg Sargent, journalist and podcaster with The New Republic, about recent stories including the striking failure of the president to be cool about the newest round of Jeffrey Epstein news, the bizarre time dilation of being a conservative, and the childish insistence that every bad thing on the right is because of an overreach on the left.

Resource:

https://newrepublic.com/article/198247/trump-epstein-fiasco-ron-wyden

Caitlin and Trent chat with civil rights lawyer Joshua Erlich about the state of civil rights under Trump. What civil rights has this administration targeted? How are they achieving their goals? Is there anything that can be done to get in their way?

Resources:

Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, by Richard Hofstadter: https://www.amazon.com/Anti-Intellectualism-American-Life-Richard-Hofstadter/dp/0394703170

“Alligator Alcatraz” conditions https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/allowed-lawmakers-split-conditions-alligator-alcatraz-rcna218498

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alligator-alcatraz-florida-detainees-conditions-fungus-mosquitoes-rcna220205

SCOTUS education ruling https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/07/supreme-court-clears-the-way-for-trump-administration-to-massively-reduce-the-size-of-the-department-of-education/

Dept. of Ed can’t resolve civil rights complaints in a reasonable time https://www.wxyz.com/us-news/education/civil-rights-work-is-slowing-as-trump-dismantles-the-education-department-agency-data-shows

Lawsuit against DOGE https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2025/01/20/trump-will-face-first-lawsuit-targeting-elon-musks-doge-moments-after-taking-office/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/01/20/doge-trump-musk-ramaswamy/

Trent and Caitlin check in with Maureen Kosse, linguist and researcher of far-right ideologies, about the various strains on the right when it comes to Israel and America’s involvement therewith. They go over the different groups of right-wing Israel supporters, including those opposed to sending military aid to Israel or to its striking of Iran, and talk about the reasons each has for throwing their weight behind the country. They also look at how individuals across the alt-right try to attract less-plugged-in folks to their movement, at first hiding their xenophobic and anti-semitic beliefs only to reveal them later.

Resources

Half of evangelicals support Israel for restorationist reasons: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/05/14/half-of-evangelicals-support-israel-because-they-believe-it-is-important-for-fulfilling-end-times-prophecy/

Ted Cruz tries to use Genesis to defend Israel: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14826517/ted-cruz-israel-support-iran-tucker-carlson.html

Marjorie Taylor Greene on Jewish Space Lasers:

https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/marjorie-taylor-greene-penned-conspiracy-theory-laser-beam-space-started-deadly-2018

MTG votes no on aid for Israel (2023)

https://greene.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=589

MTG files space laser amendment (2024) https://www.businessinsider.com/mtg-marjorie-taylor-greene-jewish-space-lasers-israel-aid-bill-2024-4?op=1

MTG votes no on anti-boycott bill (2025) https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/5/us-bill-to-ban-israel-boycotts-faces-right-wing-backlash-over-free-speech

MTG votes no on aid for Israel (2025) https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5392660-marjorie-taylor-greene-stop-israel-aid/

Groypers view Israel as an expression of Jewish world control: https://globalextremism.org/post/groyper/

History of Christian Zionism:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christian-Zionism

https://www.parapraxismagazine.com/articles/evangelical-zionism

https://ciaotest.cc.columbia.edu/olj/ad/ad_v9_2/daw01.html

https://www.globalministries.org/mee_resources_christian_zionism_koshy/

Thumbnail assets:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=163339506

https://www.flickr.com/photos/22007612@N05/51770690611

Caitlin and Trent speak with Eiynah about how people simply cannot be normal about NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, the way the New York Times keeps getting puppetted by far-right propagandists, and the manufactured nature of “newsworthiness.”

Resources:

News media propagate moral panics: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203828250/folk-devils-moral-panics-stanley-cohen

“Newsworthiness”: https://discourses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Teun-A.-van-Dijk-1991-Racism-And-the-Press.pdf

Iteration: https://nupress.northwestern.edu/9780810107885/limited-inc/

Reported speech can be recontextualized: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378216699000806

The Bulwark Podcast June 17: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/zohran-mamdani-fypod-crossover

New York Times June 21: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/nyregion/mamdani-globalize-intifada.html

https://theintercept.com/2025/07/10/mamdani-globalize-intifada-democrats/

Don’t quote the ADL: https://truthout.org/articles/its-time-to-break-with-the-adl-as-a-source-for-news-and-research-on-extremism/

Dan Goldman’s bias should be mentioned: https://www.dangoldmanforny.com/israel

Jon Chait asks, why won’t he denounce the phrase? https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/06/zohran-mamdani-globalize-intifada/683300/

Jon Chait hates attacks over a “decontextualized phrase or weaponized misunderstanding” https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/12/cancel-culture-illiberalism-dead/681031/

NYT Columbia hacked https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/01/nyregion/columbia-university-hacker.html

NYT Columbia “exposé” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/03/nyregion/mamdani-columbia-black-application.html

NYT looking for justification: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/04/us/census-racial-categories.html

“Black New Yorkers”? https://nypost.com/2025/07/04/us-news/black-new-yorkers-rage-over-mamdanis-african-american-claim/

https://thehill.com/opinion/robbys-radar/5388110-black-new-yorkers-slam-zohran-mamdani-over-race-claims-on-his-college-application/

Why the NYT keeps getting played: https://www.findinggravity.net/p/christopher-rufo-and-elise-stefanik?utm_source=publication-search

https://www.theverge.com/culture/700082/nyt-mamdani-news-judgment

Chris Rufo lying about a drag queen: https://x.com/caitlinmoriah/status/1582415915508895746

Chris Rufo lying about eating cats in Ohio: https://web.archive.org/web/20240914120637/https://christopherrufo.com/p/the-cat-eaters-of-ohio

Crémieux/Jordan Lasker https://www.cjr.org/news/times-mamdani-college-application-race-article-hack.php

Lasker is a grad student who believes in racist pseudoscience https://x.com/thecollegehill/status/1847372903077335501

Mamdani’s policies are not out of step with US opinion https://www.yahoo.com/news/poll-zohran-mamdanis-policies-are-popular-with-americans-outside-new-york--even-if-mamdani-is-not-162406841.html

Mamdani eats with his hands: https://newrepublic.com/post/197538/maga-reaction-zohran-mamdani-eating-food-hands

Caitlin and Trent talk to anthropologist Rebecca Sear about the troubling trend in academia of allowing scientific racism, or the pseudoscientific belief that humans can be divided into genetically distinct racial groups with discrete measurements for things like IQ, personality traits, and behavior, to persist and present itself as a legitimate academic pursuit. They discuss how political activists have helped fund projects that propel scientific racism into the academic literature, popular media, and public policy.

Resources:

Musk on birth rates https://www.youtube.com/shorts/EPrNsxf-AUY

JD Vance: “I want more babies in the United States” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23XJ2SqI8FA

RFK, Jr. on “healthy kids” and COVID https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/well/rfk-jr-cdc-children-covid-vaccines-data.html

Origin of Eugenics https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/origins-eugenics

History of Eugenics https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/educational-resources/timelines/eugenics

Galton on “selection” 1883 https://archive.org/details/cu31924028925332/page/n325/mode/2up

Eugenics in the 1920s https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20speople-improving-the-nations-stock-for-great-and-greater-britain-eugenics-in-the-1920s/

Eugenics Record Office https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/368657

‘National IQ’ datasets: https://osf.io/26vfb_v1

Dark Money https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/215462/dark-money-by-jane-mayer/

Merchants of Doubt https://www.merchantsofdoubt.org/

Collins Family profile https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnd1Taw4CEE&t=174s

Polygenic embryo selection https://theinfinitesimal.substack.com/p/science-fictions-are-outpacing-science

Bo Winegard defending race science https://www.aporiamagazine.com/p/sasha-gusev-is-wrong?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Winegard accused of eugenics https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/03/12/assistant-professor-says-hes-been-fired-because-he-dared-talk-about-human-population

William Shockley on Firing Line https://youtu.be/7JOIqkh2ms8?si=rxH8Ym7_4SU0PYPR

Richard Haier on Lex Fridman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9RxrsvcS-k

Peter Singer on disabled newborns https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2017/04/now-peter-singer-argues-that-it-might-be-okay-to-rape-disabled-people