Some questions for Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, from David Cole. The legal director of the ACLU and legal affairs correspondent for The Nation says some questions—about current cases—are inappropriate for Democrats to ask in the current confirmation hearings; but there are other questions—on Kavanaugh’s legal philosophy, and on his past statements and decisions—that he should be required to answer.

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Mothers and pregnant women are discriminated against, devalued and punished – here at home, and around the world.  Nation columnist Katha Pollitt talks about how that has happened—and why.

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As Labor Day approaches, we talk about labor unions and politics with Lee Saunders, president of AFSCME.  His union was the target of that decision by the Supreme Court in June, when it ruled, 5-4, that government workers who choose NOT to join unions may NOT be required to help pay for collective bargaining.  Saunders explains what unions are doing to fight back – in the November election, and in the long run.

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In August 1968, 50 years ago this week, young antiwar demonstrators fought the police outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, while the whole world was watching.  It was the culmination of an overwhelming year for the anti-war movement. But where was young Donald Trump?  His inspiration was not Martin Luther King, but rather Hugh Hefner, Todd Gitlin explains–he’s an activist, a sociologist, and author of "The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage."

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Aretha Franklin, who died last week, was a musical genius who seems unique; but she came out of a specific place and time: Detroit in the 1950s and 1960s.  Farah Griffin, Professor of Professor of English and Comparative Literature and African American Studies at Columbia University, comments—and explains the central role Aretha played in Angela Davis’s fight for freedom after facing capital charges in California in 1970.  Also: Aretha and Obama—at the beginning of his presidency, at his inauguration, and at the Kennedy Center concert at the end.

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Anna Deavere Smith talks about the the school-to-prison pipeline—that’s the subject of her one-woman show, called ‘Notes from the Field,’ which dramatizes the real-life accounts of students, parents, & teachers caught in a system where young people of color who live in poverty get pushed out of the classroom and into the criminal justice system. It’s streaming o now at HBO.com and HBO GO.

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There are 219,000 women in prison in the United States—Rachel Kushner’s new novel, 'The Mars Room,' is a story about of one of them.  We talk about the way she mixed facts and imagination in writing the book.

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Donald Trump has done something genuinely new as president: he specializes in creating uncertainty.  Nomi Prins talks about the economic consequences for us, and for our future: the danger of chaos, and entropy.

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The Democrats need to retake control of the Senate if they are to have a chance of preventing Trump from transforming the Supreme Court into a right-wing bulwark.  Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect analyzes the political battles in key states—and the factors that may weaken Brett Kavanaugh in his confirmation hearings.

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Left politics can win all over the country, not just in New York City and Chicago and LA – Mike Lux explains how Democrats can do it.  He’s a longtime strategist for the progressive movement and Democratic candidates.

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