In this WhoWhatWhy podcast, veteran journalist Sasha Abramsky reveals a striking paradox: Progressives, long suspicious of states’ rights — once a  reactionary battle cry against civil rights and federal reforms — are now embracing state power as their best defense against growing authoritarianism. 

As the federal government tilts rightward, blue states are forming unprecedented coalitions to preserve democratic values and progressive policies. But could these defensive measures actually accelerate America’s political fracturing? 

In a world drowning in misinformation, we keep pointing fingers at those who create and spread false narratives. But what if the real story isn’t about them — it’s about us?

In this recentWhoWhatWhy podcast I talk with professor Dannagal Goldthwaite Young, author of Wrong: How Media, Politics, and Identity Drive Our Appetite for Misinformation, we discover a surprising truth: Humans are naturally drawn to misinformation.

It’s not just about believing what we want to believe — it’s about satisfying our fundamental needs for what Young calls “comprehension, control, and community,” even if that means embracing falsehoods.

The recent election has sparked new discussions about changing demographics across America. Austin, Texas is no exception. Long celebrated as a liberal bubble in the heart of red Texas, this once magical and creative city is transforming dramatically. From the controversial new University of Austin, featured this past Sunday on 60 Minutes, to Elon Musk's growing presence with SpaceX, to the influx of tech giants like Larry Ellison and Oracle, along with characters like Joe Rogan and Alex Jones, the city's character is shifting. Add to this the mounting challenges of climate change making Austin hotter and drier than ever. Journalist Alex Hannaford, who lived in Austin for nearly two decades, talks to me aboutthis transformation and his eventual departure from a city that has changed beyond recognition. He writes about it in his new book “Lost in Austin.”

While women have yet to shatter the ultimate glass ceiling of the White House, they've been steadily scaling the towering heights of Wall Street since the 1960s. The author of the groundbreaking book "She Wolves: The Untold History of Women on Wall Street," historian Paulina Bren talks to me about how these trailblazers navigated the male-dominated world of finance. From Muriel Siebert becoming the first woman to own a NYSE seat in 1967 to the waves of female graduates entering finance in the 1980s, women transformed the financial sector despite facing persistent discrimination. Bren explains how these pioneering women rose from secretarial pools to trading floors and executive suites, reshaping one of America's most powerful industries.

What happened to women voters as Harris drew fewer of them than Biden in 2020? Even in pro-choice strongholds, economic concerns trumped reproductive rights.

To examine this I’m was joined the morning after the election on this WhoWhatWhy podcast by Amanda Becker, a 2023 Nieman Fellow and Washington correspondent for The 19th. She is the author of the book You Must Stand Up: The Fight for Abortion Rights in Post-Dobbs America.

She expalins that the great female firewall against Trump’s return never materialized. In fact, it crumbled. 

Vice President Kamala Harris actually performed worse than Joe Biden did in 2020, capturing just 54 percent of women’s votes compared to his 57 percent. 

Even more stunning: In states like Ohio and Kentucky, where women had recently mobilized to protect reproductive rights, the expected momentum vanished. What happened? 

The answer challenges everything we thought we knew about women voters in post-Roe America. 

Journalist and presidential historian Jonathan Alter's new book 'American Reckoning: Inside Trump's Trial—and My Own' offers unique insights from inside the Manhattan courtroom where he sat just 25 feet from Donald Trump. While the political landscape has shifted dramatically since those summer days, Alter finds hope in the long view of history. Drawing on his experience covering nine presidents, the former Newsweek senior editor and NBC News analyst reminds us how other nations have successfully fought to restore their democracies. His deeply personal meditation on democratic accountability becomes a call to arms, arguing that American democracy, while challenged, has the resilience to prevail.

On a recent California Sun podcast I spoke with Sasha Abramsky, author of the new book “Chaos Comes Calling.” Abramsky talks to me about how America’s deep polarization has cascaded from national politics down to local levels of governance. Abramsky reveals that even in small rural communities, once-mundane local issues like library policies, road repairs, and child care have become ideological battlegrounds. Abramsky illuminates how the pandemic, social media echo chambers, and talk radio amplified partisan voices, transforming school boards and city councils into microcosms of the broader red-blue divide. 

"Vigilantism” - it's a word that conjures images of lynch mobs and frontier justice. But today, both would be Presidents and state governments are not just turning a blind eye to vigilantes, they're actively encouraging them.

From Virginia's tip line for parents to snitch on teachers, to Texas unleashing bounty hunters against abortion providers, to Florida encouraging drivers to run over protesters - vigilantism is becoming the new normal in American politics.

My guest, Jon Michaels, argues in 'Vigilante Nation' that this represents a concerted effort by right-wing politicians, pundits, and preachers to subvert democracy and cement their hold on power. The pattern they expose should concern us all."

On this California Sun podcast I talk with Los Angeles Times columnist Gustavo Arellano who dismantles the myth of a monolithic “Latino vote.” After 3,000 miles across the Southwest, Arellano finds Latino communities laser-focused on local issues & identity, not national politics The real power? It's in city halls, not DC.

This is January 6 as you’ve never seen it before. 

My guest on my latestWhoWhatWhy podcast is filmmaker Jon Long. Long has just completed Fight Like Hell, a documentary that offers a provocative, unfiltered, never before seen look at the day’s shocking events, and the Stop the Steal movement’s evolution.

Long explains that what you will witness in this documentary may shock you, move you. You may have thought the talk of January 6 was old news, that the candidates and the country had moved on, but not so fast. What happened still matters a lot.

https://youtu.be/ZC-Wo9nJ3O4?si=DXoOaixFGafV34d0