The Chauncey DeVega Show

Dr. Bandy Lee is a forensic and social psychiatrist and a world expert on violence who taught at Yale Law School from 2003 to 2020 while serving on the faculty of Yale School of Medicine. She subsequently joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School, where she remained until 2024.

She is the editor of the landmark book The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President.

Dr. Lee warns that the Age of Trump is much more than a democracy crisis. It is a society-wide mental health crisis.

What she calls "Trump Contagion Syndrome"— the way a leader's apparent pathologies and antisocial behaviors, including violence, trickle down to his MAGA followers and then spread to the general public — is getting much worse.

The midterms will not be a magical cure-all. If Democrats somehow win, the coming weeks and months could be among the most dangerous in American history, as Trump and his forces rage and retaliate.

Trump's maddening spiral has accelerated. Over the course of single week or so, he voiced support for a public execution, shared videos on social media of people being mauled by tigers and other wild animals, incited violence against Somali immigrants and refugees, and led MAGA cult rallies where at least one person was assaulted.

At the end of this episode, Dr. Lee and I reconvene to discuss these deeply troubling events.

WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME?

***My essays and other writing can now be read at my new Substack site Indomitable. This is my new project and your subscribing, sharing, and other support is greatly appreciated.***

https://chaunceydevega.substack.com/

On Twitter:

https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega

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Gil Duran is a former advisor to Jerry Brown, Dianne Feinstein, and Kamala Harris.

He is now an independent journalist and the publisher of two newsletters: The Nerd Reich, focused on extremist tech politics, and FrameLab, which explores political language.

His new book, the New York Times bestseller The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy, delivers a stark warning about the rise of technofascism.

Duran warns that a supremely powerful class of tech elites poses an existential threat to American and global democracy — and humanity's future. He argues that these elites are trying to become Gods, immortal beings, who are trying to extract every available resource from the human race and the planet to fulfill their ambitions.

Even more troubling, Duran argues, these elites and their allies truly see themselves as champions of the common good and humanity's survival.

All is not lost. Duran believes the technofascists and their plans can be stopped if the public recognizes the extreme danger and responsible leaders take bold action to defend human dignity, democracy, and freedom.

Also in this episode, Chauncey DeVega reflects on the end of his long tenure as a senior politics writer at Salon, and previews what comes next.

Dave Zirin is the sports editor for The Nation, a columnist for The Progressive, and the author of eight books on the politics of sports, including What's My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States and A People's History of Sports in the United States.

His new book, The People's Historian: The Outsized Life of Howard Zinn, tells the story of his friend and mentor — the working-poor kid from a Jewish family in New York who served in the US Army Air Force in World War II and had a crisis of conscience about killing civilians.

After the war, Howard Zinn earned his PhD in history at Columbia, then went on to teach at Spelman College, where he helped mentor a generation of Black American civil rights activists and future political and cultural leaders.

Zirin reflects on what it was like to know Zinn not as a public figure but as a dear friend — and the lessons he taught him about living a full life, generosity, and the many forms that teaching can take.

WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME?

On Twitter:

https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega

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HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE CHAUNCEY DEVEGA SHOW?

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This is a special joint episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show and The Truth Report.

Steve Cash is Executive Director of The Steady State, a nonprofit advocacy organization whose members are former senior national security officials.

He previously served as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Intelligence & Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security and as Chief of Staff to the Director of Intelligence at the Department of Energy.

Cash was deeply involved in drafting much of the legislation that followed the 9/11 attacks, including the USA PATRIOT Act, the Department of Homeland Security Act, and the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, which created the position of Director of National Intelligence. He also served as an intelligence officer with the CIA.

Cash analyzes Trump's recent "election security" speech to the nation and how its allegation that hostile foreign actors stole the 2020 presidential election for Democrats, and other false claims fit into the Big Lie strategy to rig upcoming elections and undermine American democracy.

Steve Cash also offers advice about courage and personal responsibility to pro-democracy Americans and others who have already been — or may soon be — targeted by the Trump administration and placed on enemies lists because they have protested or exercised other constitutionally protected rights, including freedom of speech.

Greg Palast is an investigative reporter whose work has been featured by The Guardian, BBC Television, and Rolling Stone.

His books include the New York Times bestsellers The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Billionaires & Ballot Bandits. His latest documentary is Vigilantes INC.: America's New Vote Suppression Hitmen.

Greg Palast warns that Donald Trump's recent speech on election "security" and "fraud" was not funny, something to be mocked, or ineffective because it mangled the facts.

Palast lays out what he calls a proven, decades-old playbook: voter nullification and voter purges, deployed to surgically target Black, Hispanic, women, and other voters who are key parts of the Democratic Party's base.

And Palast loudly sounds the alarm that if Trump and the Republican Party's corrupt SAVE Act passes Congress — or its key elements are implemented via executive order and a MAGAfied Supreme Court — it will be almost impossible for Democrats to win future elections.

WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME?

On Twitter:

https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega

On Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega

My email:

[email protected]

HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE CHAUNCEY DEVEGA SHOW?

Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com:

Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/thechaunceydevegashow

https://www.patreon.com/TheTruthReportPodcast

This is a special joint episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show and The Truth Report.

Steve Cash is Executive Director of The Steady State, a non-profit advocacy organization whose members are former senior national security officials.

He previously served as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Intelligence & Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security, and as Chief of Staff to the Director of Intelligence at the Department of Energy.

Cash was deeply involved in drafting much of the legislation that followed the 9/11 attacks, including the USA-Patriot Act, the Department of Homeland Security Act, and the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (which created the position of Director of National Intelligence).

Steve Cash also served as an intelligence officer with the CIA.

On this July 4th — the 250th anniversary of American independence — Cash reflects on a shared sense of mourning and sadness over the state of the country's democracy.

He talks about what patriotism and civic virtue mean to him and his peers, and makes the case that every American will need to weigh how much sacrifice and commitment they're willing to bear to help the country survive the Age of Trump and authoritarianism.

For those feeling tired or wavering, Cash offers a gut check: America is in a genuinely bad place right now, but if we rise to meet the moment, we can become the next Greatest Generation, building a much stronger democracy and society from the rubble that can last another 250 years.

Chauncey DeVega continues his July 4th tradition of sharing the wisdom of Frederick Douglass. For this 250th anniversary, he reads from historian David Blight's account of Douglass's clobbering of the slave master Edward Covey, and reflects on what that story means for the Black Freedom Struggle.

WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME?

On Twitter:

https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega

On Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega

My email:

[email protected]

HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE CHAUNCEY DEVEGA SHOW?

Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com:

Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/thechaunceydevegashow

https://www.patreon.com/TheTruthReportPodcast

Nell Irvin Painter is Edwards Professor of American History, Emerita, Princeton University. She also holds degrees in painting from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers and the Rhode Island School of Design.

Painter is the author of many books including Sojourner Truth, A Life, A Symbol; Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over; I Just Keep Talking: A Life in Essays; and the New York Times bestseller The History of White People.

She reflects on the origins of A History of White People and her career exploring how race is manufactured and lived along the color line.

She also cautions that the race concept structures societies, but that we should always avoid the temptations of race essentialism.

Painter counsels that we need to balance hope and pessimism. The Age of Trump is a calamity but this dark time will not last forever. We need to think nationally but work locally to create immediate change in our communities.

And Nell Irvin Painter offers some hard-earned advice about being creative for a living, and balancing our personal and familial obligations and material realities such as paying the bills.

*This conversation took place in 2024. Given Juneteenth and Trump's escalating assaults on multiracial democracy and the Black Freedom Struggle, I decided that now was the right time to share it with all of you.

Dr. Michael Valdovinos is a board-certified clinical psychologist and U.S. Air Force veteran. His new book is Moral Injuries: When Good Conscience Suffers in a World of Hurt. His writing has appeared in The Guardian and Time Magazine.

Valdovinos argues that the Age of Trump has inflicted a collective moral injury on millions of Americans — the psychological wound that comes from witnessing or being powerless to stop something that violates your deepest sense of right and wrong. He warns that a reckoning will soon be upon us all. Our collective exhaustion, confusion, and dread are normal responses to a profoundly abnormal social and political environment.

Drawing on hard-earned experience as an instructor in the military's SERE program (survival, evasion, resistance, and escape) and work with the special operations community, Valdovinos offers wisdom many of us desperately need right now: Keep moving. Do not betray your values. Surrender is not an option.

Chauncey DeVega reconvenes the secular church family, "marks out" over WrestleMania 42, and honors some of his favorite actors who have recently left this dimension of space and time and transitioned to the next Patrick Muldoon, Valerie Perrine, Matt DeCaro, and TV legend Sid Krofft.

Knowing is half the battle. He explains how authoritarians use "hypernormalization" to disorient the public, drain their emotions, and ultimately create a state of learned helplessness among a targeted population.

And Chauncey reflects on the failed assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents' dinner, the dangerous allure of conspiracism, and how too many people are lost in the surreal in this increasingly sick society.

WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME?

On Twitter:

https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega

On Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega

My email:

[email protected]

HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE CHAUNCEY DEVEGA SHOW?

Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com:

Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/thechaunceydevegashow

https://www.patreon.com/TheTruthReportPodcast

Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush is President and CEO of Interfaith Alliance, an ordained Baptist minister, and a leading voice on religion, civil rights, and religious freedom. He is a frequent commentator on CNN, NPR, The New York Times, and the BBC.

What does it mean to be a person of faith in the Age of Trump? Rev. Raushenbush argues we must speak boldly and directly and with great moral clarity about evil, neofascism, and the idolatry of Christian Nationalism.

He shares what he witnessed on the ground in the Battle for Minneapolis, where everyday people showed extraordinary moral courage defending their neighbors against mass deportation. He reflects on the exhaustion so many of us feel — and how to keep going anyway.

Rev. Raushenbush shares what he would tell ICE and other immigration agents if they came to him for spiritual and moral guidance.

WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME?

On Twitter:

https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega

On Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega

My email:

[email protected]

HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE CHAUNCEY DEVEGA SHOW?

Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com:

Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/thechaunceydevegashow

Fatima Bhutto is an acclaimed journalist and novelist.

She is the author of the novels The Runaways and The Shadow of the Crescent Moon. Her nonfiction works include New Kings of the World and Songs of Blood and Sword.

Fatima Bhutto's new book is The Hour of the Wolf: A Memoir.

Her essays and other work have been featured in New Statesman, The Daily Beast, The Guardian, and The Nation.

Fatima's life has been shaped by political violence. She is the granddaughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the Pakistani prime minister arrested and executed in the 1970s. She is the niece of Benazir Bhutto, twice prime minister of Pakistan before being assassinated in 2007. Her father, Murtaza Bhutto, was killed when Fatima was just 14 years old.

Fatima counsels that yes, this dystopic world is profoundly broken — but we need to find solace, community and strength from one another to make it a better place. She warns that ignoring injustice and evil only provides the illusion of temporary safety and that we must confront such dark forces even if it is terrifying and comes at a great cost.

Fatima reflects on the ethics of bringing new life into such a broken world and the importance of healthy relationships, love, and community.

Chauncey does some public thinking about why everything feels so much harder right now. The Age of Trump. The war and destruction in the Middle East. The Orwellian assault on reality and truth. And why we have no choice but to endure and soldier on.

He ponders whether we are lost and spinning in the Twilight Zone and draws on Rod Serling's wisdom to find his way out. And he shares Fintan O'Toole's essential new essay on Donald Trump as the Mad King and his war against Iran.

WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME?

On Twitter:

https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega

On Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega

My email:

[email protected]

HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE CHAUNCEY DEVEGA SHOW?

Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com:

Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/thechaunceydevegashow

https://www.patreon.com/TheTruthReportPodcast