The DSR Network

This week, Dr. Anthony Fauci’s new book comes out, and it contains a disturbing chapter about Donald Trump’s ignorance, explosive rage and megalomania during the coronavirus pandemic. We think this should be covered as a loud, clanging alarm bell about the dangers of a second Trump term. So we talked to New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, who has written a series of columns on voter amnesia about Trump’s 2020 performance, about the horrors unleashed on the country by his unfitness for the presidency—and why recent events suggest he’s gotten much worse. 

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Original Air Date: July 3, 2023

On this week's episode of the DSR, co-host Marc Polymeropoulos is joined by guest James Lawler, a former CIA operations officer for 25 years and former member of the CIA's Senior Intelligence Service where he specialized in the recruitment of foreign spies. Don’t miss their discussion on the Iranian nuclear program and the qualities that make an effective CIA recruiter.

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Original Air Date: June 22, 2023

Few people have offered the kind of insight into Donald Trump than has his niece, psychologist Mary Trump. On this special episode of DSR, we speak to Mary about how she thinks the former president is responding to the legal walls closing in on him, how he would react were he sentenced to prison and how his very first years growing up in Queens may have scarred him and put the country at risk. Don't miss this fascinating, wide-ranging conversation.

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Much of our discussions about nuclear weapons focus on Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project, or the Cold War. But what does the current nuclear age really look like? Sarah Scoles joins Heather Williams to discuss her book “Countdown” and share first hand reporting on the scientists who work within the nuclear apparatus of the United States.

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AI affects us all, for better or for worse. But AI has long been used to harass and exploit women in particular. Disinformation expert Nina Jankowicz joins David Rothkopf to share how and why AI has an adversarial relationship with gender and women, and how officials can be doing more to protect us from its malign uses. 

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On the DSR daily for June 14, we discuss the latest news from the G7 summit, Putin’s laughable ceasefire demands, the arrival of a US submarine in Cuba, and more. 

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New reports are emerging about Donald Trump’s tightening grip on the GOP, and the upshot is this: It’s crazier and more dangerous than you thought. First we learned that Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson privately schemed over how to sabotage ongoing prosecutions of Trump. Then Trump met with Republicans and reportedly unleashed numerous strange rants, calling the Justice Department “dirty no good bastards” and spinning out a wild tale about Nancy Pelosi’s daughter. We talked with A.B. Stoddard, a columnist at The Bulwark and shrewd observer of GOP politics, and she trenchantly explained why this moment is very much not a drill. 

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It’s go time for the Biden campaign. With only five months to go until Election Day, polls suggest that Biden and Trump are neck and neck. Tara McGowan and Simon Rosenberg join David Rothkopf to share what the Democrats need to do to secure victory in November, and why this month is critical for the future of the race.

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On the DSR daily for Thursday, we cover the US and Ukraine’s expected security agreement, attempts to overturn President Biden’s asylum restrictions, President Miley’s radical overhauls in Argentina, and more. 

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An influential group called the True Texas Project is hosting a conference in July that will actively promote Christian Nationalism and the racist great replacement theory, the Texas Tribune reports. The group, which subscribes to the idea of a “war on white America,” has ties to many Texas GOP officials, the report says, including Senator Ted Cruz and Attorney General Ken Paxton, a major supporter of Donald Trump. We talked to Sarah Posner, author of several books on the religious right, who sheds much-needed light on this ugly tangle far right ideologies—and how they’re being mainstreamed at the highest levels of Republican power. 

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