The scandal around Jeffrey Epstein, who trafficked and abused children and died in a prison cell

in 2019, has never gone away. It continues to explode now that House Democrats have

released thousands of emails from Epstein and his cronies. But while the political class and

mainstream media are understandably focused on the sex scandal, another dimension of the

scandal goes uncovered except by independent media outlets such as Drop Site: Epstein’s deep

ties to the national security state. I talked to international relations scholar Van Jackson about

this crucial part of the story.

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Much has been written about how the Israel/Palestine conflict is dividing the left, but the

same is true of the right. Tucker Carlson’s interview with the antisemitic critic of Israel Nick

Fuentes has created an intense debate on the right about anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism,

currently playing itself out in turmoil at the Heritage Foundation. I spoke with the historian

David Austin Walsh, whose book Taking America Back: The Conservative Movement and the Far

Right provides a crucial background for this story.

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Donald Trump claims he wants to be the peace president and has even lobbied for a Nobel

Peace Prize. But his foreign policy has been wildly contradictory. While the United States is

clearly retrenching from many parts of the world, violence against hemispheric neighbors is

increasing. I talked to Trita Parsi, co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy

Institute for Responsible Statecraft, for a wide-ranging discussion on why American hegemony

is declining but also why the push for retrenchment hasn’t gone far enough.

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On Friday, the self-styled “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth announced the US was sending an aircraft carrier to bolster its attacks on Venezuelan boats (which the Trump administration alleges, without evidence, are trafficking drugs). I spoke to international relations scholar Van Jackson (whose work can be found here) about the motives for this new war as well as the muted opposition to it from Democrats.

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The fragile ceasefire negotiated between Israel and Hamas hasn’t ended the violence, but it has

for now lessened it. But even if the ceasefire holds, the need for a political solution to

Palestinian dispossession remains. To discuss the issue of accountability, I spoke to Yousef

Munayyer, who is the head of the Palestine/Israel Program and Senior Fellow at Arab Center

Washington DC. We talked about how the shocking events of the last two years have shifted

global public opinion, including in the United States. Both parties are heading towards a long-

delayed debate about the value of the US/Israel relation.

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Few movies have ever been as timely as Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film One Battle After

Another, which traces the battle between revolutionary resistance groups trying to protect

immigrants and an authoritarian government run by racists. There are scenes from the movie

that feel like they are being played out right now on the streets of Chicago, Los Angeles and

Portland. Although it presents a stylized version of reality, the film raises important questions

about different strategies of resistance. David Klion, a frequent guest, wrote about the movie

for The New Republic. David and I talked about the film, its roots in actual history but also

variance with that history as well as its relationship with the Thomas Pynchon novel Vineland.

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Donald Trump has plunged the nation into another government shutdown. I spoke with my

Nation colleague Chris Lehmann about the larger political stakes. We take up Trump’s shifting

rhetoric, which has started with false and racist claims about undocumented immigrants

receiving benefits and now seems to be about gloating over austerity. We also take up the

Democratic party response, and the way the base of the party has forced the leadership to take

a stronger stance. Chris’ article on the shutdown can be found here.

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The United States continues to be roiled by political violence, with the recent shooting at an ICE

facility in Dallas coming hot on the heels of the assassination of Charlie Kirk and a school

shooting in Colorado committed by a neo-Nazi. Some of the best reporting on these events has

been done by Ken Klippenstein for his Substack. I spoke with Ken about what he’s discovered

when he interviewed those who knew the alleged shooters, how his findings go against the

simplistic partisan interpretations offered by both the left and right, as well as the dangerous

ways the Trump administration is using the shootings for a crackdown on civil liberties.

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Bari Weiss, founder and editor of The Free Press, has often been profiled in the media, but usually in a superficial way that focuses on her personality and disputes with fellow journalists. She is currently on the cusp of great power, reportedly working on a deal to sell The Free Press and take a senior position at CBS.

David Klion, Nation columnist and frequent guest on the podcast, has written an exceptionally trenchant analysis for The Guardian of Weiss’s politics and the way they align with the Trump administration’s war on critical voices. I was pleased to talk to David about Weiss’s career and how she has used her influence as an ideological enforcer, one that has the support of many wealthy patrons and powerful political allies.

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Matt Duss, vice-president of the Center for International Policy, wrote an excellent review for The Nation of Bob Woodward’s book War, which is a celebration of Joe Biden as a foreign policy sage. Duss is rightly skeptical of the book. We discuss Biden’s actual record on Ukraine and

especially Gaza. Matt’s essay on this topic for Foreign Policy is also worth reading.

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