Thinking about...

We have an unusually interesting Democratic ticket in Ohio in he gubernatorial elections — and they could very well win. I spoke back in November to the amazing Dr. Amy Acton, who is running for governor. Joining her on the ticket is David Pepper, whom I know mainly as the author of fine books of political analysis and strategy. If you want a break from war news, and want to consider something very good that good happen this fall, please tune in to this conversation, which was live a couple of weeks ago, but which is still very much on my mind today. Thank you Jason Stanley, Brian Page CFT™ AFC® Fair Play, Carol Johnston, Michael Scarmack, Kathleen Moss, and many others for tuning into my live video with David Pepper! Please subscribe and please share.

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Professor Janice Stein is a leading authority on negotiation and war as well as a regional specialist on the Middle East. Our conversation covers the origins of the Iran war, its meaning for the region and the world, and its possible trajectories. Throughout Professor Stein offers her characteristic wit and sharpness. I recommend that you have a listen.

Thank you Michael Barclay, Mona Mona, Another Essay, Mangrove Valley, Shulamit Elson, and many others for tuning into my live video with Janice Stein! Join me for my next live video in the app.

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Earlier this week, I sat down with historian and author of “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present” Ruth Ben-Ghiat for a conversation about the war in Iran, how history can inform us about our moment, and what we can all do. We also discussed how ritual humiliation functions as a political tool, why this war is unlikely to produce the rally-around-the-flag effect Trump may have hoped for, and what it will actually take — from elites, from citizens, from all of us — to turn this moment into a political turning point.

As Ruth and I agreed on, disasters don’t become turning points on their own. They need people willing to name what’s happening, hold the line on institutions, and act — nonviolently, persistently — in the name of something better. The conversation is available in full above.

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This post contains my conversation with military historian Phillips O’Brien about the U.S. strikes on Iran. Phillips walked us through what air power can and can’t do — it can devastate a regime, but it can’t replace one, and what we’ve likely unleashed is a chaotic internal struggle with no clear plan for what comes next.

The deeper question is why this is really happening. The answer, we agreed, has less to do with Iran than with Trump’s domestic troubles, his financial entanglements with the Gulf states who stand to benefit most, and his eye on the 2026 midterms. Whatever happens on the ground in Iran, we shouldn’t let the fog of war stop us from asking those questions clearly.

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I spoke with Paul Krugman about Ukraine, economics, and the political moment we are living through in the United States. We discussed the dangers to democracy that come from within, especially in an age of oligarchy and extreme inequality, and we talked about what the war in Ukraine reveals about civil society and reconstruction.

We ended with a simple point: democracy depends on citizens who participate, not spectators who wait.

I hope you’ll watch and enjoy our discussion.

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This afternoon, I had the pleasure of a long and wide-ranging conversation with Ava DuVernay—a producer and director whose work has consistently helped Americans see themselves and their history more clearly.

We spoke about many things: where we are as a country, what history can still teach us, and what democratic coalitions have looked like when they have succeeded—and when they have failed. But we also spoke about the present moment, which has a way of intruding on even the most reflective conversations.

In particular, we discussed the arrest of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort while they were doing their jobs—documenting events of public importance. These arrests are not isolated incidents. They are signals. And history teaches us that when journalists, especially African American journalists, are treated as criminals for observing power, democracy itself is being tested.

Ava and I talked about responsibility. History does not move on its own. It moves when people decide to act within it. The First Amendment does not enforce itself. It survives because citizens insist that it matters—not only when their own speech is threatened, but when someone else’s is.

Today is a good day to talk about the First Amendment. Not abstractly, and not nostalgically, but concretely. Who is being prevented from speaking? Who is being punished for witnessing? Who benefits when journalists are made afraid?

It is also a good day to celebrate journalists. Not because they are perfect—they are not—but because their work makes self-government possible. Journalism is how power becomes visible. It is how facts enter public life. It is how a society argues with itself without tearing itself apart.

Ava reminded me, in her own way, that storytelling is a form of civic care. Journalists practice that care every day, often at personal risk. When we defend them, we are not taking sides in a culture war. We are taking sides with democracy.

So I encourage you to talk about the First Amendment today. Talk about it with friends, students, colleagues. Ask what it requires of us now—not in theory, but in practice. And take a moment to thank a journalist.

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We talked about a wide range of topics today — from the happenings in Minnesota to what people can do to push back to Ukraine.

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Watch my conversation with Stacey Abrams.

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In this second part of the conversation, we turn to the current state of the Russo-Ukrainian war, and discuss American diplomatic antics as well as European shortcomings. We also juxtapose the current narratives around diplomacy, which are often very misleading, with the state of the battlefield.

Please watch and share!

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I had a wide-ranging conversation with the distinguished historian of war Philipps O’Brien, who has been an important voice on the Russo-Ukrainian war. In part one, we discuss the structural reasons for victory and defeat in war, and assess the first critical year (2022) of Russia’s current full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Please watch and share! Part two coming tomorrow.

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