Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

By Chris Hayes, MSNBC & NBCNews THINK

Society & Culture

What's Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast about?

Every week Chris Hayes asks the big questions that keep him up at night. How do we make sense of this unprecedented moment in world history? Why is this (all) happening?

This podcast starts to answer these questions. Writers, experts, and thinkers who are also trying to get to the bottom of them join Chris to break it all down and help him get a better night’s rest. “Why is this Happening?” is presented by MSNBC and NBCNews Think.

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Unpacking Title 42 with Tho...

05.17.2022

Title 42, a decades old and rarely used public health order used to bar people with medical conditions from entering the country, revived by the Trump administration, enables immigration authorities to swiftly expel migrants to Mexico or their home countries. ...

Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast episodes:

05.17.2022 Unpacking Title 42 with Thomas Saenz Title 42, a decades old and rarely used public health order used to bar people with medical conditions from entering the country, revived by the Trump administration, enables immigration authorities to swiftly expel migrants to Mexico or their home countries. ...
05.10.2022 ‘Allow Me to Retort’ with Elie Mystal “Forced labor is already unconstitutional and what is forced birth other than forcing a woman to labor against her will?” remarked Elie Mystal, a justice correspondent at The Nation, following the leak of a Supreme Court draft opinion that would ...
05.03.2022 ‘A Year of Healing and Heartbreak’ with Thomas Fisher Recovery from trauma and its emanations is a defining theme of this moment. Dr. Thomas Fisher has certainly seen his share of the effects of mass disruption as an emergency medical physician. He typically has about three minutes to spend ...
04.26.2022 Telling the Climate Story with Adam McKay and Omar El Akkad (2019) Since Chris was on vacation last week, we’re revisiting one of our favorite WITHpod episodes. The conversation is also timely given the recent U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, which cites that time is running out to reverse ...
04.19.2022 ‘Love Thy Neighbor’ with Collier Meyerson The Crown Heights Riot took place thirty years ago following a car accident that killed a Black child in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights. Over the course of four days, rioters, whose slogan was “no justice, no peace,” pointed ...
04.18.2022 Introducing Tiffany Dover Is Dead* As a bonus for Why Is This Happening? listeners, we’re sharing a special preview of Truthers: Tiffany Dover Is Dead*, a new original podcast from NBC News about misinformation and conspiracy theories. Listen to the first two episodes and follow ...
04.12.2022 What It's Like to Be Great at Something with Dirk Nowitzki Seven-foot-tall Dirk Nowitzki is one of the greatest NBA players in history. Throughout his illustrious and landmark career, he’s redefined the sport through his signature moves, unique mindset and approach. His extraordinary story is the subject of a book published ...
04.05.2022 The True Origins of Putin’s War with Timothy Snyder This week, we’re bringing you a vital history lesson that might not have made it into your high school textbooks. With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in its second month, Yale historian Timothy Snyder joins to share much-needed context that often ...
03.29.2022 The Future of Energy with Jonah Goldman Time is running out to reverse the damage done by climate change, according to a report released by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in February 2022. Preventing further destruction will be the biggest undertaking in the history ...
03.22.2022 The Future of Friendship with Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow BFF connections have transformed rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic. FaceTime calls, Zoom happy hours, voice memos, group chats and virtual game nights, in many cases, have reworked our in-person interactions of the past. What does the future of friendship look ...
03.15.2022 The Future of Innovation with Cathie Wood What will be the next big thing? We've watched generations of technologies heralded only to then flop, while others were slept on and quietly took over the world. As always there are investors betting big on those innovations that hold ...
03.08.2022 The Future of Entertainment with Seth Meyers The ways we consume media have changed tremendously over the last decade. Shows with live audiences, perhaps more than any other type of program, had to pivot virtually almost overnight when the pandemic started. That certainly was the case with ...
03.08.2022 Introducing the inaugural #WITHpod "Future of" miniseries So what comes next? We've just gone through a once-in-a-century pandemic that disrupted nearly every aspect of our lives. We're in the beginning of an energy transition unlike anything the industrialized world has ever attempted. And it can be very ...
03.01.2022 ‘White Space, Black Hood’ with Sheryll Cashin Residential segregation and unequal allocation of resources continues to play a profound role in areas of concentrated poverty, and conversely, high opportunity. Georgetown law professor Sheryll Cashin has spent decades studying housing and how geography is central to American inequality. ...
02.22.2022 Treating Trans Youth with Dr. Izzy Lowell (2021) Since Chris is on vacation this week, we’re revisiting and providing an update on our episode with Dr. Izzy Lowell, who runs Queer Med, a private clinic that specializes in providing accessible health care to trans patients ranging from kids ...
02.15.2022 An Indoor Clean Air Act? with Linsey Marr Sweeping public health acts for everything from clean water to the control of cholera have revolutionized modern life as we know it. The Clean Air Act, which sets standards for outdoor air, has been around for decades. But as we ...
02.08.2022 Celebrating 200 #WITHpod Episodes! Join as you help us celebrate our 200th #WITHpod! In our recent Mailbag episode, we asked you all to send over clips sharing why you listen to WITHpod, where you listen and or what’s your favorite ep. We’re so overwhelmed ...
02.08.2022 The State of the Taliban with Anand Gopal Since the U.S. withdrew its final troop from Afghanistan last summer, U.S. coverage of the country has also precipitously declined, even as the country faces a dire humanitarian emergency. So we thought it was time to do a gut check ...
02.03.2022 Presenting Into America: Reconstructed This month, MSNBC’s Into America podcast is celebrating Black history through a special series called ‘Reconstructed’: a deep dive into the Reconstruction era and how its legacy continues to shape us today. Part one, ‘Birth of a Black Nation,’ tells ...
02.01.2022 ‘Gangsters of Capitalism’ with Jonathan Katz Smedley Butler was one of the most decorated warfighters in history. From an early age, “The Fighting Quaker” played a pivotal role in America’s path to global power. Yet in retirement, Butler turned into a warrior against war, imperialism and ...
01.25.2022 The #WITHpod Mailbag Time for our mailbag! Join as Chris and producers Tiffany Champion and Doni Holloway answer your questions and talk about what’s new on the pod. Chris also discusses which interview in 2021 stuck with him the most. And we share ...
01.18.2022 #WITHpod & Strict Scrutiny Crossover Late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg once said, “it’s hard not to have a big year at the Supreme Court.” With that in mind, we thought it would be good to do a gut check as 2022 promises to be one ...
01.11.2022 The Unthinkable with Jamie Raskin Congressman Jamie Raskin’s life was forever changed on Dec. 31, 2020 when his 25-year-old son Tommy died by suicide. Raskin writes about the loss of his beloved middle child in “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy,” a ...
01.11.2022 The Unthinkable with Jamie Raskin Congressman Jamie Raskin’s life was forever changed on Dec. 31, 2020 when his 25-year-old son Tommy died by suicide. Raskin writes about the loss of his beloved middle child in “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy,” a ...
01.04.2022 Democracy on a Knife’s Edge with Bart Gellman & Sherrilyn Ifill It’s a special edition of our podcast: our first crossover episode with All In with Chris Hayes, which airs at 8pm weekdays on MSNBC. We’re sharing two full conversations, portions of which aired on All In, with two people at ...
12.28.2021 Ask a Swole Woman with Casey Johnston Fitness guru, writer and self-described “Swole Woman” Casey Johnston has written, “a lot of health content is focused on blowing smoke up you’re a** about jade eggs and vitamins and toxin-dispersing cellulite-curing silver-thread leggings.” But why? What makes lifting and ...
12.21.2021 NFTs: WTF? with Kevin Roose Non Fungible Tokens, known as NFTs, are the hottest craze in the cryptocurrency world. But what are they? With a multibillion-dollar market cap, why do people pay hundreds of thousands of dollars, and in some cases, millions for digitally stored ...
12.14.2021 Statistically True with Kareem Carr Statistics plays a role in virtually every facet of our lives. And throughout the pandemic, we’ve heard more stats than ever before, whether through headlines about Covid infection rates or vaccine effectiveness. But how are these figures calculated? How do ...
12.07.2021 Not Too Old for TikTok with Hank Green Hank Green has been on the leading edge of online content creation for more than a decade. He and his brother John created VidCon, the world’s largest video conference and have steadily built a wildly popular online community. You may ...
12.06.2021 Chris Hayes previews a new MSNBC podcast In this special preview, Chris tells you why you can’t miss MSNBC’s newest podcast, “American Radical.” In this five-part original series, host Ayman Mohyeldin explores the story of Rosanne Boyland, a woman from his own hometown who became a foot ...
11.30.2021 Bringing News Inside Prisons with Lawrence Bartley Lawrence Bartley was just 17-years-old when he was charged and sentenced to 27 years to life following a movie theater shoot-out. Gunfire erupted after the group that he was with exchanged insults with another crew of moviegoers. According to the ...
11.23.2021 The Art of Filmmaking with Alex Gibney Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney has more than 100 credits as a producer, director and writer. Throughout his storied career, he’s been the driving force behind titles like “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” and “Dirty Money,” a Netflix docuseries ...
11.16.2021 From Refugee to Congresswoman with Ilhan Omar Representative Ilhan Omar was just eight years old when her life turned upside down. After an armed compound attack, her family fled Mogadishu, and ultimately ended up in a refugee camp in Kenya. It was there that she experienced the ...
11.09.2021 ‘The Loneliest Americans’ with Jay Caspian Kang The Hart-Celler Immigration Act of 1965 lifted a century of restrictions against Asian immigration to the United States. And while not necessarily appreciated at the time, it inaugurated a sea change in American society, setting the nation on the course ...
11.02.2021 Climate, Weather and Trust with Al Roker TV weathermen often show up as among the most trusted members of the media and almost no one on earth is as good at it or as well-known as Al Roker. Born to a working-class family in Queens, Roker found ...
11.01.2021 Introducing: Cooking Up a Storm with Al Roker As a bonus for you, TODAY’s Al Roker is sharing a special preview of his brand-new original podcast, Cooking Up a Storm with Al Roker. Join Al as he whips up a complete Thanksgiving feast with some of the very ...
10.26.2021 The Race to Become Socialist Mayor of Buffalo with India Walton 39-year-old India Walton found herself thrust into the national spotlight when she defeated four-term incumbent Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown in the June primary. It was an unusual win: Walton had never held elected office, and Brown isn’t letting go of ...
10.19.2021 ‘The Invisible Child’ with Andrea Elliott Life has been anything but easy for 20-year-old Dasani Coates. Named after the bottled water that signaled Brooklyn’s gentrification, her story has been featured in five front pages of the New York Times. Together with her siblings, Dasani has had ...
10.12.2021 Inside China's High-Tech Penal Colony with Darren Byler Since 2017, a high-tech form of colonization has been rapidly growing in Xinjiang, China. As many as 1.5 million Muslim Uyghurs have vanished into high-security camps and factories. The Chinese regime describes these sites as “vocational education and training centers” ...
10.05.2021 Who was Marquis de Lafayette? with Mike Duncan Time for a fun one, America's favorite fighting Frenchman. You may have seen streets, parks, and subway stations that include the name Lafayette, but may not know much about the man other than the show-stopping performance of Daveed Diggs, who ...
09.28.2021 ‘Dirty Work’ with Eyal Press Note: Some listeners may find the sensitive content discussed in this episode disturbing. Who is complicit in some of society’s dirtiest work? If you grill a steak, someone somewhere had to butcher the cow under brutal working conditions. Our twenty ...
09.21.2021 The Ten Year War with Jonathan Cohn In “The Ten Year War: Obamacare and the Unfinished Crusade for Universal Coverage,” journalist Jonathan Cohn writes about the battle over healthcare and takes readers into the impetus for, history of, and current state of the Affordable Care Act. He ...
09.14.2021 The Electric Vehicle Revolution with Dana Hull In President Biden's vision of a greener future, half of all new cars sold in 2030 will be electric. As fossil fuel usage continues to take a toll on the environment, the need for cleaner transportation is more important now ...
09.07.2021 Reforming Sexual Justice with Alexandra Brodsky Civil rights attorney and author Alexandra Brodsky has spent her entire career focusing closely on ways institutions can best address sexual harms. Her work is the subject of “Sexual Justice: Supporting Victims, Ensuring Due Process, and Resisting the Conservative Backlash,” ...
08.31.2021 The War on Terror with Spencer Ackerman Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Spencer Ackerman joins to discuss catalysts for the War on Terror, inflection points, recent developments in Kabul, and the role of U.S. hegemony in continued global combat. Ackerman also talks about his new book, “Reign of Terror: ...
08.30.2021 Introducing: Southlake As a bonus for Why Is This Happening? listeners, we’re sharing a special preview of “Southlake,” a new, six-part original podcast series from NBC News that takes listeners inside a Texas suburb’s war over race and education. Follow or subscribe ...
08.24.2021 Performance in a Pandemic with Ani DiFranco Grammy award-winning musician Ani DiFranco joins for an enlightening conversation about her creative process, how she’s pivoted during the pandemic, and what’s enabled her to keep making music after so many years.
08.17.2021 Withdrawing from Afghanistan and the Impact of Global Corruption with Sarah Chayes Note: This conversation was recorded on July 27th, 2021, before the latest news in Kabul. Recognized around the globe for her research on corruption, Sarah Chayes has seen her fair share of corruption at play. She also had frontline experience ...
08.10.2021 "Here, Right Matters" with Retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman Retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman has seen (and heard) a great deal in his experiences in public service. He became a household name as a key witness in Donald Trump’s impeachment hearings in 2019. His memoir out August 2021, ...
08.03.2021 The Summer #WITHpod Mailbag Producer Tiffany Champion is back with a post-quarantine vibe check on the WITHpod inbox! In this backstage glimpse of the podcast, hear how Chris Hayes prepares for interviews, which recent episode got the biggest response from listeners, and find out ...

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