With Friends Like These

By Crooked Media

Society & Culture

What's With Friends Like These about?

Ana Marie Cox, political columnist and culture critic, sits down with liberals and conservatives, pastors, writers, activists, and other people you should know for an open, funny, in-depth conversation about what divides us - a show about listening instead of arguing.

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Sympathy for the Executioner

03.05.2021

Maurice Chammah, author of the NYT Editor’s Pick “Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty,” joins us to talk about how enforcing the death penalty poisons everyone who is a part of it. Learn ...

With Friends Like These episodes:

03.05.2021 Sympathy for the Executioner Maurice Chammah, author of the NYT Editor’s Pick “Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty,” joins us to talk about how enforcing the death penalty poisons everyone who is a part of it. Learn ...
03.04.2021 Forgiveness & Reconciliation (New Season Trailer) On this season of With Friends Like These, host Ana Marie Cox looks at post-Trump America and tries to find models for how we forgive people, and if we should. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
02.26.2021 These Friends To celebrate With Friends Like These 200th episode, we talk with Rolling Stone senior writer Jamil Smith about how he helped inspire the show, what the pandemic has taught us about grief, and being careful about who you call a ...
02.19.2021 Who Watches the Weight Watchers? CW: Eating disorders, dieting. Aubrey Gordon, of Maintenance Phase and “Your Fat Friend,” joins to take us through the twisty history of Weight Watchers and its founder, Jean Nidtech. Stops on the tour include Heinz ketchup and Maya Angelou! Aubrey’s ...
02.12.2021 The Sheraton Experiment After the National Guard descended on Minneapolis to enforce an 8PM curfew on the streets, advocates for those living on the streets bought a block of rooms at a shuttered Sheraton to house them. The volunteers decided to impose as ...
02.05.2021 The Berkeley Socialist Behind Mass Incarceration (with Heather Ann Thompson) Robert Martinson was a radical anti-racist activist in the 1960s: He ran for mayor in Berkeley as a socialist. He was arrested in Mississippi for participating in Freedom Summer. And then he authored the academic paper that became the political ...
01.29.2021 “Hope Is a Strategy" New York Magazine senior writer and Friend of the Pod Rebecca Traister joins to talk us through how Biden’s missteps around issues of gender and race made him the white guy who could win in 2020. Learn more about your ...
01.22.2021 The Future Reminds You of Your Responsibility The Atlantic's Adam Serwer comes on to talk about the inauguration and the future of this fragile democracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
01.15.2021 Mothers of Invention We love to love mothers, except when we don’t — like when they’re Black, or queer, or too thin, or too fat, or want to end their pregnancy, or do it alone, or have a glass of wine. Friend of ...
01.08.2021 You Can’t Change the World If You Hate Yourself “The only sustainable foundation for a changed world is internal transformation” — that’s the message of Sonya Renee Taylor, author of “The Body Is Not an Apology.” Her mission is to take us out of the realm of mere “body ...
01.01.2021 When Denouncing White Nationalism Isn’t Enough (Encore) Derek Black thought he was done with the white nationalist movement when he wrote a public letter renouncing the ideology he grew up in. Then he realized that white nationalism wasn’t just the racists that used to listen to his ...
12.25.2020 “Scared to Believe” (Encore) Santa isn’t the only myth we use to keep children in line! In the 1990s, evangelical churches bought and gave away thousands of copies of the book, “Left Behind,” hoping its overwrought depiction of the End Times would frighten unbelievers ...
12.18.2020 A Little White Christmas Lie What, exactly, are parents accomplishing when they encourage their children to believe in the idea of an extravagently-dressed stranger breaking and entering into their homes on Christmas Eve? Is Santa a well-meaning myth or the beginning of the end of ...
12.11.2020 Their Libertarians Attract Bears! Welcome to Grafton, New Hampshire, a not-very-picturesque town where the streets are dark, the fires are unregulated, the cats are missing, and the camps are armed. Oh, and there are bears. Smart, dangerous bears. Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling tells us the story ...
12.04.2020 Don’t Accentuate the Positive NYU and University of Hamburg psychology professor Gabriele Oettingen explains why positive thinking can backfire, and offers a method that might work better. She is the author of “Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation." Learn more about ...
11.27.2020 Evangelical Christians’ Lesbian Poster Girl Julie Rodgers was raised in a conservative evangelical home, so she knew they’d be horrified when she came out as a lesbian in her teens. To please her family and community, she first tried to change who she was, then ...
11.20.2020 Suicide Is a Public Health Issue Trigger warning: This episode is about suicide and suicide prevention. While the pandemic has made mental health a part of the national conversation, policy makers and the public still tend to think of suicide as a matter of intervention at ...
11.13.2020 Are We Overstating Abuse? CW: Sexual violence Author Sarah Schulman joins the show to discuss her provocative and influential book, Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair. She argues that both the right and left can needless escalate ...
11.06.2020 IN PRAISE OF MAGICAL THINKING Oxford University professor of anthropology Chris Gosden joins us to discuss his book: A History: From Alchemy to Witchcraft, from the Ice Age to the Present. Also: We make politics disappear! Which is to say, there is NO DISCUSSION OF ...
10.30.2020 Cable News Is Bad for America This week, a deep dive into how political enthusiasts’ default background noise is ruining our country. First, we hear from a former MSNBC producer who left the network after feeling like she was part of the problem. Then media critic ...
10.23.2020 How Not to Cover a Conspiracy Theory QAnon! What a wild conspiracy theory! Blood-drinking! Pedophilia! JFK Jr.! Pretty fascinating stuff! I bet you want to listen to this episode! Which is exactly why we need to rethink how the media covers conspiracies and how we think about ...
10.16.2020 Julián Castro Had Trouble Smiling Why do people enter public service? How do they keep going when times get hard — or they wind up not lasting long in a presidential primary? Julián Castro talks about injustice, strategic voting, and his new podcast, “Our America.” ...
10.09.2020 Hating on the Hiker Bro Evangelist It’s easy to feel superior to John Allen Chau, the evangelical Christian who died attempting to bring the Bible to the North Sentinelese. We should ask ourselves if maybe it’s a little too easy. Learn more about your ad choices. ...
10.02.2020 Just Say No to Politics You might think being obsessed with politics — watching cable news, reading political blogs, and, er, listening to political podcasts — is a good thing! Historian Claire Bond Potter isn’t so sure. She joins us to talk her book, Political ...
09.25.2020 The Empathy Engine We begin our “Good Intentions” series exploring the origin of the impulse to help. The good news is that empathy and altruism appear to be instinctive reactions to the pain of others! The bad news is that it’s super-easy to ...
09.18.2020 The Friend Zone Eva Hagberg thought she knew who she was: a smart, overachieving loner on her way to literary fame. Then her brain went boom (technical term), and she had to reevaluate her relationship to achievement, to herself, and to the people ...
09.11.2020 Dark Arts Professors Against Trump Two founders of the Lincoln Project on their “psychological warfare” campaign against Trump, why Susan Collins must go, and how those viral ads are just the tip of the iceberg. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
08.21.2020 What We Have Learned In this final episode of our “Converts” edition, we revisit some past episodes to see exactly what we’ve learned about how people do (and don’t) change their minds. What have we picked up from the a cop-turned-activist, a scientist who ...
08.14.2020 Can You Convert a Conversion Therapist? You may know about the ways that “conversion therapy” has played out when it comes to religion. But what about the once-mainstream, secular professionals who refused to give up on the idea that their work wasn’t just necessary, but also ...
08.07.2020 “Scared to Believe?” In the 1990s, evangelical churches bought and gave away thousands of copies of the book, “Left Behind,” hoping its overwrought depiction of the End Times would frighten unbelievers into the arms of Christ. That is not what happened. Amy Frykholm, ...
07.31.2020 The Science Writer Who Became a Mystic Julie Rehmeyer is a science writer who studied math at MIT. She also lives with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, a disease that many doctors treat with skepticism bordering on derision. So when traditional medicine couldn’t help her, she had to try ...
07.24.2020 America Is a Nation of Converts, with Thomas Kidd Thousands of people crowding public venues to hear the word of the Lord. Men fainting, women claiming to be healed, all rejoicing at being “born again.” When you think of “converts,” this may be what you picture, because it’s a ...
07.17.2020 The Moment You Realize You’re White Former mayor of Minneapolis Betsy Hodges comes on to talk about how the Rodney King uprisings started her journey to anti-racist activism — and what happened when, in 2015, her anti-racist ideals ran up against the realities of governing a ...
07.10.2020 From Feminist to Fascist What would turn a passionate, witty feminist into a xenophobic white nationalist? This week’s episode tells the story of Cordelia Scaife May, the eccentric heiress whose fortune underwrote both the Pittsburg Children’s Museum and the most influential network of immigration ...
07.03.2020 “The Cop Who Realized The Bad Apple Was Him” In his 34 years in law enforcement, Norm Stamper participated in — or approved of — the gassing of protesters “hundreds” of times. Yet, he thought of himself as a reformer. He was, he thought, one of the “good guys.” ...
06.26.2020 ”The Heart Decides and Reason Justifies”: A conservative climate activist’s evolution Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) was proud of his Tea Party bona fides, until his son said he couldn’t vote for a climate change denier. Inglis wound up changing his mind, and gained one vote but lost a lot more — ...
06.19.2020 How White Light Moments Change Your Brain, with Andrew Newberg How White Light Moments Change Your Brain, with Andrew Newberg If you’ve listened to the show at all this season, you’ve learned that the brain doesn’t want to change. And when it does change, it’s usually a slow process of ...
06.12.2020 When Denouncing Racism Isn’t Enough Derek Black thought he was done with the white nationalist movement when he wrote a public letter renouncing the ideology he grew up in. Then he realized that white nationalism wasn’t just the racists that used to listen to his ...
06.05.2020 When Protests Changed Minds You can’t escape the images of protest and unrest happening in our country this week. But what will be their lasting impact on Americans’ — especially white Americans’ — views? We look back to the 1960s civil rights movement for ...
05.29.2020 When Your Thoughts Are Not Your Own So far this season of “WFLT: Converts Edition,” we’ve focused on why the brain resists change — but that doesn’t mean that people give up on trying. Previous episodes have taught us that arguing doesn’t work and that people’s beliefs ...
05.22.2020 Why Your Brain Doesn't Want You to Change What happens when someone tells you something that challenges a deeply held belief? On the surface, it may feel annoying or uncomfortable, but according to research from the University of Southern California by Jonas Kaplan and Sarah Gimbel, it’s more ...
05.15.2020 Why (Most) People Don’t Convert Welcome to our first themed season, “With Friends Like These: Converts.” We’ve always been interested in why and how people change their minds about what they believe — mostly because it just doesn’t happen that often. Once we we make ...
03.27.2020 It’s My Body and I’ll Live if I Want To with Alice Wong This week friend of the pod Alice Wong (@SFDirewolf) joins Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox) to talk about what it means to be a part of the disabled community during a pandemic. Spoiler: the world seems to get a little too ...
03.20.2020 Welfare for White People with Eduardo Porter Want to listen to anything NOT about COVID-19? We got the episode for you! Eduardo Porter (@portereduardo) joins Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox) to talk about a much lighter subject: the history of racism in class divides and how it still ...
03.14.2020 A Whole Other Level of Disaster (with Dan Drezner) This week Dan Drezner joins Ana Marie Cox to talk about the likelihood of Trump handling COVID-19 responsibly (you guessed it, not well). Dan argues in his book, Toddler in Chief, that not only is Trump a toddler, power in ...
03.06.2020 The Hopeful Feminist (with Rebecca Solnit) CW: Sexual assault and violence against women. If you, or someone you know, has experienced sexual violence, please call the RAINN hotline: 800.656.HOPE (4673). It’s never too late to get help. It’s no secret that most women live in fear ...
02.28.2020 The Psychological Abyss (with Ezra Klein) This week we'll answer our number one question: why are we so polarized? Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) joins Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox) to answer it. His new book is called, Why We’re Polarized, and they talk about how a lot of ...
02.21.2020 All Doom And Bloomberg (with Rick Wilson) Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox) sits down with Lincoln Group founder Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) to discuss what the soft Republican stance is on everything happening around us right now. Will Trump stop an election from happening? As Rick agrees: Yikes all ...
02.14.2020 Listen To Your Heart (with Kate Murphy) Want to learn some spicy new tricks just in time for Valentine’s Day? This week Kate Murphy joins Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox) to talk about this season’s hottest tip: mindfully listening to those around you. Kate Murphy, author of You’re ...
02.07.2020 We Can Be Heroes (with Susan Neiman) In Germany, studying the Holocaust — and the part everyday Germans played in it — is part of the school curriculum. There are memorials to the Jewish lives lost throughout the country, but they do not memorialize Nazis who died. ...

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