From 2020 to 2022, Americans saw the state mobilize immense resources to boost their standard of living—and then witnessed the hard political constraints hemming in this capacity.
Spring 2025
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The Future of Sanctuary
Sanctuary activists face new challenges under Trump’s second term—but their work has always entailed great personal risk.
Know Your Enemy: Did Podcasters Make Trump President?
Matt and Sam talk to Andrew Marantz about “bro” podcasts and their role in Trump’s election victory.
Moral Limits
Our empathy seems to make us righteous—even as we benefit from an unequal world.
Pepe Mujica, 1935–2025
The late Uruguayan president had an unmatched connection with popular sectors and the courage of his enduring convictions.
Syria After Assad
Hope has been restored for many Syrians. But vigilance will be needed to ensure that democratic institutions emerge and withstand autocratic impulses.
How Unions Can Protect Immigrants
An interview with Faye Guenther, president of UFCW Local 3000.
The Deportation Machine
An interview with Dara Lind and Omar Jadwat on immigration policy in the second Trump administration.
Incoherent Heroism
Trump’s National Garden of American Heroes will be a monument to randomness and a lazy, perhaps unthinking, version of the ideology he is supposed to despise.
The AI Dragnet
The U.S. government is activating a suite of algorithmic surveillance tools, developed in concert with major tech companies, to monitor and criminalize immigrants’ speech.
Blood-and-Soil Neoliberalism
An interview with Quinn Slobodian, the author of Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right.
Know Your Enemy: The Meaning of Pope Francis
Matt and Sam discuss the passing of Pope Francis, what his papacy meant, why he scandalized the Catholic right, and why his message feels so necessary and so far away.
Tolkien Against the Grain
The Lord of the Rings is a book obsessed with ruins, bloodlines, and the divine right of aristocrats. Why are so many on the left able to love it?
Freedom for Sale
The government funds institutions that stretch across American society. The Trump administration is demanding the relinquishment of constitutional rights to keep the money flowing.
Noblesse Without Oblige
The super-rich opt out of the social contract by picking and choosing which laws apply to them, whether in offshore tax havens or at home.
The Degradation of Big Law
By intimidating and disarming potential sources of legal resistance, Trump weakens one of the last institutional barriers standing between his administration and unbridled executive power.
