Radio Atlantic

A quarter-million Americans have now died of COVID-19. The spread of the virus is as bad as it’s ever been. And it’s almost certainly going to get much worse. But with the president abdicating responsibility and refusing to begin a transition, it feels as if we’re headed into unthinkable danger without any sense of who’s in charge.

Staff writer Ed Yong wrote about America’s unpreparedness for a pandemic in 2018 and his reporting has led the conversation about the coronavirus for months now. He joins the show to explain how the country got to this point, what he thinks a Biden administration could do come January, and why he’s more hopeful about a society sticking together in a disease than he was two years ago.

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The Virginia Congresswoman shares her concerns over President Trump’s post-election actions and what she considers the lessons of 2020 for her fellow Democrats.

Before coming to Congress as part of the Democratic wave in 2018, Spanberger spent her career as an undercover operative in the CIA. She talks about what it was like going from a false alias to a congressional seat, why she ran in the first place, and what she thinks when people compare her group of friends in Congress to the ‘Squad.’

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Between the pandemic and President Trump, election night this year will be unlike any other. As usual, television news networks are the narrators of our democracy, but what will they do if the president claims an unconfirmed victory? With the stakes so high, will they apply the lessons they learned these past four years?

CNN’s Brian Stelter shares his thoughts on broadcasting the president’s words live, how important the Fox News alternate universe will be, and what television news’s future is in a Biden presidency or a Trump second term.

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The man who wrote The Art of the Deal reflects on Donald Trump, his presidency, and what the coming weeks could bring. 

Schwartz says Trump’s “primary motivation is dominance” and “there is nothing Trump fears more than failure.” And with the election little more than a week away, Schwartz thinks Trump believes he’s going to lose, “probably even more than he did four years ago.”

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The former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic nominee discusses President Trump, the pandemic, and election disinformation.

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With the election only weeks away, President Trump is down in the polls, sowing doubt about the integrity of the vote, and refusing to commit to a peaceful transfer of power. When he accepted his party’s nomination at the Republican National Convention on August 24th, Trump summarized his position: “The only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election.”

What happens if a president loses reelection, but won’t accept the outcome? Staff writer Barton Gellman tried to answer that question in the cover story of this month’s Atlantic. He joins Edward-Isaac Dovere to explain what he found.

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In 2016, the Green Party won more votes in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin than Donald Trump’s margins for victory. As a result, many Democrats blamed the progressive party for Clinton’s electoral college loss and have worked this year to keep the party from competing in key states. Following Democrats’ challenges over paperwork issues, courts in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania removed Green Party names from presidential ballots this week.

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party’s nominee for president and a co-founder of the party, joins Isaac Dovere to discuss his candidacy. Is the Green Party being used as a spoiler? What does he make of Kanye West’s presidential campaign? And does he fear his party may again face accusations that they put Donald Trump in the White House?

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Elected at 31, Wisconsin’s Lieutenant Governor is a young Black progressive and the face of a new Democratic party in the Midwest. With the nation’s attention on the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Barnes joins Isaac Dovere to discuss President Trump, the Milwaukee Bucks, and what he thinks Democrats need to do to win in November.

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Only a few years ago, Chad Mayes was the Republican leader in the California Assembly. Now, he’s out of the party. Ahead of next week’s Republican convention, he joins Isaac Dovere to discuss the state of the GOP, running an independent, and the long impact of Donald Trump.

“California really was the canary in the coal mine. If you go back to the 1990s, where California was then—it's what the country is going to be 20 years from now. I've tried to tell my colleagues across the country that if you think that somehow this is a winning strategy today, the brand, the toxicity that will come of this is going to last not just for five years or ten years. It's going to last for generations to come.”

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Susan Rice, the former U.N. Ambassador and National Security Advisor for the Obama administration, is considered a leading candidate to become Joe Biden's running mate. She joins to discuss statehood for DC, racism and sexism in American politics, and the formative experiences that made her who she is today — a person who may be the first Black woman on a national ticket.

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Florida congresswoman Donna Shalala was one of many first-time candidates in 2018. But unlike other freshman Democrats that flipped a district, she’d already had a decades-long career in public life. At age 77, she became the second-oldest person ever to win a seat in Congress.

Besides serving as an early Peace Corps volunteer and co-founding EMILY’s List, Shalala was also the longest-serving Secretary of Health & Human Services in U.S. history. She discusses what the federal government should be doing, working in Congress with John Lewis, and naming her new rescue dog “Fauci.”

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The Alabama senator discusses the coronavirus outbreak in the South, new efforts to grapple with its Confederate legacy, and his hopes that this time of crisis leads to systemic change.

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The 2016 Republican presidential candidate announces her intention to vote for Joe Biden, and the concerns about the country that led to her decision.

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The second-highest elected official in New York City is a progressive activist who’s worked to change policing for years. He thinks this moment could be different, if Americans are willing to have an honest conversation.

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The mayor of Dayton, Ohio, on how badly America's cities need a bailout—and how painful the impact could be if they don't get one.

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Senator (and doctor) Bill Cassidy discusses the coronavirus response, vaccines, and how states like his own Louisiana hope to reopen.

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The governor of one of the hardest-hit states discusses the coronavirus response, how he thinks about reopening New Jersey, and his conversations with President Trump. (In fact, the president called him during taping.)

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The former presidential candidate discusses universal basic income, coronavirus-linked bigotry against Asian Americans, and how the pandemic has accelerated the automation trends he's long worried about.

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Georgia politician and voting rights activist Stacey Abrams discusses elections in a pandemic, vice presidential aspirations, and Star Trek.

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Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund discusses Wisconsin’s election debacle and how the coronavirus has become a new tool of voter suppression. Ifill says Wisconsin legislators “created a perfect storm where it didn't have to exist” and that the Supreme Court’s “terrible decision” allowing the election to proceed “consigned people to have to choose between their health and their right as citizens to participate and vote.”

She describes how the current partisan debate around voter suppression obscures its roots as a tool of white supremacy, and she talks about what worries her (and what makes her hopeful) as we look to the election in November.

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Governor Gretchen Whitmer joins to discuss Michigan’s coronavirus response and her relationship with President Trump. Elected in the state’s 2018 wave election, the popular young governor is considered a potential running mate for Joe Biden.

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Grace Meng represents New York in Congress. Her Queens district is at the center of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak, where its hospitals face an ‘apocalyptic’ situation. She spent the day flying to and from Washington to pass the $2 trillion stimulus package. After landing back home, she spoke with Isaac Dovere about her constituents fighting against the coronavirus, having to risk exposure flying to Washington for the vote, and how politicians using the phrase ‘Chinese virus’ has impacted the people she represents.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger has asked everyone to stay home. He's issued PSA videos, with his mini donkey and mini horse, and from his jacuzzi, urging people to socially distance.

Besides his celebrity, he of course also spent seven years governing California—a state that's no stranger to disaster. He calls Isaac Dovere to share his thoughts on this bonus episode of The Ticket: Politics from The Atlantic.

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Senator Sherrod Brown discusses the Trump administration's response to the pandemic and what he thinks Congress needs to do now. The progressive Ohio senator believes that, as Americans rely on expanded social insurance programs to weather this crisis, they'll value government taking on a bigger role in society.

"I think you'll see the kind of structural change in our society that most of the country wants," he tells Isaac Dovere. "I think the public overwhelmingly agrees and sees more clearly now the role of government, and how government is a positive force in people's lives."

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Vann Newkirk joins Isaac Dovere to discuss Floodlines—the new Atlantic podcast about Hurricane Katrina—and what lessons the disaster response in 2005 has for the coronavirus crisis in 2020.

(After their conversation, listen for the full first episode of Floodlines.)

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The campaign manager behind Obama’s 2008 election breaks down the state of the Democratic party. What do Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden each need to do to win the nomination? And for an election Plouffe says has probably “the biggest stakes the country's ever known,” what do Democrats have to do to defeat President Trump?

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Former Clinton aide Jennifer Palmieri discusses the South Carolina primary, how 2020 is different than 2016, and how sexism still shapes American politics.

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As Democrats slugged it out in Nevada this week, the president undermined the Justice Department in Washington. News anchor Katy Tur—and everyone else covering politics—has had to constantly switch gears between two stories: a crowded primary of challengers working to overtake one another, and a post-impeachment White House emboldened to break yet more democratic norms. But when the general election arrives, and the two stories merge, will the news media be up to the task?

Tur grew up around television news and covered the Trump campaign. Now an anchor on MSNBC, she joins Isaac Dovere to discuss 2020 coverage. They sat down on NBC’s set in Las Vegas, where the network hosted this week’s Democratic debate ahead of the Nevada caucuses.

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On Thursday, Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton presided over debate on a bill to advance the Equal Rights Amendment. After the bill passed, she sat down in her office with Isaac Dovere to discuss the historic ERA vote and how she thinks Congress can take action on gun violence.

Also on the show: thoughts on New Hampshire and an exclusive exchange with Andrew Yang, recorded as he prepared to announce the end of his candidacy.

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After the chaos of Iowa, New Hampshire is set to deliver the first clear results of the 2020 presidential race. And on the show to preview the first primary vote is New Hampshire Congressman Chris Pappas.

The freshman Democrat is new to Washington, but he's been around Granite State politics his entire life. He was elected state representative at 22, but has been meeting presidential candidates since he was 7. His family's Manchester restaurant has been a waypoint on the trail to the White House for decades.

He discusses New Hampshire politics, his state's fight against the opioid crisis, and his choice next Tuesday (both who he's voting for, and whether to do a ballot selfie.)

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Isaac Dovere previews the Iowa caucuses with congressional candidate J.D. Scholten. A former baseball player running to represent the state’s most rural district, Scholten offers an on-the-ground view as Iowans gather to pick a president.

He discusses his race against Rep. Steve King (who he nearly unseated in 2018), what Iowans care about as they go to the caucuses, and whether the state should keep its first-in-the-nation vote.

Like many of his fellow Iowans, he’s had presidential candidates personally courting him for months — enough so that, during taping, his phone buzzed with a call from Sen. Elizabeth Warren. (He sent her to voicemail.)

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On Thursday, Radio Atlantic is becoming The Ticket: Politics from The Atlantic.

As the 2020 voting begins, this show will relaunch with a new name and new look — but you’ll still get the same important conversations each week. Keep listening for interviews with the people defining this incredible moment in American history.

Same show. Same feed. New name.

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The new mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, won all fifty of Chicago’s wards in a landslide last year. A lawyer with experience in government oversight, Lightfoot ran on an anti-corruption and police reform platform. She campaigned as a political outsider in a city long run by dynasties. And she represents a lot of firsts: the first African-American woman to lead the city, its first openly gay mayor, and for her, the first time running for higher office.

Lightfoot came into the job with a big opportunity to remake America’s third largest city. She joins the show to talk about her upbringing, her motivation to enter politics, and what she hopes Chicago can show the rest of the country.

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The governator discusses the Republican party, his commitment to the environment, and the Democratic candidates (his review: "such bad actors").

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Ruben Gallego says President Trump doesn’t understand war, but the situation with Iran could soon escalate to one. Gallego is a progressive congressman from Arizona and a combat veteran who served in Iraq — stationed at one point at one of the bases struck by Iranian missiles this week. He discusses his experience of war, his insights on the developing crisis, and what he worries about most.

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On the day President Trump is impeached, Isaac Dovere visits the Nixon Library with Tom Steyer. The billionaire presidential candidate has spent two years (and millions of dollars) to keep impeachment in the headlines. As the House of Representatives prepares for the historic vote, they reflect on Nixon's legacy, Trump's future, and Steyer's unique family history.

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Steve Chabot, a House Republican who helped lead his party's impeachment fight against Bill Clinton, explains why he’s unconvinced by the Democrats’ case against Trump.

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Donald Trump wasn’t the only election surprise of 2016. Three months before he won the presidency, the United Kingdom also shocked observers by voting to leave the European Union. Ever since, Brexit has dominated British politics. 

But while Americans may have to wait another eleven months to see Trump’s name back on the ballot, British elections arrive much faster (and of late, much more frequently). Britain may not be terribly enthusiastic about heading back to the polls, but the stakes couldn’t be higher. Will the UK have another referendum? Will it endorse a ‘hard’ Brexit? And how are British voters actually making up their minds?

Staff writer Helen Lewis joins Isaac Dovere from London to preview the election.

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During an impeachment hearing this week, President Trump's former top Russia adviser accused Republicans of peddling Russian propaganda.

Anne Applebaum is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and historian who will join The Atlantic as a staff writer in January. As one of the world’s leading experts on pre- and post-Communist Europe, disinformation and propaganda, and the future of democracy, she joins Isaac Dovere to discuss impeachment through a global lens.

How did a conspiracy theory concocted by Russian intelligence officers become a Republican defense of President Trump? And what future does Applebaum see for NATO and Western democracy if the president is in office for another four years?

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The special December issue of The Atlantic focuses on a single theme: “How to Stop a Civil War.” Two contributors to the issue, Harvard professor Danielle Allen and staff writer Adam Serwer, join Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg to discuss their arguments in the magazine.

Allen’s piece, “The Road From Serfdom,” asserts that unity must be made a priority again and offers prescriptive steps for how it can be achieved. In “Against Reconciliation,” Serwer argues that the nation’s pursuits of compromise have often led it to abandon its promises of freedom and equality for all its citizens—that Americans have been content to sacrifice civil rights for civil discourse.

The three sat down to discuss where they agree, where they disagree, and how optimistic they are that world’s oldest democracy can survive its bitter divisions.

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Senator Tim Kaine discusses Democrats' historic win in Virginia and what it means for 2020.

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Mayor Pete Buttigieg discusses his unlikely presidential run.

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James Fallows spent decades covering national politics for The Atlantic. For the last four years though, he’s traveled the parts of America typically left out of the national conversation. And he comes back with good news.

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The fourth Democratic debate this week highlighted Elizabeth Warren’s new front-runner status. It also marked the return to public events for Bernie Sanders, who showcased his energy following a heart attack and touted a key new endorsement from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The two progressive candidates haven’t gone after each other thus far. How much longer will that last? And where does the race go from here?

Joining Isaac Dovere this week is Elaine Godfrey, who reports on progressive politics for The Atlantic.

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Staff writer Mike Giglio has been reporting on ISIS since before Americans knew what to call it. He documents his five years in the region for a new book, Shatter the Nations: ISIS and the War for the Caliphate.

He joins Isaac Dovere to discuss the abrupt changes happening in Syria. How did a phone call upend American policy towards its Kurdish allies? What’s happening on the ground now? And where will this new cycle of violence lead?

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As a CIA officer detailed to the White House, Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin is one of the few people to have done the same work as the whistle-blower.

She joins Isaac Dovere to discuss that experience, how it led her to play a key role in starting the impeachment inquiry, and how she’s now explaining that decision of conscience to the pro-Trump district she represents.

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As impeachment news comes in by the minute, The Atlantic hosts its annual festival in our nation’s capital. Minnesota senator and presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar joins Isaac Dovere on stage for a live taping of Radio Atlantic.

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The Montana governor talks about his presidential campaign, his personal connection to the gun control debate, and why running his home state has uniquely prepared him to run a divided country.

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Begun with a gold-rush brothel in the Yukon, the Trump empire has long been passed down through generations. Donald Trump inherited a business from his father, who inherited it from his father.

Now following in those footsteps are Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump — all brought into the family business, whatever that happened to be at the moment. When it was real estate, they worked at the Trump Organization. When it became television, they were in the cast of The Apprentice. And with politics the new family business, they’ve acted as key figures in his administration and campaign.

The question of which Trump will succeed their father is no longer just a family matter though. Having remade the Republican Party in his image, the president has given his eventual successor a key role in shaping the future of American politics.In his October cover story, McKay Coppins tells the story of how the next generation of Trumps have competed for power — and how the move from midtown Manhattan to 1600 Pennsylvania may have established an unexpected frontrunner.

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This week, Beto O'Rourke took a bus out of New York. Not a campaign bus, just a regular old bus. Isaac Dovere joined for the trip and they talked about how the presidential candidate has been changed by the recent mass shootings in West Texas.

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