The Cross Section

It's even worse than you think

Joe Biden made more policy progress on climate change than any president in history, so it might not have been crazy to think what he accomplished would be difficult to unwind - or that Donald Trump might not put too much effort into it. But if that's what you thought, you were wrong.

Paul is joined by Jillian Goodman, deputy editor of Heatmap.news, to examine the damage Trump is doing and consider what makes policy change durable and what makes it vulnerable. The news isn't good.

How did Silicon Valley break bad?

I talk with Henry Farrell, one of the most trenchant observers of the ground where politics, technology and commerce meet, to explore the intellectual and personal roots of Silicon Valley's right-wing turn. 

Is the next Trump recession about to begin?

Amid the daily horrors emanating from the Trump/Musk White House, you may not have given much thought to the possibility of a rapid, nationwide economic downturn fed by hundreds of thousands of layoffs of federal workers. Jesse Rothstein has, and he has a warning. Rothstein, a UC-Berkeley economist who was a top economic advisor in the Obama administration, says we could see the signs of a new recession in a matter of weeks.

Wait, can they do that?

Amid the assault on the American government currently underway from Donald Trump and Elon Musk, we've all asked ourselves this question: Wait, can they do that? To help answer the question, I'm joined by University of Michigan law professor Sam Bagenstos, who until recently was general counsel of the Department of Health and Human Services, and prior to that the general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget. We discuss Donald Trump, Elon Musk, the Supreme Court, and what happens when the party in power decides that obeying the law is optional.

This will hurt me more than it hurts you (actually, it's really going to hurt you)

Ayelet and Paul are joined by Talia Lavin, author of Wild Faith: How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America to talk about the origins and spread of Christian nationalism, and how spanking your kids might just turn them into foot soldiers for the next authoritarian takeover.

A path forward in Israel-Palestine?

Earlier this year, Palestinian-American filmmaker Mo Husseini went viral with a Medium post about Israel-Palestine titled 50 Completely True Things. In a discussion that is probing, thoughtful, humane and even hopeful, he joins us to talk about what people on both sides are thinking, what the future might look like, and his new film, The Path Forward, which profiles Israelis and Palestinians who have lost family members in the conflict and have come together to work for peace.

You can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union

We interview labor reporter Hamilton Nolan, author of The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor about the recent rise in union organizing, the trouble with the big unions, and the bizarre fact that Donald Trump enjoys strong support among union members.

How to really understand election polls

Do you overreact to every poll that comes out, endangering your mental health as the election approaches? Do the words "New York Times/Sienna poll" send you into a cold sweat? We're here to help. Ayelet and Paul talk to Michael Podhorzer, former political director of the AFL-CIO, about what to take - and not to take - from the ups and downs of each day's polls and where the election really stands.