Kathleen Walters was only 23 days away from qualifying for early retirement at the IRS when she decided to quit, rather than acquiesce to a Trump-administration request that she break the law and compromise millions of people’s privacy. She’s one of hundreds of thousands of civil servants who have left or been fired from their federal-government jobs in the ... Show More
Feb 6
American Democracy Under Occupation
When heavily armed agents of the federal government arrived in Minneapolis, the people of the Twin Cities responded with surprising strength. In this episode, residents describe what drove them to act, and host Anne Applebaum speaks with Atlantic contributing writer Robert Worth ... Show More
27m 47s
Oct 2025
Weaponizing the Justice Department
President Donald Trump is using the Department of Justice to try to punish his political enemies. How much can the president bend the DOJ, an institution built on norms and ethics, to his will before it breaks? In this episode, we talk to the Atlantic staff writer Quinta Jurecic, ... Show More
40m 32s
Jul 2023
The Case Against Democracy - Curtis Yarvin
Curtis Yarvin, also known by the pen name Mencius Moldbug, is an American blogger. He is known, along with philosopher Nick Land, for founding the anti-egalitarian and anti-democratic philosophical movement known as the Dark Enlightenment or neoreactionary movement (NRx). He argu ... Show More
1h 14m
Oct 2024
Jon Michaels and David Noll, "Vigilante Nation: How State-Sponsored Terror Threatens Our Democracy" (Atria/One Signal, 2024)
Law professors Jon Michaels and David Noll use their expertise to expose how state-supported forms of vigilantism are being deployed by MAGA Republicans and Christian nationalists to roll back civil, political, and privacy rights and subvert American democracy. Beyond identifying ... Show More
1h 19m
Sep 2025
The Landmark Google Antitrust Ruling
<p>For decades, the government has struggled with how to police monopolies in the tech industry.</p><p>This week, a landmark ruling in a case against Google became the most aggressive attempt in the modern era to level the playing field.</p><p>David McCabe, who covers tech policy ... Show More
25m 21s
<p>Plus, a quiet crisis for America’s jurors. </p><p><strong>On Today’s Episode:</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/11/us/politics/trump-washington-dc-police.html" target="_blank"><strong>Trump Takes Control of D.C. Police, Citing ‘Bloodthirsty Criminals.’ Bu ... Show More
