- 48 minutes 31 secondsEp. 455: The People's Historian Howard Zinn and the Importance of Radical Optimism in Dark Times
Dave Zirin is the sports editor for The Nation, a columnist for The Progressive, and the author of eight books on the politics of sports, including What's My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States and A People's History of Sports in the United States.
His new book, The People's Historian: The Outsized Life of Howard Zinn, tells the story of his friend and mentor — the working-poor kid from a Jewish family in New York who served in the US Army Air Force in World War II and had a crisis of conscience about killing civilians.
After the war, Howard Zinn earned his PhD in history at Columbia, then went on to teach at Spelman College, where he helped mentor a generation of Black American civil rights activists and future political and cultural leaders.
Zirin reflects on what it was like to know Zinn not as a public figure but as a dear friend — and the lessons he taught him about living a full life, generosity, and the many forms that teaching can take.
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28 September 2026, 6:51 am - 30 minutes 40 secondsEp. 454: As President Trump Feels Increasingly Imperiled, His Authoritarian Grip Will Only Tighten
This is a special joint episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show and The Truth Report.
Steve Cash is Executive Director of The Steady State, a nonprofit advocacy organization whose members are former senior national security officials.
He previously served as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Intelligence & Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security and as Chief of Staff to the Director of Intelligence at the Department of Energy.
Cash was deeply involved in drafting much of the legislation that followed the 9/11 attacks, including the USA PATRIOT Act, the Department of Homeland Security Act, and the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, which created the position of Director of National Intelligence. He also served as an intelligence officer with the CIA.
Cash analyzes Trump's recent "election security" speech to the nation and how its allegation that hostile foreign actors stole the 2020 presidential election for Democrats, and other false claims fit into the Big Lie strategy to rig upcoming elections and undermine American democracy.
Steve Cash also offers advice about courage and personal responsibility to pro-democracy Americans and others who have already been — or may soon be — targeted by the Trump administration and placed on enemies lists because they have protested or exercised other constitutionally protected rights, including freedom of speech.
31 August 2026, 7:35 am - 22 minutes 57 secondsEp. 453: Investigative Journalist Greg Palast Explains Trump's Plot Against Democracy Through the Midterms and 2028 Presidential Election
Greg Palast is an investigative reporter whose work has been featured by The Guardian, BBC Television, and Rolling Stone.
His books include the New York Times bestsellers The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Billionaires & Ballot Bandits. His latest documentary is Vigilantes INC.: America's New Vote Suppression Hitmen.
Greg Palast warns that Donald Trump's recent speech on election "security" and "fraud" was not funny, something to be mocked, or ineffective because it mangled the facts.
Palast lays out what he calls a proven, decades-old playbook: voter nullification and voter purges, deployed to surgically target Black, Hispanic, women, and other voters who are key parts of the Democratic Party's base.
And Palast loudly sounds the alarm that if Trump and the Republican Party's corrupt SAVE Act passes Congress — or its key elements are implemented via executive order and a MAGAfied Supreme Court — it will be almost impossible for Democrats to win future elections.
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3 August 2026, 7:22 am - 52 minutes 51 secondsEp. 452: Reflecting on This Very Mournful July 4 and America's 250th Anniversary in the Age of Trump
This is a special joint episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show and The Truth Report.
Steve Cash is Executive Director of The Steady State, a non-profit advocacy organization whose members are former senior national security officials.
He previously served as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Intelligence & Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security, and as Chief of Staff to the Director of Intelligence at the Department of Energy.
Cash was deeply involved in drafting much of the legislation that followed the 9/11 attacks, including the USA-Patriot Act, the Department of Homeland Security Act, and the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (which created the position of Director of National Intelligence).
Steve Cash also served as an intelligence officer with the CIA.
On this July 4th — the 250th anniversary of American independence — Cash reflects on a shared sense of mourning and sadness over the state of the country's democracy.
He talks about what patriotism and civic virtue mean to him and his peers, and makes the case that every American will need to weigh how much sacrifice and commitment they're willing to bear to help the country survive the Age of Trump and authoritarianism.
For those feeling tired or wavering, Cash offers a gut check: America is in a genuinely bad place right now, but if we rise to meet the moment, we can become the next Greatest Generation, building a much stronger democracy and society from the rubble that can last another 250 years.
Chauncey DeVega continues his July 4th tradition of sharing the wisdom of Frederick Douglass. For this 250th anniversary, he reads from historian David Blight's account of Douglass's clobbering of the slave master Edward Covey, and reflects on what that story means for the Black Freedom Struggle.
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4 July 2026, 6:29 pm - 33 minutes 15 secondsEp. 451: Nell Irvin Painter Reflects on Her Landmark Book "The History of White People" and the Color Line in the Age of Trump and Beyond
Nell Irvin Painter is Edwards Professor of American History, Emerita, Princeton University. She also holds degrees in painting from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers and the Rhode Island School of Design.
Painter is the author of many books including Sojourner Truth, A Life, A Symbol; Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over; I Just Keep Talking: A Life in Essays; and the New York Times bestseller The History of White People.
She reflects on the origins of A History of White People and her career exploring how race is manufactured and lived along the color line.
She also cautions that the race concept structures societies, but that we should always avoid the temptations of race essentialism.
Painter counsels that we need to balance hope and pessimism. The Age of Trump is a calamity but this dark time will not last forever. We need to think nationally but work locally to create immediate change in our communities.
And Nell Irvin Painter offers some hard-earned advice about being creative for a living, and balancing our personal and familial obligations and material realities such as paying the bills.
*This conversation took place in 2024. Given Juneteenth and Trump's escalating assaults on multiracial democracy and the Black Freedom Struggle, I decided that now was the right time to share it with all of you.
22 June 2026, 2:48 am - 1 hour 38 minutesEp. 450: The Age of Trump Has Inflicted a Great Moral Injury on the American People
Dr. Michael Valdovinos is a board-certified clinical psychologist and U.S. Air Force veteran. His new book is Moral Injuries: When Good Conscience Suffers in a World of Hurt. His writing has appeared in The Guardian and Time Magazine.
Valdovinos argues that the Age of Trump has inflicted a collective moral injury on millions of Americans — the psychological wound that comes from witnessing or being powerless to stop something that violates your deepest sense of right and wrong. He warns that a reckoning will soon be upon us all. Our collective exhaustion, confusion, and dread are normal responses to a profoundly abnormal social and political environment.
Drawing on hard-earned experience as an instructor in the military's SERE program (survival, evasion, resistance, and escape) and work with the special operations community, Valdovinos offers wisdom many of us desperately need right now: Keep moving. Do not betray your values. Surrender is not an option.
Chauncey DeVega reconvenes the secular church family, "marks out" over WrestleMania 42, and honors some of his favorite actors who have recently left this dimension of space and time and transitioned to the next Patrick Muldoon, Valerie Perrine, Matt DeCaro, and TV legend Sid Krofft.
Knowing is half the battle. He explains how authoritarians use "hypernormalization" to disorient the public, drain their emotions, and ultimately create a state of learned helplessness among a targeted population.
And Chauncey reflects on the failed assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents' dinner, the dangerous allure of conspiracism, and how too many people are lost in the surreal in this increasingly sick society.
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18 May 2026, 6:48 am - 29 minutes 10 secondsEp. 449: The Battle for Minneapolis and the Fight for America's Soul
Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush is President and CEO of Interfaith Alliance, an ordained Baptist minister, and a leading voice on religion, civil rights, and religious freedom. He is a frequent commentator on CNN, NPR, The New York Times, and the BBC.
What does it mean to be a person of faith in the Age of Trump? Rev. Raushenbush argues we must speak boldly and directly and with great moral clarity about evil, neofascism, and the idolatry of Christian Nationalism.
He shares what he witnessed on the ground in the Battle for Minneapolis, where everyday people showed extraordinary moral courage defending their neighbors against mass deportation. He reflects on the exhaustion so many of us feel — and how to keep going anyway.
Rev. Raushenbush shares what he would tell ICE and other immigration agents if they came to him for spiritual and moral guidance.
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26 April 2026, 6:38 am - 1 hour 10 minutesEp. 448: The World Is Broken and on Fire. Use Your Anger to Remake It for the Better
Fatima Bhutto is an acclaimed journalist and novelist.
She is the author of the novels The Runaways and The Shadow of the Crescent Moon. Her nonfiction works include New Kings of the World and Songs of Blood and Sword.
Fatima Bhutto's new book is The Hour of the Wolf: A Memoir.
Her essays and other work have been featured in New Statesman, The Daily Beast, The Guardian, and The Nation.
Fatima's life has been shaped by political violence. She is the granddaughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the Pakistani prime minister arrested and executed in the 1970s. She is the niece of Benazir Bhutto, twice prime minister of Pakistan before being assassinated in 2007. Her father, Murtaza Bhutto, was killed when Fatima was just 14 years old.
Fatima counsels that yes, this dystopic world is profoundly broken — but we need to find solace, community and strength from one another to make it a better place. She warns that ignoring injustice and evil only provides the illusion of temporary safety and that we must confront such dark forces even if it is terrifying and comes at a great cost.
Fatima reflects on the ethics of bringing new life into such a broken world and the importance of healthy relationships, love, and community.
Chauncey does some public thinking about why everything feels so much harder right now. The Age of Trump. The war and destruction in the Middle East. The Orwellian assault on reality and truth. And why we have no choice but to endure and soldier on.
He ponders whether we are lost and spinning in the Twilight Zone and draws on Rod Serling's wisdom to find his way out. And he shares Fintan O'Toole's essential new essay on Donald Trump as the Mad King and his war against Iran.
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25 March 2026, 8:14 am - 40 minutes 59 secondsEp. 447: Trump's War of Choice Against Iran is Not a Video Game or Action Movie
Jeffrey Stern is an award-winning journalist and the author of five books, including his latest, The Warhead: The Quest to Build the Perfect Weapon in the Age of Modern Warfare. His reporting has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, and The Atlantic.
Stern shares his anger at how President Trump and Pete Hegseth are treating America's war with Iran as though it were a videogame or an action movie, rather than a matter of life and death.
He reflects on his New York Times feature "From Arizona to Yemen: The Journey of an American Bomb," and what it means to know the real human beings who are killed and maimed when such weapons are used.
Stern also explains why the engineers behind America's so-called "smart weapons" — the Paveway, the Tomahawk cruise missile, and other lethal technology — are not so easily caricatured as monsters. They see their work as saving lives and making the world safer.
And Stern draws on his years as a war correspondent to offer hard-earned advice on maintaining our emotional health as we navigate the Age of Trump and this era of global tumult and dread.
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15 March 2026, 8:28 am - 43 minutes 33 secondsEp. 446: Taking a Holy Ghost Walk -- Honoring the Life and Legacy of Robert Duvall and His Iconic Film "The Apostle"
This special episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show honors the life and legacy of Robert Duvall, who recently transitioned to the next plane of existence at the age of 95.
Duvall's extraordinary career includes unforgettable performances in The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Tender Mercies.
His cult film classics include THX 1138, The Killer Elite, Colors, and Falling Down.
Yet it was The Apostle — Duvall's passion project — that may stand as his most intimate and fearless work. In the film, he portrays Euliss F. "Sonny" Dewey, a Pentecostal preacher battling inner demons who, after committing murder, flees to Louisiana and reinvents himself as "The Apostle E.F.," and builds a multiracial church.
Longtime listeners know the very special place "Bobby D" and The Apostle hold in the history of this show and in Chauncey's own life journey.
For this celebration of life and remembrance, Chauncey is joined by the Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, President and CEO of Interfaith Alliance. A leading advocate for civil rights and religious freedom, they reflect on Duvall's embodiment of The Apostle E.F., the film's portrayal of charismatic Christian traditions, the power of faith, and its meditation(s) on the color line and our shared humanity and life journeys.
Together, they consider the meaning of Chauncey DeVega's and The Apostle E.F.'s "holy ghost walks" — and how our bodies can become sites of freedom, resistance, and power in dark and oppressive times.
On this episode of the podcast, Chauncey also shares his thoughts about Trump's war of choice against Iran, our political vertigo and the worsening disaster.
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4 March 2026, 9:26 am - 45 minutes 29 secondsEp. 445: The Data Is Clear — A National Security Expert Assesses America's Slide into Authoritarian Rule
Steve Cash is Executive Director of The Steady State, a non-profit advocacy organization whose members are former senior national security officials.
He explains the findings of the organization's new report, Accelerating Authoritarian Dynamics: Assessment of Democratic Decline. Its conclusion is dire: with Donald Trump's return to power, the country is rapidly sliding toward authoritarian rule.
According to Steve Cash, the United States now faces its most serious internal threat since the Civil War, with at least a 50–50 chance that "free and fair" elections may not continue in the foreseeable future.
Steve Cash also reflects on his long career navigating literal life-and-death situations, and shares some hard-earned wisdom about managing extreme stress, fear, and anxiety.
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