Welcome to Franchise Hell - 395

In the 2026 midterms, Democrats won a historic rout. Just as impressive as the margin of victory was where they stacked up the margins: the South. They easily swept every statewide race in Texas, Georgia, and North Carolina--and even won the Senate race in South Carolina and, it appears, Mississippi. There is so much to ponder and digest that we'll have to come back later with another episode digging in.

With Democrats looking likely to win a blowout victory in the upcoming midterms, the Trump regime has decided to start fake prosecutions of their political opponents. The first target is Ilhan Omar, because she is a Black Muslim woman, but if they succeed, she won't be the last. We discuss what to do about Trump's highly likely escalation of authoritarian crimes next year, what ordinary citizens should do, the latest news from Ukraine, Elon Musk's unprecedented election spending, and more. Enjoy!

With Democrats looking likely to win a blowout victory in the upcoming midterms, the Trump regime has decided to start fake prosecutions of their political opponents. The first target is Ilhan Omar, because she is a Black Muslim woman, but if they succeed, she won't be the last. Subscribe now to hear the whole episode!

This time we've got the organizer and activist Yotam Marom on to talk about his new book For Louder Days: Reaching Beyond a Politics of Powerlessness. It's all about his experience in Occupy Wall Street and his experience organizing on the left over the subsequent 15 years. What did OWS get right, why did it fail, and how has the left built on that experience? We get into that and more.

Today we've got our old pal Astra Taylor on to talk about the new book she co-wrote with Naomi Klein: End Times Fascism and the Fight for the Living World. What distinguishes today's neofascists--from MAGA to the AfD in Germany--from their predecessors in the 1930s, what is their plan for the world, and how do we defeat them?

Today we've got the classicist Jase Short back on to discuss Christopher Nolan's new film. Is it any good, does it illuminate our present issues or those of humanity in general, and most importantly, is it loyal enough to the source material to please the die-hard Homer fanbase? Enjoy!

Trump is back to escalating his shooting war against Iran, and his trade war against Canada, and he's quite obviously losing both of them. Subscribe now to hear the whole episode! 

Joe Biden was the best American president on climate change by maybe three orders of magnitude. Yet it didn't cement a Kamala Harris victory in 2024, and Trump has since rolled back most of Biden's signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act. Today we've got UC Santa Barbara Professor Leah Stokes on to discuss her upcoming book The Carbon Wave: A Story of Democracy, Parenthood, and the Race to Protect Our Planet, to talk about her role in the passage of the IRA, what's left of it, what Trump's victory says about climate policy, and what we should do next time. Check out Leah's newsletter here, her podcast A Matter of Degrees here, and her Atlantic piece about the political success of Bidenomics here.

In this excerpt we discuss why so many American leftists struggled to get to the correct understanding in Ukraine, and why so many liberals have struggled to get to the correct understanding in Israel-Palestine. Subscribe now to hear the whole episode! 

Today we've got David Dayen back on to talk about his reporting on how awful it is to attempt to make it as a franchisee for the Kitchen and Bath Tune-Up company. We also discuss the flailing incompetence of various Trump lawyers in their efforts to persecute critics of the regime, the return of tariffs, and the resumption of endless war with Iran, again. Enjoy!