The Cross Section

The IRS recently decided that it's perfectly fine for churches and other houses of worship to endorse candidates, upending 70 years of established law. It's just one of the ways the Christian right and the Republican Party have successfully demolished the separation of church and state, which we used to think was a central pillar of the American political system. Paul discusses the carnage with Sarah Posner, author of Unholy: How White Christian Nationalists Powered the Trump Presidency, and the Devastating Legacy They Left Behind.

In the next 25 years, the world will have to produce 50% more food -- and most of our habitable land is already devoted to the production of food. In order to feed ourselves, we risk doing even more damage to the climate as more land is given over to agriculture. In his provocative new book We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate, Michael Grunwald explores the cutting edge of food technology, the politics of food, and the challenges the whole world faces. He joins Paul for a discussion about the book.

Passover is a holiday about oppression, liberation, immigration, and the nature of the diaspora. How should we think about it in 2025? Paul talks with Rabbi Yael Ridberg to wrestle with the religious, sociological, and political implications of the holiday more Jews celebrate than any other.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.