Claim OwnershipThe Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
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The Time of Monsters podcast features Nation national-affairs correspondent Jeet Heer’s signature blend of political culture and cultural politics. Each week, he’ll host in-depth conversations with urgent voices on the most pressing issues of our time.
135 Episodes
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The famed economist Larry Summers, not for the first time, finds himself the center of ascandal. He’s had to take a leave from Harvard, where he teaches, because of embarrassingemails he had with his late friend Jeffrey Epstein.I talked to economic journalist and Nation contributor Doug Henwood, a long-time Summerswatcher, about the career of this controversial and influential figure. Summers has been one ofthe most influential policy makers of his era, serving as Treasury Secretary and President ofHarvard. He has also embodied the major intellectual and political limitations of the ruling class.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
The scandal around Jeffrey Epstein, who trafficked and abused children and died in a prison cellin 2019, has never gone away. It continues to explode now that House Democrats havereleased thousands of emails from Epstein and his cronies. But while the political class andmainstream media are understandably focused on the sex scandal, another dimension of thescandal goes uncovered except by independent media outlets such as Drop Site: Epstein’s deepties to the national security state. I talked to international relations scholar Van Jackson aboutthis crucial part of the story.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Much has been written about how the Israel/Palestine conflict is dividing the left, but thesame is true of the right. Tucker Carlson’s interview with the antisemitic critic of Israel NickFuentes has created an intense debate on the right about anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism,currently playing itself out in turmoil at the Heritage Foundation. I spoke with the historianDavid Austin Walsh, whose book Taking America Back: The Conservative Movement and the FarRight provides a crucial background for this story.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Donald Trump claims he wants to be the peace president and has even lobbied for a NobelPeace Prize. But his foreign policy has been wildly contradictory. While the United States isclearly retrenching from many parts of the world, violence against hemispheric neighbors isincreasing. I talked to Trita Parsi, co-founder and executive vice president of the QuincyInstitute for Responsible Statecraft, for a wide-ranging discussion on why American hegemonyis declining but also why the push for retrenchment hasn’t gone far enough.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
On Friday, the self-styled “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth announced the US was sending an aircraft carrier to bolster its attacks on Venezuelan boats (which the Trump administration alleges, without evidence, are trafficking drugs). I spoke to international relations scholar Van Jackson (whose work can be found here) about the motives for this new war as well as the muted opposition to it from Democrats.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
1The fragile ceasefire negotiated between Israel and Hamas hasn’t ended the violence, but it hasfor now lessened it. But even if the ceasefire holds, the need for a political solution toPalestinian dispossession remains. To discuss the issue of accountability, I spoke to YousefMunayyer, who is the head of the Palestine/Israel Program and Senior Fellow at Arab CenterWashington DC. We talked about how the shocking events of the last two years have shiftedglobal public opinion, including in the United States. Both parties are heading towards a long-delayed debate about the value of the US/Israel relation.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Few movies have ever been as timely as Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film One Battle AfterAnother, which traces the battle between revolutionary resistance groups trying to protectimmigrants and an authoritarian government run by racists. There are scenes from the moviethat feel like they are being played out right now on the streets of Chicago, Los Angeles andPortland. Although it presents a stylized version of reality, the film raises important questionsabout different strategies of resistance. David Klion, a frequent guest, wrote about the moviefor The New Republic. David and I talked about the film, its roots in actual history but alsovariance with that history as well as its relationship with the Thomas Pynchon novel Vineland.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Donald Trump has plunged the nation into another government shutdown. I spoke with my Nation colleague Chris Lehmann about the larger political stakes. We take up Trump’s shiftingrhetoric, which has started with false and racist claims about undocumented immigrantsreceiving benefits and now seems to be about gloating over austerity. We also take up theDemocratic party response, and the way the base of the party has forced the leadership to takea stronger stance. Chris’ article on the shutdown can be found here.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
The United States continues to be roiled by political violence, with the recent shooting at an ICEfacility in Dallas coming hot on the heels of the assassination of Charlie Kirk and a schoolshooting in Colorado committed by a neo-Nazi. Some of the best reporting on these events hasbeen done by Ken Klippenstein for his Substack. I spoke with Ken about what he’s discoveredwhen he interviewed those who knew the alleged shooters, how his findings go against thesimplistic partisan interpretations offered by both the left and right, as well as the dangerousways the Trump administration is using the shootings for a crackdown on civil liberties.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Bari Weiss, founder and editor of The Free Press, has often been profiled in the media, but usually in a superficial way that focuses on her personality and disputes with fellow journalists. She is currently on the cusp of great power, reportedly working on a deal to sell The Free Press and take a senior position at CBS.David Klion, Nation columnist and frequent guest on the podcast, has written an exceptionally trenchant analysis for The Guardian of Weiss’s politics and the way they align with the Trump administration’s war on critical voices. I was pleased to talk to David about Weiss’s career and how she has used her influence as an ideological enforcer, one that has the support of many wealthy patrons and powerful political allies.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Matt Duss, vice-president of the Center for International Policy, wrote an excellent review for The Nation of Bob Woodward’s book War, which is a celebration of Joe Biden as a foreign policy sage. Duss is rightly skeptical of the book. We discuss Biden’s actual record on Ukraine andespecially Gaza. Matt’s essay on this topic for Foreign Policy is also worth reading.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
On August 27, journalist Taylor Lorenz reported for Wired on a dark-money project funded byanonymous Democratic Party donors to shape social media. Her article documented that,"In a private group chat in June, dozens of Democratic political influencers discussed whether totake advantage of an enticing opportunity. They were being offered $8,000 per month to takepart in a secretive program aimed at bolstering Democratic messaging on the internet.But the contract sent to them from Chorus, the nonprofit arm of a liberal influencer marketingplatform, came with some strings. Among other issues, it mandated extensive secrecy aboutdisclosing their payments and had restrictions on what sort of political content the creatorscould produce."I talked to Taylor about her article and the considerable backlash it provoked from the peopleshe wrote about. We also discussed why Republicans have done so well on social media andwhy this latest effort is both morally dubious and ineffective.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
The Iran-Israel conflict in June was terrifying but brief: it lasted 12 days. But that war is notover. Trita Parsi, vice president and cofounder of the Quincy Institute, has been warning thatboth the United States and Israel are planning for another round, with their European alliesproviding the groundwork. I spoke to Parsi about the likelihood of war, the rationale behind thecurrent sabre-rattling, and ways to stop the impending catastrophe.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
In April, the Liberal Party of Canada, under the leadership of Mark Carney, won an election that heartened opponents of the right-wing. Carney had run on the promise of fighting Donald Trump’s threats to annex Canada and also to bolster the Canadian state to deal with issues like affordable housing. But in office, Carney has been delivering something different than his rhetoric suggested: he has been servile to Trump and is promoting austerity. The journalist Luke Savage has written about Carney’s turn-around for both The Baffler and the Toronto Star. I talked to Luke not only about Carney’s policies but also why centrist technocratic liberals are so inept in fighting the far right. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Almost everyone who is on line or even has a cell phone has encountered a familiar andperplexing nuisance: an email or text with a job offer to make lots of money while working fromhome. These messages seem like obvious scams but how do they work? Alexander Sammon, afeature writer for Slate, conducted a personal experiment to find out by taking one of the jobshe was offered. The result is a hilarious article detailing not just what it’s like to be ripped offbut also illuminating the new grift economy that flourishes in the internet age as Donald Trumppursues his agenda of deregulation and the promotion of crypto currency. I had enormous funboth reading Alex’s article (which I can’t recommend highly enough) and talking to him abouthis strange experiences.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Writing in The New Republic, Greg Sargent called attention to Zohran Mamdani’s highlyeffective media strategy which has allowed him to reach many voters that have been driftingaway from the Democratic Party, especially young people and immigrants. In punchy, shortvideos, Mamdani has offered an optimistic message that celebrates big city life and diversitywhile showing how government policies can help make life better. I talked to Greg about the lessonsof the Mamdani campaign. We also talk about strategies for investigating the Jeffrey Epstein scandal,a subject he wrote about here.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Since 2015, Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the American foreign policy establishmentfor being too belligerent and unwilling to negotiate with adversaries. But in office, Trump hascarried out a foreign policy that has all the vices he has criticized and been even more inclinedto risk war or get into new wars. In a recent essay in The New York Times, Stephen Wertheim,a senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment forInternational Peace, has written an incisive critique of Donald Trump’s foreign policyincoherence emphasizing how the president’s ad hoc response to problems and his excessivefaith in his own deal making ability prevents any systematic change from the status quo.Stephen and I have a wide-ranging discussion on the over-stretched American empire and whyTrump is just making things worse.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Tech lords such as Peter Thiel and Elon Musk are among the richest humans who have everlived and have an enormous sway over the American political system but even that isn’t enoughfor them. They also want a compliant media, one that echoes their ideas, doesn’t investigatetheir business practices, and goes after their enemy. This is the subject of a new book by EoinHiggins: Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left. Italked to Eoin about two of the major figures in this story, Peter Thiel, a plutocrat who is eagerto abandon the human species and Matt Taibbi, a onetime anti-establishment voice who nowhas become a standard reactionary.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Donald Trump’s foreign policy has been as unstable as the man himself, shifting quickly frompushes for restraint to escalating wars in the Middle East. This volatility is a function not just ofTrump’s personality but the contradictions and competing factions that are gathered under theterm America First, as well as the continued power of the foreign policy establishment thatTrump has claimed he defeated but which maintains a strong capacity to shape policy. To talkabout Trump’s foreign policy and the factional battles that have bedevilled his administration, Ispoke to Justin Logan, director of defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute. In particular we take up the attacks on Elbridge Colby, the under-secretary of defense forpolicy. Colby was the subject of a Politico hatchet job which claimed he was running a rogueforeign policy. Justin critiqued this analysis here.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Writing in The Nation, Pamela Alma Weymouth drew a contrast between Kay Graham, her lategrandmother who was publisher of The Washington Post when it fought Richard Nixon’sadministration on The Pentagon Papers and Watergate, with the current owner of thenewspaper, Jeff Bezos. Unlike Graham, Bezos has been all too willing to bend the knee to acorrupt president. I talked to Pamela about Bezos and other contemporary corporate leaderswho are undermining journalistic integrity at a moment when it is needed more than ever.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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Jeet shouldn't bother with the guests and just interview himself. He's unable to let anyone finish a thought. I'm always left frustrated as the result is that the conversation jumps all over the place
@34:43: Beau Biden was a U.S. Army captain. He was not a Marine. It's irritating when journalists use precise terms flippantly and treat relevant differences interchangeably. If you don't know the specific fact (e.g., branch of service), then don't use a specific term. It's just a way to erode your own credibility needlessly.
The host needs to find a more articulate way of agreeing than saying, "Yeah, no no." Also, for Heaven's sake, fewer um, uh, um um, ah, uhs...
Maybe this podcast should be named "Uh Uh Umm".