Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

Comprehensive border and immigration reform has eluded policymakers in the U.S. for decades. As global turmoil and conflict grows, questions and concerns still remain about the economic, security, and humanitarian justification and rationale for immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees seeking entry into the U.S. Vitriolic rhetoric, which has largely impeded meaningful progress, has only intensified in the months leading up to one of the most consequential elections in history. In the midst of all of this, somewhat of a miracle has materialized: bipartisan collaboration. Our guest this week served as the chief negotiator of a border bill that was negotiated between Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy is the junior U.S. Senator for Connecticut and is a member of the Foreign Relations Committee. He joins WITHpod to discuss what has historically hindered a significant revamp of American immigration policy, how he was able to help broker conservative partnership, his concerns about “unaccountable elites, the fall of American neoliberalism and more.

We’re getting closer and closer to the election. And a lot of weird stuff has been happening. Our guest this week points out that Trump has been going “all in” for the “weird vote,” by choosing JD Vance as his running mate and elevating figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Dave Weigel covers politics and writes the “Americana” newsletter for Semafor. He’s written about how the Trump-Vance coalition has aimed to cobble together contrarians, dissidents, conspiracy theorists and people who are distrustful of the so-called establishment into a majority coalition. Weigel joins WITHpod to discuss paranoid-esque low trust thinking at the core of the Republican Party base, Trump elevating figures from niche anti-establishment circles and what this all means in such a contentious election. Chris’ latest book, “The Siren's Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource,” is now available for preorder. Read about it and preorder by visiting sirenscallbook.com.  

This week’s episode is a bit of a crossover. We’re sharing the fourth and final episode of MSNBC’s “The Threat of Project 2025” special series for the How to Win podcast. In this episode, Chris speaks with Grist climate reporter Zoya Teirstein for her take on Project 2025’s impact on climate and the environment, especially in communities already suffering from climate-related catastrophes. Then, Dr. Vernon Morris, a professor of chemistry and atmospheric sciences at Arizona State University, shares his experience working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the important work at stake should NOAA be dismantled by this conservative agenda.

We’re thrilled to share a mashup of our MSNBC Live: Democracy 2024 event that we recently held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The whole day was a celebration of you, our viewers and listeners. It was the first of its kind in-person, interactive experience. We so enjoyed meeting so many of you. But if you couldn’t join us in person, you’re in luck – we’re sharing key conversations in this episode. For more, be sure to check out our TV special airing Saturday, September 14th at 9 p.m. ET. For your reference, here are timecodes for the sessions included here:Claire McCaskill, Jen Psaki, and Andrea Mitchell 0:01:30-0:31:23Chris Hayes & Kate Shaw 0:31:36-0:51:20Andrew Weissmann & Ari Melber 0:51:25-1:12:53Rachel Maddow & Lawrence O’Donnell 1:13:13-1:45:45 

North Carolina is one of the most interesting swing states in this election. Democrats have not won the Tar Heel state at the presidential level since 2008 when Barack Obama won it. It was a close race in 2020 and recent polling has shown Harris and Trump neck and neck in the state. There’s a lot to unpack about what’s going on. Anderson Clayton is the chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party.  Elected at 25 years old, she is the youngest chair of a state Democratic Party in the U.S. Clayton joins WITHpod to discuss her political trajectory, the state of North Carolina politics, key issues including gerrymandering, her experience at the DNC and more. 

During this year’s DNC, President Biden reflected on numerous accomplishments and discussed his track record. One of the signature pieces of legislation of the Biden presidency, and of Democrats in this era, is the Inflation Reduction Act, also known as the IRA. This August marked the 2-year anniversary of the landmark federal law. Our guest this week teamed up with his students to track the cumulative effects of the implementation of the IRA. Jay Turner is the Wiliam R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Environmental Studies at Wellesley College. He’s also a historian, author on U.S. environmental politics and wrote “Charged: A History of Batteries and Lessons for a Clean Energy Future.” He joins WITHpod to discuss progress made, developments in batteries and electric energy sources, possible paths forward to reach ambitious goals and more.

The Democratic national convention was a whole vibe this year. History was made during the electric four-day convention, which culminated with Vice President Harris accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination, the first black woman and person of South Asian decent to do so. Lucky for us, our own Alex Wagner, host of “Alex Wagner Tonight” on MSNBC, joined us fresh off her flight from Chicago to unpack what the “whirlwind” experience was like. Wagner also discusses the people who were there and what they mean for the party, areas of possible trouble or friction ahead that may not have been evident on TV and more. 

Could the answer to building a more just society lie in 50-year-old ideas? Our guest this week points to the ideas of John Rawls, one of the greatest political philosophers, as a blueprint of sorts for building a more equitable society. Daniel Chandler is the research director of the Programme on Cohesive Capitalism at the London School of Economics. He’s also an economist, philosopher and author of “Free and Equal: A Manifesto for a Just Society.” He joins WITHpod to discuss how we might overcome some of the most devastating and escalating present day crises, what adopting Rawls’ liberal political framework could look like and more.

Chris just got back from vacation. It just so happened that he was way during one of the most remarkable periods in American presidential political history. There’s a lot to unpack with our guest this week. Heather McGhee is a New York Times bestselling author of “The Sum of Us” and the board chair at Color of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice group. She joins WITHpod to discuss the most seismic recent political developments, vibes within the Democratic Party and more. 

We’ve seen a wave of campaigns in school districts and municipalities across the country to ban literary works over the past few years.  One instance of this is the subject of MSNBC Films’ "To Be Destroyed," the latest installment of "The Turning Point" documentary series from Executive Producer Trevor Noah. The feature documentary explores a South Dakota community's fight against book banning after five books – including one by best-selling author Dave Eggers – were pulled from the shelves. Eggers joins WITHpod to discuss how he views his role as a writer in this era, the efforts to ban books, why and where they’re happening and the reactionary moment that we’re in. 

There’s a lot of unprecedented things going on nowadays. And with everything going on, it can be tempting to distort the moment we’re in and to view things as totally new and completely abrupt. Our guest this week has written about the source of historical continuity, particularly in the 1990s, that has brought us to our current moment. John Ganz is the author of “When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s.” He joins WITHpod to discuss his thesis on modern conservatism, the placid politics of the 90s, inflection points since then and more. 

Why does it seem so hard to build big things nowadays? Our guest this week points out that no one project embodies that cynicism quite like Boston’s Big Dig. Boston’s Central Artery/Tunnel Project, commonly known as the Big Dig, was the most complex and technically challenging highway project in American history. Ian Coss is host and creator of “The Big Dig” podcast, produced by GBH, which unpacks why the endeavor was so difficult and what it represented more broadly about ambitious efforts like it. He joins WITHpod to discuss lessons learned from the project, his storytelling process and why big infrastructure projects so often fail.

The Democratic Party coalition is a complicated one to say the least. A growing number of Democrats have called on President Joe Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential election in recent weeks. Those encouraging him to step aside have cited concerns about his fitness for office and ability to win reelection. Jamelle Bouie is a New York Times opinion columnist and is a co-host of the Unclear and Present Danger podcast. He joins WITHpod to discuss the lack of mechanisms to force an incumbent president to withdraw from the race, the mostly unprecedented set of circumstances surrounding all of this, the case for and against Vice President Kamala Harris as a replacement Democratic nominee. Note that this conversation was recorded on Friday, July 12th before the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a campaign event in Pennsylvania.

Another year, another pretty wild Supreme Court term. SCOTUS recently ended its term with a number of big decisions including ruling that former president Donald Trump is immune from prosecution for his “official acts” in office. And it also overturned the Chevron doctrine, reversing a 40-year-old precedent that afforded federal agencies a degree of discretion in interpreting ambiguous laws. As always, there’s a lot to unpack and we’re excited to share our third crossover episode with the hosts of the Strict Scrutiny podcast, Chris’ wife Kate Shaw, and her co-hosts Melissa Murray and Leah Litman. They join to discuss some of the most alarming actions from the super conservative majority of the Court, attacks on government agencies and more.

Could the future of libraries as we’ve known them be completely different? Our guests this week say so. Megapublishers are suing the Internet Archive, perhaps best known for its Wayback Machine, to redefine e-books as legally different from paper books. A difference in how they are classified would mean sweeping changes for the way libraries operate. Brewster Kahle is a digital librarian at the Internet Archive. Kyle Courtney is a lawyer, librarian, director of copyright and information policy for Harvard Library. He's the co-founder of Library Futures, which aims to empower the digital future for America's libraries. They join to discuss what’s animating the lawsuit, information as a public good and the consequences should the publishers ultimately prevail.

Project 2025, also known as the Presidential Transition Project, is a collection of policy proposals from The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. The group’s 920-page “Mandate for Leadership” is an extremely granular playbook that includes sweeping policy changes aimed at reshaping and dismantling American government. It’s pretty alarming. With so much at stake, we thought it would be good to do a deep dive into what the document contains and what it could portend for a possible Trump second term. Thomas Zimmer is a historian at Georgetown University. He’s studied and written about Project 2025 extensively, including for his Democracy Americana newsletter on Substack. Zimmerman is also the host of the “Is This Democracy?” podcast. He joins WITHpod to discuss what Project 2025 proponents aim to accomplish, how the plans within the mandate reflect broader American right ideology and more.To learn more about the MSNBC Live: Democracy 2024 event and to get tickets, visit: msnbc.com/DEMOCRACY2024 

Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett is one of the most interesting figures in Congress. You may have been introduced to her in recent weeks following a House committee during which Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene insulted her appearance. The verbal spat between the two took the internet by storm and became a viral moment. But that exchange, and her clapback, is only one part of her story as a rising star within the Democratic Party. She joins WITHpod to discuss the impetus for her political work, how her faith keeps her grounded in the often vitriolic world of politics, serving as a criminal justice advocate and more.

We’re sharing another episode in our WITHpod 2024: The Stakes series, in which we choose specific areas of policy and talk to an expert about Trump and Biden’s records on the topic. We couldn’t think of a better person than our guest this week to help unpack the two candidates’ stances on antitrust. Timothy Wu is the Julius Silver professor of law, science and technology at Columbia University. He’s known as the "architect" of the Biden administration's competition and antitrust policies. Wu joins WITHpod to discuss Trump and Biden’s different views on corporate power, the current antitrust landscape, major mergers being challenged this year and more.

One of the most pressing challenges for candidates and campaigns today is how to win in a world where disinformation is so pervasive. Why is the information environment in this election year so hard to parse? Our guest this week has written about the keys to winning campaigns for more than a decade. Sasha Issenberg is a journalist and author of numerous books including his latest, “The Lie Detectives: In Search of a Playbook for Winning Elections in the Disinformation Age.” He joins WITHpod to discuss the often insidious nature of disinformation, work to curtail its spread, how we can make sense of a world awash in lies and more.

Its been four years since the murder of George Floyd at the hands Minneapolis police officers and the unrest that was unleashed in the wake of his death. And now we’re in a moment where another global protest movement is flourishing in denouncement of the Israeli war in Gaza. This week, we’re taking a look at the historical lineage and efficacy of protests, as well as ways we might rethink mobilization. Our guest this week has spent decades researching and writing about the dynamic nature and effectiveness of social movements. Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is the James S. McDonnell distinguished professor of African American studies at Princeton University and is the author of numerous books including his latest, “We Are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For.” Glaude joins WITHpod to discuss inflection points in historical and contemporary mass movements, reaction to recent protests on college campuses, why he says we must avoid “outsourcing” change and more.