Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode

Who are the intellectuals behind MAGA, and what do they want? In today's episode, Ken sits down with author Laura K. Field, whose book “Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right” explores exactly that question.Field spent two decades studying conservative ideas as a liberal outsider, and she watched the Republican Party change dramatically in less than a decade. From the Reagan era to President DonaldTrump's rise, she introduces the thinkers and groups who gave the movement its ideas and explains why it's a mistake to dismiss them. Field describes these furious minds as well educated, well connected, and gifted storytellers, people who are very good at telling big, appealing narratives about what America is and where it should go.She also talks about how the January 6 attack on the Capitol became a rallying point for many of these members of the new right, and why she sees Vice President JD Vance, more than Trump, as the true believer in this movement. For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:https://substack.com/@lkfieldnoteshttps://www.lkfield.comhttps://www.publishersweekly.com/9780691255262https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/ice-trump-new-right/685854/?gift=5GG_p7RQSqePHB8EWFEnzpB6P0a10r6JAJLt9lwNqFAhttps://www.lawfaremedia.org/resources/lawfare-news/lawfare-lecture--the-making-of-the-maga-new-right-with-dr.-laura-field--lecture-2Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode every other [email protected]@environmentalworkinggroup 

A bill to ease Californians’ access to balcony solar, also called plug-in PV, just cleared the state Legislature and is now sitting on Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk. If he signs the bill, SB 868, California could become the tenth state to legalize this simple technology: a solar panel that plugs straight into a wall outlet and be fixed to a home’s balcony, no permits or rooftop installation required.In today's episode, Ken sits down with EWG's own Bernadette Del Chiaro, senior vice president for California. She's a longtime clean energy advocate who has spent decades fighting for consumer access to solar, from early rooftop solar policy battles to today's fight for balcony solar. Their conversation traces how the idea made its way from Germany to Utah and now to California, why the state’s three major investor-owned utilities fought it every step of the way, and why this could be one of the biggest wins yet for everyday consumers in the fight for affordable, distributed clean energy.For a deeper dive into today’s discussion: California Assembly utilities committee advances bill cutting red tape for ‘balcony solar’ California Legislature approves bill easing access to clean, affordable ‘balcony solar’ SB-868 Electricity: portable solar generation devices CalMatters SB 868: Electricity: portable solar generation devicesKen Cook Is Having Another Episode every other [email protected]@environmentalworkinggroup 

Tens of thousands of people got sick this summer from a foodborne illness outbreak that was preventable. In today’s episode, Ken speaks with Sarah Sorscher, director of regulatory affairs for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, about the cyclospora outbreak sweeping the U.S.  The outbreak is a direct symptom of years of underinvestment and recent cuts to public health infrastructure by the Trump administration. From the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions’ shrinking FoodNet surveillance program to the thousands of Food and Drug Administration and Health and Human Services staff lost to layoffs and early retirements, Sarah lays out how the systems meant to catch contamination early have been dismantled.  It’s happening under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his unfulfilled Make America Healthy Again promises on food chemicals and a food safety loophole, synthetic dyes and defining "ultra-processed food. And it begs the question: Why are the people who promised to fix the food system are the ones gutting the agencies built to protect it?   For a deeper dive into today’s discussion: CSPI's synthetic dyes commitments tracker The Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic memo on the FRESH ActPolitico’s: USDA cyclospora research projects shelved amid funding cuts and relocations Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week. @kencookspodcast www.ewg.org @environmentalworkinggroup

"Ask where the landfill is, and you'll find where the Black people live." That's what Vernice Miller-Travis' grandmother told her. Vernice Miller-Travis helped write the report that first proved, with data, what Black communities had always known: Hazardous waste sites are not randomly distributed; they're concentrated in communities of color.  She has spent decades building the environmental justice movement, co-founding WE ACT for Environmental Justice, leading environmental justice grantmaking at the Ford Foundation, and founding the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Environmental Justice Initiative.  Miller-Travis, who is Ken’s guest today,  now serves as executive vice president for environmental and social justice at Metropolitan Group, working with communities and institutions on the racial and economic conflicts that persist in our environment due to regulatory inaction.  For a deeper dive into today’s discussion: https://www.metgroup.com/ Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week. @kencookspodcast www.ewg.org @environmentalworkinggroup

Dr. Georges Benjamin is the CEO of the American Public Health Association, with 25 years at the helm of one of the most respected public health institutions in the U.S. And he’s Ken’s guest today. At the beginning of 2025, Benjamin made an appearance on Ken’s livestream during Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 's Senate confirmation hearing to be health secretary. At the time, Benjamin warned what could happen with RFK Jr. as the national head of public health. Fast forward to today, America faces its worst measles outbreak in 35 years, with over 2,300 cases and counting. Taylor Farms, already potentially linked to a deadly E. coli outbreak, is at the center of a massive Cyclospora outbreak tied to contaminated lettuce sickening thousands. Benjamin unpacks how we got here, what RFK Jr. gets wrong, why Make America Health Again was never going to get the support it needed from Republicans and why gutting public health infrastructure has consequences. For a deeper dive into today’s discussion: https://www.apha.org Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week. @kencookspodcast www.ewg.org @environmentalworkinggroup