Eyal Press: What Makes a Rebel?

Eyal Press: What Makes a Rebel?

Confronting hard truths about conformity and resistance.

Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky
Pocket
Email

What makes a rebel?

In this episode of Nation ConversationsNation writer Eyal Press and editor Roane Carey discuss themes and lessons of Press’s acclaimed new book, Beautiful Souls: Saying No, Breaking Ranks, and Heeding the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times. The book explores situations in which people have made painful and challenging decisions of conscience—and why many others often choose not to.

Listen to the podcast to learn what inspired Press to write this book, lauded by the New York Times as “a hymn to the mystery of disobedience.” To read an adapted excerpt, click here. To read the previous Nation Conversation with Press, click here.

Subscribe to Nation Conversations on iTunes for exclusive audio of Nation editors and writers digging into the topics and issues that shape the magazine. Check back for a new episode each Thursday.

—Elizabeth Whitman

Image: Courtesy of Paul Grüninger Stiftung.

Support The Nation’s June Fundraising Campaign

With the midterm elections now firmly upon us, the question is whether Democratic candidates will do more than merely occupy ballot lines as mild alternatives to the red-hot crisis that is Donald Trump.

As Trump spends over $1 billion a day on a globally destabilizing war on Iran and admits that he doesn’t “think about Americans’ financial situation,” millions across the country are struggling with the surging costs of essentials. Democrats must seize this moment and advance bold, small-“d” populist ideas—not settle for cynical caution that once again snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.

The Nation elevates progressive ideas, movements, and elected officials achieving real change across the country into the national conversation. At the same time, our journalists are exposing how crypto and AI-funded super PACs are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to knock out candidates they oppose, reporting on the devastating impact of the Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act, and sounding the alarm on attempts by red states to quickly redraw electoral maps, disenfranchising Southern Black voters.

We can play this critical role because of support from readers like you. This June, we’re raising $20,000 to power The Nation’s independent journalism in the run-up to November’s immensely consequential elections.

It’s in our power to build a more just society, and your support at this critical moment brings us closer to that bold vision. I hope you’ll donate today.

Onward,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editor and Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x