The new film by Laura Poitras, Risk, profiles Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks. Poitras, who won the Oscar for best documentary for her film about Edward Snowden, Citizenfour, calls Assange “admirable, brilliant, and flawed.”

Also: Stephen F. Cohen says a new cold war is threatening world peace, and a new McCarthyism is undermining American politics.

And Eric Foner says it might be possible to impeach Donald Trump—but having Mike Pence as president would probably be worse.

Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, and SoundCloud for new episodes each Thursday. Start Making Sense is hosted by Jon Wiener and co-produced by the Los Angeles Review of Books.