Podcast / The Time of Monsters / Apr 6, 2025

The Making of Chuck Schumer

On this episode of The Time of Monsters, David Klion on the Senate minority leader’s revealing new book.

The Nation Podcasts
The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

The Making of Chuck Schumer w/ David Klion | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
byThe Nation Magazine

By helping the Republicans pass a spending bill that made no compromises with the Democrats and extend Donald Trump’s power over the government, Chuck Schumer has made himself widely unpopular in his own party. Anger at Schumer is so intense that he had to cancel parts of his tour to promote his new book Antisemitism in America: A Warning. David Klion, Nation columnist and frequent guest on the podcast, reviewed this volume for The Baffler. He joins to podcast to discuss both the book and the making of Chuck Schumer.

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US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat from New York, speaks during a news conference about the Trump administration’s tariffs and budget plans, at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on April 4, 2025.

(Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images)

By helping the Republicans pass a spending bill that made no compromises with the Democrats and extended Donald Trump’s power over the government, Chuck Schumer has made himself widely unpopular in his own party. Anger at Schumer is so intense that he had to cancel parts of his tour to promote his new book Antisemitism in America: A Warning. David Klion, Nation columnist and frequent guest on the podcast, reviewed this volume for The Baffler. He joins the podcast to discuss both the book and the making of Chuck Schumer.

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The Nation Podcasts
The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

The Iran War Stalemate w/ Trita Parsi / The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
byThe Nation Magazine

The Trump administration has announced a new set of harsh sanctions against Iran. This is a strange development since originally Trump launched a war on Iran on the pretext that sanctions weren’t working. Trita Parsi of the Qunicy Institute argues the current tactic won’t work and is a holding action as both the US and Iran bide their time in a long conflict. Parsi’s writings can be found on his Substack. In the interview, we discuss his column on the surprising way many governments are rooting for Iran to check US imperialism.

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Jeet Heer

Jeet Heer is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation and host of the weekly Nation podcast, The Time of Monsters. He also pens the monthly column “Morbid Symptoms.” The author of In Love with Art: Francoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman (2013) and Sweet Lechery: Reviews, Essays and Profiles (2014), Heer has written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The American Prospect, The GuardianThe New Republic, and The Boston Globe.

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