New York, NY—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, today announced the launch of “Oligarch Watch,” a new monthly column that is a natural continuation of the magazine’s long and proud tradition of speaking truth to power to build a more just society. In our 160th anniversary year and in this unprecedented era of rising inequality, advocating for a more equitable world remains core to the magazine’s mission.

Penned by longtime economic researcher and campaigner Chuck Collins, a leading thinker and writer on inequality in America, “Oligarch Watch” will profile the plutocrats wielding their wealth and power to further enrich themselves at the expense of workers, our communities, and our environment. Crisscrossing industries and centers of power in the US, Collins will tackle oligarchy in action to spotlight the crushing monopoly power billionaires yield, and showcase how these individuals disrupt every corner of our lives—from housing to healthcare, democracy to the climate—holding this country hostage and profiting the 1 percent at the expense of the greater public good.

Collins’s first installment, “Ralph de la Torre: The Making of a Healthcare Oligarch,” looks at one man’s rise to unaccountable power and the price the rest of us pay—in money and in blood. His second, “Meet the ‘Coal-i-garch’ Jim Grech, CEO of Peabody Energy,” reports on Trump’s extraordinary and unprecedented payback schemes to further enrich the fossil fuel oligarchs who helped get him elected.

“As someone who has learned a great deal from Chuck Collins’s work over the years, and as a huge fan of The Wealth Hoarders in particular, I can’t think of anyone better equipped to guide Nation readers through the byzantine byways of America’s ruling oligarchy,” said The Nation’s special correspondent and outgoing editor, D.D. Guttenplan.

“We’re witnessing the capture and corruption of our political system by the billionaire oligarch class,” added Collins. “I’m excited to shine a spotlight on some of the lesser-known oligarchs and rising plutocrats who are deploying their wealth, power, and position to extract more wealth from the rest of us and society. At 160 years old, The Nation has weathered historic gilded ages and is the perfect platform to investigate the harms caused by oligarchy and their hired agents.”

For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT: Chuck Collins pens the monthly column “Oligarch Watch” for The Nation. He is the director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, where he co-edits Inequality.org. An expert on US inequality, author of over 10 books and dozens of reports covering climate disruption, philanthropy, the racial wealth divide, affordable housing, and billionaire wealth dynasties, his forthcoming book is Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power Are Ruining Our Lives and Planet (New Press, October 2025). Previous books include The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions, Born on Third Base, and, with Bill Gates Sr., Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes. Collins lives in Guilford, Vermont.

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

New York, NY—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, together with OR Books, today announced that they are joining forces in a new book publishing imprint: Nation Books. Launching this fall, the imprint, which will be distributed by OR, will release four to six titles a year with new, younger Nation writers complementing more established voices from the magazine’s rich roster.

Katrina vanden Heuvel, publisher and editorial director of The Nation, welcomed the initiative: “At this perilous moment, The Nation’s indispensable voice and legacy has never been more essential. Our partnership with OR is a great opportunity to deepen the reach and impact of The Nation’s most exciting writers and thinkers, past and present—and inspire a new generation.”

Colin Robinson, publisher at OR, adds: “The first book we published when we started OR was a searing anthology by Nation editors and writers about Sarah Palin, which went on to the New York Times bestseller list. With plentiful new targets, we are very much looking forward to repeating that experience, drawing on the terrific journalists at a superb progressive magazine.”

On Tuesday, June 17, they will celebrate the launch of the new collaboration with a conversation between vanden Heuvel and Ross Barkan, a frequent contributor to The Nation and the author of CUOMO, published by OR Books, at The Francis Kite Club in New York City.

Among the first books appearing under the new imprint are:

THE NINE HAVE SPOKEN
Edited by Richard Kreitner
Nation contributors, including legendary DC bureau chief I.F. Stone, Representative Jamie Raskin, columnist Katha Pollitt, justice correspondent Elie Mystal, and columnist and law professor Patricia J. Williams, demonstrate that our current right-wing Supreme Court is no aberration but rather part of a long history where demands for a more democratic, accountable federal judiciary have been constant—and unheeded—for more than 150 years.

OBSOLETE
Garrison Lovely
Many today don’t get further than seeing AI as little more than a boondoggle or a marketing scheme but, right now, the unelected techno-capitalists leading the AI boom are deciding how to build and deploy a technology that they genuinely fear might end the world. Garrison Lovely’s debut is a deep dive into the Silicon Valley hivemind, and a wake-up call for those who fail to register AI as a threat. 

THE MYTH OF RED TEXAS
David Griscom
When Republicans took control of the state’s House, Senate, and executive branch back in 1994, Texas became a de facto uni-party state. Since then, mainstream news has peddled two false narratives: Either Texas always was—and always will be—a fortress for the right, or the demographic shift from Anglo to non-white will inevitably pull it into the liberal fold. David Griscom’s debut book reassesses both of these misconceptions and finds that Texas today is a result of class struggle; to win a better future in the Lone Star state, he writes, the left must embrace its hidden past.

For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT: Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

OR Books is a publishing company that embraces progressive change in politics, culture, and the way we do business.

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New York, NY—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, announced announced today the launch of The Nation Podcast with editor and host D.D. Guttenplan as your guide to each month’s print edition. The new signature show will crack the cover of the magazine to offer a behind-the-scenes look at the making of—and reporting for—each issue. Building on our existing roster of award-winning, thought-provoking programming and commentary, the interview series will feature insightful conversations across politics, technology, economics, culture, books and the arts, foreign policy, and more, with a rotating cast of Nation columnists, writers, and contributors.

“We had so much fun getting deep into the weeds on See How They Run,” said Guttenplan, referring to the magazine’s election season podcast offering “horse-race coverage—from the left.” “The Nation Podcast is a natural expansion of that endeavor,” he continued, “and a chance to steer listeners towards some of the most vivid reporting, sophisticated analysis, and best-informed cultural criticism and commentary out there. It’s also a chance to hear the actual writers’ voices—which can sometimes be startlingly different from their print personas.”

“It’s clear our readers want to go deeper, and these interviews offer a chance for our writers to provide more context for their work that maybe doesn’t always make it into print,” said Ludwig Hurtado, executive producer of The Nation Podcasts. “As our audience and output continues to grow, my goal remains to offer interesting and expansive audio content that informs, surprises, and delights our listeners.”

In the first episode, out today, Guttenplan speaks to our May cover story’s Vincent Bevins about the rise of Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement—known as the MST—which is the largest social movement in Latin America, and possibly the world. For decades, its members have fought to reclaim land from agribusiness and “upstart capitalists,” educate the masses, and resist violent repression. Against the backdrop of Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right regime, the MST won the hearts of millions of Brazilians—rural and urban, rich and poor. But now that Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is back in power, what does the future hold for MST? Bevins, who has reported for The Washington Post, the Financial Times, and the Los Angeles Times, where he served for five years as a foreign correspondent in Brazil, is the author of The Jakarta Method and If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution.

Forthcoming episodes this month will feature Bryce Covert discussing her Nation investigation into the ongoing failure of McDonald’s to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, reported in partnership with Type Investigations. And columnist John Ganz will break down Donald Trump’s dog-eat-dog worldview as laid bare in the president’s “Art of” books trilogy.

In the last few years, The Nation has more than doubled our offering of podcast programming, which now includes weekly shows Start Making Sense, with Jon Wiener; Edge of Sports, with Dave Zirin; The Time of Monsters, with Jeet Heer; Tech Won’t Save Us, with Paris Marx; and American Prestige, with Daniel Bessner and Derek Davison. We’ve also produced limited series, including Contempt of Court, with Elie Mystal; System Check, with Melissa Harris-Perry and Dorian Warren; Going for Broke, with Ray Suarez; Next Left, with John Nichols; More Than Enough, with Mia Birdsong; and Guttenplan’s successful election-season podcast, See How They Run. Together, Nation podcasts offer an inimitable understanding of news, politics, and people with an ear to the stories you won’t hear anywhere else.

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For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT: D.D. Guttenplan (@ddguttenplan) is editor of The Nation. He previously covered the 2016 election as the magazine’s editor at large and, for two decades before that, was part of its London bureau. He is the author, most recently, of The Next Republic: The Rise of a New Radical Majority and The Nation: A Biography (The First 150 Years).

The former editor-in-chief of the London-based Jewish Quarterly, Guttenplan is producer of the acclaimed documentary film Edward Said: The Last Interview and wrote and presented War, Lies, and Audiotape, a radio documentary for the BBC about the origins of the Vietnam War. A former education correspondent for the International Herald Tribune, former columnist for New York Newsday, and former senior editor at The Village Voice, his essays and reporting have appeared in The Atlantic, The Economist, The Guardian, Haaretz, Harper’s Magazine, the London Review of Books, The New York Times, and the Times Literary Supplement.

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

New York, NY—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, announced today that Nation editor D.D. Guttenplan will become the magazine’s new special correspondent, effective August 1, after he puts the magazine’s 160th anniversary special issue to press. Editorial director and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel, who was The Nation’s editor from 1995 to 2019, will return as editor and will remain publisher.

As special correspondent, Guttenplan will return to his political reporting roots, contributing regular features to the print and online editions of The Nation. Building on the success of his limited series election podcast, See How They Run, Guttenplan will also continue contributing to The Nation’s audio programming by hosting a new interview series this April. 

In his tenure as editor—the magazine’s 16th in its 160-year history—Guttenplan cast his eye toward the magazine’s future: bringing on engaging new voices, reimagining the print edition as an expanded monthly, relaunching TheNation.com, and directing enormous growth in our brand extensions and podcasts. The Nation has gained a double-digit percentage of subscribers since Trump’s election, 14 percent year over year, and the number of individual donors have increased by 42 percent.

Vanden Heuvel returns to The Nation with a renewed mission to confront the Trump administration head-on, through tough and deep reporting, countering and combating the growing threat of oligarchy. In a climate where publications are folding, contracting, and pandering to Trump, The Nation is steadfast in its commitment to speak truth to power, defend free speech against censorship, and protect and promote peace, justice, and small-d democratic ideals. As vanden Heuvel wrote when Trump first came to power in 2016, “The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good, not-so-good, and bad times—to offer alternative visions and ideas, to deepen our journalistic mission of truth-telling and deep reporting.”

“In these times, when too much of our media is on bended knee, I believe The Nation’s role as an independent force is an exceptionally powerful one,” said vanden Heuvel. “We have a mandate—as we did in 1865, at our founding—to rebuild, revive, and reclaim democracy. The Nation has been and will remain an essential source for the great debates and fateful struggles that now confront our country—and our world.”

“The past six years editing The Nation has been one of the great adventures of my life,” said Guttenplan. “I’ll always be grateful to Katrina for giving me this opportunity, to Victor Navasky for urging me to take it, and to our staff and contributors and donors for their hard work, brilliant writing, and steadfast support. I’m immensely proud of the work we’ve done together, from covering Black Lives Matter and Covid to our continuing—and sadly, still unrivaled in the mainstream press—coverage of the Palestinian struggle to our role in helping to found Covering Climate Now to our deep reporting on abortion access. And though the magazine business, and journalism as a whole, have been through truly desperate times, The Nation has not only endured but adapted and thrived. I’m very proud of that, too.”

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“Don Guttenplan has been an important Nation editor, bringing new energy, ideas, and bold leadership to the magazine,” added vanden Heuvel. “He has shown a deep commitment to cultivating a new generation of voices, and his keen understanding of the historic and critical role of independent journalism in our society has been invaluable. His tenure leaves the magazine in a position to move forward with strength.”

In his time leading The Nation, Guttenplan added talented writers, spirited columnists, and incisive reporters to the masthead, voices indispensable to this crisis political moment in our country. These include justice correspondent Elie Mystal, national affairs correspondent Jeet Heer, DC bureau chief Chris Lehmann (former editor of The New Republic and The Baffler), and strikes correspondent Jane McAlevey. In 2021, The Nation became the first national publication to hire a Palestine correspondent, Mohammed El-Kurd.

During Guttenplan’s tenure, The Nation received award recognition from countless organizations, including the Park Center for Independent Media, the Society of Environmental Journalists, Covering Climate Now, the National Women’s Political Caucus, the National Association of Black Journalists, the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists, the Bernhardt Labor Journalism Awards, the Human Rights Press Award, the Society of Professional Journalists, the American Bar Association, the Education Writers Association, and Newhouse School of Journalism’s Mirror Awards for Excellence in Media Industry Reporting. For the first time in its history, The Nation was also named a finalist for the National Magazine Awards for General Excellence, Literature, Science and Politics, long recognized as one of the publishing industry’s highest honors.

Guttenplan and vanden Heuvel are available for comment from New York City. For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT: Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

New York, NY—february 13, 2025—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, today named three new monthly columnists: Zephyr Teachout (@ZephyrTeachout), John Ganz (@lionel_trolling), and David Klion (@DavidKlion). In our 160th anniversary year and in this unprecedented era of rising autocracy and oligarchy, our work to hold the powerful to account matters more than ever. Teachout, Ganz, and Klion join an award-winning cast of Nation columnists—Elie Mystal, Katha Pollitt, Jeet Heer, Kali Holloway, Chris Lehmann, Alexis Grenell, Kate Wagner, and Adolph Reed Jr.—tasked with speaking truth to power, driving visionary ideas into the mainstream, and lifting up progressive, democratic ideals.

Teachout’s column, “Anti-Monopolist,” will focus on corruption and monopoly power, corporate behemoths and the mercenary politicians beholden to them. Her first installment, out this morning, addresses Elon Musk’s machinations and Donald Trump’s daily outrages—and how to fight back effectively: “Pay Less Attention to That Man in Front of the Curtain.”

Ganz’s column, “The Last Days of Discourse,” whose title is a play on Whit Stillman’s The Last Days of Disco, a movie “about what it means to live at the end of an era, and what we may hope for under decadent conditions,” will deal with the intersection of tech and right-wing politics in a fractured public square. His first piece assesses today’s tech oligarchs’ deeply elitist vision of society: “This Is What Government by Electronic Plebiscite Looks Like.”

Klion’s column, “Cultural Contradictions,” will address how our major cultural and intellectual institutions respond to the pressures of Trump and Musk’s war on liberalism. His first installment, “What the Neocons Do—and Don’t—Explain About Trump,” looks at the president’s unpredictable foreign policy agenda and deep-rooted war on liberal culture.

“Zephyr Teachout has been on our editorial board for a while now, but given our steep descent towards oligarchy, her focus on corruption and corporate power is too valuable not to share with our readers regularly,” said Nation editor D.D. Guttenplan. “The day I spent in 2016 riding around the Hudson Valley with Zephyr and her campaign manager remains one of the high points in my political education.”

“Like a lot of people, I first came to know John Ganz as a controversialist on the Internet,” he continued. “I liked what I read, and was delighted to discover that he’s also eager to bring his keen eye and analytical scalpel to our pages. David Klion first caught my eye with a piece in The New York Times arguing that the left should care more about Russiagate. I wasn’t convinced, but I was so impressed with the careful way he made his argument I thought that his voice, and his perspective, would be worth bringing to The Nation. I’m delighted to have him inside the tent, standing watch at the intersection of culture and politics.”

“I am so proud to be joining The Nation as columnist, where some of the most extraordinary writers in American history have championed free speech, spoken plainly about corruption, and challenged oligarchy,” said Teachout. “The Nation represents a commitment to the power of words, debate, ideas, and freethinking in a time when all are needed. I’ll do my best to do it proud.”

“I’m thrilled to be joining The Nation where so many of my intellectual heroes once wrote,” added Ganz. “I strongly believe in the importance of magazines in creating a responsible public discourse and a free, independent press has never felt more crucial. I’ll try to do my best to uphold the traditions that The Nation represents.”

“After years of working with practically every editor on this magazine’s masthead, it’s a thrill and an honor to see my name alongside theirs,” said Klion. “The Nation has been one of our core progressive institutions for more than a century and a half, and we need it more than ever right now.”

A distinguished academic and anti-corruption powerhouse, Zephyr Teachout has been at the forefront of advancing progressive reform for more than two decades and has contributed to The Nation for nearly as long. She was named to the editorial board in 2018. Teachout’s Nation articles have ranged from TikTok to 21st-century trust busting, tackling abuses of power and advocating for equitable economic policies along the way. A professor of law at Fordham Law School, where she focuses on the intersection of corporate and political power, she is a regular contributor to amicus briefs on key issues involving the First Amendment and big tech, a leader in the national antimonopoly movement, and an internationally recognized anti-corruption expert. She ran for office in New York in 2014 (for the Democratic Party nomination for governor), 2016 (for the US House of Representatives), and 2018 (as the New York Times–endorsed candidate for New York State attorney general). Teachout quite literally wrote the book on corruption in America—Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United—and, more recently, Break ’Em Up Recovering Our Freedom from Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money. She lives with her family in East Harlem, NY.

John Ganz is the New York Times best-selling author of When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s and writes the widely acclaimed Unpopular Front newsletter for Substack. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, Artforum, the New Statesman, and other publications. He lives in New York City.

Longtime Nation contributor David Klion’s coverage has appeared in every section of the magazine, from the cover to the back of the book, covering a breadth of interests ranging from foreign policy to media criticism, the corruption of the Republican Party to the righteousness of Anthony Bourdain. (Indeed, worlds collide as he reviewed fellow new columnist John Ganz’s When the Clock Broke for The Nation last summer.) Klion has written for publications including The New York Times, New York Magazine, The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, n+1, Bookforum, The Baffler, and Jewish Currents, where he is a contributing editor. He is at work on his first book on the history and legacy of neoconservatism for Doubleday. A native of Washington, DC, he lives with his wife and daughter in Brooklyn, NY.

The Nation’s founding prospectus declared: “The Nation will not be the organ of any party, sect or body. It will, on the contrary, make an earnest effort to bring to discussion of political and social questions a really critical spirit, and to wage war upon the vices of violence, exaggeration and misrepresentation by which so much of the political writing of the day is marred.” That same mission informs our work today. The Nation’s columnists will offer nuanced insights into our broken political system—and how it can be fixed—while providing crucial context to the machinations and obfuscations of a second Trump administration.

For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT: Zephyr Teachout, a Nation columnist and editorial board member, is a constitutional lawyer and law professor at Fordham University and the author of Break ’Em Up: Recovering Our Freedom From Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money.

Nation columnist John Ganz is the New York Times best-selling author of When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s. He writes the Unpopular Front newsletter on Substack, and his work has appeared in The Washington Post, Harper’s Magazine, Artforum, the New Statesman, and other publications.

David Klion is a columnist for The Nation and a contributor at various publications. He is working on a book about the legacy of neoconservatism.

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

New York, NY—June 1, 2024—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, today announced the launch of See How They Run hosted by Nation editor in chief D.D. Guttenplan. A natural addition to our existing roster of provocative political programming, the new weekly podcast will be devoted to this year’s momentous election cycle and feature a rotating cast of Nation columnists, writers, and contributors, plus pollsters, election experts, and special guests dissecting the high highs and low lows of the campaign trail. Challenging conventional wisdom, See How They Run will pursue a greater understanding of the figures and forces behind what has repeatedly and emphatically been deemed the most critical American election of our lifetimes.

“Every week in The Nation we run terrific, in-depth, sophisticated analysis of news, culture, and politics,” explains host Guttenplan. “But on See How They Run we’re going to try something a little different. Instead of avoiding the kind of obsessive attention to polls and punditry so often derided as ‘horserace coverage’ by political scientists and high-minded commentators, we’re going to lean into all of it. Think of it as horserace coverage—from the left.”

The first two episodes, out today, feature Waleed Shahid, the former communications director of Justice Democrats and a member of The Nation’s editorial board, who has been a driving force behind the “Uncommitted” movement to protest the Biden administration’s unconditional support for Israel’s war on Gaza; James Zogby, the founder and president of the Arab American Institute and a former member of the executive committee of the Democratic National Committee, who has thoughts on Biden’s electoral prospects; Nation national affairs correspondent John Nichols on the Republican Party’s transformation into a wholly owned subsidiary of the Trump Organization; and academic and author Jeff Sharlet on the epochal intersection of Christian nationalism, evangelical churches, and Trumpism.

Listen to Episode 1: “Where Does the Uncommitted Movement Go From Here?”

Listen to Episode 2: “How Trump Swallowed the GOP Whole”

Forthcoming episodes of See How They Run will feature Nation regulars—Elie Mystal, Joan Walsh, Jeet Heer, Chris Lehmann, Sasha Abramsky, Steve Phillips—and surprise guests. The Nation will also present a special live, recorded event for See How They Run this fall. New episodes air every Saturday. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and check out our other regular programming and limited-run series at thenation.com/podcasts.

See How They Run is the latest addition to The Nation’s award-winning roster of podcast programming covering politics, sports, culture, economics, technology, foreign policy, and the courts. These include The Nation’s flagship weekly news program, Start Making Sense, with contributing editor Jon Wiener; The Time of Monsters with national-affairs correspondent Jeet Heer; American Prestige, with cohosts Daniel Bessner and Derek Davison; Edge of Sports, with sports editor Dave Zirin; and Tech Won’t Save Us, with host Paris Marx. Limited-run podcast series include Contempt of Court, with justice correspondent and columnist Elie Mystal; Going for Broke, with veteran journalist Ray Suarez; Next Left, with national-affairs correspondent John Nichols; More Than Enough, with host Mia Birdsong; and System Check, with cohosts Melissa Harris-Perry and Dorian Warren.

For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

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ABOUT: D.D. Guttenplan (@ddguttenplan) is editor of The Nation. A self-confessed “election junkie,” he previously covered the 2016 election as the magazine’s editor at large and, for two decades before that, was part of its London bureau. He is the author, most recently, of The Next Republic: The Rise of a New Radical Majority and The Nation: A Biography (The First 150 Years).

The former editor in chief of the London-based Jewish Quarterly, Guttenplan is producer of the acclaimed documentary film Edward Said: The Last Interview and wrote and presented War, Lies, and Audiotape, a radio documentary for the BBC about the origins of the Vietnam War. A former education correspondent for the International Herald Tribune, former columnist for New York Newsday, and former senior editor at The Village Voice, his essays and reporting have appeared in The Atlantic, The Economist, The Guardian, Haaretz, Harper’s Magazine, the London Review of Books, The New York Times, and the Times Literary Supplement.

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

New York, NY—April 4, 2024—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, today announced that Razia Iqbal (@raziaiqbal) joins our esteemed editorial board to advise on issues of democracy, diplomacy, and dissent, drawing from her decades-long career working in independent public interest journalism.

“As the former voice of the BBC World Service Razia Iqbal was a part of my mornings for many years,” says Nation editor D.D. Guttenplan. “Now that she’s based in North America, we’re thrilled to have a journalist of her depth of experience and breadth of interests to help shape our coverage.”

“Joining the editorial board of The Nation is particularly exciting at this moment in the US and the world,” adds Iqbal. “A moment that requires both clarity and commitment, given the challenges to democracy, western hegemony, and conventional structures of power. And also a moment that demands rigorous interrogation of what kind of society and world we want to have a say in shaping. I’m delighted to be in such stellar company.”

Iqbal is the John L. Weinberg Professor at Princeton University in the School of Public and International Affairs (Princeton, NJ). She has been a journalist with the BBC for more than 30 years, on both radio and television, where she most recently anchored the flagship international current affairs program Newshour on BBC World Service Radio. She has reported on US presidential elections, and has experience reporting in Turkey, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Germany, and many other places. Iqbal was previously the BBC’s Arts correspondent, covering international and UK culture for more than a decade.

In her first published piece for The Nation, Iqbal demonstrates how Israel’s incursion into Gaza a decade ago reveals problematic assumptions underpinning media coverage of the current conflict. Namely: the willingness to defer to the nation-state; in the case of Israel and Palestine (a name she notes is not even used in BBC coverage), this unfairly advantages the former. “‘Let’s Wait Till Israel Says Something’: Why the Media Has Failed the Test of the War in Gaza” assesses the nuances of achieving a balanced approach while raising essential questions about how we use language and whose stories and lives the news spotlights.

The Nation’s editorial board is comprised of leading American and international journalists, academics, and activists charged with implementing the magazine’s 159-year-old mandate to uphold “true democratic principles in society and government, and the advocacy and illustration of whatever in legislation or in manners seems likely to promote a more equal distribution of the fruits of progress and civilization.” Iqbal joins fellow editorial board members Emily Bell, Deepak Bhargava, Kai Bird, Frances FitzGerald, Bill Fletcher, Jr., Eric Foner, Bill Gallegos, Greg Grandin, Richard Kim, Tony Kushner, Elinor Langer, Malia Lazu, Richard Lingeman, Deborah W. Meier, Walter Mosley, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Pedro Antonio Noguera, Richard Parker, Elizabeth Pochoda, Albert Scardino, Rinku Sen, Waleed Shahid, Zephyr Teachout, Dorian T. Warren, and Gary Younge.

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For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

About: Razia Iqbal is a Nation editorial-board member. She was a special correspondent at the BBC for over three decades; from 2011 to 2023 she also anchored Newshour on the BBC World Service, the corporation’s flagship current affairs program. She is currently teaching at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, where she holds the John L. Weinberg/Goldman Sachs & Co. Visiting Professorship.

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

New York, N.Y.—January 9, 2024—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, today announced the addition of two new weekly podcasts offering fresh perspectives on our tangible and intangible worlds: American Prestige with cohosts Daniel Bessner and Derek Davison, and Tech Won’t Save Us with host Paris Marx. The complementary programs will challenge conventional wisdom about the figures and forces shaping power, policy, and politics around the globe and in our everyday lives. Subscribe to The Nation’s podcast channel orwherever you get your podcasts: New episodes of American Prestige air Tuesdays; new episodes of Tech Won’t Save Us air Thursdays. The first episode of American Prestige presented by The Nation, “Kissinger and Nixon in Southeast Asia with Carolyn Eisenberg,” is out today.

Since 2021, American Prestige has filled a niche in the landscape of foreign policy podcasts. Skeptical of the narrow range of views on offer by most, cohosts Daniel Bessner and Derek Davison present fresh ideas that begin with a revolutionary premise: What would US foreign policy look like if the interests of all the people in the world, and not only those of a tiny subset of Americans, were taken into account? Popular guests and episodes include Noam Chomsky on the antiwar movement; Rashid Khalidi on the history of modern Palestine; Ada Ferrer on Cuba; Adam Tooze on the future of American hegemony; Jay Caspian Kang on the history of Asian American studies; and Katie Halper on voices of dissent in mainstream media.

Tech Won’t Save Us, which launched in the spring of 2020, similarly offers a challenge to dominant narratives—those of Silicon Valley—by presenting a better understanding of how power is wielded through technology, and why behemoths of the industry must be questioned and their motives exposed. Recognizing that tech is inherently political and that ignoring that has serious consequences, host Paris Marx encourages listeners to think beyond the confines of capitalism, to consider how we can dismantle oppressive technologies and develop technological power for the public good. The show recently ran an in-depth series, “Elon Musk Unmasked,” demystifying the billionaire by digging into his history and presenting an alternative narrative on his rise. Previous guests also include Naomi Klein, Timnit Gebru, Emily M. Bender, Aaron Benanav, Dan McQuillan, and Ben Tarnoff, as well as regular Nation contributors Kate Wagner, Jacob Silverman, Tim Schwab, and Edward Ongweso Jr.

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“The Nation’s podcast audience has grown substantially in the last few years,” said Nation multimedia editor, Ludwig Hurtado. “My goal is to continue to offer this community of listeners fresh, informative, and incisive takes on current affairs. I’m pleased to provide these two new shows for our podcast fans. Both fit in perfectly within our programming while providing unique perspectives on issues that matter deeply to our audience.”

“I’ve been reading The Nation since high school, and it’s a trip to actually officially be associated with the magazine, joining an almost comically long list of luminaries—Eric Foner, Toni Morrison, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Vivian Gornick—who have contributed to the magazine,” added American Prestige’s Daniel Bessner. “It’s especially exciting to be doing it in podcast form, a medium whose potential is only beginning to be realized. I also can’t imagine any other place that would be as perfect a fit. Like our podcast, The Nation has a long-standing commitment to questioning cherished ideas and ideals when these don’t conform to left-wing principles of justice, solidarity, and equality. Like us, The Nation has long taken an interest in how US foreign policy has shaped, and is shaped by, the rest of the world.”

“I’m excited that American Prestige is partnering with The Nation,” said cohost Derek Davison. “As someone who has long admired The Nation’s commitment to a better, more equitable world, I can’t imagine a better partner in challenging the conventional wisdom around US foreign policy. At this inflection point in history, it is a privilege to have this opportunity to extend AP’s voice to The Nation’s audience, and I hope this will serve to uplift both outlets.”

“The hosts of American Prestige and Tech Won’t Save Us both quite literally speak truth to power to expand the ways in which listeners think and talk about these forces shaping our world,” added Hurtado. “Along with our existing programming, these shows will continue to empower a more informed public to think critically about issues of equity, justice, and democracy.”

“I’m thrilled to be partnering with The Nation to bring the critical perspectives on the tech industry and its depraved titans featured on Tech Won’t Save Us to an even wider audience,” said host Paris Marx. “Tech companies got off way too easy in the 2010s, but those days are over: The drawbacks of the digital transformation foisted upon us have been laid bare for all to see. The Nation has a long history of holding power to account, and there are few parts of American society that need that more right now than Silicon Valley.”

Beyond American Prestige and Tech Won’t Save Us, The Nation’s ever-expanding roster of regular podcasts cover politics, sports, culture, economics, and the courts. Justice correspondent and columnist Elie Mystal just concluded the inaugural season of Contempt of Court—a wisecracking, witty, and brutally insightful look at the most pressing questions facing our country’s highest (and inherently undemocratic) legislative body. The Nation will also continue to produce its flagship weekly news program Start Making Sense with contributing editor Jon Wiener; Edge of Sports with sports editor Dave Zirin; and The Time of Monsters with national affairs correspondent Jeet Heer. Our limited-run podcasts include Going for Broke with Ray Suarez—produced in partnership with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and named one of the 50 best podcasts of 2021 by The Atlantic—as well as Next Left, where politics gets personal with national affairs correspondent John Nichols; More Than Enough, a frank discussion about Universal Basic Income with host Mia Birdsong; and System Check, where cohosts Melissa Harris-Perry and Dorian Warren set about diagnosing and repairing our malfunctioning democracy. In partnership with WNYC Studios, The Nation previously developed the inaugural seasons of United States of Anxiety and There Goes the Neighborhood with host Kai Wright.

For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

About

Daniel Bessner is an historian of US foreign relations, and cohost of American Prestige, a podcast on international affairs. He is the author of Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual. From 2019 to 2020, he served as a foreign policy adviser to the presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders.

Derek Davison is a writer and analyst specializing in international affairs and US foreign policy. He is the publisher of the Foreign Exchanges newsletter, cohost of the American Prestige podcast, and former editor of LobeLog.

Paris Marx is a tech critic and host of the podcast Tech Won’t Save Us. The author of Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about the Future of Transportation, they write the Disconnect newsletter.

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, N.Y.—July 27, 2023—Nation contributor Boris Kagarlitsky was detained on July 26. Nation editor D.D. Guttenplan and editorial director and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel issued the following statement in response to this assault on the freedom of the press:

We learned via Telegram Wednesday morning that longtime Nation contributor Boris Kagarlitsky has been arrested by the FSB in Russia on suspicion of “justifying terrorism” under Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, for comments he posted on social media following the October attack on the Crimean Kerch bridge.

He has been taken to Syktyvkar, in the Komi region, more than 800 miles from his Moscow home. where his case is being overseen by the local FSB branch. (Kagarlitsky was detained after the head of the FSB in the Komi Republic determined that that one of his recent blog posts constituted justification of terrorism. The FSB initiated charges, leading to Kagarlitsky’s removal to the remote city.) He was ordered to be held in a pretrial detention center for two months. The charges could be very serious—he may face years in prison.

A former member of the Moscow City Soviet and veteran Marxist theorist and activist, Kagarlitsky has been very outspoken against the Ukraine war, running a YouTube site, Rabkor; heading the Moscow think tank, The Institute for Globalization Studies and Social Movements; giving voice to dissent; publishing at The Nation; as well as speaking in various forums internationally. Three other members of Rabkor were also detained, searched and interrogated, but have subsequently been released.

Kagarlitsky’s experience is a clear reminder of the need to defend a free press in the face of efforts by governments—including our own—to silence journalists escalate across the world. The Nation stands in support of and in solidarity with Boris Kagarlitsky and opposes the Russian state’s attack on an independent scholar and journalist for doing his job.

We will keep you posted on developments in his case as we become aware of them. Read a statement in the Moscow Times from his lawyer here.

ABOUT: Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

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Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, N.Y.—July 3, 2023—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, today named Kate Wagner (@mcmansionhell) to its masthead as architecture correspondent. Best known as the brains behind the brilliant and satirical architecture blog, “McMansion Hell,” and following a wildly successful stint as a Nation guest columnist earlier this year, Wagner will contribute monthly commentary on architecture and the built environment—but not as always conventionally understood. Her latest for The Nation—out today—wonders whether the “creative class” learned anything from buying into a product that was obviously destined to flop: “Lessons From the Catastrophic Failure of the Metaverse.”

“As Kate Wagner has already argued in our pages, architecture hits all of us where we live,” said Nation editor D.D. Guttenplan. “And the magazine’s roster of architecture critics has been not only extremely distinguished, but also extremely entertaining. So it is a great pleasure to welcome Kate, a writer who can turn even the mania for monochrome interiors into a compelling critique, as a worthy successor to Michael Sorkin, the magazine’s late critic and my dear friend.”

“From undemocratic regimes using architecture to cleanse their image to bupkus tech trends to the kitsch revival, from wildfire smoke to the housing crisis, architecture intersects it all,” said Wagner. “The Nation is an ideal perch for me to explain how everything we see and everything we build is political.”

“Kate is singularly insightful about the politics of the built environment,” said managing editor Rose D’Amora. “It was a joy working with her earlier this year, and I learn something new each and every time I work with her. It was only natural to offer her a more regular role, and I can’t wait to see what she does next.”

Wagner is a critic and journalist based in Chicago, Ill., and Ljubljana, Slovenia. After building a popular following at “McMansion Hell,” Wagner served as a columnist in the fields of architecture and culture at a number of publications including The Baffler, Curbed, and The New Republic. Her speaking credits include podcasts and lectures at universities around the country, TEDxMidAtlantic, and the 2020 Brendan Gill Memorial Lecture at Yale. When she is not writing about the built environment, she writes about Slovenian cycling (see: @derailleurkate) and learns Slovenian. Recently, Wagner also made her debut as a poet in Literatura and Versopolis.

Wagner’s previous writing for The Nation ranged from an ode to the democratizing force of Clip Art to a critique of credentialism and gatekeeping in architecture. Eclectic and ecumenical, she’s also covered architecture and artificial intelligence; single-stair layouts, windowless bedrooms, and the housing crisis; billionaire fashion; the deplorable state of the US’s biking infrastructure; and the death grip of the real estate-industrial complex.

ABOUT: Kate Wagner is an architecture critic and journalist based in Chicago, Ill., and Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

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Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, N.Y.—June 27, 2023—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, today announced the launch of the new podcast Contempt of Court with Elie Mystal, featuring the brilliant legal mind and musings of The Nation’s justice correspondent and columnist. Each week, Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) will showcase his singular blend of wisecracks, wisdom, and legal expertise to discuss the most pressing questions about our country’s highest court. New episodes air every Tuesday wherever you get your podcasts. Listen to the trailer, out today.

The unelected and unaccountable nine politicians on the Supreme Court comprise the most powerful policy-making institution in the United States; Contempt of Court seeks to grapple with this gross miscarriage of democracy. The original podcast series will explain how to reform the court with a focus on historical insights, fresh analysis of the latest SCOTUS news, and distinct avenues for change. In each episode, Mystal will speak with the experts and advocates working to reform the Supreme Court in order to restore American democracy. Identifying six problems with the Supreme Court—and six ways to fix it—Contempt of Court will address court-packing, term limits, balancing plans, ethics reform, jurisdiction stripping, and delegitimizing the court. Stay tuned for surprise bonus episodes as well.

Contempt of Court is sponsored by The New Press, America’s leading independent nonprofit public-interest book publisher and publisher of Mystal’s New York Times best-selling book, Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution—out now in paperback.

“Elie Mystal’s brilliant legal mind is one of the worst-kept secrets here at The Nation,” said Nation editor D.D. Guttenplan. “And anyone who follows him on Twitter or has seen his many appearances on TV knows he’s also incredibly funny. But it’s great to be able to share those talents, and Elie’s incisive political and legal analysis, through the podcast to an even larger audience.”

“People are finally starting to understand that the Supreme Court must be reformed, that it must be stopped from eating our rights while its justices enjoy the free lunches (and vacations and luxury resorts) of their wealthy benefactors,” added Mystal. “What people don’t know is how: how do we fix this? I’m working on Contempt of Court to give people the information about what court reform is, how all the different plans can work, and how close we are to accomplishing some of these goals. I want people to listen to these episodes, and then call their Congresspeople and Senators and ask them to get on board with bringing the Supreme Court to heel.”

“I’m delighted to finally bring Contempt of Court to the Nation’s slate of podcasts,” said the show’s executive producer, Ludwig Hurtado. “It’s full of passionate discussion and surprising insights into this country’s highest tribunal. With his deep legal knowledge, singular perspective, and natural knack for compelling discourse, Elie was long overdue for an audio series. I often joke that he’s too good on the mic, and we may lose him to one of the cable news networks.”

“Few books in recent memory have had such impact on our understanding of the law as Elie’s. We are thrilled to support what is sure to become one of the sharpest, funniest podcasts about our legal system at a time when it’s never been more important to hear about what’s at stake,” added The New Press’s executive director Diane Wachtell.

Named “one of the most sought-after legal analysts in the country” by CNN, Mystal will continue to pen his monthly Nation column, Objection!, as well as report on and react to legal news of the day at the freshly redesigned TheNation.com. As the Supreme Court wraps up its term this June, his astute analysis and grounded moral compass are more essential than ever to understanding the news.

Contempt of Court is the latest addition to The Nation’s impressive roster of regular podcasts covering politics, sports, and culture, as well as limited-term explanatory series exploring economics, progressivism, and the lives of working people. These include The Nation’s flagship weekly news program, Start Making Sense, with contributing editor Jon Wiener; Edge of Sports, with sports editor Dave Zirin, and The Time of Monsters, with national affairs correspondent Jeet Heer. The Nation’s limited-run podcasts include Going for Broke, with Ray Suarez—produced in partnership with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and named one of the 50 best podcasts of 2021 by The Atlantic—as well as Next Left, where politics gets personal with national-affairs correspondent John Nichols; More Than Enough, a frank discussion about Universal Basic Income, with host Mia Birdsong; and System Check, where cohosts Melissa Harris-Perry and Dorian Warren set about diagnosing and repairing our malfunctioning democracy. In partnership with WNYC Studios, The Nation also developed the inaugural seasons of United States of Anxiety and There Goes the Neighborhood with host Kai Wright. Together, these Nation podcasts offer a distinctive understanding of news and politics and people with an eye to the stories you won’t hear anywhere else.

For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT: Elie Mystal is The Nation’s justice correspondent—covering the courts, the criminal justice system, and politics—and the force behind the magazine’s monthly column, Objection! The author of the New York Times best-selling Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution, he is also an Alfred Knobler Fellow at the Type Media Center. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Mystal was previously the executive editor of Above the Law and a former associate at Debevoise & Plimpton.

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

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Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, publicity [at] bookforum.com / press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-54001

New York, N.Y.—June 22, 2023—Artforum, a lynchpin of the contemporary art world since 1962, and The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture since 1865, today announced the resurrection of Bookforum under The Nation’s stewardship. The first issue of the relaunched quarterly will appear in August 2023.2

Under the leadership of Nation president Bhaskar Sunkara and editorial director and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation will facilitate the continuation of Bookforum with the steadfast intention of honoring the quarterly’s legacy, voice, and dedicated community of writers and readers. As of June 2023, The Nation will acquire Bookforum’s archives and intellectual property and will resume its publication with the magazine’s full existing editorial team. Editorial operations will remain separate from The Nation, which will continue to publish its award-winning “Books and the Arts” section in the back of the book and at TheNation.com.3

Founded in 1994 as the literary sister publication to Artforum, Bookforum was a leading voice of US literary criticism, covering the best in new fiction, nonfiction, current affairs, and the arts until December 2022. (At that time, Artforum was acquired as a standalone publication by Penske Media Corporation; Bookforum was not part of that acquisition.) Deemed “a vital bellwether of book culture” by The New Yorker and a “haven from culture war and dwindling standards of intellectual discourse” by The Washington Post, Bookforum has long spotlighted emerging authors and offered fresh takes on classic works. Through reviews, interviews, and essays, the magazine and Bookforum.com will continue to publish dynamic, smart coverage of cultural trends.4

“Bookforum has been an important publication for decades and we’re looking forward to helping it continue on into the future,” said The Nation’s Sunkara.5

“The Nation has lifted up the vital importance of independent thought, at all times, but especially these—and Bookforum’s commitment to open-minded cultural dialogue is a synergistic complement to our work,” added vanden Heuvel.6

“We are thrilled to have such a respected and value-aligned new home for Bookforum with The Nation,” said Kate Koza, Artforum’s associate publisher. “Bookforum is an essential publication within the literary landscape, and its editorial team is unmatched in their thoughtfulness, curation, and voice. We are grateful to The Nation for enabling this incredible team of editors and writers to continue the magazine’s mission.”7

“We are eternally grateful to Tony Korner and the former publishers for launching and supporting this beloved literary publication. We are so pleased that Bookforum will be in the hands of dedicated stewards,” added Artforum publisher Danielle McConnell. “We wish them, the editorial team, and the contributors the very best in Bookforum’s next chapter.”8

“Danielle was instrumental in the creation of Bookforum in 1994, and in recent years she, Tony, and Kate have been integral to the magazine’s success,” said Michael Miller, who will remain editor in chief of the relaunched publication. “They made the magazine possible, and for that, we are incredibly grateful. They also really care about Bookforum and its future, and we appreciate their hard work in finding an excellent home for the magazine.”9

For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.10

ABOUT: Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism. For decades, The Nation has devoted a considerable portion of its pages to books and the arts—publishing some of the smartest essays and criticism around. In addition to this in-depth regular coverage, twice a year, we devote special double issues to books and the arts—featuring in-depth analysis and trenchant writing on ideas, culture, music, history, film, and politics by some of the country’s leading writers and intellectuals.11

Since its first issue in the summer of 1994, Bookforum has been staking out new territory in the world of book reviews, inviting authors to address books and cultural trends with curiosity, critical insight, and a distinctive personality. Throughout, Bookforum has given voice to smart, original writers as they consider emerging authors and shed new light on well-known works.12

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I am deeply honored to receive this award. It was February 17, 2020 when I received the letter from John Cavanagh informing me of this joyous prize.

Much has happened since that time, in many people’s lives. I lost my beloved husband, Stephen F. Cohen; my remarkable father, William vanden Heuvel; and a mentor and friend, Victor Navasky. I have also had happiness—my daughter, Nika, got married in April. (She’s in Alabama, monitoring prison conditions.)

What has remained strong in these tempestuous times? IPS and The Nation, Representative Jamie Raskin, and our memories of Marc and Tommy Raskin. John, I’m grateful for your many years of leadership and our late night calls. Tope, we are excited about you taking this institution into the future. And to the committed fellows doing work to make this country and world more just, fair, and peaceful, thank you. Finally, great thanks to Bob Borosage—my friend, ally, political guru.

And of course—thanks to Representative Ro Khanna for his courageous support for renewing Congress’s role in matters of war and peace and his brilliance. His book Dignity in a Digital Age reminds us of how critical it will be that there is a more equal distribution of wealth associated with new technologies. And I humbly stand on the shoulders of Rev. William J. Barber II—a moral prophet who stands on the shoulders of Martin Luther King Jr.

I consider Jamie, a deeply valued contributor to The Nation and our nation for over 40 years, a member of the Nation family. In our pages and at Nation events, he is generous, brilliant, reasoned, passionate, compelling, and eloquent. And his grace has always moved us, never more so than when he suffered an unimaginable personal tragedy—on the last day of 2020 when Jamie lost his 25-year-old son, Tommy.

Jamie has long taught us about the fragility of democracy, the spine of our Constitution, the treachery of demagogues, and the necessity of justice. He and his colleagues left an indelible stain on Trump and exposed the utter cravenness of Republican senators. Due to Jamie and his team, the citizenry understand the threat posed by Trump’s sedition and by the senators’ cowardice. The House impeachment managers after January 6, led by Jamie, performed a priceless service to the country.

Jamie also dazzled with searing constitutional analysis laced with quotes from Tom Paine, Lincoln, Voltaire, and many other great minds—including this one from his beloved father, Marc Raskin: “Democracy needs a ground to stand on and that ground is the truth.” He, like his father, is a great teacher.

It was Marc who introduced Jamie to The Nation. For more than 60 years, Marc—a philosopher, teacher, author, activist, and citizen—provided piercing and independent insight into the state of our republic. In a city filled with strivers eager to trumpet conventional wisdom, Marc saw through the trappings of power and the lies and myths that buttress it. He called on us to change our course and rebuild our democracy—and he understood how the immense military industrial complex, the madness of the nuclear arms race, and a foreign policy of policing the world deformed democracy at home.

Marc and Jamie understood that taking personal risk maintains relevance to one’s intellectual work. Both are deep believers in “passionate scholarship”—breaking barriers between thinkers and doers. An early critic of the Vietnam War, Marc Raskin joined Bernard Fall to produce The Vietnam Reader, which became the basic text for the teach-in movement. As the war escalated, he co-authored “A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority,” calling for resistance to the draft. For that, he was indicted as part of the Boston Five, tried, and acquitted.

Washington is a city that suffocates independent thought, less by repression than by seduction. That is what made Marc so rare. At a young age, Marc rejected trappings of power to create a space that might speak truth to that power: the Institute for Policy Studies. His influence on ideas and on the legions of young people he mentored was profound. Jamie continues that tradition with his Democracy Summer, a program he launched that has trained thousands of students to register voters and become organizers—democracy’s next defenders.

Independent media is also democracy’s defender. At The Nation, we refuse to be a stenographer for the powerful. We work to give voice to the powerless and issues that affect them. Of course we cover the news, but not from the perspective of the political and corporate establishment. Our deeper mission is to uncover the news that powerful people would prefer to keep hidden. We don’t treat politics like a spectator sport—we want to make people participants.

I’m proud that The Nation has always given priority to the public interest over profits. The very first centerfold in The Nation depicted five media “octopi” with news as a small cog in the corporate structure. Maybe I was doing penance for my grandfather. The corporation that he founded was called “the star-spangled octopus” in a four-part 1946 Saturday Evening Post series.

This past March, we marked 20 years since we were lied into the Iraq War. I took pride in our stance at that time and since, opposing one of the great foreign policy debacles and searing examples of media malpractice. Too many in the so-called liberal media and elite paved the way for that disastrous crusade. And they have not been held accountable.

Today, I am increasingly worried that we live in what might be called an intellectual no-fly zone.

As Russia’s brutal assault on Ukraine enters its second year, shouldn’t the ramifications, perils, and costs of this proxy war be a central topic of informed analysis, discussion, and debate? Yet what we have in our media and political establishment is, for the most part, a one-sided, even nonexistent public discussion and debate.

Those who have departed from the orthodox view on the war are excluded, marginalized, or slurred—and rarely seen on corporate media. The result? Alternative and countervailing views and voices—voices of restraint, which advocate persistent and tough diplomacy to attain an effective ceasefire or armistice, one designed to ensure that Ukraine emerges as a sovereign, independent, reconstructed country—are rarely heard.

I suspect Marc wouldn’t approve of my quoting the venerable journalist Walter Lippmann! But he once observed that “where all think alike, no one thinks very much.”

In closing, let me share my belief that change is inevitable. But if there is one constant in The Nation’s history it has been faith—not in political parties or policies, but in what can happen when you tell people the truth. The Nation’s first issue, published on July 6, 1865, described “the conflict of the ages, the great strife between the few and the many, between privilege and equality, between law and power, between opinion and the sword.”

As long as The Nation is around, that fight will go on—with some confidence, hope, and a measure of feistiness and outrage. With an abiding belief in Marc, Jamie, and Tommy’s spirit, compassion, and commitment to our beloved republic, the true power and beauty of America animates us in the vertiginous yet hopeful days ahead.

Keep hope alive!

Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, N.Y.—May 15, 2023—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, is thrilled to announce our third cohort of Puffin Student Writing Fellows. The fellowship offers college students the opportunity to write for The Nation and work with veteran journalists to develop skills for a meaningful career in journalism—one that goes beyond sensationalized headlines and political horse race coverage to report on the issues that matter most to young people at a moment of tectonic shifts in our political and cultural life.

Fellows will receive concrete editorial and fact-checking training, mentorship, networking opportunities, and support in publishing their writing. Each student will report on a specific, dedicated beat while being mentored by experienced writers who will offer hard-learned advice, insightful editorial guidance, and invaluable contacts. Over the course of the fellowship, student journalists will produce two pieces of deeply reported enterprise journalism. They start May 15.

“After evaluating close to 500 shockingly well-qualified applications from a highly talented candidate pool, we were delighted to select 10 of the most talented young journalists we’ve ever seen,” says Nation associate publisher and Nation Fund program director Peter Rothberg. “Taken together, the breadth and depth of their experience will offer an illuminated and not altogether expected window into what will soon be the most populous generation is American history. We’ve assigned each student a beat and accompanying mentor deeply experienced in the type of journalism our fellows have shown much promise in emulating. This program is going to produce some extraordinary journalism.”

With the generous support of the Puffin Foundation and under the auspices of The Nation Fund for Independent Journalism (@thenationfund), a multifaceted nonprofit organization launched in 2021 to mark our sustained commitment to the excellence and future of independent journalism, the fellowship program builds on The Nation’s long-standing dedication to educating early-career journalists. Our internships and educational programming have seeded the industry with the talent and know-how to produce award-winning, fact-based accountability journalism. And our mission to invest in the future of a strong independent press is grounded in lifting up diverse voices and perspectives. In recent years, Puffin Student Writing Fellows have gone on to work at The New York Times, The Washington Post, ABC News, CNN, NBC News, NPR, Mother Jones, and more.

The 2023 Puffin Student Writing Fellows are:

Meher Bhatia is a junior at Cornell University studying communications and the field’s intersection with climate change. She is the science editor of The Cornell Daily Sun, and currently serves as an audio producer intern for The New Yorker Radio Hour. Her work has appeared in California Magazine, Living Bird Magazine, and The Yappie. She also hosts and produces a podcast of her own, The Sun Room. Bhatia will focus on climate change  for The Nation, with mentorship by Jake Bittle, a former Nation intern, Grist contributing writer, and author of The Great Displacement Climate Change and the Next American Migration.

Rebecca E.J. Cadenhead is a senior at Harvard College where she is pursuing a BA in philosophy and African American studies. She is currently completing a senior thesis on racialized fear and self-defense. Rebecca is a writer and editor at The Harvard Advocate and The Harvard Crimson, where she writes about race, ecology, and surveillance. She is a former editorial intern at Harper’s Magazine and n+1 and is a recipient of a 2022 Pushcart Prize for her essay, “My First Blood.” Cadenhead will focus on police surveillance and racial justice for The Nation, with mentorship by Nation justice correspondent and columnist Elie Mystal, author of the New York Times bestseller Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution.

Itzel Luna is a sophomore at Stanford University, majoring in sociology with data science and minoring in comparative studies in race and ethnicity. Born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, Luna is a first-generation college student who is deeply passionate about social justice and Latinx community reporting. Her work has been published in the Los Angeles Times, CalMatters, and The Stanford Daily, where she serves as a news desk editor. Luna will focus on labor and immigration for The Nation, with mentorship by Luis Feliz Leon, a former Nation intern and staff writer and organizer with Labor Notes.

Nicholas Miller is a junior at Brown University studying English nonfiction writing and Portuguese and Brazilian studies. He has written for the campus newspaper The Brown Daily Herald, edited a Providence-based leftist publication The College Hill Independent, and is the founder of Sole Magazine, a student creative nonfiction journal. Miller will focus on labor for The Nation, with mentorship by Leon.

Molly Morrow is a junior at the University of Chicago, majoring in English language and literature and minoring in human rights. She is also the editor in chief of UChicago’s political newspaper The Gate. Morrow will focus on abortion rights for The Nation, with mentorship by Nation abortion access correspondent Amy Littlefield, a journalist who focuses on reproductive rights, health care, and religion.

Shaanth Nanguneri is a sophomore at UCLA studying Geography and Communications, and the features and student life news editor at the Daily Bruin. They have previously interned with The Orange County Register, and this summer, they will be a reporting intern at The Sacramento Bee. Nanguneri will focus on young people and US politics for The Nation, with mentorship by Nation national affairs correspondent Joan Walsh, a coproducer of The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts The Tonight Show, and the author of What’s the Matter With White People? Finding Our Way in the Next America.

Rhiannon Rashidi is a junior at the City College of New York majoring in comparative literature and minoring in journalism. She is the editor in chief of her college’s newspaper and an NBCU Academy fellow. Through years of studying the written word, she has learned to see how stories change the world, and that young people can be the ones to tell them. Rashidi will focus on young people and US politics for The Nation, with mentorship by Walsh.

Nadia Scharf is a junior studying journalism, international studies and French at Indiana University. A former managing editor of The Indiana Daily Student, her work has appeared in The Indianapolis Star, on InvestigateTV and its affiliated news sites, and has been cited in The New York Times. Scharf will focus on abortion rights and non-US politics for The Nation, with mentorship by Littlefield.

Kennith Woods is a sophomore attending Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, La. He is a communications major with a concentration in television and multimedia journalism. Alongside his major, he is also working toward a minor in creative writing. Woods is a staff reporter and the news editor in training for The Lion’s Roar, his school’s newspaper. Woods will focus on sports, race, and politics for The Nation, with mentorship by Nation sports editor Dave Zirin, host of our weekly Edge of Sports podcast and coproducer and writer of the new documentary Behind the Shield: The Power and Politics of the NFL.

Kayla Yup is a sophomore at Yale University studying biology and history of science, medicine, and public health. She writes about health policy and public health narratives, scientific research, and the societal implications of emerging technology. She reports and edits for the Yale Daily News and Yale Scientific Magazine, and is an undergraduate research fellow at the Women’s Health Research Center at the Yale School of Medicine. She previously interned for The Nation’s Health, the newspaper of the American Public Health Association. This summer, she will be reporting for the Toledo Blade. Yup will focus on science and technology for The Nation, with mentorship by Walsh.

Representatives from The Nation and the Nation Fund for Independent Journalism are available for select interviews. Please see contact information above.

About: Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

The Nation Fund for Independent Journalism is a nonprofit educational initiative that works to expand opportunities for diverse voices and perspectives and educate early-career journalists in order to strengthen independent media. Its work includes rigorous educational programs such as the Victor S. Navasky Internship, the dedicated StudentNation editorial project, and the annual Puffin Nation Student Journalism Conference, now entering its eighth year. To learn how you can support the Nation Fund’s mission and programs, please visit their Ways to Give.

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Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, N.Y., February 20, 2023—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, today named two incisive new writers to its columnist lineup: Spencer Ackerman (@attackerman) and Adolph Reed Jr. Strikes correspondent Jane McAlevey (@rsgexp), who was named to the masthead in 2019, will swap her correspondent’s hat for a columnist’s perch.

The three new columnists join Elie Mystal, Katha Pollitt, Jeet Heer, Kali Holloway, Chris Lehmann, and Alexis Grenell—a team of trenchant and vital Nation voices providing crucial context to the news of the day alongside dynamic cultural commentary. In their new roles, Ackerman, McAlevey, and Reed will file monthly columns for The Nation and TheNation.com. Ackerman and McAlevey begin in March; Reed’s first column, “Race and Class: The Beginnings of an Argument,” is live today.

Ackerman’s column, “Forever Wars,” will focus on national security, but not always as conventionally understood. He’ll look at geopolitics, the economics of perpetual war, and the limits of the concept of “national security” in describing the threats faced by Americans in the 21st century. Reed’s column, “Class Notes,” will offer personal and theoretical reflections on questions of politics, race, class, intersectionality, higher education, neoliberalism, and more. McAlevey will continue filing from the front lines of the labor movement, covering workers’ rights, unions, and labor organizing, and offering insights from over thirty years as an organizer, contract negotiator, and strategist winning hard fights in and outside the USA in her new column, “Framing the Choice.”

“In a time when too many of us are eager to forget all about America’s Forever Wars, Spencer Ackerman keeps track of the bill—not just in blood and bodies, but in the burgeoning national security state such wars nurture and nourish,” says Nation editor D.D. Guttenplan. “He’s an incredibly versatile writer who hasn’t let the Pulitzer or any of the many other prizes he’s received dull his edge, and I’m delighted to welcome him to the ranks of Nation columnists.”

“I’ve been reading—and been made to think by—Adolph Reed since the 1980s, when we took differing views of the Jesse Jackson campaign,” he continues. “It is a great pleasure, as well as a considerable relief, to have his powerful mind and voice in our pages. Asking Jane McAlevey to join our masthead was the first thing I did when I took over as editor in 2019. She’s been offering our readers the unvarnished facts about the labor movement for years. Now they’ll also get her unvarnished opinions.”

“As a reader of The Nation since high school, it’s an honor to join one of the most important left-wing institutions in American intellectual life,” adds Ackerman. “I’ve been reporting on national security for 20 years, but I’ve never been a columnist, and I hope to contribute to The Nation’s vital tradition of rigorous, principled, anti-capitalist, anti-militarist critique.”

“I have a long history with The Nation,” says Reed. “I grew up with it as the most visible and important venue where left and liberal political commentary met, in a household in which we waited for each new issue’s arrival. My father published in the magazine in the 1960s, and my son did in the 2010s. I published there frequently enough over the years that people have mistakenly assumed I was a columnist. I’m happy finally to be one and to be able to connect regularly with the magazine’s varied left-of-center audience.”

Spencer Ackerman is the author of Reign of Terror: How The 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump (Penguin Books 2021). A recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Magazine Award and more, Ackerman has reported from Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay and writes the newsletter Forever Wars on Ghost, which he will continue through his tenure at The Nation. Since the dawn of the War on Terror, Ackerman has been a staff reporter for outlets like The Daily Beast, The Guardian, Wired, and The New Republic. In March 2023, DC Comics will publish his spy thriller miniseries, Waller vs. WildStorm.

Adolph Reed Jr., who has contributed to The Nation for more than three decades, is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He has taught at Howard, Yale, and Northwestern Universities, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the New School for Social Research. His most recent book is The South: Jim Crow and its Afterlives (Verso 2022), and he is co-author with Walter Benn Michaels of the forthcoming No Politics but Class Politics (Eris 2023).

Reed has been a columnist for The Progressive, The Village Voice, and The New Republic, and has written frequently in The Nation, Dissent, nonsite.org (of which he is an editorial board member), and many other academic and popular journals and magazines. He served on the board of Public Citizen Inc. and was a member of the Interim National Council of the Labor Party and the executive committee of the American Association of University Professors, and he is currently on the boards of Food and Water Action and the Debs-Jones-Douglass Institute (DJDI) and is a regular voice on DJDI’s Class Matters podcast.

Jane McAlevey, who has contributed to The Nation for nearly a decade and served as strikes correspondent since 2019, is an organizer, negotiator, writer, and scholar. Fourth-generation union, and raised in an activist-union household, she is the author of A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy (Ecco/HarperCollins 2020), Raising Expectations (and Raising Hell) (Verso 2012) and No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age (Oxford University Press 2016). Her next book, Rules to Win By: Power and Participation in Union Negotiations, cowritten with Abby Lawlor, will be published in March 2023. She is a senior policy fellow at the University of California’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.

For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT: Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

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Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, N.Y., September 1, 2022—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, today launched “The Nation Explains,” a new video explainer series covering the most essential and pressing issues of the day—from a decidedly left perspective. Our inaugural episode, “How to Get to the Negotiations Table” (also available via YouTube), signals the magazine’s core commitment to lifting up the labor movement, worker’s rights, and union organizing—just in time for Labor Day. Organizer, negotiator, author, and scholar Jane McAlevey (@rsgexp), who has contributed to The Nation since 2010 and was named strikes correspondent in 2019, details how and why the hard part comes after you’ve won your vote to form a union.

“I’m delighted that, thanks to the work of multimedia editor Ludwig Hurtado, we can announce the debut of a new series of Nation explainers on video,” said Nation editor D.D. Guttenplan. “Besides letting us expand our editorial reach—and our political mission—into the growing section of our audience who get their media through these channels, this series also lets us highlight the wealth of talent and depth of knowledge among Nation writers and columnists.”

“I can’t think of a better person to kick off the proceedings than Jane McAlevey,” he continued. “I’ve been talking to and learning from Jane for years—and was a huge fan of her books Raising Expectations and Raising Hell and No Shortcuts back when I was a freelance writer, which was why I asked her to be our ‘strikes’ correspondent as soon as I took over as editor. More recently she’s been spreading the word about the importance of unions, and how to win power for workers at the negotiating table—through huge on-line teach-ins and classes attended by thousands of workers. So it is a treat, and a privilege, to be able to share some of her thinking with the Nation audience to mark this Labor Day.”

“Organizing workers is as hard as it is urgent,” added McAlevey. “There is no other way to rebalance the income and power inequality in the United States but for workers uniting together to challenge corporate greed and malfeasance and demand what every worker in this country, and world, deserves: dignity, respect and the right to a decent quality of life at work and at home. As The Nation’s strikes correspondent, I’ve covered labor fights for years and have seen firsthand the way a highly visible news story can boost workers as they struggle to build a better world, and unite the broader community against bad employers. The Nation’s coverage of the labor movement and workers’ struggles is critically important.”

“I’m excited to bring The Nation back into the video space with this series,” said multimedia editor Ludwig Hurtado. “I’m optimistic that explanatory journalism from our bold perspective will be of interest to not only the existing Nation audience but to a whole group of people online who would love our content but might not be regular readers of our work in print. This series is just the beginning of what I envision for us—not only in video but in multimedia at large.”

Fourth generation union, raised in an activist-union household, McAlevey spent the first half of her organizing life working in the community organizing and environmental justice movements and the second half in the union movement. In her new video explainer, she lays out why the union vote is just the beginning: A year after workers vote to unionize, more than half still don’t have a contract. That means lost earnings, poorer conditions, years of delays, and most importantly? Decertification. After a year without a contract, management can dissolve a hard-won union by pushing for a decertification vote.

Reaching a good contract matters—so how do we get there? Based on years of research and hundreds of case studies, McAlevey describes the three proven ways workers can win: transparency within the union; a large union bargaining committee; and a grassroots, bottom up approach that lets workers hear for themselves what management is proposing—which builds buy-in and increases accountability.

WATCH the full explainer here.

Forthcoming episodes of “The Nation Explains” will focus on a robust range of topics tied to our core coverage areas of politics, activism, and history. Viewers can expect bold explanations of current events, foreign policy, and legislative intricacies ranging from reproductive justice to housing policy to the state of the Supreme Court. Stay tuned!

McAlevey, Guttenplan, and Hurtado are available for select interviews. For further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT: Jane McAlevey is The Nation’s strikes correspondent and the author of A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy. She is a senior policy fellow at the University of California’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.

Her first book, Raising Expectations (and Raising Hell) (Verso) was named the “most valuable book of 2012” by The Nation. Her second book, No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age (Oxford University Press), was released late in 2016.

D.D. Guttenplan is editor of The Nation. His books include American Radical: The Life and Times of I.F. Stone, The Nation: A Biography and The Next Republic: The Rise of a New Radical Majority.

Ludwig Hurtado is The Nation’s multimedia editor. He is also a writer and filmmaker whose work has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, NBC News, Rolling Stone, and elsewhere.

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

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Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, N.Y., August 25, 2022—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, today named Chris Lehmann (@lehmannchris / Washington, D.C.) as D.C. bureau chief, covering politics and political economy from the nation’s capital. With an assault on US democracy openly waged from the streets to the Supreme Court, with the midterm elections fast approaching and the question of 2024 looming large, Lehmann joins at a pivotal and historic moment in US politics. He begins August 29.

“I’ve followed Chris Lehmann’s work since The Baffler—where he edited some close friends and a lot of other writers I admire, and who produced great pieces for him,” said Nation editor D.D. Guttenplan. “Having him at The New Republic kept all of us at The Nation on our toes, and the moment he left there I wrote to him about the possibility of joining us. So I’m thrilled that we’ve found a way to do that. His deep knowledge of Washington—where he’s worked as a reporter and editor for decades—combined with his stylish prose, clear left-populist politics. and brilliant record as a spotter of young reporting and writing talent all make me very excited to finally be working on the same team.”

“It’s an unbelievable honor to be joining the distinguished team at The Nation,” added Lehmann. “For more than a century and a half, the magazine has been an indispensable source of critical thinking, spirited polemic, and—not least by a long shot—democratic reclamation in the public and intellectual life of America. And the work of The Nation is, now more than ever, integral to the survival of the republic.”

“At a moment of tectonic political upheaval, I believe our readers will find his voice a thought-provoking and illuminating one,” added editorial director and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel.

Lehmann, who has contributed to The Nation since 2008, is a contributing editor at The Baffler and The New Republic, and the former editor of both publications. He was previously co-editor of BookForum, D.C. correspondent for the New York Observer, senior editor at CQ Weekly, an erstwhile columnist for The Awl, and held positions at New York magazine, Washington Post Book World, and Newsday. Lehmann has published essays and reportage on politics and culture in a wide range of outlets and is the author of The Money Cult: Capitalism, Christianity, and the Unmaking of the American Dream (Melville House, 2016) and Rich People Things: Real-life Secrets of the Predator Class (Haymarket, 2012).

Facing a radically and rapidly changing political landscape, Lehmann will ground his reporting in the democracy crisis—an issue at the heart of The Nation’s mission since its founding by abolitionists in 1865. Moving beyond incremental horse-race coverage, Lehmann will treat national politics as a forum of ideas—as he puts it: “about how to resist the nation’s slide into white nationalist oligarchy, and about how to make our sclerotic, antidemocratic federal institutions responsive to the people’s real demands for representation and justice.” As D.C. bureau chief, Lehmann will both assign stories and offer original reportage on the most pressing news and under-covered stories of the day.

Bringing the acuity honed by decades of experience in Washington, Lehmann joins a growing concentration of talent on the left at The Nation: Jacobin founder and publisher Bhaskar Sunkara joined earlier this year to lead business development as president and contributes from time to time to the magazine. Helmed since 2019 by editor D.D. Guttenplan (who in 2016 led the magazine’s election coverage), The Nation’s political coverage is also shaped by national affairs correspondents Jeet Heer, John Nichols, and Joan Walsh; justice correspondent Elie Mystal; and columnists including Katha Pollitt, Kali Holloway, David Bromwich, and Alexis Grenell.

The Nation’s D.C. bureau—which by turns has featured I.F. Stone, Christopher Hitchens, David Corn, Chris Hayes, and, more recently, Ken Klippenstein and Aída Chávez—has long packed an outsized punch, exposing injustice, inspiring congressional inquiries, galvanizing legislation, and identifying up-and-coming political talent. Lehmann will continue that tradition of delivering impactful, accountability journalism focused both within and outside of the halls of power in Congress and the White House.

Lehmann and Guttenplan are available for select interviews. For further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT: Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

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Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, N.Y.—May 18, 2022—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, today announced Jeet Heer (@heerjeet) is rejoining the masthead as a national affairs correspondent and released the first two episodes of The Time of Monsters, a podcast featuring the prolific writer and commentator’s signature blend of political culture and cultural politics. Each week, Heer will host in-depth conversations with urgent voices on the most pressing issues of our time.

The Time of Monsters podcast previously ran on The Time of Monsters Substack alongside Heer’s writing for the past year. It will now live in-house under The Nation’s remit, airing every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts. In episode one, “What the Anti-Abortion Movement Learned From Abolitionists,” Heer speaks with Linda Hirschman about the problems of activism in a country divided against itself. Episode two, “Tucker Carlson’s Mouthpiece, Glenn Greenwald,” offers an eye-opening conversation with Eoin Higgins about the contrarian pundit who is now whitewashing racism in the wake of the mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y.

Few write with as much creativity—and as many surprising conclusions—on as many topics as Heer. In addition to continuing his monthly Nation column, “Morbid Symptoms,” he will file twice-weekly dispatches grappling with the most essential and relevant issues bedeviling us today. Recent topics covered by Heer have ranged from Elise Stefanik’s crocodile tears to the legacy of Midge Decter, the founding mother of neoconservatism, and the cowardice of Democratic Party leadership.

Next month, Heer will also launch a new Nation e-mail newsletter product.

“I’m so delighted to welcome Jeet back to our pages more often,” said Nation editor D.D. Guttenplan. “Jeet was the first hire I made when I took over as editor—because I had long admired both his prose and his political acumen. When Substack made him an offer no sane writer—especially with a family to support—could refuse for the past year, I was glad we were able to carve out a monthly column. But as we head into the midterms and then the 2024 election I’m sure Nation readers will be as grateful as I am to have him back as a national-affairs correspondent, writing twice a week and also hosting his wonderful podcast, The Time of Monsters.”

“I’ve long admired The Nation’s commitment to dialogue—and to deliberation—and that’s precisely the formulation I will continue to explore on my podcast,” added Heer. “To have wide-ranging conversations that leave space for investigating questions and testing positions without being didactic or dogmatic. And I couldn’t be more thrilled to return to writing for The Nation with more frequency at this crucial juncture in US politics; a time when everything is on the line, and nothing is certain, as the resurgent progressive politics of these past several years are challenged by revisionist centrists and regressive conservatives. The Nation is the ideal home to continue defining the terms of debate that will shape our future.”

“I’m thrilled to continue expanding The Nation’s journalism and commentary in all forms of multimedia. Jeet’s podcast adds incisive and engaging discussion, analytical clarity, and a spirit of curiosity to our collection of audio,” said multimedia editor Ludwig Hurtado.

Both Heer’s column, “Morbid Symptoms,” and podcast, The Time of Monsters, are a nod to philosopher Antonio Gramsci’s famous remark: “The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.” In this political and cultural moment, Heer believes that we too are living in an “interregnum,” an interval of opportunity for forces of good or evil to prevail, where the future is very much unknown. His essays and episodes will seek to diagnose and explore the problems of and possible solutions for our times.

The Time of Monsters is the latest addition to The Nation’s growing catalogue of politically charged podcasts and limited-term explanatory series exploring the most crucial issues facing America today. Previous successful forays into podcasting include The Nation’s flagship weekly news program, Start Making Sense with host and contributing writer Jon Wiener, and Edge of Sports, hosted by sports editor Dave Zirin.

The Nation has also produced several smart, limited-run podcasts, including, in partnership with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, the award-winning program Going for Broke with Ray Suarez—named one of the 50 best podcasts of 2021 by The Atlantic. We created Next Left, where politics gets personal with national affairs correspondent John Nichols; More Than Enough, a frank discussion about Universal Basic Income and the ways in which people’s lives—and our country and politics—would be transformed if people had their needs adequately covered, with host Mia Birdsong; and System Check, where cohosts Melissa Harris-Perry and Dorian Warren set about diagnosing and repairing our malfunctioning democracy. In partnership with WNYC Studios, The Nation developed the inaugural seasons of United States of Anxiety and There Goes the Neighborhood with host Kai Wright. Together, these podcasts offer a distinctive understanding of news and politics and people with a focus on “bottom-up” storytelling, and an eye to the stories you won’t hear anywhere else.

For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT: Jeet Heer is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation and host of the weekly Nation podcast, The Time of Monsters. He first joined the magazine in 2019 as a national affairs correspondent, navigating the intersecting worlds of politics, pop culture, philosophy, and media criticism with nuance, creativity, and surprising conclusions. He became a columnist in 2021 and—after a brief foray with Substack—returned full-time in 2022.

The author of In Love with Art: Francoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman and Sweet Lechery: Reviews, Essays and Profiles, Heer has written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The American Prospect, The Guardian, The New Republic, and The Boston Globe

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

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Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, N.Y.—February 23, 2022—The Nation, America’s leading magazine of progressive politics, culture, and opinion, today named Bhaskar Sunkara as its next president. Sunkara will lead The Nation’s publishing and business strategy, working alongside publisher and editorial director Katrina vanden Heuvel and editor D.D. Guttenplan.

“I’m proud to join The Nation at this critical moment for independent media and for working-class politics,” Sunkara said. “The Nation is an indispensable organ of progressive politics in the United States, with vast potential for growth and impact. I’m looking forward to helping build a storied organization and to supporting the effort of its talented staff and contributors.”

Sunkara, age 32, has built some of independent media’s most successful projects. He founded Jacobin between his sophomore and junior years in college when he was 21 years old; the publication has now grown to a paid circulation of nearly 70,000, with 2.6 million unique visitors per month in 2021. Jacobin has five foreign language franchises and publishes the UK-based Tribune magazine and Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy.

“Bhaskar brings an entrepreneurial lens and a new generation of leadership to The Nation,” vanden Heuvel said. “He is a champion of independent media who has launched and grown some of the most significant institutions on the left today.”

The Nation, founded by abolitionists in 1865, is a multi-platform media organization with investigative reporting and commentary appearing in print, online at TheNation.com, and shared across the magazine’s 1.2 million-follower social media platforms. The Nation has a growing corps of emerging writers and a catalog of politically charged podcasts and limited-term explanatory series. The Nation will be launching a new website and a refreshed donor engagement program in 2022 and will offer expanded coverage of the 2022 midterm elections.

Sunkara will succeed Erin O’Mara, The Nation’s president since 2016. O’Mara is also the executive director of The Nation Fund for Independent Journalism, a 501c3 founded in 2020 to train and develop the next generation of independent journalists. She will now focus on building this program and will remain a strategic consultant to the publisher. The Nation Fund’s programs include Student Nation, The Nation’s highly regarded internship program, and the annual Puffin Nation Student Journalism Conference.

“Erin O’Mara has steered The Nation through one of the most challenging periods in history for journalism, developing and executing on a strategic vision and leading the organization with creativity, calm, and grace,” vanden Heuvel said. “We are pleased that she will continue to lead The Nation Fund’s efforts to build a more diverse independent journalism sector.”

Sunkara is known as well for his work as a writer. His first book, The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality, was released by Basic Books in 2019. In 2020 he was named by Fortune as one of America’s 40 Under 40 Most Influential in Government and Politics. Sunkara has been a writer for The Nation since 2013; he has also been a columnist for The Guardian US and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vox, and Foreign Policy, among other outlets.

Jacobin, which he has led since its founding in 2010, will be promoting new leadership internally.

“I edited Bhaskar’s piece in our 150th Anniversary issue and have long admired what he’s built at Jacobin,” Guttenplan said. “I look forward to working together to build on The Nation’s incredible legacy in progressive journalism.”

“Independent media is the lifeblood of democracy,” Sunkara said. “This is an opportunity to help lead a media organization that has been on the right side of history for nearly 160 years and continues to drive critical debate around politics today.”

For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT: Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, N.Y.—October 18, 2021—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, today released the first two episodes of Going for Broke With Ray Suarez, a new podcast about Americans on the edge. Produced in partnership with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project (EHRP) and hosted by veteran public broadcaster Ray Suarez (@RaySuarezNews), Going for Broke gives a voice to Americans living through financial hardship, precarious jobs, and housing insecurity. They are, after all, the real experts on poverty.

In the US when we talk about poverty, people on the margins are talked about but rarely have the opportunity to tell their own story. On Going for Broke, Suarez, who himself faced economic instability in recent years, hears from people who have lost jobs, lost their homes, and sometimes lost the narrative thread of their lives. But with those hardships, they’ve gained valuable insights into the problems facing millions of people in this country. We will hear about the struggles they’ve been through, and the solutions they want to see become reality—solutions that come from lived experience rather than conventional experts. Listen to the trailer here and read Suarez’s introductory essay, “Poverty Can Happen to Anyone.”

“I am really excited to bring the work of storytellers supported by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project to new audiences,” said Suarez. “And given what the country, and the world, have been going through in 2020 and 2021, the timing couldn’t be better for asking hard questions about the social safety net, how Americans look out for each other, and the challenge of economic security in precarious times. Audio is the perfect medium for presenting listeners with a pair of shoes, and the invitation to walk a mile, or more. The Nation is a great partner for this series, bringing us to readers who will listen to one chapter, and listen to them all.”

“Going for Broke is audio storytelling at its finest, and most necessary: Our economy is not working for a lot of us, and on this podcast we hear directly from the people too often left out of mainstream news coverage,” added Nation multimedia editor Frank Reynolds. “Ray is the perfect guide through these troubled waters, and we’re thrilled to be continuing our long history of working with the great folks at EHRP to bring stories of economic hardship to our audiences.”

“These gripping, authentic enlightening first-person accounts are a must-listen, as are some of the inventive solutions these episodes provide,” said EHRP Executive Director Alissa Quart. “The podcast is the culmination of years of work by our organization’s writers.”

Episode one, “Lori Yearwood: Sleepless on the Streets,” the first of two episodes out today, takes us deep inside her experience of sleeplessness during the two years she experienced homelessness, where trauma and sleep deprivation start to merge. Yearwood, now a housing reporter for EHRP, recounts how receiving a blanket from a stranger back when she was homeless was such a gift of kindness in a sea of callousness it helped her remember there was such a thing as love in the world. In the episode’s solutions segment, she discusses sleeplessness among unhoused people and the importance of understanding and addressing trauma.

In episode two, “A Veteran Journalist Finds Himself the Center of the Story,” Going for Broke host Ray Suarez tells the shocking story of how his illustrious career in journalism fell apart in middle age. A former host of NPR’s Talk of the Nation and chief national correspondent of PBS NewsHour, Suarez discusses building his journalism career in predominantly white newsrooms and ultimately losing his job and health insurance, while facing down cancer and subsequent medical debt. Explaining the crisis facing older workers, he offers insights into how to fix this uniquely American condition. He also speaks to the impact of the ageism, racism, and paternalism built into the DNA of our newsrooms, along with the broader precariousness of the media industry.

​​Future episodes will explore life on the front lines of the pandemic, the administrative burden of accessing social services, the crisis of affordable housing, and the faulty American concept of rugged individualism. They will also address solutions to class blindness and intolerance, rethinking our social safety nets, fixing our broken housing market, and looking at the closest model the US has for universal health care.

Going for Broke is the latest addition to The Nation’s growing catalogue of politically charged podcasts and limited-term explanatory series exploring the most crucial issues facing America today. Our previous successful forays into podcasting include The Nation’s flagship weekly news program, Start Making Sense with host Jon Wiener, and Edge of Sports, hosted by sports editor Dave Zirin. The Nation has also produced several smart limited-run podcasts, including, in partnership with WNYC Studios, the inaugural seasons of United States of Anxiety and There Goes the Neighborhood with host Kai Wright; Next Left, where politics gets personal with the next generation of progressive politicians, activists, and change makers talking to national affairs correspondent John Nichols; More Than Enough, a frank discussion about Universal Basic Income and the ways in which people’s lives—and our country and politics—would be transformed if people had their needs adequately covered, with host Mia Birdsong; and System Check, with cohosts Melissa Harris-Perry and Dorian Warren. Together, these Nation podcasts offer a distinctive understanding of news and politics and people with a focus on “bottom-up” storytelling, and an eye to the stories you won’t hear anywhere else.

For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT: Ray Suarez is a host of the podcast Going for Broke With Ray Suarez, a project of The Nation magazine and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. He is also a host of the radio and podcast series WorldAffairs, heard on KQED San Francisco and public radio stations around the country, and a Washington reporter for Euronews.

Suarez joined the PBS NewsHour in 1999 and was a senior correspondent for public television’s national news program until 2013. He hosted NPR’s Talk of the Nation from 1993 to 1999. Suarez is the author of three books, including Latino Americans: The 500 Year Legacy That Shaped a Nation (Penguin, 2013). His next work, on immigration, political, demographic, and cultural change, will appear in 2023. 

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

The Economic Hardship Reporting Project, a nonprofit founded in 2012 by labor writer Barbara Ehrenreich, supports quality journalism about inequality, enlisting independent reporters to create narratives around economic hardship, in order to change systems that perpetuate it.

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Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

Sarah Burke, The Nation Fund for Independent Journalism, sarah [at] thenationfund.org, 212-209-5428

New York, N.Y.—May 12, 2021—The Nation is proud to announce the launch of The Nation Fund for Independent Journalism (@thenationfund / The Nation Fund on Facebook), a new nonprofit organization that marks our sustained commitment to the excellence and future of independent journalism. Building on The Nation’s long-standing dedication to fostering and mentoring early-career journalists, The Nation Fund will expand on that mission while developing rigorous educational programs to train the next generation of boldly independent journalists. Our mission is to invest in the future of a strong independent press by developing a robust framework that lifts up diverse voices and perspectives.

“The Nation Fund for Independent Journalism gives space and opportunity for programs seeded by the magazine to grow sustainably,” says Erin O’Mara, executive director of The Nation Fund. “While The Nation has long been grateful for its committed donor base, we’ve also long been aware that many wanted the opportunity to do more. The Nation Fund provides our generous donors with an opportunity to expand their support through the benefit of tax-deductible gifts. As a nonprofit, we will also be able to seek new sources of support that benefit media in the public interest. And while reaching a broader philanthropic community, we vow to continue to expand our reach, our message, and our mission.”

“The Nation’s student journalists are the future of media,” adds Katrina vanden Heuvel, editorial director and publisher of The Nation. “We have a proud and remarkable track record of launching early-career journalists who have gone to on to make an indelible impact on our industry—and our world. From The New York Times to The New Yorker to our own masthead, The Nation has seeded the industry with the talent, passion, and know-how to produce award-winning, fact-based accountability journalism. I myself was an intern, and have long valued and drawn upon the critical training and confidence the program instilled in me.”

“We’re at an inflection point in our industry—we must prioritize the diversity of our newsrooms, of management, and of the content journalists produce in order for independent journalism to truly rise to cover this moment,” says Sarah Burke, development director of The Nation Fund. “We believe this move will allow our educational mission the space and support to grow to new heights that weren’t possible within the magazine.”

For more than 155 years, The Nation’s commitment to the power and promise of independent journalism has remained steadfast, as has its efforts to—and eye for—identifying and publishing brilliant new voices in the field. The Nation Fund’s origin story is similarly committed: Building on concerted efforts to nurture diverse, early-career journalists—including a rigorous, four decades-running internship program, widely regarded as one of the finest programs for early career journalists in the country—The Nation Fund will oversee a host of educational programming focused on building fundamental skills through a comprehensive and immersive education. These mission-driven and -aligned initiatives together include:

• The Victor S. Navasky Internship Program, reimagined to include five editorial interns trained in the essential skills of rigorous research, fact-checking, and reporting—tasks essential to producing high-quality journalism—and one publishing intern, to be immersed in the future of the news business, including digital marketing, communications, advertising, sales, budget management, and institutional accountability. From Nation Editorial Director and Publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel to Editor D.D. Guttenplan to HuffPost Executive Editor (and former Nation executive editor) Richard Kim, The Nation’s internship program has graduated award-winning journalists whose work has influenced and informed millions at virtually every significant media outlet in the United State, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, MSNBC, and NPR.
• StudentNation, a dedicated editorial project that aims to encourage, promote, and expand the impact of a rising generation of college-aged journalists, which has already helped launch the careers of contributors to The New York Times, Vox, Business Insider, Teen Vogue, and The Guardian.
• The Puffin/Nation Student Journalism Conference, a convening of speakers from the broader journalism community to teach independent student journalists best practices for covering social movements through interactive workshops, panel discussions, breakout sessions, and video screenings. Past speakers have ranged from Nation stalwarts Katrina vanden Heuvel, Dave Zirin, and Elie Mystal to thought-leaders including Melissa Harris-Perry, Kai Wright, Chris Hayes, Ari Berman, Laura Flanders, Jane Mayer, Sarah Stillman, and Collier Meyerson.
• Nation Classroom, a modular curriculum focused on race relations, white supremacy, and the struggle for civil rights and economic equality from 1865 to the present. With more than 250 pages of historical material that comply with AP History and English Language Arts Standard curriculums, the Nation Classroom brings the magazine’s renowned archives to life in high school classrooms. Selections feature iconic voices and original writing by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., W.E.B. Du Bois, Howard Zinn, Toni Morrison, and Langston Hughes, among others.
• The Nation Fund also hopes to grow and expand sustainable, annual fellowship offerings—building off of previous efforts and iterations, which began with Chloe Maxmin, who is now the youngest state senator in history of Maine, in 2014.

There is no shortage of bad news in the news business, and that is particularly acute when it comes to the challenges our industry faces. Yet The Nation does not publish to make a dollar but to make a difference. At this critical juncture, The Nation Fund will complement The Nation’s institutional legacy by investing in the next generation of journalists now—to provide critical training, jump-start careers, and help to set and raise the standards of journalism itself. This investment is also an investment in the future of independent journalism, investing in financially sustainable mentorship programs. As a separate nonprofit entity, The Nation Fund will offer the space and support to expand and grow these existing student programs, enabling them to reach new heights and increase their impact, to amplify progressive movements for racial, social, and economic justice.

The Nation is enormously grateful to the Puffin Foundation, the first institutional funder to believe in the power and possibility of these programs, and to provide the seed funding that enabled our earliest educational initiatives to grow and thrive. The Nation Fund for Independent Journalism is now actively seeking additional support.

Led by Nation Fund Executive Director Erin O’Mara, who is president of The Nation, and Development Director Sarah Burke, associate publisher of fundraising for The Nation, The Nation Fund’s Founding Board is comprised of Board Chair Vincent McGee; Secretary Malia Lazu; Treasurer Krishen Mehta; and board members Leah Hunt-Hendrix, Ruth Messinger, Keith Mestrich, and Julia Ott.

To learn how you can support The Nation Fund’s mission and programs, please visit The Nation Fund’s Ways to Give or contact Sarah Burke: sarah [at] thenationfund.org / 212-209-5428.

To apply to participate in the inaugural virtual Nation Fund Puffin/Nation Student Journalism Conference on Thursday, June 17, please visit the conference announcement here.

Representatives from The Nation and The Nation Fund for Independent Journalism are available for select interviews. Please see contact information above.

About: Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

The Nation Fund for Independent Journalism is a nonprofit educational initiative that works to expand opportunities for diverse voices and perspectives and educate early-career journalists in order to strengthen independent media.

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Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, N.Y.—May 7, 2021—The Nation, America’s leading magazine of progressive politics, culture, and opinion, today named Pulitzer Prize–winning author Benjamin Moser as contributing writer. His first feature, out today, is “A Prophet at the Barbecue: Larry McMurtry, 1936–2021.”

“The first thing I noticed about Benjamin Moser was that I loved the way he wrote,” says Nation editor D.D. Guttenplan. “So when I found out he was looking for a journalistic home, I leapt at the chance to ask him to become a Nation contributing writer. The Nation is a serious magazine, but I’ve never viewed politics and pleasure as incompatible. Indeed, you could make a case—and maybe we will—that combining politics and pleasure is what ‘liberation’ means. In any case, I am delighted to welcome Ben to our pages—and to the fight.”

“I’ve been reading The Nation since I was a teenager—trying to figure out what role, if any, writers and artists could play in social change,” adds Moser. “And that’s what I’m looking forward to exploring: the intersections between culture and politics, and the ways intellectual and literary life collide with the so-called real world.”

Born in Houston, Moser is the author of Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector, a finalist for the National Book Critics’ Circle Award and a New York Times Notable Book of 2009. He won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2017, and his latest book, Sontag: Her Life and Work, won the Pulitzer Prize. He was previously a columnist at Harper’s Magazine and The New York Times Book Review.

In the course of his career, Moser has taken readers to unexpected and amazingly rich places: From Clarice Lispector’s Brazil to Susan Sontag’s unhappy childhood, the interior landscape of Dutch paintings, Portuguese-speaking Africa, and eventually even to his native Houston. His work for The Nation will continue this trajectory, uniting a capacious intellect with lyrical writing in several features each year.

The Nation’s incisive cultural coverage has championed progressive values and long celebrated the crisscrossing of art, literature, politics, and society. Moser joins a host of Nation writers committed to marking the ways in which culture and politics are intimately interwoven, and how they inform our broader society.

For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT: Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

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Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, N.Y.—March 16, 2021—The Nation, America’s leading magazine of progressive politics, culture, and opinion, this week named Aída Chávez (@aidachavez / Washington, DC) as DC correspondent, covering politics, policy, and movement-building from the nation’s capital.

“I’ve been a regular reader and admirer of Aída’s work at The Intercept,” said Nation editor D.D. Guttenplan. “She’s obviously sharp, skeptical about power, and well plugged into progressive networks in Washington. She’s also shown a great eye for picking out insurgent candidates before the rest of the press show up, and for cultivating sources who help her write stories with real impact. Washington is a one-person bureau for us, but that never stopped I.F. Stone or Christopher Hitchens from making headlines—and history. I’m delighted to welcome her to The Nation.”

“I’m so excited and honored to join The Nation,” added Chávez. “In a time of extreme economic, political, and social volatility, it’s critical that the left offer informed, fact-based reporting and analysis to counter the narratives of the political and media elite. The Nation understands the importance of holding the Biden administration accountable—and I’m looking forward to reporting on the White House, Congress, and the cruelty of American capitalism, with such an iconic publication.”

Chávez was previously a congressional reporter at The Intercept, covering policy, progressive politics, and the broader tug-of-war within the Democratic Party, as well as campaigns and elections at every level. She was one of the first to cover Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as the lead writer of a profile Ocasio-Cortez called a “game-changer” for her 2018 primary campaign. Chávez has also written for The Washington Post, The Hill, Refinery29, The Arizona Republic, and Arizona PBS. She studied journalism and political science as an undergraduate at Arizona State University and is currently in a heterodox economics master’s program at CUNY.

The Nation’s D.C. bureau—which by turns has included I.F. Stone, Christopher Hitchens, David Corn, Chris Hayes, and, most recently, Ken Klippenstein—has long exposed injustice and inspired congressional inquiries, packing an outsize punch for its size.

In the past year alone, based largely on leaked documents, The Nation was first to reveal that the US military predicted a coronavirus pandemic; uncover the administration’s terrifying reclassification of ICE and Customs and Border Protection as security agencies (which inspired public outcry from Senators Leahy and Blumenthal); and report on the Department of Homeland Security’s involvement in domestic protests, including federal agencies’ tapping protesters’ phones. Over 115 members of Congress signed on to a letter citing The Nation’s reporting, and demanding accountability from the Office of the Attorney General and the DHS. We also sounded tragically prescient siren alarms about threats of right-wing terrorism—threats that we saw borne out at the Capitol this January.

In these unprecedented times, The Nation remains committed to impactful accountability journalism that provides a deeper understanding of the world as it is—and as it could be—by lifting up stories overlooked by the mainstream media. Recognizing that change happens both within and outside of the halls of power in Congress and the White House, our D.C. bureau will continue to cover movement building on the energized left at a pivotal moment in American history—paying particular attention to the Biden administration’s economic policy, efforts to steer an unprecedented recovery, and engagement with its activist base.

Chávez is available for select interviews. For further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT: Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

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Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, N.Y.—February 5, 2021—The Nation, America’s leading magazine of progressive politics, culture, and opinion, today named David Bromwich and Alexis Grenell (@agrenell) as monthly columnists, and announced that national affairs correspondent Jeet Heer (@heerjeet) will expand his remit to include a new monthly column, “Morbid Symptoms,” a nod to philosopher Antonio Gramsci’s famous remark: “The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.”

Bromwich’s column, “No Offense,” will deal with civil liberties, America’s wars, political personalities, and party programs, and diverse cultural issues such as the influence of language on thinking and the social impact of the arts. The first installment appears in the February 8/15, 2021, edition of the magazine: “We Balk at ‘Law and Order,’ but Democracy Needs the Rule of Law.” Grenell’s new column, “Back Talk,” will focus on gender, democracy, politics, media, and economics, and debuts today: “46 and Done: Why Joe Biden Should Be Our Last President.” Heer’s column also debuts today: “Republicans Have the Biden Presidency Caught in a Unity Trap.” (Both will appear in the February 22/March 1 edition of The Nation.)

“Alexis and David are both big fish, and it’s taken us a long time to land them,” says Nation editor D.D. Guttenplan. “I wrote my first fan letter to David Bromwich nearly a decade ago, and have been an admirer of his urbane, erudite, witty, and deeply original voice ever since. His perspective, as E.M. Forster said of the poet Cavafy, is of a writer standing ‘at a slight angle to the universe.’ Not detached—very much engaged, in fact—but deeply independent.”

“I was familiar with The Nation from my earliest interest in politics, and have admired its forthright defense of freedom of speech, its continuous commitment to the widening of civil rights, and its informed criticism of American foreign policy, especially during the Vietnam and Iraq wars,” adds Bromwich. “I look forward to the opportunity to comment on persons and events from the slightly longer perspective which a monthly column affords.”

Guttenplan first met Grenell not through her writing but when she was a political strategist working on Zephyr Teachout’s congressional campaign. “Driving around the Hudson Valley listening to these brilliant women talk about the nuts and bolts of politics—without ever losing sight of either the real people who would be affected, or the overarching issues at stake—was one of the highlights of my own reporting career,” he says. “So when I found out Alexis was also a writer I began following her—and began looking for a way to bring her practical experience, political intelligence, and take-no-prisoners prose into The Nation.”

“Writing for The Nation is an incredible opportunity to finally explore the depth of issues I’ve been stashing away in an ‘ideas folder’ for years,” adds Grenell. “I can’t believe how unbelievably lucky I am to put words into the world, and grateful to Don Guttenplan for letting me do it on his dime. I’ll be sweating over every sentence.”

David Bromwich teaches English at Yale University. He has published widely on romanticism, modern poetry, and politics from the late 18th century to the present. His essays, reviews, and political commentaries have appeared in Dissent, HuffPost, the New York Review of Books, Raritan, TLS, and the London Review of Books. Among his books are Moral Imagination, American Breakdown: the Trump Years and How They Befell Us, and the anthology Writing Politics.

Alexis Grenell has written about gender, power, and politics for nearly a decade—first at City & State Magazine and then the New York Daily News. Her previous writing for The Nation tackled “FirstLadyology,” the collapse of the Cuomosexual, and whether we should have the right to troll politicians on Twitter. A frequent voice on radio and television, including CNN, WNYC, and NY1, her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, Newsday, the New York Post, and El Diario. As cofounder of consulting firm Pythia Public, Grenell works on issue and political campaigns, shaping policy agendas for nongovernmental actors/organizations on issues ranging from campaign finance reform to redistricting, voting rights, immigrant rights, labor rights, and gender equality. A graduate of the University of Chicago, Grenell holds an MPA in Urban Policy from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Jeet Heer joined The Nation in 2019 as national affairs correspondent, navigating the intersecting worlds of politics, pop culture, philosophy, and media criticism with nuance, creativity, and surprising conclusions. He is the author of In Love with Art: Francoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman and Sweet Lechery: Reviews, Essays and Profiles. A former staff writer for The New Republic, he’s written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The American Prospect, The Guardian, and The Boston Globe.

“Jeet was my first hire as Nation editor,” says Guttenplan. “He’s a writer whose analytical clarity and stylish prose I’d envied. And he’s been a wonderful addition to our National Affairs desk. But one of the things that drew me to him was the range of his interests, which haven’t always found space in his regular web pieces. Readers who only know him from those are in for a treat.”

The Nation has a proud and storied legacy of publishing singular, lightning-rod columnists—from the late, legendary Christopher Hitchens, Alexander Cockburn, and I.F. Stone to, more recently, Kai Wright, Naomi Klein, Melissa Harris-Perry, Eric Alterman, and Gary Younge. The newly minted masthead expands the ranks of existing columnists Katha Pollitt (@KathaPollitt), whose wide-ranging “Subject to Debate” has enthralled Nation readers for more than 25 years; “Objection!” columnist and justice correspondent Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC), covering the use and abuse of power in the courts, the criminal justice system, and the political arena; and “The Front Burner” columnist Kali Holloway (@kalihollowayftw), focusing on questions of complicity and inequality across race, gender, and class.

In a pivotal moment of opportunity under the Biden administration, The Nation is poised to offer crucial, trenchant, and informed perspectives from the left, to continue its relentless pursuit of a more just and equitable world, and to interrogate and indict the status quo. Recognizing the importance of rigorous debate and critical commentary to speaking truth to power and holding the new administration accountable, our columnists will continue to drive the debates the moment demands, while offering a bold and ambitious progressive agenda.

For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT: Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

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Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, N.Y.—October 26, 2020—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, today announced the launch of System Check, a new 10-episode podcast uncovering the harmful systems operating under the hood of US democracy. Bridging from Election Day to Inauguration Day, cohosts Melissa Harris-Perry (@MHarrisPerry) and Dorian Warren (@dorianwarren) will bring common sense to political commentary, turn down the frenzy and tune into the leaders and change makers doing the work of fighting for a more radical, just, and equitable future. They will make sense of the systems undergirding and undermining our democratic institutions—and identify their promise and potential for political change. Listen to the trailer here.

Colleagues, coworkers, and co-conspirators, Melissa and Dorian bring out the best in one another as smart, funny, irreverent, skeptical, insightful friends with a lot to say about our social and political world. They bring two decades of collaboration, astute political analysis, activist/organizer energy, and academic rigor to create an informative, solutions-oriented, not-to-be-missed new program. (Read Melissa and Dorian, in their own words, in a just-published Q&A for The Nation: “Checking the Systems That Hold Us Back.”)

“As a longtime admirer of Melissa Harris-Perry, I’m delighted she’s come back home to the Nation. And equally delighted that Dorian Warren, whose brilliance has illuminated many Nation editorial board meetings, has decided to stop hiding his light under that bushel,” said Nation editor D.D. Guttenplan. “Together they bring formidable political wisdom, cultural savvy, and incredible energy to a conversation that no one who cares about building a better world will want to miss.”

“The systems that shape our lives aren’t working for the vast majority of people in this country—Melissa and Dorian know this; it’s something they’ve grappled with for years, and it’s something they’re committed to changing,” added multimedia editor and System Check executive producer Frank Reynolds. “That’s what this show is all about: imagining the future we want to live in, and working like hell in the present to make it happen. I am so grateful that we’ll have Melissa and Dorian as our guides through this necessary, transformative work. I’m also thrilled to be working again with Sophia Steinert-Evoy, our producer and my former colleague on The Nation’s Next Left podcast. This team is going to make the time between the election and the inauguration one of listening, learning, planning, and fighting for the future we deserve.”

“I have assiduously avoided all broadcast media for nearly four years, but I just couldn’t pass up an opportunity to come home to The Nation,” said cohost Melissa Harris-Perry. “The Nation is the first place I penned a column. The Nation has supported my work with student journalists. The Nation has developed and amplified many of the thinkers and writers I rely on to understand the world. I am thrilled that Dorian and I have this opportunity to add our voices to their meaningful work. I learn something new every single time I talk with Dorian. Partnering with him to host this podcast is just an excuse for me to have more opportunities to enjoy his humor and intellect.”

“For 20 years, Melissa has been like the sister I never had, but always wish I did,” added cohost Dorian Warren. “Between her sheer brilliance, her deep skepticism of what passes for conventional political wisdom, her groundedness in the everyday struggles of marginalized folk, and her rib-tickling sense of humor, it’s like taking a ‘smart pill’ every time I talk to her. Partnering with her on this podcast is a joy to make meaning together of our chaotic world and cut through the daily noise. And, yes, smart hilarity will ensue.”

At root, System Check recognizes that the systems that oppress people in this country are not really broken or malfunctioning; in many cases, they are operating just the way they were intended, to disenfranchise and suppress the many and consolidate power among the few. The show looks at how these systems work, who they were designed by, and why we must understand the origins of those systems in order to shift and remake those systems. It rejects the notion that this moment is unprecedented—instead bringing history, context, and nuance to bear on the challenges we face today.

The first episode of System Check launches this Friday, October 30, with a look at the system of casting a vote; part two of our voting-system check will look at the system by which that vote is counted. With new episodes each Friday thereafter, future shows will tackle systems of poverty, of immigration, of climate change, and of white supremacy. From a temperature check on the global pandemic, to the reign of austerity politics in a deepening economic depression, to the outsized monopoly power of tech giants like Amazon and Facebook, and from cancel culture to the misremembrance of Martin Luther King Jr., Melissa and Dorian will take on an encyclopedic range of crises and quandaries with steely-eyed hope and humor.

System Check is the latest addition to The Nation’s growing catalogue of politically charged podcasts and limited-term explanatory series exploring the most crucial issues facing America today. Our previous successful forays into podcasting include The Nation’s flagship weekly news program, Start Making Sense, with host and contributing editor Jon Wiener, and Edge of Sports, where sports and politics collide, hosted by sports editor Dave Zirin. The Nation has also produced several smart, limited-run podcasts, including, in partnership with WNYC Studios, the inaugural seasons of United States of Anxiety and There Goes the Neighborhood, with host Kai Wright; Next Left, where politics gets personal, with the next generation of progressive politicians, activists, and change makers talking to national-affairs correspondent John Nichols; and More Than Enough, a frank discussion about Universal Basic Income and the ways in which people’s lives—and our country and politics—would be transformed if people had their needs adequately covered, with host Mia Birdsong. Together, these Nation podcasts offer a distinctive understanding of news and politics and people with a focus on “bottom-up” storytelling, and an eye to the stories you won’t hear anywhere else.

For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT: Co-Host Melissa Harris-Perry is the Maya Angelou Presidential Chair and Professor in the Department of Politics and International Affairs and the Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Wake Forest University. She is founder and president of the Anna Julia Cooper Center and a long time columnist and contributor to The Nation. From 2012–16 she hosted the television show Melissa Harris-Perry on weekend mornings on MSNBC and was awarded the Hillman Prize for broadcast journalism. She’s penned regular columns for Essence and The Nation and served editor-at-large for Elle.com and ZORA, a Medium publication for women of color. Follow her on Twitter: @MHarrisPerry, and on Instagram: @mharrisperry.

Co-Host Dorian Warren is the president of Community Change, and co-chair of the Economic Security Project. A progressive scholar, organizer, and media personality, Dorian has worked to advance racial, economic, and social justice for over two decades. He taught for over a decade at the University of Chicago and Columbia University, where he was codirector of the Columbia University Program on Labor Law and Policy. He also worked at MSNBC, where he was a contributor and host, as well as the executive producer of Nerding Out on MSNBC’s digital platform. He serves on the editorial board of The Nation magazine. As a commentator on public affairs, Warren has appeared regularly on television and radio including NBC Nightly News, ABC, MSNBC, CNN, CNBC, BET, BBC, NPR, Bloomberg, & NY1, among other outlets. He has also written for The Nation, HuffPost, Newsweek, Salon, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Medium, Ebony.com, and Boston Review. Follow him on Twitter: @dorianwarren, and on Instagram: @doriantwarren.

Producer Sophia Steinert-Evoy is an audio producer and editor. She produced Next Left from The Nation with John Nichols. She has also worked on the podcasts Citations Needed, Hi-Phi Nation, and The Organist, as well as audio documentaries for BBC Radio 4. Follow her on Twitter: @steinertevoy.

Executive Producer Frank Reynolds is The Nation’s multimedia editor and the executive producer of the podcasts Next Left, More Than Enough, Start Making Sense, and Edge of Sports.

Theme music by Brooklyn-based artist and producer Jachary. 

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

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Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

Mike Kanin, Texas Observer, kanin [at] texasobserver.org, 512-477-0746

New York, N.Y., and Austin, Tex.—October 20, 2020—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, and the Texas Observer, the state’s preeminent source of public-interest journalism, are pleased to announce a formal collaboration that will extend the Observer’s brand of Texas-centric investigative and accountability journalism to Nation readers. The new partnership will deliver an on-the-ground view of the forces shaping Texas, and the United States, for Nation readers, while providing the Observer’s journalism with a broader national platform.

“The Nation and the Texas Observer have a long record of de facto collaboration, from their founder Ronnie Dugger to the late (and much lamented) Molly Ivins, both of whom wrote frequently—in Ivins’s case regularly—for The Nation,” said Nation editor D.D. Guttenplan. “It seems about time we make our arrangement de jure. I’m also a personal admirer of their new editor, Tristan Ahtone, and the amazing work he’s done. In the middle of a pandemic, given the chance of access to experienced, savvy reporting from a key battleground state—and a state where the Texas Organizing Project has done amazing work—we’d be fools not to leap at the chance to work together. So we’re leaping.”

“We’re excited to be working with reporters and editors at The Nation, and hopeful that this partnership will lead to even greater collaborations in the future,” said Observer editor Tristan Ahtone.

“We’re absolutely thrilled to kick-off what, for us, will be a signature partnership,” added Observer publisher Mike Kanin.

Texas’s enigmatic identity is part of a larger myth of rugged individualism that now dominates the national conversation. Indeed, the complicated truths about the state—truths that rest in a history built on ethnic cleansing and slavery, of those who still suffer the consequences of a derelict system—are too often glossed over in favor of a half-told narrative. For 65 years, the Observer has tried to counter that narrative, diving deeper into the state’s troubled institutions and producing award-winning work that holds officials accountable, gives a platform to underserved voices, and investigates where no other outlet will. In similar spirit, The Nation has long held the powerful to account, no matter their political persuasion, in the belief that independent journalism has the capacity to bring about a more democratic and equitable world.

The first two installments of the partnership demonstrate the breadth and range of its planned focuses: Texas Observer civil rights correspondent Michael Barajas reports on “Texas and the Long Tail of Voter Suppression”: As the growing number of Black and Latinx voters threaten the GOP’s stranglehold on power, attempts to limit safe voting options during the pandemic reveal a deeper sickness in Texas politics. And investigative journalists Chris O’Connell and Savannah Maher report on how, after untold exploitation and erasure, Native artwork is being undermined by fraud: “Indigenous Art May Face a New Foe: Forgery.”

The Texas Observer partnership builds on The Nation’s proud history of building collaborations with like-minded organizations and offering dateline dispatches from locations both domestic and international. In the last year, we’ve partnered with Kopkind to spotlight far-flung scenes from a pandemic, and with Magnum Foundation to offer a visual chronicle of the untold stories of the coronavirus. In addition to cofounding Covering Climate Now, a global journalism initiative of more than 400 news outlets committed to more and better coverage of the defining story of our time, The Nation has partnered since 2016 with Le Monde diplomatique on its international coverage, and for years worked with a host of investigative partners, including Type Investigations, the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, Food and Environment Reporting Network, the Hechinger Report, the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, and more.

For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT: Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

The Texas Observer is an Austin-based nonprofit news organization that strives to make Texas a more equitable place by exposing injustice through narrative storytelling, investigative journalism, and cultural criticism.

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Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, N.Y.—September 22, 2020—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, is unveiling a wholly redesigned print magazine—and a new look with a new logo—as of our October 5/12, 2020, edition. With 20 percent more pages in each issue, and four special, 64-page double issues per year, the new Nation offers even more room for vivid reporting, long-form analysis, and hard-hitting investigations.

Nation editor D.D. Guttenplan introduces the redesign and explains the logic and logistics of our new aesthetic in an editor’s note today. He writes:

Why change the way the magazine looks? Because our relationship to our readers and to the world we cover has changed. From 1865 until some point in the last decade, The Nation functioned partly as a weekly news magazine—and looked it. We still break important stories, often agenda-setting stories, by award-winning writers. But we do that now every day of the week, on TheNation.com.

When we asked print readers what they wanted more of, their answers were clear: more investigative journalism, more political news unavailable elsewhere, and more analysis from The Nation’s distinctive progressive perspective. More great stories. More strong arguments. More fearless reporting. With more time between issues to enjoy each print edition of The Nation. So that’s what we’re going to deliver.

The reimagined product offers a clean, crisp, and modern refresh of our print magazine that better serves the kind of journalism our readers want most. It is an investment in The Nation’s orientation toward impact—and its commitment to truth-telling. Rising above the frenetic pace of today’s news cycle, The Nation’s print issue gives pause, grounding, and brings context and history to bear on the present moment.

It is also a decision about how people get their news today, what kind of journalism makes sense for which platforms, and how to best reach our growing audiences with the content our readers want—when and how they want it. In the rapid-fire, 24/7 media marketplace with so much breaking news online, including at TheNation.com, many have told us they get their news online and want greater depth in print.

And the redesign is unabashedly print. A page feels like a page. The redesign lets long-form, expansive journalism breathe, rather than try to mash the website experience into print. The result is sharp, intentional, and uncluttered. In a world where we consume so much online, there is renewed appreciation for the value of, and affection for, print as a medium: This redesign creates a richer and better experience with that print product.

The print redesign was handled in-house by our creative director, Robert Best, and it will inform a digital overhaul in 2021. The redesigned logo, marking the broader redesign, retains the history of the magazine’s logo, yet brings it forward: The classic logo type is now layered with a clean modern red square, and there is a strong contrast echoing the past and marking the next chapter. The new look is bold, eye-catching, and leans to the left—all appropriate for The Nation.

With 20 percent more pages in each issue, and four double issues per year, the new Nation offers more space to:

• Do more high-impact investigative stories, spotlighting injustice in action, the causes most deserving of our readers’ attention, and the movement-building, organizing and fights-yet-to-be-won across America and around the globe.
• Experiment, lift up new voices, spotlight creativity in politics as well as the arts, and create the kind of implicit dialogue between writers and subjects that distinguishes a magazine from a website or an aggregator.
• Comment on the current conversation, showcasing incisive columnists and bold editorials with a signature mix of dispatches and data-driven news.
• Publish stories that force us to question our assumptions—and stories that give us the hope and strength needed to carry on our struggle.
• The Nation has long—and uniquely—been a place where radicals and liberals argued with one another. And, lately, where one generation of activists engages with another.
• Give serious consideration to the literary, artistic, and cultural life of our time—and more space to attend to a wider range of cultural and artistic work, from fashion and theater to online gaming and film.
• Develop richer and more compelling themed issues, with more depth and more detail, tackling the most pressing debates of today’s left landscape.
• Introduce more foreign reporting, profiles, and analysis.

In the inaugural print issue, “The Drowned and the Saved,” a two-part cover story for the first redesigned issue, marks The Nation’s signal commitment to one of the most pressing crises of our moment: Why real climate justice is so hard. Daniel Judt reports on Britain’s long road to a just transition phasing out fossil fuels; why that isn’t a political issue in the UK, and why that’s a problem. On the ground from the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian, the Category 5 monster storm that pummeled the north in September 2019, Sonia Shah witnesses how in the Bahamas, as across the globe, the world has failed the people most vulnerable to climate change. And a searing profile of Mitch McConnell, “the jowly old swamp monster from Washington, D.C.,” by longtime contributor Bob Moser, presents The Nation’s signature blend of wit, political acuity, and colorful reporting on one of the most dramatic campaigns of the upcoming election cycle.

In addition to regular editorials and commentary from our terrific columnists like Katha Pollitt, Elie Mystal, Eric Alterman, and Kali Holloway, new regular front-of-book rubrics will offer fresh ways to engage with, provoke, and galvanize our readership: “The Argument” offers a concise, occasionally contrarian, always pointed case for or against a pressing issue of public importance. “The Leak” makes space to showcase and decode the leaks and FOIA’ed documents obtained by our DC bureau—and translate them into plain English. “Dateline” and “Postcards” will feature dispatches from the places across the country—and around the world—that we think you need to hear from. And “The Debate” will host a rigorous, rotating cast of contributors weighing in on opposite sides of propositions roiling the progressive community.

And, finally, in “Books and the Arts,” the freshly redesigned magazine will feature even more pages of essay-reviews and criticism from some of the country’s leading intellectuals, novelists, academics, and critics. Ever since the “back of the book” was inaugurated, it has been home to writers tackling some of the most pressing questions of the day—whether relating to American democracy or contemporary literature—and the magazine will now feature an expanded section, full of even more cultural commentary and intellectual debate. This week’s issue features Adom Getachew on Orlando Patterson and the postcolonial predicament and Michael Kazin on the ever-present thorn in our democratic side: Will we ever get rid of the electoral college? The forthcoming Fall Books special issue will feature Randall Kennedy, Manisha Sinha, Elias Rodriques, Anya Schiffrin, Lovia Gyarkye, Jeet Heer, and Charlie Savage.

Nation editor D.D. Guttenplan and Robert Best, the creative director who shepherded the redesign to fruition, are available for select interviews. For requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT: Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

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Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, N.Y.—September 1, 2020—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, today announced the appointment of Kaveh Akbar as its newest poetry editor. Taking over the magazine’s storied poetry section—which has published the likes of Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Amiri Baraka, Langston Hughes, William Butler Yeats, and Allen Ginsberg—Akbar starts today, September 1, 2020. He will begin accepting submissions for both the website and for print immediately. (See guidelines.)

“Some Nation editors have given poetry a wide berth. Not this one,” said editor D.D. Guttenplan. “Thanks to an undergraduate encounter with the irresistible Kenneth Koch, I’ve been reading poetry for pleasure for decades, and so I am thrilled to welcome Kaveh to The Nation, a poet, editor, and propagandist for the republic of letters for whom I already have enormous admiration.”

“The Nation is delighted to have Kaveh come on board,” added literary editor David Marcus. “An accomplished poet and writer, who writes with heart and dedication, he is also a talented and ambitious editor, and we’re excited to see what he will do in the magazine’s pages.”

“Poetry slows down our metabolization of language—it reminds us language has texture, history, integrity,” said Akbar. “The poet M. NourbeSe Philip talks about poets ‘decontaminating’ language, ‘managing the brutal history that casts a long and deep shadow around the language.’ I can’t improve upon that. I’m excited to introduce Nation readers (and myself) to new voices at the vanguard of such decontamination, voices challenging received notions of what poetry can do and be. I’m especially eager to hear from voices marginalized by traditional channels of American publishing, including international poets, incarcerated poets, undocumented poets, Black, indigenous, and POC poets, trans and queer poets, and disabled poets. Above all, I believe in poetry’s power to substantively contribute to The Nation’s mission of ‘raising up the promise of a radical tomorrow while agitating for meaningful change today.’”

Born in Tehran, Iran, Akbar currently teaches at Purdue University and in the low-residency MFA programs at Randolph and Warren Wilson College. His poems have appeared in The Nation, The New Yorker, Best American Poetry, The Paris Review, The New York Times, and elsewhere, and his newest collection is Pilgrim Bell (Graywolf, 2021). Akbar is also the author of Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Alice James, 2017) and editor of the forthcoming The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 100 Poets on the Divine (Penguin, 2022). 

The Nation has long been part of the lifeblood of American letters and literature, with some of the most esteemed poets and writers appearing in our pages. Notable voices include: John Ashbery, W.H. Auden, Amiri Baraka, John Berryman, Elizabeth Bishop, Hart Crane, Mahmoud Darwish, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Allen Ginsberg, Langston Hughes, Denise Levertov, Claude McKay, W.S. Merwin, Marianne Moore, Pablo Neruda, Frank O’Hara, Sylvia Plath, Adrienne Rich, Anne Sexton, Wallace Stevens, Alice Walker, William Carlos Williams, and William Butler Yeats, among others.

The poetry editor position cycles on two to three year terms. Akbar replaces outgoing co-editors Stephanie Burt and Carmen Giménez Smith who, in their time at the magazine, worked to nurture early career talents as well as established writers, commission a wide range of American and international poetry, and helped insert questions of poetry into the national conversation.

For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT: Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

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Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, NY—July 13, 2020—The Nation, America’s leading magazine of progressive politics and culture, today named Kali Holloway (@kalihollowayftw / New York, N.Y.) as a monthly columnist, covering inequality across race, gender, and class, and the devastating consequences inequality holds for the most vulnerable. She will also be contributing several longer-form features each year. Her first official column, out today, is “Black Trans Lives Must Be Front and Center.”

“From her first column, Kali has proven herself a natural in the form,” said Nation editor D.D. Guttenplan. “We’re delighted to have her on our masthead, and to have her voice and sharp intelligence in The Nation on inequality—the central issue of our time.”

“American institutions, organizations, and systems have been shaped by inequality in ways both visible and hidden, micro and macro—and far too often, those inequities go unacknowledged,” added Holloway. “I’m thrilled to have a home at The Nation to lift up and spotlight the lived experience of inequality. It is a prism through which to truly see our collective selves and the society we live, and to interrogate the functions of both.”

Holloway will be working with senior editor Emily Douglas, who said, “In her features and columns for The Nation and other outlets, Kali’s voice, reporting, and historical analysis resound with moral clarity. We are so pleased to be sharing her work with our readers on a regular basis.”

In her new role, Holloway will follow and comment on the perennially relevant and timely topic: How is inequality both reflected in, and reinforced by, art and media? How do our press corps and news outlets ignore inequality, and at the same time, reify those inequities? What are the historical roots of our longstanding inequities, and how has inequality been both deliberately and inadvertently codified into law? How does capitalism exploit political, social, economic, gender, and racial inequities, and who benefits? In times of crisis—like the moment we currently find ourselves in—how are inequities brought into stark relief, and what makes those moments opportune for potential change, both good and bad? 

Holloway is the director of the Make it Right Project, a national initiative dedicated to taking down Confederate monuments and telling the truth about history. Her previous commentary and reporting for The Nation includes: “The Violence Didn’t Start With the Protests;” “Ahmaud Arbery’s Killers Understood White Freedom Perfectly;” “The Coronavirus Reveals That the Stars Are Not Like Us;” and “Since Emancipation, the United States Has Refused to Make Reparations for Slavery.”

Holloway’s writing has also appeared in The Guardian, Salon, Time, HuffPost, The Daily Beast, The National Memo, Jezebel, and numerous other outlets. She was previously associate editor at AlterNet and worked in production, programming, and outreach on short films and documentaries, including PBS’s POV, PBS’s The New Public, HBO’s Southern Rites, The New Black, and DJ Mojo: Music is Life.

The Nation’s robust coverage during the Trump administration—an administration that has singularly embraced and inflamed injustice across the sociopolitical spectrum—has championed progressive values and celebrated the power of protest in shaping a better, braver, and more just world. Holloway joins a host of Nation writers singularly committed to combating injustice and inequality, including justice correspondent and “Objection!” columnist Elie Mystal, civil rights correspondent Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, and strikes correspondent Jane McAlevey, among others.

For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT: Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

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Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, NY—April 17, 2020—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, today named Wilfred Chan (@wilfredchan / New York, NY) as a contributing writer, covering politics, labor, technology, and social movements in and between Asia and the West. His most recent article for The Nation was “The WHO Ignores Taiwan. The World Pays the Price.”

“Wilfred is the rare writer who can jump from international commentary to ground-level local reporting with ease,” said Nation senior editor Madeline Leung Coleman. “We’re thrilled to have his critical perspective in The Nation, especially as recent events make it clearer than ever that what happens on the other side of the world is deeply connected to everyday life here in the United States.”

“I’m honored to join The Nation at this critical moment, and look forward to contributing an internationalist left perspective,” added Chan.

“Wilfred is a writer who brings not just great reporting chops, but a really distinctive writer’s voice to his work,” said Nation editor D.D. Guttenplan. “His incredible range as a reporter—from police brutality in Hong Kong to life on the streets of New York City—and his trenchant political analysis make him a great addition to our masthead.”

Chan is a writer and editor now based in New York, who covered the Umbrella Movement and its aftermath as a journalist in Hong Kong.

Chan joins The Nation’s growing ranks along with a host of recent appointments to the masthead. These include newly-named Books & Arts contributing writers Stephen Kearse, Julyssa Lopez, Marcus J. Moore, Ismail Muhammad, Erin Schwartz, and Jennifer Wilson, and newly minted editorial board members Emily Bell, Waleed Shahid, and Gary Younge.

The Nation’s robust political coverage during the Trump administration has exposed injustice and inspired congressional inquiries. In these unprecedented times, facing the dual threats of the coronavirus pandemic and economic collapse during a landmark presidential election year in the United States, The Nation remains committed to providing a deeper understanding of the world as it is—and as it could be—by bringing history to bear and offering context, nuance, and deep reporting to advance the causes of social, political, and economic progress.

For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT: Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

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Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, NY—February 7, 2020—The Nation is honored to announce that we’ve been nominated for a 2020 National Magazine Award for Arundhati Roy’s extraordinary work, “India: Intimations of an Ending,” in the category of ‘Essays and Criticism.’ The essay was adapted from Roy’s 2019 Jonathan Schell Memorial Lecture on the Fate of the Earth, created by Type Media Center.

The nomination is the first under the magazine’s new editor, D.D. Guttenplan, who succeeded editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel in June. (Vanden Heuvel remains publisher and transitioned to the newly conceived role of editorial director.)

Long recognized as one of the publishing industry’s highest honors, the National Magazine Awards—colloquially known as the Ellies for the elephant-shaped trophy awarded to winners—recognize “print and digital publications that consistently demonstrate superior execution of editorial objectives, innovative techniques, noteworthy enterprise and imaginative design.” They are sponsored by the American Society of Magazine Editors. The Nation has won five National Magazine Awards and been a finalist 21 times since the prestigious competition began.

For decades, Arundhati Roy, one of India’s most trenchant social critics, has warned readers of The Nation of the dual threats of fascism’s firm footprint in the country and the perils of globalization. In her NMA-nominated essay, she warns of a class and caste war threatening the entire continent. “India: Intimations of an Ending” is a soaring and masterful 9,000-word essay explaining how Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Hindu far right came to power, and how the ethno-nationalist party is no longer operating as a shadow state: It has become the state. Weaving themes of human rights and nationalism, self-determination and democracy, Roy details the chaos and distress caused by the Indian government’s August 2019 annexation of Kashmir—and what this means for the future.

The essay is adapted from Roy’s keynote at the 2019 Jonathan Schell Memorial Lecture on the Fate of the Earth, a series that was established in 2016 to honor the memory of Type Media Center fellow—and former Nation peace and disarmament correspondent—Jonathan Schell. The lecture series takes its name from his 1982 seminal work on the consequences of nuclear war. Delivered each year by a speaker selected by committee, the lecture is an original work that addresses topics written on by Schell, including environmentalism, nuclear disarmament, and peace, but which may include any important issue on which the future of humanity and other life on Earth might depend.

The full list of this year’s National Magazine Award finalists can be found here. Winners will be announced on March 12.

For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT: Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

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Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, NY—January 15, 2020—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, marks the new year with the appointment of Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) as justice correspondent and Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) as DC correspondent.

“Elie’s talent for making legal and political issues accessible to non-lawyers, without losing the nuance of core legal concepts, has made him an indispensable resource to Nation readers and the larger public,” says Nation editor D.D. Guttenplan. “He navigates political waters with an eloquence and ferocity unique in this moment, and I’m delighted he’s signed on to our masthead. I’m also particularly pleased to welcome Ken, who on his resume describes himself as ‘a bloodhound who enjoys sniffing out scoops’—a fitting successor to a job once held by I.F. Stone.”

“The Nation has always been at the heart of the debate on the left about how to best advance the cause of social progress and justice,” says Mystal. “In late republic America, that progress now calls for nothing less than the defeat of authoritarianism. The Nation stands against America’s state-sponsored propaganda, and I am honored to add my voice and be counted among those who will never be cowed by the bullying, disinformation, and lies that Republicans think counts as an agenda.”

“It’s both exciting and a little surreal, in our age of ephemeral web media clickbait farms, to join an outlet that is older than many of the federal agencies about which I’ll be reporting; and in all that time has maintained a firm commitment to progressive values,” adds Klippenstein.

The Nation’s robust political coverage during the Trump administration has won awards and accolades, exposed widespread injustices, and spoken truth to power to champion progressive ideals. While mainstream media analysis focuses on the polls and candidates’ “likability,” The Nation’s team continues to offer insight into the ideas and issues—from racial justice and health care reform to the climate crisis and corporate corruption to moving away from endless war and reimagining our foreign policy—that Americans care about most.

In his new role, Elie Mystal, a prolific writer on politics, culture, law, and racial justice, who in 2019 published two Nation cover stories tackling the Trump courts head-on, will increase his output exclusively for The Nation. In addition to writing regular commentary for TheNation.com and occasional features for the print edition of the magazine, he will bring his keen legal mind and pointed pen to debut a new monthly column, “Objection!”—providing incisive, unparalleled analysis on a whole range of issues related to justice. In addition to courts, the law, and the judiciary, his mandate will also cover the institutions of law enforcement and our political system more broadly. Mystal’s first article for The Nation in his new capacity is “Why Was Pete Buttigieg Still on the Debate Stage—and Kamala Harris Wasn’t?”

The outgoing executive editor of Above the Law, a legal website offering news, insights, and opinions on law firms, lawyers, law schools, and lawsuits, Mystal is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, a former associate at Debevoise & Plimpton, and a Knobler Fellow at Type Media Center. He is a frequent guest on MSNBC and SiriusXM.

Ken Klippenstein’s reporting focuses on the machinations of the American national security state. Through aggressive use of the Freedom of Information Act and a robust network of government sources, he will provide readers with a warts-and-all look at how our government’s most secretive agencies, from the FBI to the Pentagon, operate. At The Nation, Klippenstein will also use his investigative know-how to document under-the-radar politics and policies enacted by the Trump administration.

Klippenstein was previously senior investigative reporter for The Young Turks, and a frequent contributor to The Daily Beast. His reporting has been referenced by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic, and cited by Congress—including, in one instance, to grill FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Mystal and Klippenstein join a world class lineup of political writers and thinkers poised to deliver landmark coverage of the 2020 election, the Trump impeachment scandal, and the more lasting impacts of policy decision-making that go beyond the omnipresent distractions of this president’s administration and Twitter takes. They will be part of the growing and diverse chorus of Nation writers, columnists, and editors providing in-depth reporting and commentary for 2020 and beyond, unpacking and analyzing every twist and turn of political theater. These include national affairs correspondents Jeet Heer, John Nichols, and Joan Walsh; longtime columnists Eric Alterman, Laila Lalami, and Katha Pollitt; and correspondents Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, Zoë Carpenter, Stephen F. Cohen, Bryce Covert, Ben Ehrenreich, Greg Grandin, Mark Hertsgaard, Jane McAlevey, Dani McClain, Dave Zirin, and more.

For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT: Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

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CONTACT: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, NY—September 10, 2019—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, today launched “Signal:Noise,” a new column by longtime contributor Sasha Abramsky (@AbramskySasha) that looks beyond the news cycle to confront and decipher the most important policy shifts enacted by the Trump administration.

“The vast and dangerous power grabs that define this political era have received far less scrutiny than the latest insults and absurdities, boasts and bluster thrown up by Trump-the-entertainer,” says Nation editor D.D. Guttenplan. “I wrote about this myself as a deliberate strategy of mass distraction. So I’m particularly delighted that ‘Signal:Noise’ will regularly go behind the outrage du jour to shine a spotlight on the stuff that actually matters in our everyday lives—and for the future of the country. Sasha Abramsky has long been one of our most astute reporters. Now he’ll be bringing his keen analytical eye and deep knowledge of American politics twice a week to TheNation.com to tell these stories.”

“The Nation has a long and illustrious history of holding politicians to account, and of speaking truth to power,” adds Abramsky. “In the Trump era this is particularly important: too often his outrageous actions and statements are treated more as entertainment than as serious policy shifts that hugely impact people’s lives. Too often the sensational tweets and insults, the harangues and the narcissistic boasts drown out huge changes to regulatory structures, drastic policy shifts made via Executive Action, and personnel overhauls that further solidify Trump’s hold on the political system, the courts, and the bureaucracies of the United States. The Nation has put a spotlight on these aspects of the Trump era; this column will, hopefully shine that spotlight ever-brighter.”

Abramsky, who has written regularly for The Nation for nearly two decades, is the author of several books, including Inside Obama’s Brain, Breadline USA, American Furies, The American Way of Poverty, The House of 20,000 Books, and, most recently, Jumping at Shadows: The Triumph of Fear and the End of the American Dream. In his new column, he will endeavor to cut through the white noise and social media static to report on the most pressing economic, foreign policy, military, and regulatory events occurring largely under the radar. In brief, digestible twice-weekly dispatches, “Signal:Noise” will distinguish the truly alarming from the omnipresent alarmist by asking and identifying: What new regulations are being used to further Trump’s nativist agenda? What old regulations are being shredded as the administration wages war on environmental and workplace protections? Who is being nominated to fill vacant judiciary positions? What funding or de-funding of programs and pet projects is occurring behind closed doors? In the increasingly high-stakes battles between the federal government and states such as California or New York, which lawsuits are being filed where, and what court rulings are being issued? In federal bureaucracies, who is in and who is out as different factions within the White House vie for dominance?

Abramsky is the latest in a number of new appointments and initiatives made and launched by The Nation’s new editor, D.D. Guttenplan (@ddguttenplan), the 16th editor in the magazine’s illustrious 154-year history. Of recent note, the ever-prolific Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) joined our pages as national affairs correspondent and Jane McAlevey (@rsgexp) as strikes correspondent, filing from the front lines of the labor movement.

Heer and McAlevey build upon the work of an ever-growing cohort of diverse and dynamic voices at The Nation that are committed to providing a deeper understanding of the world as it is—and as it could be—by driving bold ideas into the conversation and igniting debates far beyond our pages. Nation writers—including Eric Alterman, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, Zoë Carpenter, Stephen F. Cohen, Bryce Covert, Ben Ehrenreich, Greg Grandin, Jeet Heer, Mark Hertsgaard, Dani McClain, Elie Mystal, John Nichols, Katha Pollitt, Joan Walsh, Patricia J. Williams, Kai Wright, Gary Younge, Dave Zirin, and more—move past the horse race to provide timely analysis and reporting; crucial context to breaking news; dynamic cultural commentary; and spotlight under-reported news on issues of race, immigration, inequality, labor, health, social justice, voting rights, women’s rights, and American democracy.

Abramsky is available for comment from Oakland, California. His inaugural column, “What’s Really Going on While Trump Creates Chaos,” is now available online. For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT: Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

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CONTACT: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, NY—June 18, 2019—D.D. Guttenplan succeeds Katrina vanden Heuvel as editor of The Nation this week. (Vanden Heuvel remains publisher and will continue to chart The Nation’s strategic direction as editorial director.) In one of his first acts as editor—the magazine’s 16th in its 154-year history—Guttenplan is adding two talented new voices to the masthead, naming Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) national-affairs correspondent and Jane McAlevey (@rsgexp) strikes correspondent, filing from the front lines of the labor movement.

“At this critical moment for both the country and The Nation I’m delighted to add two such clear and powerful voices to The Nation’s all-star roster,” says Guttenplan. “Jane McAlevey has long been a brilliant strategist and trenchant critic inside the labor movement. She’s also the subject of the first chapter of my book, The Next Republic, which is about ‘winning under conditions of extreme adversity.’ Jeet Heer is a writer whose work I have both admired (as a reader) and envied (as a writer) for years. His tremendous range and razor-sharp analytical clarity (and the fact that it’s impossible to predict exactly what he’s going to say) should make his columns a regular source of provocation and pleasure for our readers—particularly as we head into the 2020 election cycle.”

“I’ve read The Nation since I was a teenager,” adds Heer. “I couldn’t be more thrilled at joining the magazine at this crucial juncture, when the progressive politics it has long upheld are now coming to the fore. In the era of The Green New Deal and rising labor militancy, The Nation is the perfect venue for exploring the battles that will define the future.”

“From West Virginia to Oklahoma, Arizona to Kentucky, 2018 was the year of the strike—and we need to keep that going in 2019,” says McAlevey. “The Nation has a proud legacy celebrating the power of ordinary Americans to win economic justice, and has been out front documenting the resurgence of labor these past years. It’s a natural home for my work and writing in this pivotal moment. The Supreme Court has a new conservative majority. Gerrymandering has made it harder than ever to win progressive victories in elections. That leaves the economic arena, and strikes, as the one area in which ordinary Americans can make a real impact and win real change. Strikes help clarify for workers who is to blame for the pain in their lives; in this sense, strikes aren’t just to demand more for workers’ labor—they serve an incredibly valuable political education, too. Labor organizing is the only way we can take back power from the corporations that control way too much of our economy and our political system.”

A prolific writer on politics and culture, Jeet Heer is 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). A former staff writer for The New Republic, he’s written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The American Prospect, The Guardian, and The Boston Globe. In his new role, Heer will write commentary several times a week for TheNation.com and frequent features for the print edition of the magazine. His first column for The Nation, “Why the Paper of Record Hates Cartoons,” tackles the crisis of editorial cartooning: “Newspaper editorial cartooning is well on the path to extinction, a dire end for vital art that has been inextricable from modern political protest.”

Jane McAlevey, who has contributed to The Nation for nearly a decade, is an organizer, negotiator, writer, and scholar. Fourth-generation union, and raised in an activist-union household, she is the author of Raising Expectations (and Raising Hell) (2012) and No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age (2016). She is currently at work on two books: A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing and the Fight for Democracy (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2020) and Striking Back (Verso, 2021). She recently earned her PhD under the tutelage of Frances Fox Piven at CUNY. In her new capacity at The Nation, McAlevey will report on the momentum behind the labor movement, covering workers’ rights and unions, and the links between organizing, power, strategy, and strikes.

Heer and McAlevey join a growing cohort of diverse and dynamic voices at The Nation that are committed to providing a deeper understanding of the world as it is—and as it could be—by driving bold ideas into the conversation and igniting debates far beyond our pages. Nation writers—including Eric Alterman, the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, Zoë Carpenter, Stephen F. Cohen, Bryce Covert, Ben Ehrenreich, Greg Grandin, Mark Hertsgaard, Dani McClain, Elie Mystal, John Nichols, Katha Pollitt, Joan Walsh, Patricia J. Williams, Kai Wright, Gary Younge, Dave Zirin, and more—move past the horse race to provide timely analysis and reporting; crucial context to breaking news; dynamic cultural commentary; and spotlight under-reported news on issues of race, immigration, inequality, labor, health, social justice, voting rights, women’s rights, and American democracy.

Guttenplan is available for comment from New York City. The cover story of The Nation’s inaugural issue under his editorship, “Killer Kitsch: How Gay Icon Renaud Camus Became the Ideologue of White Supremacy,” is now available online. For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT: Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

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The Nation announced today that journalist and author D.D. Guttenplan will become the magazine’s next editor, effective June 15. Guttenplan, who is currently editor at large for The Nation, succeeds Katrina vanden Heuvel, who will become editorial director and remain publisher of the country’s oldest weekly magazine.

Katrina vanden Heuvel, who marks her 25th year as editor of The Nation in 2019, will continue to chart the strategic direction of The Nation working with Guttenplan and The Nation’s president, Erin O’Mara. She will also edit select writers and contribute regular commentary. Vanden Heuvel has led The Nation through turbulent political times, steering the magazine into the digital era and winning multiple awards for The Nation’s investigative reporting, commentary, and political impact.

Guttenplan was one of the magazine’s lead correspondents covering the 2016 presidential campaign and is the author of The Next Republic: The Rise of a New Radical Majority. In 2015 he co-edited The Nation’s 150th-anniversary special issue with vanden Heuvel and wrote The Nation: A Biography, a definitive history of the magazine. His book American Radical: The Life and Times of I.F Stone, about The Nation’s former Washington correspondent, won the 2010 Sperber Prize for Biography.

“As my co-editor for The Nation’s 150th-anniversary issue, I saw first-hand Don’s rigor and creative thinking,” said vanden Heuvel. “An accomplished journalist working at the intersection of history, politics, and activism, Don is the right choice to continue to move The Nation forward. I’m excited about The Nation’s future, our expanding reach across all platforms as a critical voice for sanity and progress at this moment in history.”

“I’m thrilled to be taking over at The Nation at such a crucial time in the magazine’s history and in our national life,” said Guttenplan. “The Nation is a beacon for progressive ideas, democratic politics, women’s rights, racial and economic justice, and open debate between liberals and radicals.”

“Under Katrina’s leadership,” said Guttenplan, “The Nation has consistently shown that ideas matter, championing causes often dismissed as radical or marginal at the time only to be embraced by the mainstream years and sometimes decades later. The Nation spoke out boldly against the Iraq War, warned about the dangers of ‘The New Inequality,’ and has consistently been a brave, and sometimes lonely, voice opposing the rush to a new Cold War. I’m immensely proud of our history and look forward to helping our incredibly talented community of editors and writers shape our next chapter.”

In addition to the transition in editorship, The Nation will be hiring a new executive web editor to drive the continued growth of TheNation.com. The Nation is also announcing that journalist Elie Mystal will write regular commentary at TheNation.com focused on politics, law, and racial justice. Mystal joins the Rev. William Barber, the magazine’s civil-rights correspondent, in covering race, and is part of a growing cohort of diverse and dynamic voices at The Nation.

Under vanden Heuvel’s leadership, The Nation has evolved into a multi-channel media company—print, web, newsletters, podcasts, video, and a robust educational program. The Nation has won a “Shorty” award for its Twitter feed, @thenation, which has more than 1.24 million followers, and has developed a strong presence on Facebook and Instagram. Over 30 percent of the traffic at TheNation.com and audience engagement on social media is from readers 18–34 years old, reflecting The Nation’s continued relevance to a new generation. In 2017, The Nation launched Take Action Now, a weekly newsletter curating the resistance by highlighting three actions the Nation community can take based on the time they have. This newsletter has a passionate following and is part of a portfolio of newsletters that has a combined reach of 800,000 subscribers.

Alongside vanden Heuvel’s new role shaping the future of The Nation as editorial director, she will continue writing her regular weekly column for The Washington Post and will be speaking, writing, and collecting articles and essays for a forthcoming book. Vanden Heuvel will continue working with the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center and other groups to craft a progressive foreign policy.

Guttenplan and vanden Heuvel are both former interns for The Nation, joining hundreds of working journalists, editors, and political leaders as alumni of the program. The Nation intern program is one of the premier editorial fact-checking and journalism-training programs in the field, and The Nation was one of the first media outlets to pay interns a $15-an-hour wage. The Nation has been deeply committed to nurturing young journalists and working to make the field of journalism diverse, through initiatives like StudentNation, the Nation writing fellowship, Black on Campus, and the Student Journalism Conference.

Guttenplan, who until recently was editor in chief of the London-based Jewish Quarterly, is the producer of the acclaimed documentary film Edward Said: The Last Interview and wrote and presented War, Lies, and Audiotape, a radio documentary for the BBC about the Gulf of Tonkin incident and the origins of the Vietnam War. A former education correspondent for the International Herald Tribune, former columnist for New York Newsday, and former senior editor at The Village Voice, his essays and reporting have appeared in the Atlantic, The Guardian, Haaretz, Harper’s, the London Review of Books, The New York Times, and the Times Literary Supplement.

“This is a moment of continuity and change,” said vanden Heuvel. “Don has been a part of The Nation and our success, but also brings new energy, ideas, and bold leadership to the magazine. He is deeply committed to growing a new generation of voices. And he understands the critical role of independent journalism in our society.”

Guttenplan will be the magazine’s 16th editor in its 154-year history. Guttenplan and vanden Heuvel are available for interviews.

CONTACT: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

Jason Farbman, The Nation Institute, jason [at] nationinstitute.org

New York, NY—November 14, 2018—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, announced today that it will assume sole responsibility for an internship program that has been administered in partnership between The Nation and The Nation Institute since 1978. The Victor S. Navasky Internship Program, widely regarded as one of the finest and most rigorous programs for early-career journalists, will now be fully managed by The Nation magazine.

“The Nation Institute has been a great steward of this program for nearly 40 years,” said Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editor and Publisher of The Nation. “At a moment when facts and rigor are sorely lacking in the public arena, the internship program has set the gold standard for excellence. We are proud to assume full responsibility for the program and invest in a new generation of journalists.”

Participants in the program experience a comprehensive immersion in The Nation and TheNation.com’s editorial processes, with rigorous training in the work of fact-checking, investigative reporting, research support, and web production. Interns are also given the opportunity to attend educational seminars with prominent magazine writers, respected thought-leaders, veteran editors, and publishing staff. Alumni of the internship program have gone on to produce award-winning, breakthrough journalism, with bylines appearing at hundreds of leading media institutions around the world.

“We have been so proud to help jump-start the careers of over a thousand journalists, providing critical training and nurturing diverse voices as they enter the field,” said Taya Kitman, Executive Director of The Nation Institute. “But as we evolve and continue to grow our programs, it makes sense for the magazine to assume full control of the internship. It will be in great hands, and The Nation Institute will continue its commitment to mentoring through our fellowships for emerging journalists.”

The Nation Institute, a nonprofit media center, will focus on developing its core programs, including a bestselling book-publishing imprint, Nation Books; an award-winning Investigative Fund that supports investigative journalism; Journalism Fellowships that support established and emerging reporters; the website TomDispatch; and prize programs to support whistle-blowing, truth-telling, and social justice.

The Nation will continue to offer a spring and a fall internship each year, with cohorts lasting for six months and consisting of six interns per class. Interns work full-time and are paid $15 an hour. Although applications are closed for the next cycle, additional information about the program can be found here.

For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

About The Nation:

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

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CONTACT: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, NY—October 18, 2018—The Nation, America’s leading source of independent journalism, progressive politics, and culture, today announced that Zephyr Teachout will be joining the editorial board to advise on issues close to her work combating corruption, crony capitalism, monopoly power, and corporate-friendly politics.

“We’re so pleased Zephyr is joining our masthead,” says Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel. “She has spent much of her life working to restore America’s democracy. Zephyr believes in holding the powerful and corrupt accountable, as does The Nation. Her deeply informed insights into why our current political system is broken—and how it can be repaired—will inform our journalism and thinking.”

“It is an honor to join The Nation’s esteemed editorial board,” adds Teachout. “The integrity of our democratic system is under attack by forces that would undermine the rule of law and the sanctity of truth. The Nation’s role trumpeting an equitable and just society and government is more vital now than ever, and I look forward to bringing my robust experience as an activist and advocate to help advise the important work they do.”

A distinguished academic and a principled, savvy politician, Teachout has been at the forefront of advancing progressive reform for nearly two decades. She literally wrote the book on corruption in America, and her previous contributions to the pages of The Nation have focused on 21st-century trust busting, tackling abuses of power, and advocating for equitable economic policies. In the past few years, Teachout has also injected much-needed debate into several competitive New York elections by giving voice to the groundswell of progressive populist sentiment rumbling across the state and throughout the country. (The Nation endorsed Teachout’s visionary campaigns for governor of New York in 2014, and for state attorney general in 2018.) She is also a key architect of two ongoing cases against President Trump for violating the US Constitution’s emoluments clause.

Helmed by vanden Heuvel and executive editor Richard Kim, The Nation is committed to providing a deeper understanding of the world as it is—and as it could be—by driving bold ideas into the conversation and igniting debates far beyond our pages. Teachout joins fellow editorial-board members including Deepak Bhargava, Kai Bird, Barbara Ehrenreich, Frances FitzGerald, Eric Foner, Greg Grandin, Lani Guinier, Tony Kushner, Toni Morrison, Walter Mosley, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Victor Navasky, Pedro Antonio Noguera, Richard Parker, Elizabeth Pochoda, Rinku Sen, and Dorian T. Warren in advising this mission.

For interview requests or further information, please see contact information above.

About The Nation:

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

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CONTACT: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, NY—May 18, 2018—The Nation, America’s leading source of independent journalism, progressive politics, and culture, today announced the launch of Black on Campus (#BlackOnCampus), an extension of our long-standing commitment to the education, training, and support of student and emerging journalists. Produced in partnership with the Anna Julia Cooper Center of Wake Forest University, Black on Campus is a national program for 10 storytellers—chosen from a pool of more than 100 applicants—in two- or four-year colleges, universities, or graduate schools, working under the direction of Nation contributing editor Melissa Harris-Perry (@MHarrisPerry), founding director of the AJC Center and Maya Angelou Presidential Chair at Wake Forest University, and Dr. Sherri Williams (@SherriWrites), assistant professor in race, media, and communication at American University.

Black on Campus allows participants to develop professional skills as they document the experiences of black college students and report on issues of national consequence to a student audience. For the next several weeks, The Nation will bring you reporting from the talented young writers of the Black on Campus cohort as they follow in the examples of Ida B. Wells and Anna Julia Cooper—righting wrongs by shining the light of truth upon them to reframe our understanding of the political, cultural, and personal implications of race, in pursuit of a better nation.

In her introduction to the series, Harris-Perry discusses “What It’s Like to Be Black on Campus Now.” “Suddenly our experiences no longer seem isolated,” she explains. “They’re linked in a larger movement against institutional racism.” The inaugural essay, by UVA junior Alexis Gravely (@_AlexisWasHere), begins where the academic year began—with racial violence: “At the University of Virginia, Black Students Are Still Recovering From August 11.”

Since January, student writers have met monthly with the Black on Campus journalism squad and traveled to Washington, DC, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. On June 1, they will attend The Nation’s annual Student Journalism Conference at the New School in New York City.

For booking requests or further information, please see contact information above.

About The Nation:

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

About the AJC Center:

The Anna Julia Cooper Center is an interdisciplinary center at Wake Forest University with a mission of advancing justice through intersectional scholarship.

The AJC Center supports, generates, and communicates innovative research at the intersections of gender, race, and place, sustaining relationships between partners on campus and throughout the nation in order to ask new questions, reframe critical issues, and pursue equitable outcomes.

The AJC Center supports a postdoctoral fellowship and undergraduate research; convenes faculty, researchers, and community through seminars and roundtable discussions; and hosts local and national events and residencies. The AJC Center is the administrator of the Collaborative to Advance Equity Through Research.

The Center is named for scholar, educator, and author Anna Julia Cooper, whose pioneering scholarship and activism laid the foundation for black American feminism and insisted on the importance of Southern voices in American politics.

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CONTACT: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, NY—May 11, 2018—The Nation, America’s leading source of independent journalism, progressive politics, and culture, today announced the appointment of Atossa Araxia Abrahamian (@atossaaraxia) as senior editor. Based in New York City, she begins June 14, 2018.

Abrahamian’s interests are as varied as her previous essays and criticism for The Nation, which have ranged from the rock-star appeal of Modern Monetary Theory to the major foreign-policy questions facing the left today to an interview with current and former editors of High Times magazine. (Her most recent review, published in The Nation’s Spring Books special issue, considered the question “Can Yanis Varoufakis Save Europe?”) In her new role, Abrahamian will expand The Nation’s sharp, lively coverage of economics, business, technology, globalization, and culture, working with seasoned journalists and up-and-coming reporters both here in the United States and from around the globe. She will also continue reporting the occasional feature and writing for the magazine.

“Atossa is a compelling and sophisticated writer, editor, and thinker on the big ideas shaping the world,” says Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel. “Her entrepreneurial spirit and grasp of fresh perspectives—whether towards a new economy or on the borders of the future—will help seed meaningful debates and conversations beyond the ephemera of Trump’s latest tweet or temper tantrum. An accomplished reporter in her own right, Atossa has always been a welcome addition to The Nation’s pages.”

“I’m thrilled to be joining The Nation’s brilliant team of editors after contributing to the magazine for several years as a freelancer,” adds Abrahamian. “We’re living in a period of global upheaval, which brings with it real opportunities for radical political ideas and new economic models. I can’t think of a better publication than The Nation to bring these movements and initiatives to light through serious reporting and well-informed commentary.”

Abrahamian has written for The New York Times, New York magazine, the London Review of Books, and other publications. She has worked as an opinion editor at Al Jazeera America and a general-news and business reporter for Reuters, and helped launch The New Inquiry, where she is now editor emeritus. Abrahamian grew up in Geneva, Switzerland, and studied philosophy as an undergraduate at Columbia University, where she returned for a master’s program in investigative reporting at the Graduate School of Journalism. Her first book, The Cosmopolites: The Coming of the Global Citizen, was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice selection.

Helmed by vanden Heuvel and executive editor Richard Kim, The Nation is committed to providing a deeper understanding of the world as it is—and as it could be—by driving bold ideas into the conversation and igniting debates far beyond our pages. Abrahamian joins fellow senior editors Emily Douglas, Lizzy Ratner, and Christopher Shay; managing editor Roane Carey; literary editor David Marcus; and Washington editor George Zornick, in pursuit of this mission

For booking requests or further information, please see contact information above.

About the magazine:

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.

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CONTACT: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, NY—February 15, 2018—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, today announced the appointment of Bijan Stephen (@bijanstephen) as music critic. Together with David Hajdu, who joined The Nation’s masthead in 2015, Stephen will expand the magazine’s web and print music coverage while contributing occasional book reviews, cultural criticism, and reporting.

Stephen’s previous work for The Nation includes essays on Shamir Bailey’s striking self-reinvention, CupcakKe’s soul-searching new album, the optimistic love songs of Gustav Åhr (AKA Lil Peep), and what The Awl gave us. His latest piece, published today, is “Hold My Heart,” on Rhye.

“We’re excited to have Bijan Stephen joining our ranks,” says Nation literary editor David Marcus. “An accomplished critic and culture reporter, he brings to the magazine not only a sharp critical sensibility but also an eclectic range of interests—from emo-rap to Texas food culture to recent fiction.”

“I’m delighted to have the opportunity to help expand The Nation’s music coverage; it’s an incredibly exciting time in music—genre boundaries are blurring, and listening has become so much more democratic. Which means there’s more to say than ever,” adds Stephen.

Based in New York City, Stephen has written criticism and reportage for The New Yorker, Esquire, The New Republic, and elsewhere. He has also worked at Vanity Fair, The New Republic, and as a culture correspondent on Vice News Tonight.

The Nation has long been part of the lifeblood of American cultural and intellectual life, with its distinct “back of the book” playing host each week to leading critics and scholars ranging on subjects from the pop sensation Lorde to the revival of socialism in America. Under the stewardship of literary editor David Marcus and assistant literary editor Matthew McKnight, the magazine’s Books & the Arts section seeks to bring the world of ideas back into the world of politics and culture, assigning poets to write on music, novelists to write on political history, and historians on current affairs. (Last year, Richard Yeselson called it “the most intellectually formidable and capacious book section in America.”) 

Stephen and Hajdu join the ranks of art critic Barry Schwabsky, film critic Stuart Klawans, and poetry coeditors Steph Burt and Carmen Giménez Smith—all of whom regularly produce pioneering and provocative insights into this cultural moment in America.

For booking requests or further information, please see contact information above.

About the magazine:

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of American political and cultural life from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent voice in American journalism and a platform for investigative reporting and spirited debate on issues of import to the progressive community.

CONTACT: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, NY—January 9, 2018—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, marks the one-year anniversary of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration with a special issue, “The Resistance Turns One” (January 29/February 5, 2018, cover date; on stands January 22; advance PDFs available upon request). Editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel and select contributors are available for comment on the divisive and dangerous presidency that has developed since January 20th of last year—and what comes next: reconstruction and rebuilding power.

“The Resistance Turns One” frames the arguments that underpin the resistance to Trump, his appointees, and his corrosive agenda. Yet understanding that resistance is not enough, the issue also elevates the policies and players doing exciting work at local and national levels.

“As he marks the end of his first year in office, Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed ‘very stable genius,’ stands astride the political world like a cartoon dybbuk, an orange menace of terrifying impulsiveness,” writes celebrated progressive activist Robert Borosage in his introduction to the issue. “With his tweet-spasms spewing venom on adversaries, his reckless fomenting of racial division, his unending lies, and his predilection for vulgar schoolyard taunts, Trump fuels rage and resistance. In the end, however, he is a weak president, more clown than despot.”

Contributors include:

• Moustafa Bayoumi on being Muslim in the age of Trump
• Katha Pollitt on the collective power of women’s resistance
• Greg Grandin on the president’s “death cult” appeal to a racist and nationalist chauvinism
• Marilynne Robinson on the Republican Party’s greatest power: inertia
• Bill McKibben on town halls and the power of local politics
• David Bromwich on Trump’s dual drives: money and publicity
• Khalil Gibran Muhammad on white supremacy cloaked in reasonable racism
• Plus: Profiles in courage and resistance celebrate the work of 
Colin Kaepernick, ADAPT, Zephyr Teachout, Tania Unzueta, Rebecca Solnit, 31st Street Swing Left, Claudia Rankine, Carmen Yulín Cruz, and Andy Slavitt.

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has long served as a chronicle of America’s historical memory and a champion of the country’s democratic promise. Since the election, we’ve been at the center of the work to make sense of this political moment—both Trump’s tenure and the broader political landscape. Supplementing our journalistic mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, The Nation in 2017 embraced encryption with a confidential tips page; reimagined ‘Cities Rising,’ a reporting series focused on pockets of urban resistance nationwide; launched “Take Action Now” (@NationAction), a weekly online email initiative that curates opportunities for activism on a sliding scale of time commitment and investment; and introduced OppArt, a new series of artistic dispatches from the frontlines of the resistance.

Advance PDFs of the full issue available upon request and select contributors available for interview. For booking requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT THE NATION

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of American political and cultural life from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent voice in American journalism and a platform for investigative reporting and spirited debate on issues of import to the progressive community.

CONTACT: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, NY—October 2, 2017—Long a home to quality accountability journalism, The Nation broadens its horizons in this unprecedented political moment with OppArt, a new series of artistic dispatches from the front lines of resistance. Spearheaded by celebrated artists and illustrators Andrea Arroyo, Steve Brodner, and Peter Kuper, OppArt will showcase fresh content daily as a diverse set of artists take aim and draw. The first installation of the series,“Nuisance Flooding,” launched today.

Curated with a singularly progressive and political point-of-view, OppArt will convene international artists with a broad range of talents, from comics and illustrations to street graphics and fine art. Their work will confront and expose power, while sustaining a wry humor in turbulent political times. The series complements The Nation’s longstanding ComixNation print feature.

“A picture is worth a thousand words. Tried and trite, but true,” says editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel. “Artists use their pens, their pencils, their brushes, and their ideas to cast a light on darkness and combat the forces that are driving us towards a precipice. Indeed, as Nobel Prize–winner and Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison once wrote in our pages: ‘This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear.… That is how civilizations heal. I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge—even wisdom. Like art.’”

“Today democracy and civil society are fighting for their very existence,” add curators Arroyo, Brodner, and Kuper. “The Nation has always been on the front lines of journalism and commentary. Now, with the OppArt daily blog, they are making a major commitment to our movement of artists who are not backing down from this fight.”

For progressives, there are countless reasons to challenge the current administration, and The Nation has led the robust resistance to Trump this year. In addition to OppArt, we embraced encryption with a confidential tips page; reimagined “Cities Rising,” our reporting series focused on pockets of urban resistance nationwide; and launched “Take Action Now” (@NationAction), a weekly online e-mail initiative that curates opportunities for activism on a sliding scale of time commitment and investment. Released every Tuesday, “Take Action Now” directs progressive energy towards meaningful action with a digestible e-mail resource of the great activism and organizing taking place around the country.

For booking requests or further information, please see contact information above and bios below.

Andrea Arroyo is an award-winning artist working in painting, drawing, public art, and site-specific installation. Her work has been exhibited widely and is in private public collections around the world, including the Library of Congress; the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution; the National Museum of Mexican Art; and the New York Public Library. Commissions include projects for the International Museum of Women, the Morris-Jumel Mansion Museum, the New York Women’s Foundation, the Women’s Rights National Historical Park, the Latin Recording Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the New York Restoration Project. Her permanent public art includes projects for the New York City subway, two New York City schools, and other public spaces. Her artwork has been published extensively including on the cover of The New Yorker and The New York Times, and has been the subject of over 200 features in the international media. Arroyo is also a cultural advocate, speaker, and curator; her ongoing project “Unnatural Election” features over 250 international artists.

Steve Brodner, a leading artist in the world of political satire and caricature, is a longtime contributor to The Nation. His work has appeared in most major publications in the United States. His web and video work has been featured in The New Yorker, PBS, Slate, and The Washington Spectator. He has won many awards and continues to push political, artistic, and technological borderlines. Visit his website at stevebrodner.com.

Peter Kuper’s work regularly appears in The New Yorker, The Nation, and Mad, where he has written and illustrated “Spy vs. Spy” for every issue since 1997. He is the co-founder of World War 3 Illustrated, a political comix magazine, He has produced over two dozen books, including an adaptation of Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” and Ruins, winner of the 2016 Eisner award for best graphic novel. A visiting professor at Harvard University, Kuper has been teaching comics and illustration courses at the School of Visual Arts for over 25 years.

ABOUT THE NATION

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of American political and cultural life from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent voice in American journalism and a platform for investigative reporting and spirited debate on issues of import to the progressive community.

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CONTACT: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, NY—August 7, 2017—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, today announced the appointment of Steph Burt and Carmen Giménez Smith as poetry editors. In their new roles, Burt (@accommodatingly) and Smith (@lizitasmith) will solicit and commission a wide range of American and international poetry and build out a more robust poetry vertical online. They start in the fall and will begin accepting submissions September 15, 2017. (See guidelines.)

“We’re delighted to have Steph and Carmen join our masthead as poetry editors,” says literary editor David Marcus. “Both are accomplished critics and editors as well as poets with wide-ranging tastes, and they bring to the magazine a bold and exciting vision that will help us continue to be an important venue for poetry in America.”

“I’m amazed and delighted to have, together with Carmen, this opportunity,” adds Steph Burt. “In its mix of literary tradition, much-needed advocacy, and committed audience, there is really nothing much like The Nation and we hope to bring readers the poets they like, the poets we like, the poets they didn’t know they loved, and the best poets we ourselves have yet to discover.”

“There’s a lot going on in the poetry world right now, and we’re happy to be able to shine, on some of it, the light that this journal and its readers can give,” says Carmen Giménez Smith. “Poetry has always been vital to progressive movements, and we hope to capture the most striking examples of that intersection.”

Steph Burt (who also goes by Stephen and Stephanie) is a professor of English at Harvard University and the author of several books of poetry and literary criticism, including The Poem Is You (Harvard University Press, 2016) and Advice from the Lights, to be published by Graywolf in October 2017. She first contributed to The Nation in 2002 and, more recently, wrote about the life and times of Polish poet Czesław Miłosz for the 2017 Spring Books issue. Her poems, reviews, essays, and articles have appeared in many journals, including the The New York Times Book Review, the London Review of Books, Rain Taxi, and the Times Literary Supplement. When she is not writing about, or writing, poetry, she has been known to cover comic books, pop music, science fiction, and women’s basketball. She lives in Belmont, Massachusetts, with her spouse and two children.

Carmen Giménez Smith is a professor of English at Virginia Tech, a CantoMundo fellow, and the author of a memoir and four poetry collections, including Milk and Filth, a finalist for the 2013 National Book Critics Circle award in poetry. She co-edited Angels of the Americlypse: New Latin@ Writing, an anthology of contemporary Latinx writing (Counterpath Press, 2014), and serves as publisher of Noemi Press, which has published over 40 full-length collections of poetry and fiction. Noemi’s catalog is widely recognized as one of the most diverse and innovative presses in contemporary independent publishing and features work by emerging and established writers. Her next collection of poems, Cruel Futures, will be a volume in the City Lights Spotlight Series in 2018. Be Recorder will be published by Graywolf Press in 2019. She lives in Blacksburg, Virginia, with her husband, the writer Evan Lavender-Smith, and their two children.

The Nation has long been part of the lifeblood of American literature. Some of the most esteemed poets and writers have appeared in our pages, including: Marilynne Robinson, Hart Crane, Elizabeth Bishop, Wallace Stevens, Marianne Moore, John Ashbery, Langston Hughes, Adrienne Rich, Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, Alice Walker, W.E.B. Du Bois, Mary McCarthy, Willa Cather, Robert Frost, WH Auden, Amiri Baraka, Allen Ginsberg, Anne Sexton, and William Carlos Williams.

With their distinct and diverse accomplishments, and with many years of experience as editors and poets, Burt and Smith promise to locate and nurture early career talents as well as established writers.

For booking requests or further information, please see contact information above.

About The Nation

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of American political and cultural life from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent voice in American journalism and a platform for investigative reporting and spirited debate on issues of import to the progressive community.

About The Nation’s Books & Arts Section

Anxious discussions on the future of the book review seem to be a staple these days—yet The Nation continues to dedicate one third of its print edition each week to Books & Arts. Twice a year, we devote an entire issue to such coverage; we’ve done so for over 35 years. Over the course of the past decade-plus, we’ve also built a robust culture vertical on TheNation.com, featuring intelligent and sharp takes on philosophy and literature as well as poetry, music, architecture, art, and film.

CONTACT: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, NY—July 6, 2017—In 2014, The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, launched “Cities Rising,” an ongoing reporting series dedicated to capturing the progressive energy burbling up from the urban asphalt. With the election of Donald Trump, as protests rise across the country, our editors fiercely believe cities will continue to offer hope for remedying the problems of American society and creating a better, brighter, and more just tomorrow. Cities today are more than centers of progressive innovation; they mark the epicenters of the urban resistance.

Welcome to the age of big-city progressivism! Series editor Lizzy Ratner and regular contributor Jimmy Tobias are available for interview from New York City to discuss The Nation’s “Cities Rising” in further detail. Selections of Tobias’s work, ranging from monthly dispatches from the urban resistance to deep-dive explorations of municipal victories, are below. Additional contributors include Jarrett Murphy (New York City), Helen Gym (Philadelphia), Peter Moskowitz (Jackson, Mississippi), Will Parrish (San Francisco Bay Area), and more.

Even as the functional gears of federal government grind to a halt, a new energy is rocking the foundations of our city centers. From Chattanooga to Seattle and points in between, cities are seizing the initiative, transforming themselves into laboratories of progressive innovation to tackle the most pressing challenges of our time—bringing new urgency and dynamic creativity in response to questions of income inequality, affordable housing, climate change, public health, participatory democracy, and more.

The mission of “Cities Rising” is to chronicle, analyze, and amplify the heroic, and often uncelebrated, fights being won by activists, legislators, and engaged residents in cities across the country—with the aim of disseminating the lessons of these fights. Activists in Cleveland can’t be expected to keep track of organizing campaigns in San Diego, just as elected officials in Boulder may never hear of the good work being done in tiny Emeryville, California. Like a vast, trans-local Intranet, “Cities Rising” connects urban leaders from coast to coast to empower and teach organizers how change is made.

“Cities Rising” is a natural continuation of The Nation’s long and proud history of speaking truth to power and identifying positive, progressive policy solutions for America. In the era of Trump, it’s become a full-time job to figure out the most effective ways to resist the new normal; just last month we launched “Take Action Now” (@NationAction)—a weekly online e-mail initiative that curates opportunities for activism on a sliding scale of time commitment and investment. Released every Tuesday, “Take Action Now” directs progressive energy towards meaningful action with a digestible e-mail resource of the great activism and organizing taking place around the country. Whether subscribers have five minutes or five hours to devote to a cause, The Nation is here to help our community navigate the politics of protest.

As promised, selections of Jimmy Tobias’s work for “Cities Rising” include:

How a Small City Took On a Financial Giant—and Reclaimed Its Most Precious Resource

After a protracted fight with the Carlyle Group, Missoula’s water is finally in the hands of the people.

These Cities Might Just Save the Country
Dispatches from the Urban Resistance, from Atlantic City to Miami Beach.



Even Republican Mayors Are Rejecting Trump’s Energy Policies
From Aspen to Abita Springs, cities are committing to running on 100 percent renewable energy.



These Cities Aren’t Waiting for Trump to Self-Destruct. They’re Fighting Back Now.
Dispatches from the Urban Resistance, from Los Angeles to El Paso.



This City Helped Pioneer the Fight for $15. Can It Revolutionize Housing Rights?
Seattle renters are mad as hell—and they’re not going to take it anymore.




What if People Owned the Banks, Instead of Wall Street?

From Seattle to Santa Fe, cities are at the center of a movement to create publicly owned banks.


The Government Wouldn’t Rein In the Banks’ Predatory Practices—Until These Tellers Stepped In

The Committee for Better Banks is organizing to change the banking industry from the inside out.

Is This Small City the Future of Democratic Engagement in America?
Activists in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, have embarked on a nonstop campaign to resurrect the practice of progressive politics in the heart of Trump country.

From Austin to Missoula, This Is What the Fight Against Trumpism Looks Like
Dispatches from the Urban Resistance, April edition.

Trans Rights Weren’t the Only Target of North Carolina’s ‘Bathroom Bill’

HB2 is part of a sweeping attack on local progressive power by Republican state legislatures.

ABOUT JIMMY TOBIAS

Jimmy Tobias is a contributor to The Nation, where he writes for “Cities Rising,” the magazine’s ongoing series on progressive pockets of resistance nationwide. He also covers conservation and environmental justice.

ABOUT LIZZY RATNER

Lizzy Ratner is a senior editor at The Nation, where she oversees “Cities Rising,” the magazine’s ongoing series on progressive pockets of resistance nationwide.

ABOUT THE NATION

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of American political and cultural life from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent voice in American journalism and a platform for investigative reporting and spirited debate on issues of import to the progressive community.

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CONTACT: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, NY—June 21, 2017—Voter suppression. Health-care repeal. A planet in crisis. President Trump. For progressives, there are countless reasons to fight back. So many, in fact, that it’s become a full-time job to figure out the most effective ways to resist the new normal. The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, is here to help: We do the research. You take action.

This week, we’re launching “Take Action Now” (@NationAction)—a weekly online e-mail initiative that curates opportunities for activism on a sliding scale of time commitment and investment. Released every Tuesday, “Take Action Now” directs progressive energy towards meaningful action with a digestible e-mail resource of the great activism and organizing taking place around the country. Whether subscribers have five minutes or five hours to devote to a cause, The Nation is here to help our community navigate the politics of protest. Sign up here.

“Founded by abolitionists at the end of the Civil War, The Nation has long been a publication of resistance—believing that movements have the capacity to bring about a more democratic and equitable world,” explains Editor in Chief and Publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel. “Our proud legacy is proof positive that we’ve been on the right side of history in some of the greatest debates roiling our country and our world.”

In late 2013, recognizing a need from our engaged and highly politicized readers, The Nation launched “Take Action”—an activism program that directs subscribers to act on timely, critical issues, frequently with partner organizations we trust. In a few short years, that community ballooned to over 400,000 subscribers; since the election of Donald Trump, the growth rate of our “Take Action” list quadrupled. Hundreds of thousands of Nation readers have signed petitions, called their representatives, and taken to the streets to raise awareness of diverse issues ranging from net neutrality to voter suppression to global warming to immigrant rights.

“Take Action Now” is the natural continuation of these efforts. It’s for readers looking to get involved but unsure of where to start. Curated by Nation editors to make the biggest impact in the fight for social justice, “Take Action Now” offers three meaningful options each week that amplify and nurture the resistance: one that takes a few minutes, one that takes a few hours, and one that involves a deeper commitment. Subscribers can pick and choose so that they’ll always have a way to get involved, no matter their schedule.

“After the election of Donald Trump, we knew that The Nation could play an integral role in opposing the Republicans’ reckless and cynical agenda,” says Digital-Communications Manager Sarah Arnold. “With our robust list of readers eager to act, unique position as a magazine of conviction, and connections to organizations at the forefront of the resistance, we spent the months after the election thinking about how to be most useful to our community. From the beginning, we knew two things: We wanted to point our readers to concrete offline action, and we hoped to bring clarity to which opportunities were most in need of their attention.”

The Nation does not expect anyone’s involvement in the resistance to end at what they find in their “Take Action Now” alerts, but we hope this resource will help users connect to the vital work being done every day by movements we deeply respect—celebrating the people and institutions we admire and whose work we hope to lift up.

For booking requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT THE NATION

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of American political and cultural life from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent voice in American journalism and a platform for investigative reporting and spirited debate on issues of import to the progressive community. Through changing times and fashions, The Nation and TheNation.com offer consistently informed and inspired reporting and analysis of breaking news, politics, social issues and the arts—never faltering in our editorial commitment to what Nation Publisher Emeritus Victor Navasky has called “a dissenting, independent, trouble-making, idea-launching journal of critical opinion.”

CONTACT: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, NY—March 7, 2017—Dave Zirin, the first sports editor in The Nation’s 150-plus-year history, brings his wildly popular Edge of Sports podcast to TheNation.com. Beginning Tuesday, March 7, 2017, the program will be hosted on our site and feature new weekly episodes of original conversations with the trailblazers and earth shakers operating at the intersection of sports and politics in America and around the world.

“We’re delighted to have Dave’s much-needed voice on the digital airwaves as The Nation continues to build out its multi-platform presence,” says Nation multimedia editor Frank Reynolds. “Edge of Sports joins our other regular podcast, Start Making Sense, to bring listeners pop culture, politics, and intelligent conversation twice a week.”

“I love podcasting so much,” adds Zirin. “It is the media of the present and the future. And I truly can’t think of a home for the podcast that makes more sense then The Nation magazine, which has supported my work fearlessly for so many years.”

Zirin, who first joined The Nation over a decade ago, hosts a signature mix of sports, politics, history and culture icons with a combative take-no-prisoners approach. Previous guests on Edge of Sports, which began airing in 2014, include Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, John Legend, Martina Navratilova, Don Cheadle, Chuck D, Noam Chomsky, and numerous other voices at the forefront of our national conversation on the politics of sport.

The inaugural Nation episode, “The Enduring Legacy of ‘Hoop Dreams’,” features an interview with legendary documentary filmmaker Peter Gilbert, harsh words for Mike Francesa, and an exclusive statement from Seattle Seahawk Michael Bennett in support of the strike on International Women’s Day. Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, and SoundCloud for new episodes each Tuesday.

Edge of Sports joins The Nation’s growing podcast offerings, including the weekly Start Making Sense—political talk without the boring parts. First launched in November 2015 and produced in partnership with the Los Angeles Review of Books, Start Making Sense features host and Nation contributing editor Jon Wiener in conversation with the writers, activists, and artists who shape the week in news and the world we’re in. Listeners rave: Beyond smart. Insightful. Quick. Always interesting. Funny. Great guests. Great host. With all of the misinformation in the media today, [Start Making Sense] is very refreshing. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, and SoundCloud, new episodes air on Thursdays.

Edge of Sports also follows on last year’s enormously successful limited-term series partnerships with WNYC Studios: There Goes the Neighborhood, an in-depth look at the calamitous consequences of gentrifying Brooklyn, and The United States of Anxiety, which took listeners inside the minds of Trump supporters during the 2016 presidential campaign. Hosted by Kai Wright, each was voted one of the “Best Podcasts of 2016” by The Atlantic (#15 and #2, respectively).

For booking requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT THE NATION

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of American political and cultural life from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent voice in American journalism and a platform for investigative reporting and spirited debate on issues of import to the progressive community. Through changing times and fashions, The Nation and TheNation.com offer consistently informed and inspired reporting and analysis of breaking news, politics, social issues and the arts—never faltering in our editorial commitment to what Nation Publisher Emeritus Victor Navasky has called “a dissenting, independent, trouble-making, idea-launching journal of critical opinion.”

CONTACT: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, NY—March 2, 2017—Donald Trump loves to attack the news media, but he wouldn’t be president today without them, argues acclaimed press critic and guest editor Mark Hertsgaard in this special issue of The Nation. Gracing the cover of “Media in the Trump Era” (March 20, 2017) is a lacerating cartoon by legendary Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau. The issue’s articles—some published in conjunction with The Columbia Journalism Review—stress solutions, not lamentations. Plus, something not normally associated with The Nation: laughs! The issue’s overriding purpose, however, is deadly serious: How should the news media cover the combative new president, and how can American journalism regain public trust and audiences?

“Media malpractice fueled the election of Donald Trump,” says Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel. “Our special issue grapples with the consequences of this historic failure, and offers a roadmap to recovering journalistic integrity and independence.”

“Whatever one’s politics, it is in everyone’s interest that the American media—left, right and center—do a much better job of covering president Trump than they did covering candidate Trump,” adds Hertsgaard, author of the seminal study of White House press relations, On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency, and newly-appointed Nation investigative editor at large. To counter the far-reaching right-wing media infrastructure that has misled Americans about everything from Trump to Barack Obama’s birthplace to the reality of climate change, Hertsgaard urges building an independent media infrastructure—not to mimic right-wing propaganda but to uphold core principles of a free press: informing the people and holding the powerful to account.

Other contributions include:

Trump Versus the Media: How to Cover a Hostile President

Nic Dawes, the former editor in chief of South Africa’s top daily investigative newspaper, draws on his long experience confronting authoritarian populists to warn of parallels with the Trump administration. His advice to his American colleagues: jettison your pose of distanced neutrality and shun official access in favor of democratic accountability: As the public’s surrogate, the press has a right of access to the places where the machinery of government is working,” Dawes writes. “You do not bargain about this kind of press access, and you accept no diminishment of it, because it belongs to you, not the government of the day.”

Is There a Business Model For Serious Journalism in the Age of Trump?

Tackling this perennial question is Kyle Pope, editor in chief and publisher of The Columbia Journalism Review, who notes that Trump’s attack on the press comes at the very time the media have been crippled by plummeting revenues and staff layoffs. Compiling numerous examples of journalistic business models that seem to be working, Pope offers a surprisingly upbeat assessment of how to keep real journalism solvent.

And yes, some laughs: In addition to the hilarious Doonesbury cartoon on the cover and classic Calvin Trillin within, this special issue contains a cutting satire piece from rising video news star Francesca Fiorentini of AJ+ and Nation contributing editor Laura Flanders’s Q&A with Ana Kasparian of pugnacious online video news outlet, The Young Turks (to be published 3/6). Rounding out the package is an online-exclusive examination of the Trump administration’s hair-raising plans for the Federal Communications Commission by Nation political correspondent John Nichols. We also revisit a Nation Take Action petition that garnered nearly 10,000 personal messages on the importance of protecting net neutrality.

Select contributors available for interview. For booking requests or further information, please see contact information above.

ABOUT THE NATION

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of American political and cultural life from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent voice in American journalism and a platform for investigative reporting and spirited debate on issues of import to the progressive community. Through changing times and fashions, The Nation and TheNation.com offer consistently informed and inspired reporting and analysis of breaking news, politics, social issues and the arts—never faltering in our editorial commitment to what Nation Publisher Emeritus Victor Navasky has called “a dissenting, independent, trouble-making, idea-launching journal of critical opinion.”

CONTACT: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, NY—December 15, 2016—As 2016 draws to a close and the specter of President Trump looms large, The Nation celebrates Barack Obama’s historic presidency with a special issue, “The Obama Years: 2008—2016.” (January 2/9, 2017, cover date, 84 pages, perfect bound, on stands later this month).

The magazine gathers some of the greatest American writers, thinkers, and historians to thoughtfully evaluate Obama’s legacy in the immediate—with an eye to those who would protect it, and those who would seek to destroy it. A stunning collection of contemporary contributors take a measure of this unprecedented cultural and political moment, assessing Obama’s record across the most pressing crises of our time: race, climate change, social justice, Republican obstructionism, media malpractice, economics, foreign relations, and more.

“The achievements and complexities of President Obama’s tenure are many. The writers in our special issue dissect its significance, document American identity in the Age of Obama, and envision his political, social, and racial legacy in 20, 30 years—fearful of its evisceration by Donald Trump,” says editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel.

In addition to fresh contributions by a blockbuster line-up of writers, “The Obama Years” is dappled with illuminating archival content. Excerpts published over the course of Obama’s rise feature some of the best that was thought and said by Nation writers—much of it eerily prescient, all of it fascinating to read. This includes The Nation’s first Obama cover story of March 2007, “L’Étranger,” by columnist Patricia J. Williams, a biting appraisal of Obama’s racial “transcendence.”

In the wake of the 2016 election’s results, The Nation magazine saw a record 660 percent jump in subscriptions and new traffic heights on TheNation.com. Our journalists, columnists, and editors remain committed to accountability journalism, essential commentary, and in-depth reporting well into the next presidency—moving past the horse race to take seriously outside voices and alternative perspectives in American politics, and to speak truth to power in this extraordinary new era.

Indeed, columnist Katha Pollitt writes what so many of us are now thinking: “I miss him already. Say what you like, President Barack Hussein Obama is supremely intelligent, witty, humane, reasonable, elegant, a great writer, a model father, a good husband, a decent human being. He has empathy and humor. He is sane and calm. He gave us eight years free of scandal and drama.”

Select contributors available for interview. For booking requests or further information, please see contact information above.

The Nation Special Issue

“The Obama Years: 2008—2016”

Table of Contents

Christopher Hayes, How Will History Judge Barack Obama?
The president succeeded in repairing our institutions—but millions of Americans wanted to blow them up instead.

Gary Younge, The Deferred Dream of Barack Obama
His presidency remains symbolic—but it has become an emblem of America’s refusal to truly change.

Laila Lalami, What Happened to the Change We Once Believed In
After two terms, Obama leaves behind a legacy of promises kept—and broken.

Eric Alterman, Barack Obama Was Too Cool for the Press Room
The president’s insistence on thinking before acting drove the media around the bend… and towards Donald Trump.

Katha Pollitt, I Miss Our Sane, Calm, Empathetic, Funny, President Already
Before Trump’s election, we on the left didn’t give President Obama enough credit. Why?

Bryce Covert and Mike Konczal, Obama Was Not an Economic Radical. Trump Will Be.
President Obama’s economic reforms were modest—but they’re definitely worth fighting for.

Marilynne Robinson, A Proof, a Test, an Instruction
Obama is ours, in the deep sense that Lincoln is ours.

Greg Grandin, The Strange Career of American Exceptionalism
…and Barack Obama’s curious role as its most ardent recent champion and prominent victim.

Andrew J. Bacevich, Barack Obama’s Crash Course in Foreign Policy
After eight years on the job and many mistakes, he has gone from callow rookie to seasoned veteran.

David Cole, Obama’s Civil Rights Legacy—And Ours
Today’s turmoil in race relations may be a testament to the progress his administration made.

Robert L. Borosage, Was Barack Obama a Transformational President?
Despite his bold promises, the president put more energy into rescuing, rather than changing, the old system.

Kai Wright, Black Life and Death in the Age of Obama
His presidency saw new opportunities for black Americans—as well as the resurgence of white supremacy.

Joan Walsh, Which Way Does the Arc of Obama’s Moral Universe Bend?
Liberals once thought Obama would transcend race—but even his moderate views ended up provoking a whitelash.

Patricia J. Williams, Obama Did Not Fail Us—We Failed Each Other
And we failed to see the storm clouds of 2016 gathering behind the first black president.

Joelle Gamble, Michelle Obama, Between Respectability and Radicalism
While we took pride in the First Lady, activists changed what she could do.

Adrienne Kennedy, The Mysterious Magnetism of Michelle Obama
How did the first lady, a model of intelligence and grace, manage to keep her composure?

Dana Goldstein, The Education of Barack Obama
Only recently has the president focused on progressive issues like school funding and desegregation. Don’t expect Trump to do the same.

Mark Hertsgaard, Obama’s Record on Climate Change Provides Lessons for Taking on President Trump
The past eight years have proven that pressure from ordinary people can counterbalance elite interests.

Siva Vaidhyanathan, Was Obama Silicon Valley’s President?
The industry pinned its hopes on him early on.

Eric Foner, American Radicals and the Change We Could Believe In
The Obama era reminded us all that popular movements play an essential role as catalysts for political action.

ABOUT THE NATION

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of American political and cultural life from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent voice in American journalism and a platform for investigative reporting and spirited debate on issues of import to the progressive community. Through changing times and fashions, The Nation and TheNation.com offer consistently informed and inspired reporting and analysis of breaking news, politics, social issues and the arts—never faltering in our editorial commitment to what Nation Publisher Emeritus Victor Navasky has called “a dissenting, independent, trouble-making, idea-launching journal of critical opinion.”

Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, NY—September 29, 2016—The Nation, America’s leading magazine of progressive politics and culture, today launched two new columns that look beyond the election cycle to confront and decipher the political challenges occurring within and outside our borders. The columns will alternate publication in print and online.

Contributing editor Robert L. Borosage (@Borosage) will write a weekly column, “Insurgencies,” exploring the emerging strategies linking people in motion with progressive champions in office, and exposing the big lie that there are no alternatives. His first, “Wells Fargo Crooks Stole From Customers, Reaped Obscene Rewards—and Stuck Us With the Bill,” appears in the October 17, 2016 edition of the magazine. He is based in Washington, DC.

Former Salon and New Yorker correspondent Patrick Lawrence (@TheFloutist) joins The Nation as contributing writer, with a biweekly column on developments around the globe—offering pointed critiques of, and answering pressing questions on, foreign policy and its coverage by the mainstream media. His first, “The Russian Blitzkrieg on Aleppo Is a Direct Challenge to Washington,” parses the conflict in Syria and the critical precipice the US government faces in this post–Cold War crisis. He divides his time between New York City and Norfolk, CT.

“It is exciting that Robert Borosage, one of our country’s most cogent commentators on the battle of ideas between the Democratic establishment and the ascending progressive/populist movement, will use his weekly column to probe the clash between people and plutarchs, failed shibboleths and new ideas,” says Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel.

“The Nation has long cast its gaze beyond our country’s border, and Patrick Lawrence’s encyclopedic knowledge of world affairs and deep understanding of historical fault lines will be an integral addition to our work,” she adds. “He joins a wealth of Nation voices—Juan Cole, Maria Margaronis, Greg Grandin, Stephen Cohen, Barbara Crossette, Michael Klare, and James Carden—in offering probing, contextualized, and forward-looking commentary on international relations, and America’s role in navigating those relationships.”

“This is a time of growing turmoil,” says Borosage. “The dominant elite consensus has enriched the few, but failed most Americans. People’s movements—Occupy, the Dreamers, Black Lives Matter, Fight for 15, the Sanders presidential campaign and more—demanding fundamental change. Entrenched interests and corrupted big money politics stand in the way. ‘Insurgencies’ will offer periodic reports on this clash. We’ll probe the forbidding challenge of turning protest into power. And we’ll aim to live up to what Mr. Dooley called the central task of journalism—afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted.”

“The medium being part of the message, The Nation is the best environment I can think of for the column,” adds Lawrence. “Foreign policy figures in the American conversation more than it has since the Vietnam period, and vigorous, uncompromised critique is at least as important now as then. There’s no separating foreign policy from domestic conditions—there never was, of course—and this will come through in the context The Nation gives me. More personally, my first piece in The Nation appeared 40 years ago—1976. So it’s a special kind of pleasure to go on the masthead.”

Robert Borosage, a leading progressive writer and activist, is founder of a number of progressive organizations including, most recently, the Campaign for America’s Future, ProgressiveMajority, and ProgressiveCongress.org. He guided the Institute for Policy Studies for nearly a decade. Borosage served as issues director for the Jesse Jackson 1988 presidential campaign, and consulted on many progressive campaigns, including Senator Paul Wellstone and most recently, Representative Jamie Raskin. A contributing editor of The Nation, Borosage’s articles have been published by Reuters, The Huffington Post, The Washington Post and The New York Times.

Patrick Lawrence is a longtime columnist, essayist, critic, and lecturer. Most recently the foreign affairs commentator for Salon, he was a correspondent abroad (writing as Patrick L. Smith) for many years, chiefly for the Far Eastern Economic Review, the International Herald Tribune and The New Yorker, and chiefly in Asia. Apart from his staff work, Lawrence’s reportage, commentary, essays, criticism, and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, Business Week, Time, The Washington Quarterly, World Policy Journal, The Globalist, The Nation, Asian Art News, and numerous other publications, and he won an Overseas Press Club Award for his reportage from Korea during the last years of the dictatorships. Lawrence’s most recent books are Somebody Else’s Century: East and West in a Post-Western World and Time No Longer: America After the American Century (Yale). More information available at: www.patricklawrence.us.

Borosage and Lawrence join a host of Nation journalists, columnists and editors offering essential commentary and in-depth reporting throughout this campaign season and into the next presidency. Nation writers—including Joan Walsh, John Nichols, Eric Alterman, Ari Berman, Zoë Carpenter, William Greider, D.D. Guttenplan, Dani McClain, Katha Pollitt, Mychal Denzel Smith, Patricia Williams, Kai Wright, Gary Younge, George Zornick, and more—move past the horse race to take seriously outside voices and alternative perspectives in our politics. They provide timely analysis, crucial context to breaking news, and dynamic reporting on under-covered issues of race, immigration, inequality, labor, health, social justice, voting rights, women’s rights, and American democracy.

For booking requests or further information, please see contact information above.

About the magazine:

Founded in 1865, The Nation is America’s leading independent magazine of progressive politics and culture, serving as a platform for investigative reporting and spirited debate on issues of import to the progressive community. Through changing times and fashions, The Nation and TheNation.com offer consistently informed and inspired reporting and analysis of breaking news, politics, social issues and the arts—never faltering in our editorial commitment to what Nation Publisher Emeritus Victor Navasky has called “a dissenting, independent, trouble-making, idea-launching journal of critical opinion.”

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Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400

New York, NY, September 20, 2016—The Nation, America’s leading magazine of progressive politics and culture, today announced that David Marcus (@davidimarcus) will lead books and arts coverage as newly appointed literary editor. Based in New York City, he begins commissioning immediately. His predecessor, John Palattella, will transition to editor at large.

“We are delighted to have David Marcus, a superb editor, as wise about fiction and pop culture as about politics, philosophy, and history, take over the books and the arts section,” says editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel. “For two centuries, The Nation has been part of the literary lifeblood of America, and David brings a creative and compelling vision for the future of our cultural coverage in print and online.”

“John Palattella, who stewarded the section for nearly a decade, will become editor at large,” she adds. “John cultivated a vibrant space for ideas and astringent criticism about literature, politics, and culture, and I am excited to see the work he will be commissioning from Europe.”

“I’m thrilled to be joining The Nation as the magazine’s literary editor,” says David Marcus. “With its abolitionist roots and egalitarian commitments, the magazine has been a fount of social progress and critical dissent since its founding. It’s also played host to some of the smartest literary and cultural critics around—from Mary McCarthy and Clement Greenberg to John Leonard and Arthur Danto. It seems to me we’re in a moment in which an exciting new generation of intellectuals is beginning to emerge—and I’m eager to bring their insight and arguments to a broader audience.”

Prior to The Nation, Marcus was co-editor of Dissent, where he served in a variety of editorial capacities since 2006. A PhD candidate at Columbia University, he also taught the history of political thought in the college’s longstanding Contemporary Civilization Program. His essays on politics and literature frequently appear in The New Republic, n+1, Bookforum, and Le Monde.

Assigning for print and online, Marcus will commission essays on literature, politics, history, film, music, and art. In addition to editing in-house critics Stuart Klawans (film), Barry Schwabsky (art), and David Hajdu (music), he will develop a stable of writers and critics who will help carry on The Nation’s long and vibrant tradition of intellectual and cultural argument into the next decade.

In his time at The Nation, John Palattella published a books and arts section defined by erudition and integrity. As editor at large, based in Europe, he will commission and edit articles, with a special focus on translations and serializations. He will also help discover new writers on Europe, science, and American culture and politics.

Marcus will manage The Nation’s cultural coverage with assistant literary editor Matthew McKnight.

For booking requests or further information, please see contact information above.

About The Nation

Founded in 1865, The Nation serves as a critical, independent voice in American journalism and a platform for investigative reporting and spirited debate on issues of import to the progressive community. Through changing times and fashions, The Nation offers consistently informed and inspired reporting and analysis of breaking news, politics, social issues and the arts—never faltering in our editorial commitment to what Nation Publisher Emeritus Victor Navasky has called “a dissenting, independent, trouble-making, idea-launching journal of critical opinion.”

About The Nation’s Books & Arts Section

Anxious discussions on the future of the book review seem to be a staple these days—yet The Nation continues to dedicate one third of its print edition each week to Books & Arts. Twice a year, we devote an entire issue to such coverage; we’ve done so for over 35 years. Over the course of the past decade-plus, we’ve also built a robust culture vertical on TheNation.com, featuring intelligent and sharp takes on philosophy and literature as well as music, architecture, art, and film.

Some of America’s most esteemed writers and poets have appeared in The Nation’s culture pages. James Baldwin published his first piece in the magazine. Other iconic voices include John Steinbeck, Marilynne Robinson, Langston Hughes, Tony Kushner, Toni Morrison, Wallace Stevens, Marianne Moore, John Ashbery, Howard Zinn, Gore Vidal, Adrianne Rich, Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Alice Walker, Hannah Arendt, WEB Du Bois, Mary McCarthy, Willa Cather, EL Doctorow, Allen Ginsberg, WH Auden, William Butler Yeats, Anne Sexton, and William Carlos Williams.