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“Renters Are the Sleeping Giants of LA Politics”—Plus the Hidden History of AIDS

On this episode of Start Making Sense, Peter Dreier reports on the fight for control of LA, and Kai Wright and Lizzy Ratner talk about “the plague in the shadows.”

Jon Wiener

February 21, 2024

Nithya Raman won a Los Angeles City Council seat as a progressive political newcomer.(Richard Vogel / AP)

The Nation Podcasts

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

“Renters are the sleeping giants of LA politics,” plus the Hidden History of AIDS | Start Making Sense
byThe Nation Magazine

A political battle is underway in Los Angeles, where landlords, multi-millionaires, and the police are trying to defeat the leading progressive on the city council. Their key issues are protection for renters and new taxes on mansions.

Also on this episode of Start Making Sense: A new podcast brings us stories from the early days of HIV & AIDS. It's about how the epidemic decimated poor communities of color and the people who refused to stay out of sight. WNYC's Kai Wright and The Nation's Lizzy Ratner are behind the new show, Blindspot: The Plague in the Shadows.

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A political battle is underway in Los Angeles, where landlords, multimillionaires, and the police are trying to defeat the leading progressive on the City Council. Their key issues are protection for renters and new taxes on mansions. Peter Dreier has the story for us.

Also on this episode of Start Making Sense: A new podcast brings us stories from the early days of HIV & AIDS. It’s about how the epidemic decimated poor communities of color and the people who refused to stay out of sight. WNYC’s Kai Wright and The Nations Lizzy Ratner are behind the new show, Blindspot: The Plague in the Shadows.

Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe.

The Nation Podcasts

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

The Amazing Movement Against Data Centers, plus How to be a Dissident / Start Making Sense
byThe Nation Magazine

Is the resistance to data centers a new kind of mass politics? David Wallace-Wells explains why the answer is “yes.” He’s a writer for The New York Times Opinion pages and author of the unforgettable book “The Uninhabitable Earth.”

Also: How to be a dissident in an age of fear – Ami Fields-Meyer has thought a lot about that. For starters: don’t start from scratch; don’t try to do it alone. Ami is co-author of the new book “On Courage.”

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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Subscribe to The Nation to Support all of our podcasts

Jon WienerTwitterJon Wiener is a contributing editor of The Nation and co-author (with Mike Davis) of Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties.


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