On this episode of Start Making Sense, David Cole talks about Harvard’s decision not to submit to Trump’s demands, and Jill Lepore explains where Musk got his ideas.
A protester holds a sign reading “Educate, Don’t Capitulate!!” featuring Harvard University shields during a rally at Cambridge Common on April 12.(Erin Clark / The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
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While Trump’s attacks on the universities have broadened, and while Columbia is submitting to his requirements, Harvard’s president has declared that Harvard will not comply with the Trump’s demands in exchange for keeping its federal funding. David Cole comments – he recently stepped down as National Legal Director of the ACLU to return to teaching law at Georgetown.
Also: Elon Musk’s obsession with rockets and robots sounds futuristic, but “few figures in public life are more shackled to the past” – that’s what Jill Lepore has found. His ideas at DOGE seem to come from his grandfather, a founder of the anti-democratic Technocracy movement of the 1930s. Jill Lepore teaches history and law at Harvard, and writes for The New Yorker.
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While Trump’s attacks on the universities have broadened in the last few weeks, and and while Columbia is submitting to Trump’s requirements, Harvard’s president has declared that Harvard will not comply with the Trump’s demands in exchange for keeping its federal funding. David Cole comments—he recently stepped down as national legal director of the ACLU to return to teaching law at Georgetown.
Also on this episode: Elon Musk’s obsession with rockets and robots sounds futuristic, but “few figures in public life are more shackled to the past”—that’s what Jill Lepore has found. His ideas at DOGE seem to come from his grandfather, a founder of the antidemocratic Technocracy movement of the 1930s. Jill Lepore teaches history and law at Harvard, and writes for The New Yorker.
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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.
Zorhan Mamdani takes office in four weeks as the first socialist mayor of New York City. How should we understand the constraints he faces, without accepting those constraints? Bhaskar Sunkara has our analysis; he’s president of The Nation and author of ‘The Socialist Manifesto.’
Plus: Sports Talk on The Nation podcast! Of course Thanksgiving was a big weekend for football on TV – a weekend where millions of viewers got to see a festival of brain injuries — concussions after receiving blows to the head. Dave Zirin will comment – he's the long-time sports editor of The Nation and host of the Edge of Sports podcast.
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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.