On this episode of The Time of Monsters: David Broder on centrist failures feeding extremist politics.
Coleaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) Alice Weidel (L) and Tino Chrupalla (R) in Berlin on December 5, 2025. (Tobias Schwarz / AFP via Getty Images)
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Only a few years ago, European elites were patting themselves on the back for fending off the
tide of right-wing anti-system parties (often styled as populists). But recent polls in France,
Germany and the United Kingdom show that that the far right is once again gaining traction,
thanks in no small part centrist governments that have demoralized the population and
legitimized xenophobia. David Broder, author of Mussolini’s Grandchildren and European editor
of Jacobin, wrote a wide-ranging essay on this for The New York Times. I spoke to David about
both the dismal decisions of mainstream parties and also possible alternatives.
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Only a few years ago, European elites were patting themselves on the back for fending off the tide of right-wing anti-system parties (often styled as populists). But recent polls in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom show that that the far right is once again gaining traction, thanks in no small part to centrist governments that have demoralized the population and legitimized xenophobia. David Broder, author of Mussolini’s Grandchildren and European editor of Jacobin, wrote a wide-ranging essay on this for The New York Times. I spoke to David about both the dismal decisions of mainstream parties and possible alternatives.
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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.
The Trump administration has announced a new set of harsh sanctions against Iran. This is a strange development since originally Trump launched a war on Iran on the pretext that sanctions weren’t working. Trita Parsi of the Qunicy Institute argues the current tactic won’t work and is a holding action as both the US and Iran bide their time in a long conflict. Parsi’s writings can be found on his Substack. In the interview, we discuss his column on the surprising way many governments are rooting for Iran to check US imperialism.
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Jeet HeerTwitterJeet Heer is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation and host of the weekly Nation podcast, The Time of Monsters. He also pens the monthly column “Morbid Symptoms.” The author of In Love with Art: Francoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman (2013) and Sweet Lechery: Reviews, Essays and Profiles (2014), Heer has written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The American Prospect, The Guardian, The New Republic, and The Boston Globe.