Aaron, Matt, and Jonathan are joined by authors Astra Taylor and Mark Bray for a big picture conversation about what it means to fight fascism in this historical moment.
Morris Katz at Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral inauguration on January 1, 2026.(David Dee Delgado / Getty Images)
Welcome to Fighting Fascism, a new podcast hosted by The Nation. In this podcast, longtime political organizers Aaron Regunberg and Jonathan Smucker and their normie friend Matt DaSilva discuss the history of fascist takeovers, the conditions enabling them, and the resistance movements that have defeated them, to find lessons for today’s fights against Trump, MAGA, and the growing threat of modern authoritarianism. Want to piss off fascists? This is the podcast for you.
Today Aaron, Matt, and Jonathan are joined by Morris Katz, lead strategist for Zohran Mamdani and Graham Platner, to talk about why the Democratic Party sucks so much and how we can make it suck less. Topics include lessons from Zohran’s campaign, our favorite Morris ads, the importance of naming a villain, 2028 prognostication, and that one time three years ago when Aaron and Morris had to pull a sunken canoe out of a pond.
Read the transcript of this episode at the bottom of this post.
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Aaron RegunbergTwitterAaron Regunberg is a climate lawyer, a contributing editor at The New Republic, and a former Rhode Island state representative.
Jonathan SmuckerTwitterJonathan Smucker is cofounder and executive director of Popular Comms, a cofounder of Pennsylvania Stands Up, and the author of Hegemony How-To: A Roadmap for Radicals. He has worked for over 25 years as a political organizer, campaigner, and strategist, and has trained thousands of organizers and social movement participants.
Matt DaSilvaMatt DaSilva is a co-host of the Fighting Fascism podcast.