On this episode of Start Making Sense, Celinda Lake on Biden voters who didn’t vote for Harris, and John Powers on a novel about the rise of Mussolini.
Kamala Harris pauses as she speaks at the Emerge 20th Anniversary Gala in San Francisco, California, on April 30, 2025. (Camille Cohen / AFP via Getty Images)
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Six million Democrats who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 did not vote in 2024. What’s wrong with them? Pollster and strategist Celinda Lake explains who they are, and what it would take to get them back to the polls in the 2026 midterms – and in 2028.
Also: a suggestion for summer reading: M: Son of the Century is a 750-page historical novel about the rise of Mussolini, by Antonio Scurati. John Powers, critic-at-large for NPR’s Fresh Air, says the book suggests some parallels between 1920s Italy and Trump’s America. The book is out now in paperback.
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Six million Democrats who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 did not vote in 2024. What’s wrong with them? Pollster and strategist Celinda Lake explains who they are, what they think. and what it would take to get them back to the polls in the 2026 midterms—and in 2028.
Also, a suggestion for summer reading: M: Son of the Century is a 750-page historical novel about the rise of Mussolini, by Antonio Scurati. John Powers, critic at large for NPR’s Fresh Air, says the book suggests some parallels between 1920s Italy and Trump’s America. The book is out now in paperback.
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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.
Tom Stevenson analyzes the latest news and long-term prospects of Trump's Iran war, for both Iran and the US. Tom is a contributing editor for the London Review of Books, where he writes about, among other things, politics in the Mideast.
Also: what news are people getting these days, and where are they getting it? Especially the people we call “news avoidant” & “low information” voters–the ones we want to vote for Democrats in November: what are the big stories for them? Tara McGowan explains– she’s founder and CEO of Courier Newsroom, a digital media company that operates a network of local news outlets.
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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.