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Katrina vanden Heuvel on Where We’re Going, and Robert Reich on How We Got Here

On Start Making Sense: The Nation’s editor on our tasks now, and the Berkeley economist on understanding our historic mistakes.

Jon Wiener

August 6, 2025

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and guest former secretary of labor Robert Reich during the Monday, August 4, 2025 show.(Scott Kowalchyk / CBS via Getty Images))

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Katrina vanden Heuvel on Where We’re Going, and Robert Reich on How We Got Here | Start Making Sense
byThe Nation Magazine

How do we face how bad things are now, while also understanding the reasons for hope, and the opportunities for action? Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, will comment.

Plus: Robert Reich says the origin of our troubles with Trump and MAGA go back to the sixties; he says it started with the sixties movements – which created “a giant political void that would eventually be filled by Donald Trump’s angry, bigoted cultural populism.” His new memoir is “Coming Up Short.”

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How do we face how bad things are now, while also understanding the reasons for hope, and the opportunities for action? Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, will comment.

Plus: Robert Reich says the origin of our troubles with Trump and MAGA go back to the 1960s; he says it started with that decade’s movements, which created “a giant political void that would eventually be filled by Donald Trump’s angry, bigoted cultural populism.” His new memoir is Coming Up Short.

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 Plan for No Kings-Vote Early Day, plus The Supremes and Trump’s voter list purge / Start Making Sense
byThe Nation Magazine

Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of Indivisible, answers the question, “What’s the Plan — for the next No Kings Nationwide Day of Action?” This one shifts from mass protest in the streets to organizing for early voting – and preparing for whatever Trump does to disrupt or undermine the vote, the count, and the certification.

Also: The Supreme Court last Friday issued an order allowing states to use Trump’s SAVE database to purge their voter rolls of people the DHS considers ineligible – but it’s too late to apply to the midterms. Rick Hasen explains – he teaches law at UCLA and he’s Director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project and editor of the Election Law Blog.  

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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.


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