Government & Politics

The war entered a new phase when President Trump began a U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace explains what this means.

Torres talks about the obstacles he faced in the immigration system after he came to the U.S. from El Salvador in his 20s. His new HBO Max show is Color Theories. Originally broadcast March 11, 2024.

In addition to his kung fu and action films, Norris, who died March 19, starred in the TV show Walker, Texas Ranger. He spoke with Terry Gross in 1988 about learning karate while stationed in Korea.

Bryan Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative and the founder of the Legacy Sites. He wrote the introduction to a new companion book called "The Legacy Sites: A History Of Racial Injustice."

New Yorker writer Jon Lee Anderson describes conditions in Cuba, why it's vulnerable now — and what regime change would mean — considering the Castro family's entrenchment in the Cuban government.

Three weeks into the U.S. and Israel's war with Iran, it remains unclear how or when the conflict might end. When asked by a reporter on Sunday if he was ready to declare victory, President Trump responded, "no, I don't want to do that. There's no reason to."

Americans are betting on sports, elections, award shows and even military actions. The Atlantic writer McKay Coppins bet $10k from his employer in his investigation of this gambling world.

Trump is promoting tighter restrictions on mail-in ballots as well as passage of the SAVE Act, which requires proof of citizenship to vote. UCLA professor Richard Hasen unpacks the ramifications.

New York Times journalist David Sanger discusses how we got here, the state of Iran's nuclear weapons program, the likelihood of U.S. military force against Iran and if Trump's goal is regime change.

Loubna Mrie grew up in Syria, where her father was allegedly an assassin for the regime. She joined the Syrian revolution first as a protester and then as a photojournalist. Her memoir is Defiance.

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham talks about Trump's impact on democracy. Meacham's latest book is a collection of speeches, letters and other original texts from 1619 to the present.

Considered the father of Afrobeat, Kuti used his music in the 1970s to combat colonial values and brutal dictatorship. Podcaster Jad Abumrad tells his story in the series, Fela Kuti: Fear No Man.

Author Chris Jennings talks the apocalyptic religious views that fueled the standoff between federal agents and the family of Randy Weaver — and the use of force rules that made it so deadly.

filmmaker Julia Loktev. Her latest film, "My Undesirable Friends: Part I - Last Air In Moscow," is a 5 1/2-hour documentary structured in chapters, following a close-knit group of independent Russian journalists and activists during 2021 and early 2022 as the Russian government branded reporters foreign agents in the months leading up to and just after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Atlantic writer Robert Kagan says as Trump violates norms, laws and the Constitution, including his call to nationalize elections, "we're on the edge of the consolidation of dictatorship."

Jason Zengerle writes, Carlson had the highest-rated show in the history of cable news. And when he was abruptly fired from Fox in 2023, it was widely assumed he would fade from relevance. He did for many Americans, especially liberals, but he didn't go away. After leaving Fox News in 2023, he debuted a new streaming show on the social media platform then known as Twitter - now X - and launched the Tucker Carlson streaming network. Zengerle writes, the people still paying attention to him now are getting an even more extreme version of him than the one they saw on Fox News.

In Fear and Fury, historian Heather Ann Thompson revisits Bernhard Goetz's shooting of four Black teens — and explains how the incident reshaped criminal justice, national policy and media coverage.

As protestors clash with some 3,000 federal immigration agents in the Twin Cities, we look at the legal issues with law professor Emmanuel Mauleón and Brennan Center for Justice's Elizabeth Goitein.

Rubio once called Trump a "con artist." He's now among his most loyal defenders. New Yorker writer Dexter Filkins describes Secretary of State Rubio's character, political transformation and ambition.

Journalist Eric Lichtblau says President Trump's incendiary rhetoric has stoked a "new age of hate." His book centers on a murder committed by a young neo-Nazi in Orange County, Calif.