I speak with ERWIN CHEMERINSKY, Dean of Berkeley Law School, about the Supreme Court’s recent term. I see ethical challenges and radical rulings – the law of the land interpreted through their religious and moral lenses, overturning legislation and precedent – hardly conservative behavior, stretching and distorting the law in their decision defending arguments, imposing their agenda on the nation with little regard for real world consequences, the common good, or the future. We’ll also talk about  his latest book, WORSE THAN NOTHING: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism. Learn more at law.berkeley.edu – search for Chemerinsky.

I speak with talk show host, THOM HARTMANN, about the newest book in his “hidden history” series. THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. I’d heard the Founders drew inspiration from political systems of Native Americans, to which Hartmann adds, so did Europe’s Enlightenment thinkers. He quotes Thomas Paine: “To understand what the state of society ought to be, it is necessary to have some idea of the natural and primitive state of man; such as it is at this day among the Indians of North America. There is not any of those spectacles of human misery which poverty and want present to our eyes in all the towns and streets in Europe.” In addition to these revelations, Hartmann clarifies myths of the Constitution and offers a 21-point agenda to restore US democracy. Learn more at thomhartmann.com

I’ve long believed that to confront challenges like climate change, we need to move public opinion to the point where a majority favor policies that respond effectively and fairly. I’m afraid that’s no longer true. I read with alarm STAN COX’s article MAGA Legislators Increasingly Force Taxpayers to Support Fossil Fuel Industry by, among other things, outlawing ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) investing. Here’s my conversation with STAN COX of the Land Institute and JOHN FEFFER of the Institute for Policy Studies, about this anti-democratic and destructive strategy and other aspects of the politics of climate. You can learn more at landinstitute.org and johnfeffer.com

Recent Supreme Court rulings doing away with affirmative action and student loan forgiveness while allowing religious bigotry, reinforce the harsh reality of minority rule in today’s United States. While it challenges and handicaps the effectiveness of mass movements for progressive change, it also makes them even more critical. Here’s my 2018 conversation with LESLIE CRUTCHFIELD, Executive Director of Business for Impact at Georgetown University and former managing director at Ashoka, the global venture fund for social entrepreneurs, about her book, How Change Happens: Why Some Movements Succeed While Others Don’t

With this episode, I’m reminded of when I did my first show on the sub-prime crisis. In PLUNDER, BRENDAN BALLOU, a federal prosecutor, explains how private equity has reshaped American business – from nursing homes to prisons, emergency rooms to apartment buildings – by raising prices, reducing quality, cutting jobs, and shifting resources from productive to unproductive parts of the economy. What’s worse, as of now PEs are legally shielded from liability for the consequences of their actions. You can learn more at plunderthebook.com.