Best of the Left Podcast

02/08/2026

NEW! #1812 Democracy or This Supreme Court, But Not Both

🎧 Wherever you get your podcasts, or https://www.bestoftheleft.com/1812

💙 Support our work: bestoftheleft.com/support

Today we investigate how the argument moved from what the Supreme Court decides to whether the Court should be rebuilt. Only about one in five Americans has strong confidence in the Court, and the proposals on the table would end lifetime seats, set fixed terms, and add judges across the federal ben...

31/07/2026

When and where did you learn what your rights actually are? Work, housing, voting, your own body?
Our next episode gets into a Supreme Court term that narrowed rights a lot of people assumed were settled. Tell us about a time somebody set you straight on one of those. Who was it, what did they say, and were they right? If nobody ever did, tell us that too.
Reply, send a voice message, or both:
https://podline.fm/best-of-the-left

29/07/2026

NEW! #1811 Country for Old Men: Gerontocracy By Design and the Democracy Problem

🎧 Wherever you get your podcasts, or https://www.bestoftheleft.com/1811

💙 Support our work: bestoftheleft.com/support

Today we look at the idea that America has become a gerontocracy, a country run by the old, and then interrogate the premise a bit. The wealth, the politicians, and the voting electorate really do concentrate at the top of the age ladder, and benefits for the old tend to stay protected while younger...

26/07/2026

NEW! Monthly-ish Mix #11 The Loneliest Superpower: What America Gets for Pushing Everyone Away

🎧 Wherever you get your podcasts, or https://www.bestoftheleft.com/mm11

💙 Support our work: bestoftheleft.com/support

The Monthly-ish Mix™ is here to get you caught up on the news from June and July without being overwhelming! Organized around a single idea: the same politics that left America friendless abroad is keeping Americans apart at home. The war with Iran ends and America's word counts for less aroun...

23/07/2026

Breaking away from a default platform and switching to a better, more independent option costs something: money, the mental energy of deciding, the learning curve of the new thing. And a lot of those defaults are built to be addictive or ad-stuffed, making them worse the longer you stay. If you've made that switch with software or a service, what pushed you to do it, and what would you tell someone thinking about it?
Reply, send a voice message, or both: https://podline.fm/best-of-the-left

23/07/2026

NEW! #1810 Post-American Europe: How to Lose Friends and Influence People to Protect Themselves Against You

🎧 Wherever you get your podcasts, or https://www.bestoftheleft.com/1810

💙 Support our work: bestoftheleft.com/support

Today we look at how three things Europe thought were features turned out to be leverage that could be held against them: American military protection, Silicon Valley software, and cheap Chinese goods. From a French government office running Linux to a secret European defense coalition that bypasses...

19/07/2026

NEW! #1809 Democrats Seek a Blue Wave, Progressives Push Democratic Socialism, GOP Revive the Red Scare

🎧 Wherever you get your podcasts, or https://www.bestoftheleft.com/1809

💙 Support our work: bestoftheleft.com/support

Today we examine recent primary elections and how the political smear of crying 'socialism' has been dusted off and aimed at a new generation of candidates. What's changed is that the people being smeared are actually winning elections, and the more the establishment called them dangerous, the stron...

16/07/2026

This week we're digging into the democratic socialists winning primaries across the country on one core idea: that government is supposed to actually make your life better. Before the episode drops, tell us the last time you felt the government impact your daily life, for better or worse. A policy change you felt directly, a program that saved you or failed you. Something you could feel, not just read about.
Reply right here, send a voice message, or both: https://podline.fm/best-of-the-left

15/07/2026

NEW! #1634 Abortion as the Tip of the Iceberg (Throwback)

🎧 Wherever you get your podcasts, or https://www.bestoftheleft.com/1634_throwback

💙 Support our work: bestoftheleft.com/support

Banning abortion is wildly unpopular and also one of the primary motivators for the group most strongly supporting the Republican Party and Donald Trump, the Christian Right, which has transformed both the party and politicians into extremists made in their own image, threatening the lives and healt...

11/07/2026

NEW! #1808 Billionaires vs. Democracy: They're Not Coming For Your Job, They're Coming For Your Government (And The Entire Economy)

🎧 Wherever you get your podcasts, or https://www.bestoftheleft.com/1808

💙 Support our work: bestoftheleft.com/support