Interview

That’s How Change Happens

Dave Zirin on writing the life of Howard Zinn–and why his legacy points the way forward at the country’s semiquincentennial.

How to Hold a City Hostage

Historian Stuart Schrader on the untold history of police unions—and how they helped catapult cops to new heights of power and impunity.

Iran After Khamenei

An interview with sociologist Asef Bayat on the U.S.-Israeli war, democratic opposition to the Islamic Republic, and the country’s uncertain future.

Renee Good’s Murder and Other Acts of Terror

An interview with Robin D. G. Kelley on how to think about ICE—and the broader history of police violence.

Building a Political Home

Activist and scholar Cathy J. Cohen on winning power in the midst of a “generational war.”

Democracy v. the Constitution

An interview with Osita Nwanevu about his new book, The Right of the People, and why defeating authoritarianism requires going back to democratic basics.

“Where’s our bomb?”

Trita Parsi talks with Rajan Menon about the “self-fulfilling prophecy” set in motion by Israeli and U.S. attacks on Iran.

Walking the Tightrope

An interview with Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof about his latest film, The Seed of the Sacred Fig.

“It’s Our Job to Be Popular”

A conversation with Maurice Mitchell, National Director of the Working Families Party, on the way forward after the Democrats’ loss.

The Violent Exhaustion of Liberal Democracy

A conversation with Wendy Brown on the U.S. presidential election, the exclusions liberal democracy is built on, and why we must aim at more than restoring its mythical former splendor.

Mapping Injury

Sunaura Taylor on what the environmental and disability movements can learn from one another.

Queering the State

How should LGBT activism think about state power?

South Africa’s Enduring Unfreedom

An interview with S’bu Zikode, leader of the shack dwellers’ movement, thirty years after apartheid’s end.

What Does It Take to Keep a Movement Going?

Astra Taylor and Leah Hunt-Hendrix discuss their new book, Solidarity: The Past, Present, And Future of a World-Changing Idea.

Inside the Legal Fight for Trans Rights

Two prominent litigators discuss decades of progress, the backlash today, and the road ahead.

“We Are Neither Prophets nor Mad”

An interview with poet Fady Joudah about writing his latest collection amid war in Gaza.

Speaking Liberation’s Language

Jefferson Cowie speaks with Aziz Rana about whether the language of freedom can be taken back from its “sordid history” in the U.S. context.

What Happened to Liberalism?

Becca Rothfeld speaks with Samuel Moyn about his book Liberalism Against Itself and why liberalism is in crisis.

What Does It Mean to Be Free?

Lewis Gordon and Nathalie Etoke discuss the space for freedom opened up by Black existentialist thought.

A Grassroots Government

Janice Fine explains how “co-enforcement”—a bold new model for upholding labor law—is linking the state to social movements.

“The Crimes Are Plenty”

A conversation with Palestinian human rights attorney Noura Erakat on the need for a political solution.

One Bureau under God

Jeanne Theoharis speaks with Lerone A. Martin about the white Christian legacy of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI.

A Record of Violence

Jeanne Theoharis speaks with Margaret Burnham on her work reconstructing Jim Crow terror, within and outside the law.

A Black Geography of the City

N’Kosi Oates speaks with J.T. Roane about Philadelphia’s spatial politics and resistance to racial containment.

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