Best Mother Jones Podcasts (2024)

1
A Special Announcement 2:15

2+ y ago2:15

2:15

Things have been a bit quiet around these parts lately, huh? After a few months bringing you some of our best feature investigations read aloud, in partnership with Audm, we’re going through some behind-the-scenes newsroom changes that will impact how we best serve you, our listener. We’re going to be taking some more time, off-air, to re-tool and …

1
Today It’s Critical Race Theory. 200 Years Ago It Was Abolitionist Literature. 14:02

2+ y ago14:02

14:02

We bet you’ve heard one phrase more and more this year than ever before: Critical Race Theory. It’s an obsession on Fox News, and it’s the topic, along with anti-mask protests, raging at school board hearings across the country—a new frontier in a roiling culture war. But what is Critical Race Theory? And how did it come to be used to whip up a new…

1
Are These Black Leaders on the Cusp of a New National Movement? 55:07

2+ y ago55:07

55:07

With everything going on these days—we’ll spare you the list of existential crises we’re currently living through—now seems like the perfect time to hear from two leaders who have a revolutionary vision of what this country could be. Last week, in a special livestream event, Mother Jones reporter and columnist Nathalie Baptiste spoke to two fascina…

1
The Nightmare of Getting an Abortion in the South 23:27

3y ago23:27

23:27

A week ago, thousands of people turned out for Women's March rallies across the country, galvanized by Texas' recent six-week abortion ban and the very real fear that Roe v. Wade could soon be overturned, as challenges to the Texas law and another law in Mississippi wend their way to the Supreme Court and its 6-3 conservative majority. But while th…

1
Ammon Bundy Is Running to Be Idaho’s Next Governor 1:00:16

3y ago1:00:16

1:00:16

Mother Jones reporter Stephanie Mencimer has been following Ammon Bundy for years. He's the guy you'll remember who became a kind of folk hero on the far-right after he joined his father, rancher Cliven Bundy, in leading an armed standoff against the Bureau of Land Management in Nevada in 2014. Two years later, Ammon led the armed takeover of the M…

1
How Flint Closed the Gap Between Black and White Suffering Under COVID 39:47

3y ago39:47

39:47

As the Delta variant upended hope of returning to normal this summer, Mother Jones reporter Edwin Rios published a deeply reported story on Flint, Michigan, recounting how residents of this predominantly Black city have battled COVID-19 in spite of government distrust, neglect, and environmental catastrophe. But the pandemic isn’t Flint’s first cri…

1
The Afghan Refugee Crisis Has Only Just Begun 52:09

3y ago52:09

52:09

Towards the end of 2020, Mother Jones’s editorial director Ian Gordon wrote a deeply reported story about how then-President Donald Trump took a broken asylum system and turned it into a machine of unchecked cruelty. America’s system for processing refugees and asylum seekers was effectively dead, he discovered, and the myth of national decency die…

1
The Metamorphosis of Kyrsten Sinema 50:33

3y ago50:33

50:33

Every time you read the news lately, there she is: in conversations about bipartisanship, the infrastructure deal, the filibuster, even the fate of Joe Biden's presidency itself. But who is Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona? And what does she want to accomplish with her outsized influence on the passage of basically any law through the Senate, with its raz…

1
CNN’s Jake Tapper Says the Media Must Confront Republicans’ Big Lie 41:50

3y ago41:50

41:50

Jake Tapper has drawn a line: no “Big Lie” proponents on-air. The CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent won’t book Republican politicians touting the conspiracy theory that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. But when he’s not in front of the camera, Tapper enjoys blurring the lines between fact and…

1
Escape From the Billionaire Meme Mogul 56:58

3y ago56:58

56:58

Sergey Grishin is a well-connected, billionaire mogul. Last August, he made headlines when he sold his lavish estate to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Grishin’s multiple US-based businesses include a social media company in California with more than 300 million Instagram followers, called 421 Media. But what those followers probably don’t know is …

1
Everything You're Getting Wrong About the Culture Wars 31:09

3y ago31:09

31:09

Everywhere you turned in the aftermath of the 2020 election, someone was arguing a hard line on cultural issues as an explanation for the outcome. The point was made by different commentators of at least outwardly different political persuasions, with different code words and different bogeys—feminists, socialists, wokeness. However they might have…

1
Garry Trudeau on Lampooning Trump and Other Lessons from 5 Decades of Doonesbury 28:16

3y ago28:16

28:16

For five decades, Garry Trudeau has been writing what is one of the most important—and entertaining—comic strips in American history: Doonesbury. He started the strip in October, 1970 as a student at Yale. With its sharp-witted look at American politics and American life, it quickly became a phenomenon, eventually appearing in over 1,000 newspapers…

1
Can America’s Problems Be Fixed By a President Who Loves Jon Meacham? 26:16

3y ago26:16

26:16

Jon Meacham is a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer who has spent the last two decades pounding out bestselling accounts of American presidents such as Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and George H.W. Bush. In June 2019, Joe Biden invited Meacham to Newark, Delaware, for a conversation about the biographer’s recent volume, The Soul of America: The …

1
A Special Summer Announcement from the Podcast Team 6:01

3y ago6:01

6:01

After three years of weekly episodes—that’s 181 shows, if you’re counting—the Mother Jones Podcast team has decided to switch things up for the next couple of months, as we, like you, emerge from a year that has thrown up enormous challenges, journalistically, politically, and personally. It’s time for Summer! We’ve always strived to bring you the …

1
The Insurrection Was a Giant Recruitment Exercise for Extremists 28:28

3y ago28:28

28:28

The deadly insurrection at the US Capitol wasn’t the start of something, nor was it the end. What happened on January 6 had been planned for weeks, and the ideology behind it, brewing for years. That day’s chaos was the moment in which a dangerous mix of far-right factions came together in a way that won’t be disentangled anytime soon. Even now, ne…

1
Doctor, Lawyer, Insurrectionist: The Radicalization of Simone Gold 32:23

3y ago32:23

32:23

As we approach the five-month anniversary of the January 6 insurrection, the Republican Party has made one thing clear: They want to forget all about it—holding Trump and his big lie closer than ever. In the House, the party just kicked out a top leader, Rep. Liz Cheney, for calling out Trump’s lies and authoritarianism. Over in the Senate, Republi…

1
Leaked Video: How a Dark Money Group Is Trying to Rig Our Elections 19:33

3y ago19:33

19:33

The right-wing dark money group Heritage Action for America claims to be the mastermind behind the recent fire hose of state-level voter suppression laws, a new Mother Jones scoop reveals. Mother Jones voting rights reporter Ari Berman joins Jamilah King to walk through the explosive video he obtained of Jessica Anderson, the head of Heritage Actio…

1
“We’re Torn Apart”: Inside India’s Worsening COVID Nightmare 24:57

3y ago24:57

24:57

A Mother Jones investigation has found that hundreds of visa workers are stuck in India with no way to get back to their families in the United States. India is the in the midst of a shocking COVID-19 crisis. Health officials are reporting approximately 400,000 new cases a day. Hospitals are experiencing shortages of beds, oxygen, and medical suppl…

1
“Queen Sugar” Author Natalie Baszile: Black Farmers Can Help Save the Planet 26:26

3y ago26:26

26:26

Natalie Baszile knew she was onto something when she got the call from Oprah’s people. A novelist and food justice activist, Baszile had been working for years on a semi-autobiographical novel about a Los Angeles-based Black woman who is unexpectedly faced with reviving an inherited family farm in Louisiana. The book became “Queen Sugar,” was publi…

1
The Black Farmer Movement Battling History to Return to the Land 26:01

3y ago26:01

26:01

Agriculture was once a major source of wealth among the Black middle class in America. But over the course of a century, Black-owned farmland, and the corresponding wealth, has diminished almost to the point of near extinction; only 1.7 percent of farms were owned by Black farmers in 2017. The story of how that happened–from sharecropping, to anti-…

1
The Oscar-Nominated Writers of Judas and the Black Messiah Make History 16:27

3y ago16:27

16:27

Judas and the Black Messiah, a ground-breaking film about the life of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, has been hailed as one of the best films of the year. The film is up for five Oscars, including Best Picture. It’s a historic haul for a movie made by an all-Black team of producers. It’s also a notable and somewhat unexpected achievement for Ke…

1
Derek Chauvin Is Guilty. The Fight for Real Justice Is Far From Over. 13:36

3+ y ago13:36

13:36

Late Tuesday afternoon, the jury in the trial of Derek Chauvin delivered its verdict: guilty on all three counts in the killing of George Floyd. The 12 jurors—six of whom are white, four Black, and two multiracial—heard three weeks of testimony and deliberated for about 10 hours. Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, was charged with second…

1
How America's Super-Rich Tax Evaders Are Hurting Everyone 27:14

3+ y ago27:14

27:14

Money. You’re probably thinking a lot about it these days. From a global pandemic that’s tanked the global economy, to President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure bill, to workers once again trying (and failing) to unionize at Amazon, who gets what and how is the recurring theme of so many important social and political debates right now. Mich…

1
The Hidden Influence of Lady Bird Johnson 34:38

3+ y ago34:38

34:38

Lady Bird Johnson always fit the mold of a certain old-fashioned, stereotypical presidential wife: self-effacing, devoted to her generally unfaithful domineering husband, not particularly chic, and, being a traditional first lady one who needed a public cause, and found hers it in planting lots of flowers near highways. They called it at the time, …

1
Hope and Fear: The Dangerous New COVID Phase, Explained 22:24

3+ y ago22:24

22:24

Earlier this week, CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky went off-script during a news conference to issue an emotional warning: a fourth coronavirus surge could be on its way. She described a “recurring feeling I have of impending doom,” saying that while there was “so much to look forward to,” the country was entering a dangerous new phase. “I’m sca…

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Mother Jones Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen

1
Mother Jones Podcast | Mother Jones

1
The Mother Jones Podcast

Mother Jones

1
A Movie & an Argument | Mother Jones

Mother Jones and Think Progress

1
A Special Announcement 2:15

1
Today It’s Critical Race Theory. 200 Years Ago It Was Abolitionist Literature. 14:02

1
Are These Black Leaders on the Cusp of a New National Movement? 55:07

1
The Nightmare of Getting an Abortion in the South 23:27

1
Ammon Bundy Is Running to Be Idaho’s Next Governor 1:00:16

1
How Flint Closed the Gap Between Black and White Suffering Under COVID 39:47

1
The Afghan Refugee Crisis Has Only Just Begun 52:09

1
The Metamorphosis of Kyrsten Sinema 50:33

1
CNN’s Jake Tapper Says the Media Must Confront Republicans’ Big Lie 41:50

1
Escape From the Billionaire Meme Mogul 56:58

1
Everything You're Getting Wrong About the Culture Wars 31:09

1
Garry Trudeau on Lampooning Trump and Other Lessons from 5 Decades of Doonesbury 28:16

1
Can America’s Problems Be Fixed By a President Who Loves Jon Meacham? 26:16

1
A Special Summer Announcement from the Podcast Team 6:01

1
The Insurrection Was a Giant Recruitment Exercise for Extremists 28:28

1
Doctor, Lawyer, Insurrectionist: The Radicalization of Simone Gold 32:23

1
Leaked Video: How a Dark Money Group Is Trying to Rig Our Elections 19:33

1
“We’re Torn Apart”: Inside India’s Worsening COVID Nightmare 24:57

1
“Queen Sugar” Author Natalie Baszile: Black Farmers Can Help Save the Planet 26:26

1
The Black Farmer Movement Battling History to Return to the Land 26:01

1
The Oscar-Nominated Writers of Judas and the Black Messiah Make History 16:27

1
Derek Chauvin Is Guilty. The Fight for Real Justice Is Far From Over. 13:36

1
How America's Super-Rich Tax Evaders Are Hurting Everyone 27:14

1
The Hidden Influence of Lady Bird Johnson 34:38

1
Hope and Fear: The Dangerous New COVID Phase, Explained 22:24

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