Current Affairs

Ralph Nader is one of the most important and successful activists in American political history. He played a key role in creating the consumer rights movement in the 1960s and ’70s, and his push for auto safety regulation led to measures that saved countless lives. He has also run multiple insurgent campaigns for president, challenging the two-party system and offering powerful criticisms of corporate power.Nader joins Current Affairs to analyze Donald Trump’s authoritarianism, the Democratic Party’s failure to offer a compelling alternative, and the media’s role in narrowing public imagination. He also responds to Ezra Klein’s recent critique in Abundance, arguing that it shifts blame away from institutional failures and undermines genuine political accountability.

Katrina vanden Heuvel is the publisher and editorial director of The Nation, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and an advocate for diplomacy, disarmament, and international cooperation. She returns to Current Affairs to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine, the erosion of U.S. diplomacy, and the bipartisan consensus around militarism.She outlines the details of the Quincy Institute’s U.S. peace plan, explains why diplomacy is often smeared as appeasement, and explores what a negotiated end to the war might actually look like. We also explore whether Trump, despite his transactional and erratic instincts, might paradoxically be the only figure capable of restarting peace talks. Nathan concludes with an analysis of the "security dilemma" and how the logic of militarism is driving a global arms race under the guise of self-defense.

Even by the standards of right-wing rhetoric, Miller’s public statements are uncommonly shameless. He treats his audience as stupid and gullible. 

Andrew Cuomo is not just unfit for office—he’s dangerous. In this interview, Lindsey Boylan, the first woman to publicly speak out about Cuomo’s abusive behavior, explains how his pattern of harassment, retaliation, and intimidation mirrors the authoritarian tactics of Donald Trump. Boylan describes how Cuomo weaponized state resources, silenced critics, and surrounded himself with enablers, all while cultivating a media image of competence and compassion. This interview complements a larger piece by Nathan J. Robinson, editor of Current Affairs, on Cuomo’s deadly mishandling of COVID, corruption scandals, abuse of elderly prisoners, and his pro-corporate, pro-Israel, anti-worker agenda. Despite resigning in disgrace, Cuomo is now the frontrunner in the race for New York City mayor. Boylan’s warning is urgent: his abuses will continue unless we stop him now. 

The former governor is a corrupt abuser of power with a pro-corporate agenda and a proven track record of deadly negligence. He will do nothing to improve New Yorkers’ lives. Why on Earth is he a contender for mayor? Nathan J. Robinson, editor of Current Affairs Magazine, reads his article "Andrew Cuomo Is Worse Than You Even Know" 

This panel was recorded on October 16th, 2024A special event hosted by Current Affairs Magazine at The New School in New York City to celebrate the release of The Myth of American Idealism, the new book co-authored by Noam Chomsky and Nathan J. Robinson. The panel explores Chomsky’s lifelong critique of U.S. foreign policy—from Vietnam and Iraq to Ukraine and Gaza—and examines why his radical analysis of American power remains essential.Joining Nathan are leading journalists, scholars, and close collaborators of Chomsky who reflect on his influence, his moral clarity, and the urgent relevance of his work today.Nathan Robinson - Co-author of The Myth of American Idealism, Editor-in-Chief of Current Affairs MagazineAmy Goodman - Host of the independent global news program Democracy Now! since 1996, author of six books, winner of the I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence and the Gandhi Peace AwardBev Stohl - Ran Prof. Chomsky's office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for over 20 years and is

The Democratic Party is sclerotic. It’s easy to heap blame on Joe Biden now that he is weak and powerless. But that’s a convenient way of avoiding a major reckoning. Nathan J. Robinson, editor of Current Affairs, reads his article "The Problem Goes Well Beyond Biden" 

In “On Democracies and Death Cults,” Murray offers a straightforward “good versus evil” account of the Israel-Palestine conflict. He does this by excluding every piece of information that undercuts his thesis and even spreading outright falsehoods.

A bit of a change of pace for the CA podcast today: We're going to be doing SCIENCE instead of politics. We're joined by one of the world's leading popular science writers, physics professor Sean Carroll, whose bestselling books include The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself and Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime. His latest book is The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Quanta and Fields.Sean is here today to discuss how our understanding of the world around us has developed over time, how much stranger the world is than our "common sense" perceptions of it would indicate, and how laypeople with no background in the physical sciences can begin to grasp and appreciate the deepest hidden truths about the Universe. Sean is an eloquent spokesperson for the view that a godless universe can still be a poetic and beautiful one, and there may be more connections between the political and the physical than it first appears...