Ep. 443: Despair Is Not an Option in 2026 -- Thom Hartmann on the Next Year of Trump 2.0
Release Date: 01/02/2026
Ep. 443: Despair Is Not an Option in 2026 -- Thom Hartmann on the Next Year of Trump 2.0
The Chauncey DeVega Show
Thom Hartmann is the nation’s #1 progressive talk radio host and a New York Times bestselling author. His new book is The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party, and a World on the Brink. Hartmann reflects on the first year of Trump 2.0 and the destruction and chaos it has unleashed on American democracy, society, and the world. Yet he insists that despair and surrender are not options as we enter 2026. Drawing on history and the cycles of great social change, Hartmann points to signs of a growing people’s movement pushing back against Trumpism, as more Americans wake up...
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Ep. 442: Christmas Holiday Weekend Special -- Our Hope Tanks and Hard Times
The Chauncey DeVega Show
On this special episode of the podcast, Chauncey DeVega reflects on this very surreal and challenging year and tries to find some mirth, merriment, positive energy and joy to refill his (and our) hope tanks. Chauncey taps into the joy of childhood nostalgia and a longing for a simpler time as he looks through store catalogues from the 1980s in search of his favorite Transformers and G.I. Joe toys, and then calculates how much they would cost in today’s dollars. Chauncey soon realizes he likely would have been the parent telling the kids, “Hell no!” Disney, the WWE, and other...
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Ep. 441: From The Boondocks to Crownsville: Rodney Barnes Reflects on a Life in Storytelling
The Chauncey DeVega Show
Rodney Barnes is an American screenwriter, producer, and author. He has written and produced such TV shows as The Boondocks, Everybody Hates Chris, Marvel's Runaways, American Gods, Wu-Tang: An American Saga, and HBO's Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty. His graphic novels and comic books include Killadelphia, Blacula, Monarch, Marvel’s Falcon, and the adaptation of the first season of Star Wars: The Mandalorian. Rodney Barnes' newest comic book series, the horror-noir Crownsville, explores Maryland’s Jim Crow–era “Hospital for the Negro Insane.” He has received...
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Ep. 440: The American Middle Class is Hanging On By a Thread in the Age of Trump
The Chauncey DeVega Show
This is a special joint episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show and The Truth Report. Mechele Dickerson is the Arthur L. Moller Chair in Bankruptcy Law and Practice at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law and author of Homeownership and America’s Financial Underclass. Her new book is The Middle-Class New Deal: Restoring Upward Mobility and the American Dream. In this wide-ranging conversation, Mechele explains how the historic federal shutdown and other economic and political policies have pushed the American middle class to the brink, especially Black and brown...
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Ep. 439: The Human Tragedy and Exploitation of the "True Crime" Genre
The Chauncey DeVega Show
is a prison journalist who is currently serving a 25-year sentence in Sing Sing prison in New York. His work has been featured by such leading publications as New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Esquire, Rolling Stone, and New York magazine. John’s new book is The Tragedy of True Crime. John shares his surreal experience of being on a book tour while inside prison and reflects on his own personal experiences with the "true crime" genre. He also warns about the seductive nature -- and problematic relationship these shows have with reality -- of The...
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Ep. 438: America's Addiction to Gun Violence, Racism, and White Rage Will Be Its Downfall
The Chauncey DeVega Show
is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of African American Studies at Emory University. She is the author of several books including the New York Times bestseller White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide, and One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy. Her most recent book is The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America. Dr. Anderson has appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show, PBS NewsHour, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and Democracy Now!. She has also been featured in the Huffington Post, The Guardian, The New York Times, and The...
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Ep. 437: “Our Enemies Will Vanish” -- Everyday People and Ukraine's War for Independence
The Chauncey DeVega Show
Yaroslav Trofimov is . He is the author of several books including Yaroslav shares what he experienced on the ground in Ukraine and the moral clarity of the war as compared to the wars and conflicts in the Middle East and other parts of the world. He also warns about the dystopic realities of modern warfare, and highlights how the experiences of the Ukrainian people in this war are a reminder of how life for all us can change very quickly and in the most horrible ways. And of course, Yaroslav explains how everyday people in Ukraine are fighting back against the Russian invaders -- and...
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Ep. 436: The Great and Complicated Legacy of Hulk Hogan aka Terry Bollea
The Chauncey DeVega Show
Professional wrestling legend (real name: Terry Bollea) on Thursday, July 24 in Clearwater, Florida. He was 71 years old. Hulk Hogan was and remains one of the most important figures in American and global popular culture. Hulk Hogan/Terry Bollea also leaves behind a very complicated legacy. Brian R. Solomon is a leading professional wrestling journalist, historian, and author. He is the host of the popular podcast. His new book is Irresistible Force: The Life and Times of Gorilla Monsoon. Solomon reflects on why the death of has caused so much emotional pain and tumult for those of...
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Ep. 435: Welcome to Prison, USA
The Chauncey DeVega Show
is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Southern California. She is also a 2023-2024 American Association of University Women faculty postdoctoral fellow and an Affiliated Scholar of the American Bar Foundation, whose writing and other work have been featured by The Washington Post, C-SPAN, NPR, The Associated Press, and Vox. Her new book is Carceral Apartheid: How Lies and White Supremacists Run Our Prisons. Dr. Friedman explains how America is a type of “carceral society” where the logic and organizing principles of prison and racialized power dominate the culture....
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Ep. 434: Navigating Trumpistan and the MAGAverse One Day at a Time
The Chauncey DeVega Show
Sabrina Haake is a federal trial attorney with twenty years of experience specializing in First and 14th Amendment defense. Her essays have been featured in the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Reader, and Raw Story. Her Substack newsletter is . Sabrina Haake reflects on how the Age of Trump and his return to power have negatively impacted the interpersonal relationships and mental and emotional health of the American people -- and how they need to hold on to hope and a belief in human decency when it is so easy to so succumb to cynicism and despair in these dark times. She also ponders how and...
info_outlineThom Hartmann is the nation’s #1 progressive talk radio host and a New York Times bestselling author. His new book is The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party, and a World on the Brink.
Hartmann reflects on the first year of Trump 2.0 and the destruction and chaos it has unleashed on American democracy, society, and the world. Yet he insists that despair and surrender are not options as we enter 2026. Drawing on history and the cycles of great social change, Hartmann points to signs of a growing people’s movement pushing back against Trumpism, as more Americans wake up to the damage inflicted by the oligarchs, gangster capitalism, and other anti-democratic forces. Ultimately, he believes the American people will prevail and push toward a real social democracy modeled on President Franklin Roosevelt’s FAIR Deal.
On this special New Year’s episode, Chauncey DeVega reflects on how we must keep riding the wave out of the great troubles of 2025 — balancing pessimism and optimism, fear and hope. He urges us not to pretend everything is fine or suppress anger and grief, but to acknowledge those feelings and ask the essential question: “Okay — now what are you going to do?” in 2026. And for those fortunate enough to have had a good year amid so much collective pain, Chauncey emphasizes the obligation to share that energy and to uplift others.
By learning from the long Black Freedom Struggle and other pro-democracy movements, the American people can better navigate what promises to be a perilous year ahead.
In that spirit, Chauncey shares an essay on the tradition of Watch Night, when enslaved and free African Americans — often in secret and at great risk — gathered on New Year’s Eve to count down the minutes until the Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863.
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