#1786 Defeating Viktor Orbán in Hungary and the Authoritarian Playbook Worldwide
Release Date: 04/24/2026
#1817 Worse on Purpose: Trump is Killing Our Response to the Climate Emergency
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date: 8/22/2026 Today we look at how the Republican Party made climate denial its policy more than twenty years ago and is now removing the government's ability to see the problem at all. The Environmental Protection Agency under Bush refused to regulate carbon in 2003, and now the Trump administration is dismantling the science that would help us both avoid worsening the climate emergency and mitigate the inevitable destruction to lives and property now baked into the system. Be part of the show! Leave a , message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email...
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#1816 IP'd to Death: How Intellectual Property Law Went from a Protection to a Weapon
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date: 8/19/2026 Today we trace the corporate capture of ideas themselves. What began as a brief legal incentive granting fourteen years of exclusive rights to a creation has become a system that kept a pandemic vaccine from reaching poorer countries and where entertainment conglomerates and technology giants fence off and sell our own culture back to us. Be part of the show! Leave a , message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com (Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) Use our links to shop and for a non-evil book and audiobook purchasing experience!...
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#1815 Sanctioned Ignorance: The Assault on Museums, Libraries, and American Memory
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date: 8/16/2026 Today we look at what Toni Morrison called "sanctioned ignorance," the deliberate manufacture of a version of the past that keeps citizens from connecting the dots between what their government did then and what it's doing now. They're doing it by attacking museums, libraries, and everyone dedicated to ensuring that people have access to accurate information because that's what it takes to implement authoritarian control over a society. It's also the reason that countries under authoritarian rule suffer from the lack of benefits that comes with the free exchange of ideas. ...
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#1814 Open Imperialism in Latin America: Trump Says the Whole Hemisphere Is His to Run
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date: 8/12/2026 Today we follow the latest in Western Hemisphere imperialism. American presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to Donald Trump have invoked the Monroe Doctrine and its claim on the whole hemisphere to justify coups, sanctions, and now an outright military abduction in Latin America. Trump, as always, is bragging loudly about the parts most before him knew to keep quiet. Be part of the show! Leave a , message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com (Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) Use our links to shop and for a non-evil book and...
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#1813 Suffering is the Strategy: ICE, Mass Deportation, and Demographic Engineering
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date: 8/8/2026 Today we examine the mass deportation machine that's been intentionally designed to inflict suffering, from the conditions inside immigration jails to the reckless actions of ICE agents, and the systematic dismantling of accountability. All of this in service of a blatant demographic engineering program to forcibly Whiten the country. Be part of the show! Leave a , message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com (Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) Use our links to shop and for a non-evil book and audiobook purchasing experience! ! ...
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#1434 Confronting Climate Chaos Through Time (Throwback)
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Publish Date: 8-5-2026 Original Air Date: 8–13-2021 Today we dig through the archives to give context to the news of the 2021 IPCC report ringing the alarm bells for the climate crisis. Be part of the show! Leave a , message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com (Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) Use our links to shop and for a non-evil book and audiobook purchasing experience! ! SHOW NOTES Ch. 1: Ch. 2: Ch. 3: Ch. 4: Ch. 5: Ch. 6: Ch. 7: Ch. 8: Ch. 9: Ch. 10: Ch. 11: Produced by Jay! Tomlinson Visit us at Listen Anywhere! ...
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#1812 Democracy or This Supreme Court, But Not Both
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date: 8/1/2026 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 bench. We're arguing that these reforms are necessary for a functioning democracy. Be part of the show! Leave a , message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com (Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) Use our links to shop and for a non-evil book...
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#1811 Country for Old Men: Gerontocracy By Design and the Democracy Problem
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date: 7/25/2026 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 people wait their turn. But several of our sources argue age is the wrong name for the problem, that it is really a story about money and who the whole system was built to serve. Be part of the show! Leave a , message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email...
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Monthly-ish Mix #11 The Loneliest Superpower: What America Gets for Pushing Everyone Away
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date: 7/25/2026 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 around the world, so Europe starts building its own software instead of buying ours, NATO war-games its own doubts, and China quietly steadies the world's oil markets, while Taiwan shows that real security comes from connection, not threats. At home, the administration revives the red...
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#1810 Post-American Europe: How to Lose Friends and Influence People to Protect Themselves Against You
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date: 7/22/2026 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 Washington, Europe is quietly swapping out the old architecture rather than dismantling it, one operating system migration and one secret war game at a time. Be part of the show! Leave a , message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com ...
info_outlineAir Date: 4/24/2026
Today we explore how Viktor Orban spent 16 years transforming Hungary into a blueprint for 21st-century autocracy, how that blueprint traveled directly to the United States and what Hungary's stunning defeat of Orban can teach Americans about fighting back against authoritarianism.
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TOP TAKES
KP 1: If Hungary Can Do It Part 1 - Radio Atlantic - Air Date 4-16-26
KP 3: Viktor Orbán Part 1 - Last Week Tonight with John Oliver - Air Date 3-30-26
KP 6: They Actually Voted Him Out Part 1 - Takes™ by Jamelle Bouie - Air Date 4-16-26
(00:48:33) NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
Trumpism Won't End With Trump, Here's What Comes Next
DEEPER DIVES
(00:56:57) SECTION A: ORIGINS
(01:37:50) SECTION B: TACTICS
(02:03:08) SECTION C: INTERNATIONAL
SHOW IMAGE CREDITS
Description: Photo of Hungary’s out-going president Victor Orban standing with Trump in the White House while both display a thumbs-up. A “REJECTED” stamp is on Orban and a voting checkbox with an “X” in it is above him. A voting checkbox with a question mark in it is over Trump.
Credit: Internal design. Component images: Pixabay Photo Credit: “President Victor Orban and President Trump”, White House Instagram, Nov. 7, 2025 | Public Domain
Produced by Jay! Tomlinson
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