Ep. 411: American Madness -- An Attempt on Donald Trump's Life and President Biden and the Democrats are in Disarray
Release Date: 07/17/2024
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_outlineThere are three guests on this week’s episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show.
Mark Jacob is a media critic and a former Metro Editor at the Chicago Tribune and Sunday Editor at the Chicago Sun-Times.
He explains why the mainstream news media is obsessively focusing on President Biden’s health and aging and has, to this point, mostly refused to pay similar attention to the much greater dangers of Donald Trump’s emotional and mental health and the extreme threat he represents to American democracy and society. Mark also warns that the mainstream news media is desperately muckraking about President Biden instead of focusing on the democracy crisis because the former is a much easier story to tell.
Dr. Justin Frank is a former professor of psychiatry at George Washington University. He is the author of several books including Trump on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President.
Dr. Frank shares his thoughts about President Biden’s horrible performance during the debate against Donald Trump and why he self-destructed. Dr. Frank also explains how President Biden’s mortality was fully revealed by the debate and how that has caused great pain for the many Americans who view him as a stable and responsible, if not great leader, who protects them from the extreme dangers and abuse of Donald Trump and his forces. Dr. Frank also shares his thoughts about the mind of Donald Trump and our rapidly worsening national calamity.
Dr. Frank was in transit, and we spoke via cell phone.
D. Earl Stephens is the former Managing Editor at Stars and Stripes and the author of Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters.
He shares his great frustration with how the mainstream news media continues to normalize Donald Trump and the neofascist MAGA movement and has mostly failed in its responsibilities during the country’s worsening democracy crisis. Stephens warns the news media and others who are in denial that Donald Trump and his agents are deadly serious in their threats to end free speech, and punish in the most extreme fashion any voices who oppose them when/if they take power in 2025.
These three conversations took place several days prior to Saturday’s horrific events in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Chauncey DeVega reflects on the attempt on Donald Trump’s life and how matters are now much worse in America where the spiral of violence and ascendant neofascism, and what is likely a near-unstoppable Dictator Trump MAGA takeover in 2025, have greatly accelerated.
Chauncey also reflects on our collective emotions in this moment of extreme crisis and how it impacted his trip home to see his mother along with all the regular stress and emotional labor about aging, money, and life that entails.
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