Thinking CAP

Like with any good project, it takes a team to get you across the finish line. For two seasons, the Center for American Progress has published this weekly podcast in hopes of encouraging its listeners to think about the world a little differently, and share perspectives that can help foster a more inclusive society. From Sally Tucker and Thinking CAP’s original hosts Michele Jawando and Igor Volsky, to our supervising producer Rachel Rosen and season two producer Kyle Epstein, and our...

It wouldn’t be an international convening if President Trump didn’t make himself the center of the attention. Over the weekend, French President Emmanuel Macron hosted the G7 Summit with leaders from the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Italy, and Japan, along President Trump, in attendance in Biarritz, France. From skipping a meeting on climate change – the White House described it as a “niche” issue – to advocating for bringing Russia back into what would be the G8, the Trump wasn’t short...

Halloween may be more than two months away, but something in the air already has the markets spooked. Worries about the end of the bull market and a looming recession has economists and politicos worried about the impact of a sluggish economy. While Daniella is off this week, Ed sits down with CAP Senior Economist Gbenga Ajilore to diagnose the warning signs that could lead to the end of a more than decadelong economic boon. Key among the contributing factors are President Donald Trump’s...

For decades, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has been among the most challenging global health issues to contain. Enter Dr. Anthony Fauci, immunologist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. As one of the foremost experts and advocates against the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Dr. Fauci exuded optimism when talking about the progress being made in both global and domestic containment of the disease. He sat down with Daniella for an...

Once again, the country mourns after a weekend that saw two mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, and more than 30 innocents killed. And once again, the blame game—or, rather, the scapegoat game—is dialed up to high, with the disability community caught in the sights of the gun lobby and its allies in Congress, as is too often the case. As the president and his enablers remain eager to avoid any commitment to tackle the growing scourge of white nationalism, others are motivated...

President Donald Trump had himself another very bad, no good, extremely racist week, and it seems the rest of the nation is finally taking notice of the trend. With a majority of Americans now believing that the president—the same president who hasn’t backed away from his accusations against the Central Park Five, who propagated the birther conspiracy against President Barack Obama, and who called Mexicans rapists on the first day of his presidential campaign—is indeed a racist, his latest...

Three months after releasing his report investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, former special counsel Robert Mueller appeared before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees for questioning about his findings. Reluctant to appear before Congress, Mueller stuck mostly to what he and his team outlined in their report: The Russians conducted an extensive campaign to interfere in and influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election; the Russians...

As the president continues to manipulate the news cycle on Twitter—lobbing racist tropes at progressives in the U.S. House of Representatives—the world and all of its problems continue to spin. In a normal presidency, the National Security Council (NSC) is tasked with keeping the president focused on the nation’s foreign policy priorities—Iran, North Korea, the Russians, etc. This week, Daniella and Ed are joined by two former NSC staffers—John Gans Jr. and CAP’s own Kelly Magsamen—to take a...

The Trump era has changed the way the free press and the White House interact—that much is certain. So where does that leave a network like C-SPAN, the so-called Switzerland of the media, which aims not to imbue its coverage with opinion but rather let the facts speak for themselves? This week, Daniella sat down with Steve Scully, C-SPAN political director and on-air host of the legendary show, “Washington Journal,” to discuss the network’s agenda of having no agenda and how Scully has had...

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court reached two significant decisions on cases affecting voting rights in the United States. The first dealt a blow to the fate of fair voting maps, where the court found that partisan gerrymandering was an issue “beyond the reach of the federal courts,” thus punting the decision to the states to decide for themselves. The second questioned the reasoning of the Trump administration’s inclusion of a citizenship question in the 2020 census—a question that has...

Getting to know the supreme leader of the Hermit Kingdom is not a simple undertaking. But Anna Fifield, Beijing bureau chief for The Washington Post and author of the new book “The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un,” has come as close as any foreigner to North Korea in achieving that task. This week, Fifield—along with CAP Senior Fellow Mike Fuchs—joins Daniella and Ed to discuss what it was like seeking to paint the most comprehensive portrait of...

Capt. Ersie Joyner never wanted to be a police officer. 30 years after joining the force, he is now a decorated veteran of the Oakland Police Department and heads Oakland’s Ceasefire program, which is responsible for comprehensively addressing serious violence—specifically gun violence—within the community. The program has been a huge success. Captain Joyner sat down with Ed to discuss his reluctant journey into policing and how his police department was forced to innovate in the face of...

Finding political common ground in North Carolina is an art, and Gov. Roy Cooper (D)—now in his third year as the state’s chief executive—is working his brushstrokes. Whether it’s prioritizing Medicaid expansion statewide, changing the way the state is addressing its growing opioid crisis, or blocking repeated attempts at banning abortion, Gov. Cooper is increasingly finding consensus. Perhaps his greatest feat, however, is remaining diplomatic on North Carolina’s many college basketball...

As President Donald Trump absconds to the United Kingdom for the pomp and circumstance of a visit with Queen Elizabeth and the royal family, Jesse Lee, senior adviser for Communications at the Center for American Progress and this week's guest, is here to remind us from what Trump may be running away. Whether it’s the question of impeachment heating up in Congress, or his son-in-law, Jared Kushner’s, recent disastrous interview discussing birtherism, or the ongoing drip of corruption stories...

Hearing President Trump tell it, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the U.S. economy is in a boom like we’ve never before witnessed. But that is not the case, says professor Darrick Hamilton, executive director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University. Professor Hamilton joined the pod this week to give us the real picture on the current state of the economy; the meaning behind the numbers; and why current economic measures are not truly...

As Congress attempts to exert its oversight powers over the White House in the wake of the Mueller report, relations between the (co-equal!) legislative and executive branches have grown as tense as they’ve ever been during the Trump administration. To help unpack it all, Ari Melber—chief legal correspondent for MSNBC and host of the network’s popular evening program “The Beat With Ari Melber”—sat down with Daniella and Ed live from the Center for American Progress' annual Ideas Conference....

On the eve of the House of Representatives’ likely passage of the Equality Act—which would explicitly outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity for the first time at the federal level—Daniella and Ed sat down with Charlotte Clymer, press secretary for rapid response at the Human Rights Campaign, and Laura Durso, vice president for the LGBT Research and Communications Project at the Center for American Progress, to better understand how we got to this moment, why...

You may know Ed Zwick from some of his work directing and producing past films, such as “Glory,” “Blood Diamond,” and “Shakespeare in Love”—the latter of which won him an Academy Award. But Zwick’s latest project hits differently. “Trial by Fire,” which arrives in select theaters on May 17, tells the story of Cameron Todd Willingham, a Texas man executed for the murder by arson of his three children after scientific evidence and expert testimony that supported his claims of innocence were...

Glimpsing the nightly news or scrolling through your Twitter timeline on any given day, it might seem like the U.S. on the cusp of achieving bipartisan, comprehensive criminal justice reform. In reality, however, many of the reforms being proposed or enacted are relatively modest in scope. In this episode, Daniella and Ed are joined by Emily Bazelon, staff writer at the New York Times Magazine, and Rachel Barkow, professor at the New York University School of Law, who have both authored new...

A week has passed since special counsel Robert Mueller issued his redacted 448-page report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. After nearly two years—and an additional three weeks of suspense, thanks to U.S. Attorney General William Barr’s stalling efforts—the public finally got a glimpse into Mueller’s investigation, but has largely been left with more questions than answers. Daniella and Ed brought in Max Bergmann, a senior fellow at the Center for American...