Background Briefing: September 24, 2025
Could Our Democracy Be Over Before We Get to Vote in 2026?
We begin with Jimmy Kimmel’s return which was influenced by pressure on Disney from the talent pool of stars threatening to boycott while at the same time the billionaires controlling and buying up the media like Larry Ellison and the owners of Nexstar and Sinclair, are keeping Kimmel off the air on hundreds of TV stations they own. Joining to discuss what it is like when the government tries to shut down your publication is Richard Parker, who teaches economics and public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and is a Senior Fellow at the Shorenstein Center. He is a former managing editor of Ramparts, was a cofounder of Mother Jones magazine, and serves on the editorial board of The Nation. His books include, The Myth of the Middle Class and John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His Economics.
Zelensky Warns the World is “in the Most Destructive Arms Race in History”
Then we look into President Zelensky’s speech today to the UN in which he warned that the world is in “the most destructive arms race in human history” and that “weapons decide who survives…There are no security guarantees except friends and weapons.” Joining us to discuss a way forward to end the war in Ukraine is George Beebe, the Director of Grand Strategy at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He served in government for nearly twenty-five years, including as director of Russia analysis at CIA and as a White House adviser on Russia matters for Vice President Dick Cheney. His latest book is The Russia Trap: How Our Shadow War with Russia Could Spiral into Nuclear Catastrophe.