Day: October 22, 2025

Although the Oysterman in Maine is Imploding and Senator Fetterman is a Disappointment, Authentic Populist Democratic Candidates Are Emerging on the Left

We begin with the populist promise on the Left backfiring in Maine where the most beatable Republican Senator Susan Collins has been given a reprieve with a gift from disturbing revelations about the insurgent oysterman Graham Plattner’s viability as a candidate from his damaging earlier social media posts. Similarly there was early enthusiasm on the Left for Senator Fetterman whose votes lately have taken a sharp right turn. Joining us to discuss the emergence of exciting and authentic populist candidates running as Democrats who can effectively challenge phony MAGA populism is Jared Abbott, a professor of political science at Cal State Los Angeles and director of the Center for Working-Class Politics. With nearly two decades of experience in progressive politics and the labor movement, his research focuses on class politics, participatory democracy and the Left in the United States and Latin America and he has a recent article at The Guardian, “A new generation of populists is showing Democrats how to defeat Trump.”

Disturbing Similarities With Today’s Wall Street Bubble and the 1929 Crash

Then, with Wall Street insiders along with Andrew Ross Sorkin’s new book 1929 warning about today’s market bubble and its similarities to the buildup to the 1929 crash and Great Depression, we speak with Robert McElvaine, a Professor of History and Chair of Arts and Letters at Millsaps College. He is considered one of the world’s leading historians of the era of the Great Depression and is the author of ten books including The Encyclopedia of the Great Depression and, most recently, The Times They Were a-Changin’ – 1964: The Year the Sixties Arrived and the Battle Lines of Today Were Drawn. He is currently completing a book with the working title An Agreed-Upon Fiction: A New History of Power and Authority — How the Lie of Women’s Inferiority Arose, Shaped History, Fuels Authoritarianism Today — and How Exposing It Can Save Democracy and he writes the Substack column, “Musings and Amusings.”

A Wakeup Call as the People’s House is Torn Down to Build a Gilded Palace

Then finally as more and more Americans wake up to the tearing down of the East Wing of the people’s house, the White House, to turn it into a glittering golden palace for Trump and his billionaire backers with a ballroom that will double the size of the existing complex, we look into how it got so far without oversight and what can be done to restrain Trump’s gilded excess of ego gratification. Joining us is Priya Jain, Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture at Texas A&M University. She has worked on the reuse and restoration of a diverse range of historically significant buildings, including Trinity Church in Boston, St.Elizabeth’s Hospital of the Dept of Homeland Security in Washington DC, and Jaisalmer Fort in India, among others. She serves as Chair of the Heritage Conservation Committee of the Society of Architectural Historians.