Day: December 10, 2025

Will the Anti-Capitalist Gen Z Left Which Has Energized the Democrats Dominate American Politics in the Future?

We begin with a follow up from a recent Harvard Youth Poll that found only 13% of Americans between 18 and 29 say the U.S. is heading in the right direction with only 39% supporting capitalism. We discuss whether this generation, which is embracing social democracy and also feels capitalism is failing them, will move the American electorate to the left since the Democrats’ left wing is now the principal source of the party’s energy and ideas. Joining us is John Judis, Editor-At-Large at Talking Points Memo and author of many books, including The Politics of Our Time: Populism, Nationalism, and Socialism. He has written for numerous publications, including The New Republic, The National Journal, The New York Times Magazine, and The Washington Post Magazine, and his latest book, co written with Ruy Teixeira, is Where Have All the Democrats Gone? The Soul of the Party in the Age of Extremes. He has an article we discuss at Compact Magazine, “The Left’s Project Has Just Begun.”

The Bill Introduced Today for Rank Choice Voting in House and Senate Primaries and General Elections

Then we look into today’s introduction of the Ranked Choice Voting Act by Congressmen Jamie Raskin and Don Beyer and Senator Peter Welch which would require ranked choice voting for all congressional primaries and general elections beginning in 2030. Joining us is Deb Otis, the Director of Research and Policy at FairVote who has over a decade of experience in research and analytics. In addition to ranked choice voting and proportional representation, her areas of research include comparative electoral systems, political polarization, redistricting, representation for women and people of color, the electoral college, and election recounts.

Will the Release of Records From Maxwell and Epstein Trials Bring Us Closer to Justice For the Victims?

Then finally with a Manhattan court on Tuesday demanding the release of records from Ghislaine Maxwell’s 2021 sex trafficking case and today a federal judge ruling that the grand jury records from Epstein’s 2019 prosecution must be made public, we speak with Nina Burleigh, a senior editor at The New Republic, best-selling author, documentary producer, and publisher of the Substack American Freakshow. A professor at New York University’s Arthur J. Carter Journalism Institute, her journalism has been published widely including in the New York Times, New Yorker, Airmail, and New York Magazine. She’s written seven books, the latest of which include Golden Handcuffs: The Secret History of Trump’s Women, and she has a new novel, Zero Visibility Possible. She is the Producer of a documentary series on Apple TV, “Epstein’s Shadow” and her latest article at American Freakshow is “Florida Men: The Trump Epstein Deposition That Never Was.”