Day: March 12, 2026

We begin with Trump already having claimed victory in the war underway against Iran as well as already announcing that Cuba will be the next to fall in his crusade to assert the “Donroe doctrine.” Joining us is William LeoGrande, a professor of government and former dean of the American University School of Public Affairs. He is a specialist on Latin American politics and has been a frequent adviser to congress on issues of U.S. foreign policy toward Latin America including as a staffer to the Democratic Policy Committee of the United States Senate. He has written five books, including most recently, Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana and has an article at The Conversation we discuss, “Cuba’s speedboat shootout recalls long history of exile groups engaged in covert ops aimed at regime change.”

What Can Be Done To Reign In If Not Abolish DHS

Then, with the Democrats holding up funding for DHS, we look into what can be done to reign in if not abolish this dysfunctional hodge podge of agencies run into the ground by Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski. Joining us is Mike Lofgren, who formerly spent twenty-eight years working in Congress as a Republican aide, sixteen of which as a senior analyst on the House and Senate Budget committees. He is the author of the New York Times Bestseller, The Party Is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless and the Middle Class Got Shafted. We discuss his article at Salon, “Abolish ICE? Absolutely — and DHS too.”

AI’s Sweeping and Growing Impact on Every Aspect of Society

Then finally Sasha Linden Cohen speaks with Karen Hao, an award-winning investigative journalist, author, and former engineer recognized for her coverage of AI’s sweeping impact on every aspect of society. Formerly the senior AI editor at MIT Technology Review and a foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, she authored the 2025 New York Times bestseller, Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI. She was also named to the TIME 100 Most Influential People in AI, as she began reporting on AI—and specifically OpenAI—years before ChatGPT became a global sensation.