Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

Jonathan Cohn, senior national correspondent at The Bulwark, to discuss what’s driving higher prices, biggest inflection points since the Affordable Care Act was passed and what he sees as the most viable next steps.

Published: 25 November 2025

Rachel Maddow’s new podcast “Burn Order” drops 12/1. Listen to the trailer now!

Published: 24 November 2025

Memo Torres, a multimedia journalist and the director of engagement at LA TACO, joins WITHpod to discuss immigration raids consistently ramping up in Los Angeles and beyond, the impact of civilian intervention, how enforcement strategy has changed and more.

Published: 18 November 2025

South America expert Benjamin Gedan, joins WITHpod to discuss the U.S.' relationship with Venezuela, recent strikes, thoughts on regime changes, military pressure ratcheting up and more.

Transcribed - Published: 11 November 2025

Journalist Jasper Nathaniel, who has spent time in the West Bank, joins WITHpod to discuss key inflection points in the region, his thoughts on formal annexation, observations of the response from Israel Defense Forces troops and more.

Transcribed - Published: 4 November 2025

Author and journalist Beth Macy joins WITHpod to discuss how Urbana, Ohio has changed from the time she grew up there, themes that connect other rural American cities, thoughts on having civil discussions despite political differences, the nationalization of politics and more.

Transcribed - Published: 28 October 2025

Sarah Goodyear and Doug Gordon, co-hosts of the “War on Cars” podcast and co-authors of “Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile," join WITHpod to discuss the politics of cars, the impact cars have on children, the planet and more.

Transcribed - Published: 21 October 2025

Jen Psaki’s podcast “The Blueprint” is back with more on how the Dems can fight and win again! Listen to an excerpt now.

Transcribed - Published: 15 October 2025

Mary McCord, Executive Director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection and a Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, joins WITHpod to discuss the legal and ethical implications of this alarming trend – and what it means for democracy.

Transcribed - Published: 14 October 2025

“The Blueprint with Jen Psaki” is back with another season on how the Democrats can fight and win again.

Transcribed - Published: 8 October 2025

Professor Richard Grinker, a cultural anthropologist and director of The George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic Research, joins Chris Hayes to discuss how autism has become a political obsession.

Transcribed - Published: 7 October 2025

Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Trymaine Lee joins WITHpod to discuss three themes in the book: the long and bloody history of African Americans and guns; his work as a chronicler of gun violence and his own life story.

Transcribed - Published: 30 September 2025

Climate, energy and emerging tech expert Costa Samaras joins to discuss what's rapidly leading to an electricity crisis.

Transcribed - Published: 23 September 2025

Rob Malley and Hussein Agha, co-authors of "Tomorrow Is Yesterday: Life, Death, and the Pursuit of Peace in Israel/Palestine," join to discuss why the Israeli–Palestinian peace process hasn't been successful and what they anticipate lies ahead.

Transcribed - Published: 16 September 2025

Graham Platner, a marine and army veteran and oyster farmer, joins WITHpod to talk about his run for U.S. Senate in Maine.

Transcribed - Published: 9 September 2025

Bill McKibben, founder of climate justice organization 350.org and Third Act, joins WITHpod to discuss his new book "Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization," reasons he's optimistic and more.

Transcribed - Published: 26 August 2025

Bill Bishop, a China expert and former media executive with more than a decade experience living and working in China, joins Chris Hayes to unpack the state of US-China trade relations under Trump 2.0.

Transcribed - Published: 19 August 2025

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott joins WITHpod to talk about the perception versus reality for crime stats in in Baltimore, the city’s Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan and more.

Transcribed - Published: 12 August 2025

Author and journalist E. Jean Carroll joins to discuss suing Trump, advice she has for young women and more.

Transcribed - Published: 5 August 2025

Aya Ibrahim, a former senior policy advisor at the National Economic Council, joins Chris Hayes to talk about the United States’ standing the global economy and more.

Transcribed - Published: 29 July 2025

Omar Wasow, associate professor of political science at UC Berkley, joins to discuss how he’s making sense of American politics at this moment, protests in this era and more.

Transcribed - Published: 22 July 2025

Co-hosts of the Strict Scrutiny podcast, Kate Shaw, Melissa Murray and Leah Litman join to break down some of the biggest SCOTUS decisions during the most recent term.

Transcribed - Published: 15 July 2025

Robert Malley, lead negotiator of the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal, joins WITHpod to talk about the unraveling of the deal under Trump’s first administration and the context that provides for the latest developments in the region.

Transcribed - Published: 1 July 2025

Jia Tolentino, a staff writer at The New Yorker, joins to discuss how AI is changing our perception of the world, how online content can make us more likely to detach from reality and more.

Transcribed - Published: 24 June 2025

Joe Weisenthal, host of Bloomberg’s “Odd Lots” podcast, joins to discuss the economic volatility we’ve seen recently and what it means for financial markets vs. the real economy, the impact of tariffs and more.

Transcribed - Published: 10 June 2025

Karen Hao, journalist and the author of “Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI,” joins to discuss the trajectory AI has been on, economic effects, whether or not she thinks the AI bubble will pop and more.

Transcribed - Published: 3 June 2025

Listen to an excerpt from Nicolle Wallace’s interview with Jason Bateman for her new podcast, “The Best People.”

Transcribed - Published: 2 June 2025

We revisit our episode with Anna Galland, former executive director of MoveOn Civic Action. She joined WITHpod to help us take stock of this moment, what the progressive movement can do right now, reasons for hope (we could use it, right?) and more.

Transcribed - Published: 27 May 2025

Arjun Singh, co-host and senior producer of the Lever Time podcast, joins WITHpod to discuss historical and contemporary fights over taxes, coalitions effects of MAGA, what the latest intraparty disagreements could portend and more.

Transcribed - Published: 20 May 2025

David Graham, a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of “The Project: How Project 2025 Is Reshaping America,” joins WITHpod to discuss some of the things that have already been done that were outlined in Project 2025, what’s been most surprising, how he sees the plans within the playbook playing out and more.

Transcribed - Published: 13 May 2025

Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard, joins to discuss historical and contemporary strategies for protesting, democratic backsliding, global comparisons and more.

Transcribed - Published: 6 May 2025

New York attorney general Letitia James joins WITHpod to discuss why she says Trump is on a “revenge tour,” whether or not she feels the rule of law will prevail as we move forward from the first 100 days and more.

Transcribed - Published: 29 April 2025

Greg Grandin, C. Vann Woodard Professor of History at Yale and author of “America, América: A New History of the New World,” joins WITHpod to discuss rethinking our conceptions of the “New World,” democratic backsliding in the U.S., why he says we should rethink hemispheric history and more.

Transcribed - Published: 22 April 2025

Journalist and author Peter Beinart joins WITHpod to discuss what the war in Gaza has revealed about American Judaism, why he says Jews must tell a new story, what his vision of the future is and more.

Transcribed - Published: 15 April 2025

Journalist and author Ezra Klein joins WITHpod to discuss ways liberalism has gone wrong, what has contributed to the feeling of so much scarcity in America, why it’s so tough to build in this era, how we might reimagine abundance for everyone and more.

Transcribed - Published: 8 April 2025

Author and YouTuber John Green joins to discuss his book, “Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection.”

Transcribed - Published: 1 April 2025

Beverly Gage, a historian at Yale University and the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century,” joins WITHpod to discuss Hoover’s influence, the politicization of the FBI, the abuse of its power, the FBI in Trump 2.0 and more.

Transcribed - Published: 25 March 2025

Janno Lieber, chair and CEO of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, joins WITHpod to discuss the effects of congestion pricing in NYC, legal fights ahead and more.

Transcribed - Published: 18 March 2025

The Democratic Party has its work cut out. Meanwhile, there’s a fundamental issue: the party doesn’t currently have formal power. It doesn't have a majority in either House of Congress, it doesn't control the executive branch, and the Supreme Court has a 6-3 Trump majority. And all of this is creating a kind of impotent rage, frustration and feeling that Democratic leadership hasn’t really risen to the moment. But how might Democrats stand up in this moment? Rep. Robert Garcia, is a representative from California’s 42nd congressional district. Before that, he was the mayor of Long Beach. He joins WITHpod to discuss his thoughts on whether or not we’ve lost the American republic, the unlawful nature of so many Trump 2.0 actions, ways Democrats can adjust messaging and more.

Transcribed - Published: 11 March 2025

Trolls have basically taken possession of the U.S. government. How have trolls been able to go from being mostly cordoned off in dark parts of the internet to gaining so much influence in American culture and politics? Our guest this week has spent years researching and reporting on-the-ground to learn more about how the battle online between the right and the left has moved into the real world. Elle Reeve is a correspondent at CNN and the author of “Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics.” She joins WITHpod to discuss the politics of “black pilled” and “red pilled” young men, the ways in which online extremism so often translates into political violence and more.

Transcribed - Published: 4 March 2025

A defining feature of America from its inception has been physical mobility. And that physical mobility has been the engine of social mobility. But we’ve seen a great deal of economic and social sclerosis over the past few decades. Our guest this week has how, for many people, America has ceased to be the land of opportunity. Yoni Appelbaum is a deputy executive editor of The Atlantic, author of “Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity,” and a social and cultural historian of the U.S. He joins WITHpod to discuss how the idea of mobility has changed within the last century, how things might become less “stuck” and more.

Transcribed - Published: 25 February 2025

So much has happened in the past few weeks. And we’ve seen a speed game of sorts being played by the Trump administration to try to act as rapidly as possible to rework the administrative state of the government. One example of that is the attempts to end the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The letters have even been taken off of the building. But is any of this even legal and what are the implications of gutting USAID? Jeremy Konyndk is the president at Refugees International. He served as a senior official at USAID in the Obama and Biden administrations. Konyndk joins WITHpod to discuss progress that has already been undone, diplomatic repercussions, the effects on American soft power and the uncertain future of USAID.

Transcribed - Published: 18 February 2025

A lot of things are changing. And there’s a lot of things that the new White House administration wants to do differently. One of the areas where we’ve seen a lot of attention is cryptocurrency. Some of the latest developments are pretty confounding, to say the least. Lucky for us, our guest this week has spent years following crypto. Zeke Faux is a reporter for Bloomberg News and the author of “Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall.” He joins WITHpod to discuss some of the latest developments in cryptocurrency, concerns about the government purchasing it, Trump memecoins and more.

Transcribed - Published: 11 February 2025

In her new podcast series, Jen Psaki talks to Democratic leaders about the path forward for the party.

Transcribed - Published: 10 February 2025

It’s no surprise that immigration policy is an area that we’ve seen so much focus on recently. The Trump administration has moved with lightning speed to roll out its immigration agenda. With everything that’s going on, we thought it would be good to have a conversation about some of the deep roots and complexities in history that have brought us to this moment. Jonathan Blitzer is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of “Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis.” He joins WITHpod to discuss what he has called “misguided” policy, the real-life impacts and more.

Transcribed - Published: 4 February 2025

Hi, WITHpod listeners! It’s an exciting day and we have a special treat for you. Today, we’re sharing the first chapter of Chris’ new book, “The Sirens’ Call: How Attention How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource.’ From the book description: We all feel it—the distraction, the loss of focus, the addictive focus on the wrong things for too long. We bump into the zombies on their phones in the street, and sometimes they’re us. We stare in pity at the four people at the table in the restaurant, all on their phones, and then we feel the buzz in our pocket. Something has changed utterly: for most of human history, the boundary between public and private has been clear, at least in theory. Now, as Chris Hayes writes, “With the help of a few tech firms, we basically tore it down in about a decade.” Hayes argues that we are in the midst of an epoch-defining transition whose only parallel is what happened to labor in the nineteenth century: attention has become a commodified resource extracted from us, and from which we are increasingly alienated. The Sirens’ Call is the big-picture vision we urgently need to offer clarity and guidance. Audio excerpted courtesy of Penguin Random House Audio from The Sirens’ Call by Chris Hayes, read by Chris Hayes. © 2025 Christopher Hayes, ℗ 2025 Penguin Random House, LLC. All rights reserved.

Transcribed - Published: 28 January 2025

Introducing “Trumpland with Alex Wagner,” a new podcast covering Trump's first 100 days. Up first: reporting on the J6 pardons.

Transcribed - Published: 24 January 2025

We’ve never had a situation where the world’s richest man has essentially joined the White House as a co-president of sorts. What might this mean, especially when we consider Elon Musk’s history of unchecked power? Kate Conger is a New York Times reporter based in San Francisco, covering X and other technology companies. She’s also a co-author, along with Ryan Mac, of “Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter” Conger joins WITHpod to discuss what has happened to X under Musk’s stewardship, Musk’s growing political influence, the SEC suing him, why his role is so peculiar and more. We should note that Conger and Mac requested to interview Musk for their book, but mentioned that no response was received.

Transcribed - Published: 21 January 2025

The amount of overdose deaths in the U.S. is staggering. And while addiction is a disease, there’s no specific medical treatment or cure for it. Our guest this week points out that weight loss drugs and GLP-1s, or glucagon-like peptide-1s, which are used to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity, can be effective for helping people reduce cravings and consumption of drugs, alcohol and compulsive behaviors like gambling. Nick Reville is the cofounder and executive director of the Center for Addiction Science, Policy, and Research (CASPR). He joins WITHpod to discuss how he found his way into this research area, lessons learned from other health crises, innovations geared towards eliminating addictions at a widescale level and more.

Transcribed - Published: 14 January 2025

Well, here we are. The second inauguration of Donald Trump is quickly approaching. And there’s no doubt that progressives have a lot of work to do in the months and years ahead. Our guest this week co-founded one of the biggest groups that initially came about in response to Trump 1.0. Leah Greenberg is co-founder and co-executive director of Indivisible, an organization with a mission to organize thousands of local groups to resist the GOPs agenda, elect local champions and fight for progressive policies. She joins WITHpod to discuss lessons learned from the past, ideas within Indivisible’s “Practical Guide to Democracy on The Brink” and glimmers of hope as ordinary people fight back.

Transcribed - Published: 7 January 2025