Start Making Sense

Inclusion for trans athletes in sports has become a flashpoint in the culture war that extends from schools to international competitions. Katie Barnes joins Edge of Sports to discuss their new book, Fair Play: How Sports Shape the Gender Debates, which offers one of the most comprehensive views yet on how the struggle for inclusion in the realm of sports has much wider social and political consequences.We also have Choice Words about why the public financing of stadiums is little more than corporate theft writ large. And on Ask a Sports Scholar, we have Prof. Tracie Canada to speak about her cutting edge work about the racial economy of college football. Plus, we have a new segment called Ask Dave!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

On this episode of The Time of Monsters, I am joined by David Klion to talk about this fascinating movie. David wrote about the movie for The New Republic and my review appeared here.______Martin Scorsese’s masterful new movie, Killers of the Flower Moon strikes out to new territory for the famed director. It’s his first foray into the American West (although set a generation after the traditional western and overturning many of the conventions of the genre).The film also explores many of his familiar themes: toxic masculinity, domestic violence, gangs, criminal conspiracies, spirituality and the limits of the law. On this episode of The Time of Monsters, I am joined by David Klion to talk about this fascinating movie. David wrote about the movie for The New Republic and my review appeared here. In the course of the discussion, I mentioned a novel about the Osage murders recommended by Lily Gladstone. The novel is Charles Red Corn’s A Pipe for February.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivac

A cease-fire in Gaza is only the beginning of what Israel and the Palestinians need. D.D. Guttenplan, The Nation’s editor, argues that “both peoples will have to find a way to share the land—in peace, yes, but also with justice.”Also on this episode of Start Making Sense: victory for the United Auto Workers in their strike against the big three automakers, GM, Ford, and Stellantis. Harold Meyerson, editor-at-large of The American Prospect, explains what’s in the new contract, and what it took to get there.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In response to Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7, Adam Shatz says Israel’s disregard for Palestinian life has never been more callous or more flagrant. But Israel can’t extinguish Palestinian resistance by violence any more than the Palestinians can win an Algerian-style liberation war. The only thing that can save the people of Israel and Palestine is a political solution that recognizes both as equal citizens. Shatz is the former literary editor of The Nation and now US editor of the London Review of Books, where he wrote about Israel and Gaza.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week on the Edge of Sports podcast, we speak to Jean Jacques Taylor, author of the new book, Coach Prime. With near total access to Deion Sanders, Taylor explains what makes Deion Deion.Also on this episode, we speak to best selling author Adam Mansbach about his incredible book, The Golem of Brooklyn. We have some Choice Words for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the NAIA.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Last month, the Canadian parliament embarrassed itself during an official visit by Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelensky when the entire legislative body gave a standing ovation to a veteran of the Waffen SS, the paramilitary wing of the Nazi movement. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau later apologized for incident. To understand what happened, it’s important to realize that Canada, like other Western nations, has a long history of sheltering Nazi war criminals. This was not a matter of negligence but official policy. During the Cold War, these hardened Nazi criminals were seen as valuable allies against the Soviet Union. This policy is all the more shameful because during World War II, the vast majority of Ukrainians who took up arms did so in the Red Army against Nazism.Lev Golinkin, a Ukrainian-American reporter, has been doing excellent work for The Forward and The Nation bringing this shameful history to light. On this episode of The Time of Monsters, I sat down with Lev to talk about the long history

Israel and Gaza, Hamas and the Palestinians, war crimes and mideast history: On this episode of the Start Making Sense podcast, we have comment and analysis from Amy Wilentz, Nation contributor and former Jerusalem correspondent of The New Yorker.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Hamas massacres that started last Saturday and the ensuing retaliation by the Israel government deserve both a moral witness and policy analysis. On this episode of The Time of Monsters, Spencer Ackerman, Nation contributor who wrote about the events here, provides both.In a searing and informed conversation, he places front and center the human worth of all the innocent victims. He also places the event in the framework of the bipartisan Abraham Accords, supported by Donald Trump and Joe Biden alike, which elevated alliances between authoritarian states at the expense of human rights.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The UAW won a historic victory in their strike against GM—an agreement that EV workers will be covered by the union contract. Harold Meyerson explains, and also comments on Israel’s war against Hamas.Also: Elon Musk has been a leader in the transition to renewable energy, and has made Twitter into a threat to democracy. He has become the face of 21st-century capitalism. David Nasaw has our analysis.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week on the Edge of Sports podcast, we welcome back Arya Shirazi to discuss another basketball butterfly effect: what if the NBA had handled the death of Len bias differently? How is that of affected that generation of 1980s players?Dave Zirin – How DeSantis Is Using Sports to Hijack a Florida College:https://www.thenation.com/article/society/new-college-sarasota-florida-desantis/Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

A government shutdown has been temporarily avoided, but congress remains a mess. Kevin McCarthy has been ousted from his position as House Speaker. The hand-shake deal he made over Ukraine funding is now in doubt and the prospect of another shutdown drama looms, bringing with it the real danger of a prolonged government closure.Chris Lehmann, D.C. Bureau Chief for The Nation joins the program to look at the deep history of the GOP’s persistent proclivity for empowering extremists in congress. Special emphasis is given to Newt Gingrich and the Tea Party. This Politco interview with the sociologist Theda Skocpol is also discussed.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Voters in Maine will decide next month whether to turn the state’s private utilities public. If that happens, it would be a huge step toward dealing with the climate crisis, and a model for other states. Bill McKibben explains -- of course he’s an author and environmentalist and co-founder of 350,org, currently working with the new environmental group Third Act, for people over 60.Also: Our politics today is haunted by the failures of Bill Clinton—the “centrist” who “triangulated” with Republicans, lost on healthcare, and proclaimed that “The era of big government is over.”  Nelson Lichtenstein explains Clinton’s turn to the right, and the lessons for today’s Democrats – his new book on Clinton is “A Fabulous Failure.”Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In the early 90s, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf had a promising career ahead of him in the NBA as an up-and-coming star. That all changed in 1996 when he refused to stand for the US National Anthem and called the US flag a symbol of oppression. The NBA retaliated by suspending him, and Abdul-Rauf spent the next two decades playing exclusively for international leagues. On this episode of Edge of Sports, Abdul-Rauf looks back on his protest and how engaging the literature of revolutionary icons like Malcolm X influenced his decision. Elsewhere in the episode, Dave Zirin takes aim at Ron DeSantis’s use of sports to stage a political takeover at the New College of Florida, and Dr. Ron Bishop joins the show to discuss how sports media covers mental health.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The United Auto Workers union has launched an innovative strike against all three major automakers, a major disruption that is upturning American politics, as both major parties are divided on it. On the Republican side, Donald Trump is disingenuously posing as a populist by going to the picket line. But rivals like Nikki Haley and Tim Scott show that the GOP commitment to union-bashing is still strong. On the Democratic side, Joe Biden has a strong record as a president supporting labor but he has been cautious about showing overt support. Only after much prodding did he decide to join picketers.Luke Savage wrote about the strike for Jacobin magazine where he is a staff writer. We talk about the strike and the larger labor upsurge. Savage is the author of the forthcoming book Seeking Social Democracy. In the conversation, he references a Tim Scott video, which can be viewed here as well as a Politico article which can be read here.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: http

The right-wing supermajority on the Supreme Court has returned to a case about racial gerrymandering in Alabama, where Republicans have defied the Court’s order. Dahlia Lithwick will comment about that, and about her book “Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America”—it’s out now in paperback.Also: Two girls grew up in the 1980s and ’90s in a small town in Arkansas. One made it out and became a successful journalist and writer; her best friend, who had been supersmart as a kid, fell into drugs,getting pregnant too young, and petty crime. How did their lives turn out so different? Katha Pollitt talks about the new memoir by Monica Potts, “The Forgotten Girls.”Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The UAW strike against Detroit’s Big Three is rapidly becoming a major political battle as Donald Trump speaks to auto workers in Detroit, challenging Biden’s massive initiatives for America’s transition to electric vehicles. Nelson Lichtenstein provides historical perspective on what’s at stake.Also: We face two kinds of insecurity in our lives today, Astra Taylor argues: existential insecurity, the unavoidable issues of life and death, and manufactured insecurity—intended to make workers more submissive to authority. Communal action can do a lot to reduce the second kind. Astra's new book is “The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together As Things Fall Apart.”Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Officially, hazing is illegal and unwelcome just about everywhere you turn—but it continues as an open secret in far too many fraternities, sports teams, and other institutions. The latest revelations from Northwestern University's football team are a stark reminder that we have a long way to go to uproot the culture of hazing for good. Anti-gender violence activist and documentarian Byron Hurt joins Edge of Sports for a timely discussion on the harm hazing does and how we can stop it. Dr. Neftalie Williams joins us in our Ask A Sports Scholar segment to discuss the uniqueness and global influence of skateboarding.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique (1963) and one of the founders of the National Organization for Women (NOW), was a hero of feminism, but a complicated and difficult hero. Her book and activism were pivotal for igniting second-wave feminism in the 1960s. But as head of NOW, her leadership was irascible and nettlesome, marred especially by her homophobic hostility towards lesbian activism.In a recent review for The New Yorker looking at books about NOW and Friedan, Moira Donegan lays bare the contradictions of Friedan’s legacy, her world-changing importance but also the way she sabotaged both herself and the movement she did so much to create. On this episode of The Time of Monsters, we talk about the lessons of Friedan’s life and how they remain urgent in current feminist struggles. Moira is a frequent guest of the podcast. She’s a columnist for The Guardian and also cohosts a podcast called In Bed With the Right.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://r

Gary Younge, the award-winning former columnist for The Guardian, talks about Black writing and Black writers—and his own writing about Mandela, Obama, Travon Martin, and Claudette Colvin.Also on this episode of Start Making Sense, the news from Haiti, where the UN, with US support, is authorizing a new security force. Made up of mostly Kenyan troops, the armament is trying to restore “law and order” in Port-au-Prince. The Nation's Amy Wilentz is on the podcast to report.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Chamique Holdsclaw's legendary status was apparent from the moment she entered professional sports. After helping the US National Team win the Gold Medal in the 1998 Berlin Olympics, Holdsclaw was named Rookie of the Year in her first WNBA season. Her talent on the court and success in the WNBA projected an image of stability, but away from the cameras, Holdsclaw struggled with her mental health. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy