Behind the News – June 26, 2025
Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.
Upcoming Episode
Behind the News
12:00 PM (Noon) Pacific Time: Thursdays
Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.
Israel’s war on Iran: two perspectives
Two perspectives on Israel’s war on Iran: Mouin Rabbani on the regional/global context and Joel Schalit on Israeli society and politics
BYD—whence it came, where it’s going • Marx in America
Paolo Gerbaudo on the Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD’s rise (articles here and here) • Andrew Hartman, author of Karl Marx in America, on the bearded one’s reception in the US
Weapons and technology, China surpassing the US
Laleh Khalili, author of this review, on the long relationship between the US military and industry • Kyle Chan, author of this article, on how China is surpassing the US
Capitalism and its critics, real abundance vs. bogue abundance
John Cassidy, author of Capitalism and Its Critics, on just that • Sandeep Vaheesan, author of this review, will talk about abundance—neoliberal vs. genuine
Fundraising special: two views of Israel–Palestine
Meron Rapoport, co-author of this article, on Israel’s strategy of destruction in Gaza • Mouin Rabbani on Israeli politics, the fate of the Palestinians, and Trump’s scheming
Fundraising special: wobbly dollar, perpetual wars
Fundraising special: Barry Eichengreen on why the gyrations in the value of the US dollar matter • Courtney Rawlings and Alex Jordan, hosts of Always at War, on why the US is always buying more weapons and bombing people
Fundraising special: Trumpian ideology
A look at Trumpian ideology: Kristin Du Mez on theology, Quinn Sloboidan on the latest iteration of neoliberalism (both rebroadcasts of interviews from February)
The US empire, the state of the working class, and things need to be bigger
Vijay Prashad, executive director of Tricontinental, on the state of the US empire and the state of the global working class • Becca Rothfeld, author of All Things Are Too Small, speaks up for bigness
How constitutional fetishism gave us Trump
Aziz Rana, author of The Constitutional Bind, on how the system crafted by the US Constitution, led to Donald Trump and has constricted our ability fight him
Hayek’s bastards: the second, cruder generation of neoliberals
Quinn Slobodian, author of Hayek’s Bastards, talks about the IQ- and race-obsessed goldbugs of second generation neoliberalism