Behind the News – July 30, 2026
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.
Fundraising special: a look at the right, intellectual side mostly but not all
Laura Field, author of Furious Minds, on the highbrow side of Trumpism—with a brief comment from David Austin Walsh on how similar the highbrows are to the deplorables
American anti-egalitarians, AIPAC’s black front group
Kim Phillips-Fein, author of Country of Lords, on the anti-egalitarian tradition in American politics • Aziz Rana on tensions between the Declaration and the Constitution (2024 reprise) • Jasmine Wynn on the National Black Empowerment Coalition, basically an AIPAC front group (Jacobin article here)
The private equity racket
Hettie O’Brien, author of The Asset Class, on the private equity racket—who they are, what they do
Designing the socialist future, taking the measure of muscular Christianity
Aaron Benanav, author of this pamphlet, on what a future socialist society might look like • Amy Laura Hall, author of Erecting the Pulpit, on muscular Christianity
What’s going on with the Iran negotiations?
Two views from BtN regulars on the US–Iran negotiations: Anatol Lieven and Mouin Rabbani
Cop power, sex and the social
Stuart Schrader, author of Blue Power, on how the political heft of cops allows them to get away with murder • Angela Jones, author of Sex in Public, on how the social and political shape our sexual lives (and vice versa)
Against money, hating theory
J.W. Mason and Arjun Jayadev, authors of Against Money, explain that curious stuff and enumerate its problems • Moira Weigel explains why the right hates Theory (October article here)
Two views of the right: the sordid side of “respectable,” and Trump’s court intellectuals
David Austin Walsh, author of Taking America Back, on the relationship between the kooks and respectables on the right • Laura Field, author of Furious Minds, on the intellectual wing of Trumpism [rebroadcast of a January 29, 2026, show]
Latin America’s influence on Pope Leo • the Cultural Marxist conspiracy
Greg Grandin, author of this article, on how his time in Peru shaped Pope Leo • AJA Woods, author of The Cultural Marxism Conspiracy, on how the right sees the Frankfurt School as the root of modern decay
fundraising special: the Xi–Trump summit, the dark doings of Opus Dei
Jake Werner analyzes the Trump–Xi summit and US–China relations generally • Gareth Gore, author of Opus, talks about Opus Dei, a secretive, cult-like Catholic organization involved in right-wing politics around the world (and very much in the US)