The Political Scene | The New Yorker

• Leah Litman on Trump’s Supreme Court

  The Washington Roundtable’s Jane Mayer interviews Leah Litman, a law professor at the University of Michigan, a co-host of the “Strict Scrutiny” podcast, and the author of “Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes.” Litman analyzes the wave of victories that the Court has given President Trump’s second Administration—on both its regular docket and its so-called shadow docket—and how outside influence seeps into the Court’s decision-making. Plus, how to parse the dissenting Justices’ language to understand what is happening behind closed doors at the Court.This week’s reading: “Trump Has a Bad Case of Biden on the Brain,” by Susan B. Glasser “Can Trump Deport People to Any Country That Will Take Them?,” by Isaac Chotiner “Sick Children Will Be Among the Victims of Trump’s Big Bill,” by Rachel Pearson “Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, and Three Conspiracy-Theory Theories,” by Jon Allsop  To discover more podcasts from The New Yorker, visit newyorker.com/podcasts. To send in feedback on this episode, write to [email protected] with “The Political Scene” in the subject line. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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• Janet Yellen on the Danger of a “Banana Republic” Economy

  In conservative economics, cuts to social services are often seen as necessary to shrink the expanding deficit. Donald Trump’s budget bill is something altogether different: it cuts Medicaid while slashing tax rates for the wealthiest Americans, adding $6 trillion to the national debt, according to the Cato Institute. Janet Yellen, a former Treasury Secretary and former chair of the Federal Reserve, sees severe impacts in store for average Americans: “What this is going to do is to raise interest rates even more. And so housing will become less affordable, car loans less affordable,” she tells David Remnick. “This bill also contains changes that raise the burdens of anyone who has already taken on student debt. And with higher interest rates, further education—college [and] professional school—becomes less affordable. It may also curtail investment spending, which has a negative impact on growth.” This, she believes, is why the President is desperate to lower interest rates; he has spoken of firing his appointed chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, whom he has called a “numbskull” and a “stupid person,” and installing a more compliant chair. But lowering interest rates to further political goals, Yellen says, “are the words one expects from the head of a banana republic that is about to start printing money to fund fiscal deficits. … And then you get very high inflation or hyperinflation.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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• Fiona Hill on What Putin Tells Us About Trump

  The Washington Roundtable’s Susan B. Glasser interviews the Russia expert Fiona Hill about Vladimir Putin’s long reign and Trump’s dismantling of American institutions. Hill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, previously served in the National Security Council and National Intelligence Council. She gained national attention as a star witness during the first impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump, in 2019. Additionally, Hill, who is also a member of Harvard’s Board of Overseers, talks with Glasser about the Trump Administration’s war on academic institutions.This week’s reading: “Did Trump Really Just Break Up with Putin?” by Susan B. Glasser “Why a Devoted Justice Department Lawyer Became a Whistle-Blower,” by Ruth Marcus “Sheldon Whitehouse’s Three-Hundredth Climate Warning,” by Elizabeth Kolbert “The Supreme Court Sides with Trump Against the Judiciary,” by Ruth Marcus Tune in wherever you get your podcasts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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• Andy Beshear Has a Plan for the Democratic Party

  Andy Beshear, the governor of Kentucky, joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss the damage that President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” will cause in rural America. Beshear paints a picture of how Democrats can win back voters without compromising on issues such as abortion or trans rights, what the party can learn from Mamdani’s victory in the New York City mayoral primary, and the importance of communicating with the public using everyday language. This week’s reading: “Donald Trump, Zohran Mamdani, and Posting as Politics” by Kyle Chayka “The Texas Floods and the Lives Lost at Camp Mystic,” by Jessica Winter “Is There Still Time to Be Hopeful About the Climate?,” by Daniel A. Gross “The War on Gaza’s Children,” by Isaac Chotiner “4.6 Billion Years On, the Sun Is Having a Moment,” by Bill McKibben To discover more podcasts from The New Yorker, visit newyorker.com/podcasts. To send feedback on this episode, write to [email protected]. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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• The Scientists Studying the End of the World

  The New Yorker staff writer Rivka Galchen joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss a class at the University of Chicago with a tantalizingly dark title: Are We Doomed? It’s in the interdisciplinary field of existential risk, which studies the threats posed by climate change, nuclear warfare, and artificial intelligence. Galchen, who spent a semester observing the course and its students, considers how to contend with this bleak future, and how to understand the young people who may inherit it.This episode originally aired June 5, 2024This week’s reading: “Donald Trump, Zohran Mamdani, and Posting as Politics” by Kyle Chayka “Do We Need Another Green Revolution?,” by Elizabeth Kolbert “What Therapists Treating Immigrants Hear,” by Geraldo Cadava Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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