We interview Vanity Fair contributor Craig Unger, the author of the New York Times-bestselling book House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia, a must-read and deeply researched book that reminds us yet again that Trump properties are a laundromat for Russian mafia money, and what this means for our democracy.

This week marks the two-year anniversary of the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville where anti-racist activist Heather Heyer was murdered. In this episode of Gaslit Nation, Sarah speaks briefly about the legacy of Charlottesville before Andrea continues our Get Un-Gaslit Summer Reading Series with an interview with sociologist Dr. Crystal Fleming, the author of How to Be Less Stupid About Race: On Racism, White Supremacy and the Racial Divide.

Our little podcast is 1-year-old. We cannot express our gratitude enough to our Patreon donors and all our listeners who helped turn a fledgling biweekly show that we thought only our moms and our far-right stalkers would listen to into a community, giving us the independence we need to speak out on the issues of the day. We end the show by giving advice on how to survive encroaching authoritarianism and list some of the things we are grateful for – and that we will continue to fight for, odds be damned – in the year to come.

Here is Part II of our interview with the counter-terrorism and intelligence expert Malcolm Nance. Nance is an MSNBC commentator and author who is today best known for being the first person to write THE book about Russia’s attack on the 2016 election as it was happening. (That book – The Plot to Hack America: How Putin's Cyberspies and WikiLeaks Tried to Steal the 2016 Election – was published in October 2016). 

Our Get Un-Gaslit Summer Reading Series continues with this two-part interview with the counter-terrorism and intelligence expert Malcolm Nance. Nance is an MSNBC commentator and author who is today best known for being the first person to write THE book about Russia’s attack on the 2016 election as it was happening. (That book – The Plot to Hack America: How Putin's Cyberspies and WikiLeaks Tried to Steal the 2016 Election – was published in October 2016). 

This week we kick off our Get Un-Gaslit Summer Reading Series with Greg Sargent, the author of the 2018 book An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics. Sargent is also known for writing The Plum Line blog for The Washington Post.

Happy Fourth of July! In 1787, Benjamin Franklin famously declared “A republic – if you can keep it.” In these compiled interviews, experienced grassroots leaders tell us how we can keep our republic. 

We join the women of the great podcast Mueller, She Wrote to debate a matter of vast geopolitical importance – the 1985 black comedy Clue! (In case you are counting, that’s one plus two plus one plus one people appearing on this show). Together we discuss why the McCarthy-era Clue explains so much about our Roy Cohn-created present, including our tenuous grasp on reality and our deep longing for alternative endings.

This week, we interview Billie Winner-Davis, a social worker and the mother of Reality Winner, an air force veteran and the former NSA contractor who provided The Intercept with an NSA report on the Kremlin’s hacking of US voting systems at a time when the issue was still largely being debated and the public kept very much in the dark.

We are back with Part II of our discussion of the 2020 battleground state Ukraine. Our special focus again is on Rudy Giuliani who multiple experts have said should register for the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) given his many clients overseas, including several who serve the Kremlin’s interests. Will 2016 repeat in 2020, with Giuliani filling the role of Paul Manafort who worked as an unregistered foreign agent?

We continue our interview with Andrea’s sister Alexandra Chalupa, the former DNC contractor who was one of the first people in the US to warn officials about Russia’s attack on the 2016 election. For the first time, Alexandra tells her story in depth in her own words, including how she discovered new Riker’s Island inmate Paul Manafort was conspiring with Russian actors to help Trump win, her unheeded warnings to the DNC about email hacks and Wikileaks, and the terrifying aftermath of the 2016 election.

Hey, it can talk! In this episode of Gaslit Nation, we break down Mueller’s surprise press conference on Thursday with a special guest – Alexandra Chalupa, the independent researcher who was one of the first people in the US to warn officials about Russia’s attack on the 2016 election.

Now that Manafort is in prison, Giuliani seems to have taken his place, especially in trying to drum up Democratic scandals to distract from Trump’s many investigations. We examine one of Giuliani's longtime moneymakers: Ukraine.

We start off by looking at The Week The Mueller Probe Died in light of new information that’s been revealed since March. We go on to discuss the 2020 race, threats to election integrity, and the novelty of Elizabeth Warren.

Constitutional law and voting rights attorney John Bonifaz answers our questions about one of the most contentious topics today – whether, when, and how to impeach Donald Trump. Bonifaz is the president and co-founder of Free Speech for People, a non-partisan advocacy group for a new constitutional amendment to limit campaign spending and repeal Citizens United, and the author of Warrior-King: The Case for Impeaching George W. Bush. He is also the co-author of the January 2019 op-ed “Time to Impeach Donald Trump” with Representative Rashida Tlaib.

This episode picks up where we left off last week in our breakdown of the Mueller Report, in particular the role of Paul Manafort who flagrantly announced his crimes and no one did anything to stop him; the constant underestimation of this transnational crime syndicate masquerading as a government that spurred both the press and the Mueller probe to give them a pass; and the revelation that all fifty states were targeted and potentially compromised by Russia in 2016, despite earlier denials.

At long last, the Mueller Report is here, and we are…underwhelmed. In the first episode of a two-part Mueller Report Special, we do an overview of the bizarre sequence of events that led to the Barr Report and the Mueller Report, which have been eclipsed by propaganda and atrocious media coverage. We examine the contents of the report itself, and ask questions like: why did Mueller fail to indict? Why did it take two years for Mueller to release a report on crimes that were documented in the public domain? Since when is obstructing justice openly no longer obstructing justice at all?

We lay out, yet again, the urgent arguments for impeachment, and fact-check those we often hear against it. We also interview Alexandra Flores-Quilty (@AFQ_92) of the grassroots group By the People (@by_the_ppl) that works with Rep. Rashida Tlaib and other Congressional leaders to call for impeachment hearings. The worsening crisis at the U.S. border; the continued purge of our government leaving crucial key positions unfilled, threatening our national security and public safety; politically motivated attacks on investigators and other law enforcement; just this week alone strengthen the case.

We discuss the Barr memo fallout, the insipid media coverage, the unchecked assassins of Russia and Saudi Arabia, Ukraine's election, FBI purges, and more.

As we’ve said repeatedly at Gaslit Nation, the crisis in the US was never about Trump vs Mueller, but about corruption and exploitation – about massive institutional failure that worsened over multiple decades, culminating in a kleptocracy backed by a transnational crime syndicate. We discuss what’s next for the US and the world as the Trump team ramps up its autocratic goals.  

March 2019 marks the five-year anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea. We explain why the fake referendum in Crimea is called a "referendum by gun point" and provide background on Russia's annexation which had been in the works since the mid-2000s. The story of human rights abuses that continue to this day in Russian-occupied Crimea are told through the political prisoner Oleg Sentsov, a filmmaker kidnapped from Crimea and held in a Siberian penal colony on trumped up charges. Despite the harsh conditions, Sentsov defies the odds by continuing to produce art, including a feature film. His story is an urgent reminder to choose hope over despair. 

Impeachment sends a message about who we are as a country and what we will accept and abide. The rule of law demands action. Refusing to take action is normalizing atrocity. Lawlessness must be confronted regardless of the outcome, as a matter of principle and conscience. Fighting only the battles that you know you will win is a sure way of ensuring you lose; preemptive surrender, in a rapidly consolidating autocracy, is permanent surrender. The American people have suffered enough under Trump; they should not have to suffer due to Pelosi’s capitulation as well. We all deserve better than this.  

Like Trump Tower Moscow, which was supposed to be the tallest building in Europe with a penthouse for mass-murderer Putin and an Ivanka Trump branded spa, the White House was another monument for Trump, in a long list of monuments he's built for himself over the years, and one that would help him and his family continue to live above the law. 

We are thrilled to welcome Carole Cadwalladr to Gaslit Nation. Carole is an investigative journalist who breaks major stories on the Kremlin and Mercer-backed Brexit vote, revealing a cast of nefarious characters that were also behind the election of Donald Trump. Her brave reporting, which won her the Orwell Prize and makes her a target of hit pieces, has uncovered the growing vulnerability of elections in a time of kleptocracy. 

We break down decades of intertwined corruption in both the US and the UK and urge officials to seek actual accountability, because time is running out. Kleptocracy anywhere is kleptocracy everywhere, and it is ordinary citizens who pay the most painful price.

Ukrainian journalist Nataliya Gumenyuk, the head of the independent media network Hromadske TV, co-founded by a journalist - Mustafa Nayyem - that launched the EuroMaidan revolution with a Facebook post, looks back on lessons from Ukraine for the West. The discussion includes important insights for understanding international conflicts generally, like Ukraine and Venezuela, by focusing on the people caught in the middle and resisting seeing the world as a geopolitical chessboard. Gumenyuk shares how, while covering the 2016 election in the U.S., she knew Trump would win. And she provides advice for Americans and journalists living in a political climate similar to Ukraine's given the Putin-puppet in power, enrichning himself and his family. 

This week, we discuss the continued economic, environmental, and psychological fallout of the government shutdown, and speculate on what’s in store later this month. We have a long discussion about the horrific forced separation of migrant children and parents at the US-Mexico border, which both violates the UN’s Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and is reminiscent of the worst racist abuses of America’s past.  For a family, especially kleptocrat princess Ivanka, that likes to brand everything, their most enduring brand will be the deaths their administration has caused.  We talk about how rampant income inequality has created a level of plutocrat seemingly immune from legal consequence, and how plutocracy is the new manifest destiny. We debate whether the Mueller probe targets are really all that worried about imprisonment. Finally, we discuss the adult Trump children, their various criminal acts, the urgency of removing Jared Kushner from office, and how Don Jr should turn himself in because his father couldn’t care less what happens to him.

Welcome to a very angry episode of Gaslit Nation! The government may be back open, but the US is not out of danger – we are merely in the eye of the hurricane as damage from the shutdown mounts and Trump threatens both another shutdown and a scheduled “national emergency.” Sarah and Andrea discuss the toll the shutdown took on workers and how the broader ambition of the GOP – to strip the US down and sell it for parts – continues unimpeded. We note how female representatives like Nancy Pelosi and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez grasp the stakes and are acting as responsible leaders while Congress and the justice system, on the whole, continues to fail citizens. 

We rejoice in the indictment of the grotesque Roger Stone but wonder why it took forty years to stop him, and we break down the exploitative synergy between Stone, Wikileaks and the mainstream media. We wonder yet again how many indicted campaign associates it takes for someone to arrest the remaining complicit players who are actively abusing executive power (like Trump and Kushner) or who are building worldwide fascist movements (like Bannon). Finally, we take a long look at the citizen uprising in Venezuela, its exploitation by both the Trump administration and the Kremlin, and the promotion of harmful Russian state propaganda by members of Congress. Kleptocracy should be acknowledged as an obvious enemy of justice, and it is disappointing to see those who purport to represent the people instead parrot the rhetoric of a mafia state.

We breakdown Trump's war on America in the form of the longest government shutdown in our nation's history, the urgent case for #ImpeachmentNow, and examine Deripaska's very sweet sanctions deal. 

This isn’t just a shutdown – it’s a hostile restructuring. As the longest shutdown in US history drags on, Sarah and Andrea discuss the incredible toll it’s taken on workers, the economy and national security. We discuss the apocalyptic vision of much of the GOP elite, including rapture-fiend Mike Pompeo and nuke-lover Trump, and how their destructiveness ties into the current goals of the shutdown. We also discuss the NYT non-revelation that Trump is a Russian asset (see every damn episode of Gaslit Nation for more on that, folks!) who is being investigated by the FBI, and ask yet again why the FBI didn’t do anything earlier. Andrea explains how “The Comey Effect” is the new butterfly effect. We also discuss Ivanka helping pick the leader of the World Bank, the yellow vest protests in Europe, the latest attacks on Andrea’s sister from acting Attorney General Whitaker (!) and more.

We continue examining the diastrous fallout of the government shutdown and the toll it’s taken on unpaid federal workers, national parks, and public safety. We debunk the myth that Trump did not understand what the shutdown would entail and argue that this is exactly what he and his camp have wanted: controlled chaos that allows him and other operatives to more easily strip the country down and sell it for parts. With Trump raising the prospect of a “national emergency," we stand on the precipice of something we’ve dreaded for a long time, and that in other settings has been how dictators consolidate power – by fabricating a massive crisis and exploiting it with a show of force. We discuss how the urgent threats of climate change and technological surveillance culture make the rising authoritarianism of the present distinct from that of decades before.

Gaslit Nation also endorses Rep Rashida Tlaib’s move to “impeach the motherfucker” and we lay out the reasons why: emoluments, obstruction of justice, and high crimes and misdemeanors among them. (And now, the House does not need to wait for Mueller to start the hearings.) We discuss how our generation of women is finally in Congress and how the wealthy white male media can’t handle their truth. Finally we conclude with the latest on Ukraine-Russia tension and the historic significance for believers and nonbelievers alike of Constantinople granting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church independence from Moscow.

At Gaslit Nation, every week is Festivus because we have so manygrievances to air! Our Feat of Strength is that we survived 2018. This week, Sarah and Andrea’s Airing of Grievances includes an in-depth look at Russian spy Maria Butina and her NRA “lover” Paul Erickson; a recap of the many criminal acts of Michael Flynn and some speculation as to why he may be eluding punishment; and a long, hard look into the way the mainstream media has covered – or shall we say covered up – the Trump-Russia case, sometimes at the behest of mafia operative and propagandist Paul Manafort.

It’s another wild week in the United States of America, where any child can grow up to be Individual One! Actually, that’s not true, you have to choose a life of crime and complicity, and this week’s Gaslit Nation discusses what’s new for the indicted (Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort), the people who failed to stop them (James Comey), the accomplices (John Kelly, Nick Ayers), and the new guy who will likely let everyone walk, Iran-Contra style (William Barr). Sarah and Andrea discuss how extreme wealth and corruption of the justice system have created a stratified class that can in a sense do no wrong -- because no one will punish them for the wrong they’ve done! We also weigh in on the crisis in France, the role of social media in political protest, and the ongoing fallout from the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. 

In this week’s Gaslit Nation, Sarah and Andrea express their ongoing frustration about last week’s deja news avalanche of stories about corruption that remains unpunished. As America, the land of collective amnesia, realizes yet again that Trump is a Russian asset following the confessions of Michael Cohen, Sarah and Andrea discuss what it means for brazen, blatant criminals to go caught but unpunished.

In this special episode of Gaslit Nation, Andrea interviews her mother Tanya Chalupa who championed the child carseat law and the seatbelt law in California, as well as working on other child safety bills. She explains how to get a law passed even if, as she was, you're an outsider with very little experience. 

And yes, the big news of Manafort Monday is broken down - the explosive Guardian scoop - and Russia's escalation of its invasion of Ukraine. Next week, we'll be back to unpack the latest developments of these stories and more. There's never a slow news week in Gaslit Nation. 

In this episode of Gaslit Nation, Sarah and Andrea are still way too excited about the midterm elections! The Blue Wave turned out to be a slow motion river flowing through the country and reshaping the political map in the process.

We talk about the new winners and losers as well as the battles over voter suppression in Georgia and Florida and how it’s not partisan to count all the damn votes. We also wave
goodbye to Jeff “Bilbo Bigot” Sessions, one of the most disgraceful and cruel attorney generals in US history, and discuss how the Mueller probe was never that safe under his tenure in the first place since he’s implicated in Trump’s crimes!

Also not safe: our national reputation, as Trump cozies up to Putin
and destroys relationships with our traditional European allies while giving out national medals to, among others, the wife of his biggest GOP donor. As usual, the state, for Trump, is just something to sell.

In sum, this was another deranged and horrendous week but finally, there’s a crack of light in the kleptocratic darkness, and it’s up to the American people to keep that light shining through!

The midterms are over and the results are…decidedly mixed! Sarah and Andrea discuss the historical night from their perspectives in Andrea’s blue trifecta of New York and Sarah’s red nightmare hellhole – er, trifecta – of Missouri. If you are a happy progressive living in a newly blue state or a frustrated progressive living in a newly red state or anything in between, this is the show for you! 

We discuss the issues at stake: voter rights, civil rights, climate change, the Mueller probe, the balance of power in Congress, and more. Andrea jubilantly discusses the power of political organizing and sees positive prospects for 2020 so long as we don’t get complacent; Sarah bleakly discusses how the GOP manipulates outcomes and her fears for the future. It’s like Leslie Knope and April Ludgate have a podcast on rising authoritarianism!

But regardless where we live or what we see coming, Andrea and Sarah both are thrilled to see such massive civic engagement, especially among our audience. Thank you to everyone who participated in our canvassing challenges and who helped get out of the vote! We discuss the historical wins of candidates from marginalized communities, new ballot measures that support human rights, and Democratic control of the House. This is a tumultuous time and no matter what happens, we are here to cover it for the long run.

Welcome to the Gaslit Nation Halloween Special, which is not so different than a regular Gaslit Nation episode due to the 24-7 horror show we call the Trump administration! 

This week, Andrea and Sarah discuss the horrific extremist threats and violence of the past week as well as the constant encroaching repression of the administration’s extremist policies. We once again encourage everyone to get out and vote on November 6. Remember that a vote does not only help an individual candidate, but shapes the balance of power in Congress, determining what laws are passed. You are not only voting for yourself, but to help protect the rights of vulnerable Americans as well as preserve the integrity of our democracy. So vote!

This week’s guest on Gaslit Nation is comedian Kathy Griffin, who has been a target of the Trump administration ever since she posed for a photo holding up a Trump mask covered in ketchup, leading to her being labeled a terrorist by Trump and his supporters. We at Gaslit Nation do not condone this photo in any way – but neither does Kathy Griffin, who immediately apologized for the picture and who routinely condemns political violence. The administration’s treatment of Griffin, combined with its countenance of actual violent extremists, sheds light on serious threats to our national security as well as to freedom of speech. While the MAGAbomber cruised around the country threatening citizens but was ignored as a legitimate threat, Griffin was put on the Interpol list, interrogated by the FBI, and blacklisted by Hollywood. 

We call on a strong foreign policy for the left, one that's driven by turning America into a world leader of renewable energy to finally put gas station dictatorships like Putin's oil-rich Russia and MSB's Saudi Arabia out of business. It's far past time to confront the heinous human rights crimes of these regimes that kill journalists, kill and torture LGBTQ people and opposition leaders. By doing so, we will confront other urgent man-made dangers – the catastrophic effects of climate change.

This week on Gaslit Nation we discuss the media: the systemic failures of an economically and morally bankrupt industry dominated by rich white men, and the bravery and creativity of journalists who struggle not only within this system, but with a much more severe threat –an international alliance of kleptocrats who murder journalists with impunity. We continue our conversation about the assassination of slain journalist Jamil Khashoggi and reflect on other unpunished recent killings like the attempted Skripal poisoning in the UK. Why does the West do nothing when autocrats murder writers and dissidents so brazenly? Why isn’t the West hitting autocrats where it hurts them most – in their bank accounts?

Goodbye checks and balances, hello authoritarian shitshow! In the latest Gaslit Nation, Sarah and Andrea discuss the demolishment of checks and balances now that the independence and integrity of the judiciary are gone – joining a legislature that has been, in the words of Senator Patrick Leahy, reduced to little more than an arm of the Trump White House. As we predicted, this was a historic week for America, one that will be remembered as a turning point toward consolidated autocracy. So speak while you can still speak, and vote while you can still vote.

We discuss the aftermath of the Kavanaugh confirmation, the tattered future of the Mueller investigation, the possible compromise of the FBI, and the transnational crackdown on journalists who document corruption and speak up against repressive governments. In one week, Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi went missing and was allegedly murdered in the Saudi Arabian embassy in Turkey, and Bulgarian journalist Viktoria Marinova was murdered in a Bulgarian border town, making her the third high profile journalist to be murdered in the EUthis year. Both had critiqued the repression and corruption of their countries.

These are also dangerous times for US journalism, as Trump continues his attack on the free press and his dehumanization of anyone who dares criticize him. We discuss the dark future of a world run by a transnational crime syndicate seemingly held in check by no one. Many of our worst fears have been realized; those baselessly claiming a “deux ex Mueller” was coming were severely mistaken. 

What we have, in the end, are ourselves and each other to save – along with what’s left of our country. We end the episode with an interview with Sydette Harry, a writer whose prescient analysis of the weaponization of digital media should have been heeded years ago, and whose advice on how to survive in an autocratic political landscape should be heeded now.

A Special Announcement from Gaslit Nation

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Crush the Midterms Challenge. We asked you to create a plan on CrushTheMidterms.org, tweet your plan to @gaslitnation, and from those that we received we chose a winner -- @indigoiis -- who will be sent a signed copy of Sarah’s New York Times bestselling book, The View from Flyover Country: Dispatches from the Forgotten America.  If you participated and didn’t win yet, the contest continues, a new winner announced every week, through election day, November 6th. So send us your Crush the Midterms plan if you haven’t already. We’re also introducing a new contest, the 1,000 Doors Challenge. Join Andrea in a moonshot goal of knocking on 1,000 doors between now and election day. It’s a big goal, but striving for it could help make a difference in the most important midterms in our nation’s history. Tweet a photo of yourself canvassing to @gaslitnation and the winner, chosen on November 6th, will get a signed copy of Sarah’s book and an invitation to come on our show as a special guest. A group of Harvard students created a great YouTube series called Resistance School, and their basic explainer video of how to knock on doors to get out the vote shows just how easy and fun this effective outreach strategy can be! 

In this week’s episode of Gaslit Nation, Sarah and Andrea discuss the Kavanaugh hearings, the pathological lying and enabling of the GOP, Trump’s attacks on the FBI and its investigation of Kavanaugh, and the continuing erosion of our republic’s checks and balances.

In episode 6, Gaslit Nation continues its look at the decades of American crises that gave rise to Trumpism and paved the way for Russian interference in our democracy.

In part one of a two-part interview, Andrea talks to Sarah about income inequality, the loss of the "American dream," and the inspiration for her NYT bestseller The View from Flyover Country.

This episode is sponsored by: 

Audible -- Go to audible.com/GASLIT for a free 30 day trial and your first book is free.

SunBasket -- Go to sunbasket.com/GASLIT for $35 off your first order

Sarah and Andrea interview Barbara Simons PhD, a computer scientist who specializes in election security, to answer the question on everyone’s mind: can our voting machines be attacked? Were they attacked in 2016? What’s in store for the midterms, and what can we, as citizens, do to protect our democracy? Plus a news recap, including Oleg Sentsov's 100th day on hunger strike protesting the treatment of political prisoners in Russia (#FreeSentsov), Omarosa's receipts, and Manafort's endless trial.

In the final installment of our three-part series looking back at the 2016 election, we get into the hacking, the recount, the trail of dead Russians, and Robert Mueller's prescient Iron Triangles report, which predicted something like the Trump administration way back in 2011. 

What a week to be talking about the 2016 election! Amid the arrests of various Russian agents for hacking or otherwise influencing the U.S. election, here we are with the second in a three-part series in which Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa look back at what was going on during that year, what signs were there, the media's misplaced focus on Clinton's emails, and how to ensure the 2018 midterms aren't a repeat of 2016. 

Links:
Patreon: patreon.com/gaslit
Harry Reid's letter: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3035844-Reid-Letter-to-Comey.html 

Welcome to Gaslit Nation, a podcast to help cut through the noise in the most important midterm election year of our lives. The last most important election year of our lives was 2016, a gaslit election. In the first three episodes of Gaslit Nation, Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa take listeners back through that year. First up, we reflect on the surreal warning signs of Brexit, the fascist pageantry of the Republican Convention in Cleveland, and the Trump team’s open deference to the Kremlin—because it’s all still relevant today.

Gaslit Nation is a bi-monthly podcast from DAME magazine that cuts through the noise of the news cycle to help listeners gain a sense of control in an out- of- control world. Hosts writers Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa are women whose voices are part of the larger zeitgeist transforming civic engagement across the country.