Times Like These with Charles Lane: Recent Episodes
Charles Lane
Host Charles Lane of the Washington Post welcomes a distinguished guest twice a month to discuss politics, law, history, and foreign affairs.
Less traffic. Cleaner air. Safer streets. Better transit. That’s the personal motto of Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber of the Metropolitan Transit Authority. And it’s certainly a good one aspirationally. The challenge is putting it into practice. Lieber joins host Charles Lane to discuss the triumphs and pitfalls of running one of the world’s greatest social and infrastructural experiments: the New York City subway system.
Louisiana is a unique state and Charles Lane knows its history; his 2008 book, The Day Freedom Died (https://www.amazon.com/Day-Freedom-Died-Charles-Lane/dp/0805089225), told the story of the Colfax Massacre of 1873, in which dozens of Black men were slain. And the state has a unique governor, John Bel Edwards, who has been elected to two terms as a rare pro-Medicaid expansion, pro-life Democrat. Charles met the governor at the recent dedication of a monument to the victims at Colfax and asked him to join the podcast to discuss his unusual place in American politics.
Americans have a penchant for telling themselves the darkest version of their history. But John Grinspan (https://americanhistory.si.edu/profile/1214) looks to the wild campaigns of the 1800's to show how the lived drama of the American political experience offers lessons of hope for political participation and civility.
Are modern ideologies infecting how we educate students about history? Education historian Jonathan Zimmerman joins Charles for a discussion on the politics and history of teaching controversial topics in American schools.
New York Times journalist Amanda Ripley discusses the psychology behind why nearly half of Americans no longer want to follow the news — and what we can do about it.
AEI's Kori Schake discusses the Jim Crow-era naming of military bases after Confederate leaders and the Congressional Naming Commission's inclusive approach to renaming federal entities.
Former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson discusses public safety and border security, and the importance of these issues for political candidates.
Michael Abramowitz joins Charles Lane to reflect on the disappointed expectations for democratic transition after 1989, and our complacent forgetfulness that democracy is something that must be struggled over continuously.
Is fiscal responsibility coming back into style? Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, joins Charles Lane to discuss how that reversal may yet come to pass after years of fiscal recklessness by both parties.
Is the Democratic Party still the party of the White and non-White working class? Ruy Teixeira of the Center for American Progress joins host Charles Lane to assess the party’s strategic positioning today.
As America gears up for a midterm election in the midst of hardening partisan lines and the ongoing war in Ukraine, what are the prospects of the American political future? For the inaugural episode of the new American Purpose podcast “Times Like These with Charles Lane,” the 82nd governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu, joins host Charles Lane to discuss matters both foreign and domestic.