Right Now With Perry Bacon

The New Republic
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Politics
  • Updated Weekly

A twice-weekly show about national politics with a focus on the radicalism of the Trump administration and tactics to combat it. The program features in-depth discussions with experts and politicians. It goes beyond the daily headlines to explain why things are happening and put them in a broader context. newrepublic.substack.com

  1. 3d ago

    How the 2020 Minneapolis Protests Set Up the City To Fight ICE

    Minneapolis became ground zero for resistance to ICE in 2026—and Michelle Phelps, sociologist at the University of Minnesota and author of The Minneapolis Reckoning, argues that’s not a coincidence. She joins the show to trace how networks, muscle memory, and skepticism of official narratives built during the 2020 protests carried directly into this year’s mobilization. We discuss why the city was already on the Trump administration’s radar, why the pullback of federal enforcement counts as a limited but real win, why Phelps calls it a “hollow” or “pyrrhic” victory given that deportations continue quietly elsewhere, and why she pushes back on the popular narrative—including recent comments getting called “woke 1.0”—that 2020 was simply a mistake the left overcorrected on. Right Now with Perry Bacon: a twice-weekly show diving into U.S. politics, democracy, and the authoritarian threats facing America. Each episode, Perry strives to go beyond daily headlines and actually connect the dots to what’s happening in America. ➡️ View the Right Now vault on TNR’s website: https://newrepublic.com/video/right-now-with-perry-bacon ➡️ Follow The New Republic on Substack to watch Right Now LIVE: https://newrepublic.substack.com/s/right-now-with-perry-bacon Get full access to The New Republic at newrepublic.substack.com/subscribe

    How the 2020 Minneapolis Protests Set Up the City To Fight ICE

  2. 4d ago

    Why The Professors’ Union Got Behind El-Sayed

    The American Association of University Professors made a rare move: endorsing Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan’s primary. Todd Wolfson, president of AAUP and a professor of journalism and media studies at Rutgers, joins the show to explain why. We discuss El-Sayed’s own family ties to the union, why AAUP’s Michigan locals overwhelmingly backed him in internal polling, why AAUP says it would endorse any candidate—centrist or progressive—who champions public higher education, and why Wolfson argues that decades of defunding, not campus politics, is the real story behind the cost of college. Right Now with Perry Bacon: a twice-weekly show diving into U.S. politics, democracy, and the authoritarian threats facing America. Each episode, Perry strives to go beyond daily headlines and actually connect the dots to what’s happening in America. ➡ View the Right Now vault on TNR’s website: https://newrepublic.com/video/right-now-with-perry-bacon ➡ Follow The New Republic on Substack to watch Right Now LIVE: https://newrepublic.substack.com/s/right-now-with-perry-bacon Get full access to The New Republic at newrepublic.substack.com/subscribe

    Why The Professors’ Union Got Behind El-Sayed

  3. Aug 17

    Why AOC’s “Woke” Comments Landed With a Thud

    AOC called it “woke 1.0” and cited a local official calling it “crazy”—and Deva Woodly, professor of political science at Brown University and a fellow at the Kettering Foundation, joins the show to push back. We discuss what AOC actually said about Francesca Hong and the political moment around 2020, why dismissing Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, and the Parkland gun-control movement as “crazy” cedes ground Democrats shouldn’t give up, and why politicians like AOC, Bernie Sanders, and Zohran Mamdani rarely credit the movements that helped get them elected. Right Now with Perry Bacon: a twice-weekly show diving into U.S. politics, democracy, and the authoritarian threats facing America. Each episode, Perry strives to go beyond daily headlines and actually connect the dots to what’s happening in America. ➡ View the Right Now vault on TNR’s website: https://newrepublic.com/video/right-now-with-perry-bacon ➡ Follow The New Republic on Substack to watch Right Now LIVE: https://newrepublic.substack.com/s/right-now-with-perry-bacon Get full access to The New Republic at newrepublic.substack.com/subscribe

    Why AOC’s “Woke” Comments Landed With a Thud

  4. Aug 10

    Will Progressives Get Another Win in Wisconsin This Week?

    Michigan has voted, and now Minnesota and Wisconsin are up next in the Democratic primary wars. Ryan Cooper, senior editor at The American Prospect, joins the show to look back at what the Michigan results revealed and look ahead at what’s coming this week. We discuss why electability arguments are so hard to trust, why an outside spending gap didn’t stop Abdul El-Sayed’s win, why Francesca Hong is leading her Wisconsin race by 25 points despite skepticism from the governor and some national progressives, and why a spending advantage in a low-turnout, low-information primary might matter more than ideology. Right Now with Perry Bacon: a twice-weekly show diving into U.S. politics, democracy, and the authoritarian threats facing America. Each episode, Perry strives to go beyond daily headlines and actually connect the dots to what’s happening in America. ➡ View the Right Now vault on TNR’s website: https://newrepublic.com/video/right-now-with-perry-bacon ➡ Follow The New Republic on Substack to watch Right Now LIVE: https://newrepublic.substack.com/s/right-now-with-perry-bacon Get full access to The New Republic at newrepublic.substack.com/subscribe

    Will Progressives Get Another Win in Wisconsin This Week?

  5. Aug 5

    What the Michigan Senate Race Tells Us About the Democratic Party

    Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan’s primary by a narrow margin—and Julia Azari and Seth Masket, political scientists and former FiveThirtyEight colleagues, return to the show to dig into what happened. We go county by county, discussing what the map suggests about the racial and geographic coalition behind El-Sayed’s win, why they’re cautious about reading too much ideology into the results, and how this fits a familiar establishment-versus-progressive pattern that’s played out in Democratic primaries for decades. We also look ahead to Wisconsin, where a similar dynamic is playing out in a closely watched race. Right Now with Perry Bacon: a twice-weekly show diving into U.S. politics, democracy, and the authoritarian threats facing America. Each episode, Perry strives to go beyond daily headlines and actually connect the dots to what’s happening in America. ➡️ View the Right Now vault on TNR’s website: https://newrepublic.com/video/right-now-with-perry-bacon ➡️ Follow The New Republic on Substack to watch Right Now LIVE: https://newrepublic.substack.com/s/right-now-with-perry-bacon Get full access to The New Republic at newrepublic.substack.com/subscribe

    What the Michigan Senate Race Tells Us About the Democratic Party

  6. Aug 3

    Why Progressive Candidates Are Thriving in the Midwest

    Michigan votes tomorrow, Wisconsin votes next week, and both primaries have become this cycle’s version of the New York primary—everyone left of center is watching. Anat Shenker-Osorio, who has run hundreds of Democratic focus groups since 2021, and Nathan Kalmoe, a professor who studies public opinion, join the show to break down what these races reveal before any votes are even counted. We discuss why voters are less ideological than pundits assume and more driven by dissatisfaction with Democratic “fight,” why polls showing Abdul El-Sayed slightly behind a Republican shouldn’t be read as an electability warning, why comparing Fran Hong’s genuine working-class background to Graham Platner’s “cosplaying fisherman” persona exposes a double standard in how “authenticity” gets judged, and why Shenker-Osorio’s research keeps landing on the same conclusion: voters think Democrats are weak, not woke. Right Now with Perry Bacon: a twice-weekly show diving into U.S. politics, democracy, and the authoritarian threats facing America. Each episode, Perry strives to go beyond daily headlines and actually connect the dots to what’s happening in America. ➡️ View the Right Now vault on TNR’s website: https://newrepublic.com/video/right-now-with-perry-bacon ➡️ Follow The New Republic on Substack to watch Right Now LIVE: https://newrepublic.substack.com/s/right-now-with-perry-bacon Get full access to The New Republic at newrepublic.substack.com/subscribe

    Why Progressive Candidates Are Thriving in the Midwest

  7. Jul 28

    How AOC’s Foreign Policy Vision Is Different Than Biden’s

    Everyone says they don’t know what AOC’s foreign policy is—but Jonathan Guyer, program director at the Institute for Global Affairs, argues that’s not quite right. He joins the show to break down his piece “AOC Meets World,” tracing how she went from a shaky, underprepared answer on Israel-Palestine early in her career to a confident speech at the Munich Security Conference tying global oligarchy and authoritarianism directly to economic policy. We discuss why her worldview is more class-based than Biden’s, why the left is pushing to disqualify Biden’s Gaza-era foreign policy advisors like Jake Sullivan and Tony Blinken from future roles, and whether foreign policy—driven by the Iran war, gas prices, and strikes in the Caribbean—will actually be a factor in the next Democratic primary. Right Now with Perry Bacon: a twice-weekly show diving into U.S. politics, democracy, and the authoritarian threats facing America. Each episode, Perry strives to go beyond daily headlines and actually connect the dots to what’s happening in America. ➡️ View the Right Now vault on TNR’s website: https://newrepublic.com/video/right-now-with-perry-bacon ➡️ Follow The New Republic on Substack to watch Right Now LIVE: https://newrepublic.substack.com/s/right-now-with-perry-bacon Get full access to The New Republic at newrepublic.substack.com/subscribe

    How AOC’s Foreign Policy Vision Is Different Than Biden’s

  8. Jul 27

    Will the Progressive Wave Knock Off Florida’s Debbie Wasserman Schultz

    Debbie Wasserman Schultz decided to run in Florida’s newly redrawn 20th District instead of her old seat—and Elijah Manley, one of the primary challengers taking her on, joins the show to make his case. We discuss why he thinks seniority isn’t the same as results, his own background growing up homeless after the 2008 financial crisis, why he’d have picked Abdul El-Sayed over Haley Stevens in the Michigan Senate race, and why he sees himself as part of the same progressive wave winning primaries in Colorado and New York. We also get into the crowded primary field working against him, and why he still thinks he has a shot at beating Wasserman Schultz on August 18. Right Now with Perry Bacon: a twice-weekly show diving into U.S. politics, democracy, and the authoritarian threats facing America. Each episode, Perry strives to go beyond daily headlines and actually connect the dots to what’s happening in America. ➡️ View the Right Now vault on TNR’s website: https://newrepublic.com/video/right-now-with-perry-bacon ➡️ Follow The New Republic on Substack to watch Right Now LIVE: https://newrepublic.substack.com/s/right-now-with-perry-bacon Get full access to The New Republic at newrepublic.substack.com/subscribe

    Will the Progressive Wave Knock Off Florida’s Debbie Wasserman Schultz
See All (303)

About

A twice-weekly show about national politics with a focus on the radicalism of the Trump administration and tactics to combat it. The program features in-depth discussions with experts and politicians. It goes beyond the daily headlines to explain why things are happening and put them in a broader context. newrepublic.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    The New Republic
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    303
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © The New Republic
  • Show Website
    Right Now With Perry Bacon

You Might Also Like