The BR Podcast

Boston Review
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The BR Podcast—the official podcast of Boston Review—brings you in-depth conversations with leading writers, scholars, and activists about the biggest issues of our time. About BR “Unique and simply indispensable.” —Pankaj Mishra Boston Review is a magazine of ideas, politics, and culture. Independent and nonprofit since 1975, animated by hope and committed to equality, we believe in the power of collective reasoning and imagination to create a more just world. Subscribe here: bostonreview.net/memberships

Episodes

  1. Sep 9

    Which Way, Democratic Party?: Adam Bonica, Jake Grumbach, Osita Nwanevu

    Though Donald Trump’s approval rating has fallen lower than ever, the Democratic Party remains deeply unpopular with much of the American public. What does that spell for the upcoming midterm elections? Could Democrats take back both houses of Congress now and the presidency in 2028? As progressives like Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed and democratic socialists like Florida’s Angie Nixon score primary wins while Senate control hinges on races in states like Maine and Ohio, the party faces a showdown over messaging, strategy, platforms, and the future of the Democratic brand itself. In this Boston Review conversation, two political scientists—Stanford University professor Adam Bonica and BR contributing editor Jake Grumbach of the University of California, Berkeley—discuss the primary results and implications for the midterms; pseudoscience “popularist” punditry and the establishment’s “electability” obsession; playing “four-dimensional chess” in the name of moderation and median voters; and why the party needs social movements more than spreadsheets and scammy fundraising. This conversation took place on September 2 and was moderated by Guardian columnist Osita Nwanevu. Further Reading: “How Not to Defeat Authoritarianism,” a forum led by Adam Bonica and Jake Grumbach in Boston Review “Hook and Squeeze” by Adam Bonica on his Substack, On Data and Democracy “The Life of the Party” by Osita Nwanevu in the New York Review of Books To support work like this, please ⁠subscribe⁠ to the magazine or make a tax-deductible ⁠donation⁠. About the Panelists: Adam Bonica is Professor of Political Science at Stanford University. He writes the On Data and Democracy newsletter on Substack and is coauthor, with Maya Sen, of The Judicial Tug of War: How Lawyers, Politicians, and Ideological Incentives Shape the American Judiciary. Jake Grumbach is Associate Professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and a contributing editor at Boston Review. He is author of Laboratories Against Democracy: How National Parties Transformed State Politics. Osita Nwanevu, a columnist at The Guardian and contributing editor at The New Republic, is author of The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding.

  2. Aug 20

    The AI Data Center Backlash: Robinson Meyer, Nicholas Rabb, Astra Taylor

    According to a recent Gallup poll, some 70 percent of Americans oppose a data center being built in their area. Thousands are showing up to the streets, to town halls, and to the ballot box to register their dissent. More than 300 localities across the United States—red, blue, and purple—have already implemented bans in some form. And the groundswell of community organizing is growing to a national scale. What are the big political lessons—or non-lessons—that we can take from this explosion of grassroots organizing across the country? In this Boston Review roundtable discussion, three prominent writers on these issues—Heatmap News founding editor Robinson Meyer, No Data Center Monterey Park organizer Nicholas Rabb, and journalist-activist Astra Taylor—discuss the mounting resistance and the movement’s political shockwaves ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. This conversation took place on August 17 and was moderated by BR contributing editor Lily Hu. Further Reading: “Is This the Fastest Opinion Shift in American Politics?” Robinson Meyer talks to David Wallace-Wells at the New York Times “Why the Anti-Data Center Movement Is Succeeding Where Others Have Struggled” by Nicholas Rabb in Common Dreams “The fight against AI data centers isn’t just about tech—it’s about democracy” by Astra Taylor and Saul Levin in The Guardian To support work like this, please ⁠subscribe⁠ to the magazine or make a tax-deductible ⁠donation⁠. About the Panelists: Robinson Meyer is the founding executive editor of Heatmap News and a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. He was previously a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he covered climate change, energy, and technology. Nicholas Rabb is an organizer with No Data Center Monterey Park and a postdoctoral researcher with the Eco-STEM Project at California State University, Los Angeles. Astra Taylor is a writer, activist, and documentarian. Her many books include Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone, The Age of Insecurity, and, most recently, End Times Fascism and the Fight for the Living World, coauthored with Naomi Klein. Lily Hu is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Yale and a contributing editor at Boston Review. Her writing has also appeared in Phenomenal World, the Berlin Review, and the Los Angeles Review of Books.

  3. Jul 1

    America at 250: Founding Myths, Useable Pasts, and Just Futures

    In this special semiquincentennial event cohosted by Boston Review and Dissent, three distinguished scholars of history and politics—Adom Getachew, Aziz Rana, and David Waldstreicher—discuss their recent essays on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, reflecting on founding myths and unrealized ideals, revolutionary legacies and global contexts, and the ongoing conflicts over the meanings of U.S. history. In these counterrevolutionary times—marked by authoritarian crisis and imperial hubris—the search for a useable past, they show, continues to shape struggles for a just future. This conversation took place on June 29 and was moderated by historian Nikhil Pal Singh. Further Reading: “New Declarations” by Adom Getachew in Dissent“The American Revolution in Global Retreat” by Aziz Rana in Dissent“The Spirit of ’76” by David Waldstreicher in Boston Review“The American myth always came at someone else’s expense. Now, it’s all but collapsed” by Nikhil Pal Singh in The GuardianTo support work like this, please ⁠subscribe⁠ to the magazine or make a tax-deductible ⁠donation⁠. About the Panelists: Adom Getachew is Professor of Political Science and Interim Chair of Race, Diaspora & Indigeneity at the University of Chicago. She is the author of Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination and a contributingeditor at Boston Review. Aziz Rana is Professor of Law and Government at Boston College and a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He is author of The Two Faces of American Freedom and The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them. David Waldstreicher is Distinguished Professor of History at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the author of several books, including Slavery’s Constitution: From Revolution to Ratification and, most recently, The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A Poet’s Journeys Through American Slavery and Independence. Nikhil Pal Singh is Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and History at New York University. He is author of Race and America’s Long War and Black Is a Country: Race and the Unfinished Struggle for Democracy.

  4. Jun 1

    Artificial Reason: AI, Rationality, and Violence

    In this Boston Review roundtable discussion, moderated by BR contributing editor Lily Hu, three prominent writers and scholars—historian Kevin T. Baker, anthropologist Sophia Goodfriend, and computer scientist Benjamin Recht—discuss the way AI is changing the way societies, individuals, and governments make decisions. The panelists discuss the nature and meaning of rationality, how new technology is interfacing with old institutions, what popular AI discourses get wrong, and the consequences for politics, war, and social life in general. This discussion took place on May 5. Further Reading: “AI got the blame for the Iran school bombing. The truth is far more worrying” by Kevin T. Baker in The Guardian“The New Old Warfare” by Sophia Goodfriend in Boston ReviewThe Irrational Decision: How We Gave Computers the Power to Choose for Us by Benjamin Recht“⁠⁠How to Lie with (Political) Statistics” by Lily Hu in Boston ReviewTo support work like this, please subscribe to the magazine or make a tax-deductible donation.

  5. May 6

    Imperial Anxieties: The U.S.-Israeli War on Iran

    A decade ago, Donald Trump was clear. “Obviously, the war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake,” he declared at a Republican presidential debate. “George Bush made a mistake. . . . We should have never been in Iraq. We have destabilized the Middle East.” “I’m not going to start wars,” he reiterated on election night in 2024. This February, the United States and Israel started a war with Iran, massively destabilizing the Middle East. In this Boston Review roundtable discussion moderated by BR contributor Alex Shams, four scholars of Iranian history and politics—Peyman Jafari, Ali Kadivar, Manijeh Moradian, and Naghmeh Sohrabi—assess the incoherent rationales offered by Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu; the growing geopolitical, economic, and human toll; reactions from within Iran and the Iranian diaspora; and the fate of Iranian struggles for freedom and democracy “under the boot of empire.” This discussion took place on April 6, two days before a ceasefire was brokered. An edited version of the transcript appears in our Spring 2026 issue, Forever Wars. Further Reading: “Iran After Khamenei: An interview with Asef Bayat”“The Catastrophe That Has Befallen All of Us: A war diary”To support work like this, please subscribe to the magazine or make a tax-deductible donation to BR.

  • 5 Episodes

About

The BR Podcast—the official podcast of Boston Review—brings you in-depth conversations with leading writers, scholars, and activists about the biggest issues of our time. About BR “Unique and simply indispensable.” —Pankaj Mishra Boston Review is a magazine of ideas, politics, and culture. Independent and nonprofit since 1975, animated by hope and committed to equality, we believe in the power of collective reasoning and imagination to create a more just world. Subscribe here: bostonreview.net/memberships

Information

  • Creator
    Boston Review
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    5
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Boston Review
  • Show Website
    The BR Podcast

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