Race, policing, and the universal yearning fo...

Back in 2015, before President Donald Trump, before January 6, before all the craziness of the last decade, Matt Yglesias made a blunt prediction: American democracy is doomed. Guest host Zack Beauchamp talks with Matt about what that argument got right, what it missed, and why t ...  Show more

What does it mean to be “woke”? It's become a catch-all term to smear or dismiss anything that has any vague association with progressive politics. So anytime you venture into an argument about “wokeness,” it becomes hopelessly entangled in a broader cultural battle. Today’s gues ...  Show more

As protests against police brutality continue across the country, there are calls to reform, defund, and even abolish the police. So, what does it all mean? Don talks to Newark Mayor Ras Baraka about the reforms he’s implementing in a city with a long history of tension between t ...  Show more

On today's episode of @TheBreakdown I unpack and explain how police brutality is a math problem. African Americans are forced to interact with police FAR too much. And by drastically reducing these number of forced interactions, we will, by default, reduce the incidents of police ...  Show more

When it comes to police reform, a retired NYPD detective argues that policing as a profession must evolve or go away completely.  The problem of police violence, and the excessive use of force in Black and Brown communities in particular, has spanned centuries and retired NYPD de ...  Show more

We continue our analysis of the recent investigative reporting by The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatch regarding allegations of sexual misconduct both in the U.K. and in the U.S. by multi-hyphenate comedian Russell Brand. We discuss each victim who has come forwa ...