The Chauncey DeVega Show

Fintan O’Toole is the author of many books including his most recent The Politics of Pain: Postwar England and the Rise of Nationalism. O'Toole explains how Trump's America is pitiful and pathetic where the pandemic only further exposed the societal and institutional rot that was already long present in the country. He also reflects on the end of American empire, the decline of the country's democracy, and abdication of its preeminent global leadership role.

Mike Davis is a historian, political activist, and writer. He is the author of many books including City of Quartz, Buda’s Wagon, and Planet of Slums. Mike Davis warns that the pandemic is only the first in a series of disasters which will include food and fresh water shortages as well as global climate change. Mike Davis also explains how the Republican Party in the Age of Trump may represent the single greatest threat to human civilization in the world today.

David Neiwert is an investigative journalist and the author of Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump. Neiwert explains how Trump’s fake “anti-lockdown” “protests” are a new and more dangerous iteration of the so-called Tea Party Movement which laid the foundations for Donald Trump and his neo-fascist movement. He also decodes how the guns, Nazi insignia, and other regalia -- and yes, Hawaiian shirts -- are threats of a 2nd American civil war in the form of  the “boog

Ben Fountain is the author of the award-winning novel Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk. His most recent book is Beautiful Country Burn Again. Fountain shares how he is trying to remain focused and grounded in these maddening and surreal days of the Trump Pandemic. He also explains that Trump is so powerful and alluring for his followers because the Great Leader is one of the greatest con men in American history.

Daryl Davis is an American R&B and blues musician, activist, author, actor, and bandleader. He is considered one of the best -- if not the best -- boogie-woogie piano players in the world. Davis has played with such legendary musicians as Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, B. B. King, and Bruce Hornsby. Daryl Davis explains how he decided to befriend Ku Klux Klan members and other white supremacists with the goal of getting them to disavow hatred, violence, and destruction.

Don Winslow is one of America and the world’s most widely read and acclaimed crime fiction writers. His books include the New York Times bestsellers “The Cartel”, “The Force”, and “The Border”. His new book is “Broken”. Don Winslow explains how Donald Trump embodies everything wrong with American masculinity. He also shares his insight that the coronavirus pandemic is a perfect metaphor for the pain and harm being caused to the American people and the world by the Age of Trump.

Tim Wise is one of America's and the world's leading experts on white privilege and racism. He is the author of numerous books including his most recent Under the Affluence: Shaming the Poor, Praising the Rich and Sacrificing the Future of America. Tim Wise explains how the coronavirus plague and the types of surveillance and changes in personal behavior and freedom it requires are a crisis for white entitlement and white privilege.

Robert Evans has been a conflict journalist in Iraq and Ukraine. He has also reported extensively on far-right extremist groups in the United States. His investigative reporting is featured at the website Bellingcat. Robert offers suggestions about preparing for crises like the coronavirus. He also warns that America after the coronavirus pandemic could devolve into a full-on authoritarian surveillance society.

Jared Yates Sexton is a writer whose political writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, and elsewhere. His new book is American Rule: How a Nation Conquered the World But Failed Its People. Sexton reflects on his childhood and life in Trumplandia and the power that Trump’s cult holds over so many white right-wing so-called “Christians”. Sexton also warns that Donald Trump is likely going to use the coronavirus pandemic to cancel the 2020 presidential election.

Jonathan Metzl is the Frederick B. Rentschler II Professor of Sociology and Psychiatry, and the director of the Center for Medicine, Health, and Society, at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. His new book is Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America's Heartland. Dr. Metzl explains how the novel coronavirus pandemic will further expose social inequality in America.

Rachel Bitecofer is an Assistant Director of the Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University, where she teaches political science Rachel Bitecofer explains how much of the conventional wisdom about American politics, voting, and elections is incorrect. Bitecofer also explains how in this political moment Bernie Sanders has a better chance than Joe Biden of defeating Donald Trump…if the Democratic Party’s leaders and voters rally around him.

Greg Palast is an investigative journalist and one of the country’s foremost experts on voter fraud and the many other ways that elections are rigged – almost always by Republicans -- so as to prevent the American people from having their votes fully counted. Palast explains how Donald Trump, his Republican Party and their agents will try to steal the 2020 presidential election from the American people at the ballot box.

Walter Koenig portrayed the character “Pavel Chekov” on the original Star Trek series and in seven of the subsequent canonical films.  Koenig shares his deep worries and concerns about the state of the world and American society in the Age of Trump. He also reflects on both the power and dangers of hope in troubled and challenging times. Koenig also shares how he found acting as his vocation and the ways that he tried to best embody Chekov on Star Trek and the character Bester on Babylon 5.

Tochi Onyebuchi explains how his new book Riot Baby is an act of liberation where black rage, black anger, and feelings of just revenge for injustice are acts of liberation against the White Gaze. He also reflects on science fiction, the burdens of representation and why imagining black people with superpowers is so important in a world where the lives of black people are devalued by dominant American society.

Dr. Justin Frank is a former clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center and the author of the bestselling book Trump on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President. Dr. Frank explains how Donald Trump’s non-conviction for his obvious crimes in the Ukraine Scandal will worsen his mental health and other aberrant behavior. He also warns that Trump’s anti-social, violent, and apparent criminal behavior will only make him more popular with his cult members.