The Chauncey DeVega Show

Walter Mosley is one of America’s greatest writers. He is the author of more than 43 critically acclaimed books, including the major bestselling mystery series featuring Easy Rawlins. Walter Mosley shares insights on his career of writing and truth-telling with such characters as Easy Rawlins and his work on the TV series "Snowfall'. Mosley also reflects on his friendship with the great and now departed John Singleton and why writing is like making music with words.  

Kevin Levin is the author of the new book Searching For Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth. Levin explains how the Internet has allowed lies and disinformation about American history and the Civil War to spread so easily and the harm that is doing to the country’s politics. Levin also explains the origins of the myth of Black Confederate Soldiers and what it reveals about historical memory and questions of racial justice and democracy in post-civil rights America.

Philip Zimbardo is one of the world's leading authorities on the psychology of cruelty, groupthink, and evil. He is most famous for the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment Dr. Zimbardo explains how America under Donald Trump is fully devolving into a state of violence, authoritarianism, and cruelty. He also highlights the connections between his infamous Stanford Prison Experiment and the evil taking place in Donald Trump’s concentration camps.

Dr. Justin Frank is a former clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center. His new book is Trump on the Couch. Dr. Justin Frank explains what does Donald Trump's behavior in response to the Ukraine Scandal and his likely impeachment reveal about the president's core character and psyche? And what are the real reasons why Donald Trump hates and wants to destroy the Ukraine whistleblower?  

Ibram X. Kendi is the author of Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive Idea of Racist Ideas in America which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. His new book is the New York Times bestselling, How to Be an Antiracist. Kendi explains how racism is violence and death. He also highlights how America’s moral crisis along the color line is inseparable from capitalism. Professor Kendi also explains that to have a true democracy in America will require a rethinking of basic notions of “racism”

Christopher Leonard is the author of the bestselling new book Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America. Leonard explains how Charles Koch and his political network were able amass so much power and influence over American life. He also details how Charles Koch and his political network are trying to transform the United States fully into a right-wing libertarian dystopia.

Terry Heaton was a television news executive for The Christian Broadcasting Network during the 1980s where he worked primarily on "The 700 Club". Heaton also served as one of Pat Robertson's advisers during his 1988 presidential campaign.  Heaton explains how right-wing Christian Evangelicals have come to worship Donald Trump, a man who is an unapologetic sinner. He also warns about the power of Pat Robertson and his “shadow government” of Christian Evangelicals and their war against secular Americ

There are two guests on this week's special 250th episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show. Chris Arnade is a photographer and contributing writer for the New York Times, Atlantic, Guardian, Washington Post, Financial Times, and Wall Street Journal. His new book is Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America. Sam Quinones is a journalist, storyteller, and former LA Times reporter. Quinones' most recent book is Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic.

Dr. Justin Frank is a former clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center and the author of the His new book Trump on the Couch. Dr. Frank explains how Donald Trump's many mental pathologies give permission for the violence, hatred and terrorism of his supporters and why the massacres in El Paso and Dayton -- and his reactions to them -- reveal Trump's lack of empathy for other human beings and how the president is likely a sociopath.

Tim Alberta is Politico Magazine’s chief political correspondent. He is also the author of the bestselling new book American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump. He explains how the American fascist Donald Trump took over a very willing and eager Republican Party, what it was like to interview him, and is the president a political genius, an idiot, or something all together different?

Ep. 247.5: The Truth Report with Chauncey DeVega: Tim Wise on White Rage, Donald Trump, and America's "Race War"

J. Michael Straczynski is the creator of landmark TV shows such as Babylon 5 and Sense8. His new autobiography is Becoming Superman: My Journey from Poverty to Hollywood. Straczynski reflects on an almost unbelievable childhood full of hardship, struggle, and abuse -- and how he overcame it all to become one of the most influential voices in all of American and global popular culture.

Ep. 246.5: The Truth Report with Chauncey DeVega: Dr. Bandy Lee Warns That Donald Trump is Emotionally Empty Inside and Spiraling Even More Out of Control

Joy-Ann Reid is the host of "AM Joy" on MSNBC. She is the author of the new book The Man Who Sold America: Trump and the Unraveling of the American Story.  Reid explains how Donald Trump has betrayed American democracy and how he is the human embodiment of America's cultural and social ills. Music at the end of this week's episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show is by JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound. You can listen to some of their great music on Spotify. 

Eve Ensler is an author, Tony Award-winner, playwright and activist. Her award-winning play The Vagina Monologues has been performed in more than 140 countries. Ensler's new book The Apology is a meditation on the decades of sexual abuse and other violence she endured from her father and on how she finally purged his power over her life through creative confrontation and forgiveness. If you enjoyed The Chauncey DeVega Show please be sure to also listen to my other podcast The Truth Report.