Gaslit Nation with Andrea Chalupa and Sarah Kendzior

In this episode of Gaslit Nation, Sarah and Andrea are still way too excited about the midterm elections! The Blue Wave turned out to be a slow motion river flowing through the country and reshaping the political map in the process.

The midterms are over and the results are…decidedly mixed! Sarah and Andrea discuss the historical night from their perspectives in Andrea’s blue trifecta of New York and Sarah’s red nightmare hellhole – er, trifecta – of Missouri. If you are a happy progressive living in a newly blue state or a frustrated progressive living in a newly red state or anything in between, this is the show for you!

We're excited to share this important discussion with Every District, a grassroots fundraising and data-driven effort to turn state governments blue. Regardless of the results of the 2018 midterms, we have a long way to go to rebuild our democracy. As we've covered before on Gaslit Nation, in our interview with Future Now, the battleground is in the states. Affordable health care, voting rights, a fair living wage are just some of the fundamental issues decided by our local representatives.

This week’s guest is comedian Kathy Griffin who has been a target of the Trump administration ever since she posed for a photo holding up a Trump mask covered in ketchup, leading to her being labeled a terrorist by the US government. We at Gaslit Nation do not condone this photo – but neither does Kathy Griffin, who immediately apologized. The administration’s treatment of Griffin, combined with its countenance of actual violent extremists, sheds light on serious threats to our national security.

We call on a strong foreign policy for the left, one that's driven by turning America into a world leader of renewable energy to finally put gas station dictatorships like Putin's oil-rich Russia and MSB's Saudi Arabia out of business. It's far past time to confront the heinous human rights crimes of these regimes that kill journalists, kill and torture LGBTQ people and opposition leaders. By doing so, we will confront other urgent man-made dangers – the catastrophic effects of climate change.

This week on Gaslit Nation we discuss the media: the systemic failures of an economically and morally bankrupt industry dominated by rich white men, and the bravery and creativity of journalists who struggle not only within this system, but with a much more severe threat –an international alliance of kleptocrats who murder journalists with impunity.

Goodbye checks and balances, hello authoritarian shitshow! In the latest Gaslit Nation, Sarah and Andrea discuss the demolishment of checks and balances now that the independence and integrity of the judiciary are gone – joining a legislature that has been, in the words of Senator Patrick Leahy, reduced to little more than an arm of the Trump White House. This was a historic week for America that will be remembered as a turning point toward consolidated autocracy. Speak out and vote while you still can.

In this week’s episode of Gaslit Nation, Sarah and Andrea discuss the Kavanaugh hearings, the pathological lying and enabling of the GOP, Trump’s attacks on the FBI and its investigation of Kavanaugh, and the continuing erosion of our republic’s checks and balances.

In episode 6, Gaslit Nation continues its look at the decades of American crises that gave rise to Trumpism and paved the way for Russian interference in our democracy.

In part one of a two-part interview, Andrea talks to Sarah about income inequality, the loss of the "American dream," and the inspiration for her NYT bestseller The View from Flyover Country. This episode is sponsored by:  Audible -- Go to audible.com/GASLIT for a free 30 day trial and your first book is free. SunBasket -- Go to sunbasket.com/GASLIT for $35 off your first order

Sarah and Andrea interview Barbara Simons PhD, a computer scientist who specializes in election security, to answer the question on everyone’s mind: can our voting machines be attacked? Were they attacked in 2016? What’s in store for the midterms, and what can we, as citizens, do to protect our democracy? Plus a news recap, including Oleg Sentsov's 100th day on hunger strike protesting the treatment of political prisoners in Russia (#FreeSentsov), Omarosa's receipts, and Manafort's endless trial.

In the final installment of our three-part series looking back at the 2016 election, we get into the hacking, the recount, the trail of dead Russians, and Robert Mueller's prescient Iron Triangles report, which predicted something like the Trump administration way back in 2011. 

Amid the arrests of Maria Butina and other Russian agents for influencing the U.S. election, here we are with the second in a three-part series in which Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa look back at what was going on during that year, what signs were there, the media's misplaced focus on Clinton's emails, and how to ensure the 2018 midterms aren't a repeat of 2016.  Links: Patreon: patreon.com/gaslit Harry Reid's letter: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3035844-Reid-Letter-to-Comey.html 

Welcome to Gaslit Nation, a podcast to help cut through the noise in the most important midterm election year of our lives. The last most important election year was 2016. In the first three episodes of Gaslit Nation, Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa take listeners back through that year. First up, we reflect on the surreal warning signs of Brexit, the fascist pageantry of the Republican Convention in Cleveland, and the Trump team’s open deference to the Kremlin—because it’s all still relevant today.

Join writers Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa for Gaslit Nation, a new bi-monthly podcast from DAME magazine that cuts through the noise of the news cycle to help listeners gain a sense of control in an out- of- control world.