Scheer Intelligence
243 episodes - English - Latest episode: 29 days ago - ★★★★★ - 352 ratingsScheer Intelligence features thoughtful and provocative conversations with "American Originals" -- people who, through a lifetime of engagement with political issues, offer unique and often surprising perspectives on the day's most important issues.
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Episodes
What Is It About the Democrats’ Love of War?
April 02, 2021 07:00 - 44 minutesMaj. Danny Sjursen, ret. discusses Biden’s stalling on Trump’s commitment to end the US-Afghanistan war.
The Cartoon is Dead: Long Live the Cartoonist
March 26, 2021 07:00 - 52 minutesPolitical cartoonist Mr. Fish joins Robert Scheer to talk about the death of his art form and his most recent book, “Nobody Left.”
Ralph Nader: Democrats Ushered in an Era of Corporate Fascism
March 19, 2021 07:00 - 1 hourThe consumer advocate, author and former presidential candidate, refuses to mince words about Democrats and their corporate bedfellows in a new interview with Robert Scheer.
Israel Has Always Been A Contradiction
March 12, 2021 08:00 - 46 minutesLarry Gross, who grew up in Israel shortly after it was founded, talks about the racism he witnessed in the young nation long before it occupied the West Bank and Gaza.
The Human Cost of America’s Addiction to Cheap Goods
March 05, 2021 08:00 - 42 minutesInvestigative journalist Amelia Pang joins Robert Scheer to discuss the story of a Chinese prisoner at the heart of her gripping new book, “Made in China.”
In conversation with Lawrence Ferlinghetti
February 26, 2021 08:00 - 35 minutesIn a special Scheer Intelligence from a March 2019 conversation, Robert Scheer talks with his lifelong friend and legendary poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who passed recently in San Francisco at the age of 101. The two discuss a host of topics, including the importance of not selling out and the founding of San Francisco’s landmark City Lights bookshop, where Scheer worked as a young man.
Israel's apartheid pandemic
February 19, 2021 08:00 - 51 minutesMiddle East scholar Juan Cole joins Robert Scheer to discuss what the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Is Hollywood finally breaking free of toxic gender stereotypes?
February 12, 2021 08:00 - 39 minutesFilms like “Palmer,” released on Apple+ in late January, are redefining how global audiences understand gender constructs in previously unthinkable ways.
The Egregious Price America Exacts for Integrity
February 05, 2021 08:00 - 43 minutesJoel Whitney joins Robert Scheer to talk about the lives of poets George and Mary Oppen, two admirable Americans persecuted for their leftist ideals.
The FBI’s Crusade Against MLK Was Darker Than You Think
January 29, 2021 08:00 - 45 minutesDirector Sam Pollard did a deep dive into the FBI’s surveillance of MLK under the leadership of J. Edgar Hoover in his documentary “MLK / FBI,” released by IFC Films earlier this month. Listen to the full conversation between Pollard and Scheer as they discuss the implications of that question, as well as address the highly controversial summaries of the FBI’s MLK surveillance tapes discovered by King’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, David J. Garrow in 2019.
Jimmy Carter’s Foreign Policy Record Reveals Both Hope and Cynicism (Part 2)
January 22, 2021 08:00 - 58 minutesIn the second part of the “Scheer Intelligence” interview with Jonathan Alter, the author of “His Very Best” examines the former president’s mixed foreign policy record.
Jimmy Carter's Lifelong Efforts to Atone for White America's Sins (Part 1)
January 15, 2021 08:00 - 51 minutesRaised in privilege amidst the barbarism of segregation, the oft-maligned president eventually embraced the New South liberalism that just swept his native Georgia’s election.
Jimmy Carter's Lifelong Efforts to Atone for White America's Sins
January 15, 2021 08:00 - 51 minutesRaised in privilege amidst the barbarism of segregation, the oft-maligned president eventually embraced the New South liberalism that just swept his native Georgia’s election.
Death by UFO at Heaven’s Gate: A Dark Fable for Christmas
December 25, 2020 08:00 - 44 minutesClay Tweel’s HBO Max documentary on the New Age “cult of cults” that claimed dozens of lives raises powerful questions about the checkered histories of various religions.
How Reagan paved the way for Trump
December 18, 2020 08:00 - 51 minutesMatt Tyrnauer, director of the devastating Showtime documentary blockbuster “The Reagans,” reveals how Donald Trump was the logical heir to the Reagan Revolution beginning with his plagiarism of the Gipper’s “Make America Great Again” slogan and ending with the abysmal failure to confront a medical pandemic.
What Aaron Sorkin Got Wrong in ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’
December 11, 2020 08:00 - 36 minutesHistorian Jon Wiener, who wrote “Conspiracy in the Streets” on the subject of the Netflix film, sets the record straight on this week’s “Scheer Intelligence.”
How the Democratic Party Became a Vehicle of Aristocracy
December 04, 2020 08:00 - 41 minutesIn the second part of a two-part interview, Thomas Frank explores how anti-populism made liberals comfortable with plutocracy.
Benjamin Madley and a California Genocide
November 27, 2020 08:00 - 33 minutesRobert Scheer sits down with professor and author Benjamin Madley to talk about a little known part of California's history.
Don’t Believe Anything You Were Told About Populism
November 20, 2020 08:00 - 54 minutesThomas Frank examines the history of American populism, and how it was distorted by Democrats and co-opted by Republicans.
The Real Reason the Blue Wave Never Materialized
November 13, 2020 08:00 - 48 minutesDennis Kucinich, former Ohio congressman and mayor of Cleveland, weighs in on what the Democratic Party keeps getting wrong.
The Only Meaningful Way to Save American Journalism
November 06, 2020 08:00 - 51 minutesPublicly-funded media models make a lot of Americans nervous, but Victor Pickard argues it may be the only way to repair our tattered democracy.
Tracing America’s Brutal Imperialist History Through Its Military Bases
October 30, 2020 07:00 - 45 minutesPolitical anthropologist David Vine argues that the most visible evidence of the country’s global empire are the thousands of military installations it has around the world.
America’s Prized Legal System Only Works for the Rich
October 23, 2020 07:00 - 54 minutesAttorney Ronald Goldfarb offers a scathing indictment of American law and lawyers in his new book, The Price of Justice.
Big Oil weaponized our judicial system against an attorney and the Indigenous people he represented
October 16, 2020 07:00 - 56 minutesThe epic battle by Steve Donziger to get Chevron to pay a $9.5 billion judgment he won in 2011 for its “mass industrial poisoning” of Indigenous Amazonian tribes in Ecuador has left him under house arrest for 13 months, disbarred, with a lien on his home, frozen bank accounts, $32 million in legal fees and no way to make a living. The judgment has not yet been paid.
Wrestling Back Privacy From the Jaws of Big Tech
October 09, 2020 07:00 - 45 minutesJames Steyer is taking on Mark Zuckerberg and other tech barons and he wants to empower the rest of us to do the same.
The Socialist Lesson Bernie Sanders Left Out of His Message
October 02, 2020 07:00 - 43 minutesRabbi Michael Lerner, a lifelong progressive, talks about his new book and what he found lacking in the Democratic Socialist’s presidential campaign.
How Today’s Uprisings Compare to the 1960s Rebellions
September 18, 2020 07:00 - 1 hourThe movements of the sixties, which are captured in detail in Mike Davis and Jon Wiener’s new book Set the Night on Fire, are seen as wildly successful. Is it possible Black Lives Matter will be even more significant?
Trump Is the Sweaty Armpit of Monopoly Capitalism
September 11, 2020 07:00 - 52 minutesJournalist David Dayen examines how the greatest danger to our American society doesn’t come from the White House, but from a few obscenely powerful corporations.
The Devastating 1918 “Spanish Flu” Was Exported from the United States, But Don’t Call it the Kansas Virus.
September 04, 2020 07:00 - 47 minutes“The Great Influenza” author John Barry gave us a warning 16 years ago that is extremely relevant to today’s Covid-19 pandemic: It is always fatal to allow politics to trump science.
Attacks on the Post Office Aim to Destroy American Democracy
August 28, 2020 07:00 - 52 minutesCommunications scholar Mark Lloyd explains how the USPS, which is enshrined in the Constitution, became a political battleground.
Something’s Rotten in the Corporate States of America
August 21, 2020 07:00 - 34 minutesA new book by Barbara Freese explores eight stories about the unfettered corporate greed that has corrupted modern society and led to an astounding loss of life.
Questioning Corporate Media’s Thirst for Scandal in the Age of #MeToo
August 14, 2020 07:00 - 1 hourJournalist JoAnn Wypijewski’s latest book, “What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About #MeToo: Essays on Sex, Authority and the Mess of Life” issues a blistering challenge to “scandal media,” which she dismisses as a distorted Cliff Notes version of reality.
How Brooklyn Turned Bernie Sanders Into a Democratic Socialist
August 07, 2020 07:00 - 44 minutesIn his new book, Theodore Hamm examines the New York figures and policies that inspired Sanders to become a champion of working class Americans.
Are Russia and the US Actually Different When It Comes to Meddling in Foreign Elections?
July 31, 2020 07:00 - 1 hourIn “Rigged,” historian David Shimer documents both countries attempts to manipulate democracies abroad — and comes to some questionable conclusions
The Unbearable Violence of Being American
July 24, 2020 07:00 - 1 hourOliver Stone and Maj. Danny Sjursen frame their nation’s past and present in the context of the imperialist U.S. wars that stole their youth.
A new book by the cartoonist the cops didn’t let get away
July 17, 2020 07:00 - 57 minutesThe former L.A. Times cartoonist thought he was protected by freedom of the press until his own newspaper came after him for a blog post about LAPD abuses.
The Price of Ignoring the Ferguson Uprising
July 10, 2020 07:00 - 44 minutesThroughout the uprisings inspired by the killings of Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor, Freddie Gray and so many other Black victims, white leaders refused to learn from Black Lives Matter, a group inspired by the police killing of Trayvon Martin, 17, in 2012 and catalyzed by the killing of Michael Brown.
The Great Con of American Patriotism
July 03, 2020 07:00 - 34 minutesIn conversation with Robert Scheer, Ron Kovic and Maj. Danny Sjursen examine their roles in our nation's bloody trajectory since the Vietnam War.
For Many Young People, Socialism Is as American as Apple Pie
June 26, 2020 07:00 - 38 minutesBernie Sanders may never make it to the White House, but, just when we need them most, socialists like “Bigger than Bernie” co-author Meagan Day have picked up his torch.
The Powerful Past, Present and Future of Black Lives Matter
June 19, 2020 07:00 - 44 minutesAs BLM protests sweep the globe, the movement’s co-founder Melina Abdullah talks about its roots and her hopes for the coming years.
The Cynical Forces Behind America’s Forever Wars
June 12, 2020 07:00 - 42 minutesJournalist Patrick Cockburn examines the disastrous inevitability of America’s failures in the Middle East as the region continues to reel from decades of U.S.-sponsored turmoil.
Harnessing Humor to Unveil America’s Ugliest Truths
June 05, 2020 07:00 - 1 hourPolitical comedian Lee Camp wants to dismantle systems of oppression with a molotov cocktail filled with facts and some good old fashioned laughter.
The ‘Mass Murder Program’ Behind America’s Rise to Power
May 29, 2020 07:00 - 1 hourIn a new book, journalist Vincent Bevins traces the Cold War massacres in Asia and Latin America that still define global political dynamics today.
A Global Look at the Virus That Upended the World
May 22, 2020 07:00 - 34 minutesThe series “Decoding Covid-19” offers a hopeful account of the international cooperation that has stemmed from the unprecedented crisis.
Big Banks Got the Sweetest Deal From the Covid-19 Bailouts
May 15, 2020 07:00 - 48 minutesBanking expert Nomi Prins explains why Congress’ stimulus bill has been a boon for Wall Street and not the small businesses that need it most.
Does Medicare for All Await Us at the End of This Viral Massacre?
May 08, 2020 07:00 - 44 minutesDr. Margaret Flowers predicts how the coronavirus pandemic will impact the ongoing struggle for universal health care in the U.S.
Coronavirus Proves Capitalism Has Always Been a Lie
May 01, 2020 07:00 - 1 hourEconomist Ellen Brown sheds light on the intricacies of an economic system that is being unmasked by the government’s pandemic response.
Governments Are Using Coronavirus to Usher in a New Era of Mass Surveillance
April 24, 2020 07:00 - 36 minutesStates all over the world are ramping up surveillance, as people seemingly willingly give up whatever civil liberties they have left in the name of safety.
The Power and Pain of Being Asian American During the Coronavirus Crisis
April 17, 2020 07:00 - 48 minutesAs we all battle the deadly pandemic, Asian Americans like Hollywood producer Janet Yang are also facing an onslaught of racism.
Coronavirus has already transformed America, for better and for worse
April 10, 2020 07:00 - 48 minutesIn a special edition of “Scheer Intelligence,” host Robert Scheer becomes the guest as filmmaker Stephen French asks for the journalist’s take on the unprecedented crisis.