Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Expertly-curated progressive politics, news, and culture produced by leftist humans, not algorithms or AI. This is an award-winning podcast that dives deeply into a wide range of national and international issues facing society and governments. We draw from hundreds of sources of progressive news and commentary. Est. 2006.
Save time by listening to a range of perspectives on a focused topic in each episode and be introduced to new sources you will not have come across on your own!
- Update frequency
- every 2 days
- Average duration
- 75 minutes
- Episodes
- 579
- Years Active
- 2021 - 2025
SOLVED! #21 - GerryF**ked: How to Fix Congressional Representation and End Homelessness
Air Date: 9–3-25
Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon, and Erin discuss:
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Ch. 1 - The surprising origins of Gerrymandering
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Ch. 2 - The options we have to improve congressional representation for everyone in …
#1567 How to Sell an Immoral Economic System to the Masses (Throwback)
Air Date: 6–20-2023
Today, we take a look at the story of how neoliberalism was born, how corporations were organized to help push it into the mainstream, and how the courts were reshaped to permanen…
#1734 Where is the Revolutionary, Anti-Fascist Art?
Air Date 9/1/2025
The way people consume almost every variety of media, entertainment, and art is different now than it was only 10-15 years ago. That means that the way protest music, revolutionary …
SOLVED! #20 - America’s Brain Drain: How Scientific Empires Fall
Air Date: 8–28-25
Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon, and Erin discuss:
- Ch. 1 - How scientific empires fall
- Ch. 2 - How fascists of the past have destroyed their country’s scientific progress in fear of inco…
#1733 The Impossible Promise of Make American Healthy Again: MAHA vs MAGA
Air Date 8/27/2025
RFK Jr. and the Make America Healthy Again movement aren't completely wrong about everything, they often identify the larger structural problems with the US health industrial compl…
#1732 It's Never Just About the Kids (Online Censorship, Age Verification, and the Project 2025 Agenda)
Air Date 8/24/2025
The nature of politics and public policy is that there's always a need to balance opposing interests. Almost nowhere is there a more intractable set of opposing interests than in t…
#1731 Raw Power, the Presidency, the Courts, and Democracy in the Balance
Air Date 8/20/2025
There's been a faction of conservatives who have been trying to instill king-like powers into the presidency for a long time, so it shouldn't be surprising that Trump is getting so…
SOLVED! #19 - Big Data: Putting Digital Fingerprints in the Pie of Freedom
Air Date: 8–19-25
Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon, and Erin discuss:
- Ch.1 - The Trump administration’s unprecedented attempts to get your data from the states
- Ch. 2 - Why Trump’s new private health tracki…
#1730 The Axis of the Dark Personality Triad: Unfit Leaders and the Suffering They Cause
Air Date 8/16/2025
There's the old Douglas Adams quote stating that, "Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job" which is a good general…
#1729 Monthly-ish Mix: Layers of Authoritarian Control and the Rising Resistance
Air Date 8/12/2025
The Monthly-ish Mix™ is here to get you caught up on recent news without being overwhelming! This month, we're covering the full spectrum of authoritarian threats—military in the s…
SOLVED! #18 - How to Live Under Fascism
Air Date: 8–10-25
Today, Jay!, Amanda, and Deon (Erin was on vacation!) discuss:
- How modern fascism does not look like the jarring and brutal images people think of, and the “rituals of conformity” …
#1728 The Lawfare Presidency: The Case of Trump v. Journalism
Air Date 8/10/2025
Trump has been condemning the media for all of his professional life and is pretty open about doing it so that people won't believe the negative press he so richly deserves. Now, w…
#1727 Super-Powered Men For Good and Ill: Fascism, Media, and the Manoshpere
Air Date 8/6/2025
Today's slate of topics may feel disjointed at first until you realize that they're not. We set out to produce an episode in which we explored powerful men and those who look up to …
#1573 Confronting Climate Chaos with Action and Adaptation (Throwback)
Original Air Date: 7–22-2023
Today, we take a look at the action needed to curb and adapt to the extreme weather that climate change is already delivering
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SOLVED! #17 - How to Use the Bullsh*t Machine: A.I. LLMs’ insertion into childhood, school, work, and movements
Air Date: 8-1-25
Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon, and Erin discuss:
- The impact of A.I. LLM “friend” bots on childhood development
- How using A.I. LLMs negatively impacts critical thinking and information r…
#1726 Epstein Forever: Trump flails as criticism finally comes from inside the MAGA house
Air Date: 7/31/2025
Who would have thought that a political movement built almost exclusively on conspiracy theories and a cult of personality would end up being threatened by the cult leader being i…
#1725 A Flood of Disinformation: A World of Climate Change and Conspiracies
Air Date: 7-27-2025
Back when I worked in the climate movement, just after the turn of the century, we knew that the extreme weather we were warning about would become ever-more clear to see in peopl…
#1724 How to Socialism: Einstein liked socialism, you think you know better?
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SOLVED! #16 - Under Pressure: Aiming Higher to Fix Societal Problems
Air Date: 7–22-25
Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon, and Erin discuss:
- The need for universal childcare and the pressure release valve of fighting your employer over working from home
- The need for universal…
#1375 The Militia Movement is Having a Moment (Throwback)
Original Air Date: 10–16-2020
Today we take a look at the history and origins of the American militia movement right up to the recent plot to kidnap the Governor of Michigan, the likelihoo…