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
- 76 minutes
- Episodes
- 581
- Years Active
- 2021 - 2025
Bonus Sample #314 The Lesson of The Grinch
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Air Date: 7-29-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon and Erin discuss: - All of our hope-y, fearful feelings about this politi…
#1644 State of Play: The RNC Cultish Clown Show, Continued Calls for Violence, and Biden Bows Out
Air Date 7/26/2024
It's clear where the vast majority of violent rhetoric is coming from in the country and it's clear which party is a cult of personality and which puts country before personal powe…
#1526 A History of Political Violence in the US (Throwback)
Original Air Date: 11/15/2022
Today, we take a look at our extremely steady history of political violence from the Revolution, through the Civil War, Reconstruction and Jim Crow, into the Civil Right…
Bonus Sample #313 Consistency When it Matters
Air Date: 7-21-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, and Deon (Erin couldn't join us) discuss: - Deon's hatred of old people - How the media industry's failing state led to ineffective coverage of the Biden age st…
#1643 Extremism Comes in Many Forms: SCOTUS goes hard-right, Project 2025 in the spotlight, and Christian Nationalism unmasked in Assassination Nation
Air Date 7/20/2024
Extremism comes in many forms and we live in an era in which way too many of them are on display simultaneously, but it's not coincidence. The far right has been working toward an …
#1642 Tumultuous Year of Democracy: Left-Wing victories in the UK, France and Mexico with lessons for the US
Air Date 7/17/2024
Recent elections in the UK, France and Mexico spanned the spectrum from confirming inevitabilities to completely upending expectations but they each have lessons for politics in th…
Bonus Sample #312 In a Dinghy of Hope
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Air Date: 7-14-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, and Deon (Erin couldn't join us) discuss: - How we're feeling - The philosophy…
#1641 Green Energy and Public Transport: Feeling blue and seeing red about the inevitable messiness of transitioning to a low-carbon economy
Air Date 7/12/2024
From solar scams to controversial congestion pricing and the smart grid that's needed to connect it all, we look at the messy and difficult path to a low-carbon future.
Be part of …
#1247 The Fight for the Four Freedoms (FDR vs. Libertarianism) (Throwback)
Original Air Date: 2/5/2019
Today we take a look at the history of FDR's "Four Freedoms" and "Economic Bill of Rights" that laid the groundwork for the fight for economic freedom for all that continu…
Bonus Sample #311 Primal Scream of Catharsis
Air Date: 7-7-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon and Erin discuss: - Some stuff that we planned and A LOT more that we did not.
REFERENCES: The Cause That Turned Idealists Into Authoritarian Zealots
#1640 China Explained: From Cars to Computer Chips, Communism to Carbon Emissions, the South China Sea to Space, and Clinton to Biden
Air Date 7/5/2024
China is an undeniable force in the world relating to several major political issues and to address their influence without a deep understanding of the history, context, and current…
#1639 Migrants and Refugees on Fortress Earth: Our politicized, fortified, industrialized borders in the US and Europe
Air Date 7/2/2024
Border security around the world continues to take turns for the dark and dystopian as right-wing sentiment against migrants and refugees continues to escalate to the extreme.
Be pa…
Bonus Sample #310 - The Torment Nexus
Air Date: 6-30-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon and Erin discuss: - the baffling trend of tech companies using cautionary tales from dystopian fiction as a blueprint for what to create next - how the peo…
#1638 AI: From Killer Apps to Killer Robots, the Present and Future of Artificial Intelligence Spans the Spectrum
Air Date 6/28/2024
AI, like all new technologies, won't be all good or all bad. In fact, my favorite understanding of emerging technologies is that they often bring simultaneous utopia and dystopia, …
#1590 Red Caesar and Project 2025: A fascist fever dream by the Claremont Institute and the Heritage Foundation (Throwback)
Original Air Date: 10/23/2023
The people who want to pull the country in directions that are only supported by a small minority of the population have to develop very intricate plans to have any hope…
Bonus Sample #309 Of Kidults and Puppets
Air Date: 6-23-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon and Erin discuss: - The Kidult trend in depth (since we had to cut it short last time) - A right-wing attempt at a puppet-based kids show to draw in young …
#1637 Shifting Populations, Shifting Politics: The European elections show a shift toward the hard right over fears of immigration and scarcity
Air Date 6/21/2024
The European elections could have been worse but they weren't great. Shifting politics among mainstream parties is legitimizing far-right policies at the same time as people's conc…
#1460 The Growing Threat of Minority Rule (Throwback)
Original Air Date: 12/11/2021
Today we take a look at the many structures of American government that tilt to favor minority rule and conservatism which, in our case, is one and the same. Some struct…
Bonus Sample #308 Let the Kids (and Adults) Play
Air Date: 6-16-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon and Erin discuss: - The importance of unsupervised playtime for children and why it's disappearing - The roots and consequences of over-scheduling kids and…
#1636 The Supreme Court Is In Bad Shape. Like, Really Bad. And SCOTUS Is Going To Take Us All Down With Them
Air Date 6/14/2024
We're in the middle of Supreme Court opinion season, which is not going well for non-extreme conservatives in the country, at the same time as scandal, corruption, and justices Tho…