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About Bill Scher

NBN Episodes hosted by Bill:

Politics & Polemics June 17, 2019

We've Got People

From Jesse Jackson to AOC, the End of Big Money and the Rise of a Movement

Ryan Grim

Hosted by Bill Scher
The modern progressive movement is rising in influence, intensity and numbers. Just where did it come from and where is it going? Ryan Grim, D.C bureau chief for The Intercept …
Politics & Polemics May 14, 2019

The Men and the Moment

The Election of 1968 and the Rise of Partisan Politics in America

Aram Goudsouzian

Hosted by Bill Scher
The endlessly fascinating 1968 presidential race transformed American politics in ways that are still being felt. Aram Goudsouzian explores the characters who shaped that race in The Men and the …
Politics & Polemics May 6, 2019

Digital Civil War

Confronting the Far-Right Menace

Peter Daou

Hosted by Bill Scher
Democratic political adviser Peter Daou has long toggled between the world of presidential campaigns and online activism. He worked for the presidential campaigns of John Kerry in 2004 and Hillary …
Politics & Polemics May 2, 2019

Clear and Present Safety

The World Has Never Been Better and Why That Matters to Americans

Michael A. Cohen

Hosted by Bill Scher
We are fed a steady stream of doom and gloom—terrorist attacks, erosion of democracy, robots taking our jobs. But Michael A. Cohen and his co-author Mich Zenko argue in Clear …
Politics & Polemics March 13, 2019

The Billionaire Boondoggle

How Our Politicians Let Corporations and Bigwigs Steal Our Money and Jobs

Pat Garofalo

Hosted by Bill Scher
Politicians love to woo entertainment corporations to their states and cities through subsidies and tax cities. But Pat Garofalo argues that such incentives waste taxpayer money in The Billionaire Boondoggle …
Politics & Polemics February 8, 2019

Camelot’s End

Kennedy vs. Carter and the Fight That Broke the Democratic Party

Jon Ward

Hosted by Bill Scher
Yahoo! News Senior Political Correspondent Jon Ward delves into to the oft-forgotten yet starkly dramatic 1980 Democratic presidential primary between President Jimmy Carter and Senator Ted Kennedy in Camelot’s End …
Politics & Polemics January 14, 2019

Fat Cat

The Steve Mnuchin Story

Rebecca Burns and David Dayen

Hosted by Bill Scher
How did a Wall Street executive and “foreclosure king” like Steve Mnuchin become the Treasury Secretary for a populist like Donald Trump, and what is he doing to the country …
Politics & Polemics December 26, 2018

How We Win

A Guide to Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigning

George Lakey

Hosted by Bill Scher
“One-off” protests don’t change the world; sustained direct action campaigns do. That’s one of the many insights from George Lakey in his new book, How We Win: A Guide to …
Politics & Polemics December 10, 2018

The Moralist

Woodrow Wilson and the World He Made

Patricia O'Toole

Hosted by Bill Scher
Whether you love him or hate him, it is indisputable that few, if any, other 20th-century American presidents were as historically consequential as Woodrow Wilson. Historian Patricia O’Toole explores the …
Politics & Polemics October 25, 2018

An Uncivil War

Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics

Greg Sargent

Hosted by Bill Scher
With many Americas fearing that democracy itself is in trouble, the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent explores remedies to reserve the democratic decline in An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy …
Politics & Polemics October 17, 2018

TR's Last War

Theodore Roosevelt, the Great War, and a Journey of Triumph and Tragedy

David Pietrusza

Hosted by Bill Scher
Teddy Roosevelt had one of the most colorful lives in the American history, but few have deeply explored his final years. Historian David Pietrusza does just that in TR's Last …
Politics & Polemics October 16, 2018

The Red and The Blue

The 1990s and the Birth of Political Tribalism

Steve Kornacki

Hosted by Bill Scher
How did American politics become so polarized? MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki points to clash of two larger-than-life characters in the 1990s, Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich, as the origin of our …
Politics & Polemics October 11, 2018

They Said No to Nixon

Republicans Who Stood Up to the President’s Abuses of Power

Michael Koncewicz

Hosted by Bill Scher
Is it possible for a president’s political appointees to rein in a president with a penchant for abusing power? Yes. Michael Koncewicz, who listened to hundreds of hours of the …
Politics & Polemics August 21, 2018

Obama

An Oral History, 2009-2017

Brian Abrams

Hosted by Bill Scher
Brian Abrams interviewed more than 100 people – Democrats, Republicans, cabinet officials, White House aides, campaign operatives, congresspeople and activists – to piece together a comprehensive oral history of the …
Politics & Polemics August 15, 2018

The Constitution Demands It

The Case for the Impeachment of Donald Trump

Ron Fein

Hosted by Bill Scher
Is there a case for the impeachment of Donald Trump? Constitutional attorney Ron Fein says not only is there a case, but also that the case exists regardless of what …
Politics & Polemics August 8, 2018

Give People Money

How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World

Annie Lowrey

Hosted by Bill Scher
How can we end the scourge of poverty? How we can sustain ourselves once robots eliminate the need for many jobs? Annie Lowrey offers an answer in the title of …
Politics & Polemics July 13, 2018

The Marginalized Majority

Claiming Our Power in a Post-Truth America

Onnesha Roychoudhuri

Hosted by Bill Scher
The Marginalized Majority: Claiming Our Power in a Post-Truth America (Melville House, 2018) offers a roadmap to reeling progressives, delivers a searing critique of cynical pragmatism and defends identity politics …
Politics & Polemics June 22, 2018

American Maelstrom

The 1968 Election and the Politics of Division

Michael A. Cohen

Hosted by Bill Scher
In American Maelstrom: The 1968 Election and the Politics of Division (Oxford University Press, 2016), Michael A. Cohen shows how the 1968 American presidential election proved to be an “inflection …
Politics & Polemics June 18, 2018

Soul of a Democrat

The Seven Core Ideals That Made Our Party and Our Country Great

Thomas B. Reston

Hosted by Bill Scher
Democrats need to stop their “monomania” over Donald Trump and reconnect with their party’s core ideals to reclaim political power, argues Thomas B. Reston in his book Soul of a …
Politics & Polemics June 5, 2018

Alt-America

The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump

David Neiwert

Hosted by Bill Scher
Investigative journalist and Northwest correspondent for the Southern Poverty Law Center, David Neiwert has been covering the radical right-wing for decades. In Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in …
Politics & Polemics May 30, 2018

It’s Time to Fight Dirty

How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics

David Faris

Hosted by Bill Scher
Roosevelt University political science professor David Faris counsels Democrats to disregard procedural precedents and niceties, and pugnaciously wield power in his book, It’s Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can …
Politics & Polemics May 24, 2018

Civic Hope

How Ordinary Americans Keep Democracy Alive

Roderick P. Hart

Hosted by Bill Scher
To find out what Americans really think about their government, University of Texas-Austin Professor Roderick P. Hart read and analyzed approximately 10,000 letters to the editor, from 12 “ordinary” cities …
Politics & Polemics May 18, 2018

The Great Revolt

Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics

Salena Zito and Brad Todd

Hosted by Bill Scher
During the 2016, journalist Salena Zito, who is based in Western Pennsylvania, sensed a brewing conservative populist in the white working-class when many thought the election would be determined by …
Politics & Polemics May 16, 2018

Gaslighting America

Why We Love It When Trump Lies to Us

Amanda Carpenter

Hosted by Bill Scher
CNN commentator Amanda Carpenter was an early conservative critic of Donald Trump when she was targeted in a smear campaign falsely accusing her of an extramarital affair with Trump’s 201 …