Listen to Best of the Left Podcast Episodes

Air Date 11/02/2025 A lot of people on the left aren't feeling the love for their country right now and that's understandable but we have some thoughts on more productive ways to channel those conflicting feelings toward a country that is currently falling far…

Air Date 10/28/2025 As we were looking for episode topics, I came across an article making the case that racism is a real problem in the country and that there were lots of recent examples that proved the point. And I was like, "Racism? In the US?! In Trump's…

Air Date 10/25/2025 Trump's attacks on free speech, particularly with the use of the Federal Communications Commission, goes far beyond the Jimmy Kimmel story. We're in the middle of an all-out assault on  freedom of speech, a free and unbiased press, and…

Original Air Date: 10/13/2020 Today we take a look at the myths of Columbus and American Exceptionalism™ that we cling to and turn our gaze to some of the less-understood but more accurate and important aspects of our collective history Be part of the show!…

Air Date: 10–14-25 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon, and Erin discuss: Ch. 1 - The cartoonish conservative and libertarian responses to Trump’s state capitalism Ch. 2 - Trump’s interest in sovereign wealth funds, and the lie the right sells its supporters…

Air Date 10/19/2025 Robber Barons™ of The Gilded Age™ told themselves stories about how they were ushering in progress for all which is why, they argued, they shouldn't be constrained by things like safety regulations or worker unions - impoverishing…

Air Date: 10–5-25 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon, and Erin discuss:   Ch. 1 - The state of American media consolidation Ch. 2 - The debate over free speech and the how the history of the right proves they have never been in favor of it. Ch. 3 -  The Trump…

Air Date 10/10/2025 The strategy that Trump and the masterminds behind Project 2025 are following is to move as fast as possible to implement their agenda because they know perfectly well how unpopular it is and will be as time goes on. It's hard to argue that…

Air Date 10/7/2025 The Trump administration has been doing what we knew it would: breaking laws and losing about 95% of their court battles. And the conservatively stacked Supreme Court has been doing what we knew it would: overwhelmingly ruling for Trump to…

Air Date 10/3/2025 People around the world are angry, often for different reasons and even more frequently based on falseities - though not always. For instance, the Right in the UK and France are upset about immigration though most of those who are angry are…

Air Date: 09/30/25 The Monthly-ish Mix™ is here to get you caught up on recent news without being overwhelming! This month we track the dangerous convergence of domestic collapse and international chaos by looking at political violence and martyrdom…

Air Date: 9–24-25 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon, and Erin discuss: Ch. 1 - Intro, and quick follow up on bad satire Ch. 2 - The new culture of ‘buy now pay later’ and how these companies are manipulating the public to normalize the culture of…

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 Rights era, the Militia Movement and domestic terrorism, and now…

Air Date 9/23/2025 All that is happening in the wake of the Charlie Kirk assassination was quite predictable because we've actually seen this game plan play out before. The only thing we didn't know was what would be the catalyst to really put the autocracy…

Air Date: 9–20-25 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon, and Erin discuss: Ch. 1 - The right-wing’s continued attempts at satire Ch. 2 - Manufactured outrage about male cheerleaders and sorority dances Ch. 3 - How political outsiders always adopt new tech, and how…

Air Date 9/20/2025 The escalations are happening so fast now that even though this episode is about Russia increasing tensions by violating NATO airspace in Poland with drones and Israel intensifying their belligerence by bombing inside Qatar, those aren't…

Air Date 9/16/2025 Between recent Labor Day rallies and Republican Town Hall meetings, we're seeing that resistance to Trump's deeply unpopular policies is alive and well. Plus we're going to look at some historical legacies of resistance movements that can…

Air Date 9/11/2025 I've always learned the high-level understanding that the Nazis were partly able to come to power because the opposition at the time was too caught up with infighting to create a coherent resistance. With hindsight, it's easy to lament how…

Air Date 9/7/2025 Trump has been setting a new tone both at home and abroad which is shaking up everything from the war in Ukraine to threats of force against Mexico, Venezuela, and our own American cities with the militarization of domestic policing. And we…

Air Date: 9–3-25 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon, and Erin discuss: Ch. 1 - The surprising origins of Gerrymandering Ch. 2 - The options we have to improve congressional representation for everyone in the country Ch. 3 - Democratic states response to…

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 permanently tilt the rules in favor of corporate power. Be part of…

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 art, and even mass market productions and performances are…

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 inconvenient truths Ch. 3 - How other countries are taking the…

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 complex even if their proposed solutions are wildly off the mark.…

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 the attempt to protect children from harmful content on the…

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 much help from the packed court and the apparatchiks in the…

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 tracking system is a wolf in sheep’s clothing Ch. 3 - How…

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 rule to live by. But then there are the real baddies, those…

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 streets, surveillance in our phones, conspiracies in our…

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” in Nazi Germany that remind us of another era we’ve…