Deep Background with Noah Feldman (Pushkin Industries)

We've taken our five part "Deep Bench" mini-series about the rise of the Federalist Society and expanded it into an audiobook entitled Takeover: How a Conservative Student Club Captured the Supreme Court. Takeover includes a preface and afterword including new commentary from Noah Feldman and never-heard-before interviews. The Federalist Society has become the most powerful legal organization in the country. How did this happen? What are the challenges it faces now? And why does it matter to everyone to know today? Download Takeover at www.pushkin.fm/takeover.

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Marta Figlerowicz, an associate professor of comparative literature and English at Yale, discusses classic works of literature about pandemics from Boccaccio's The Decameron to Camus' The Plague. Plus, she psychoanalyzes Noah's love of detective novels.

Marta Figlerowicz's Pandemic Reading List

• The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
• Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman 
• Everything Flows by Vasily Grossman 
• Molloy by Samuel Beckett 
• Malone Dies by Samuel Beckett 
• Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
• The Plague by Albert Camus 
• Occupation Journal by Jean Giono

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How public relations battles yielded big legal wins for the Bush team.

For a full list of sources, check out the Fiasco website.

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The first-ever image of a black hole was a monumental scientific achievement. Harvard physicist Andrew Strominger talks about what the discovery means for the present and future.

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Bill McKibben, who was one of the first people to warn us about climate change more than 30 years ago with his book "The End Of Nature," discusses what COVID-19 and climate change have in common.

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Noah Feldman and University of North Carolina School of Law Professor Michael J. Gerhardt both testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. They discuss everything from how they made their arguments to how they dealt with the hate mail. 

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Malcom Gladwell and Noah Feldman discuss whether we should add more states to the union, and why Americans are always searching for "magical technical fixes." For further listening check out the "Divide and Conquer" episode of the Revisionist History podcast.

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Charles Randolph, the screenwriter behind “The Big Short” and “Bombshell” discusses turning real life stories into Hollywood movies, and shares what he would like to change about the Academy Awards. 

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An interview with Ralph Nader on his role as a “spoiler” in the 2000 election, and historian Mary Frances Berry, who led the 2001 commission looking into the impact that ballot box irregularities involving Black voters may have had on the outcome in Florida.

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Stacey Abrams talks about how to create lasting social change, her thoughts on 2020, and her plans for the future. 

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Best-selling British-Turkish writer Elif Shafak discusses her latest novel, 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World, Turkey's "backward slide," and what it means to be a citizen of the world.

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Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at Harvard University, predicts that between 40 to 70 percent of adults in the world will become infected with the coronavirus. 

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In an effort to curtail the spread of coronavirus, much of China is essentially under lockdown. Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Ian Johnson talks about what life is like in the capital city.

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Siddhartha Mukherjee, physician, researcher, and author of the 2011 Pulitzer-Prize winning book The Emperor of All Maladies, discusses what we know about how coronavirus spreads and what we don’t know. Plus, he offers advice on canceling travel plans. 

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Dr. Rebecca Berman, program director for UCSF’s Internal Medicine Residency, discusses the signs and symptoms of COVID-19, what to do if you feel sick, and tips for self isolating safely. Plus, hospital readiness, and the situation on the ground in San Francisco.

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Homer Venters, the former Chief Medical Officer for the New York City Jail system, says that we need to stop the spread of coronavirus in prisons, jails, and detention centers to have any hope of flattening the curve.

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Farzad Mostashari, the former National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the Department of Health and Human Services, says we need to collect better data to effectively fight the spread of the virus.

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Laurie Santos, a Professor of Psychology at Yale, shares tips for dealing with coronavirus-induced anxiety. For further listening, check out Laurie’s podcast “The Happiness Lab,” also from Pushkin Industries.

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Dr. Emily Rubin, a critical care pulmonologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses what she has learned from treating coronavirus patients since March.

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Jason Furman, a professor of the Practice of Economic Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, explains why we don't need to be too concerned about the mounting federal debt caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

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Paul Butler, a law professor at Georgetown, a former federal prosecutor and the author of the book "Chokehold: Policing Black Men," on policing, George Floyd, and the Black Lives Matter movement.

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William Eskridge, a professor at Yale Law School and author of the forthcoming book "Marriage Equality: From Outlaws to In-Laws," discusses this week's historic Supreme Court ruling that protects gay and transgender rights in the workplace.

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Dr. Saad Omer, the director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, brings us up to speed on the latest coronavirus research. Plus, Noah analyzes the Supreme Court DACA ruling.

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Attorneys David Boies and Ted Olsen, who represented the Gore and Bush sides, respectively, talk about the unique challenges that came with representing their clients before the Supreme Court.

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How the largely forgotten race between Al Gore and George W. Bush roiled Florida long before anyone had ever heard of a hanging chad.

For a full list of sources, check out the Fiasco website.

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Jamal Greene, co-chair of the Facebook Oversight Board, an independent governing body reviewing Facebook’s content moderation decisions and issuing binding rulings, explains the inner workings of the Board. Greene is the Dwight Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, where he focuses on constitutional law and American federal courts. 

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Zachary Karabell, financial executive and historian, discusses his recent book Inside Money: Brown Brothers Harriman and the American Way of Power, outlining the formation of American capitalism told through the history of one often-overlooked bank. He explains how the evolution of trust in financial systems has shaped American capitalism today and informs where it could go in the future.

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Harvard epidemiologist and recurring guest Marc Lipsitch discusses what we can learn from omicron surge. Lipsitch also addresses some common omicron myths and discusses the possibility of a “master vaccine.” 

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Noah Feldman is a guest on this episode of Axios Today, discussing the constitutionality of the impeachment trial.

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Presenting: An Excerpt from Miracle And Wonder: Conversations With Paul Simon by Malcolm Gladwell and Bruce Headlam. Download the audiobook today at miracleaudiook.com and receive an exclusive listener's guide pdf featuring additional commentary from Bruce, the producers and editors of Miracle and Wonder.

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What happened in Palm Beach County when a bitterly-contested national election came to town–and who paid the price?

For a full list of sources, check out the Fiasco website.

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We’re excited to share with you the new season of Revisionist History, Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast that re-examines something from the past and asks whether we got it right the first time. We’ve got to warn you, the new season is completely unbound. Malcolm Gladwell is finally out of the house, and taking you into the streets, and even under the sea. All in the name of continuing his journey through the overlooked and misunderstood. He plays chicken with cars. An Oscar winner helps him remake fairy tale history. He dives into your dirty laundry. I haven’t quite decided who he riles up most. College elitists? Nine year old girls? You’ll have to hear it for yourself to find out. 

Find the new season of Revisionist History at http://podcasts.pushkin.fm/rhdeepbackground.

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Democrats and Republicans hope for the best and plan for the worst.

For a full list of sources, check out the Fiasco website.

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Women's rights lawyer Kathryn Kolbert argued the pro-choice case last time a serious attempt was made to overturn Roe v Wade. She explains her concerns that the Supreme Court might soon side with those keen to restrict access to abortion.

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Stefanie Stantcheva, Professor of Economics at Harvard, discusses the economic harms of COVID-19 and measures governments can take to soften the blow of a recession.

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With restaurants and bars across the country temporarily closing down due to concerns about the novel coronavirus, many of us are finding ourselves cooking for the first time in a long time. So today, Deep Background is taking a quick break from covering the spread of COVID-19 to share this conversation with Mark Bittman, the food writer who taught so many of us how to cook. The author of best-selling cookbooks like How to Cook Everything and Vegan Before 6, Bittman offers some tips on how to cook fish and reflects on what he has learned from over two decades of writing about food.

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The word "Socialism" is often demonized in American politics, but is that criticism warranted? Professor Sean Wilentz of Princeton University walks us through the history of American socialism and how the ideas behind it became so warped.

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The Broken Constitution is a miniseries by Unknown History from Quick and Dirty Tips and Pushkin Industries. In this second of three bonus episodes, Noah Feldman explains the decisions Lincoln made when he took office that effectively broke the US Constitution in hopes of preserving the nation. 

Noah’s forthcoming book, The Broken Constitution: Lincoln, Slavery, and the Refounding of America, is out November 2.

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In this bonus episode, Boaz Weinstein, founder of the hedge fund Saba Capital, tells the story of how the bond market broke for a few days in March.

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Tali Farhadian Weinstein, the host of the Pushkin podcast “Hearing” and a candidate to become the next District Attorney of Manhattan, discusses how she thinks local prosecution can be reformed from within.

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Robert Mueller, the special counsel who led the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, is famously tight-lipped. CNN's Laura Jarrett explains what she has learned from reporting on him and his work over the past two years.

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A Chinese scientist reportedly edited the genes of two baby twin girls last year to protect them from the AIDS virus. Harvard geneticist George Church believes we will be hearing many more stories like this soon.

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The Broken Constitution is a miniseries by Unknown History from Quick and Dirty Tips and Pushkin Industries. In this final bonus episode, Noah Feldman explains the contradictions and calculations Lincoln made as he drafted The Emancipation Proclamation and the long-term implications of Lincoln’s decision to break and remake the US Constitution.   

Noah’s Feldman’s book, The Broken Constitution: Lincoln, Slavery, and the Refounding of America, is out now.

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Boston University School of Law Professor Danielle Citron says that deepfakes are just going to get more and more convincing, but there are sill certain things we can do to stop their spread.

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A conversation with Craig Waters, spokesman for the Florida Supreme Court, about becoming the face of an embattled, apolitical institution during a partisan battle.

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Noah Feldman is a guest on this episode of Axios Today, giving listeners a taste of what to expect for election night.

For more, subscribe to Axios Today wherever you get your podcasts.

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Historian and author Khalil Gibran Muhammad discusses the state of criminal justice and prisons in America and whether the country should take drastic steps toward reform.

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Noah Feldman comments on the Facebook Oversight Board's decision about Trump's account.

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Roxane Gay, the best-selling author of Bad Feminist and Hunger and the co-host of the podcast Hear to Slay, discusses her new short story "String Theory."  

You can listen to "String Theory" on the Chronicles of Now podcast.

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Nadine Strossen, a former president of the ACLU and author of the book HATE: Why We Should Resist it With Free Speech, Not Censorship, explains what the left needs to know about free speech.

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Julia Marcus, an epidemiologist and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, discusses how to assess risk when engaging in different social activities.

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Noah Feldman speaks to author and Pushkin co-founder Malcolm Gladwell about his new book "Talking to Strangers" in Boston, MA, at an event organized by the Harvard Bookstore. They discuss everything from spy craft, to the current political climate, to compliment sandwiches.

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According to a new UN report, a million species are at risk of extinction. New Yorker staff writer Elizabeth Kolbert says you should be seriously worried -- even if you don't like animals.

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The Broken Constitution is a miniseries by Unknown History from Quick and Dirty Tips and Pushkin Industries. Over three bonus episodes, Noah Feldman talks about how Abraham Lincoln needed to break the Constitution in order to remake it. In this first episode, Noah explains why the US Constitution was built on a compromise that Lincoln devoted himself to preserving. Noah’s book, The Broken Constitution: Lincoln, Slavery, and the Refounding of America, is out November 2 wherever books are sold.

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Lydia Dugdale, the Director of the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at Columbia University, discusses how medical supplies will likely be allocated if there are shortages.

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Introducing our new, subscriber-exclusive bonus content, “Noah Riffs.” Every other week, we’re releasing bonus episodes where Noah dives deep into a topic from the news. This summer on Noah Riffs, Noah analyzes Supreme Court rulings. In this first episode, Noah explains the implications of the SCOTUS case that could effectively overturn Roe v. Wade. 

These episodes will be available via PushNik, our new subscription program on Apple Podcasts. To listen to these bonus episodes, visit our show page in Apple Podcasts and start your free trial. 

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This year, only seven black students were accepted to Stuyvesant, one of New York's most prestigious public high schools. Harvard Law Professor Randy Kennedy says that to address the racial inequities in our education system we need to think radically. Plus, Noah discusses the recent protests in Hong Kong. 

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Is Donald Trump leading the US into war with Iran? Middle East scholar Vali Nasr says it definitely seems like it. 

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How a crew of amateur spies from Long Island helped the Reagan administration set the stage for Iran-Contra.

For a list of books, documentaries and resources we used to research this episode visit: bit.ly/fiascopolitics

Subscribe to Pushkin+ to hear the entire season of Fiasco: Iran Contra, ad-free, right now. Find Pushkin+ on the Fiasco show page in Apple Podcasts or at Pushkin.fm.

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Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.fm/plus

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Mark Segal and Joan Nestle were both living in New York City at the time of the Stonewall Uprising. Fifty years after the historic event, they reflect on how it changed their lives. 

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Nader Mousavizadeh, who formerly served in the Executive Office of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, explains why international organizations like the WHO and the UN have not been able to effectively coordinate a global response to the pandemic. Plus, is it a good thing or a bad thing that Bill Gates had stepped in to fill that void?

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Mohammad bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's Crown prince, seems to have charmed President Trump. But Bernard Haykel, a professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, says his "revolution" is mostly self-serving. 

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In her new book, "The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un," Anna Fifield tries to make sense of North Korea's secretive leader. 

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In the season finale: How the 2000 presidential election was distilled and decided in a case called Bush v. Gore.

For a full list of sources, check out the Fiasco website.

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Before the 2020 presidential election, Noah Feldman spoke to politician and activist Stacey Abrams about her work on voting rights. In light of the Georgia Senate wins, we are re-sharing that conversation with you today.

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Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley shares his predictions and warnings for writing historical narratives about the end of the Trump presidency. He also discusses Trump’s decision to not attend the inauguration and how we should apply the 25th Amendment in the 21st century. This is the first installment in a new Deep Background series focusing on power in different fields and forms. 

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Asha Rangappa, a former FBI agent and the former dean of admissions at Yale Law School, gives us a unique perspective on the college admissions scandal.

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Harvard epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch shares his concerns about the emerging COVID variants from the UK, South Africa, and Brazil. He also discusses how these new variants could impact vaccine rollout worldwide, and his cautious predictions for when we might return to something resembling normal.

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Monika Bickert, Vice President of Content Policy at Facebook, takes us inside the decision to indefinitely suspend former President Donald Trump’s account. Host Noah Feldman details what this move means for free expression in the United States and what it tells us about Trump’s second impeachment trial.

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Why are presidential impeachments happening more often? Are impeachments futile if they don't end in a conviction? What did Hamilton and Madison overlook about the impeachment and the transition of power? To discuss these questions, political journalist and CEO of Pushkin Industries Jacob Weisberg joins the conversation. Jacob and Noah were two of the early voices on impeachment, starting in 2017 when they co-authored an article laying out Trump’s early possible impeachable offenses for The New York Review of Books. Noah would later testify at President Trump’s first impeachment trial. Today, Jacob and Noah bookend the conversation on impeachment.

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Six of the nine Supreme Court Justices are members of a club called the Federalist Society. Noah Feldman speaks to Eugene B. Meyer, the president of the Federalist Society, about the organization’s goals, how it is funded, and how it operates. They also discuss Noah’s new audiobook about the organization called “Takeover: How a Conservative Student Club Captured the Supreme Court.” Download Takeover at www.pushkin.fm/takeover.

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Dr. Carl Hart, neuroscientist and author of the provocative new book “Drug Use for Grown Ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear” questions the way we understand, regulate, and police drugs in America. Dr. Hart argues that most drugs are safer than we realize, and the negative effects of drugs are overstated and misunderstood. His research raises larger questions about policing, race, poverty, and mental health. 

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Alice Hill, former Special Assistant to President Obama and Senior Director for Resilience Policy on the National Security Council, explains what Texas’ electrical grid collapse means for our country’s infrastructure at large. She also makes recommendations on how we can start preparing infrastructure now for extreme weather events.

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Did January’s pro-Navalny protests have a lasting impact in Russia? Russian investigative reporter Diana Kachalova, editor-in-chief of the St. Petersburg bureau of Novaya Gazeta, an independent Russian newspaper, joins us to discuss covering the aftermath of Alexei Navalny’s case and the status of investigative journalism in Putin’s Russia.

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Britney Spears’ former lawyer Adam Streisand goes deep into the details of Britney’s conservatorship. He discusses his role in her case and his concerns about her conservatorship. He also explains the potential conflicts inherent to the conservatorship system and ways it can be misused.

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Alec MacGillis, award-winning ProPublica journalist and author of the new book “Fulfilment: Winning and Losing in One Click America,” explains Amazon’s role in deepening America’s regional wealth disparities. He also discusses the recent efforts to unionize some Amazon fulfillment centers and the threat that unionization poses to the company.

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A case currently before The Supreme Court presents the single largest legal battle the NCAA has ever faced. The case, which comes after years of player activism, argues that the current limits on athlete compensation constitute a violation of antitrust law. It’s a case that could challenge the entire college sports system. 

Dr. Eddie Comeaux, professor at UC Riverside who studies the student athlete experience discusses the history, current structure and power imbalances within the NCAA. Dr. Comeaux also offers radical re-imaginings for a more equitable, student-centered college athletics system.

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Dr. Jeannine Bell, law professor at Indiana University who has studied hate crimes for more than 20 years, discusses the complex process of defining and charging someone with a hate crime. She also explains the larger significance of hate crime legislation and how police departments can expand prosecution of hate crimes.

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Noah Feldman has a lot of questions about cryptocurrency. Is it currency or is it an asset? How should governments regulate it? Is it sustainable? 

Crypto pioneer Bobby Lee, co-founder and former CEO of China’s first bitcoin exchange and current CEO of Ballet, a startup that helps people securely store their crypto assets, weights in on the most pressing questions about crypto. 

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During the pandemic, we’ve been looking at our screens more than ever before. As the country starts reopening, what do we do about our kids’ extreme attachment to their devices? How should we think about it and do we need to do anything about it?

Parenting expert Dr. Wendy Mogel joins us to discuss these deep questions about pandemic parenting. Dr. Mogel is the author of “The Blessing of a Skinned Knee” and host of the podcast Nurture vs. Nurture. 

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Dr. Marc Lipsitch explains why it’s unlikely the United States will hit the threshold for herd immunity, and what that might mean for the future of the pandemic. He also weighs in on the possibility of lab-grown COVID variants and the surging variants abroad.

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Dr. Heidi Larson, founding director of the Vaccine Confidence Project, discusses the complicated relationship between vaccine hesitancy, choice, and democracy. Dr. Larson is the author of the recent book, “Stuck: How Vaccine Rumors Start and Why They Don't Go Away.”

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Palestinain Israeli human rights lawyer Rabea Eghbariah explains why violence erupted in Israel this month and what it might mean for the future of Palestinian Israelis. 

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The Ebola outbreak in The Democratic Republic of Congo is slowing down, and a new Ebola vaccine is likely to get approved by the European Commission. Leading Ebola researcher Pardis Sabeti reflects on what she has learned from fighting a disease that may soon be vanquished. 

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Algorithms can determine everything from what ads you see on the internet to the interest rates on your loan. And they aren't always exactly fair. Nicol Turner Lee, a fellow at Brookings, and Talia Gillis, a Harvard graduate student, discuss what to do about algorithmic bias. Plus, Noah reflects on the latest Brexit news. 

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Understanding the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6th relies on understanding the modern history of the white power movement. In this rebroadcast from 2019, historian Kathleen Belew discusses the modern history of the white power movement and the often overlooked connection between incidents like Charlottesville and the Oklahoma City bombing.

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Sarah Seo, the author of How Cars Transformed Policing, talks to us about what rights we have in our cars, and what rights we don’t.

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A new California law, known as AB 5, will make it harder for app-based companies like Uber and Lyft to classify their workers as independent contractors rather than employees. We get two perspectives on this piece of legislation that could have huge implications for the future of the gig economy.

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Cambridge professor David Runciman thinks that democracy is in an midlife crisis. He also thinks that might not be bad.

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For Bastille Day, an interview with French journalist Agnes C. Poirier about the causes of the "Yellow Vest" protests which rocked the country last fall.

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Noah Feldman speaks with his friend and legal expert Seth Berman about what to watch for as the impeachment inquiry into President Trump unfolds. 

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On election night 2000 an ad hoc network of statisticians, news producers, TV anchors, and political operatives tried to figure out what the hell was going on in Florida–and failed spectacularly.

For a full list of sources, check out the Fiasco website.

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Noah Feldman is a guest on this episode of Axios Today, discussing what we learned from the presidential election about our democratic process and what it can and cannot withstand. 

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An interview with Brian Noyes, who worked on the Bush 2000 presidential campaign, and what it was like to feel like an election is being stolen. Noyes oversaw an oral history project with recount alums from the Bush campaign. 

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Richard Lazarus, a law professor at Harvard and a leading Supreme Court advocate, discusses where public health stops and our individual liberties begin. Plus, what does it mean that the Supreme Court has postponed oral arguments?

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How the Reagan administration landed in a hostage crisis…and extended a hand to one of America’s sworn enemies.

For a list of books, documentaries and resources we used to research this episode visit: bit.ly/fiascopolitics

Subscribe to Pushkin+ to hear the entire season of Fiasco: Iran Contra, ad-free, right now. Find Pushkin+ on the Fiasco show page in Apple Podcasts or at Pushkin.fm.

Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin
Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.fm/plus

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Adam Przeworski, a politics professor at New York University and one of the world’s foremost scholars on democratic transitions, explains his worries about a peaceful transfer of power.

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Introducing Brave New Planet, a seven-part series that delves deep into powerful technologies changing our world. They have amazing potential upsides, but we can’t ignore the serious risks. Hosted by Dr. Eric Lander, Brave New Planet is a partnership between the Broad Institute, Pushkin Industries, and the Boston Globe.

In this episode, we're talking about how it's becoming more common to make convincing -- but false -- videos through artificial intelligence. These “deepfakes” can be useful in art, education, and therapy. But they can also be used to harm the reputation of an ex-partner or a stranger. Could they be weaponized to provoke international conflicts or swing elections? When seeing is not believing, who can we trust, and can democracy and truth survive?

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Anthony Salvanto, CBS News’ director of Elections and Surveys, discusses the latest polling data and how to make sense of it.

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Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health, comes back to Deep Background to discuss where we are now in the fight against COVID-19.

Clarification: There are two studies that suggest a decline in the risk of dying among hospitalized or ICU COVID-19 patients. Here is a link to those studies: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/10/20/925441975/studies-point-to-big-drop-in-covid-19-death-rates. Marc Lipsitch also mentions unpublished data that he has seen from Florida that suggests no such decline.

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