Interesting Times with Ross Douthat

Can the Democrats finally seize on President Trump’s increasing unpopularity and end their slump? It seems to me as though 2026 is providing them ample opportunity. But I wanted to know what they actually stand for. Have they learned anything about immigration? Are they ready for the new politics of artificial intelligence? To find out, I asked someone I consider a true man of the left, Chris Hayes, the host of “All In With Chris Hayes” on MS NOW.

00:00 Intro

02:09 - Democrats: The state of play in 2026

06:46 - How Israel fractures the Democrats

09:19 - Immigration reform beyond the “old consensus”

19:46 - Models for Democratic leadership: Mark Kelly, Ruben Gallego, Rafael Warnock, and Jon Ossoff

27:22 - 2028: Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom and “the Hillary Clinton problem” 

30:41 - The politics of attention

36:19 - The challenges of achieving a Leftist society

45:37 - A Leftist case against A.I.

1:04:23 - Will A.I. define the 2028 election?

(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times With Ross Douthat.

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I don’t think a war with Iran is what Trump — or his voters — had in mind when he campaigned on “America first.” My guest this week is Curt Mills, the executive director of The American Conservative, a magazine that champions foreign policy restraint. Mills thinks the war with Iran is a major betrayal of the voters who put Trump in the White House and has the potential to shatter Trump’s domestic coalition. 

01:27 - Tracking the Trump administration’s foreign policy shifts and dynamics

08:50 - The different strands of right-wing foreign policy

15:00 - Is the anti-war movement real?: Policy, polling and public opinion 

27:49 - Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Middle East’s influence on U.S. foreign policy

40:17 - Why can’t Trump say no to Israel?

46:20 - How does the fallout in Iran impact Trump’s potential 2028 successors and insurgents?

(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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We’re going back to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. That is, if Artemis II can get off the ground. I sat down with Jared Isaacman, the billionaire leading NASA, to hear his perspective on everything from extraterrestrial life to the timeline for sending humans to Mars. 

This interview was recorded before NASA announced the delay of Artemis II’s launch.

01:59 - Where are we?

04:00 - From entrepreneur to astronaut

09:04 - The “lunar futuristic junkyard”

15:06 - NASA’s budget

22:43 - Beyond NASA: Blue Origin, SpaceX and private industry

27:26 - The orbital economy

37:21 - How do we get to Mars?

43:31 - “Do you think there's life out there?”

(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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The next global leader is waiting in the wings — and no, I don’t mean China. India is the major power with the fastest-growing economy and the world’s largest population, and on the heels of trade deals with the United States and the European Union, it’s poised to become even more influential. I wanted to speak with Amitav Acharya, a prominent international relations scholar, about whether a new Indian century is about to be born.
01:49 - India vs. China: The race to development
05:26 - “The mother of all trade deals”
11:02 - India's “multi-aligned” foreign policy
17:46 - What is India’s grand strategy?
24:08 - The diaspora’s cultural and civilizational influence
41:50 - India in 2060
(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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A.I. is evolving fast, and humanity is falling behind. Dario Amodei, the chief executive of Anthropic, has warned about the potential benefits — and real dangers — linked to the speed of that progress. As one of the lords of this technology, is he on the side of the human race?
01:37 - The promise and optimism of A.I.
12:59 - White collar "bloodbaths"
25:09 - Robotics and physical labor
30:16 - The first “dangerous” scenario
42:22 - What if it goes rogue?
48:01 - Claude’s constitution
(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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