Dworkin Weekly – Details, episodes & analysis

Thanks so much to everyone who joined my live video chat with Allison Gill aka MuellerSheWrote earlier this week.

We talked about the new post-election reality, and what we’re doing to fight back against Trump and corporate media. We also answered some questions from the live comments.

Allison is a powerhouse, and I’m proud she’s a part of our Watchdog Coalition.

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After the election would a Trump loss make Project 2025 disappear? How will Project 2025 impact you personally? And what key dangers should we be on the lookout for?

Author Andra Watkins joins me in this live chat to answer those questions and more.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.dworkinsubstack.com/subscribe

I had the incredible honor of interviewing one of today's most inspiring activists, Jessica Craven. She shared passionate insights about her journey into the world of politics and issued an urgent warning about Donald Trump’s Project 2025. 

We talked about how Kamala Harris has energized the Democratic Party, JD Vance’s attacks on women, and the power of grassroots organizing. Jessica also shared how her deeply personal path into politics began with a need to protect her child from Republican plans to dismantle American democracy.

You’ll also hear how Craven is training massive numbers of grassroots organizers to help elect Democrats, and bringing the fire here to Substack with her awesome newsletter Chop Wood, Carry Water.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.dworkinsubstack.com/subscribe

This week I had the pleasure of speaking with the one and only Brian Tyler Cohen. Brian is a MSNBC contributor, YouTuber, and author of the new book, Shameless, which exposes the hypocrisy of today’s Republican Party in the values they profess but do not adhere to.

We talked about how the mainstream media is failing us with its biased coverage of Trump, and discussed how progressive independent outlets like The Dworkin Report and Brian Tyler Cohen are rising to the challenge of doing the Press’ job for them. Brian also shared personal insights into his unconventional journey to become a star political commentator, and he had some encouraging words for our listeners you won’t want to miss.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.dworkinsubstack.com/subscribe

I had the chance to interview New York Times best-selling author Andra Watkins about Project 2025. We talked about the horrifying aspects of the "Christo-fascist manifesto," as she calls it, and discussed all the ways it aims to turn America into a Christian nationalist theocracy.

Everyone needs to hear Andra’s expert analysis of Project 2025 and heed her warning about what it promises to do–from criminalizing women's reproductive choices to dismantling our institutions.

“Project 2025 is filled with biblical verses and Christian nationalist concepts that sound benign, even appealing, but really are rooted in extreme beliefs,” Andra said. “They want to gut the federal government and give themselves power to rule over us with a Christian nationalist form of Sharia law."

We talked about Andra's journey into writing, the broader implications of Project 2025, and she shared valuable insights on how to create lasting social change. Be sure to listen until the end when Andra offers a message of hope and optimism about the upcoming elections.

If you want to support the work I’m doing on exposing Project 2025, please sign up as a paid subscriber today. https://www.dworkinsubstack.com/subscribe

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Intelligence and counterterrorism expert joins me to talk about his experiences on the front-line in Ukraine, and to raise the alarm on the threats posed by another Trump presidency.

Malcolm, who is also a former Naval Intelligence Officer and author, was one of the first brave souls to bring my investigation about Trump’s Russia ties to light back in 2016.

In this interview, Nance uses his unique perspective and harrowing experiences in Ukraine to help us better understand the importance of what’s happening on the ground. “Ukraine is the eastern bulwark against totalitarianism,” he said. “It is literally the Eastern Wall of democracy right now.”

We’ll also talk about the looming dangers of another Trump term in the White House, both for Ukraine and for the US. “We have a totalitarian in the United States that is more than willing to put an end to all of this...you’re looking at, essentially, a situation where 248 years of American democracy comes to a crashing end,” Nance said.

You are not going to want to miss this.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat joins the podcast to talk about the EXTREME DANGERS of Trump’s authoritarian vision for America. Ben-Ghiat is a professor of history at NYU, an author, and a leading scholar on authoritarianism and fascism.

Ruth tells our listeners how, as a published author on fascist regimes like those of Mussolini or Hitler, she recognized the dangers of Trump’s candidacy early on. “I thought, ‘My God,’ This is all very familiar to me. He’s going to have a cult following. I was able to recognize the signs, not just in Trump, but in the GOP.” Visit DworkinSubstack.com for full interview.

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Allison Gill, also known as Mueller, She Wrote, took the time to chat with me in this phenomenal episode of my weekly podcast. Allison answers all of the important questions following Trump’s conviction. The ending is absolutely amazing, you won’t want to miss it. To listen to the full episode go to DworkinSubstack.com

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Andy Borowitz is a satirical genius whose hilarious headlines alone are enough to help us survive all of the MAGA madness. He’s a best-selling author, a comedian, a musician, and he just started his own Substack. I highly recommend you get to know more about this American hero.

There’s something special about comedy in times like these. It helps bring folks together to take a breath of fresh air.  And few people do it as well as Andy. He’s smart, funny, and relentless in his effort to call out the absurdity of Trump world through scholarly wit. That’s why I was thrilled to host him for my very first Substack interview. I hope you’ll watch and enjoy it as much as I did.

In our lighthearted and genuine conversation, Borowitz provided a clear way forward for all of us—not just to survive this election cycle, but to thrive. You might not hear a ton of jokes, but you will hear a lot of sage wisdom.

I asked Andy what he thought about the recent violent political rhetoric and the MAGA culture today. As he covers in hilarious but frightening detail in his bestselling book Profiles in Ignorance, he said, “Trump is not smart. Trump is a very ignorant, poorly informed, stupid person. However, he's very talented…he is very good at reading the thirst for violence, and the anger and the revenge, the desire for retribution, and playing off of that.”He continued, “That's the thing that people have taken a long time to figure out. A lot of his followers like him because of how horrible he is.”

One bit of our conversation that really stuck with me is when Andy explained how the current political environment has impacted how he approaches comedy.

“Trump did change the calculus…And I think that's why I dispute people who think that Trump has been great for comedy. I think Trump's made comedy harder, because it's hard to make fun of a clown.” He explained, “So I kind of changed my approach a little bit. And rather than try to outdo Trump, I would try to take Trump's logic to its extreme and just work it out.”

I also asked Andy what his thoughts are on Trump being the GOP nominee again, despite all the reasons they had to nominate anyone else.

“What's really interesting, in recent history, you have to go back to the 1950s with Adlai Stevenson where a party has re-nominated somebody who lost,” Andy told me. “But we're not dealing with a political party anymore. We're dealing with a cult and a cult or religion really ignores facts.”

Borowitz is absolutely right. Trump is a cult leader. And defeating him is going to require every bit of energy we have from now until November. And this work is exhausting. That’s why I’m glad we have folks like Andy and interviews like these to help us refocus and recharge for the campaign ahead.

Finally, speaking of the campaign ahead—I asked Andy what advice he has for our readers to stay positive and energized despite the constant onslaught of negativity in the news and on social media. His insight is powerful:

“Even though I'm online, I'm telling people to get offline. All the evidence shows that the more we're on social media, the more we're on our phones, the unhappier we'll be,” Borowitz said.

“Another piece of advice is if you're an activist or prone to be an activist, and you want to make the world a better place, for example, you want to reelect President Biden because he believes in democracy...If that's important to you, stop being an observer, stop being an audience member, be a participant.”

Andy explained how he now serves on his local library’s board, to do his part and be a participant. He put his sage wisdom into practice, and that’s something I hope we all can try to do.

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Scott's pre-Election Day message for America.

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