Rachel Maddow Presents: Déjà News

Rachel Maddow, MSNBC

Rachel Maddow, host of the #1 hits “Bag Man” and “Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra,” is back at the mic with a new original series, “Rachel Maddow Presents: Déjà News.” In each episode, Rachel and co-host Isaac-Davy Aronson seek a deeper understanding of a story in today's headlines by asking: Has anything like this ever happened before? Would knowing that help us grapple with what’s happening now… and what might happen next? Follow now and listen to the first episode on June 12. read less

Our Editor's Take

According to an old aphorism, those who don't learn history will repeat it. Rachel Maddow Presents: Déjà News is a podcast that aims to prevent this from happening. The longtime MSNBC TV host and her cohost, Isaac-Davy Aronson, discuss how current events reflect past events. In each episode, they discuss a noteworthy contemporary news item. They do research and have experts on the show. Each time, the goal is to determine whether this is the first time something has happened.

Many people found the January 6th attacks on the US Capitol surprising. Déjà News offers a story from the early 20th century with striking similarities. Smedley D. Butler was the most decorated US Marine general at the time. He claimed that a group of rich and powerful people tried to recruit him. They wanted Butler to gather some other veterans to execute an insurrection. Staticky but audible sound bites allow listeners to hear Butler's own words.

Another Déjà News episode focuses on voter suppression. In 2021, there were 360 voting-related bills in 47 states. The hosts believe these bills were intended to prevent Black and Latino people from voting. This is not the first time this happened in the US. There was something called Operation Eagle Eye in the 1960s. Some familiar names took part in harassing such voters. These people rose to two of the most powerful positions in the US government.

Reverse Freedom Rides is the topic of another Déjà News episode. In 1962, white Southerners wanted to send Black people to the North and West on buses. The person leading the campaign went to the Louisiana Legislature to try to get funding. Rachel and Isaac-Davy recognize parallels. The Reverse Freedom Rides feel like recent events with undocumented individuals.

Rachel and Isaac-Davy have been working together for 20 years. They've made radio, TV shows, and now podcasts together. The pair's chemistry makes Rachel Maddow Presents: Déjà News engaging. Their expertise makes it insightful and provocative.

Episodes are between 30 and 60 minutes and air weekly.

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Introducing Rachel Maddow Presents: Déjà News with Isaac-Davy Aronson

Introducing Rachel Maddow Presents: Déjà News with Isaac-Davy Aronson

Rachel Maddow, host of the #1 hits “Bag Man” and “Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra,” is back at the mic with a new original series, “Rachel Maddow Presents: Déjà News.” In each episode, Rachel and co-host Isaac-Davy Aronson seek a deeper understanding of a story in today's headlines by asking: Has anything like this ever happened before? Would knowing that help us grapple with what’s happening now… and what might happen next? Follow now and listen to the first episode on June 12.

Episodes

Episode 6: “Hello America, this is Addis Ababa.”

Episode 6: “Hello America, this is Addis Ababa.”

An authoritarian ruler moves to invade a smaller country and take it for himself. People around the world rally to that country’s defense. European and American leaders grapple with how to stop the invasion and prevent a wider war. But this isn’t Russia and Ukraine in 2022. It’s Italy and Ethiopia in 1935. Rachel Maddow and Isaac-Davy Aronson explore what we can learn from the very different choices made decades ago, when the world faced a similar challenge.Featuring:Deborah Cohen, the Richard W. Leopold Professor of History at Northwestern University, and author of Last Call At The Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took on a World at War.Susan Pedersen, the Gouverneur Morris Professor of History at Columbia University, and author of The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire.Anne Applebaum, staff writer at The Atlantic, and author of Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism.

Episode 5: Taken for a Ride

Episode 5: Taken for a Ride

As conservative governors try to score political points by depositing busloads and planeloads of migrants in liberal cities, it can seem like an unprecedented exercise in cruelty. But it’s a page ripped from an earlier playbook in U.S. politics, one that was forgotten for decades for a very good reason. Rachel Maddow and Isaac-Davy Aronson revisit the racist Reverse Freedom Rides of the 1960s.Featuring:Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson, Michael and Denise ‘68 Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Wellesley College, author of Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence, and co-host of the podcast This Day in Esoteric Political History.WBUR reporter Gabrielle Emanuel, who has done groundbreaking reporting on the Reverse Freedom Rides.Rev. Juan Carlos Ruiz, pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

Episode 4: “It’s a Very Short Path”

Episode 4: “It’s a Very Short Path”

A new president with authoritarian tendencies packs the nation’s highest court, which then outlaws abortion – sparking not just a backlash, but a new coalition for democracy and the rule of the law. Rachel Maddow and Isaac-Davy Aronson explore how events abroad in just the last few years might help us understand what is happening now in the United States.Featuring:Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic and author of Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of AuthoritarianismMarta Lempart, founder of Polish Women’s StrikeNancy Northup, President and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights

Bag Man Bonus Episode: Indictment Edition

Bag Man Bonus Episode: Indictment Edition

In 1973, in the throes of the Watergate scandal, three young federal prosecutors uncovered a separate criminal scheme being run inside the White House — the sitting vice president, Spiro Agnew, was taking envelopes stuffed with cash in exchange for official acts as an elected official. If Nixon left office, Agnew would be the next President. And so, what would happen if the President was charged with a federal crime? Worse yet, what if he was convicted? Now that Donald Trump has been charged with 37 federal crimes – as he runs again for president — Rachel Maddow and Bag Man executive producer Mike Yarvitz talk with the three Spiro Agnew prosecutors who have the only experience in our nation’s history with a situation like this.

Episode 3: "The Meanest, Dirtiest, Low-Down Stuff"

Episode 3: "The Meanest, Dirtiest, Low-Down Stuff"

Republicans claim the election was stolen. They use those claims to justify suppressing people’s right to vote. All of it happening amid a national reckoning on race. Rachel Maddow and Isaac-Davy Aronson tell the story of a time uncannily similar to our own – in the early 1960s. And how it’s both a parallel to our present moment and the origin of conflicts playing out today.Featuring Guests:Rick Perlstein, historian, author of Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American ConsensusSherrilyn Ifill, Vernon Jordan Endowed Chair in Civil Rights at Howard University and former President and Director-Counsel of LDF.Jim Brosnahan, lawyer and author of Justice At Trial: Courtroom Battles and Groundbreaking Cases

Episode 2: Florida’s First War on Woke

Episode 2: Florida’s First War on Woke

Long before Governor Ron DeSantis declared a new war on wokeness, Florida lawmakers in the 1950s and 60s tried going after the NAACP, suspected communists and gay people in Florida schools and universities. The lawmakers upended life for countless numbers of their fellow Floridians before being upended themselves by their own zeal for the cause. Now that DeSantis is bringing this playbook to a presidential campaign, Rachel Maddow and Isaac-Davy Aronson ask what we can learn from the last time Florida went down this path. Featuring guests:Stacy Braukman, author of Communists and Perverts Under the Palms: The Johns Committee in Florida, 1956-1965Shevrin Jones, Florida State SenatorRobert Buccellatto, historian and co-host of the Florida History Podcast

Episode 1: Riot at the Gates (Again)

Episode 1: Riot at the Gates (Again)

A violent right-wing mob interrupts lawmakers formalizing the transfer of power to a new leader. But this isn’t Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, but rather Paris on February 6, 1934. Rachel Maddow and Isaac-Davy Aronson explore that earlier event, the way it reverberates to this day and how it could help us understand what January 6 will mean for the U.S.Featuring guests:Jonathan Katz, author of Gangsters of CapitalismAlice Kaplan, Sterling Professor of French at Yale University, author of The Collaborator: The Trial and Execution of Robert BrasillachFind out more at msnbc.com/dejanews

Introducing Rachel Maddow Presents: Déjà News with Isaac-Davy Aronson

Introducing Rachel Maddow Presents: Déjà News with Isaac-Davy Aronson

Rachel Maddow, host of the #1 hits “Bag Man” and “Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra,” is back at the mic with a new original series, “Rachel Maddow Presents: Déjà News.” In each episode, Rachel and co-host Isaac-Davy Aronson seek a deeper understanding of a story in today's headlines by asking: Has anything like this ever happened before? Would knowing that help us grapple with what’s happening now… and what might happen next? Follow now and listen to the first episode on June 12.