On July 25, Nation writer Melissa Harris-Lacewell stopped by Ana Marie Cox’s The Inside Story on Air America to make sense of the recent media uproar over the racial implications of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s recent arrest. Addressing the “great national yearning to be past race,” Harris-Lacewell underscored the importance of considering Gates’s arrest through a combination of factors.  She explained that the “central debate” surrounding “Gates-gate” must determine whether the arresting officer was motivated by Gates’s “disruptive behavior, racial animus and bias or was he just trying to teach any old professor who thought he was better than the ‘working guy policeman’ a lesson.”

You can listen to the entire discussion here:

On July 21, The Nation’s Richard Kim sat down with Marty Moss-Coane on WHYY’s “Radio Times” to discuss the radically flawed premise of Sacha Baron Cohen’s new movie “Brüno.” Dissecting the film’s excruciating, anxiety-provoking moments, Kim emphasized several points he laid out in his recent article “Et Tu, Brüno?”. Explaining that Baron Cohen created a “novel cinematic experience” and reached a “discomfort factor” that was often hilarious, Kim argues that the Brüno project neither confronted nor elicited the nation’s latent homophobia. Rather, Kim reasons, the film failed to provoke the kind of homophobic reactions from his (largely polite) “punked” subjects in the way that 2006’s “Borat” was able to casually expose extreme sexism, racism and antisemitism wherever he went.

You can listen to the conversation here:
Richard Kim Discusses Why “Brüno” is Problematic.

On July 16, The Nation’s Editor and Publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel stopped by Air America’s “The Lionel Show” to share her insights on Sonia Sotomayor’s ongoing Senate confirmation hearings.  Check out the interview below to hear vanden Heuvel explain why it’s in the GOP’s (and the country’s!) best interest to “put aside the cynical use of wedge issues and hot-button social issues which have so marginalized the party,” and return to its long-abandoned libertarian roots.

Listen to the full discussion here:

During President Obama’s recent visit to Russia, The Nation’s Contributing Editor Stephen F. Cohen, a Professor of Russian and Studies at New York University and author of the new book “Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives,” was invited by numerous media outlets to discuss the future of US-Russia relations.  In a July 6 appearance on Charlie Rose, Cohen cleared up misconceptions about the geopolitical implications of the President’s trip, arguing that despite the “prevailing view of the American media and the American political establishment,” it is not up to the Russians to “make all the positive steps” toward building an alliance.  Here’s some video:

Cohen laid out the political roadblocks to positive US-Russia foreign relations on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, explaining that US-Russia relations have been strained in recent years largely due to the Clinton administration’s post-cold war decisions. Cohen explained, “The interesting thing is that President Obama - who has ended up in this ‘mess,’ as some in Washington have called it – has surrounded himself with Clinton administration former appointees and officials, including Mrs. Clinton.  Whether or not those people can look back on what happened in 1990s and say, ‘that was not wise’ is an open question.”

Here’s some highlights from C-Span:

Stephen Cohen Discusses US-Russia Relations on C-SPAN

Be sure to listen as well to some of Cohen’s recent radio interviews for more perspective on the tragectory of the United States’ political rlationship with Russia.  On July 7, Cohen joined a panel discussion on WBUR’s On Point, and on July 9, Cohen sat down with WNYC’s Leonard Lopate to comment on Russia’s role in the ongoing G8 summit.

Here is audio of Cohen’s radio interviews:

Stephen Cohen Discusses Obama’s Trip to Moscow with On Point’s Tom Ashbrook.

Stephen Cohen and Leonard Lopate Discuss Russia’s Place in World Affairs.

On Thursday, July 9, The Nation’s  Ari Melber spoke with The Young Turks about President Obama’s radical, potentially unconstitutional plans for Guantanamo detainees.  Calling attention to the issues he laid out in his recent Politico piece, Melber criticizes President Obama’s support of “preventative detention” saying, “Even President Bush, who as president stretched the boundaries of executive power, never went to congress to get the power to hold people indefinitely.”

Listen to the full interview here: Ari Melber on Obama’s Radical Gitmo Policy.