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The Assignment with Audie Cornish
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The Assignment with Audie Cornish
Author: CNN
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© 2023 CNN
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Every Thursday on The Assignment, host Audie Cornish explores the animating forces of this extraordinary American political moment. It’s not about the horse race, it’s about the larger cultural ideas driving the conversation: the role of online influencers on the electorate, the intersection of pop culture and politics, and discussions with primary voices and thinkers who are shaping the political conversation.
137 Episodes
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Kamala Harris has “Freedom.” Donald Trump has “God Bless the USA” (and a lot of cease-and-desist letters). What makes for a good campaign song? And why do we respond so viscerally to the ones that work? Audie talks with DJ Cassidy, who DJ'd the DNC Roll Call. And Dana Gorzelany-Mostak, who studies the use of music in political campaigns.
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We've watched Democratic leaders hand the reins to the next generation at their surprisingly lit convention in Chicago this week. Audie sits down in with CNN’s Van Jones and Evan McMorris-Santoro of the nonprofit news site NOTUS (News of the United States) to talk about who’s taking the stage and changing the party.
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Audie talks with journalist Kara Swisher about the rise of Silicon Valley’s big donors and how Trump won some of them over. Plus, how Kamala Harris’ California roots have worked to her advantage with tech donors.
Kara is the author of “Burn Book: A Tech Love Story.”
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CNN’s Elle Reeve did her best-known reporting during the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, when she followed neo-Nazis over a weekend of violent protests. Seven years later, her new book looks at how that movement — born in online communities of mostly white men — gave rise to extremist thinking that is now threaded through today’s political discourse.
Audie talks with Reeve about reporting on Nazis, the mainstreaming of their ideology, and why she started “Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics” with a story about a dead cat.
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How will Donald Trump and Republicans talk about Kamala Harris without walking into a buzzsaw of accusations and potential backlash over attacks on her race and gender? This week Audie talks with two people with some answers: Kevin Madden is a CNN Political Commentator and was a senior advisor to Mitt Romney on his presidential campaigns, and Doug Heye was the head of communications for the RNC and for the House Majority Leader.
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Every presidential campaign eventually finds ways to take advantage of the cultural moment. Vice President Harris’s current moment in the viral sun happened as soon as she became the frontrunner of the Democratic ticket. How and why did it happen? Audie talks with two observers: researcher Nina Jankowicz, who studied online gendered abuse and disinformation against women in political life. And Deja Foxx, who worked on Harris's 2019 campaign when she was just 19 years old, leading the digital team’s influencer and surrogate strategy.
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After three weeks of battling an intense debate from within his own party, President Joe Biden made a surprise announcement on Sunday, ending his re-election campaign. Shortly after, he endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. Audie talks with Phil Mattingly, CNN’s Chief Domestic Correspondent. He takes us inside Biden’s historic decision and tells us what to expect from here.
CNN: Inside Biden’s unprecedented exit from the presidential race
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Former President Donald Trump thrilled the Republican National Convention by entering the arena with a bandage on his right ear, evidence of the assassination attempt from two days prior. With fervor running high, Trump announced that his running mate would be bestselling author and Senator JD Vance from Ohio. Meredith McGraw covers the Trump campaign for POLITICO and she’s here to explain how this choice impacts the presidential race. Her book, out in August, is titled “Trump in Exile.”
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America was shaken on Saturday as former president Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. It’s an event of historical significance that’s already re-shaping the presidential race. Kristen Holmes is here to explain how. She’s the CNN correspondent assigned to the Trump campaign, and Kristen and Audie met up on Monday at the CNN-POLITICO Grill on day one of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
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Reality television has turned into a sprawling industry of pimple-poppers, amazing racers, the broken hearted, docusoaps, and sooo many housewives – people willing to share the good and bad of their lives with an audience that by design is meant to judge them for it. It also gave us a president. Audie talks with Pulitzer Prize winning New Yorker writer Emily Nussbaum about how and why reality shows have become must-see TV. Her new book, “Cue The Sun! The Invention of Reality TV.”
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Michigan and Wisconsin are Midwestern swing states with the power to make or break the election. They’re crucial bricks in the Democrats’ “Blue Wall” strategy, a wall that’s starting to crack. On this third installment of “All Over the Map,” John King and his team visit Milwaukee, site of next week’s Republican convention and home to a Black liberal base increasingly disaffected with a President and party they feel abandoned by. In Detroit, many, especially in the Arab-American community, are heartbroken and angry over President Biden’s response to the war in Gaza. Two voters, Eric and Ibrahim, give us their takes — and remind us why we’re traveling “all over the map”.
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This Independence Day, as we gather around the grill and watch fireworks with our friends and families, we wanted to revisit a conversation Audie had with Baratunde Thurston, writer at Puck News and host of the PBS show America Outdoors.
What does it mean to love this country despite its divisions? How can we come together and hold space for the complexity of the American story? And what would those conversations sound like if we did?
Baratunde Thurston is a writer, host and executive producer of the PBS television series America Outdoors, creator and host of How To Citizen, and a founding partner of the new media startup Puck. His comedic memoir, How To Be Black, is a New York Times best-seller.
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During the 2020 election, there was perhaps no bigger upset than Joe Biden carrying Georgia. This was the first time a Democrat had won the reliably red state in three decades — in years past, Democrats didn’t even think to campaign in the state. So, how do Georgia voters feel about their newfound swing state status? And will this change the way they vote in November? On this second installment of our series “All Over the Map,” John King and his team visit with two small-business owners aware of their electoral power.
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Between Russia's war with Ukraine and Israel's war with Hamas, it feels like we're seeing the limits of diplomacy. Can we still depend on global alliances and good old-fashioned negotiations to solve the problems of today, or are we better off trying a different approach? Audie speaks with Julianne Smith, United States Permanent Representative to NATO, about the state of U. S. diplomacy and what it looks like when diplomacy works and when it doesn't.
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More than 158,000 Republicans cast Pennsylvania primary votes for Nikki Haley nearly two months after she quit the race for president. That’s enough votes to swing a state critical to victory in November – and Haley had similar showings in other battlegrounds. So, how do these critical swing voters choose between Joe Biden and Donald Trump – two candidates they do not like? In the first installment of a three-part series, CNN Chief National Correspondent John King travels to Pennsylvania to hear Haley voters share their doubts about Biden, Trump, and the future of the Republican Party.
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What does it mean for a news story to matter? To have impact on YOU, the audience? Does it have to be about a person who has been wronged? An institution caught in a cover up? Do you need to feel like it could affect your life personally? Audie wrestled these questions while serving as judge for this year’s Livingston Awards, which recognize impactful journalism by reporters under the age of 35. She calls up this year’s winners: Allison Behringer and Lila Hassan, for their work covering medical mysteries for the Bodies podcast, and Samantha Hogan for her deep dive into probate and guardianship in Maine.
You can check out more of their award-winning reporting below:
Early Birds episode of Bodies
The Fight for Abortion Training episode of Bodies
Calls to overhaul Maine probate courts have stalled for half a century. The most vulnerable people may be at risk by Samantha Hogan
Eight deaths raise questions about oversight of Maine’s public guardianships by Samantha Hogan
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What can we learn about the future of our elections from political prediction markets? Audie calls up Thomas Gurca, Director of Iowa Electronic Markets (IEM), an online futures market that includes political betting. He explains what makes prediction markets different from traditional gambling and how IEM continues to predict presidential elections with better accuracy than the polls.
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Filmmaker and journalist dream hampton’s new documentary, “It Was All a Dream,” chronicles the “the golden age of Hip-Hop" in the early 1990’s. She talks with Audie about the film, which is made up of footage she shot in the 90’s that’s been in storage for 30 years: hanging out with Biggie Smalls in the studio, Lil’ Kim in the neighborhood, and interviews with a before-he-was famous Snoop Dog. Through her writing at publications like The Source, Vibe, Essence, and The Village Voice, dream became a critical activist voice — committed to the music and to the artists that she was constantly demanding more of.
Learn more about “It Was All a Dream” and watch the trailer.
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Steve Bannon, the standard-bearer of “MAGA media,” is set to report to federal prison on July 1st for refusing to comply with January 6 Committee subpoenas. He’s the latest in a growing list of Trump allies to face legal prosecution in defense of the former president. Bannon used the moment to paint himself as a martyr, a strategy which CNN Political Reporter Sara Murray says is in line with Donald Trump’s own plans to foment a wave of grievance through his sentencing in the Manhattan “hush money” trial.
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Each of the last 12 months has become the hottest ever on record and the UN Secretary General has warned that countries must act on the climate crisis within the next year and a half. This week Audie talks to Bill Weir, CNN’s Chief Climate Correspondent, about how the climate crisis will affect water supply, and why we should all be thinking about what the future of sustainable water usage looks like. Then, Audie chats with two water experts: Fabiola Sosa Rodriguez, Head of Economic Growth and Environment at the Metropolitan Autonomous University in Mexico City, where they could run out of water this month. And Christine Colvin, Water Policy Lead at the World Wildlife Fund, she was in Cape Town during a water crisis that almost turned off the taps.
For more on Mexico City’s water crisis check out this story by Laura Paddison: https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/25/climate/mexico-city-water-crisis-climate-intl
Bill Weir’s book, “Life as We Know It (Can Be): Stories of People, Climate, and Hope in a Changing World” is available now.
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You have very exciting and unexpected topics. I have coins that have been sitting in jars for years. I am going to do my part, take them to the store coin machine and buy a lottery ticket from the proceeds. I will let you know when I win the big prize!
This was really fascinating and enlightening.
Informative and personal interview. To me, I could hear from all that it was a difficult, uncomfortable discussion. And how their thought process was working on how to answer straight forward questions without saying what was really to be said.
Don Lemon is the only bigger piece of shit than Juicy Smollett.
this was an amazing episode. The fact that the over hate, racism, and strain put on minority people so bad that they leave to live somewhere else and still lament the decision and miss family is sad. Those who tell people to leave if they don't like this country win when this happens and the fact that these people are the victims is sad. We are less strong when we lose so many strong people and talent.
we are asking if Donald Trump can produce a negative test but what no one is talking about is where is the positive test show me that you tested positive
I would love to know where is the first lady thought this pandemic if we are rounding the corner not only that where is Young trump don't know his name but he was infected to
To answer your question Mr. Lemon...yes your/our vote will create change in America.
We need Police reform, not defunding but new training and vetting officers with the right Psychological blue print to be a PEACE officer. Dallas Texas, Wolfe City, Texas...White Police officer charged with the murder of 31 year old Johnathan Price, personal trainer, and a Black man. Price was breaking up a fight between a couple at a gas station, Sheriff Shaun Lucas arrives and immediately confronts Price, tases him then fatally shoots him...big mistake!
I have been dealing with this issue for 55 years, the times have changed and progress (some); however, I have never seen so many white people engaged in a movement, BLM, for progress in those 55 years! Bless you all!
I love this podcast
Don, this is the best season finale. You had a powerful and rich conversation with Dr. Tatum. I hope you will be back soon.
Remember Anthony Huber! because race matters!
Great information.
Even as we think about today, looking at Baseball, Football, Basketball, Track, Golf, Tennis...etc. The dynamic of Slavery exists in the format of: Managers, HeadCoaches, Owners, predominated by white men/women. Black players, paid; and in some cases years back, free Labor!
As you get older, Baseball, Basketball, Football and many other sports take on a different "hue". As an African/Indian American male in my 60's, sports changes over decades or half centuries. What we thought was important at the time is not so important now! Race, the upcoming election, BLM movement, financial security threats from this administration with payroll tax cuts which will affect Social Security. If my check is being affected by partisan politics; I don't have time to watch football. Been dealing with Race since the '50s...we tried to separate in this country and when we did, we built (freed African Americans from slavery), 15 townships across America and they were burned to the ground and murdered our ancestors, by vigilante whites. One day in THIS country hopefully white folk will be willing to share the spoils of their victory in stealing this land called America.
I don't see the link to the survey that was referenced. Really enjoying the conversations though.
I will never understand why individuals on these Podcasts condemn Don Lemon for introducing dialogue to stimulate conversations and ideology...non of us know everything about all the issues before us. Let's stop the name calling and foul language and just communicate with each other. Thanks Don Lemon.
Wow...thank you the speaker from the Jewish community, I knew something happened after WWII, now I know, and I am a part of that history, my father was in the Navy in 1945 when the explosion in Port Chicago, California happened, we then moved to a city named Pittsburg, California and lived in an all Black community. Thank you Don and Kareem for the history lesson about Black folk and Jewish community and " The Brothers at Arms, the 716th".
Mr. Lemon, thank you for this series. It is long overdue. I wish you much success.