The Assignment with Audie Cornish

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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.”  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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.”  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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”. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices