Podcast Club ONLINE: The Rise of the DSA and the Future of the Democratic Party
Details
PLEASE NOTE: There are 2 podcasts and an article for this week! To optimize discussion, we require that attendees listen to the podcasts and read the article before the meeting. (Podcast and article links appear when you click on "Read more" below.)
Recently, the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) have been experiencing a surge in visibility and popularity. According to a CNN poll released July 30, one-third of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters now identify as democratic socialists. Also in July, the DSA surpassed 120,000 national members, a massive gain from ~50,000 in late 2024. Bernie Sanders made democratic socialism palatable to millions of Americans; AOC gave it a more youthful boost; and Mamdani proved that a socialist could defeat a Democratic establishment candidate and then run a major city. But not everything is rosy for the DSA. Francesca Hong, a DSA state legislator, recently lost the Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor to a more moderate challenger. More so, with the DSA's greater prominence, there's been increased scrutiny of their actual positions. Some of them are quite extreme, including abolishing the presidency, Senate, and prisons and opening the U.S. borders. Certainly, Republicans are labeling them as radical extremists and representative of all Democrats. And even many Democrats have criticized the DSA for, among other things, choosing not to endorse either Hillary Clinton or Kamala Harris over Trump in the 2016 and 2024 presidential elections.
So what is the DSA about? Why have they become increasingly popular? Are their positions so extreme that they'll alienate the average American? How might they shape or impact the Democratic Party and the future of America?
THIS WEEK, WE ARE LISTENING TO TWO PODCASTS AND READING AN ARTICLE:
PODCAST #1: The New Yorker - The Political Scene, with host David Remnick and guest Megan Romer, one of two co-chairs of the national DSA
or
https://www.newyorker.com/video/watch/the-new-yorker-radio-hour-megan-romer-interview (includes not-very-good transcript)
(33 min.)
PODCAST #2: NPR's It's Been A Minute, with host Brittany Luse and guests Akela Lacy, senior politics reporter at The Intercept and host of the Intercept Briefing podcast, and Michael Lange, New York political analyst, DSA member, and writer of The Narrative Wars on Substack.
https://www.npr.org/2026/07/20/nx-s1-5896258/the-dsa-vs-establishment-democrats
or
(24 min.)
AND THE ARTICLE TO READ: Here is a link to a Google Doc with a Time article by Nick Popli, published August 20. The doc is 5 pages long.
What's a podcast club?
It's like a book club for podcasts. Each week we discuss an interesting and currently-relevant episode from podcasters like Ezra Klein, Michael Shermer, or Russ Roberts. We start off as a large group and spend most of the time talking in small break-out groups, which we remix 3 times during the course of the evening. Our conversations are casual and open. We ask that everyone speak respectfully at all times, and we encourage free and concise discussion relevant to the week's podcast topic. To do this, we try to adhere to Grice's Maxims: https://bit.ly/2p4uSQm
Ultimately, the idea is to help each other think a little differently, learn a thing or two and have some fun.