Best CovertAction Magazine Podcasts (2025)

1
Trump at the U.N.: Rambling, Racist, and Out of Touch 51:49

Play Pause

33m ago51:49

51:49

In a rambling speech that lasted nearly an hour at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, Donald Trump spent a significant amount of time condemning immigration in the west as well as the use and development of clean energy alternatives to coal and oil. In typical Trump fashion, he talked up his supposed accomplishments both in the U.S. and internat…

1
Passport Revocations: Trump’s Repression and the New McCarthyism 52:50

7d ago52:50

52:50

Gaza is burning. Anyone who’s watched the livestreamed genocide of the Palestinian people over the last 23 months knows that this is true. But the Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz was boasting when he posted those words on X early Tuesday, also saying “The IDF strikes with an iron fist” and “We will not relent and we will not go back - until th…

1
Dems Pay Influencers to Pretend They’re Grassroots 57:16

21d ago57:16

57:16

According to recent reporting by Taylor Lorenz in Wired, a secretive dark money group is funding influencers to post pro-Democratic Party messaging on social media services - paying them up to $8,000 per month to do so and holding them to a secretive contract that prevents them from even revealing their relationship to the organization Chorus, back…

1
D.C. Was Just the Start: Trump Targets Cities Nationwide 53:40

29d ago53:40

53:40

In a stark escalation, Donald Trump has armed the National Guard members on the streets of Washington, DC. He’s also signed an executive order getting rid of cashless bail - putting poor people who are arrested at significant risk of being stuck in jail waiting months or longer for trials if they can’t afford outrageous cash bails. He then signed a…

1
U.S. Makes Threats While China Plans Its Infrastructure 25:31

1M ago25:31

25:31

The founder of Tech Buzz China, Rui Ma, posted on X after a recent trip to China about her observations on energy there. “Energy is considered a solved problem. The Chinese government’s investment in sustainable energy – from advanced hydropower to next-generation nuclear – means that, relative to many other markets, electricity supply is secure an…

1
Why Trump is Targeting D.C. 53:42

1M ago53:42

53:42

Donald Trump has taken yet another step in the ruling class’ quest to trash civil liberties, expand the brutal role of cops and other agents of the state and wage an all-out assault on Black people across the country. On Monday the 11th, he announced that Attorney General Pam Bondi would be in control of the DC police, and that Secret Service, DEA,…

1
Ventura County Organizes Against ICE 37:30

2M ago37:30

37:30

Militarized ICE and Homeland Security raids targeted farms in California’s Central Coast on July 10th, with 200 farm workers ending up arrested, some being critically injured and one tragically losing his life. Masked and heavily armed ICE agents used tear gas and rubber bullets to target workers and those who came to their defense. As soon as comm…

1
Is Epstein the Final Straw for Trump’s Base? 50:26

2M ago50:26

50:26

In 2024, Donald Trump said he’d declassify and release the files the U.S. government has on notorious child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. But recently, responding to disappointment and growing demands from his base to actually release the full files, he told a crowd of reporters in Pennsylvania that “I don’t understand why the Epstein files would b…

1
Texas Flooding: The Real Culprit Is Capitalism 51:48

2M ago51:48

51:48

134 people have died and 101 remain missing after the Guadalupe River in central Texas overflowed as a result of 6.5 inches of rain falling over the course of three hours on the morning of July 4th. Though the floods are being called just a natural disaster, mounting evidence shows that climate change, budget cuts, crumbling infrastructure and poli…

1
Who Is Musk’s “America Party” A Threat To? 52:10

3M ago52:10

52:10

Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill has passed and been signed into law. What the White House has deemed an “historic” is actually the biggest transfer of wealth in the history of the United States, benefiting the already-wealthy with massive tax breaks and devastating cuts to social programs. The bill also accelerates militarization at home and a…

1
Billionaires Try To Buy Out Democracy 53:20

3M ago53:20

53:20

What do Palantir, DoorDash, Bill Clinton and Michael Bloomberg have in common? They all joined the campaign against candidate Zohran Mamdani, the state Assemblymember who exceeded expectations and effectively won the Democratic NYC mayoral primary when Andrew Cuomo conceded around 11PM on election night. As of July 1st, with ranked choice calculati…

1
Mahmoud Khalil Freed as Anti-War Movement in U.S. Celebrates and Grows 52:43

3M ago52:43

52:43

Mahmoud Khalil is free! After spending 104 days unjustly held in an ICE detention center in Jena, Louisiana, he was reunited with his wife Noor, newborn son Deen and community over the weekend. At a press conference and rally at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine near Columbia University on Sunday, he said “I must call the hypocrisy of Columbia U…

1
Make No Mistake: The U.S. Wants War with Iran 52:39

3M ago52:39

52:39

Donald Trump posted to his social media site Truth Social on Monday evening that “Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!” as he made an early departure from the G7 summit in Canada to “attend to many important matters,” according to the White House. The U.S. government is also moving the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz away from the South China S…

1
The LA Uprising and Trump’s Authoritarian Agenda 52:25

4M ago52:25

52:25

Over the weekend, ICE agents invaded Los Angeles and its suburbs, kidnapping dozens of people on Friday and threatening more near a Home Depot on Saturday. These masked and heavily-armed forces are part of Trump’s promised 30-day surge in anti-immigrant attacks in the LA area. But wherever there is repression, there is resistance - and the people o…

1
Palantir, Surveillance and Technofascism 51:04

4M ago51:04

51:04

Big data and surveillance tech firm Palantir is working with the U.S. government to bring its software into multiple government agencies under the Trump administration. In April, Wired reported that the company had a $30-million contract with ICE to provide “near real-time visibility” on immigrants in the country. Late in May, the New York Times re…

1
NATO Dayton Assembly Exposes Outrageous War Spending 53:50

4M ago53:50

53:50

NATO held its 2025 Parliamentary Assembly in Dayton, Ohio between May 22 and 26. Though it promotes itself as a force in defense of peace and security, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s history exposes its true purpose: propping up Western imperialism and hegemony. It’s an international body started with the goal of containing and threatenin…

1
Does Trump Really Want Peace in Ukraine? 51:05

4M ago51:05

51:05

Donald Trump held phone calls with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, then announced that the two countries will “immediately start negotiations toward a ceasefire” in the 3-year-long conflict between the two. His announcement also touted a goal of increased trade and economic ties with Russi…

1
Trump Advances Right-Wing Agenda At Home and Abroad 53:27

4M ago53:27

53:27

On Tuesday, UnitedHealth Group announced that CEO Andrew Witty was stepping down. The announcement came from Witty as the company suspended its full-year financial outlook - because it believes that medical costs will be higher than forecast. UnitedHealth’s revenue was over $400 billion. The year before Witty became CEO in 2021, its revenue was $25…

1
Genocidal Ben-Gvir Faces Resistance on U.S. Trip 52:52

5M ago52:52

52:52

Israeli Minister of National Security and supporter of extremist, far-right policies Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the United States in late April. From the time he got off his plane in Florida and throughout events in New Haven, CT, New York City and Washington, DC, he was met with opposition, protest and resistance. Even some Zionist groups opposed his…

1
Earth Day: War and Climate Change Threaten The Planet 56:57

5M ago56:57

56:57

April 20th marked the fifteenth anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the largest oil spill in U.S. history, which killed 11 workers and spilled 134 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. For those who rely on fishing and related industries off the Gulf Coast, as well as for those who were involved in the recovery and cleanu…

1
Kilmar Garcia Disappearance Triggers Constitutional Crisis 52:06

5M ago52:06

52:06

Mahmoud Khalil, likely days away from the birth of his first child, is still being held in Louisiana as his lawyers fight for his freedom after a judge ordered that he can be deported. Just Monday, Columbia student Moshen Mahdawi was detained by ICE during a regular interview as part of the citizenship process. Hundreds of students from more than 9…

1
Negotiations Set: What do Trump & Netanyahu want with Iran? 52:07

6M ago52:07

52:07

Talks are set to begin on April 12th in Oman between the United States and Iran about Iran’s nuclear program. The announcement was made as Benjamin Netanyahu left the White House after his second visit to DC in as many months. In a short video posted after the meeting in Hebrew with English subtitles, Netanyahu praised Donald Trump and said, “We ag…

1
Movement at a Turning Point: All Out for Palestine! 54:49

6M ago54:49

54:49

After breaking the ceasefire deal, Israel is continuing its ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and beyond, and threatening to further ignite wider conflict by bombing Syria and Lebanon. In just one 48-hour period after the end of the ceasefire, a combination of bombings from the air and a ground invasion killed over 500 Palestinians in just 4…

1
Signal Leaks & JFK Files: What’s Happening Behind Closed Doors 51:54

6M ago51:54

51:54

Tens of thousands of new and newly-unredacted documents related to the killings of JFK Jr, his brother RFK and Martin Luther King Jr have been released over the past week. While historians and journalists are still pouring over the files to see what new historical information can be learned from them it’s becoming clear that there’s no smoking gun …

1
Israel and U.S. Resume Genocide of Palestinians 53:55

6M ago53:55

53:55

The Israeli government, with the full backing of the White House, has completely thrown out the January ceasefire and negotiations and resumed the genocidal bombing campaign against Palestinians in Gaza, which may be followed up by a full-scale ground invasion. Over 400 people were killed, including over 170 children, in Israeli air strikes on Mond…

1
Free Mahmoud Khalil! 52:40

7M ago52:40

52:40

Over the weekend, federal agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent legal resident of the United States, and said they were stripping him of his permanent resident status and going to deport him back to Palestine. During the student encampments and protests at Columbia University last year, Khalil was a public figure involved in negotiating with …

1
Trump’s “Peace” in Ukraine Prepares US for War with China 26:22

7M ago26:22

26:22

Following up on last week's show where we discussed the quickly-changing dynamics of U.S.-European relationships under Donald Trump, we look at the “peace deal” Trump has penned with Ukraine that reportedly includes significant mineral rights for the U.S. we focus on how the Ukraine conflict and its possible end reflect the shifting focus of U.S. i…

1
The U.S., Europe and the Growing Right-Wing Threat 51:40

7M ago51:40

51:40

As the Trump administration openly threatens historic American allies in Europe, weighs in on German elections in favor of the far-right, and pushes the idea of MEGA - Make Europe Great Again - it’s becoming increasingly clear that the relationships and dynamic between the US and Western Europe is changing at a scale we haven’t seen in almost a cen…

1
Will Trump and McMahon Dismantle Public Education? 51:15

7M ago51:15

51:15

Donald Trump has nominated Linda McMahon, a former executive with World Wrestling Entertainment and twice-failed Senate candidate as well as the Administrator of the Small Business Administration under his first term, to lead the Department of Education. Speaking about her nomination in early February, Trump said he wants her to put herself out of …

1
Trump, Netanyahu Threaten Gaza 53:12

7M ago53:12

53:12

After Hamas submitted a two-page report documenting multiple violations of the tense ceasefire in place since January 19, and said it would on its end delay the release of some hostages until the issues are resolved, the Israeli government is now ramping up for another phase of all-out war against the Palestinian people. Benjamin Netanyahu threaten…

1
USAID Should Be Shut Down - For Real 52:03

8M ago52:03

52:03

Over the weekend and early into this week, Elon Musk’s so-called DOGE, Department of Government Efficiency, effectively shut down the US Agency for International Development on a temporary basis. Musk, Donald Trump and their lackeys attacked USAID because they claim it’s a “viper’s nest of radical-left [m]arxists who hate America,” to quote a Musk …

1
LA Fires: Natural Disaster Made Worse By Capitalism 55:02

8M ago55:02

55:02

After getting rain over the weekend, three of the main fires devastating the Los Angeles area are nearly 100% contained, meaning that firefighters have been able to create barriers around the fires. But the Palisades Fire, the Eaton fire and the Hughes fire continue to burn a combined nearly 48,000 acres of land. And to the south, just a few miles …

1
Trump Inauguration Met With Nationwide Protest 51:06

8M ago51:06

51:06

Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday was met with protests around the country. As he immediately launched attacks on immigrants, the environment, LGBTQ people, labor and beyond, people took to the streets in opposition, pledging to continue organizing to defend the oppressed against the onslaught of attacks from Trump and the billionaires. On this…

1
Whistleblowers And Activists Speak: What Can We Expect from Intelligence Agencies Under Trump? 54:28

8M ago54:28

54:28

On January 13th, CovertAction Magazine held a webinar featuring whistleblowers and activists who formerly have served in various U.S intelligence agencies to discuss their perspectives on what to expect from those agencies and beyond under Donald Trump. On today’s show, we bring you part of the webinar, which featured John Kiriakou, Coleen Rowley, …

1
The Media’s Real Agenda On The Alleged ISIS Attack 53:23

9M ago53:23

53:23

Early on New Year’s Day, a truck drove into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, resulting in dozens of injuries and at least 14 deaths. The alleged attacker, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, was killed in a shootout with police. Immediately, the media and government seized on supposed and self-described connections with ISIS with no critical thought towar…

1
Deny, Delay, Depose: The Tragedy of Health Insurance in the U.S. 52:12

9M ago52:12

52:12

When UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was killed on December 4th in New York, the casings of the bullets used to kill him had “deny”, “delay” and “depose” written on them. These so-called “three Ds” of the insurance industry describe how companies go out of their way to get out of paying claims. Even before a suspect was identified and arrested,…

1
South Korea Fights Back Martial Law 32:35

10M ago32:35

32:35

Calls for the resignation of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol have rung out from civil society and beyond after Yoon declared martial law on December 3rd. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) called for strikes until Yoon steps down, and groups under and beyond that organization are heeding the call. Yoon’s brief and apparently sudde…

1
Syria: A History of Proxy Wars & US Imperialism 51:54

10M ago51:54

51:54

At the end of November, groups aligned with Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) or the “Levant Liberation Committee” and previously known as the Al-Nusra Front, launched significant attacks on the Syrian government in the Idlib and Aleppo regions, taking part of the city of Aleppo. The Syrian Arab Army has mobilized to push back against HTS. The offensive …

1
What does the Lebanon ceasefire mean? 50:54

10M ago50:54

50:54

On Tuesday afternoon, the Israeli security cabinet approved a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the cabinet and then with a pre-recorded video addressed the Israeli public, expressing his support for the deal. But in the leadup to the security cabinet vote, and while Netanyahu was making his case in sup…

1
Movement Repression and the HR 9495 Bill 30:17

10M ago30:17

30:17

Shortly after we recorded our last episode and mentioned the bill, the House of Representatives tried and failed to vote on HR 9495, the “Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act” bill. House Republicans tried to suspend the rules and push a vote through, and got 52 Democrats to vote with them, but weren’t able to get the ⅔ …

1
Struggle Continues Under Trump 52:10

11M ago52:10

52:10

Within days of winning the election, Donald Trump is already making announcements about who will - and won’t - be in his cabinet and influencing his administration. On today’s show, we’re going to take a look at what a second Trump term is going to look like. From Elon Musk being on calls with Trump and Zelenskyy to RFK having influence over health…

1
Activists Take on Elections: No Votes for Genocide 54:38

11M ago54:38

54:38

We’re just days out from the US presidential elections. With many polls putting Trump and Harris within just a few points of each other, it’s easy to get caught up in the fear and uncertainty of the race as we continue to see horror after horror unfolding in Gaza and Lebanon as well as critical domestic crises like housing and infrastructure going …

1
U.S. Blockade Threatens Cuba’s Electric Grid 54:24

11M ago54:24

54:24

The devastation of Hurricane Oscar, which hit Cuba on October 18th, has significantly worsened the deep crisis of the island’s electric grid. The U.S. government and its media lackeys are trying to blame the socialist government for supposed mismanagement of the country’s power system, but the reality is that the biggest contributor to the situatio…

1
A Handful of Billionaires are Causing Climate Chaos for the World 50:50

11M ago50:50

50:50

Hurricane Milton approached the physical limits of what a hurricane can be before it made landfall, and this was driven in part by the fact that 13 major Western corporations are responsible for the deforestation of 17% of the Amazon rainforest over the last few decades. The drastic effects of climate change are causing havoc across the globe. In t…

1
Will there be a draft? Active-duty resistance and the anti-war movement 23:11

12M ago23:11

23:11

As the U.S. & Israeli war in the Middle East continues to expand with new threats of a significant Israeli attack on Iran, the Pentagon last week sent thousands of additional troops to the region. The USS Harry S Truman has been preparing for much of 2024 for a deployment to the Mediterranean Sea and departed on September 20th. Squadrons of F-15E, …

1
Tribute to Palestinian Journalist Wafa Al-Udaini 56:07

12M ago56:07

56:07

On Monday, September 30th, an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah killed Wafa al-Udaini, her husband and two of her children. Wafa was a founder of the October 16 group, a mentor to young journalists and media professionals in Gaza and especially worked to highlight the voices of women impacted by the Israeli occupation. Wafa was the 174th journalis…

1
Israel ignites Middle East as UN General Assembly meets 41:10

12M ago41:10

41:10

As the United Nations General Assembly meets this week, world leaders have adopted a Pact for the Future to build towards a multilateral world. But the meeting is happening as regional conflicts could flare up and ignite across many parts of the globe. The US & NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine rages on with few serious efforts being made towards a peace…

1
Debate shows Harris and Trump are two sides of the same coin 54:43

1y ago54:43

54:43

The first and maybe only debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris happened just after we recorded our last show on Tuesday, September 10th. Over nearly two hours, the candidates attempted to talk over and through each other, regurgitating some of the same old talking points of each of their campaigns. It was light on policy and heavy on racism…

1
The Other 9/11: US Involvement in the 1973 Chile Coup 51:50

1y ago51:50

51:50

Fifty-one years ago, a bloody coup in Chile overthrew the democratically-elected president Salvadore Allende, leaving him dead. Sometimes now called “the other 9/11,” it ushered in the brutal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, which lasted for 17 years. Over 3,000 people were killed or disappeared in that period, and nearly 40,000 people were target…

1
CIA Whistleblower John Stockwell Spills the Beans 54:12

1y ago54:12

54:12

John Stockwell is a former CIA officer who became a whistleblower and outspoken critic of the Agency, the US intelligence community and the imperialist policies of the US government. He left the CIA in 1976 after serving there for 12 years following service in the US Marine Corps. During that time, he was told to fabricate intelligence reports on t…