App Store

Google Play

DK - Details page - Device banner - 894x1036

Nyd den ubegrænsede adgang til tusindvis af spændende e- og lydbøger - helt gratis

Lyt når som helst, hvor som helst 

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.

The Assignment with Audie Cornish

Audie talks with artist and organizer Kennedy McDaniel about how she, and others in her generation -- Gen Z -- are finding connection and power offline through an old school medium: zines. 

This episode was Produced by Lori Galarreta. 

Senior Producer: Matt Martinez Technical Director: Dan Dzula Executive Producer: Steve Lickteig 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Offline Rebellion of the Most Online Generation

Kamala Harris is stepping back. And Jasmine Crockett – the fiery Texas congresswoman known for viral clapbacks – is turning heads. This week, Audie asks: are “respectability politics” still the price of power for Black politicians, or are the rules finally changing in the age of Trump? NOTUS White House Correspondent Jasmine Wright and GOP Strategist Melik Abdul to help her parse it out. 

The Assignment is a production of CNN Podcasts. This episode was Produced by Jesse Remedios and Sofia Sanchez. Our Senior Producer is Matt Martinez. Dan Dzula is our Technical Director and Steve Lickteig is Executive Producer of CNN Podcasts. 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Are Respectability Politics Over?

We’re living in a golden age of yachts, bunkers, and ultra-wealth – and social media is eating it up. Audie talks with journalist and author Evan Osnos about what this era reveals about American culture and class. His book is called, “The Haves and Have-Yachts: Dispatches on the Ultrarich.” 

The Assignment is a production of CNN Podcasts. This episode was produced by Lori Galarreta and Grace Walker. Our Senior Producer is Matt Martinez. Dan Dzula is our Technical Director and Steve Lickteig is Executive Producer of CNN Podcasts. 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What the Recent Obsession with Yachts Says About Class in America

In the early 2000s, girlhood became a spectacle. It was sold through reality TV, tabloid scandals, and the early Internet. And it’s still shaping the way we see women today. Audie talks with Sophie Gilbert, culture critic and author of “Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves.”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How Early 2000s Pop Culture Pitted Women Against Each Other

President Trump's megabill sets Immigration and Customs Enforcement up to be the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency. Journalist Garrett Graff tells Audie how a relatively new federal agency rose to the top and why people should “get used to” seeing ICE agents in their community.

Garrett Graff writes the newsletter Doomsday Scenario and hosts the Long Shadow podcast.

For more CNN reporting on ICE’s expansion: https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/09/politics/ice-cbp-police-los-angeles-immigration
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What ICE’s Rapid Expansion Could Mean for Your Community

These days, the toy industry isn’t all fun and games. Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks sits down with Audie to talk about how trade wars and culture wars are shaping the state of play in America.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Will Tariffs Bring Trouble to Toyland?

Star Trek legend George Takei has spent a lifetime confronting injustice: his family was sent to internment camps during World War II, he fought for civil rights in the 60’s, and later in life he became an activist in the LGBTQ+ community. Takei talks with Audie about his new graphic book, “It Rhymes with Takei,” a story about the experiences that shaped him, and what they say about patriotism, protest, and the state of American democracy.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

George Takei’s Journey Through Fear, Silence, and Activism

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski spent the past two decades making a name for herself as a Republican who regularly straddles party lines. In a new book, Far from Home, Murkowski delves into her journey navigating hyper-partisan politics -- from the Tea Party to the Trump era. She sits down with Audie Cornish for a conversation about whether there’s still room for pragmatism and consensus-building in the modern-day GOP. 

Watch this conversation on YouTube.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alaska’s Senator: 'You’re Roadkill in the Middle’

Just a few years ago, ‘body positivity’ was everywhere. Then came Ozempic. Audie talks with Virginia Sole-Smith, who spent the past decade writing about ‘diet culture.’ She weighs in on the future of the body positivity in an Ozempic world, and whether the movement and the revolutionary new class of weight loss drugs can coexist. 

Virginia Sole Smith’s book is called “Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture.” 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Can Weight Loss Drugs and Body Positivity Coexist?

Protest has long been a tool for change in American life. But in an age of political gridlock and viral outrage, what actually works? Leah Greenberg, co-founder of Indivisible— one of several progressive groups organizing “No Kings Day” protests —joins Audie to talk about their strategy, and how they are preparing considering the Trump Administration’s reaction to ICE protests in Los Angeles.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Can Protestors Manufacture a Tipping Point?

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs are facing a backlash, mostly from conservative commentators. This backlash came into sharp relief after Claudine Gay resigned as president of Harvard University. Some of her critics claimed it as a victory against the “DEI regime.” Audie talks to Celeste Headlee, a journalist and the founder of Headway DEI, about how this discourse is affecting those trying to continue their DEI work in corporations and organizations across the country. 
Celeste is the author of several books, including: Speaking of Race: Why Everybody Needs to Talk About Racism—and How to Do It. 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Backlash Against DEI

Lyt når som helst, hvor som helst

Other podcasts you might like ...