Eyal Press: What Makes a Rebel?

Eyal Press: What Makes a Rebel?

Confronting hard truths about conformity and resistance.

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What makes a rebel?

In this episode of Nation ConversationsNation writer Eyal Press and editor Roane Carey discuss themes and lessons of Press’s acclaimed new book, Beautiful Souls: Saying No, Breaking Ranks, and Heeding the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times. The book explores situations in which people have made painful and challenging decisions of conscience—and why many others often choose not to.

Listen to the podcast to learn what inspired Press to write this book, lauded by the New York Times as “a hymn to the mystery of disobedience.” To read an adapted excerpt, click here. To read the previous Nation Conversation with Press, click here.

Subscribe to Nation Conversations on iTunes for exclusive audio of Nation editors and writers digging into the topics and issues that shape the magazine. Check back for a new episode each Thursday.

—Elizabeth Whitman

Image: Courtesy of Paul Grüninger Stiftung.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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