Nation Conversations: Ari Berman and Howard Dean on the Democratic Party

Nation Conversations: Ari Berman and Howard Dean on the Democratic Party

Nation Conversations: Ari Berman and Howard Dean on the Democratic Party

Howard Dean joins Ari Berman to discuss Berman’s new book and to examine how Democrats can amp up their base in the face of lagging enthusiasm and continuing partisan attacks.

Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky
Pocket
Email

On October 5, exactly one month from the midterm elections, Howard Dean joined The Nation’s Ari Berman onstage at 92YTribeca in New York City to examine the future of the Democratic party in the face of lagging enthusiasm and partisan attacks. Berman’s debut book, Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics, published this month by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, tells the inside story of Dean’s visionary yet controversial fifty-state strategy, charts his unpredictable journey from an insurgent presidential candidate in 2004 to the chairman and conscience of the Democratic Party and shows how President Obama’s campaign—particularly its groundbreaking embrace of grassroots organizing and activism—built upon Dean’s blueprint. The Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel moderated the talk, which runs one hour and eight minutes.

Howard Dean and Ari Berman at 92YTribeca On October 5, exactly one month from the midterm elections, Howard Dean joined The Nation‘s Ari Berman onstage at 92YTribeca in New York City to examine the future of the Democratic party in the face of lagging enthusiasm and partisan attacks. Berman’s debut book, Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics, published this month by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, tells the inside story of Dean’s visionary yet controversial fifty-state strategy, charts his unpredictable journey from an insurgent presidential candidate in 2004 to the chairman and conscience of the Democratic Party and shows how President Obama’s campaign—particularly its groundbreaking embrace of grassroots organizing and activism—built upon Dean’s blueprint. Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel moderated the talk, which runs one hour and eight minutes.

 

Disobey authoritarians, support The Nation

Over the past year you’ve read Nation writers like Elie Mystal, Kaveh Akbar, John Nichols, Joan Walsh, Bryce Covert, Dave Zirin, Jeet Heer, Michael T. Klare, Katha Pollitt, Amy Littlefield, Gregg Gonsalves, and Sasha Abramsky take on the Trump family’s corruption, set the record straight about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s catastrophic Make America Healthy Again movement, survey the fallout and human cost of the DOGE wrecking ball, anticipate the Supreme Court’s dangerous antidemocratic rulings, and amplify successful tactics of resistance on the streets and in Congress.

We publish these stories because when members of our communities are being abducted, household debt is climbing, and AI data centers are causing water and electricity shortages, we have a duty as journalists to do all we can to inform the public.

In 2026, our aim is to do more than ever before—but we need your support to make that happen. 

Through December 31, a generous donor will match all donations up to $75,000. That means that your contribution will be doubled, dollar for dollar. If we hit the full match, we’ll be starting 2026 with $150,000 to invest in the stories that impact real people’s lives—the kinds of stories that billionaire-owned, corporate-backed outlets aren’t covering. 

With your support, our team will publish major stories that the president and his allies won’t want you to read. We’ll cover the emerging military-tech industrial complex and matters of war, peace, and surveillance, as well as the affordability crisis, hunger, housing, healthcare, the environment, attacks on reproductive rights, and much more. At the same time, we’ll imagine alternatives to Trumpian rule and uplift efforts to create a better world, here and now. 

While your gift has twice the impact, I’m asking you to support The Nation with a donation today. You’ll empower the journalists, editors, and fact-checkers best equipped to hold this authoritarian administration to account. 

I hope you won’t miss this moment—donate to The Nation today.

Onward,

Katrina vanden Heuvel 

Editor and publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x