Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, press [at] thenation.com, 212-209-5400
New York, N.Y.—May 18, 2022—The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture, today announced Jeet Heer (@heerjeet) is rejoining the masthead as a national affairs correspondent and released the first two episodes of The Time of Monsters, a podcast featuring the prolific writer and commentator’s signature blend of political culture and cultural politics. Each week, Heer will host in-depth conversations with urgent voices on the most pressing issues of our time.
The Time of Monsters podcast previously ran on The Time of Monsters Substack alongside Heer’s writing for the past year. It will now live in-house under The Nation’s remit, airing every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts. In episode one, “What the Anti-Abortion Movement Learned From Abolitionists,” Heer speaks with Linda Hirschman about the problems of activism in a country divided against itself. Episode two, “Tucker Carlson’s Mouthpiece, Glenn Greenwald,” offers an eye-opening conversation with Eoin Higgins about the contrarian pundit who is now whitewashing racism in the wake of the mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y.
Few write with as much creativity—and as many surprising conclusions—on as many topics as Heer. In addition to continuing his monthly Nation column, “Morbid Symptoms,” he will file twice-weekly dispatches grappling with the most essential and relevant issues bedeviling us today. Recent topics covered by Heer have ranged from Elise Stefanik’s crocodile tears to the legacy of Midge Decter, the founding mother of neoconservatism, and the cowardice of Democratic Party leadership.
Next month, Heer will also launch a new Nation e-mail newsletter product.
“I’m so delighted to welcome Jeet back to our pages more often,” said Nation editor D.D. Guttenplan. “Jeet was the first hire I made when I took over as editor—because I had long admired both his prose and his political acumen. When Substack made him an offer no sane writer—especially with a family to support—could refuse for the past year, I was glad we were able to carve out a monthly column. But as we head into the midterms and then the 2024 election I’m sure Nation readers will be as grateful as I am to have him back as a national-affairs correspondent, writing twice a week and also hosting his wonderful podcast, The Time of Monsters.”
“I’ve long admired The Nation’s commitment to dialogue—and to deliberation—and that’s precisely the formulation I will continue to explore on my podcast,” added Heer. “To have wide-ranging conversations that leave space for investigating questions and testing positions without being didactic or dogmatic. And I couldn’t be more thrilled to return to writing for The Nation with more frequency at this crucial juncture in US politics; a time when everything is on the line, and nothing is certain, as the resurgent progressive politics of these past several years are challenged by revisionist centrists and regressive conservatives. The Nation is the ideal home to continue defining the terms of debate that will shape our future.”
“I’m thrilled to continue expanding The Nation’s journalism and commentary in all forms of multimedia. Jeet’s podcast adds incisive and engaging discussion, analytical clarity, and a spirit of curiosity to our collection of audio,” said multimedia editor Ludwig Hurtado.
Both Heer’s column, “Morbid Symptoms,” and podcast, The Time of Monsters, are a nod to philosopher Antonio Gramsci’s famous remark: “The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.” In this political and cultural moment, Heer believes that we too are living in an “interregnum,” an interval of opportunity for forces of good or evil to prevail, where the future is very much unknown. His essays and episodes will seek to diagnose and explore the problems of and possible solutions for our times.
The Time of Monsters is the latest addition to The Nation’s growing catalogue of politically charged podcasts and limited-term explanatory series exploring the most crucial issues facing America today. Previous successful forays into podcasting include The Nation’s flagship weekly news program, Start Making Sense with host and contributing writer Jon Wiener, and Edge of Sports, hosted by sports editor Dave Zirin.
The Nation has also produced several smart, limited-run podcasts, including, in partnership with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, the award-winning program Going for Broke with Ray Suarez—named one of the 50 best podcasts of 2021 by The Atlantic. We created Next Left, where politics gets personal with national affairs correspondent John Nichols; More Than Enough, a frank discussion about Universal Basic Income and the ways in which people’s lives—and our country and politics—would be transformed if people had their needs adequately covered, with host Mia Birdsong; and System Check, where cohosts Melissa Harris-Perry and Dorian Warren set about diagnosing and repairing our malfunctioning democracy. In partnership with WNYC Studios, The Nation developed the inaugural seasons of United States of Anxiety and There Goes the Neighborhood with host Kai Wright. Together, these podcasts offer a distinctive understanding of news and politics and people with a focus on “bottom-up” storytelling, and an eye to the stories you won’t hear anywhere else.
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ABOUT: Jeet Heer is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation and host of the weekly Nation podcast, The Time of Monsters. He first joined the magazine in 2019 as a national affairs correspondent, navigating the intersecting worlds of politics, pop culture, philosophy, and media criticism with nuance, creativity, and surprising conclusions. He became a columnist in 2021 and—after a brief foray with Substack—returned full-time in 2022.
The author of In Love with Art: Francoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman and Sweet Lechery: Reviews, Essays and Profiles, Heer has written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The American Prospect, The Guardian, The New Republic, and The Boston Globe
Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.
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