We’re back this week with a powerful episode featuring political commentator Joy Reid: she talks us through the issues MSNBC didn’t want her to cover, what political convictions inspired her to take on her media role and informed her decision to speak out on Gaza, and how she sees the current media landscape in an age of conservative disasters.

Joy is also ready to admit that after seeing how the Democratic establishment has failed, the country really did need Bernie Sanders. She explains why she opposed him at the time and what made her change her mind.

Joy Reid is a household name. Her show on MSNBC has drawn millions of viewers, and she’s covered everything from the Iraq war to the Trump years. Now, after being canceled from MSNBC earlier this year, she’s continuing with The Joy Reid Show, a podcast and YouTube series airing daily. What was it like to leave the channel where she built such a massive following, and why did it happen in the first place? She says that after she spoke out on Israel’s violence following October 7, she was getting HR complaints, others cautioning her not to talk about it and risk being fired. Her own convictions — her commitment to the journalistic profession, to its standards of truth and courage, and her desire to use her platform for good — led her to speak out against the mainstream media narrative demonizing Palestinians and denying their genocide.

Joy also gives us really important insight into the changing landscape at MSNBC leading up to and through the Trump years. She recalls other commentators — Melissa Harris-Perry comes to mind — who were treated badly and pushed out by the network for not conforming to the demands it made on its employees. Watching the repressive attitude at the outlet over the last decade and more, Joy’s able to give insight into what the network wanted its liberal audience to hear and what it didn’t.

Another major topic of conversation is the perennial question: what will it take to make Dems use their power? We’re with Joy in the belief that the Democratic establishment — look at Biden’s attitude toward reproductive rights during his presidency — doesn’t have the political will to actually deliver for Americans. In actuality, as the president and his cabinet wage an all-out racist attack on people of color and working people, the party is abandoning its base as it has many times before — as when it betrayed Black Americans during the New Deal in favor of a partnership with the Dixiecrats. Now, we’re watching both parties fully betray women, people of color, the LGBT community, and so much more — just so a few billionaires get to be billionaires.

We hope you’ll enjoy this conversation; thanks for subscribing. This episode will be available as a podcast tomorrow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and other major streaming platforms.