The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich

Friends, Today Heather and I come to you from one of our favorite local bookstores to emphasize the importance of free speech, free expression, and freedom to criticize the current regime — even as it seeks ever-greater control over the media, universities, museums, and our cities. Our neofascist emergency worsens. Please pull up a chair, grab a cuppa, take our poll, and join in the conversation. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertreich.substack.com/subscribe [https://robertreich.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Friends, Michael and I are coming to you today from the Empire Café in Houston, Texas, where the coffee is superb and the service comes with a smile (the café’s motto is “corporate coffee sucks”). It’s a bit noisy here (for which I apologize) but, hey, that’s what you get when you mix it up with real people. While I’m apologizing, I also want to apologize for the petition that was inadvertently posted on this page yesterday. When its provenance couldn’t be validated, I had it taken down. I should have had it checked before it was posted but wasn’t able to because I’ve been on a book tour. Again, my apologies. Today, Michael and I dive into Trump’s plans for additional state gerrymandering around the country and his occupation of Washington, D.C. — both parts of his second attempted coup on America, designed to prevent a free and fair election in the midterms of 2026. Please pull up a chair, grab a cuppa, take our poll, and join the conversation. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertreich.substack.com/subscribe [https://robertreich.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Friends, Today, Heather and I look at how Trump has moved almost all law and policy into personal deal-making — whether it’s what tariff rate (that is, import tax) is to apply to which country, which corporations will be exempted from import taxes, which universities have to do what to satisfy him, which law firms have to do what to avoid his penalties, which media corporations have to genuflect in which ways to gain his approval or avoid his wrath, and so on. It’s a form of government completely foreign to the United States until now and that is based on Trump’s personal whims, his vindictiveness, and payoffs made to him. Call it, well, fascism. We also take a look at the economy — a bad jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which caused Trump to kill the messenger and fire the commissioner of Labor Statistics. He’s nuts. Out of his gourd. And very dangerous. The Trumping of America continues. Please pull up a chair, grab a cuppa, take our poll, and join in the conversation. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertreich.substack.com/subscribe [https://robertreich.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Friends, Today we take another deep dive into the murky world of Epstein and Trump, looking at how Trump’s consolidation of power has made it harder for him to rebut charges of a cover-up. We also look at the stories that “Epsteingate” has crowded out this week: Palestinian children starving in Gaza because of Netanyahu’s policies (backed by Trump), more than a third of all federal judges complaining that Trump is defying them, and a mind-boggling number of people being detained in ICE’s inhumane detention camps. We also look at Trump’s silencing of critics such as Stephen Colbert, Washington Post columnists, and the students and faculty of Columbia University. Our special guest today is Elliot Kirschner [https://substack.com/profile/23237013-elliot-kirschner], director of The Last Class film. (His latest Substack post [https://elliotkirschner.substack.com/p/how-i-met-robert-reich] is about the first time he and I ever met — the origin story of the film.) Please pull up a chair, grab a cuppa, take our poll, and join in the conversation. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertreich.substack.com/subscribe [https://robertreich.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Friends, Today, Heather and I explore why Jeffrey Epstein’s death in 2019 is now shaking the foundations of Trump and his regime. Why now? What is there about this alleged conspiracy that has made Trump so vulnerable? What does it tell us more broadly about the soaring distrust in our society toward elites that Trump exploited to get elected in 2016 and then again in 2024? What does it suggest Democrats ought to do, now and in the ramp-up to the 2026 midterm elections? Please pull up a chair, grab a cuppa, take our poll, and join the conversation. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertreich.substack.com/subscribe [https://robertreich.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]