Government & Politics

Sarah Posner, a reporter with The Nation's Investigative Fund, talks about how the Steve Bannon-Jeff Sessions-Mike Pence nexus is influencing President Trump's policies.

Legal expert Jeffrey Rosen says of the Supreme Court nominee: "If he thought that individual liberty was threatened by presidential or congressional overreaching, then he would step in."

George Crile is a veteran producer for CBS's 60 Minutes and 60 Minutes II. He's the author of the new book, Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History. It's about the CIA's secret war in Afghanistan in the 1970s and 1980s, and its support of the Afghan Mujahideen against the Soviet Union. Ammunitions and weapons were smuggled across the border and at one point over 300,000 fundamentalist Afghan warriors carried weapons provided by the CIA.

Charlie Wilson is a retired congressman and the subject of the book Charlie Wilson's War. It's about the secret CIA operation arming the Afghan Mujahideen against the Soviet Union. Wilson left office in 1996 after 24 years in office. He is now a lobbyist and one of his main clients is Pakistan.

Journalist Luke Harding has an insider's understanding of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Harding served as Moscow bureau chief for the British newspaper The Guardian from 2007 until 2011.

Journalist Evan Osnos, who recently wrote about doomsday prep for the super rich for The New Yorker, tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that tech survivalists are stockpiling weapons and food, and, in some cases, preparing luxury underground bunkers.

Journalist Stephen Kinzer's book, True Flag, explains how the Spanish-American War launched an ongoing debate about America's role in the world. Kinzer has also been writing about President Trump.

In the '60s, the CIA began a secret program that aimed to curb Communism by arming and training local fighters in Laos. Author Joshua Kurlantzick calls it "the largest covert operation in US history."

David Brock is the author of the best-selling memoir Blinded by the Right: the Conscience of an Ex-Conservative. Brock defected from the Republican Party in the latter half of the 1990s and came to renounce the anti-Clinton movement in which he took part. His new book is The Republican Noise Machine: Right-Wing Media and How it Corrupts Democracy. He now heads a nonprofit media watchdog organization in Washington, D.C.

Two ethics lawyers who worked for President Bush and President Obama, respectively, outline their concerns about a Donald Trump presidency.

Author Mat Johnson reflects on how the election of Barack Obama, made him feel like he belonged in America for the first time.

Imam Khalid Latif is one of the people profiled in The Secret Life of Muslims, a digital series about Islamophobia. He is also the first Muslim chaplain at New York University.

Comic Zahra Noorbakhsh on why she finds herself wanting to connect with her religious traditions. She co-hosts the podcast Good Muslim Bad Muslim.

Brzezinski has reported on the nation's homeland security since Sept. 11, for magazines including Mother Jones and The New York Times Magazine. His new book is Fortress America: An Inside Look at the Coming Surveillance State (out later this fall).

Our resident linguist looks at the differences in the language used to describe Republicans and Democrats.

Norman Podhoretz is considered the grandfather of the neoconservative movement, which had its birth in the 1970s. The former editor of the monthly magazine, Commentary, Podhoretz subscribes to what some call the "Bush Doctrine" of foreign policy, favoring pre-emptive action against potential threats. Podhoretz wrote a 37-page defense of the Bush administration's foreign policy, published in Commentary called "World War IV: How it Started, What it Means, and Why We Have to Win."

Omar Saif Ghobash was 6 when an assassin killed his father, who was a diplomat from the United Arab Emirates. His new book is a collection of letters to his sons, urging them to reject extremism.

Politico reporter Michael Crowley discusses President-elect Donald Trump's relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "There's something I think we don't completely understand," Crowley says.

Dean Baquet talks about covering tweets as news, his decision to use the word "lie" in a headline about Trump and why he's not worried about libel suits from the new president.

The FOX newS host talks about her feud with Donald Trump, and her decision to come forward in the sexual harassment case against former FOX new CEO Roger Ailes.