Every week Chris Hayes asks the big questions that keep him up at night. How do we make sense of this unprecedented moment in world history? Why is this (all) happening?
This podcast starts to answer these questions. Writers, experts, and thinkers who are also trying to get to the bottom of them join Chris to break it all down and help him get a better night’s rest. “Why is this Happening?” is presented by MSNBC and NBCNews Think.
Families are being ripped apart at the border, a Republican Congressman retweeted a Nazi sympathizer, and Trump White House officials are being protested with increasing regularity. It is feeling pretty rough out there – so just how bad is it? There have been some folks looking to the Civil War when discussing the current landscape of political polarization. While it’s not quite that bad, just exactly where are we on the scale of ‘everything’s fine’ to ‘Civil War’? Chris Hayes and Vox editor-at-large Ezra Klein have been checking in on this very question throughout the Trump administration. In this episode, they talk about unique problems of the American political project, the staying-power of political identities, and what we can learn from the X-Men superhero, Legion. Read more at NBCNews.com/WhyIsThisHappening