Diane Rehm: On My Mind

WAMU 88.5

Diane Rehm’s weekly podcast features newsmakers, writers, artists and thinkers on the issues she cares about most: what’s going on in Washington, ideas that inform, and the latest on living well as we live longer.

5hr 39min

Thumbnail for "How deportations ignited a clash between the White House and the courts".

Can the courts act as a check on the Trump administration’s power? CNN chief Supreme Court analyst Joan Biskupic on how the clash over deportations is testing the judiciary.

April 16, 202535min 48sec34.37 MB

Thumbnail for "Diane's farewell message".

After 52 years at WAMU, Diane Rehm says goodbye.

May 8, 20252min 7sec2.05 MB

Thumbnail for "Reflections on 100 days of the Trump administration".

Diane takes the mic one last time at WAMU. She talks to Susan Page of USA Today about Trump’s first hundred days – and what they say about the next hundred.

May 1, 202541min 46sec40.1 MB

Thumbnail for "Rep. Jamie Raskin on countering "MAGA chaos"".

Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin weighs in on Trump’s defiance of court orders, DOGE’s access to private data and the Democratic response.

April 24, 202531min 12sec29.97 MB

Thumbnail for "The impact of Trump’s about-face on tariffs".

The impact of Trump's tariff chaos. The Washington Post's Jeff Stein explains what it means for global trade, the U.S. economy and your pocketbooks.

April 10, 202525min 47sec24.76 MB

Thumbnail for "Uncovering the dark secrets of Johnson and Johnson".

Investigative journalist Gardiner Harris on his new book, "No More Tears." It tells the story of Johnson & Johnson, and a history of dark secrets he says endangered millions of lives.

April 3, 202544min 17sec42.52 MB

Thumbnail for "How Trump is using fear as a political tool".

The Atlantic's Isaac Stanley-Becker discusses the use of fear as a political tool in Trump's pressure campaigns against big law and higher ed.

March 27, 202537min 34sec36.07 MB

Thumbnail for "The latest on Alzheimer's research -- and why it might be at risk".

Diane talks to George Vradenburg of UsAgainstAlzheimer's about the latest breakthroughs in Alzheimer's research and how those advances could be undermined by cuts to the federal government.

March 20, 202540min 4sec38.47 MB

Thumbnail for "How the powerful are trying to undermine press freedoms in the US".

David Enrich of The New York Times discusses his new book, "Murder the Truth," about a growing movement to cripple the media and protect the powerful.

March 14, 202539min 17sec37.72 MB

Thumbnail for "A Trump critic on his worst fears -- and a way forward".

Political scientist Norman Ornstein weighs in on the Trump agenda, the Democrats’ response and what comes next in Washington.

March 6, 202541min 18sec39.65 MB

How deportations ignited a clash between the White House and the courts

April 16, 202535min 48sec

Can the courts act as a check on the Trump administration’s power?

Though this question is not new, it has taken on an urgency as the case of a Maryland man accidentally deported to a prison in El Salvador has highlighted the White House’s increasingly combative stance towards the judiciary.

This week Trump’s team appeared to flout a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court that said the government must “facilitate” Kilmer Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. Days later, a federal court judge threatened to hold the government in contempt for “doing nothing.”

“This country was built on checks and balances,” says Joan Biskupic, chief Supreme Court analyst for CNN and author of several book about our judicial system, including Nine Black Robes. “If we don’t have checks on what a very powerful executive branch is doing right now,” she warns, “we don’t have the same democracy we had.”

Biskupic joins Diane to talk about what might come next in the legal showdown over the administration’s recent deportations and what it means for the legitimacy of the courts.