A May 6 episode of The Nation’s American Prestige podcast features hosts Daniel Bessner and Derek Davison in conversation with University of Vermont political science professor Alex Zakaras about the history and future of radical liberalism.
The Nation’s American Prestige released an episode titled “Radical Liberalism—With Alex Zakaras” on May 6, 2026.
In the episode, hosts Daniel Bessner and Derek Davison speak with Alex Zakaras, identified by the show as a professor of political science at the University of Vermont, about what the podcast describes as the history and future of radical liberalism.
According to the episode description, their discussion ranges across liberalism’s relationship to republicanism, the American liberal tradition, and the concept of “equal freedom.” It also touches on what the show calls defensive liberalism after 2016, as well as neoliberalism, Cold War liberalism, socialism, racial hierarchy, labor power, and democratic crisis, alongside the question of whether liberalism can still offer a politics of freedom and equality.
The episode page also points listeners to Zakaras’s book, Freedom for All: What a Liberal Society Could Be.
