We’ve just watched as Washington paid off financial interests with provisions in the new spending bill that expand the amount of campaign cash wealthy donors can give, and let banks off the hook for gambling with customer (and taxpayer) money. It all sounds strikingly familiar to the First Gilded Age, says historian Steve Fraser. But back then people rose in rebellion against the powers that be.

Bill speaks with outspoken veteran journalist John R. MacArthur, president and publisher of Harper’s Magazine, about the problems with the Obama-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership being negotiated in secret and Hillary Clinton’s possible presidential campaign.

In the wake of decisions by grand juries in both Missouri and New York’s Staten Island not to indict white police officers in the deaths of unarmed African-Americans, this week we present an encore broadcast of Bill’s conversation earlier this year with journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates.

This week Bill Moyers looks at how a portion of the famous skyline of Manhattan, towering above the south end of Central Park, is becoming a symbol of how wealth and power get their way without regard for the impact on the lives and neighborhoods of everyday people.

This week, Lawrence Lessig and Zephyr Teachout return to talk about the corrupting influence of money in politics — a subject both have studied as scholars — and how they’re fighting to reform the system.

In this turbulent midterm election year, two academics — Lawrence Lessig and Zephyr Teachout — left the classroom and confronted the reality of down-and-dirty politics, attempting to replace moneyed interests with the public interest. Neither was successful – this year, at least – but on this week’s show, Bill speaks with them about the hard-fought lessons learned on the state of American.

Days ahead of the midterm elections, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Vermont’s independent US Senator, is angry about what he sees as big money’s wholesale purchase of political power. It’s a grave threat, he believes, not only to our electoral process but to democracy itself.

The Supreme Court has upheld Texas’ harsh voter ID law for the upcoming midterm elections. The law is part of a nationwide effort to suppress the vote, nurtured by the right’s desire to hold onto power. Bill speaks with Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and Ari Berman, a journalist with The Nation, about the ongoing vote suppression controversy.

Marilynne Robinson’s new book,  “Lila,” has just been nominated for the National Book Award, the latest of a series of books set in a fictional Iowa town.  In addition to her fiction, she is also an accomplished essayist, and on this week’s show, Bill talks with her about her fervent belief in the power of grace and faith and her devotion to democracy.