David Graham, Jennifer Rubin, Rina Shaw, and Joyce Vance on President-Elect Trump’s pardoning plans; averting a government shutdown with Rep. Adam Smith; the Biden Administration’s plans for its final days in office with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm; what Trump’s pick to lead the Civil Rights division of the DOJ means for the future of the department; and the future of journalism in a new Trump era with Nikole Hannah-Jones.

Joyce Vance, Lisa Rubin, Carol Leonnig and Mary McCord on Trump’s pick of Kash Patel for FBI Director; Tom Nichols on avoiding exhaustion from Trump’s strategically-sown chaos; Roger McNamee and Mary Anne Franks on Australia’s social media ban for kids; Jennifer Piscopo and Adia Wingfield on corporate America’s rollback of DEI initiatives; and former Ambassador Michael McFaul on the war in Ukraine.

Ali discusses the threat posed by Trump’s potential trade wars with Ron Insana, Fred Hochberg, and fmr. Amb. Gary Locke; what’s coming in the new post-Roe Trump era with Robin Marty; the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire with Matt Bradley; the humanitarian crisis in Sudan with Eatizaz Yousif; and Amanda Jones joins the Velshi Banned Book Club

Rep. Stacey Plaskett and Olivia Troye on finding the guardrails in a new Trump era; Kathleen Sebelius on Donald Trump’s move to put vaccine skeptics in charge of public health; Mary Anne Franks on the myth of the First Amendment as a great equalizer, Gov. Jay Inslee on states taking over the climate crisis ahead of a new Trump term; and Doris Kerns Goodwin on how America has found light after its darkest days in the past.

Michael Steele, Joyce Vance, Jennifer Rubin, and Norm Ornsetin on Donald Trump’s post-election embrace of figures tied to Project 2025, NATO’s former Supreme Allied Commander Adm. James Stavridis on a new escalation from Vladimir Putin, Melissa Murray on the effort to chip away at the separation between church and state for America’s schoolchildren, former senior U.S. State Department advisor Aaron David Miller on shifting American politics around the war in Gaza, and author Becky Albertalli on her banned book “Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda.”

Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and former Obama aide Melody Barnes on Donald Trump’s campaign against Senate confirmation for his cabinet picks; Thom Hartmann and Jason Stanley on how the Supreme Court chipped away at the walls between money and politics; Masha Gessen on the “dark, unspoken promise” of a second Trump term; Ian Bremmer on Trump’s tariff plan; and Congressman-Elect Eugene Vindman (D-VA) on what a new Trump term will mean for the war in Ukraine.

Nobel laureate Maria Ressa on safeguarding free speech against autocracy, Ben Rhodes on how Trump’s cabinet picks would “wreck” federal agencies and remake government “in the image of MAGA,” and best-selling author Jodi Picoult on what we can all do to fight the rising tide of book bans.

Attorneys General Kris Mayes and William Tong go “on offense” ahead of a 2nd Trump term, Eddie Glaude and Imani Perry on American democracy and what’s ahead, and a historical lookback on women coming to power globally (except in America) with Jennifer Piscopo and Molly Jong-Fast.

Ali Velshi is joined by presidential historian Jon Meacham, historian Tim Snyder, constitutional law expert Laurence Tribe, Center for Reproductive Rights President & CEO Nancy Northup, and journalist Chris Whipple.