Dave Davies

This is Fresh Air.

I'm Dave Davies.

The midterm election is less than two weeks away, and for months, President Donald Trump has been warning that American voting systems are not to be trusted, including in his July primetime address to the nation.

Hundreds of thousands of non-citizens and dead people are listed and active on the voter rolls, and yet we still have elections with no voter ID, no proof of citizenship, and tens of millions of ballots floating aimlessly through the mail.

I was a political reporter for many years for the Philadelphia Daily News and Public Radio when Al was active in local Republican politics.

Al Schmidt, welcome to Fresh Air.

Great to be back with you, Dave.

Let's spend a moment on that harrowing experience following the 2020 election.

This is Fresh Air.

I'm Dave Davies.

If I ask you to picture the North Pole, what comes to mind? Maybe Santa and his elves, maybe a vast frozen expanse with a pole of some kind marking the very top of the world.

Well, our guest today, Rana Foroohar, says you should be thinking about a navigable ocean, and we all should be thinking about it a lot more than we used to.

This is Fresh Air.

I'm Dave Davies.

When President Donald Trump nominated Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense, he said he liked Hegseth's central casting looks and tough warrior mentality.

In a speech at the US Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia last week, Hegseth told an audience of junior officers and enlisted leaders they should be proud of the culture change he's brought to the military.

He covers the Pentagon and the U.S. military for The New York Times.

He'll be back to talk more after this short break.

I'm Dave Davies, and this is Fresh Air.

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This is Fresh Air.

I'm Dave Davies.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine four and a half years ago, Ukrainian forces have held their own on the battlefield with support from Western allies, and morale among the country's civilian population has held up despite punishing air attacks.

But our guest, Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of The Economist, says the war is changing in ways that bring a new level of terror to Ukrainian citizens and pose serious threats to the country's economy.

Learn more at selc.org.

This is Fresh Air.

I'm Dave Davies.

We're speaking with Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of The Economist.