Why Is This Happening? With Chris Hayes

What is happening in the Middle East? Chris Hayes sorts through the bewildering number of individual conflicts and key players to get to the heart of what’s unfolding in the Middle East. And, at the heart of it, is one big potentially world-war-starting kind of fight that helps explains them all. To understand the details of that fight, Chris turns to one of the best foreign reporters writing today – Dexter Filkins. He has covered the area extensively, knows the Middle East inside and out, and can tell us why we could be standing on the precipice of something era-defining. Read more at NBCNews.com/whyisthishappening

Talking about the politics of identity, particularly in the age of Donald Trump, can feel like you’re walking through a minefield. Whether it’s the President’s immigration policy or two black men arrested in a Starbucks, Chris Hayes argues that all the political debates we’re having are wrapped up in personal politics. But when it comes to confronting those personal politics and examining the power struggles that they invoke, conversations tend to get tense and defensive. Author and Professor Brittney Cooper’s story is compelling and traumatic and illuminating and she uses these pieces to explore how the personal becomes political within her own life in her new book, “Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower”. If there’s anyone who can talk about the politics of identity, feminism, and how we can understand those ideas through the lens of Beyoncé, it is Brittney Cooper. Read more at NBCNews.com/whyisthishappening

This podcast will help answer the BIG questions that keep Chris up at night. In this tumultuous time, the things we see play out on cable news every day are driven by big ideas, themes, and huge arcs of history. So, every week a new expert will help us better understand why this is (all) happening. Read more at NBCNews.com/whyisthishappening