i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. rmeen: we are speaking with nancy maclean, author of "democracy in chains: the deep history of the radical right's stealth plan for america." history andessor of public policy at duke university. i would like to get your response to an excerpt from the bbc tv documentary series directed by adam curtis. the documentary is called "the trap: what happened to our dream of freedom?" in this clip, james buchanan spleens why he believes there is no such thing as the public interest. >> there's certainly no measurable concept meaningful -- that can be called the public interest. because how do you weigh different interests different groups and what they can get out of it? the public interest as a politician things it does not mean it exists. it is what he thinks is good for the country. if you would come out and say that, that is one thing. but behind us hypocrisy of calling something in the public interest as if it exists, that is what i was trying to tear down. nermeen: that was james buchan

nermeen: and i'm nermeen shaikh. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. today we spend the hour with the acclaimed indian writer arundhati roy. it has been 20 years since her debut novel "the god of small things" made her a literary sensation. while the book won the booker prizer and became an international best seller selling over six million copies, roy soon turned away from fiction. she became a leading critic of u.s. empire, the wars in the middle east, and the rise of hindu nationalism in her home country of india. her nonfiction books included -- include "the end of imagination," "field notes on democracy: listening to grasshoppers," and "capitalism: a ghost story." in 2010, she faced possible arrest on sedition charges after publicly advocating for kashmiri independence and challenging india's claim that kashmir is an integral part of india. amy: two years ago, arundhati roy made headlines when she visited nsa whistleblower edward snowden in russia. she was jo

nermeen: and i'm nermeen shaikh. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and d around the world. we begin today's show on capitol hill, which remains in shock after house majority whip steve scalise of louisiana and four other people were wounded on wednesday when a gunman opened fire at a baseball field in alexandria, virginia. the lawmakers were practicing for a charity congressional game that will take place tonight. scalise, the third ranking republican in the house, was shot in the hip and remains in critical condition. speaking on cncnn, republican senator rand paul of kentucky gave this chilling eye-witness acaccount of thehe sototing. >> i'm in right field. i'm at the farthest one of the field from anybody from the gunshots. of the gunshots are still feuding in the dirt in right field where there are two staffers laying on the ground. i think one of them may have been hit. there are between me -- between me and them is about a 50 to 20 foot fence. one of the staffers decides, i'm n

i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. llowing the attacks in london on saturday night, president trump launched a tweet from this morning and over the weekend. insistently calling for the u.s. to impose his proposed muslim travel ban. the ban would prohibit all refugees and citizens of six muslim majority countries from entering the united states. on saturday, trump tweeted -- "we need to be smart to vigilant , and tough. we need the courts to give us back our rights. we need the travel ban as and a level of safety." tweeteds morning, trump -- "people, the lawyers, and the courts can call it whatever they want, but i am calling it what we need and what it is -- a travel ban." amy: on thursday, the trump administration asked the supreme court to revive his muslim travel ban, which has been blocked by multiple courts. the trump the administration has .iled emergency the supreme court will deliberate on whether to allow the ban to go into effect from among other things, consider whether trump's election campaign rhetoric can

i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh.ur guest for the hour, arundhati roy. would you read from her new book? >> sure. i will read a part, which is born, sheharacter is was the fourth of five children born on a cold january night by lamplight in the old city of delhi. the midwife who delivered her and put her in her mother's arms, wrapped in to shawls said, "it is a boy." rror was understandable. her month into her first pregnancy, the couple had decided that if their first baby was a boy, they would name him. their first three children were girls. they have been waiting for their son for six years. the night he was born was the happiest of their lives. the next morning when the sun was up and the room nice and un-swshe and swaddled -- addled the baby. body withed his unhurried delight. that was when she discovered nestling underneath his boy parts, a small unformed, but undoubtedly grow part. is it possible for a mother to be terrified of her own baby? she was. her first reaction was to feel her heart constrict and her as

last week, nermeen shaikh and i sat down with arundhdhati roy in our studio. asked her how winning the booker prize, at the time she was the youngest writer ever to win it, affected her life as a writer. was thrilling to win the booker prize. it was something that i had .hought about after that, it became complicated because if you actually become very well known and then let's say you move to a place, london or new york, where lots of well-known international people live, then it's a different story. but if you want to carry on living where you lived and being with your old friends, you know, all of them have to deal with the booker prize and the fame, and it is really hard. but it's ok. but the thing that happened was that very soon after i won the booker prize, the bjp government came to power, did the nuclear tests. and i was, at that point, you know, on the cover of every magazine. i was the face of this new india. and then the new india, to my mind, suddenly turned ugly. the public discourse after those tests became overtly nationalist, overtly ugly. thi