Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ezra Klein Hash Out Their Charlie Kirk Disagreement

The writer Ta-Nehisi Coates was harshly critical of my response to Charlie Kirk’s assassination. In an article in Vanity Fair, he suggested I was whitewashing Kirk’s legacy, comparing it to the whitewashing of the Southern cause after the Civil War.

So I wanted to have Coates on the show to talk out our disagreement, as well as some deeper questions that I think exist underneath it about the work of politics.

What should the left do about the fact that so many Americans share Kirk’s views? What kinds of disagreements should we try to bridge? When is that work moral and necessary, and when is it a betrayal?

0:00 Intro
2:07 Why Coates wrote the piece
10:07 Why is the left losing right now?
24:14 The stakes of losing right now
29:09 “Not at the expense of my neighbor’s humanity”
36:14 What if you don’t get to draw the line?
49:37 The work of politics
1:09:41 Book recommendations

Read the full transcript here: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-ta-nehisi-coates.html

Watch more on @EzraKleinShow

Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.

You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.html