This week’s episode is a bit of a crossover. We’re sharing the fourth and final episode of MSNBC’s “The Threat of Project 2025” special series for the How to Win podcast. In this episode, Chris speaks with Grist climate reporter Zoya Teirstein for her take on Project 2025’s impact on climate and the environment, especially in communities already suffering from climate-related catastrophes. Then, Dr. Vernon Morris, a professor of chemistry and atmospheric sciences at Arizona State University, shares his experience working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the important work at stake should NOAA be dismantled by this conservative agenda.

We’re thrilled to share a mashup of our MSNBC Live: Democracy 2024 event that we recently held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The whole day was a celebration of you, our viewers and listeners. It was the first of its kind in-person, interactive experience. We so enjoyed meeting so many of you. But if you couldn’t join us in person, you’re in luck – we’re sharing key conversations in this episode. For more, be sure to check out our TV special airing Saturday, September 14th at 9 p.m. ET. For your reference, here are timecodes for the sessions included here:

Claire McCaskill, Jen Psaki, and Andrea Mitchell 0:01:30-0:31:23

Chris Hayes & Kate Shaw 0:31:36-0:51:20

Andrew Weissmann & Ari Melber 0:51:25-1:12:53

Rachel Maddow & Lawrence O’Donnell 1:13:13-1:45:45

North Carolina is one of the most interesting swing states in this election. Democrats have not won the Tar Heel state at the presidential level since 2008 when Barack Obama won it. It was a close race in 2020 and recent polling has shown Harris and Trump neck and neck in the state. There’s a lot to unpack about what’s going on. Anderson Clayton is the chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party. Elected at 25 years old, she is the youngest chair of a state Democratic Party in the U.S. Clayton joins WITHpod to discuss her political trajectory, the state of North Carolina politics, key issues including gerrymandering, her experience at the DNC and more.

During this year’s DNC, President Biden reflected on numerous accomplishments and discussed his track record. One of the signature pieces of legislation of the Biden presidency, and of Democrats in this era, is the Inflation Reduction Act, also known as the IRA. This August marked the 2-year anniversary of the landmark federal law. Our guest this week teamed up with his students to track the cumulative effects of the implementation of the IRA. Jay Turner is the Wiliam R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Environmental Studies at Wellesley College. He’s also a historian, author on U.S. environmental politics and wrote “Charged: A History of Batteries and Lessons for a Clean Energy Future.” He joins WITHpod to discuss progress made, developments in batteries and electric energy sources, possible paths forward to reach ambitious goals and more.

The Democratic national convention was a whole vibe this year. History was made during the electric four-day convention, which culminated with Vice President Harris accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination, the first black woman and person of South Asian decent to do so. Lucky for us, our own Alex Wagner, host of “Alex Wagner Tonight” on MSNBC, joined us fresh off her flight from Chicago to unpack what the “whirlwind” experience was like. Wagner also discusses the people who were there and what they mean for the party, areas of possible trouble or friction ahead that may not have been evident on TV and more.

Chris just got back from vacation. It just so happened that he was way during one of the most remarkable periods in American presidential political history. There’s a lot to unpack with our guest this week. Heather McGhee is a New York Times bestselling author of “The Sum of Us” and the board chair at Color of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice group. She joins WITHpod to discuss the most seismic recent political developments, vibes within the Democratic Party and more.

We’ve seen a wave of campaigns in school districts and municipalities across the country to ban literary works over the past few years. One instance of this is the subject of MSNBC Films’ "To Be Destroyed," the latest installment of "The Turning Point" documentary series from Executive Producer Trevor Noah. The feature documentary explores a South Dakota community's fight against book banning after five books – including one by best-selling author Dave Eggers – were pulled from the shelves. Eggers joins WITHpod to discuss how he views his role as a writer in this era, the efforts to ban books, why and where they’re happening and the reactionary moment that we’re in.