Episodes

  • Tom Nichols: Incendiary Nominations, Global Conflagrations, & Presidential Pyromania

    Tom Nichols: Incendiary Nominations, Global Conflagrations, & Presidential Pyromania
    Nov 20 2024
    John is joined by Tom Nichols, professor emeritus of national-security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College and staff writer for The Atlantic, to discuss Donald Trump’s foreign policy appointments and the challenges he will face upon his return to the Oval Office. Nichols offers a tour d’horizon of global hotspots, from Ukraine to the Middle East, that will test Trump’s mettle immediately and with huge implications for U.S. vital interests; his assessment of how America’s foreign adversaries, from Vladimir Putin to Xi Jinping, view his return to power (spoiler alert: not unhappily); and his argument as to why, amid a raft of objectionable Trump appointments, the selection of Pete Hegseth to run the Department of Defense is the most irresponsible and dangerous, both abroad and at home. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 24 mins
  • Beschloss & Meacham: No One Should Be Surprised

    Beschloss & Meacham: No One Should Be Surprised
    Nov 18 2024
    John is joined by America’s best-known presidential historians, Michael Beschloss and Jon Meacham, to discuss the first two weeks of the transition to Donald Trump’s second term. Beschloss and Meacham assess the most head-spinning of Trump’s initial appointments and their prospects for confirmation; why the sense of shock these picks have elicited, even among Republicans, is ludicrous on its face; the role of Steve Bannon as the intellectual architect of Trump’s radical governing agenda and its central goal of what Bannon calls the “deconstruction of the administrative state;” and why it’s safe to assume that what we’re seeing now is what the next four years will look like. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 38 mins
  • Seth Moulton & Ritchie Torres: What Dems Can (Must) Learn From 2024

    Seth Moulton & Ritchie Torres: What Dems Can (Must) Learn From 2024
    Nov 15 2024
    John is joined by two up-and-coming Democratic congressmen—Seth Moulton, of the North Shore of Massachusetts, and Ritchie Torres, of the Bronx—to discuss what went wrong for Democrats in 2024. Moulton and Torres have little in common besides their relative youth; Moulton, 46, is white, straight, and holds multiple degrees from Harvard, while Torres, 36, is Afro Latino, openly gay, and never graduated from college. But their diagnoses of what ails their party (and, in particular, what allowed Donald Trump to make dramatic inroads with non-white working class voters) and their prescriptions for how to cure it are in sync: preach less and listen more; stop pandering to the left, especially on cultural issues; embrace pragmatism, competency, and open debate over purity tests, identity politics, and Ivory Tower condescension. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 16 mins
  • Claire McCaskill: Trump Staffs Up, Dems Hunker Down, & Musk Runs Amok

    Claire McCaskill: Trump Staffs Up, Dems Hunker Down, & Musk Runs Amok
    Nov 13 2024
    John is joined by Claire McCaskill, former Democratic U.S. senator from Missouri, to discuss the fallout from the election and transition to Donald Trump’s second White House term. McCaskill assesses Trump's first batch of cabinet and White House staff appointments, calling it a “mixed bag," with some picks mildly reassuring and others decidedly not; the practical and political challenges of mass deportation; the potential for (or inevitability of) friction between Trump and Elon Musk; and the internal debates and internecine finger-pointing now consuming the Democratic Party as it seeks to apportion blame for, interpret the meaning of, and find a way forward from the shellacking it suffered on Election Day. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 9 mins
  • Douglas Brinkley: Extreme Incaution, Enemies Lists, & The Age of Trump

    Douglas Brinkley: Extreme Incaution, Enemies Lists, & The Age of Trump
    Nov 11 2024
    John is joined by political and cultural historian—and literary executor for Hunter S. Thompson—Douglas Brinkley to discuss the end of the 2024 election and Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Brinkley explains the harsh impact of Kamala Harris’s defeat on Joe Biden’s legacy, and how Biden only has himself to blame; how Trump managed, despite his clear political liabilities, to increase his share of the vote all over the country; why Harris’s extreme caution was her greatest weakness and Trump’s extreme incaution his greatest strength; and how much we should fear Steve Bannon and his pledge to deliver “rough, Roman justice” to MAGA’s foes. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    59 mins
  • Trumpocalypse Now, Again: Puck Superfriends on 45 Becoming 47

    Trumpocalypse Now, Again: Puck Superfriends on 45 Becoming 47
    Nov 7 2024
    John is joined by his Puck partners Dylan Byers and Peter Hamby to discuss Donald Trump’s reelection: the remarkable scale of his victory and the unexpected breadth of the coalition he assembled to achieve it; whether anyone paying attention to the campaign—or the Trump era in our politics and culture more broadly—should have been surprised; the Democratic finger-pointing that’s already begun in the wake of Kamala Harris's loss; whether VP Harris or President Biden bears more responsibility for the failure to dispatch Trump; and what might happen within the two parties, as well as the mainstream and upstart media, when Trump and his allies reassert themselves in the capital. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 30 mins
  • Nicolle Wallace: Happy Election Day — Everything’s Gonna Be Alright

    Nicolle Wallace: Happy Election Day — Everything’s Gonna Be Alright
    Nov 5 2024
    John is joined by MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace for an Election Day special episode on the final hours of the presidential race. The two close friends examine Kamala Harris’s decision to close out her campaign by dropping all references to Donald Trump and returning to the themes of unity, change, and joy that animated her early days as the Democratic nominee; the contrast presented by Trump’s off-message, off-kilter, at times off-color turns on the stump, as he toggled between anger and exhaustion before dwindling crowds; the bolt-from-the-blue Iowa poll that stunned the political world by showing Harris with a 3-point lead in a state that Trump won easily in 2016 and 2020; whether the combination of Dobbs, Liz Cheney, John Kelly, and Trump’s Madison Square fiasco would put Harris over the top; and, if not, what Trump’s reelection will say about America. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 28 mins
  • Charlamagne tha God: Problematic Polling, Media Malpractice, & Trump Impunity

    Charlamagne tha God: Problematic Polling, Media Malpractice, & Trump Impunity
    Nov 4 2024
    John is joined by radio host and burgeoning media mogul Charlamagne tha God—whose nationally syndicated morning show, The Breakfast Club, has emerged as a key conduit to Black America for political figures from Kamala Harris to Lara Trump—to dig into the interplay of politics, media, and culture that led to a photo finish in the 2024 election. Charlemagne discusses his staunch support for Harris and his reaction to seeing Donald Trump’s team weaponize his words against her in an anti-Harris (and anti-trans) TV ad; his on-air clash with Anderson Cooper over the failure of CNN and others in the press to hold Trump accountable for his authoritarianism; his disdain for Joe Biden and respect for younger Democrats such as Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Shapiro, and Wes Moore; and what he makes of Tucker Carlson’s claim to have been mauled in his bed by a demon (yes, an actual demon). To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 20 mins