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Beyond Politics

Politics may be dismal, but the ideas that swirl around it and shape it are fascinating. This is a show that looks not just at politics, but the deeper ideas from history, science, psychology, economics, and technology that are shaping our world. We feature smart, lively, upbeat discussions with people who know what they're talking about and can help us understand the world better. Hosted by Matt Robison: writer, former senior congressional staffer, and campaign manager.
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Episodes

The Top 5 Enormous Flaws that Will Make DeSantis Crash Down and Burn

Ron DeSantis was the Fox News "Great White Cope" (cope with their soured love affair with Trump, that is)...until things started going south. Now questions are swirling about whether he's been a paper tiger all along. Columnist Jason Sattler and host Matt Robison debate the top five flaws that are most likely to complete DeSantis' flameout, and try to figure out whether he can ultimately turn things around and defeat Trump.

Apr 20, 202330 min

Will This Weird Pudding Pornography Video Actually Help Trump's Attack?

One of the strangest political ads ever and it's strangely...dirty?!? Also what's underneath the move to get Senator Feinstein to resign? Does Kevin MCCarthy actually have a plan to save America from his own insane Republican Congress? And what should we hope for int he Fox-Dominion lawsuit?

Apr 18, 202333 min

Why Are Republicans Acting Like Criminals? They Think They're Royalty.

Fred Wellman, former Executive Director of the Lincoln Project, talks about his provocative substack article connecting the dots between Donald Trump's criminal behavior, Clarence Thomas' corrupt behavior, and Ron DeSantis' authoritarian behavior. They all believe that the rules don't apply to them, and that they are somehow royal.

Apr 14, 202336 min

Will Fumbling DeSantis Fail, and Why is Florida Actually So Damn Crazy Now?

In the last 20 years Florida has gone from balanced swing state to incubator of far-right Trump clones, and it's about to produce the leading non-Trump Republican candidate for President, Ron DeSantis. So why did Florida go so...nuts? And is Ron DeSantis going to wilt under the national spotlight as so many analysts seem to think? Kartik Krishnaiyer is a writer who focuses on Florida politics at his must-read website The Florida Squeeze and he joins us to wade us through the craziness of the Flo...

Apr 12, 202340 min

Can President Biden Tell Corrupt Courts to Go to Hell?

And should he do that with the new abortion medicine ruling? Also, what about the astonishing revelations about Clarence Thomas' corruption. What is on the line for Donald Trump in his NEW deposition this week? And what is the big takeaway from the expulsions of two Black Tennessee legislators?

Apr 11, 202338 min

Famous Government Expert Norm Ornstein Is Worried Sick About the Next Five Years. Why?

The Wall Street Journal says there’s a five-alarm warning for Republicans happening right now. But is it really a five alarm-warning for all of us? We wanted to ask that question of one of the top experts on American government after an historic and ominous week in America. Norman Ornstein is one of the most famous and respected scholars of American politics and government, he often appears on C-SPAN, CBS, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, NPR, and “PBS NewsHour,” He served as an election analyst fo...

Apr 07, 202342 min

PART TWO: Is the Devastating Trump Felony Indictment Way Worse Than He Imagined?

In Part One , former prosecutor and Congressman Paul Hodes walked us through the charges against Donald Trump in New York, and why they amount to such a strong case. In today's Part Two, our panel takes a closer look at the political impact and debates whether Trump can still win the Republican nomination and what it will do with his political prospects in general.

Apr 05, 202330 min

Is Donald Trump Actually About to Go Full "Jump the Shark" Crazy?

The panel evaluates whether Trump's latest doozy of a rally represents a desperate attempt to keep his fans' attention with even more insane stuff. Also, is DeSantis about to fizzle? Will Republicans repeat their 2016 blunder? Will Democrats' connection with American Jews permanently fall apart over Netanyahu's power grab? And...rainbows!

Mar 29, 202327 min

Media, Lies, and Laws: Will Israel's Crisis Be America's Future?

As Israel spirals into street protests, strikes, and political chaos, former AP lead Middle East reporter Dan Perry joins us to explain why this is happening and to dive into the eerie parallels between Bibi Netanyahu and Donald Trump, and the political unraveling in Israel and what has been happening in the United States. And we ask what lessons we can learn about how to head off a similar crisis in America. Subscribe to Dan Perry's must-read Substack for more....

Mar 27, 202339 min

Painful Questions, Searing Lessons: What Did We Learn in the Failed Iraq War?

The 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq has raised important and enduring questions: why did we do it? Why did the press get so fooled by false arguments for invading? How could we have failed in our military planning so badly that we sent our troops to war without the equipment they needed? Was there a "winnable" version of this -- or even are we better off for having done it than we think? And what are the lasting consequences here? Sean Carberry - Managing Editor of National Defense M...

Mar 24, 202344 min

How the right wing hacked the media, and how we can hack back

How did right-wing MAGA Republicans dupe the media into parroting their undiluted propaganda to the public? Our Blue Amp YouTube Channel partner Cliff Schecter joins podcaster and journalist Greg Olear to trace the history and reasons why we landed here.

Mar 23, 20231 hr 10 min

Panic! Attack! Defend! Are Republicans Scrambling in Fear Before Trump Arrest?

Desantis going hard after Trump, other Republicans going to the mat to defend him, and Democrats trying to play it cool. Could Trump come out of this stronger, or are Republicans tying themselves in knots as the world waits for Trump to make his perp walk? Also, a monumental ruling on abortion could come any day...what would a ban on the top medical abortion pill mean?

Mar 22, 202330 min

Donald Trump Arrest Preview Spectacular! Will He Doom the GOP?

Will the increasingly likely indictment of Donald Trump somehow help him and the Republicans, or set them up for political misery? Matt Robison joins legendary radio broadcaster Howard Monroe to figure out the answer. Also, what about Trump's call for protests--how dangerous is that? What about the other pending legal cases?

Mar 20, 202323 min

Startling Campaign Abuse; and Is President Biden Using A Time-Tested Political Strategy?

Today, an abusive Democratic politician, and an inside view as Joe Biden gears up for the re-election campaign. A bombshell story in Politico on Marianne Williamson and her abuse of staff and the people around her features a sole on-the-record quote from our own Paul Hodes. We wanted to understand more about what it's like to put a story together like that, and we also wanted to take the chance to bring our viewers and listeners one of the top White House reporters around as President Biden prep...

Mar 16, 202328 min

Money, Sex, and Washington: A Week of Exploding Banks and Trapped Republicans

No one likes to talk about banking...that is, until a couple of banks go down and everyone starts worrying that spreading panic might bring about another "Great Recession" style financial crisis. Paul Hodes was a member of Congress during that crisis and he takes us inside the differences between now and then. Also, Republicans have put themselves in a box on cutting the budget, and now they've trapped all of us and the entire US economy inside with them. And, Trump...Stormy Daniels...indictment...

Mar 14, 202330 min

Right-Wing Censorship Claims Are Lies; and How to Fix Massive Social Media Failures

Disinformation, misinformation, and lies: how do we deal with a fire-hose of mind-warping bullshit in the age of social media? There's been a perfect storm on this topic in the past month: the Dominion lawsuit cast a bright light on Fox News' determination to lie; the House oversight committee’s Festivus airing of invented grievances about the persecution of the right wing by social media; and of course our own experience being mistakenly targeted by YouTube as we talked about exposing election ...

Mar 09, 202339 min

We Got Censored! The BS Myth About Right-Wing Media.

Our own experience getting pulled down by the YouTube algorithm highlights some of the deep problems with social media, Fox News, disinformation, and the myth of right-wing persecution. A panel conversation featuring guest conservative analyst Michael Graham, former CBS NEws analyst and currently of the NH Journal and the Boston Herald. Also, do you want to live in Trumpville?

Mar 08, 202337 min

Inside the spectacular crash of one of the right wing's most vile figures

Today, the baffling rise and spectacular fall of one of the right wing's biggest stars. When the news broke that James O'Keefe had been forced out of Project Veritas, the group he founded that conducted stunts, undercover stings, another deceptive tactics to inflict embarrassment on Democrats and media targets, there was one person I wanted to talk to more than anyone else. She's Lauren Windsor, the executive director of American Family Voices and the executive producer of the grassroots politic...

Mar 03, 202329 min

How This Ugly Fox News Moment Opens a Window on the Gaslighting of America

New documents in the defamation suit against Fox News for deliberately spreading Donald Trump's "Big Lie" about the election have opened a window on what it looks like when a media company sets out to deliberately mislead the American people, knowing they are lying. What does it mean for the first Amendment, for media coverage, and for the struggle against conspiracy theories? Also, another monumental Supreme Court case, ands Idaho takes up Marjorie Taylor Greene's call for a national divorce....

Feb 28, 202339 min

Can Democrats Get Smart, Hit Hard, Inspire, and Kick More A** NOW?

How can we make Democrats kick ass again? We have better ideas, a stronger record of getting great stuff done, and we're not insane semi-fascists like some people we could mention. But we still barely eke out wins against a Republican Party led by nuts. This conversation is taken from a live YouTube show on the Blue Amp channel , where our expert guests explained exactly how Democrats can get more aggressive and stronger with their messaging and win more. Our guests are former Biden ad writer an...

Feb 24, 202330 min

Captured FBI. Swindled NY Times. How Did Russia Make Pawns Help Trump?

Possibly the greatest scandal in American intelligence history, and even political history, is unfolding right now. Our guest Craig Unger is the author of a recent article in the New Republic called "Did the FBI's Charles McGonigal help Throw the 2016 Election to Trump?" It raises the very real possibility that Russia infiltrated the FBI and helped orchestrate a stunning swindle of the New York Times in ways that may have handed the Presidency to Donald Trump. And we're still learning more about...

Feb 23, 202338 min

Was Biden's Risky Stunner Worth it, And Time for Painful Political Divorce?

Biden's bold Ukraine fly-in was historic, but we ask the question that no one is: was it too great a risk? Also, Kevin McCarthy hands over raw insurrection footage exclusively to Tucker Carlson, a known insurrection denier and Russian propegandist. And Marjorie Taylor Greene thinks America needs a Red-Blue divorce. The panel wonders: could we just divorce ourselves from Marjorie Taylor Greene?

Feb 21, 202336 min

Four Ways Republican Insanity is Exploding Out of Congress and Into the Open

New revelations about George Santos, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jim Jordan and the Freedom Caucus' demands provide a window into just how off-the-wall the Congress under Republican leadership has become. Matt appears on the radio show hosted by legendary broadcaster Howard Monroe to run down just how bad it's gotten, how Republicans are trying to reverse reality, and what the consequences would be for all of us if this group has their way.

Feb 17, 202326 min

Can You Kinda Like Politics, and Totally Hate all the Politicians?

Bringing you a conversation today that Matt recorded with AJ Kierstead, a libertarian Republican radio host who finds common ground with people across the political spectrum. We put a bow on the state of the union address and what it meant and ask why we can't stand politicians, but still like politics.

Feb 16, 202320 min

UFOs, Republicans' Impossible Dilemma, and IS Trump an actual PAB?

We take you inside a classified military briefing like the kind members of Congress got last week about the UFOs we've been shooting down. What happens? What can you believe? Also, Republicans have an impossible dilemma in front of them that they may not solve. And, a linguistic analysis: is Donald Trump ACTUALLY a PAB???

Feb 15, 202337 min

A 4th Craft Shot Down. But Are They Aliens? Probably Not. Our Interview with The World's Top UFO Video Expert

The military shot down it's fourth object flying over our skies in eight days yesterday. This raises a ton of questions: what are these things, where do they come from, and why are there so many right now? Underlying them all is the big one: could it actually be aliens? That is why we wanted to share our earlier interview with Mick West, who is the preeminent explainer of UFO videos in the world. He's widely cited by journalists, highly respected, and highly respectful. He takes a rational, scie...

Feb 13, 202343 min
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