John welcomes California Democratic congressman Ro Khanna to discuss a raft of headlines this week—from Donald Trump seeking $230 million in compensation from the Justice Department for its past investigations of him to his demolition of the East Wing of the White House to make space for a 90,000 square foot ballroom—that bolster Khanna’s argument that Trump and the GOP majority are running a government “of, by, and for the billionaires.” Khanna explains why focusing on MAGA corruption is his pa...
Oct 24, 2025•1 hr 16 min
John welcomes former CNN primetime anchor and current YouTube prospector Don Lemon to discuss Trump 2.0 and life after cable news. Lemon offers his take on the No Kings Day protests, Donald Trump’s efforts to prosecute his perceived political foes, the situation on the ground in Chicago, and the pros and cons of Zohran Mamdani. Lemon also discusses his testy interview with Elon Musk last year, which killed his nascent partnership with X in the crib; how he’s finding YouTube as a home for his bra...
Oct 20, 2025•1 hr 18 min
John welcomes Dennis Ross, the longtime diplomat sometimes referred to as the Zelig of Middle East peace talks, to discuss the deal brokered by Donald Trump to end the war in Gaza. Ross—whose career at the center of U.S. foreign policy included stints in the Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, and Obama administrations—explains why the significance of Trump's achievement shouldn’t be diminished, even if his claim of delivering “the historic dawn of a new Middle East" is wildly premature; what will...
Oct 17, 2025•1 hr 23 min
John welcomes the host of Pablo Torre Finds Out back to the show to discuss a pair of freak-outs at the intersection of sports, politics, and commerce: the Republican outrage over Bad Bunny being chosen to headline next year's Super Bowl halftime show, and the NBA's panic over the unfolding scandal, exposed by Pablo's exclusive reporting, involving billionaire LA Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and the team's superstar forward, Kawhi Leonard. Pablo explains why the NFL's increasing financial and cu...
Oct 13, 2025•1 hr 29 min
John welcomes former Republican National Committee chairman and current MSNBC host Michael Steele to the show to discuss the government shutdown, Pam Bondi’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Donald Trump’s militarization of law enforcement in America’s cities. Steele argues that Democrats have the upper hand in Washington’s fiscal standoff, Bondi beclowned herself on Capitol Hill, and Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker is holding his own against Trump’s incursion into Chicago; ...
Oct 10, 2025•1 hr 23 min
John welcomes Puck's master of the media multiverse, Dylan Byers, back to the show to discuss Bari Weiss's elevation to editor-in-chief of CBS News and Jimmy Kimmel's east coast victory lap after the furor around his suspension and reinstatement by Disney and ABC. Byers also weighs in on the panic in Hollywood over OpenAI's Sora and the first signs of the remaking of the Washington Post's op-ed page as directed by Jeff Bezos. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: htt...
Oct 06, 2025•1 hr 8 min
John welcomes former Obama White House comms director (and his ersthwile cohost on The Circus) Jennifer Palmieri to discuss the shuttering of the federal government earlier this week. Palmieri argues that Democrats were right to deny Republicans the votes it needed to further operationalize its agenda; that focusing on health care is fighting both the good fight (morally) and the right fight (politically) for her party; and that Donald Trump’s embrace of Russ Vought’s plan to lay off federal wor...
Oct 03, 2025•1 hr 11 min
John welcomes celebrated First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams to discuss Donald Trump’s efforts to stifle and/or prosecute his political opponents. Abrams—who has argued more free-speech cases before the Supreme Court than any attorney and whose clients have ranged from the New York Times in the Pentagon Papers case to Mitch McConnell in Citizens United—explains why Jimmy Kimmel’s reinstatement isn’t likely to end Trump’s legal and regulatory assault on broadcasters and the news media; the indict...
Sep 29, 2025•1 hr 12 min
John welcomes Rahm Emanuel—former Democratic Illinois congressman, White House chief of staff, mayor of Chicago, U.S. ambassador to Japan, and likely 2028 presidential candidate—to discuss the lessons of the Jimmy Kimmel conniption; how the broadcast networks could band together to beat back Donald Trump's regulatory and legal campaign against them; and the strategy and tactics his party should employ in the battle over shutting down the government. Rahm also flays congressional Republicans for ...
Sep 26, 2025•1 hr 13 min
John welcomes Drew Nieporent, the celebrated owner-operator behind Nobu, Tribeca Grill, and Montrachet, to discuss his new memoir, “I’m Not Trying To Be Difficult: Stories From the Restaurant Trenches.” Nieporent describes his role in transforming the stuffy, fussy, French-focused fine dining culture of New York in the 1970s into the dynamic, freewheeling, scene-driven atmosphere that took hold in the late 1980s; how his fabled partnership with Robert De Niro and Nobuyuki Matsuhisa spawned a glo...
Sep 22, 2025•1 hr 9 min
John welcomes New York Times scribe Robert Draper and Atlantic staff writer and podcast host David Frum to discuss the political reverberations from the fatal shooting of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. Draper joins the show from Kirk’s home base in Arizona, and assesses the impact of the shooting on those who revered him in the MAGA movement and the future of the organization he founded, Turning Point USA. Meanwhile, Frum takes stock of how the Trump administration is moving aggressively to a...
Sep 19, 2025•1 hr 20 min
John welcomes world-renowned epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm to discuss the threats to America’s public health system under Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Osterholm catalogues the damage Donald Trump’s Secretary of Health & Human Services has inflicted in just seven months in office; the misstatements and misinformation he put forward in his recent appearance before the Senate; and his especially dangerous and scientifically baseless views regarding vaccines. Osterholm also discusses his new bo...
Sep 15, 2025•1 hr 5 min
John welcomes former FBI assistant director Frank Figliuzzi back to the show to discuss the murder of Charlie Kirk. Figliuzzi assesses the state of the investigation into the apparent assassination and manhunt for the killer; what we know and don’t know on the basis of the evidence that's been made public; what’s driving thecross-partisan epidemic of political violence in America; and what, if anything, can be done to break the vicious cycle. Figliuzzi also takes the measure of the first half-ye...
Sep 12, 2025•1 hr 14 min
John welcomes writer, director, and actor Rob Reiner to the show to discuss the release of the sequel to his genre-defining 1984 mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap” — “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues". Reiner explains why it took 30 years for the follow-up to get made; how the original film went from box-office dud to cultural landmark; and its influence on a generation of comics, from Ricky Gervais to Ben Stiller to Jack Black, and movies and TV shows, from “Best In Show" to "The Office" to "Par...
Sep 08, 2025•1 hr 9 min
John welcomes Puck’s chief Washington correspondent, Leigh Ann Caldwell, back to the show to discuss Congress’s return to work after its August recess. Leigh Ann assesses the political potency (and limitations) of the public display of solidarity by a phalanx of Jeffrey Epstein survivors in the face of Donald Trump’s continued insistence that the story is a “Democrat hoax”; the potential implications of the Senate Finance Committee’s bipartisan laceration of RFK, Jr. over his tenure thus far at ...
Sep 05, 2025•57 min
John welcomes Jonathan Mahler, New York Times Magazine staff writer and bestselling author of “The Bronx Is Burning,” to discuss his new book, “The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990.” Mahler unpacks the reinvention of the Big Apple in the second half of the Eighties; riffs on the outsized characters (from Ed Koch and Rudy Giuliani to Larry Kramer, Al Sharpton, and, of course, Donald Trump) who played key roles in it; and argues that ...
Sep 01, 2025•1 hr 32 min
With every episode, Lena Dunham and Alissa Bennett take you on a historical deep dive into the life of a woman society dismissed by calling her mad, sad, or just plain bad: Lindsay Lohan, Judy Garland, Winona Ryder, Mariah Carey, Lil Kim and many more. Join them for a rich, hilarious, and heartbreaking look into exactly what it means when we call a woman “crazy.” The C-Word was originally published behind a paywall from 2019 - 2022. This is the first time it’s being released to all major podcast...
Aug 31, 2025•3 min
John welcomes legendary music and pop culture writer, thinker, and theoretician Chuck Klosterman to talk about the runaway success of the Oasis reunion tour and why America is suddenly gaga for the band 30 years after its peak. For those too young to remember the Britpop era or too addled to recall it clearly, Klosterman explains just how huge Oasis was back then; how the Internet and social media conspired to keep the perpetually feuding Noel and Liam Gallagher relevant even after the band brok...
Aug 29, 2025•1 hr 40 min
John welcomes Democratic Texas state representative James Talarico to discuss the escalating war over redistricting kicked off by Lone Star State Republicans. In the wake of Texas's enactment of a new congressional map sought by Donald Trump and designed to deliver five House seats to the GOP in next year’s midterms, Talarico explains why the two-week walkout by him and 56 of his colleagues succeeded despite the map’s adoption—by spurring blue states such as California to strike back with gerrym...
Aug 25, 2025•1 hr 7 min
John welcomes Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia, back to the show to discuss the past week’s flurry of diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the war in Ukraine. McFaul analyzes the meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska; the subsequent visit of Volodymyr Zelensky and a phalanx of European leaders to the White House; the signals emanating from Russia that Putin’s maximalist war aims remain unchanged; and the grim options facing Zelensky if the spate of summitry, ...
Aug 22, 2025•1 hr 8 min
John welcomes Pod Save America cohost, Message Box author, and former top Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer back to the show to discuss the burgeoning competition to be the face of the Democratic Party’s future. Pfeiffer assesses the risks and rewards of California governor Gavin Newsom’s redistricting gambit for his presidential ambitions; the efforts of Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker to make his billionaire status tolerable to the populist base of his party; and the communication skills of thirtysom...
Aug 18, 2025•1 hr 5 min
John welcomes USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan to discuss her runaway bestseller “On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports.” Brennan lays out the formative experiences that turned Clark into a national sensation; the WNBA’s lack of preparation to capitalize on the surge in popularity, income and impact that her arrival has unleashed; the troubling outbreaks of jealousy and resentment sparked by a white player becoming the face of a predominantly Black league; a...
Aug 15, 2025•1 hr 31 min
John welcomes second-term Democratic congressman and former mayor of Long Beach, CA, Robert Garcia to talk about the imperative for his party to move away from “respectability politics” to combat the Trump 2.0 agenda. Garcia explains why the Texas redistricting fight transcends the particulars of the Lone Star State as a central part of Donald Trump’s plan not just to steal the 2026 midterm elections but to stay in office past 2028—and the Jefrey Epstein scandal, far from subsiding during the co...
Aug 11, 2025•58 min
John welcomes Atlantic staff writer Anne Applebaum back to the show to discuss her new cover story in The Atlantic on the devastating civil war in Sudan. Applebaum—whose 2004 tome “Gulag: A History” won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction and whose most recent book, “Autocracy, Inc.” comes out in paperback this month—explains how anarchy, greed, and nihilism have replaced the liberal world order in Sudan; the role that Donald Trump and Elon Musk played in the country’s downward spiral...
Aug 08, 2025•1 hr 6 min
John is joined by Adam Pritzker and Daniel Squadron, co-founders of a pair of increasingly influential Democratic groups trying to cure what ails their party by looking WAY beyond Washington, D.C.—to the nation’s state legislatures. Pritzker and Squadron explain the genesis of the States Project, which they formed eight years ago and is already the largest Democratic donor to state legislative races (to the tune of $130 million in 2022 and 2024), and the just-launched States Forum, which is focu...
Aug 04, 2025•1 hr 24 min
John welcomes David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, and David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee, to discuss Israel’s war with Hamas and the humanitarian horror show unfolding in Gaza. Having just authored his fourth major reported piece on the conflict since October 7, 2023, Remnick explains Israel’s sense of “national euphoria” after the Twelve-Day War launched by Benjamin Netanyahu against Iran to cripple its nuclear capabilities—and why Israelis have largely ignored the ...
Aug 01, 2025•1 hr 16 min
John welcomes legendary Democratic strategist Bob Shrum to discuss Donald Trump’s inability to extricate himself from the Jeffrey Epstein quagmire and the opportunity for Democrats to weave the story into a broader political narrative. The Los Angeles-based Shrum, who rose to prominence as Ted Kennedy’s speechwriter and played a central role on both Al Gore’s and John Kerry's presidential campaigns, also offers his take on his state’s governor, Gavin Newsom; his city’s mayor, Karen Bass; Texas s...
Jul 28, 2025•1 hr 14 min
John welcomes Maggie Haberman, New York Times White House Correspondent and author of the bestselling “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump & The Breaking of America,” to discuss the ongoing Jeffrey Epstein imbroglio and why Trump has thus far been entirely unsuccessful in his efforts to stanch the bleeding from what may prove to be the most damaging of his many self-inflicted political wounds. Plus: Maggie’s take on Stephen Colbert’s cancellation, Jon Stewart’s defense of his friend a...
Jul 25, 2025•1 hr 9 min
John welcomes legendary former New York Timesman Todd Purdum to the show to discuss his new book, “Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television.” Purdum tells the story of Arnaz's rise to become the most powerful and influential Latino executive in Hollywood history: from his arrival in America as a Cuban refugee in the 1930s to his first taste of fame as a nightclub bandleader (and instigator of the Conga dance craze) in the 1940s; and from his culture-shifting roles as co-star (with his wife, L...
Jul 21, 2025•1 hr 13 min
John welcomes Democratic media strategist and crisis communications wizard Lis Smith—who has worked for candidates ranging from Barack Obama and Pete Buttigieg to Andrew Cuomo and Eliot Spitzer—to discuss the ongoing MAGA meltdown over the Jeffrey Epstein files. Lis explains why the Epstein scandal is different (in severity and in kind) than any of the prior imbroglios that Donald Trump has weathered; how his efforts to douse the story have only inflamed it further; the mounting sense of betraya...
Jul 18, 2025•1 hr 14 min
