Please enjoy this preview episode of our Sunday podcast. The full editions are available exclusively for premium podcast members. To become a member, please go to tanglemedia.supercast.com and sign up. In this episode, Ari and Magdalena talk about the feedback from Ari's take on the Elon Musk controversy, navigating the politics of social media, and civil discourse in the second Trump term. They also play a trivia game at the intersection of politics and Bluey. And last but not least, the Airing...
Jan 26, 2025•30 min
With the start of a new presidential administration, it’s natural to look to the future; and at Tangle, we’re doing just that . But before we start giving all of President Trump’s moves their deserved close reads, we wanted to conduct a thorough review of President Biden’s term in true Tangle fashion by taking a deep look at whether Biden fulfilled his core promises and how he tackled the key challenges he faced (we did the same for Trump’s first term ). While we aim to be as t...
Jan 25, 2025•27 min
President Donald Trump began his second term on Monday with a series of executive actions, memos and announcements, signing 26 executive orders, 12 memoranda, and four proclamations on his first day alone. Broadly, these actions focused on restricting immigration and asylum, redirecting the nation’s energy policies, changing and curtailing federal employment practices, issuing high-profile pardons, reversing Biden-era executive orders and policies, and more. Ad-free podcasts ar...
Jan 23, 2025•31 min
During the final days of his presidency, former President Joe Biden issued several executive orders on major domestic and international issues. Additionally, he commuted the sentences of nearly 2,500 criminal defendants — a single-day record — and granted sweeping pardons to members of his family and other political figures. Biden’s last actions prompted debate over his legacy and the limits of presidential power as President Donald Trump begins his second term....
Jan 22, 2025•31 min
Our founder, Isaac Saul, has a very special and personal announcement to share with you all! If you'd like to reach out with any messages, please email [email protected]. Thanks for your understanding and continued support! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 21, 2025•9 min
On Monday, President Donald Trump was sworn in as America’s 47th president in a ceremony inside the United States Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C. The proceedings, which were moved indoors due to freezing temperatures, marked the 60th inauguration in United States history and just the second-ever non-consecutive re-inauguration for a U.S. president ( Grover Cleveland being the first). Vice President JD Vance was also sworn in, making him the country’s 50th vice p...
Jan 21, 2025•31 min
Although we are off today, we have a special podcast for you all! A couple of weeks ago, Isaac interviewed Sharon McMahon. She is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, educator, and host of the chart-topping podcast Here’s Where It Gets Interesting . Her newsletter, The Preamble , is one of the largest publications on Substack, providing historical context and non-partisan insights to help readers navigate today’s political landscape. My debut book, The Small and the Mighty has bee...
Jan 20, 2025•54 min
Please enjoy this preview episode of our Sunday podcast. The full editions are available exclusively for premium podcast members. To become a member, please go to tanglemedia.supercast.com and sign up. In this episode, Isaac and Ari talk about the feedback from Isaac's raw milk discovery, political purity tests, The Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement, Medicare, SCOTUS, and Trump's cabinet. They also play a trivia game inspired by The Week. And last but not least, the Airing of Grievances. You can ...
Jan 19, 2025•28 min
This year, a change in administration and a larger staff has afforded us a new opportunity: to set some benchmarks that we can check back on in two and four years. Doing something as expansive as this hasn’t been possible for me, alone, in the past. But with the growth of our team over the last four years, I wanted to take advantage of our deep roster to do something much bigger and more comprehensive. So, as a team (and with the help of our readers), we’ve decided to lay out a series of referen...
Jan 17, 2025•18 min
On Wednesday, negotiators announced a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that will pause fighting in the Gaza Strip and could potentially end the 15-month war that heightened other conflicts in the region and leveled much of Gaza. The deal is still pending approval by the Israeli government, which delayed a meeting to discuss the agreement on Thursday over alleged concerns that Hamas had not accepted all of the terms. Hamas senior officials said they remain committed...
Jan 16, 2025•30 min
On Tuesday, Senate confirmation hearings began for President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees, starting with defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth. The Senate Armed Services Committee questioned Hegseth for over four hours, with Democrats pressing Hegseth on his previous comments about women serving in combat roles, allegations of sexual abuse and infidelity, and his qualifications for the position. While these moments produced several tense exchanges, Senate Republicans ...
Jan 15, 2025•29 min
In recent weeks, President-elect Donald Trump has reiterated his desire to acquire Greenland in an effort to expand U.S. territory and influence, calling its acquisition an “absolute necessity.” In response to questions from the press last week, Trump said he would not rule out using military or economic pressure to acquire the territory after he takes office, drawing strong rebukes from Democrats and European allies. Ad-free podcasts are here! Many listeners have been as...
Jan 14, 2025•28 min
On Tuesday, a catastrophic wildfire began in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. In the days since, multiple fires have caused widespread devastation in the region; as of Monday morning , at least 24 people have died and over 12,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed in the fires. The disaster has prompted debate about the primary cause of the fires and whether their impact could have been mitigated. Ad-free podcasts are here! Many listeners have been asking for an ad-free version of...
Jan 13, 2025•35 min
Please enjoy this preview episode of our Sunday podcast. The full editions are available exclusively for premium podcast members. To become a member, please go to tanglemedia.supercast.com and sign up. In this episode, Isaac and Ari, and Jon talk about Amish culture, Trump's designs for Greenland, and the wildfires in Los Angeles. They also play a Tangle-based trivia game. And last but not least, the Airing of Grievances. You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something...
Jan 12, 2025•29 min
In my small attempt to live my values, I like to dedicate the first Friday edition of every new year to grading some of my previous writing. Here’s our process: About two months ago, I told my team to start looking through our archives and flag instances where we took a strong position on a defining story in the past year. I also sorted through reader criticisms, feedback, and suggestions about articles to revisit. Then, we went back to evaluate that writing and settled on a grade for how we did...
Jan 11, 2025•25 min
On December 29, Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, passed away at age 100. Carter served one term after defeating Gerald Ford in the 1976 election, then lost his re-election bid to Ronald Reagan. Carter’s administration faced several distinct challenges, including double-digit inflation, energy shortages, and the Iran hostage crisis. His post-presidency was associated with humanitarian works and efforts to address global conflicts. Ad-free podcasts are here!...
Jan 09, 2025•34 min
On Tuesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company will end its fact-checking program across Instagram, Facebook and Threads, instead instituting a feature similar to X’s “ Community Notes ,” which crowdsources content reviews. The company will also relax limitations on controversial topics, like immigration and gender identity, and will allow for more political content to appear on users’ feeds. Furthermore, Zuckerberg announced that Meta will work with Pres...
Jan 08, 2025•30 min
In recent weeks, the H-1B visa program has prompted vigorous discussion about the U.S. immigration system, foreign workers, and the tech industry. The debate has proved divisive among supporters of President-elect Donald Trump and has sparked disagreement on the left. Most notably, tech entrepreneurs like Elon Musk voiced strong support for H-1B visas to help them access skilled international talent, while proponents of restrictionist immigration policies and progressives like Sen. B...
Jan 07, 2025•34 min
In the early hours of New Year’s Day, a man drove a pickup truck into a crowd on New Orleans’s Bourbon Street, killing 14 people and injuring 35 others. Additionally, the attacker reportedly planted multiple improvised explosive devices in the area, but they did not detonate. Investigators said the suspect appears to have been inspired by ISIS, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, and was flying an ISIS flag from the truck's rear bumper during the attack. The at...
Jan 06, 2025•32 min
In today's episode, Managing Editor Ari Wietzman talks with Jill Escher, an autism research philanthropist (Escher Fund for Autism), real estate investor who provides low-income housing for adults with developmental disabilities, former lawyer, and mother of two children with nonverbal autism. In this discussion, she highlights the increasing prevalence of autism, the frustrations with current research methodologies, and the need for more innovative approaches to understanding causation. Escher ...
Jan 03, 2025•23 min
Today is Christmas Eve, which means the Tangle team is about to step into our annual holiday and New Year break. If you are new here — as many of you are — here's what you need to know: I believe in working hard, playing hard, and pacing ourselves. I know the media business is a difficult one, so I work myself to the bone and push my team to bring their best every day, too. But I also know that many people in the news business burn out and fail, in part because of how demanding it can be. So, we...
Dec 24, 2024•11 min
On Saturday, President Joe Biden signed a stopgap funding bill into law, averting a prolonged government shutdown after last-minute negotiations in the House and Senate. The continuing resolution (CR) is a scaled-down version of a bill that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) released on Tuesday but scrapped a day later. The new CR , called the “American Relief Act, 2025,” funds the government at current levels through mid-March while providing roughly $100 billion in natural dis...
Dec 23, 2024•29 min
In the last couple weeks, I've been accused of being "out of touch" more times than I ever have in my entire life. The criticisms have mostly been for "my take" on the murder of Brian Thompson and then my response to reader feedback on that take. As frustrating as the criticisms have been, I also realized the problem was partially my fault. While I've touched on the topic a lot, I've never written explicitly about class and class politics — or my upbringing — here in Tangle. So on today's episod...
Dec 20, 2024•18 min
On Wednesday, House Republican leadership scrapped a bill to temporarily fund the government after President-elect Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and House Republicans came out against the effort. The sudden change of course comes just days before current government funding runs out on Friday night, and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has not indicated whether he will pursue a new bill to avert a shutdown. Note: This is a developing story. The information in this section is up-to-date as...
Dec 19, 2024•30 min
On Saturday, President-elect Donald Trump settled a defamation lawsuit with ABC News over inaccurate statements made by news host George Stephanopoulos during a segment in March. As part of the settlement, ABC News agreed to pay $15 million as a charitable contribution to a "Presidential foundation and museum to be established by or for Plaintiff, as Presidents of the United States of America have established in the past." Additionally, the network will pay $1 million to cover Trump'...
Dec 18, 2024•31 min
On Thursday, President Joe Biden announced the largest single-day act of clemency in modern American history, commuting the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were moved from prison to serve home-confinement sentences during the pandemic. Additionally, Biden pardoned 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. Ad-free podcasts are here! Many listeners have been asking for an ad-free version of this podcast that they could subscribe to — and we finally launched it . You can ...
Dec 17, 2024•28 min
For several weeks, residents of New Jersey and other East Coast states have reported seeing possible drones flying over residential neighborhoods and restricted areas. While federal officials have stated that the aircraft do not pose a public safety risk, a lack of specificity in the response has created uncertainty about their origins and nature. Overall, UAPs have been reported in at least six states : Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Ad-fr...
Dec 16, 2024•30 min
Please enjoy this preview episode of our Sunday podcast. The full editions are available exclusively for premium podcast members. To become a member, please go to tanglemedia.supercast.com and sign up. In this episode, Isaac, Ari, and Jon talk about "Karens" and the whether we should appreciate them or not. They also discuss birthright citizenship, with Jon sharing his personal immigration story as a second-generation American. They talk about the complexities of assimilation and the immigrant e...
Dec 15, 2024•28 min
On today's episode, Isaac responds to comments and criticism on our coverage of the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Tangle Editor Will Kaback sits in to read Isaac's response. This is a preview of today's Friday edition that is available in full and ad-free for our premium podcast subscribers. If you'd like to complete this episode and receive Sunday editions, exclusive interviews, bonus content, and more, head over to tanglemedia.supercast.com and sign up for a membership....
Dec 14, 2024•25 min
On Sunday, President-elect Donald Trump gave his first network television interview since the election, speaking with NBC's Kristen Welker for Meet The Press. During the interview, Trump said he would seek to end birthright citizenship, possibly through executive action, calling the practice “ridiculous” and saying the U.S. is the only country that grants the right. Legal experts doubt that the president has the power to curtail birthright citizenship, but Trump’s transition team has...
Dec 12, 2024•31 min
