Today, we’re publishing Editor Will Kaback’s conversation with Stephen Hawkins, director of research at More in Common, a nonprofit that researches political polarization and strategies to build more cohesive communities. The group recently published a report that found Republicans and Democrats have vastly different perceptions of what the other side believes, and we talked with Hawkins about what those findings mean for the future of American politics. This is a preview of today's ...
Feb 06, 2025•21 min
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump said the United States will take over the Gaza Strip to facilitate its reconstruction after it was largely destroyed during the 15-month war between Israel and Hamas. Speaking at a press conference at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said that Palestinians living in Gaza should be permanently resettled in surrounding Arab countries and implied that the U.S. could take a “long-term ownership position” over the enc...
Feb 06, 2025•30 min
The Trump administration has started with a whirlwind, and we’ve been working overtime to keep up with everything. Between the Senate nominations, executive orders, government leaks and sudden emergencies, we haven’t had enough time to get into it all. We even dedicated last Friday’s edition to covering three confirmation hearings just to stay up to date. Every once in a while, we break our standard format to better cover the news, and we decided that today is a good time to do that. Ad-fr...
Feb 05, 2025•40 min
On Monday, following a week of upheaval at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced he had taken over as acting administrator of the agency and told lawmakers that he intends to work with Congress to reorganize it. Rubio’s statement ran counter to comments made earlier in the day by Elon Musk, who said that he and President Donald Trump had decided to shut down USAID. These conflicting remarks and efforts by represent...
Feb 04, 2025•30 min
On Saturday, the White House announced that the United States will be imposing a 10% tariff on all imports from China and 25% tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada, with energy imports from Canada taxed at 10%. President Donald Trump used emergency powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA) to authorize the taxes, citing the “extraordinary threat posed by illegal aliens and drugs” and saying they would remain in place until...
Feb 03, 2025•32 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, Ari and Will talk about tackling Tangle takes while Isaac is on paternity leave, reader feedback, the tragic accident involving an American Airlines flight and a military helicopter, and the importance of maintaining perspective in reporting. Then, Mags and Jon join to talk about ...
Feb 02, 2025•31 min
On Thursday, Senate committees held hearings to consider the nominations of Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), and Kash Patel as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). While most of President Donald Trump’s nominees have been confirmed by the Senate with bipartisan support — including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Treasury Secret...
Feb 01, 2025•24 min
On Wednesday, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) rescinded a memo that had paused trillions of dollars in federal grants, loans, and other financial assistance programs. The memo had called for agencies to perform a “comprehensive analysis” of their grant and loan programs to ensure compliance with President Donald Trump’s executive orders, but was broadly written and created confusion over the scope of the funding freeze. Prior to the memo’s rescission, a federal judge ...
Jan 30, 2025•31 min
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has issued a series of executive orders on immigration, which the White House says is part of its effort to establish firmer control over the southern U.S. border. Many of the actions are targeted at unauthorized migrants, but others have restricted legal immigration pathways, including orders to indefinitely pause the U.S. refugee admissions program, end parole programs, and shut down the CBP One app for...
Jan 29, 2025•30 min
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed executive orders to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Paris Agreement . As reasons for withdrawing from the WHO, Trump cited the political influence of member states and unfair contribution expectations of the United States, further alleging that the health group had mishandled the Covid-19 pandemic and other health emergencies. The president stated that t...
Jan 28, 2025•32 min
On Friday night, President Donald Trump reportedly fired at least 17 inspectors general (IGs) at several federal agencies. In response, several lawmakers expressed concern that the White House had violated federal rules requiring the president to provide Congress with at least 30 days' notice of intent before firing any inspector general, a Senate-confirmed position. The dismissed inspectors general had been overseeing the departments of Defense, State, Transp...
Jan 27, 2025•28 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, 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
