The Back Room with Andy Ostroy - podcast cover

The Back Room with Andy Ostroy

The Back Room with Andy Ostroy presents a humorous, honest take on politics and pop culture featuring notable guest interviews, a shit-ton of righteous indignation, and rip-roaring repartee with co-producers Matty Rosenberg and Jen Hammoud. We're havin' a ball, and so will you! Got somethin' to say?! Email us at BackroomAndy@gmail.com Leave us a message: 845-307-7446 Twitter: @AndyOstroy Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud @ Radio Free Rhiniecliff Music by Andrew Hollander Design by Cricket Lengyel
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Episodes

Matt Friend

Matt Friend is an incredibly talented comedian and impressionist headlining and appearing at clubs across the country. His television and radio appearances include The Howard Stern Show, the Today Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, NBC's New York Live TV, Good Day LA and Good Day NY. He's also recently voiced characters on The Simpsons and Family Guy. This is Matt's second trip to The Back Room...and he's with us for almost an hour! Don't miss this marathon of hilarious political and celebrity impressions...

Feb 16, 20230Ep. 43

Rep. Pat Ryan (NY-18)

Pat Ryan is the Democratic Representative serving New York's 18th congressional district. He's a member of the Armed Services Committee and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Prior to his election last Fall he served as the representative for New York's 19th congressional district after winning a special election in 2022. He previously served as the county executive of Ulster County, NY. Pat is a West Point graduate and former Army Captain and combat veteran who served two tours...

Feb 14, 20230Ep. 42

Reed Galen

Reed Galen is a co-founder of The Lincoln Project and host of The Lincoln Project Podcast. Join us as Reed shares his childhood/family involvement in politics and his early political inspirations, as well as his thoughts on everything from Trump and Trumpism to Kevin McCarthy and the House chaos, George Santos, Biden's State of the Union address, the '24 presidential race and third-party candidates, and his new media venture, Resolute Square, which he launched with other Lincoln Project key play...

Feb 11, 20230Ep. 41

Rick Wilson

Rick Wilson is a renowned political strategist, infamous ad-maker, writer, speaker, political commentator, co-founder of the political action committee the Lincoln Project and the media company Resolute Square, a 2x New York Times best-selling author and host of The Enemies List podcast. The always insightful, hilarious and inimitable wordsmith Rick shares his wit and wisdom on a range of subjects in the news including Trump and Trumpism, Kevin McCarthy and the GOP House chaos, George Santos, th...

Feb 07, 20230Ep. 40

Rep.Ted Lieu

Rep. Ted Lieu (CA-36) is serving in his fifth term in Congress and currently sits on the House Judiciary, Foreign Affairs, and Science, Space, and Technology Committees. He was also elected by his colleagues to serve as Vice Chair of the Democratic Caucus, making him the highest ranking Asian American to have ever served in House Leadership. He is a veteran, having served on active duty and then in the Reserve for the Air Force. He retired from the Reserve in 2021 with the rank of Colonel. Join ...

Feb 04, 20230Ep. 39

Shannon Watts

Shannon Watts is the founder of Moms Demand Action, a grassroots group fighting against gun violence. With 10-million supporters and a chapter in every state, Moms Demand Action and its partner, Everytown for Gun Safety, have stopped the NRA's priority legislation and passed hundreds of gun safety laws across the country, most notably the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first gun safety bill in 26 years. Shannon is also an active board member of Emerge America, which recruits and trains wo...

Jan 31, 20230Ep. 38

Kara Swisher

Kara Swisher is host of On with Kara Swisher and co-host of the Pivot podcast. She’s also editor-at-large of New York Magazine…and the former host of the Sway and Recode Decode podcasts and the co-founder of the technology website, Recode. Kara has been reporting on the tech industry since the early 1990s. Once called “Silicon Valley's most feared but revered journalist," she’s established herself as the oracle of the tech world with unrivaled access to the industry's most significant leaders. F...

Jan 28, 20230Ep. 37

Aaron Rupar

Aaron Rupar is an independent journalist and the publisher of the Public Notice newsletter covering US politics and media. He previously worked at Vox, where he covered Trumpism and the Trump administration. Most recently he was notably involved in a controversial dust-up with Twitter’s 'Chief Twit' Elon Musk, who ‘temporarily’ permanently suspended him last month before lifting the suspension after much public outcry and a truly bizarre online poll. Join us for a fascinating chat as Aaron gives...

Jan 24, 20230Ep. 36

Joe Walsh

Joe Walsh is a former Tea Party Congressman from Illinois and a former nationally syndicated far-right talk-radio host who ran for President in 2020 against Donald Trump. He's the author of the 2020 book "F-ck Silence: Calling Trump Out for the Cultish, Moronic, Authoritarian Con Man He Is" and is host of the podcast, "White Flag With Joe Walsh". He is Chairman of non-partisan "Center Street PAC", a board member of bi-partisan gun safety group "97Percent" and is a frequent commentator on CNN and...

Jan 21, 20231 hr 11 minEp. 35

Matthew Dowd

Matthew Dowd is a political commentator and strategist, NY Times best-selling author and media analyst. He was chief strategist for President George Bush and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. In 2021 he made his own run for office running as a democrat for Texas Lt. Governor. He recently joined MSNBC and prior to that was Chief Political Analyst for ABC News. His latest book is Revelations on the River: Being a Prophet for Your Own Path. Matthew shares his astute insights into Donald Tr...

Jan 14, 20230Ep. 34

Michael Cohen

Michael Cohen is host of the Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen podcast and is a two-time New York Times best-selling author. His current book is “Revenge: How Donald Trump Weaponized the US Department of Justice Against His Critics. He’s also Principal of crisis management firm Crisis-X. And he’s most notable for having served for many years as Donald Trump’s personal attorney and also as an executive in the Trump Organization. Strap yourself in for a wild ride as we've got a very unplugged, unfilter...

Jan 10, 20231 hr 5 minEp. 33

S.E. Cupp

S.E. Cupp is a CNN political commentator and most recently host of CNN's S.E. Cupp Unfiltered. Before joining CNN she co-hosted MSNBC's The Cycle. She's a nationally syndicated political columnist, culture critic, author and consultant who regularly writes for the New York Daily News, Glamour and CNN.com. She was previously a consultant for Apple TV+'s The Morning Show starring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carell and HBO's hit series, The Newsroom. She has been a contributor to...

Jan 08, 20230Ep. 32

Congressman Steve Israel

Steve Israel was an 8-term Democratic Congressman from Long Island, NY, representing District 2 until the 2012 election when he was redistricted into the 3rd District, the seat won in November '22 by Republican scandal-plagued pathological-liar George Santos. He spent four years as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee before retiring in 2017. He currently serves as Director of the Institute of Politics and Global Affairs; and is an author and commentator who can be seen on...

Dec 31, 20220Ep. 31

Cheryl Hines

We're thrilled to have Emmy Award-nominated actress, director and producer Cheryl Hines in The Back Room! Best known for her role as “Cheryl David” on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, she can also be seen in Season 2 of the critically-acclaimed HBO Max series The Flight Attendant. Other television credits include Suburgatory, Son of Zorn and 3Below: Tales of Arcadia. She's directed many TV series and also produced School Pride, Hollywood Residential and the award-winning series Campus Ladies. She's s...

Dec 24, 20220Ep. 30

Jennifer Palmieri

Jennifer Palmieri is a co-host of Showtime’s “The Circus” and the author of the #1 NY Times bestselling book Dear Madam President and also She Proclaims: Our Declaration of Independence from a Man’s World. She’s a leading political and communications strategist who's served as national press secretary for the Democratic Party, White House deputy press secretary for President Bill Clinton, national press secretary for the 2004 John Edwards presidential campaign, President Obama’s White House comm...

Dec 17, 20220Ep. 29

Cenk Uygur

Cenk Uygur is the host and founder of online progressive news and commentary show The Young Turks and is CEO of TYT Network, which cites a global audience of more than 500-million monthly views per month and 21-billion total video views. he launched The Young Turks as a talk show on Sirius Satellite Radio in 2002 and started uploading videos on YouTube in 2005. Prior, he was the host of The Young Turks on Current TV, hosted MSNBC Live and has appeared on CNN, ABC News’ This Week with George Step...

Dec 10, 20220Ep. 28

James Carville

James “The Ragin’ Cajun” Carville is America’s best-known political consultant with a knack for steering overlooked campaigns into unexpected landslide victories and for re-making political underdogs into upset winners. He most notably helped steer Bill "The Comeback Kid" Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign to victory. More recently he’s been focusing his strategic-thinking on international campaigns in more than 23 countries around the globe. He’s an 8-time NY Times best-selling author, actor,...

Dec 03, 20220Ep. 27

Tim Miller

Tim Miller is The Bulwark’s writer-at-large and the author of the best-selling book Why We Did It: A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell. He was previously political director for Republican Voters Against Trump, communications director for Jeb Bush 2016, and spokesman for the Republican National Committee in 2012. He is an MSNBC political analyst and host of Not My Party on Snapchat. He's written about politics for Rolling Stone, The Ringer and Playboy and has appeared as a guest host in...

Nov 26, 20220Ep. 26

Molly Jong Fast

The daughter of legendary author and social critic Erica Jong, Molly Jong-Fast is a special contributor to Vanity Fair and the host of the Fast Politics podcast. Join us for a fun, funny, insightful and frank conversation about a range of subjects including childhood family dysfunction, rehab, life with teenagers, Trump, Trumpism, the midterms, Nancy Pelosi, Marjorie Taylor Greene, anti-Semitism and Elon Musk and the crisis at Twitter. Got somethin' to say?! Email us at BackroomAndy@gmail.com Le...

Nov 19, 20220Ep. 25

Chris Matthews

Chris Matthews is an award-winning journalist, columnist, author, political commentator, television host and professor. His 15 years in politics and government includes serving as speechwriter for president Jimmy Carter and administrative assistant to House Speaker Tip O’Neil. He was a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle; syndicated columnist and Washington Bureau Chief for the San Francisco Examiner; and host of MSNBC’s Hardball. His books include Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero and his 2021 m...

Nov 12, 20220Ep. 24

Mary Trump

Mary L Trump is a trained Clinical Psychologist with a PhD from The Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies. She also has a Master’s degree in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University. As an adjunct professor at Adelphi University, she taught graduate level courses in developmental psychology, psychopathology, and trauma. In 2017 Mary provided over 40,000 pages of documents to The New York Times, becoming a source for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning article written ...

Nov 05, 20220Ep. 23

Stuart Stevens; Rep. Pat Ryan

Stuart Stevens is a Senior Advisor to the Lincoln Project. For twenty-five years he was the lead strategist and media consultant for some of the nation's toughest political campaigns including the presidential bids of Bob Dole, George W. Bush and Mitt Romney. He is the author of eight books, including the New York Times bestseller It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump (2020). His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Esquire and Outside, among oth...

Oct 29, 20220Ep. 22

Michael Fanone

Michael Fanone served as a DC Metropolitan Police Department Officer for twenty years. He spent the majority of his career as a vice cop, participating in over 2,000 arrests for violent crimes and narcotics trafficking. He served as a special task force officer for the FBI, ATF, and DEA and has earned over three dozen commendations for his work. But Michael's best known as one of the many law enforcement heroes who nearly lost his life defending our Congresspeople, Capitol and democracy during t...

Oct 22, 20220Ep. 21

Soledad O'Brien

Soledad O’Brien is a multi-award-winning documentary filmmaker, journalist, speaker, author, philanthropist and founder of Soledad O’Brien Productions, a multi-platform media production company dedicated to telling empowering and authentic stories on a range of social issues. She anchors and produces the Hearst TV political magazine program "Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien" and is a correspondent for HBO Real Sports. Soledad's documentaries have appeared on HBO, Discovery Plus, Peacock, BET,...

Oct 15, 20220Ep. 20

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman & Rachel Vindman

Alexander Vindman is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel who most recently served on the National Security Council. He was thrust into the national spotlight in October 2019 when he testified before Congress during former president Donald Trump's first impeachment hearing. He is the author of the book "Here, Right Matters: An American Story". Rachel Vindman is an opinion columnist at USA TODAY and a member of the USA Today Board of Contributors. She's an activist and political commentator and...

Oct 08, 20220Ep. 19

Matt Friend

Join us this week for an incredibly entertaining chat with the very talented, very funny comedian and impressionist Matt Friend! Matt, just 24-years-old, is an indisputable comedy sensation, having launched like a rocket from social media apps TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter where he's built a loyal following that'll soon reach 1-million fans. In addition to his transcendent Donald Trump impression, Matt has an impressive repertoire of 250 flawless political and celebrity impressions inc...

Oct 01, 20220Ep. 18

Finneas

Finneas is a singer, songwriter, actor, and music producer. His sister is Billie Eilish, with whom he co-writes, produces and collaborates. Their 2020 theme song "No Time to Die" for the James Bond film of the same name is a Grammy, Golden Globe, Critics Choice and Academy Award winner for best film song. Overall he's won eight Grammys and received 13 nominations. Join us for a truly fun chat about his childhood musical journey, the songwriting process, his passion for women's rights, gun reform...

Sep 24, 20220Ep. 17

Rick Wilson

Rick Wilson is a renowned political strategist, infamous ad-maker, writer, speaker, political commentator and co-founder of the political action committee the Lincoln Project. He’s the author of two New York Times bestsellers, writes for The Washington Post, Politico, Rolling Stone, The Hill, The Bulwark and the London Spectator and frequently appears on CNN, MSNBC, NPR and HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher. The inimitable, irrepressible former Republican heats up The Back Room with his brutally h...

Sep 17, 20220Ep. 16

Stephanie Grisham

Join us this week in The Back Room for a brutally honest, insightful, lively chat with Stephanie Grisham, former Trump White House Press Secretary and Communications Director for both the former president and First Lady. She also served as Melania's Chief of Staff. Through genuine contrition and a true desire to prevent the Trump era's ugly history from repeating itself, Stephanie pulls no punches in sharing her thoughts and experiences working in the most unethical, corrupt, treasonous, batshit...

Sep 10, 20220Ep. 15

Rep. Ro Khanna

Join us this week in The Back Room for an insightful conversation with California Congressman Ro Khann, currently serving his third term representing District 17 in the heart of Silicon Valley. Rep. Khanna shares his views on a range of critical subjects including America's biggest socio-economic challenges, President Biden. Trump and Trumpism, the midterms, the 2024 election, climate and whether he’s a dog or cat person… Got somethin' to say?! Email us at BackroomAndy@gmail.com Leave us a messa...

Sep 03, 20220Ep. 14
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