Leigh guest reads in episode 4: part 2 of a fantastic and informative, limited series "Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal". Be sure to check out all episodes wherever you get your pods! xo- PG ---- This episode tells the fictional story of a middle school that opens its doors to unvaccinated students after a possible second -term President Trump eliminates Federal funding for schools with vaccine mandates. The story follows the school nurse, Stephanie Morris, as she navigates the influx...
Oct 10, 2024•43 min
Our nation sits at crossroad. We either address our problems within our democracy and rule of law, or fail to address them by abandoning the very things that make us special in pursuit of something new. The 2024 presidential ticket offers us two very different versions of America - what it is and who it’s for - and on November 5th we choose one. Join me and the brilliant author Thom Hartman as we discuss his new book The Hidden History of the American Dream and break down where we are right now....
Oct 08, 2024•57 min
Today we’re talking with the CEO of Vet VoiceJanessa Goldbeck about the film War Game a documentary based on a real life wargame set on January 6, 2025 that imagines a nationwide insurrection, in whichmembers of the US military choose to defect in order to support the losing presidential candidate and what the current president and his team, would do. I’m talking about this film because the scenario addressed has a real possibility of playing out after the 2024 election, and the people at the Ve...
Oct 01, 2024•49 min
According to the brilliant Marc Elias, founder of Democracy Docket and now senior member of the Harris/Walz legal team, what the Republicans are planning for the 2024 election is not just unprecedented, but outrageous. There is a reason they’re not campaigning or trying to get out the vote. There’s a reason Trump is telling people he “doesn’t need votes”. It’s because their plan isn’t to win the election, it’s to subvert, suppress and refuse to certify the election if they don’t win. According t...
Sep 24, 2024•37 min
My first book ‘A Return to Common Sense: How to Fix America Before We Really Blow’ It drops today, so I’ve invited my friend, and beloved American actor and director, Jason Alexander to join us to guest host the episode. We talk, not only about getting us out of this mess we’re in, but how we can build the nation we tell the world we are. At the end of the day you can’t fix something you don’t understand, and I wrote a book to fix things. As always, IF YOU FIND WORTH IN WHAT WE DO, please consid...
Sep 17, 2024•1 hr
The women of this nation hold the spending AND voting power so why are we so constantly marginalized? Tired of being overlooked, used as pawns, and ready to be taken seriously, we talk to Erin Erenberg, co-founder and CEO of the Chamber of Mothers, about the growing collective movement to advance maternal rights in America. The truth of the matter is: we’re hardly a country that should be forcing women to have babies, since the US is currently experiencing a maternal health crisis and we barely ...
Sep 10, 2024•41 min
Happy Labor Day!!! Department of Labor’s Acting Secretary Julie Su reminds us that the Biden Administration has been focused on building what they call the “high road to the American dream”. That looking out for the American worker is not just about having enough work, it’s about those workers being paid properly, treated with respect, and at the end of the day, giving our citizens what President Biden calls “a little breathing room” to live our lives. How do we “pursue happiness” without that? ...
Sep 03, 2024•45 min
Coming right off the Democratic Convention, brilliant historian and writer Heather Cox Richardson gives her insights on where we are with the two parties and the upcoming election. She reminds us that democracy is not a given, and though we have to fight for it, we should find joy in that fight. That the Republicans are used to controlling the narrative, and holding the mantle of patriotic American, but the convention showed the world they aren’t the only ones who have the right to that title. T...
Aug 27, 2024•1 hr 10 min
I’m in Chicago this week for the Democratic convention, and I hope you’ll follow along to get the information, but as we watch, what we hope will be the first female president take the convention stage, I thought we should discuss what the other side is offering when it comes to women, women’s rights, and womanhood. With that in mind, our guest today is acclaimed writer Julie Kohler, host of award winning White Picket Fence podcast to talk to us about the rising extremist movement gaining steam ...
Aug 20, 2024•48 min
According to our guest, YouTube sensation and wildly successful political commentator, Brian Tyler Cohen, the modern Republican Party has laid out a long con. That, while the increasingly radical right gaslights the American public with its lies, artificial slogans and hollow catchphrases, there’s an ever widening gap between the essential Republican “brand” and their actual behavior. It’s such a marked phenomenon that Brian wrote a book, Shameless, to best explain where things went wrong and to...
Aug 13, 2024•53 min
As guest, historian and writer, Rutger Bregman, reminds us, MLK didn’t inspire the world with his “I have a nightmare…” speech. It was about a dream. Rutger believes there’s an antidote to this sense of emptiness so many of us feel and it’s what he calls moral ambition, or the will to make the world a better place. That humanity, no matter what we’ve been taught, is actually cooperative and benevolent, it’s how we got so far as a species. So we can’t get so caught in the news of today, that we l...
Aug 06, 2024•50 min
As today’s guest, CEO of the States United Democracy Center and States United Action, Joanna Lydgate says, “The battle for democracy begins before a single ballot is cast and continues long after the polls close on election day.” We keep repeating it, but the truth is, the American election system itself is under attack. There are anti-democratic forces working hard across the country not to win elections, but to limit the vote. To interfere with election administration and officials, and to spr...
Jul 30, 2024•50 min
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Joe Biden is no longer running for President and everything has changed. Join me and Michael Steele as we discuss what just happened, and what comes next. As always, if you find worth in what we do, please consider SUBSCRIBING to PoliticsGirl Premium. You’ll get this podcast ad free, along with a bunch of other perks, like the rants directly to your inbox and the knowledge that you’re making this kind of highly ...
Jul 23, 2024•55 min
Authoritarian propaganda is full of empty promises of unity. Of uniting the nation under a leader who alone can fix it. Authoritarian expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat and I had this conversation BEFORE the events at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania, but the facts remain the same if not more poignant now. The shock and awe we’re seeing is a tactic to distract us from what this party plans to do to our country, our democracy, and to anyone who doesn’t pledge absolute fealty or fit into their limited box of “a...
Jul 16, 2024•45 min
We just finished probably the most life altering Supreme Court’s session in the history of our country. The six conservative justices, and I use the term conservative loosely, because they’re actually right wing extremists, just took a sledge hammer to decades of legal precedent, human rights, civil rights and the constitution itself, but this idea that there’s nothing we can do about it is wrong. Join me and absolute legal superstar Dahlia Lithwick as we discuss what comes next for court and co...
Jul 09, 2024•57 min
America’s rising domestic terrorism movement is not getting better it’s getting worse. We have to look at ourselves, particularly if we’re in the American Christian community, and realize something must be done to start seeding the ground for a different way of thinking. Which is why we’re talking to former US security official and counterterrorism expert Elizabeth Neumann. Elizabeth served as the assistant Secretary for counter terrorism and threat prevention at the US Department of homeland se...
Jul 02, 2024•1 hr
To keep democracy’s head above water in 2024 the Democrats need what’s called a trifecta - meaning the Presidency, the House and the Senate - and keeping the senate is going to be a tough slog because Democrats have what’s called a “bad map”. So today, instead of talking about the must win swing races we hear about all the time, we’re going to discuss two Senate races that almost no-one is paying attention to. Two Senate races practically no-one is investing in, because it’s assumed they’ve alre...
Jun 25, 2024•53 min
We just had the G7. There was just a Ukrainian Peace Conference in Switzerland. Here at home we have a wanna be dictator running against a President who fights dictators. Today we talk to international expert Andrea Chalupa about two broad stroke topics, what’s going on in Ukraine, because I think most of us have kind of checked out and don’t have a clue anymore, and what Trump will offer in a second term in regards to American immigration which, after doing the research is so horrifying that it...
Jun 18, 2024•56 min
Happy Pride!! It’s easy to criticize government, and candidly, there’s plenty that deserves criticism. But government is not something we can live without, so maybe if we spent less time complaining about it, and more time understanding it, we’d know how to use it properly and how to best fix it. So, today we’re joined by Four Star Admiral and one of the highest ranking members of our Department of Health and Human Services, to talk about what our government is doing to keep Americans safe and h...
Jun 11, 2024•52 min
Christian Nationalism is a giant threat to our country. A danger to women, to minorities, to the marginalized and to democracy itself. While these white, Christian nationalists believe they’re saving the country from heathenism, what they’re really offering is a theocracy of top down control with themselves at the top. We must see this threat for what it is, and that starts with understanding. Tim Whitaker is the founder of the New Evangelicals, an inclusive, Jesus-centered community that holds ...
Jun 04, 2024•1 hr
Wanna win back democracy? Start with the states. The federal government is clearly essential, and to save our nation the Democrats must win the Presidency, House and Senate in ’24, but we can’t stop there. So many of the terrible laws we’re seeing around the country come directly from Republican state legislatures. People like to blame the president when things don’t go their way, but so much of what affects our daily lives is decided in state houses. Which is why joining the State’s Project is ...
May 28, 2024•40 min
Fixing the crisis America is in is hard, but it’s also simple. We can’t stop talking about reproductive rights because it’s not just about stripping women of the right to manage their own lives and bodies, it’s about the slippery slope we find ourselves on if we accept that government can just take our essential human rights. At the end of the day, it’s not just about abortion, it’s about precedent. If they can take this freedom, what’s next? Emily’s List is out here fighting back, which is why ...
May 21, 2024•45 min
The Republicans are telling us their plans for America’s future and it is terrifying. The Democrats, in contrast, are vocally offering the opposite. Where the last Democratic House was the most effective in modern American history, passing more legislation passed than any Congress since FDR’s New Deal, the current Republican House has been the least effective, least cohesive since the Civil War. The American people deserve better than obstructionists playing games with our time and money. We are...
May 14, 2024•52 min
I’ve been watching what’s been happening on college campuses with real uncertainty. I don’t believe we’re getting the full story from the media. Much like the horserace neck and neck BS they’re peddling for the election, I feel as if traditional media is pushing narratives with the protests that don’t tell the full picture and it leaves people feeling outraged or confused. As today’s guest David Rothkopf says, “If you want this crisis to be simple, you’re looking in the wrong place. It’s not sim...
May 07, 2024•58 min
Today we’re joined by Mini Timmaraju, President of Reproductive Freedom for All, to discuss how reproductive freedom isn’t just about access to the health care of abortion, but about how we think society should function. Do we believe our most fundamental and personal decisions belong to the government, or do we believe they belong to us? At the end of the day, it all comes back to democracy, and if our voices are heard and respected, or we’re controlled and silenced. We, as a country, have to f...
Apr 30, 2024•49 min
It’s not that everything that’s happened in capitalism is bad, but when it comes to economics, perhaps we should be asking what this endless growth means and for whom? Who is all this growth for, and what is it worth, if it really only benefits a tiny silver of our population. What if there was a Goldilocks version of the economy? Where it wasn’t communism, and it wasn’t winner take all capitalism, but something in between that benefits all of us and works within the limits of our planet? Maybe ...
Apr 23, 2024•44 min
Membership in violent extremist organizations is up, especially with our veterans. Today we talk to former mission commander and veteran’s advocate Ken Harbaugh about his incredible film Against All Enemies, and why a disproportionate amount of our military veterans would end up taking violent action against the very country they swore to protect, and why they would think they were patriots for doing it. We talk about this spectacular film that leaves you with a true understanding of where we si...
Apr 16, 2024•47 min
How do you lock in a minority worldview in America? You control the states. As our guest, democracy activist, author and professor, David Pepper tells us, “You win them. You gerrymander them. You suppress as many votes as you can, and then ram through your extremist agenda, and nobody can stop you.” We see it happening all over the country. This is how Republicans with unpopular opinions, who don’t speak for the majority of the people, continue to win. Democrats have been going along trying to w...
Apr 09, 2024•50 min
Former RNC Chairman Michael Steele reaches out to his party to remind them to vote R for Rights not Republican. He tells us that Republican values are still here, they just can’t breathe under this current top down, one person centric, wanna-be dictator. We talk about how the once great party has been co-oped, so it’s not just ok to be a Republican who votes for a Democrat this cycle, if you truly believe in the values of freedom, liberty and justice, then it’s absolutely essential you vote for ...
Apr 02, 2024•57 min
At the end of the day, Sage Lenier, climate activist and one of Time Magazine’s 10 Next Generation Leaders, reminds us that we need to accept what we’re doing on this planet is unsustainable. That we will ultimately need to slow down the systems of production and consider a real economic transformation if we want to survive, but instead of waiting for the federal government to make the change, we can start it ourselves. Our future is dependent on intergenerational collaboration, and the personal...
Mar 26, 2024•50 min
