President Joe Biden signed an executive order that will severely limit the number of migrants who can claim asylum at the border. Flanked by high-profile Democrats at a press conference Tuesday, Biden said he was forced to act to address “a worldwide migrant crisis” amid Republican stonewalling on a bipartisan border bill. “Doing nothing is not an option. We have to act,” Biden said. But the president also came under significant criticism from others in the party, including California Sen. Alex ...
Jun 05, 2024•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order today that would severely limit the number of migrants who can claim asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. The details still aren’t totally clear, but reports say Biden’s order would cap asylum requests at an average of 2,500 a day. In Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum is set to become the nation’s first female president. She won Sunday’s election in a landslide with roughly 60 percent of the vote. She’s also the hand-picked successor of the current...
Jun 04, 2024•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast We’re about five months away from election day, meaning both campaigns will do whatever they can to boost their standing with voters. One of the ways campaigns traditionally try to do this is with celebrity endorsements. But do they actually convince people to vote? Jared Clemons, assistant professor of political science at Temple University, walks us through the data. And in headlines: Hunter Biden's federal gun charge trial begins this week, Israel has agreed to President Biden’s proposed ceas...
Jun 03, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Guilty, guilty, guilty. A Manhattan jury on Thursday found former President Donald Trump guilty on all 34 felony charges in his criminal hush-money trial. Trump was accused of falsifying business records in a scheme to cover up payments he made to the adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. The verdict makes Trump the first U.S. president to be tried and convicted of felony crimes. Diana Florence, a former federal prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, explain...
May 31, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Manhattan jury in former President Donald Trump’s criminal defense trial began deliberations on Wednesday. The jury asked to rehear four pieces of testimony before breaking for the day. Outside the courtroom, Trump complained about how the case was “rigged” and how “Mother Teresa could not beat these charges.” Norm Eisen, author of the book “Trying Trump” and former special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, explains what happens now that the jury has the case. And in headlines: Supre...
May 30, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast The defense and prosecution delivered their closing arguments Tuesday in former President Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial. New York Justice Juan Merchan said jury instructions will begin early today, after which the jurors will begin deliberating Trump’s fate. He faces 34 charges of falsifying business documents in the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president. Harry Litman, senior legal affairs columnist for The Los Angeles Times and a former deputy assistant attorney general at ...
May 29, 2024•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine has called a rare special legislative session starting today to ensure President Joe Biden’s name appears on the state’s November ballot. But Ohio Democrats say Republicans are using it as a pretext to pass legislation that would make it harder for people to fund local ballot initiatives, like the one that enshrined abortion protections in the state’s constitution last year. Ohio House Democratic Minority Leader Allison Russo explains what’s at stake. House and S...
May 28, 2024•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast The International Criminal Court is formally seeking warrants to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. But what power does the ICC actually have? Does anything they do matter? This week on How We Got Here, Max and Erin take a look at the short history of the world’s paramount arbiter of war crimes and human rights—an impressive title for a court that seldom convicts. The hosts pick apart cases against the leaders of Kenya, Yugoslavia and Russia to determ...
May 25, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast The United States Supreme Court sided with Republicans in a decision over South Carolina’s disputed congressional map. Last year, a lower court ruled that the map was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander because it “exiled” thousands of Black voters from a district that was becoming increasingly competitive to make it safer for the Republican incumbent. On Thursday, The Supreme Court’s conservative majority reversed that decision in a ruling that will likely make it harder for Black voters to ...
May 24, 2024•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced plans on Wednesday to fast-track a vote on a bill to protect access to birth control and other contraceptives. It comes the day after former President Donald Trump suggested he would be open to new restrictions, only to backtrack hours later. Longtime Capitol Hill reporter Eugene Scott explains the strategy behind Schumer's fast vote.Kenyan President William Ruto arrived in Washington on Wednesday for a three-day state visit. The White Ho...
May 23, 2024•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was one of 11 people who pleaded not guilty in an Arizona court on Tuesday to charges they tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election. In all, a state grand jury indicted 18 people in the case last month, making Arizona the fourth state to indict fake electors, following Michigan, Georgia, and Nevada. Paul Charlton, former U.S. Attorney for Arizona, explains the state’s case and how cases in other states could build on each other. And in headlines...
May 22, 2024•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor on Monday announced plans to seek arrest warrants for the leaders of Hamas and Israel — including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — over their actions during the war in Gaza. Farther east in Iran, the country’s supreme leader looked to project stability after President Ebrahim Raisi and another top official died in a helicopter accident Sunday. Vox foreign affairs reporter Ellen Ioanes explains what’s at stake for both countries amid ...
May 21, 2024•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast President Joe Biden gave the commencement speech at Morehouse College’s graduation ceremony on Sunday. Some students and faculty at the historically black college in Atlanta protested his presence on campus amid the war in Gaza. Donald Trump’s criminal hush-money case may wind down this week in Manhattan. The prosecution could rest its case as soon as today. Longtime federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann says while Trump could still decide to testify, he likely knows it would be ‘suicide.’ And in ...
May 20, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Birth rates are plummeting around the world and no one has cracked the code on how to get people to have babies. More money, free daycare, and medical advances don’t appear to help…and criminalizing abortion DEFINITELY doesn’t help. This week on How We Got Here, Erin and Max break down how the 20th century baby boom is misremembered, the factors responsible for declining birth rates today, and whether anything can be done about it. SOURCES: Understanding the Baby Boom - Works in Progress German ...
May 18, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, we saw some big wins in the fight to expand access to the ballot box. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court reinstated a second majority Black congressional district in Louisiana. Earlier in the week, the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal majority looked poised to overturn a two-year-old decision banning nearly all absentee ballot drop boxes. Still, a new report from the Brennan Center for Justice shows voters in more than half the states will face new restrictions on voting that weren’t th...
May 17, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump agreed to two debates on Wednesday. In agreeing to the debates, Biden and Trump are bucking the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which had been organizing debates since the 80s.U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said this week that the Department of Justice will “aggressively” prosecute anyone who threatens election workers ahead of the 2024 election. The announcement comes as a new poll from the Brennan Center for Justice f...
May 16, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Former President Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial hit a new level of chaos Tuesday as Michael Cohen, Trump’s former self-described ‘fixer,’ continued his testimony for a second day. Trump’s defense team also began cross-examination, trying to paint Cohen as a bitter former employee out for revenge and publicity. Outside the Manhattan courtroom, an entourage of MAGA Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, took turns railing against the trial and bashing the American justice sys...
May 15, 2024•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Donald Trump leads President Biden in five of the six battleground states, according to two new polls released by the New York Times. These polls come at a time when Biden is struggling to win the support of young voters. But while polls are an essential snapshot of the country, that snapshot is fairly narrow. So to discuss what these numbers do and do not tell us, we spoke with Dan Pfeiffer, a co-host of Pod Save America and the host of Pollercoaster. And in headlines: Michael Cohen takes the s...
May 14, 2024•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast "Decision Day" for high school students looking to go to college was pushed back this year to May 15th, rather than the traditional May 1st deadline. The shift was made to accommodate for a host of problems students have had using the new federal financial aid application or FAFSA. We spoke with Ellie Bruecker, the director of research at the Institute for College Access and Success, to get a better sense of where the FAFSA fiasco left college applicants. And in headlines: Israeli forces continu...
May 13, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Why are middle-aged and older Americans persistently pro-Israel? It hasn’t always been the case. This week on How We Got Here, Max and Erin discuss the profound opinion shift among younger Americans, and then take a trip off campus to understand how geopolitics and propaganda in the 21st century have entrenched pro-Israel sentiments in Gen Xers, Boomers and beyond. SOURCES: The U.S. Public’s Pro-Israel History | Pew Research Center Majority in US Say Israel's Reasons for Fighting Hamas Are Valid...
May 11, 2024•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Adult film star Stormy Daniels took the stand this week in the hush money trial against former President Donald Trump. And let's just say she didn't hold back from describing what went down between them. We spoke with attorney Norm Eisen, author of "Trying Trump: A Guide to His First Election Interference Criminal Trial," to get his impressions of Trump's outlook in the New York criminal case and review the other cases the former President faces. And in headlines: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanya...
May 10, 2024•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that the U.S. would not supply Israel with some weapons if it moved forward with a ground invasion of Rafah. The announcement came hours after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed that the government had already paused a shipment of bombs to Israel over fears of an imminent offensive in the southern Gaza city where more than a million Palestinians are sheltering. Israel has been ramping up its attacks on Rafah over the last few days, all while negotiator...
May 09, 2024•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Justice Department is set to take a significant step this week, initiating a lawsuit against Iowa over its new immigration law. This law, which criminalizes the entry of individuals previously deported or barred from the country, mirrors the controversial Texas law. The latter is currently under legal scrutiny. Notably, other Republican-led states are also contemplating similar legislation. Spencer Amdur, a senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Pro...
May 08, 2024•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hamas on Monday announced it had agreed to a proposal for a ceasefire deal, renewing hopes a truce with Israel could be reached. Israeli officials said while the proposal didn’t meet all of its demands, it would send a delegation to Cairo to continue talks in hopes of reaching a deal. The movement on a possible ceasefire came as Israeli officials also ordered more than 100,000 Palestinians to evacuate parts of eastern Rafah. In this city, more than a million people are sheltering. Jeremy Konyndy...
May 07, 2024•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Former President Donald Trump held an audition of sorts on Saturday for his top vice presidential picks. At least seven known Veep wannabes attended the Republican National Committee’s spring retreat at Mar-a-Lago, including South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. The attention-seeking behavior continued into the Sunday ta...
May 06, 2024•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast Why does it feel like avian flu is always circling around? How did it land on cows? Are we on the cusp of another pandemic? Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, host of America Dissected, joins Erin to break down how this strain of bird flu could go from animal plague to human plague, lessons learned from past outbreaks, and what can be done to stop it this time around. SOURCES A Bird Flu H5N1 Status Report - by Eric Topol Updates on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) | FDA USDA Now Requiring Mandatory Tes...
May 04, 2024•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Thursday was Day 10 of former President Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial in Manhattan. Before testimony resumed, Justice Juan Merchan held a second hearing on new allegations that Trump violated his gag order. Later, Keith Davidson, a lawyer for Stormy Daniels, walked the jury through the deal he brokered between Trump and the adult film star in exchange for her silence. Hugo Lowell, political investigations reporter for The Guardian, shares the latest details from inside the courthouse....
May 03, 2024•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast New York police officers arrested more than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters who’d occupied Hamilton Hall at Columbia University on Tuesday night while pro-Israeli counterprotestors attacked a pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA. Meanwhile, an overwhelming majority of House lawmakers on Wednesday voted in favor of passing the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, a bill that critics say could create an overboard definition of what counts as anti-semitic speech on college campuses and other educational insti...
May 02, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Department of Justice took a significant step on Tuesday to downgrade federal restrictions on marijuana. The DOJ submitted a formal recommendation to the White House to reclassify it as a Schedule III drug. It’s a monumental shift in federal drug policy because, for more than 50 years, the U.S. government has considered marijuana to be among the most dangerous drugs, on par with heroin and LSD. Krishna Andavolu, the host and executive producer of the Vice TV show Weediquette, explains what r...
May 01, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast New York holds a special election today to fill a seat vacated by Democratic Congressman Brian Higgins. The Democrat in the race, state Sen. Tim Kennedy, is expected to win. If he does, it would leave Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson’s majority as slim as possible: a single vote. Todd Zwillich, a longtime Washington journalist and friend of the show, explains how it will make Johnson’s job even more complicated. And in headlines: Columbia University began suspending students at the Gaza sol...
Apr 30, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
