Joyce White Vance and Jill Wine-Banks entered the Trump era with gold-plated resumes and sterling reputations in the legal world but modest public profiles outside it. Today, however, they are widely known as two members of a cadre of MSNBC legal analysts who conducted a four-year national civics lesson about the rule of law when it was being tested in unprecedented ways — a cadre notably dominated by women, many of them pioneers in their profession. Wine-Banks earned that status in the 1970s, w...
Feb 09, 2021•1 hr 24 min•Ep 23•Transcript available on Metacast If you looked up the hyphenate "artist-activist" in an illustrated dictionary, next to the entry would likely be a picture of Sean Penn. In a film career spanning forty years, Penn has appeared in more than 50 features, received five Best Actor Oscar nominations and won the award twice — for his leading roles in "Mystic River" and "Milk" — and staked a plausible claim to being the preeminent actor of his generation. He has directed five films, three of which he wrote, as well as publishing two n...
Feb 02, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep 22•Transcript available on Metacast Kurt Andersen and Lawrence O’Donnell first met 46 years ago as undergraduates at Harvard, forming a friendship that’s flourished alongside their careers as two of their generation’s most incisive, insightful observers of American politics and culture. Andersen made his mark in the 1980s as co-founder of the iconic Spy magazine, then went on to serve as editor-in-chief of New York magazine, host of the Peabody Award-winning radio program “Studio 360,” and best-selling novelist and non-fiction aut...
Jan 26, 2021•1 hr 18 min•Ep 21•Transcript available on Metacast Over the course of the past four decades, Robert Reich has worn a multitude of hats: professor and professional idea merchant; federal official in three presidential administrations, candidate for governor of Massachusetts, and economic adviser to Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Bernie Sanders; author of 18 books, creator of heralded documentaries, and wildly popular social media dynamo. But in all these roles — including the one for which he's best known, Clinton's first secretary of labor — Re...
Jan 19, 2021•1 hr 11 min•Ep 20•Transcript available on Metacast The Lincoln Project launched in late 2019 with an op-ed in The New York Times under a headline that made the group’s identity and intentions clear: “We are Republicans, and We Want Trump Defeated.” Since then, the group has established itself as a leading force in the fight against Trumpism, becoming a household name in the process. Led by an array of lapsed Republican operatives including Heilemann’s guests this week, Jennifer Horn and Rick Wilson, the Lincolners have raised tens of millions of...
Jan 12, 2021•58 min•Ep 19•Transcript available on Metacast The Lincoln Project launched in late 2019 with an op-ed in The New York Times under a headline that made the group’s identity and intentions clear: “We are Republicans, and We Want Trump Defeated.” Since then, the group has established itself as a leading force in the fight against Trumpism, becoming a household name in the process. Led by an array of lapsed Republican operatives including Heilemann’s guests this week, Jennifer Horn and Rick Wilson, the Lincolners have raised tens of millions of...
Jan 12, 2021•49 min•Ep 20•Transcript available on Metacast Shannon Watts is the founder of Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense in America — a self-described “accidental activist” who, in less than a decade, went from being a stay-at-home mother in Indiana to the face of a national grassroots movement with more active members than the National Rifle Association. When Watts launched her advocacy group as a simple Facebook page in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting in December 2012, she had just 75 friends on the site but grand ambitions, boundless en...
Jan 05, 2021•1 hr 21 min•Ep 18•Transcript available on Metacast When Jack Black and Kyle Gass formed the mock-rock band Tenacious D in 1994, they were just a pair of unknown members of The Actors' Gang in LA with a spiritual and satirical kinship with Spinal Tap, a penchant for R-rated lyrics about their sexual prowess and prodigious cannabis consumption, and surprisingly serious musical chops. Twenty-six years later, Tenacious D has accumulated a large and passionate following, released three platinum albums and a feature film, and won a Grammy Award — and ...
Dec 29, 2020•1 hr 18 min•Ep 17•Transcript available on Metacast Over the past three decades, Aaron Sorkin has staked a claim as America’s most renowned film and television writer. With a list of credits that runs from "A Few Good Men," "The American President, "The Social Network," and "Moneyball" on the big screen to "Sports Night," "The Newsroom," and his crowning achievement, "The West Wing," on TV, Sorkin's work has achieved vast popular success, critical acclaim, and cultural resonance. On this week’s episode, Hell & High Water continues its year-end re...
Dec 22, 2020•55 min•Ep 16•Transcript available on Metacast Rich Eisen has been a fixture in the sports media firmament for a quarter century. Sharp and funny, as well-versed in pop culture as in the prevent defense or the pick-and-roll, Eisen was still in his twenties when he first lit up ESPN during its heyday in the 1990s, before becoming the face of the NFL Network and his eponymous talk show and podcast. But what sets Eisen apart from many of his peers is his comfort in the place where top-flight athletics collide with broader social and political d...
Dec 15, 2020•1 hr 25 min•Ep 15•Transcript available on Metacast Joe Scarborough is a rare figure in the news business: a broadcaster who has known both Donald Trump and Joe Biden well for years and will be as influential in the political era now dawning as the one quickly coming to a close. Though he first came to prominence in the 1990s as a firebrand Republican congressman from Florida, Scarborough is best known as the co-host and namesake of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" — and an outspoken GOP refugee and relentless critic of President Trump. On this week's episo...
Dec 08, 2020•1 hr 28 min•Ep 14•Transcript available on Metacast Michael Santiago Render, aka Killer Mike, is one of the most vital figures in the worlds of both hip hop and progressive activism. Best known as one half of the acclaimed rap duo Run The Jewels, Render gained notoriety in the political realm as a prominent backer of Bernie Sanders and a fierce advocate for Black economic empowerment. In the wake of George Floyd’s killing, Render delivered a tearful televised plea to protestors not to torch his beloved home city of Atlanta; the video went viral a...
Dec 01, 2020•46 min•Ep 13•Transcript available on Metacast Michael Santiago Render, aka Killer Mike, is one of the most vital figures in the worlds of both hip hop and progressive activism. Best known as one half of the acclaimed rap duo Run The Jewels, Render gained notoriety in the political realm as a prominent backer of Bernie Sanders and a fierce advocate for Black economic empowerment. In the wake of George Floyd’s killing, Render delivered a tearful televised plea to protestors not to torch his beloved home city of Atlanta; the video went viral a...
Dec 01, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Ep 13•Transcript available on Metacast Lawrence Lessig and Laurence Tribe are among the most important and influential legal minds of this or any era. Lessig, a pioneer in the field of cyber-law, is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School and founder of Equal Citizens, a non-profit focused on the cause of electoral reform. Tribe, the Carl M. Loeb University Professor Emeritus at Harvard, is arguably the preeminent constitutional scholar of his generation, has argued 35 cases before the US Supreme Court...
Nov 24, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Ep 12•Transcript available on Metacast Laurie Garrett has been tracking epidemics and outbreaks since the early 1990's. She is the author of The Coming Plague, Betrayal of Trust, and I Heard the Sirens Scream and has won a Pulitzer Prize, a George Polk Award (twice), and a Peabody Award. With Thanksgiving approaching, and Covid-19 infection rates shooting up in all 50 states, Heilemann turns to Garrett, one of the foremost science journalists in the world, for her incisive and unflinching look at the pandemic. Hosted on Acast. See ac...
Nov 17, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Ep 12•Transcript available on Metacast Maya Wiley is a nationally recognized racial justice and equity advocate. She is the former Counsel to the Mayor in New York City, the former Chair of the NYPD Civilian Complaint Review Board, and she founded the Digital Equity Laboratory on universal and inclusive broadband at The New School. Jon Meacham is a Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer, a contributing writer for The New York Times Book Review and a contributing editor of Time magazine, and he holds the Rogers Chair in the American Presid...
Nov 10, 2020•1 hr 13 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast For the first time ever, all four of The Recount podcast hosts team up for a bonus episode. Jennifer Palmieri, host of "Just Something About Her," David Plouffe and Steve Schmidt, hosts of "Battleground," and John Heilemann, Executive Editor of The Recount and host of "Hell & High Water," discuss the collision of expectations and reality, poll trouble, what may have held Democrats back from bigger wins, and what's next for the country. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Nov 07, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast Nicolle Wallace is a journalist, author, and the host of "Deadline: White House" on MSNBC. But, most importantly for the purposes of this podcast, she’s a dear friend of Heilemann’s. Their friendship began when Nicolle was the White House Communications Chief to George W. Bush and deepened after Heilemann published "Game Change." The book chronicles the 2008 Presidential campaign and, with it, Nicolle's role as a senior advisor to Senator John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. In this episode...
Nov 03, 2020•1 hr•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast As former President Barack Obama hits the campaign trail, Heilemann chats with the crew that helped Obama get elected: David Axelrod, chief strategist for the '08 and '12 Obama campaigns and currently Director of the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics; David Plouffe, the '08 Obama campaign manager, former Senior Advisor to the President, and host of the podcasts Battleground (also from The Recount) and Campaign HQ; and Alyssa Mastromonaco, Director of Scheduling and Advance for the Ob...
Oct 27, 2020•1 hr 17 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast Mike Murphy and Stuart Stevens are two of the most storied consultants in Republican history. Before 2016, they competed against Democrats in races and against each other for clients. Their combined list of clients includes all three Bushes, Mitt Romney, Arnold Schwarzenegger, John McCain, Bob Dole, and many more. But for these Republican stalwarts, Donald J. Trump was a bridge too far. Both are actively involved in the fight to defeat him – Murphy with the group Republican Voters Against Trump ...
Oct 20, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast James Carville is one of the most famous political strategists of all time. Known around the world as the "Ragin' Cajun," Carville came to national attention in 1992 as the presiding guru behind the campaign of Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton. Since then, his hot temper, southern-fried charisma, and theatrical squalls of fury at the media have turned him into a cable news celebrity. Carville has never been shy about expressing his opinion, and in this episode of Hell & High Water, he expounds on ...
Oct 13, 2020•55 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast Ashley Parker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning White House reporter for The Washington Post. Jennifer Palmieri is a best-selling author and the former White House Communications Director for President Obama and Director of Communications for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. Heilemann, Parker, and Palmieri discuss the unsurprising – nonetheless, jaw-dropping – news that President Donald J. Trump has contracted COVID-19 and its implications for the election. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/...
Oct 06, 2020•48 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast Neal Katyal is the former Acting Solicitor General of the United States under Barack Obama, a distinguished lawyer who has argued 41 cases before the Supreme Court and the Paul Saunders Professor of National Security Law at Georgetown University. In this episode, Heilemann and Katyal explore all things SCOTUS. They discuss the late RBG, the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett, the high stakes at play and why Neal is still optimistic about the future of the Supreme Court. Hosted on Acast. See acast.c...
Sep 29, 2020•48 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast Jeff Daniels is a celebrated film, television, and stage actor, who stars as former FBI director James Comey in the forthcoming Showtime mini-series “The Comey Rule.” Heilemann and Daniels discuss how the actor approached playing the controversial Comey, a rare public figure despised equally by the left and the right. They explore the motivations of the man who presided over the FBI's investigations of both Hillary Clinton's email and Russia's interference in the 2016 election and its ties to Do...
Sep 22, 2020•51 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast Dave Chang is one of the most influential restaurateurs of the 21st century. He's the presiding genius behind the Momofuku empire, the star of “Ugly Delicious” and “Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner” on Netflix, the host of The Dave Chang Show podcast, and the author of a new memoir called Eat a Peach. John talks to Dave about the new role he’s taken during the course of the pandemic, as a leading voice talking about the restaurant apocalypse brought on by COVID-19. They discuss how the industry is thr...
Sep 16, 2020•47 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast In the first episode of Hell & High Water, Heilemann talks to Marques Johnson, legendary point forward for UCLA and the Milwaukee Bucks in the seventies and eighties, now a broadcaster for the Bucks. They talk about race, sports, and the NBA playoff boycott, led by the Bucks, in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, WI. Johnson discusses his experiences with racism growing up in Louisiana and Los Angeles, how a new generation of players is embracing social activism, and Dona...
Sep 08, 2020•46 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Sep 01, 2020•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
