The Nicole Sandler Show

Remember when Marco Rubio called Trump a con artist? When JD Vance said he was noxious? When Tulsi Gabbard, Lindsey Graham, Pete Hegseth, and Megan Kelly were all falling over each other to explain why Donald Trump was unfit for office? Yeah. We remember too.Today we're catching up on a LOT of news — Scott Pelley's devastating farewell statement after being fired from 60 Minutes, the Todd Blanche testimony where he somehow couldn't figure out what a conflict of interest is, the blanket immunity deal the DOJ quietly handed Trump (no, the slush fund got walked back, but THAT part didn't), Dr. Oz explaining that people who don't use their insurance are committing fraud (???), and my husband David Sloane — sports agent of 40+ years — joins me to explain why the Protect College Sports Act is neither protective nor sporting.Plus: Tina Peters gets out of jail and immediately goes back to the greatest hits. And even more!Subscribe, share, and try to remember to take your blood pressure medication first.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

My guest today was one of my favorites, Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works. He was featured in a new video from two-time Emmy winners More Perfect Union about what this regime is doing to Social Security field offices around the country. They went to Iowa and found closed offices, five-hour hold times that end in dropped calls, and elderly people who have nowhere to turn. It's heartbreaking and infuriating, and you need to see it.Then Alex and I talked about: Why "Medicare Advantage" is neither Medicare nor an advantage — and what happens when you actually get sick, the trillion-dollar Medicaid cut that's already closing hospitals in Montana and Nebraska, prior authorization showing up in TRADITIONAL Medicare now (I'm living it — literally wearing a heart monitor right now). Plus what "bureaucratic disentitlement" means and how Florida has turned it into a profitable business, and why we're not hopeless — and what Zohran Mamdani is showing us is possibleIf you have a family member on Medicare or Medicaid, or you're getting close to 65 and making decisions, please listen to this episode and share it. This is our money. These are our programs. And they are being dismantled on purpose.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Get ready for a conversation that starts with Cannes and ends up at Bruce Springsteen, and somehow it all connects.That was today. Brian Karem — White House correspondent for Salon.com, author of seven books, and filmmaker — joined me to talk about his new documentary The First 100. He just screened it at the Cannes Film Festival to a crowd of Europeans who are, let's say, very concerned about us. We covered press freedom (the US is now ranked 64th in the world!), the absurdity of the first 100 days of Trump 2.0, why Brian has roughly zero faith in either party right now, and the Bruce Springsteen concert that somehow made both of us feel like things might be okay. At least for one night. As for me, I went kayaking on the Salt River this weekend, got a strangely artistic sunburn and capsized. And we didn't even catch a glimpse of the wild horses. But I heard that a herd crossed about five minutes down the river from where we exited. Just call me lucky, or not.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's Emptywheel Friday and Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net is joining me LIVE from a Paris terrace instead of her usual place at home in IrelandToday: the White House demolition derby, Iran falling apart in real time, Delaney Hall hunger strikes, DOJ corruption, the Texas primary's real story, and why Trump's birthday concert has Milli Vanilli as a headliner. (No, really.) Or is it FloRiDa?Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

These last few weeks have been insane. About three weeks ago I ended up in the hospital for four days after what looked like a cardiac event. My arteries are clear, we still don't know exactly what happened, and I've been kind of scattered ever since.But Digby was here today and we had so much to talk about that I almost forgot to be tired.Here's what we covered: Trump is literally building a coliseum on the White House lawn for a UFC fight on his 80th birthday. He tried to strongarm Arab leaders into the Abraham Accords during a ceasefire call — as an afterthought — and there was dead silence on the line. The Iran war is over and we lost. Ken Paxton, one of the most corrupt politicians in America, just won the Texas Republican Senate primary because Trump endorsed him and his cult followers said "good enough for Trump, good enough for me."AND — there may actually be a path for James Talarico to win that Senate seat. We talked about what Nate Cohn is seeing in the numbers, and it's more hopeful than I expected. I'll take whatever I can get, at this point!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

I'm playing catch up with the news, so today I'm covering Trump's third hospital visit this year, the alarming details about his daytime somnolence (falling asleep in the Oval Office, possibly at Arlington on Memorial Day — yikes), and his midnight rhino meme that makes zero sense. Plus the Texas Senate runoff — Cornyn vs. Paxton — and how Trump just torpedoed a nearly-done Iran ceasefire deal by throwing the Abraham Accords in at the last minute like an afterthought. Then my guest Mark Malkoff — author of Love Johnny Carson and a veteran of the late night world — joins me to talk about the end of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. 33 years of the CBS late night franchise, gone. We cover it all: the joke that supposedly got the show canceled, Colbert's brilliant post-finale appearance on Monroe Community Media's public access channel with Jack White, Eminem and Jeff Daniels, the CBS copyright freakout, what happens to the Ed Sullivan Theater now, and whether we'll ever see late night TV at this scale again. Spoiler: probably not.And I close with one more gut punch — the Trump administration wants every federal employee to sign an NDA. Because why not finish off what's left of free speech?Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Today, I have a different kind of Memorial Day show for you. Instead of the usual music, I'm honoring two dear friends we lost too recently — Boca Brit Summers, the comedic genius behind so much of this show's best imaging and parody music, and Howie Klein, former president of Reprise Records and my weekly guest for nearly 15 years. We revisit a 2023 show Brit and I did together when she was finally feeling well enough to come back on the air, featuring some of her greatest hits. Then Howie, in his own words, remembering his close friend Lou Reed just days after Lou's death in October 2013. Grab a tissue. Or maybe a laugh. Probably both.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Every week feels like an eternity, and this one seemed worse than normal. On today's Emptywheel Friday, Marcy Wheeler and I covered a lot of territory.🏰 Trump's billion-dollar ballroom got killed by the Senate parliamentarian and some help from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse — because Republicans forgot which committees have jurisdiction over the White House. Oops.💰 The so-called "terrorist slush fund" — a $1.8 billion bounty that could, allegedly, pay pardoned January 6th rioters, cop assaulters, and at least one convicted child sex abuser who used the promise of a payout to try to silence his victim. And Todd Blanche lied his face off about it in front of the Senate. There are a few lawsuits already challenging this travesty.⚖️ The Broadview 6 case is OVER — dismissed with prejudice after a judge discovered the DOJ had hidden grand jury misconduct with redactions. This is a pattern.🎸 The Late Show's final night was last night, with Paul McCartney helping Stephen turn off the lights. Oh, and the right wing billionaires who killed off one of Trump's biggest TV critics is also shuttering the original news authority - CBS News Radio no longer exists after today. For someone whose entire career has been in radio and who spent a few years in the CBS building on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood, this is a true punch in the gut, and just plain wrong.Plus — what YOU can do this Memorial Day weekend while your representatives are out in public. Listen now!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

A LOT going on today on the Nicole Sandler Show ...Trump created a $1.776 billion slush fund to pay off his Jan. 6 insurrectionists (yes, that number was chosen on purpose — cute, right?). And now the Pillow Guy wants $400 million from it, a Proud Boy leader wants $5 million because his "life was messed up," and actual Republicans in Congress are starting to say... wait, what? We cover the pushback from Rep/ Brian Fitzpatrick and Sen. Bill Cassidy, and Todd Blanche's testimony that makes less sense the more you listen to it.Ryan Cooper from The American Prospect joined me to talk about all of it — plus the military getting run into the ground, the Ebola outbreak nobody's prepared for, and the DNC's post-election autopsy that somehow forgot to mention inflation OR Gaza.Oh — and tonight the Late Show ends, thanks to the right-wing takeover of our media. Bruce Springsteen was on last night and had a few things to say. And as usual, I have feelings.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

I'm Nicole Sandler, and today I nearly lost my mind before I even got to my guest. Between Trump dropping his IRS lawsuit only to magically produce a $1.776 BILLION "weaponization fund" to pay off his convicted cronies — oh, and a little addendum granting himself and his whole family immunity from tax prosecution forever — I needed someone smarter than me to talk me off the ledge.That someone is Driftglass — brilliant OG Progressive political blogger and co-host (with the incomparable Blue Gal Fran) of the Professional Left Podcast. And he delivered.We trace exactly how we got to this insane moment in history: from Bill Clinton's budget surplus (say it with us — surplus) to George W. Bush blowing it all up, to Republicans meeting at a DC restaurant the day Obama was inaugurated to plot his destruction, to the rise of the birther king himself, to here. It's a long story. But Driftglass tells it better than anyone.Also: eight Senate Democrats voted to confirm a judicial nominee who wouldn't say Biden won in 2020. We have thoughts. Many thoughts.Subscribe. Tell your friends. We'll keep going as long as we can.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Today's show was one I didn't plan. I woke up to watch the Senate grill Todd Blanche over Trump's $1.776 billion slush fund (yes, 1776 — he literally can't help himself), and then I got the news that my dear friend and radio comedy legend Boca Britany Somers passed away last night. So I did what I always do — I showed up, played her bits, cried a little, and kept going. That's what she would've wanted. Come listen.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

So Trump flew to China, brought Eric and the Nvidia guy instead of any actual China experts, accomplished nothing on Hormuz or Taiwan, got a lecture from Xi about Sparta and Athens, and came home. Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net and I spent an hour plus breaking down what it all means — plus Kash Patel snorkeling a war grave, which is exactly as bad as it sounds.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

I've been waiting to talk with my favorite legal expert Lisa Graves about this latest, most despicable outrage from the Extreme Court. Just last week they gutted what was left of the Voting Rights Act. Lisa breaks down how we got here- from Roberts, who started his career as a Reagan revolutionary attacking the VRA's effects provisions, to the neo-Confederate legislatures that instantly moved to bleach Black representation out of Congress the moment the ruling dropped. We also talk Leonard Leo's sudden billions, C. Boyden Gray's deeply troubling family history, Linda McMahon calling teachers non-professionals, Trump literally saying on camera that he doesn't think about Americans' financial situation, and — most importantly — what we can actually DO about all of this.Spoiler: it's court reform. And Lisa makes the case better than anyone.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Nicole Sandler is joined by Kaswar Klasra — journalist, founder, and Editor-in-Chief of The Islamabad Telegraph — for a wide-ranging, no-holds-barred conversation about the world Trump has made. Calling in from Islamabad at midnight his time, Kaswar brings a firsthand view from Pakistan: a country caught in the crossfire of Trump's war with Iran, mediating between nuclear powers, watching gas prices double overnight — and still trying to maintain a free press while American journalism collapses in real time.From the Strait of Hormuz double blockade and Pakistan's surprising role as peacemaker, to Trump's visit to China and fears he'll give away Taiwan, to the death of the Voting Rights Act, the dismantling of CBS and Voice of America, and Trump calling a female reporter "Piggy" — nothing is off the table. Nicole and Kaswar have known each other since 2011, and this reunion is exactly the kind of global, unfiltered conversation you won't find anywhere else.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Nicole Sandler returns after an unplanned absence following a scary health event that landed her in the hospital for several days. She breaks down what happened — heart racing at 143 BPM, chest pressure, possible AFib, and a pericarditis scare — and why she's still not entirely in the clear.On the news front: Trump's Iran nuclear negotiations have collapsed after he rejected Tehran's response with a dismissive Truth Social post; the Supreme Court takes another sledgehammer to the Voting Rights Act; and a shadow hearing in Florida gives Epstein survivors — including Jenalisa Jones — a platform to speak out about how Pam Bondi's DOJ exposed their names and identities in the document release, re-traumatizing women who had told no one about their abuse.Plus: the no-bid Reflecting Pool contract, Trump berating a reporter, and Nicole's honest reflection on why she keeps doing this work.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Nicole Sandler is back after a health scare, but she tries to never miss an Emptywheel Friday episode! So she and national security journalist Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net are here for their weekly breakdown of lots of what the corporate media is underreporting.This week: the Iran War is far more catastrophic than the White House is letting on — bases may be permanently abandoned, Saudi Arabia is furious, jet fuel prices are spiking, and Spirit Airlines is the first casualty. Plus, Kash Patel's whiskey brand may have gotten him into serious legal trouble, Howard Lutnick testified behind closed doors about his Epstein ties, Trump's new counterterrorism strategy conspicuously omits far-right extremists, and the Voting Rights Act is basically history. It's a lot — because it always is.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's another Emptywheel Friday, when national security journalist Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net joins me to break down the week, and this one was a mess! The Supreme Court finished off what was left of the Voting Rights Act, we saw two days of "Whiskey Pete" Hegseth hearings (House AND Senate Armed Services Committees), the Jim Comey "8647" indictment #2 and why it's a mess, the SPLC prosecution unraveling, the Cole Allen shooting attempt at the White House Correspondents dinner, gas prices spiking while the Defense Secretary can't tell you what a gallon costs, and the Sarah Jacobs/Trump-as-Jesus moment you have to see to believe. Plus, a tribute to the civil rights heroes who did the hard work to get the Voting Rights Act passed in the first place, and why their persistence matters right now.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's a long, busy show today! We opened with old friend and longtime progressive writer Dave Johnson, now living as an American expat in a tiny village outside Cambridge, England. He talks NHS, the UK's surging Green Party, the lessons Labour's collapse holds for US Democrats, and what it's like watching America from across the Atlantic — where literally everyone hates Trump. Then it's wall-to-wall news: Hegseth's two-day Congressional testimony (day one: a disaster; day two: damage control, sort of), the Supreme Court finishing off the Voting Rights Act and the redistricting scramble that followed, gas prices at record highs, Trump's approval ratings at record lows, the Comey seashell "threat," DOGE handing voter data to outside political groups, a Fox News contributor nominated as Surgeon General, the ICE agent who killed Renee Good getting reassigned instead of prosecuted, and — to end on a weird note — an Indian medical student who made a fortune scamming MAGA men with a fake AI conservative influencer.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Supreme Court's extremist majority struck again today — this time gutting what's left of the Voting Rights Act in a 6-3 ruling written by Samuel Alito. Elena Kagan wrote the dissent — which pointedly drops the word "respectfully" — which isn't the usual. Then: Friday is May Day, and the movement is calling for a nationwide day of economic disruption. No work, no school, no shopping. My guest Nancy Tooozian, founder of Tempe Rising Indivisible, joins me in studio to talk about how she built her chapter from scratch and how you can do the same wherever you live.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's the Monday after the "Nerd Prom" — and wow, what a weekend. We open the show with Jesse Wells' brand new song "Lone Wolves" (already at 53K views!), then journalist Jonathan Larson from The F'ng News joins to break down the assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents Dinner, Trump's bizarre 60 Minutes interview with Nora O'Donnell, and what we actually know — and don't know — about alleged shooter Cole Allen. Plus: Melania wants Jimmy Kimmel punished, and Nicole and David share a feel-good win: they took their nightmare former landlord to small claims court and actually got punitive damages. Stand up for your rights, people!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's another Emptywheel Friday! Every Friday, Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net joins Nicole Sandler to wrap up the week's news. Today, Marcy explains why Trump is psychologically trapped in the Iran war — he can't confront Russia, and he can't admit Obama's JCPOA was better than anything he could negotiate. The global jet fuel crisis is already crashing airlines (hello, Spirit), and the worst economic effects haven't even hit yet.And then, the DOJ's strange indictment of the SPLC; why the Kash Patel/Atlantic lawsuit is going to backfire spectacularly; a Special Forces soldier arrested for insider-trading on the Maduro raid; and the story barely anyone is covering — Joe DiGenova put in charge of the Mueller review, despite being a subject of the very investigation he's supposed to oversee. And probably more...Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Today I needed a laugh — and honestly, so did you. We kick things off with the best Trump impression on the internet, JL Cauvin. Today's guest is Mark Malkoff, author of Love, Johnny Carson: One Obsessive Fan's Journey to Find the Genius Behind the Legend, about the man who invented late night as we know it. We get into what Carson really thought about Trump back in the '80s and '90s, whether he would have survived today's TV landscape, the Don Rickles cigarette box story you've never heard, and what's happening to late night now that Colbert's show is ending. Plus: my husband calls in to correct my geography. As he does...Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Yes, my favorite expert on the law, Lisa Graves - @TheLisaGraves.bsky.social - will join us in the last half-hour of today's show. I had invited her to discuss today's SCOTUS opinions, but they weren't the big ones we were hoping for (or dreading). There's still plenty to discuss, like yesterday's important wins in the ballot box in Virginia! Though- as I'm posting this came the news that judge has struck it down. More details tomorrow!And you know I have a few things to say about how the orange bloviator tried to block the Democrats from doing what he suggested first, claiming that when the Dems do it, it's illegal and immoral, but when he does it, it's brilliant and we're entitled to it.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Tom Steyer is running for governor of California and still hasn't taken my advice from 2019. We dig into the full California governor's race — who's in, who's out (looking at you, Swalwell), and what to think about the candidates left standing. Then we go to the Wayback Machine for my actual December 2019 interview with Steyer, where I made the case — live on air — that he should put his $100 million into rebuilding progressive media instead of a presidential run he had no chance of winning. He disagreed. Respectfully. And here we are. After that: Kash Patel filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic — and his own lawsuit appears to confirm several of the things he's claiming are lies. Classic. Plus, Trump is reading from the Bible tonight on camera (pre-recorded, naturally), The Onion takes over InfoWars, the Iran war is affecting condom supply, and the tariff refund website is off to a "glitchy start" (that's the diplomatic version). My guest Dayna Steele from Today's Facts joins to break down what's real and what isn't in today's news — and shares the exciting news that her one-woman show is heading to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's a Monday and, unfortunately, the news doesn't stop churning over the weekend... A new friend of the show is Dr. Art Jipson. In addition to being a professor of sociology at the University of Dayton and teaching those impressionable college students, he's a prolific writer on substack and a few other venues, writing about the issues in the news that are so troubling to us. And he hosts a weekly radio show on WUDR! Today, an important film I saw last night about AI and why I'm even more frightened now, and how it could affect every aspect of our lives... and more!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's another Emptywheel Friday! Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net graciously joins us each Friday to talk with me about the news that hit since we spoke last week. I'm running on Springsteen fumes today (he played Phoenix last night for THREE amazing hours ) but Marcy Wheeler and I still had a full show: Orban lost in Hungary, the DOJ is reversing convictions of Jan 6 convicted terrorists, Trump is losing Catholics while fighting the Pope, and ICE agents are being charged in Minnesota. Come hang. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Heather 'Digby' Parton from Salon and digbysblog.net joined me today after missing Tuesday's show (red-eye flight, we've all been there), and we had one of those cathartic conversations that allows us to clear the crap left by D'ump and co.We started with the big news: Viktor Orban lost in Hungary. And honestly? It gave us both a little hope — not just because a mini-Trump got shown the door, but because of how it happened. The candidate who beat him ran on corruption. Just flat-out told people they were being robbed. Democrats, it's your turn.From there we got into Kushner and Witkoff playing diplomat while cashing billion-dollar checks from the same countries they're "negotiating" with, Trump's increasingly unhinged feud with Pope Leo, JD Vance telling the Pope to watch his mouth about theology (I can't), Pete Hegseth reciting Pulp Fiction as Pentagon scripture (I genuinely cannot), RFK lying under oath, Scott Bessent and the immortal "Straits of Vermouth," and the Eric Swalwell implosion and what it means for the California governor's race.It's a lot. It's always a lot. But Digby helps me make sense of it — or at least survive it.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

A new book about Trump's Secretary of Health & Human Services is out.. RFK Jr: THE FALL AND RISE hit stores yesterday. Today, its author Isabel Vincent was my guest. It was obvious from the start that she and I have different opinions of the man. At the end of the program, a news story broke at just the moment I was explaining how it was affecting many of us.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Digby was supposed to be here today, but I was supposed to remind her yesterday, so I'll blame both of us! We'll reschedule. We wound up spending most of the hour talking about our "man" problem as evidenced by Eric Swalwell. I'm lucky in that I never had to worry about my husband, who joined me on the air to discuss the problems we face.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Is the pro-democracy media ecosystem helping — or accidentally making things worse? Nicole Sandler opens with the weekend's wildest news before sitting down with Micah Sifry, who mapped 236 pro-democracy Substacks and found what he believes is a troubling pattern: alarm is winning over action. Then Dr. Art Jipson, professor of sociology at the University of Dayton, joins the conversation to bring a social science lens to movement burnout, political agency, and why grievance alone can't sustain a resistance.Plus: Viktor Orbán is out after 16 years, Trump declares war on the Pope, the Eric Swalwell situation, and comedian JL Cauvin doing what he does best.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's another jam-packed Emptywheel Friday with Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net. Trump's threat to annihilate Iran, what the "ceasefire" actually means (and who it benefited), JD Vance's trip to Hungary to shore up a Russian asset, and the death of an American soldier that Russia helped cause — which Trump is ignoring. And, of course, Melania. Ooh boy did her little presser yesterday open a huge can of worms. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Yes, I want our nation and the world to be rid of the demented orange man currently occupying the Oval Office. Judging by his actions and statements this week alone, it's clear that he's not fit for office. That seems to be the situation that the 25th Amendment to the Constitution was written to address. Or was it? Our first guest today is Maureen Tkacik, investigations editor of The American Prospect. She & David Dayen looked into it and what they found might surprise you. Then our old friend Driftglass steps away from his blog and the Professional Left Podcast to join us for the rest of the hour to discuss the full catastrophe: the war, the chaos, and the constitutional shitshow Trump has dragged this country into.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Comedy writer, satirist, and Morning Sedition / Daily Show veteran Jim Earl joins us LIVE to talk Trump's wild weekend — from death rumors to threatening a "whole civilization" to calling a 2-week ceasefire a win. We'll dig into the Iran deal Iran is calling their victory, the Strait of Hormuz toll road nobody asked for, Pete Hegseth crediting God for wartime diplomacy, and who's next on Trump's purge list. Plus — Jim's book Mourning Remembrance: Mocking Obituaries Ripped from the Headlines is more relevant than ever. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Today's episode features journalist and political analyst Frederick Clarkson, Senior Research Analyst at Political Research Associates, who has spent four decades covering the intersection of religion and politics in America. Fred joins us to break down the growing influence of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) — a charismatic Christian movement whose leaders claim direct revelations from God and are pursuing religious and political dominion over American society.We'll dig into three major stories Fred is currently reporting on: Trump's recent promotion of a decades-old prophecy from a dead charismatic preacher to build support for his Iran policy; a guide to the 24 most influential NAR apostles and prophets operating in the U.S. today — many of whom were connected to January 6th; and the largely unreported story of newly confirmed Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin's ties to City Elders, a Tulsa-based NAR-affiliated organization with an explicit goal of placing its people in government at every level.From "holy war" rhetoric in the military to theocratic creep in the GOP, Fred helps us understand how a movement most Americans have never heard of is quietly reshaping the political landscape — and why that matters for democracy.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This is a problem in 2026 and in the D'ump regime. There has been creeping Christianity in our government for more than a few years now, but this cabal of creepy "Christians" has taken it to a whole new level. And it reared it's ugly head over the Easter and Passover holidays. Jonathan Larsen (of The Fucking News) today puts on his serious JonathanLarsen.substack.com journalist's hat to bring us some of this offensive weird sect of Christianity stuff that's infected this government.I also shared a segment from my show from January 3, 2020. Trump had just launched an attack on Iran that killed Iranian General Sulieman. I called a random hotel in Tehran, hoping to reach someone who speaks English so we could have a conversation between two humans who don't want war. It was everything I had hoped for!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net joins me every Friday to discuss most of the news that you need to know about since we spoke the week before. Today, we began with the breaking news this morning that a US fighter jet was shot down over Iran. One of the two pilots had been rescued. The other was still missing when we finished recording at about 1pm Eastern. If anything happens to that missing pilot, it's Pete Hegseth's fault. As Marcy said, we must all call our congressional representatives and demand he be fired! And there's lots more...Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Sometimes I don't exactly what I'll be talking about until shortly before the show begins. I had a few ideas for today... but two hours before showtime the breaking news dropped in my lap and my plans changed... Pam Bondi is OUT as Attorney General. We had hints it would be happening, and then it did. Also, the orange pustule showed what a spoiled brat of an insolent child he is with a nasty UNtruth social post about Bruce Springsteen. So, I reached out to The Nation's Joan Walsh (who's as big a fan as I am), and asked her to join us. And last night, I pestered by friend Brad Friedman of the Brad Blog (who's on vacation this week) because I thought I should interrupt his time off to see what he thinks of all of this. Today was supposed to be spring cleaning... that'll have to wait for next week. Tomorrow, it's another Emptywheel Friday with Marcy Wheeler!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Today is April 1st, April Fools Day, and our nation's biggest fool again made a fool of himself, becoming the first-ever sitting guy in the oval office (sorry, I can't call him president) to attend a Supreme Court hearing. That the case is over an Executive Order he issued on his first day in office makes it even more idiotic. Or, if you prefer, the word he likes to call other people, "STUPID." But we know that every accusation is a confession everything he says is projection, it's not surprising. Thankfully, our favorite legal expert LISA GRAVES will take some time out of her very busy day to spend some time with us today too... And Bruce Springsteen kicked off his special Land of Hope & Dreams tour in Minneapolis last night... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Tim Karr is Senior Director of Communications & Strategy for FreePress.net, an organization that's been fighting to protect media and technology, knowing they're essential to our democracy, and to make sure they're used for justice. Today Tim and I spoke about how this regime's takeover of the FCC is being used to control all aspects of those components, doing grave danger to our nation and democracy along the wayAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

We did it! For the third time now, millions of patriots took to the streets of the USA and many more joined in from foreign shores to stand up for democracy and against an evil, sociopathic narcissistic ruler who thinks he should be king in a nation that was borne on the premise that there are no kings. His actions have set our 250-year young experiment with a fragile democracy on a collision course to upend the global infrastructure, causing more than one expert to predict our demise if we stay on this course. Today on the show, after a look at where we go from here, we'll check in with our professor - Dr. Art Jipson, University of Dayton professor of sociology, prolific writer, and aka Dr J, host of the Tuesday Afternoon Alternative at WUDR, since 2004!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Emptywheel.net's Marcy Wheeler joins me each Friday to recap much of the most important news of the week. We were both our last week, so there was a lot to talk about today. We didn't worry about what we missed last week, but dug into the seriousness of the mess he's gotten us in to. Yes, it's depressing, but we all need to arm ourselves with the truth and as much of it as we can stand, because information is power. We need to know what's happening so we can fight back against D'ump and his ilk who are trying to kill off democracy. Bring the information with you tomorrow to the No Kings rally near you!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This has been a really a strange week on The Nicole Sandler Show. Good thing tomorrow's Friday. But then again, who knows.. The walls are closing in on donOLD, and when a mad animal is trapped, it tends to become very dangerous. And that's what we're witnessing coming out of the Oval Office. We'll attempt to peek in and see what we can find. News reports are not very encouraging. The Month of March is winding down, and I've been remiss. March is Women's History Month, and I haven't even mentioned it yet. We'll change that on today's show too, as Cultural HERstorian Amy Simon returns with some stories, both good and some not so much... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Trying to hold on to some semblance of sanity in times like these is more of a challenge with each passing week. And this week has brought with it some special challenges for me! Somehow, despite not getting enough sleep, we're still standing.I'm a bit over-taxed today and almost didn't do a show. But when Brian Karem responded to my email inviting him on today, I figured that if he can do it, so can I. I'm still on a high from seeing Jesse Welles in concert last night (wow), but unfortunately didn't sleep last night.. again. Hopefully my brain and mouth will cooperate with each other as I try to discuss some of the news that defies sanity...Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The once-varied and somewhat diverse media landscape in the US has vastly changed to where a small cartel of billionaires and conglomerates dominates much of what Americans see, read and hear. Today's guest - Tim Karr of freepress.net - got delayed (he'll be back next week), so I spent most of the hour ranting about what has happened to our media in the 40 + years I've been part of the industry... What a long, strange trip it's been.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Ezra Levin, co-founder and co-director of Indivisible, joins Nicole Sandler on her first day back from vacation to talk about No Kings Day #3 coming up this Saturday, plus some history of what has grown into a movement, organizing, democracy. And Nicole's studio's gremlins re-appeared to welcome her back from vacation. Then some news and phone calls from listeners too...Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

I'm on a bit of a forced vacation this week. The house we live in is a rental, and the owners are putting in a new roof, now. So the noise makes it impossible for me to do a show. And that's just as well, because my main computer melted down this weekend, and now I'll have to figure out a solution. So for now, anyway, I'm only able to stream audio.And that's just as well, as I recently found an old stash of shows that I did on Air America back in 2009, and I didn't stream video then. Today, we go back to August 17, 2009. Congress was in the middle of fighting over health care and the legislation that would become the Affordable Care Act. On that day, one of my guests was former Labor Secretary under Bill Clinton, Robert Reich, who was a professor at US Berkeley. Just over a week later, Senator Ted Kennedy, one of our biggest proponents of a single payer health care system succumbed to brain cancer. Robert Reich wrote a lovely tribute to him an Huffington Post. So I reached out to him again and he joined me again on my show the following day, August 26, 2009.I had also produced a bit of a tribute to him so, today on the show, I shared both of those interviews, followed by the tribute.And in the few minutes I had left, I shared another production piece I put together to celebrate George W Bush's finally leaving the White House, "Bushisms A to Z". Enjoy!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Today is the 14th day of this insane war against Iran, launched by the demented orange man who's still occupying the White House for no apparent reason and appears to have no plan to end it either. Every Friday, Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net joins me to discuss what happened since we spoke the week before and today, Marcy goes in-depth to pull all the crazy together and tries to help us make sense out of the senseless. Both Marcy and I will be out next week. I'll run a combination of some of the best shows of the recent past and pull out a few interviews I just unearthed from my time at Air America radio which I think you'll truly appreciate... Also, I want to send a big thank you to all who have supported my work with donations, subscriptions or in other ways. I couldn't continue doing this work without you, and just wanted to thank you all again. I know that not everyone can afford the support my work monetarily, but do share my stuff. Thank you for helping to let others know what I do here every day.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

So many aspects of our society have taken a major hit during both of the orange guy's time in office, notably education. I think, uniformly, all administrations - except for the current one- have tried to make the US system of education the best in the world. But in this Dump-led regime, the goal is the break it. That's just one of the topics I'll discuss with today's guest, a fascinating professor of sociology and a whole lot more. Dr. Art Jipson, who also hosts a very popular radio show on the University of Dayton's radio station, WUDR. If you haven't heard him yet, do listen or watch. I'm pretty sure you'll like him too!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The world of progressive political talk media is relatively small. We don't ALL know each other, but most of us aren't much more than 2 degrees of separation apart. A relatively new show on the air and online, The Politics Bar, is hosted by an old friend and colleague Shawn "Smith" Peirce and a newer friend Jody Hamilton. We spent some time today talking a bit about everything from, obviously, the news and the idiot steering the news, to our/their histories, family, tv and so much more. It was a delightful conversation at a time when, frankly, we could all use it.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Today's show is a serious and important one. There's so much to be concerned about these days, and the areas of concern have multiplied since the current administration moved into and took over DC. From day one, the orange madman, has dismantled, destroyed, and decimated the agencies, departments and safety nets that had made this country great. And it was great. It is no longer because of his actions. This group has only been in office just over a year, though it feels like eons already, so some of his horrific actions in their first few months have faded from memory. They can't... We can't let them. Today, I speak with Chuck Borges, better known to millions who care about our futures, as the Social Security - DOGE Whistleblower! And lucky for some of us, he's now running for office.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy