meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The Next Level

1025: Bleak House – Reflections on a Quietly Depressing Week

The Next Level

The Bulwark

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.83.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 October 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

JVL ambushes Sarah with The Darkness. It’s a fun-filled episode with the indictment of John Bolton, the decimation of the Pentagon press corps, another extra-legal killing off the coast of Venezuela, the resignation of the head of SouthCom, and the weaponization of the IRS.

Good times.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey, T&L buddies. It's JVL and Sarah. What's up guys? We have a secret show for you right here. It's a really good one. It's all the dark stuff that I kept on the back burner for the last week. So, and I'm just going to ambush Sarah with it. Yeah, I don't know what the topics are. This is, we do this sometimes. JVL is just going to come at me and we're going to see where it goes.

0:21.5

It's like candid camera, but with the end of the world. Here's the show. Enjoy.

0:29.2

Hello, everyone. This is JVL here with my best friend, Sarah Longwell, publisher of the bulwark. Sarah.

0:36.3

My guy.

0:39.3

John Bolton was indicted yesterday.

0:40.3

Sure was.

0:41.7

That's pretty cool, I guess.

0:47.6

We're going to have Jim Comey and John Bolton indicted on what seemed to be bullshit charges,

0:50.7

an actual weaponization of the Justice Department.

0:56.6

I mean, it's not great, Bob.

0:58.2

It's real bad.

0:59.1

Here's my question.

1:05.2

And maybe you can help me out with it that I've been wondering and haven't had a full chance to run down.

1:07.1

This is why this is a secret show.

1:08.8

And it is this.

1:24.5

I've seen a lot of people arguing that the Bolton case is sort of substantively different than the Comey Tish James case.

1:30.6

It appears that for Comey and Tish James, and by appears, I mean, these ones I have looked at pretty closely, and like, they are trumped up nothings.

1:35.9

Those are 100% meant to just screw with these people, mess with their lives, and the likelihood, like, they barely got indictments, and they are very unlikely to almost no chance of getting convictions.

1:54.0

Anything can happen, but whatever.

1:56.4

The Bolton one where he has kept documents that he shouldn't have, which is an interesting one from a,

2:04.8

hey, there was a whole timeline in which Trump was keeping documents he shouldn't have in Mar-a-Lago.

2:10.5

Not only was he keeping them, he wouldn't give them back. And if that case had gone to actual

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Bulwark, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Bulwark and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.