1083: Secret Podcast: The Walls Are Closing In
The Next Level
The Bulwark
4.8 • 3.2K Ratings
🗓️ 23 May 2026
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Full episodes of The Secret Podcast are available to paid members of The Bulwark via Apple Podcasts, YouTube and Substack.
Sarah is in the City of Angels; JVL is in the Big Apple;) and they have A LOT to catch up on. Gas is at $4.65. Trump is at -22 in the latest Fox poll. The Senate said no to the billi for his ballroom.
Oh, and maybe we’re going to do regime change in Cuba soon?
Plus: They recap the California live shows and go deep on Tina Peters.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, everyone. This is JVL here with my best friend, Sarah Longwell, publisher of the bulwark. |
| 0:06.7 | Sarah, happy Friday. I am in New York City. You are in the city of Angels. |
| 0:12.3 | Yeah, you're in New York City. I'm good. Yeah, we just got done with a live show. I am |
| 0:17.5 | disheveled, unshowered, slightly hungover. But we had a great L.A. live show. I am disheveled, unshowered, slightly hungover. But we had a great LA live show. |
| 0:24.6 | Well, we're going to save that for the back half of the show because I have so many questions. |
| 0:28.6 | I need to hear all about it. We missed you, man. I'm curiously through, I missed you guys. I was like |
| 0:33.5 | sending you emo texts. I know. Like, yeah, no, I was really, but first, we need to talk. |
| 0:41.3 | I assume that since you were taping your YouTube live stream on the empty bus, you did not have time to read. |
| 0:50.9 | That was a great, it was a great bit, by the way. |
| 0:53.3 | Oh, my God. |
| 0:53.8 | The pocket hose content, A plus way. Oh, my God. Pocket hose content, |
| 0:55.0 | A plus plus. So, wait, we, it was so funny. I will say sometimes, uh, I am reminded that I am an |
| 1:05.8 | immigrant into this world of liberals whose comments on the live stream were all about the carbon footprint |
| 1:12.8 | of the bus. |
| 1:14.4 | And they were like, it was like, and what was funny is so we were filming, we were at the back |
| 1:20.4 | half of the bus. |
| 1:21.4 | And so the front half of the bus was filled with people. |
| 1:23.8 | But it looked like on camera that there was nobody else on the bus. |
| 1:27.9 | And you missed the obvious, you missed the easy joke, which is that we forced all the little people to get out of the frame. |
| 1:35.5 | We didn't want them on camera with us. |
| 1:37.6 | That's right. |
| 1:38.3 | They were out of play. |
... |
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