1085: Secret Podcast: A Cage Fight for America's Soul
The Next Level
The Bulwark
4.8 • 3.2K Ratings
🗓️ 29 May 2026
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Full episodes of The Secret Podcast are available to paid members of the Bulwark, on Apple Podcasts, Substack and YouTube.
Sarah and JVL talk about the ongoing meltdown of Trump’s Freedom 250 event; the inappropriateness of putting a UFC cage fight on the White House lawn; John Cornyn’s sudden understanding of what Trump is; and Bari Weiss’s murder of 60 Minutes.
It’s a good show / short show because we’re both playing hurt today, so forgive us if we’re not at our most dazzling.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, everyone. This is JVL here with my best friend, Sarah Longwell, and the two of us are coming to you |
| 0:07.6 | today sick, playing hurt, playing through the pain to produce content for you, our family. |
| 0:16.2 | I don't know how you got sick. I got sick at doing the live shows, man, going cross-country, |
| 0:23.0 | doing the time change, and then like, I hugged. I wouldn't give it up. I wouldn't know how you got sick. I got sick at doing the live shows, man. Going cross-country, doing the time change, and then, like, I hugged. |
| 0:40.4 | I wouldn't give it up. I wouldn't change anything about it. But I did hug maybe a thousand people. And so, you know, somewhere in there. I picked up a bug. So I don't know if we have this in the budget. but I was thinking could we set up one of those plastic like contaminant tents? |
| 0:41.1 | Yeah. |
| 1:12.9 | For the... in the budget, but I was thinking, could we set up one of those plastic, like, contaminant tents? Yeah. For these things that when we, when we do meet people, I could be completely ensconced in it. And you just have, like, those little rubber arms through them. Right, and hug people that way. Like, the bubble boy. I could be the bubble boy from Seinfeld. At the shows, they're all like, oh, you know, we really miss JVL. And we're like, you know, guys, he's serious. He's serious about how he struggles, you know, but they understand because they know you. Yeah. No. Okay. So we, it's going to be a good show, short show, because we are under a time crunch and also we're both barely upright. |
| 1:15.0 | We're going to talk a little bit about America 250. |
| 1:17.2 | Yeah, I've got so many topics. |
| 1:19.7 | And we're going to talk about 60 minutes. |
| 1:22.3 | And what else do you have for our one day? Giving Iran 300 million ballrooms. |
| 1:27.1 | E. Jean Carroll, Bondi and her closed door E. Jean Carroll. |
| 1:28.8 | Bondi and her closed-door hearing. |
| 1:31.4 | And then I want some thoughts on Harambi and aliens, which is what the White House is currently posting about as we try to figure out how we're going to end this war. |
| 1:42.6 | Posting through it. |
| 1:43.8 | Okay. Well, I don't know anything about any of those things. |
| 1:46.4 | So I'm excited to hear you explain them to me. |
| 1:48.5 | Let's start with the important things. |
| 1:50.1 | Yes. |
| 1:50.4 | The Freedom 250 debacle is unraveling in real time as of this morning. |
| 1:58.3 | First, it was Morris Day in the time and young MC who said, |
| 2:02.6 | what the fuck, no, we're not doing this. Then we had the Commodores. Then last night, |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 20 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
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.