It's the first Casual Friday of 2023! Sam hosts Heather Digby Parton, contributing writer at Salon.com and proprietor of the blog Hullabaloo, to round up the week in news. Then, Sam is joined by Andy Kindler, host of the Thought Spiral podcast! First, Sam runs through updates on the US’ 50-year unemployment low, South Carolina’s Supreme Court rejecting a 6-week abortion ban, and Kevin McCarthy racking up an even 12 losses for the Speakership since Tuesday, now looking to make it a baker’s dozen. He also touches on the accessibility of the new abortion pill in red states, Biden’s new authoritarian immigration policies, and dives into the importance of disallowing non-compete agreements in the fight for labor control. Digby then joins as they dive a little deeper into Kevin McCarthy’s performance on the House floor this week, from pretending not to care about his repeated losses to not even being able to sell out correctly, and discuss parallels to his rise as John Boehner’s heir apparent. Next, she and Sam get into the role that conservative media has been playing in the issue, and whether the Freedom Caucusers will get what they want (whatever that is) from this standoff. Andy Kindler joins next, as he and Sam talk liquor, Ryan Seacrest, and what it's like to be young guns in the comedy world, before parsing through Dave Rubin’s reflections on DeSantis’ nomination, the revealed abuse by Matt Schlapp, Chair of CPAC.

And in the Fun Half: Sam covers the drama of talking about Marjorie Taylor Green acknowledging Jesse Jackson, and Glenn Greenwald cites trusted news source, Joe Rogan. Sam and the MR Crew then parse through two recent mishaps by said trusted news source, watching his and Eric Weinstein’s recent misinformation scandal, and the YouTuber fight that duped him, plus, your IMs!

Check out Digby's work at Salon here: https://www.salon.com/writer/heather_digby_parton

Check out Hullaballoo here: http://digbysblog.net/

Check out the Thought Spiral podcast here: https://thoughtspiral.libsyn.com/