It's hard to read the news these days without asking yourself, how did we get here?

Fiasco is a history podcast for the co-creators of Slow Burn.

In our first season, Bush v. Gore, we examine an unmistakable turning point in American politics,

the 2000 election, which resulted in a high-stakes stalemate, ended with one of the most controversial rulings in Supreme Court history.

So if you're trying to make sense at the present moment, check out Fiasco, Bush v. Gore.

Listen on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

All right. So as I am sitting here right now, we are headed towards a government shutdown.

Senator Cruz and I were talking about this

at what point do we do this podcast? When do we record it? Well, it's well after midnight now,

and we were trying to see if a deal was going to get done. At this point, it is not gotten done

yet. Now, the question is what should republicans be fighting over what should

we be asking for what is a good deal what is a bad deal um how do you get to that magic number

218 and so as i was sitting here with Senator Cruz a moment,

I said, look, let's just have that conversation together. Let's talk it out because there's a lot

of people online that are saying a lot of things that are just not accurate about, you know,

some people are wanting there to be less government spending while also raising

the debt ceiling, which doesn't make any sense logically. If you want to cut government spending,

then why would we get rid of the debt ceiling? It's a fair question to ask. So we're going to

explain it all to you and what's going on. This is, I actually think, one of the most important shows that I've ever been a part of

because, look, when you're dealing with the government shutdown and you're dealing with

trillions of dollars in spending and you're dealing with a lot of pork barrel spending that

we're trying to stop, yes, this is really important because this is what, I mean,

...