Ep 989: 'Velveeta'

The Professional Left Podcast with Driftglass and Blue Gal

Driftglass and Blue Gal

Politics, Midterms, News, News Commentary, Election, Presidential, Indivisible, Government, Progressive, Debate, Liberal, Campaign, Democrat, Resistance

4.8 • 920 Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2026

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Episode 989 of The Professional Left takes on one of the most overused words in modern politics — "authenticity" — and asks whether anyone in American political media is actually serving the real thing, or just a smooth, processed, cheese-like substitute that melts consistently and tastes like what people want to hear. Driftglass and Blue Gal trace the long, strange history of politicians and pundits who have made a very comfortable living telling their audiences exactly the lies those audien...

Transcript

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0:00.0	You can listen to the professional left wherever you get your podcasts on Netroots Radio or at our website, pro-leftpod.com, where you can also contribute to this podcast.
0:09.9	There's a PayPal button at our website, or you can mail as a letter and or contribution at P.O. Box 913, Springfield, Illinois, 62791.
0:19.8	This is the podcast for May 5, 2006.
0:23.0	It's not safe for work.
0:24.8	Recorded live from the Cornfield Resistance, where we're back on the air and...
0:29.6	As I was saying before I was interrupted...
0:35.6	...as I was interrupted.
0:44.3	I believe my last words were that there must be a better way
0:46.4	of making a living than this.
0:51.7	Well, I have looked.
0:58.6	Thank you. Well, I have looked. And there isn't.
1:02.4	It's the professional left with drift glass and blue gal.
1:29.1	If you are unfamiliar, that was the Tonight Show's second host, Jack Parr, announcing his triumphant return to the Tonight Show on March 7, 1960, which was a few months before Drift Glass was born and a few years before I was born.
1:43.9	And when he walked back onto the Tonight Show stage nearly a month after walking off in protest of NBC censoring a joke about a water closet. Can you imagine that? Free speech warrior right there.
1:48.0	Jack Parr, free speech warrior, and of course his ratings, I'm sure, were through the roof.
1:53.0	Sure.
1:54.0	Because everybody wanted to hear how he came, what the conditions were, right?
1:58.0	Yeah. To him coming back. Yeah. But you know what?
2:00.9	Dr. Clas, you and I didn't walk off the air and a half.
2:03.9	No one tried to censor us.
2:06.2	No.
2:06.9	We just took a short break.
	...

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