Hey, everybody, what you're about to hear is a recent substack live conversation I had with Aaron Rupar that I thought was so interesting.

We want to put it in the podcast feed.

Aaron is a clipper who does independent journalism and rapid reaction to political news of the day. We talked about the state of independent media in 2025, what's working, what's not, and what comes next. And also talked about the new interest that Democratic elected officials have taken in shows like ours. We talked about

the collapse of trust in legacy outlets, how creators are filling the gap, and why platforms like

substack are becoming more important than ever. Let's get right into it. All right. We'll,

we'll do the awkward corporate Zoom thing of saying, we'll, you know, like give a minute for people

to join. But I thought

we would have a little bit of a conversation post-election just about really a couple things. I mean,

one, maybe how our work has changed. And maybe if we're like seeing different things from audiences

in terms of how they're relating to independent media instead of corporate.

Also, I'm curious to get your thoughts on if and how corporate media is now seeing us differently.

I think the answer is yes, all of a sudden, based on some of the conversations.

I'm having also elected officials would be kind of interesting.

But I don't know.

Have you been working differently post-election and since Trump was inaugurated the second time?

You know, for myself, not really.

I mean, I've been kind of honing my techniques over a decade, really.

So the election hasn't totally changed that.

I mean, I think, if anything, I've put a little more premium on compartmentalizing a little bit just because, you know, it's kind of a hellscape out there.

And so, you know, I stare at that eight to ten hours a day and then try to do other things in the

evenings, you know, just to kind of cleanse the palate a little bit. But, no, I mean, I think you brought up, you know, in the intro

some interesting, you know, observations that I think are true. Like, I've definitely noticed

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