Hegseth’s Pulp Fiction Prayer. RFK Jr’s Raccoon Penis. with the Bulwark’s John Avlon.

Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff

Righteous Media | Bleav

Politics, News, National Security, News Commentary, Daily News, Veteran

4.6 • 907 Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2026

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Independent Americans host Paul Rieckhoff sits down with journalist, author, and former CNN anchor and Daily Beast Editor John Avlon—now with The Bulwark— for a fast, insightful, and hopeful conversation about how to fix American politics—before it breaks us. From Iran and the spiraling Middle East crisis, to Trump’s second term, to the Democrats’ brand problem, Avlon brings his “How to Fix It” mindset to moderates, independents, veterans, and frustrated voters who are tired of the bullshit and hungry for reality-based solutions. They dig into the rise of independent voters, the weakness of the Democrat brand, the failure of both parties to provide real leadership, the dangers of performative extremism, and what Teddy Roosevelt’s “man in the arena” can teach us about citizenship, courage, and showing up in 2026 and 2028.

Transcript

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0:00.0	diary entries by Robert F. Kennedy.
0:02.8	He once cut the penis off a dead raccoon
0:05.9	while on a family road trip to study it later.
0:10.3	And there are unfortunately details.
0:13.1	Kennedy describes stopping his car in 2001
0:16.2	on I-684 to remove the penis from a roadkill raccoon. What the fuck? Welcome to Independent Americans. Welcome to Independent Americans.
0:40.0	Welcome to episode 494.
0:43.7	I am your host, Paul Reikoff.
0:45.5	Today is Thursday, April 16.
0:48.5	And I'm coming to you from New York City, USA,
0:50.8	and the weather is sunny and hot.
0:54.5	86 degrees in April.
0:57.8	Hot, almost as hot as independence in this country because independents are rising and
1:03.9	they are hot because they bring a lot of things.
1:06.7	We bring a lot of things including unity.
1:10.6	And today's artist is, on that theme, Queen Latifah,
1:14.9	because she is the legend behind Unity.
1:18.5	Unit Y, Y, Y, Y, Y, Y, Y, Y, yes.
1:20.8	She also did, I want to be down.
1:23.1	You can't stop the beat when you're good to Mama,
1:25.8	Ann, walk the dinosaur from Ice Age, which is something
1:29.8	your kids may recognize, and my kids definitely do. But we're staying on the theme of Hall of Fame
	...

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