Sam Seder: The Progressive Who Took on 20 Trump Supporters

Obsessed: The Podcast

The Daily Beast

Tv & Film

4.5 • 686 Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

‘The Majority Report’ host Sam Seder has been a political commentator for more than two decades. But nothing he has done in his long career has brought him quite as much attention as a new video in which he was forced to debate 20 hardcore Donald Trump supporters one by one as part of Jubilee Media’s increasingly popular “Surrounded” series. In this episode, Seder breaks down the surreal experience of systematically schooling the shockingly young and diverse MAGA adherents on everything from Social Security to DEI to the prospect of a full-on American theocracy. He also has some choice words for California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has taken a very different approach to engaging with the other side. Later, Seder talks about getting his start in political media at Air America, the current state of MSNBC, his long-running voice role on ‘Bob’s Burgers’ and the unexpected benefits of appearing on ‘Sex and the City’ 25 years ago. Follow Sam Seder on Bluesky @samseder Follow Matt Wilstein on Bluesky @mattwilstein Follow The Last Laugh on Instagram @lastlaughpod Highlights from this episode and others at The Daily Beast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the Last Laugh.
0:06.8	I'm Matt Wilstein from The Daily Beast, and today I am so excited to welcome to this podcast,
0:12.7	a man who has been all over my social media feed this month, Sam Cedar.
0:17.7	So here's the deal.
0:19.3	Last week on the show, we talked to Andrew Scholes, who, as I
0:22.9	kind of expected and was confirmed by some of the comments I got, was maybe not the voice that
0:28.1	everyone who listens to this show wanted to hear. I still think we managed to have a really
0:32.1	important and substantive conversation, and I encourage you to check it out if you haven't yet.
0:38.9	But I also thought it would be a good idea to follow it up with a very different perspective from Sam Cedar,
0:43.8	who has been a prominent voice in progressive media now for more than 20 years since he got his
0:48.9	start on Air America Radio. These days, Sam is the host of the long-running radio show and podcast, The Majority Report,
0:56.3	but he likely got a whole new audience a couple of weeks ago when he took on 20 MAGA Trump supporters
1:02.0	as part of Jubilee Media's Surrounded series. I was so impressed with Sam's ability to
1:08.2	expertly knock down their deeply misinformed arguments one by one.
1:12.4	And the 90-minute video clearly struck a nerve with more than 5 million views to date.
1:17.2	So, like last week, this is a bit of a different kind of episode for The Last Laugh, but I hope you
1:22.0	enjoy it. Before we get to the interview, let's listen to a clip of Sam debating a young
1:26.8	conservative man about what
1:28.8	exactly Elon Musk is up to at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
1:34.9	What is Doge do to inhibit cost of living? Yeah, absolutely. So what Doge is going to do,
1:40.6	the Department of Government Efficiency, is slash a lot of the federal spending, right? So what happens when the Fed's... What spending is going to do, the Department of Government Efficiency is slash a lot of the federal spending, right?
1:44.8	So what happens when the feds...
	...

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