The New Blue Wave, a Great Value Economy, and the Act of Centering Men. Plus, Talking the World Series With Jesse Blake! | Higher Learning | The Ringer

Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay

The Ringer

Society & Culture

4.8 • 11.3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2025

⏱️ 132 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Rachel and Van start the show with a recap of the recent elections, including what the “blue wave” of elected officials means for the future of politics, the passage of Prop 50, and the reactions to Zohran Mamdani winning the NYC mayoral election. Then, they are joined by Jesse Blake, co-owner of the podcast network SDPN, to talk about the World Series and what it’s like being a Toronto Blue Jays fan. Finally, they talk about the developing GOP “civil war” over Nick Fuentes before getting into Summer Walker’s newest cover art and the viral discussion about whether it is embarrassing to have a boyfriend. 00:00 - Welcome! 04:34 - Election night recaps 32:02 - Van Jones comments on Zohran Mamdani 1:04:06 - Jesse Blake joins the show 1:18:13 - Has a GOP civil war begun? 1:40:32 - Summer Walker’s new album artwork 1:52:17 - Embarrassing boyfriends 2:10:35 - Thanks for watching! Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Guest: Jesse Blake Producer: Ashleigh Smith and Donnie Beacham Video Supervision: Chris Thomas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors.
0:03.2	What is up?
0:04.8	Howe Learning is on in his I, Van Lathen, Jr.
0:06.9	And it's me, Rachel Lynn Lansing.
0:08.8	So Don Maddenly's best year that he ever had was 85, in my opinion.
0:16.6	And in 85, it looks like Don Mattingly hit,
0:25.2	he hit 35 homers, 104, 144 driven in.
0:28.6	324, although he had 343 the year before.
0:34.1	OPS, oh, the next year he actually had a better OPS.
0:37.7	OPS 939, 967 to next year.
0:41.1	I don't know if I'm not sure.
0:44.2	At his peak, he certainly was a Hall of Famer,
0:46.8	but I'm not sure if Donnie Baseball was a Hall of Famer or not.
0:50.7	2100 hits, 222 homers.
0:53.0	One AL MVP, anyway.
0:57.0	But maybe he should be in. Rachel, what are your thoughts?
1:00.0	So for those of you listening, I don't care to know the game.
1:05.0	I'm just, I don't care to know the game. It is a choice. It is a choice. It's not because I can't because I don't care to know a game that takes forever to play.
1:15.6	For those of you just listening, that was a conversation that had carried on off mic that Van decided to bring onto the podcast because he is really into Don Mattingly right now.
1:24.8	The thing I know the most about Don Mattingly is that that is my friend's cousin.
1:29.0	Don Maddenley, Donnie Baseball.
1:30.3	Shout to Shannon Maddenly.
	...

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