Overview
222 Episodes
Matt, Sam, and Jesse watch "Reagan" (2024) — a terrible movie about a(-nother) senile president.
Transcribed - Published: 12 June 2025
Matt and Sam discuss Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson's Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.
Transcribed - Published: 7 June 2025
Matt and Sam discuss Christopher Caldwell's "The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties," a broadside against the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Transcribed - Published: 2 June 2025
Sam is joined by anthropologist Manvir Singh to (respectfully) discuss how Trumpism manifests the features of a messianic cult.
Transcribed - Published: 22 May 2025
Matt and Sam talk to Andrew Marantz about "bro" podcasts and their role in Trump's election victory.
Transcribed - Published: 15 May 2025
Matt and Sam talk to novelist Brandon Taylor about the 2024 film "Conclave" — and about the real-life papal conclave taking place in Rome.
Transcribed - Published: 8 May 2025
Matt joins the In Bed with the In Bed with the Right podcast to explore the villainous life of Roy Cohn.
Transcribed - Published: 2 May 2025
Matt and Sam discuss the passing of Pope Francis and what his papacy meant (to us and to the world), why he scandalized the Catholic right, and why his message feels so necessary and so far away.
Transcribed - Published: 25 April 2025
Matt and Sam talk to John Ganz about the real reasons behind Trump's trade war.
Transcribed - Published: 15 April 2025
We're unlocking our conversation about how COVID changed America (five years later) with David Wallace-Wells of the New York Times.
Transcribed - Published: 8 April 2025
Matt and Sam discuss how the pandemic changed the United States, five years after it began, with David Wallace-Wells.
Transcribed - Published: 31 March 2025
In the second of two episodes on Elon Musk, Matt and Sam examine key moments in the billionaire's political derangement, purchase of Twitter, and role in Trump's second term.
Transcribed - Published: 25 March 2025
In the first of two episodes on Elon Musk, Matt and Sam explore the billionaire's fraught adolescence and first years in Silicon Valley.
Transcribed - Published: 17 March 2025
A listener discovered that we predicted DOGE and the tech right's takeover of the federal government in a bonus episode from August 2022. Cool! Depressing!
Transcribed - Published: 5 March 2025
Matt and Sam have a depressing conversation about how Trump's second term is going.
Transcribed - Published: 24 February 2025
Matt and Sam are joined by MSNBC's Chris Hayes to discuss his new book "The Sirens' Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource."
Transcribed - Published: 18 February 2025
Matt and Sam talk to John Ganz about the first weeks of Trump administration.
Transcribed - Published: 8 February 2025
Matt and Sam talk to historian Jennifer Burns about the fascinating life, and brutal philosophy, of Ayn Rand.
Transcribed - Published: 3 February 2025
Matt talks to history podcaster Mike Duncan about the beginning of the end of the Roman Republic—and what it might teach us about American decline.
Transcribed - Published: 28 January 2025
Matt and Sam talk to historian Erik Baker about his new book, "Make Your Own Job: How the Entrepreneurial Work Ethic Exhausted America."
Transcribed - Published: 21 January 2025
Our latest bonus episode — on resisting backlash politics and responding to "disorder" in Los Angeles w/ Hayes Davenport — is unlocked for the masses.
Transcribed - Published: 10 January 2025
Conservatives blame progressives for crime and disorder in big cities — generating electoral backlash. In this episode, organizer and writer Hayes Davenport joins to discuss his experience resisting this dynamic in Los Angeles.
Transcribed - Published: 5 January 2025
Matt and Sam welcome back Dorothy Fortenberry to discuss gender, the 2024 election, and whether or not women can run "against The System."
Transcribed - Published: 27 December 2024
Matt and Sam talk to the hosts of the 5-4 podcast about how Trump can remake the federal judiciary—and perhaps the broader justice system—during his second term.
Transcribed - Published: 17 December 2024
Matt and Sam discuss the (awful) 2024 biopic "Reagan" with our intrepid producer Jesse Brenneman.
Transcribed - Published: 6 December 2024
Matt and Sam talk to Luke Mayville of Reclaim Idaho about progressive organizing in rural and red America.
Transcribed - Published: 27 November 2024
Matt and Sam are joined by Curt Mills, of The American Conservative, to assess Trump's national security team.
Transcribed - Published: 21 November 2024
Matt and Sam provide an election post-mortem, and ponder the state of our souls.
Transcribed - Published: 16 November 2024
Matt and Sam talk to reporter Ian Ward about Trump's victory and the fight for influence in his second term.
Transcribed - Published: 8 November 2024
Sam is joined by Astra Taylor, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, & Malcolm Harris to discuss the moral and strategic meaning — for the left — of voting in the 2024 election.
Transcribed - Published: 1 November 2024
Sam is joined by Astra Taylor, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, & Malcolm Harris to discuss the moral and strategic meaning — for the left — of voting in the 2024 election.
Transcribed - Published: 29 October 2024
Historian and journalist Rick Perlstein joins to explain what Democrats and the media are (still) getting wrong about the threat from Trump and the far right.
Transcribed - Published: 25 October 2024
Matt talks to journalist Talia Lavin about her new book, Wild Faith: How the Christian Right is Taking Over America.
Transcribed - Published: 18 October 2024
Matt and Sam talk to historian Timothy Shenk about his new book, Left Adrift: What Happened to Liberal Politics.
Transcribed - Published: 11 October 2024
Matt and Sam talk to screenwriter Dorothy Fortenberry about families, gender, and the 2024 election.
Transcribed - Published: 3 October 2024
Matt and Sam answer more listener questions, and hear from more friends, to continue celebrating the show's 100th episode.
Transcribed - Published: 26 September 2024
Matt and Sam answer listener questions for their 100th episode—and hear from friends of the podcast, new and old.
Transcribed - Published: 19 September 2024
Matt and Sam break down the first, and possibly only, presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
Transcribed - Published: 12 September 2024
Matt and Sam interview Waleed Shahid and Abbas Alawieh, two organizers of the Uncommitted Movement.
Transcribed - Published: 9 September 2024
Matt and Sam talk to Abbas Alawieh and Waleed Shahid about their efforts to shift the Democratic Party's incoherent & immoral position on the war in Gaza.
Transcribed - Published: 6 September 2024
Matt and Sam talk to Vinson Cunningham about his debut novel, "Great Expectations," political theater, and Barack Obama.
Transcribed - Published: 31 August 2024
Matt and Sam give their impressions of the DNC and the Harris-Walz ticket.
Transcribed - Published: 23 August 2024
Matt and Sam interview Daniel Schlozman and Sam Rosenfeld about their new book, "The Hollow Parties: The Many Pasts and Disordered Present of American Party Politics."
Transcribed - Published: 16 August 2024
Matt and Sam revisit Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance's 2016 memoir, to try to understand the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee.
Transcribed - Published: 10 August 2024
Sam joins Slate's Mary Harris to discuss the rise and fall of the Heritage Foundation's Trump transition initiative — Project 2025.
Transcribed - Published: 5 August 2024
Trump got shot, Vance got the spotlight, and Biden dropped out. We are unburdened by what has been. We are living in the context. It's coconut time.
Transcribed - Published: 23 July 2024
Matt and Sam are joined by historian Suzanne Schneider to discuss how Israeli illiberalism is inspiring the global right.
Transcribed - Published: 19 July 2024
Josh “Ettingermentum” Cohen joins Matt and Sam as they try to solve a problem like Joe Biden.
Transcribed - Published: 12 July 2024
Writer Osita Nwanevu joins to discuss the life and work of novelist and "new journalist" Tom Wolfe.
Transcribed - Published: 5 July 2024
Matt and Sam watch and respond to the first presidential debate of the 2024 campaign.
Transcribed - Published: 30 June 2024
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