Best Josh Barro And Ken White Podcasts (2025)

1
Jacob Soboroff and Sarah McBride: Democracy at the Ground Level 1:15:37

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1h ago1:15:37

1:15:37

The administration may be trying to lay the groundwork for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act by invading Chicago but the real human stories are breaking through: ordinary Chicagoans are outraged that good, decent immigrants are being snatched off the street and their families’ lives ruined. And while Kristi Noem keeps promoting the bad guys that…

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Race To Trial 15:21

40m ago15:21

15:21

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show James Comey has been arraigned and has a trial date of January 5. Both his lawyer and the judge appear set on moving rapidly to trial, and the government is rushing to be ready. We discuss the motions it sounds like Comey's legal team will file, which likely will …

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Sam Stein: A Bunch of Violent Keystone Cops 1:04:59

36m ago1:04:59

1:04:59

ICE and other armed federal agents are doing their best to incite violence in blue cities so they can help Trump realize his unfulfilled dream from 2020 to impose a military crackdown. At the same time, Trump can only point to what happened in Portland five years ago during Black Lives Matter protests to try to bolster his case. Meanwhile, Comey ha…

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Casey Newton: Lawlessness and Danger in Tech's Brave New World 1:02:26

19m ago1:02:26

1:02:26

Trump's TikTok deal looks like classic crony capitalism as well as open theft. But China has bigger fish to fry with trade than its TikTok algorithm—which led Congress last year to ban the app in the U.S. Meanwhile, Silicon Valley thinks they're building a machine god with AI, but we really may be heading into catastrophe. Plus, the armed invasion …

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Jake Tapper: Trump Is Making the Country Less Safe 1:07:24

15h ago1:07:24

1:07:24

By The Bulwark

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Bill Kristol and Jane Fonda: The New 'Fierce Urgency of Now' 1:07:16

1d ago1:07:16

1:07:16

By The Bulwark

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Tom Nichols: All The Circuit Breakers Are Gone 1:01:08

5d ago1:01:08

1:01:08

President Trump’s loyalty purges continue. Prosecutors are fired from the U.S. attorney’s office in Eastern Virginia, including people who had nothing to do with the Comey case. And Kash Patel pushes out an FBI agent in training for displaying a rainbow flag in his workspace. Meanwhile, reports surface that Marco Rubio is leading a push among Trump…

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Symone Sanders-Townsend: The White House’s Goal Is Enacting Pain 54:12

6d ago54:12

54:12

The Trump administration is turning up the heat now that the government has shut down, cancelling billions for green projects, targeting funding for infrastructure in New York and threatening mass firings of federal workers. Democrats, meanwhile, are trying to hold the line in the Senate with their demands about health care. Elsewhere, the White Ho…

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Grand Jury Shopping 19:42

6d ago19:42

19:42

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show We know more this week about indictment of James Comey. Maybe the grand jury vote was weak, but an indictment is an indictment, right? Maybe not. We discuss how Comey’s attorneys are likely to seek dismissal of the indictments. Meanwhile, we have some more detail …

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Ken Burns: You Have To Be A Bulwark 59:41

7d ago59:41

59:41

A government shutdown begins, as a standoff over spending enters what could be a painful phase. And President Trump kicks off the week warning his military leaders about facing an invasion from within. Ken Burns joins Tim Miller to talk about his new documentary, “The American Revolution,” what lessons from history he tries to apply our current pol…

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Van Lathan and David Jolly: How To Beat Middle Finger MAGAism 1:26:52

8d ago1:26:52

1:26:52

Pete Hegseth convenes the military’s top leaders to complain about fat troops and generals and plug his book. Meanwhile, Charlie Kirk’s assassination continues to drive debate about how to confront MAGA as a cultural and political movement. David Jolly, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Florida, joins Tim to talk about his campaign, why he sw…

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Bill Kristol: Trump Wants Troops in Portland 53:15

9d ago53:15

53:15

President Trump orders the National Guard to be deployed to Portland, Ore., after declaring it a war-ravaged city. And reports surface that the administration is considering strikes in Venezuela. Meanwhile, the military’s top generals are on their way to Quantico for a mysterious meeting called by Pete Hegseth that the president now wants to crash.…

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Stop Making Us Defend James Comey 21:59

11d ago21:59

21:59

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show James Comey has been indicted, charged with making a false statement and obstruction of justice. Now, the government will try to prove he lied to Congress when he said he never “authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports” about th…

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Adam Kinzinger: We Can’t Be Intimidated 51:28

12d ago51:28

51:28

President Trump’s quest for revenge escalates, as a grand jury indicts former FBI Director James Comey days after Trump forced out a prosecutor who refused to bring charges against his political enemies. Trump, meanwhile, is cheerleading the indictment and publicly encouraging prosecutors to go after more Democrats and left-leaning organizations. A…

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Ezra Klein: Protecting People Means Winning Power 1:13:21

14d ago1:13:21

1:13:21

The White House readies plans for mass firings in the federal government as Democrats weigh the stakes of forcing a government shutdown. The Justice Department prepares to seek an indictment for former FBI Director James Comey as President Trump hunts for revenge against his political enemies. Ezra Klein of The New York Times joins Tim to discuss w…

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Angie Craig and Glenn Thrush: Don’t Be Called Weak Sauce 1:00:04

14d ago1:00:04

1:00:04

A government shutdown creeps closer as President Trump cancels a meeting with Democratic leaders. Former Vice President Kamala Harris embarks on a press tour to promote a score settling book about her campaign. Plus, Trump taps one of his former personal lawyers to replace a U.S. attorney he dismissed for not targeting his political enemies after p…

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Bakari Sellers: The Danger of RFK Jr. 55:15

15d ago55:15

55:15

The injecting-bleach president is getting some super-strong pseudoscientific information to scare mothers and blame them for autism while conveniently ignoring the role geriatric sperm may play in neurodivergence. Meanwhile, Kimmel may be coming back, but confusion remains about why his show was pulled to begin with—given the jokes Trump, his son, …

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Bill Kristol: Where Is the $50,000? 42:55

16d ago42:55

42:55

We thought Tom Homan was just an extreme border hawk and ideologue. Now we know this powerful law enforcement official, who's depriving immigrants of their freedom, may also be a corrupt law-breaker—after he was reportedly recorded taking a $50,000 cash bribe during an FBI sting operation. And MAGA die-hards, like Megyn Kelly, have made clear they …

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Thomas Chatterton Williams: How MAGA Learned to Love Cancel Culture 1:00:39

19d ago1:00:39

1:00:39

Cancel culture lives on, but it's taken new turns, especially among some of the loudest opponents of woke culture who simply can not abide one word of criticism about Charlie Kirk or Israel. Meanwhile, the vice president of the United States is actively encouraging his kind of Americans to rat out their neighbors. Plus, how authoritarianism and cor…

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Federal Censorship Commission 18:39

22d ago18:39

18:39

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Disney has “indefinitely” ceased airing Jimmy Kimmel Live under pressure from FCC chairman Brandon Carr and from Nexstar and Sinclair, two major owners of ABC affiliate stations, which themselves faced significant pressure from Carr. It is illegal for federal offi…

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Brian Stelter and Jonathan V. Last: Worst Case Scenario 1:07:06

20d ago1:07:06

1:07:06

The administration wants people to believe that Jimmy Kimmel was pulled off the air because he supposedly crossed a red line when it came to Charlie Kirk—yet at the same time, somehow totally ignore that this is naked government coercion of critics who embrace the time-honored tradition of skewering presidents. And because this is the Trump adminis…

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Susan Rice: A Cancer in the Body Politic 47:54

21d ago47:54

47:54

This country has been dealing with an increase in political violence for nearly a decade, and leaders from across the spectrum need to do everything they can to get us off this terrible path. Declaring 'free speech for me and not for thee,' or getting random people fired for not saying nice things about Charlie Kirk isn't helping to tamp things dow…

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Joe Manchin: The Man in the Middle 58:48

22d ago58:48

58:48

The former senator and former Dem has some not-very-nice things to say about Schumer and Obama—as well as progressives—who he blames for hounding Biden to move left and diminishing his will to fight. And while he's proud he helped protect the filibuster while he was in the Senate, Republicans just invoked the nuclear option to get Trump's nominees …

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Bill Kristol: What Does 'They' Mean? 1:04:47

23d ago1:04:47

1:04:47

The administration is threatening to take away money and power—and maybe even freedom—from some vague Trump opponents because of the Kirk assassination. It doesn't seem to matter that elected Democrats have roundly condemned his murder. And it doesn't matter that Trump himself largely ignored the recent political assassination of Minnesota Democrat…

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Surprising Federal Crimes 39:54

28d ago39:54

39:54

This week’s show takes a look at federal charges in the widely discussed Charlotte train murder case. Murder, of course, is not generally a federal crime, but because the murder happened on a train, the Feds have charged it as a violation of 18 USC § 1992, which prohibits “an act, including the use of a dangerous weapon, with the intent to cause de…

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David Frum: Leveraging Violence as a Tool of Power 1:01:53

26d ago1:01:53

1:01:53

Trump and the people around him want to use the Kirk assassination to suppress their political opposition. And Trump is clearly laying the groundwork for cracking down on people he doesn't like—peaceful protesters, Dem fundraisers—while also offering rhetorical comfort to potential vigilantes on the right. Meanwhile, we are witnessing the danger of…

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Erin Ryan: The Murder of Charlie Kirk 1:06:32

27d ago1:06:32

1:06:32

This country has too many guns and too many crazy people. And the social media oligarchs are fanning the flames of violence by constantly trying to piss people off. The Kirk assassination highlights just how dangerous a moment we are living in. America is not free if people are too afraid to speak their minds. Plus, parenting and the surprising gap…

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Stephanie Ruhle and Tom Saenz: Why Aren't People Freaking Out? 58:14

28d ago58:14

58:14

If Zohran Mamdani, as NYC mayor-elect, held a dinner with finance bros and threatened them with a huge wealth tax if they didn't sweet-talk him and say how much they agreed with his political vision, the Wall Street community would freak out. Yet, this version of a shakedown is *really* happening at the White House all the time and in response, the…

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James Bennet: Trump Is Still Hacking the Media 1:09:06

29d ago1:09:06

1:09:06

More than 10 years in, journalists still have not figured out how to cover Trump. He understands the media environment better than a lot of reporters, and knows his outrageous acts and statements command attention—and that people will not be able to finish processing one outrage before the next one comes down the pike. But now he's laying down the …

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Bill Kristol: Escalating the Authoritarian Project 53:36

1M ago53:36

53:36

In seven months, Trump has accumulated an astonishing amount of unchecked power. No one inside his administration is challenging his will, and Trump is assuming war powers with barely any explanation—while blacklisting Tom Hanks from West Point. At the same time, in the business world, only one MAGA-friendly hedge fund billionaire has raised mild c…

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David French: Maybe the Tariffs Are the Problem 1:06:13

1M ago1:06:13

1:06:13

Last month, Trump fired the "woke" job numbers person after she released weak employment data. Now, we have even worse jobs numbers—and burgeoning signs of a tariffs-triggered manufacturing recession. Meanwhile, the administration may be working on a de facto military policy that would fulfill one of Trump's biggest longtime wishes: summarily execu…

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Mark Hertling: Performative and Deadly 55:02

1M ago55:02

55:02

The lethal U.S. military strike on a speedboat in the Caribbean was more about putting on a show than countering the drug trade out of South America. And it's not even clear that the people killed on the boat were running drugs, or that any contraband was bound for America. Meanwhile, if senators are truly concerned that local police departments ar…

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Lina Khan: The Impunity of the Elites 45:04

1M ago45:04

45:04

The economic populists at the Nat Con conference may be talking a lot about elites screwing over the little guy, but the Trump administration itself has been catastrophic for working people—its policies are all about doing special favors for elite interests. And while many loud voices in Silicon Valley cursed the Biden administration for blocking s…

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Stuart Stevens: Say They're Not Patriots 52:24

1M ago52:24

52:24

Democrats need to learn to fight like Republicans. So when senators with serious foreign policy chops vote to confirm a middling weekend talk show host as secretary of defense, Dems need to call them out for being unpatriotic. And when they allow an ex-junkie to sabotage vaccines that have saved millions of American lives, say they're destroying th…

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Triple No Bill 37:13

1M ago37:13

37:13

This week: Jeanine Pirro has returned to her roots as a prosecutor, but prosecutors in her office have failed to secure felony indictments in at least three cases they brought to grand juries, including the case of “Sandwich Guy” Sean Dunn, who will face only misdemeanor charges for launching a submarine sandwich at a CBP officer. Trump lost anothe…

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Jonathan V. Last: Burning Things Down 43:05

1M ago43:05

43:05

Red States are flexing their muscles and imposing their will on the other states through their coordinated redistricting efforts. And if they deploy their Guard troops to other blue cities beyond D.C., the only real precedent would be the era before the Civil War when the South tried to force more slave states on the union. Meanwhile, the infightin…

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Tom Nichols: America's Problem Child 53:43

1M ago53:43

53:43

Trump is like a dysfunctional 8-year-old whose parents are always in the principal's office arguing that their son is a good boy. The media, CEOs, and Wall Street keep giving him a pass for his behavior while his supporters and apologists explain why he just had to set the school on fire. At the same time, he's empowering ideologues behind the scen…

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Sam Stein and Talmon Smith: Brain Drain 1:10:46

1M ago1:10:46

1:10:46

The resignations of senior leaders at the CDC is a calamity. People with decades of expertise in infectious disease are leaving the agency because the new director—who Trump just appointed—refused to get on board with RFK's anti-vax crusade, including limiting access to Covid boosters. And Wednesday's violence in Minneapolis may be a sign that the …

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Jake Sullivan: Trump Is Making China Great Again 59:24

1M ago59:24

59:24

A year ago, China was globally isolated and its economy was struggling. But once Trump was back in office pursuing his own personal and political gain, the U.S. brand got tossed in the toilet and the view from Beijing got pretty sweet. Trump has allowed China to buy American microchips that could be used against our own national security interests,…

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Susan Glasser: An Exercise in National Humiliation 50:41

1M ago50:41

50:41

Some rando far-right social media suck-up, who Trump rewarded with an appointment to his administration, is pushing mortgage fraud investigations of Adam Schiff, Tish James, and now Fed governor Lisa Cook. Trump claims he's fired Cook based on a tweet—but will any institution stand up to these McCarthy-like campaigns against his political foes? Mea…

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Bill Kristol: March to Dictatorship 50:18

1M ago50:18

50:18

Trump and his people have used the summer months to up the despot game—sending armed troops into the streets, taking over the police in D.C., and promising to export the same tactics to even more blue cities. And the attempted deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda shows the lengths the administration will go for not submitting to its coerci…

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Godmother of Greenpoint 43:57

2M ago43:57

43:57

As Eric Adams says, New York is the Zagreb of America. People from all over the world come to New York to make their dreams come true. And sometimes, those dreams are illegal. Today we talk about the second indictment for longtime Adams consigliere Ingrid Lewis-Martin for taking a TV series cameo in exchange for impeding a street safety redesign th…

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Tommy Vietor: Trump's Security State 1:09:40

2M ago1:09:40

1:09:40

The fears of jack-booted thugs and the military in the streets that filled the fever dreams of numerous people on the right since the 90s have come to pass. Not to mention that these are boom times for private prisons, deportation camps, and huge data centers driving up electricity bills. (We're building things, Marc Andreessen!) Meanwhile, The Bul…

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Garry Kasparov and Jerusalem Demsas: Democracy Can't Defend Itself 1:11:41

2M ago1:11:41

1:11:41

While Trump keeps working hard on his own monetization and glorification—and delivers a Watergate practically every hour—the pro-democracy coalition must stay focused on winning next year's midterm elections. Trump is at the point of no return, Congress is becoming the only institution that can stop him, and holding onto that lever of power is his …

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Adam Kinzinger: Don't Feed the Dictator 56:53

2M ago56:53

56:53

Russia is losing the war in Ukraine. More than 1 million Russian troops have been killed or injured, and it's been estimated that it would take another four years and 2 million more soldiers for Putin to conquer the Donbas region. So no, Ben Shapiro, getting Ukraine to sacrifice the region in return for some kind of security guarantee would not be …

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David Kirkpatrick: Trump's Self-Enrichment 49:12

2M ago49:12

49:12

Back in the day, Trump used to puff up his wealth to get on the Forbes list. Lately though, he doesn't talk about how much money he has, especially now that he and his family have pocketed an estimated $3.4 billion off his time in the White House. The bulk of those billions comes from various crypto-related ventures—and money from foreign nationals…

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Bill Kristol: Authoritarian Takeover 42:39

2M ago42:39

42:39

Militarizing the nation's capital is not a distraction, and Democrats really need to stop using that term. Trump is trying to seize power, intimidate the public, and foment violence in the streets. And it's a purposeful MAGA marketing campaign—the masked federal thugs often have a camera person with them as they tase and tackle people. This is a fi…

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Hakeem Jeffries: More Is More 1:00:53

2M ago1:00:53

1:00:53

While Donald Trump delivers chaos, cruelty, and corruption—and Republicans play the facts-and-hypocrisy don't matter game— Democrats have to do more rallies, more town halls, and more hearings, on and off the Hill. And if Leader Jeffries gets the gavel after the midterms, he promises investigations into Trump's huge pay-to-play scheme and says that…

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I Threw The Sandwich, But I Did Not Throw the Panini 38:03

2M ago38:03

38:03

Judge Paul Engelmeyer has refused the Trump administration’s request to release the grand jury transcripts from Ghislaine Maxwell’s prosecution. He notes forcefully that he’s reviewed the grand jury transcripts and there’s no there there — everything of interest disclosed to the grand jury became public at trial. Indeed, the only reason Engelmeyer …

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Michael Weiss: Helsinki in Anchorage? 48:12

2M ago48:12

48:12

At the Alaska summit, Putin will likely be angling for a sequel of the Helsinki meeting, the infamous tête-à-tête in 2018 where Trump got rolled and cajoled. And because Trump refuses to accept that his charisma and imaginary friendship with Vladimir will never be enough to close a ceasefire deal, the best outcome for Ukraine is that Putin makes Tr…