LISTEN

The former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama speaks with clarity and common sense about how virus economics are different than normal economics.

This week on The Al Franken Podcast, one of the earliest and most outspoken critics of Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic, Andy Slavitt, reviews its tragic consequences and where we go from here.

Turns out food is important. Andrew Zimmern, host and producer of MSNBC’s new series, What’s Eating America talks about the intersection of food and health, immigration, climate, and addiction – including his own harrowing journey to sobriety and grace.

This week on the Al Franken Podcast, documentarian Alex Gibney presents a cautionary tale, Citizen K, the story of Russia’s slide into totalitarianism under Putin and the fall of a principled billionaire oligarch who spends ten years in a Siberian prison. If only he had the podcast to pass the time.

In a time of an international health and economic crises, it’s good to have a POTUS who can be trusted by the world community. Instead, we have a grifter with an entire family of money-grubbing, lying grifters.

This week, Dahlia Lithwick of Slate, Ian Bassin of Protect Democracy and I discuss Trump’s sickening lurch toward autocracy post-impeachment with the cooperation of Bill Barr.

Career Intel Officer Malcolm Nance, who first disclosed that Russia hacked the 2016 election, makes the case that Donald Trump has been a Russian asset for decades.  Scary, but fun! With a cast of characters that include such lowlifes as Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, Nance tells us how Putin, Russian Intelligence, and Billionaire Oligarchs captured Donald Trump and warns that this may be our nation’s last election.

Jimmy and I discuss his radio days, Jimmy Kimmel Live’s rough start, then success, bad guests, his emotional appearance after his son’s birth, and his passionate support of universal health care.

John Mayer talks about how he transitioned from pop star/tabloid fodder (recurrent Sexiest Man Alive) to the impossible challenge of filling Jerry Garcia’s gigantic shoes with Dead and Company, the current iteration of the Grateful Dead. (If you guessed I’m a big Dead Head, you might be right).

Veteran Washington observer Norm Ornstein tracks the erosion of norms that once allowed Washington to work. From Newt Gingrich instructing Republicans to demonize Democrats as “sick, corrupt, traitors” to Mitch McConnell denying Merrick Garland a hearing. The abandonment of fact-based evidence, shutting down the government, using the filibuster to grind the Senate to a halt, to a pathological President attacking the media as “enemies of the people.”  

The Felicity Huffman/Lori Loughlin scandal pales in comparison to the scandal of our higher education admissions system, which protects the privileged and leaves everyone else behind.

Lawrence O’Donnell – Son of Dorchester, West Wing writer, Moynihan Senate Staff director – tears Trump and CNN a new one.