An activist and former political director for Bernie Sander’s presidential campaign shocked the field by winning a primary for a special congressional election. Now the favorite to win the solidly blue district, she’s actually excited to work with congressional moderates—and to keep pushing them.

Guest: Analilia Mejía, Democratic nominee for New Jersey's 11th congressional district special election

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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Youth sports have grown into a $40-billion dollar per year industry, where eager parents shell out for private coaches, off-season practice, and travel leagues, in the hopes of giving their child a competitive edge. 

Guest:  Anna North, senior correspondent at Vox. She writes Kids Today, a newsletter about kids.

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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.

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The Olympics are touted as a moment for the world to come together and celebrate sport and achievement and check their politics at the door—yeah right.

Guest:  Justin Peters, Slate correspondent currently covering the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics and author of The Idealist: Aaron Swartz and the Rise of Free Culture on the Internet. 

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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There was a moment, when the tech CEOs and media moguls were lining up to kiss Trump’s ring, when it looked like almost all the demographic arrows were pointing right, where it looked like Trumpism was, if not widely embraced, at least too big to be written off. After a year of Trump back in office, the culture cries out for Woke 2.0.

Guest: Brian Beutler, founder of Off-Message.

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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Data centers are a hot issue - tech companies say they need them, but communities don’t want to be anywhere near them. Senator Van Hollen stops by the show to share his plan to address the rising costs of energy for consumers that data centers create, as well as his thoughts on ICE and the future of the Democratic Party. 

Guest: Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland

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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, and Patrick Fort.

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Democrats have a list of demands and reforms they want implemented before continuing to fund the Department of Homeland Security. But  DHS doesn’t really need their approval to keep going.

Guest: Garrett Graff, journalist, historian, author of Doomsday Scenario.

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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Although sexual assault and rape by rideshare drivers has been widely reported, Uber itself largely avoided legal liability until last week, when a jury decided the company had to pay $8.5 million to a woman who said she was raped by her Uber driver. 

Guest:  Sarah London, co-Lead and liaison counsel in the multidistrict litigation against Uber.

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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Markiplier has been entertaining millions of fans on YouTube for over a decade. But his new movie Iron Lung - which he self-financed, directed, wrote and acted in - was a smash at the box office, not on his YouTube channel. Is it proof that he’s more than a YouTuber? Or is it proof that Hollywood is thinking about the platform and its creators all wrong? 

Guest: Mark Fischbach aka Markiplier, YouTuber, filmmaker and director of “Iron Lung.”

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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, and Patrick Fort.

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Trump has called for elections to be “nationalized,” something neither the president, nor the federal government, has the authority to do. But as he’s already sent the FBI to raid Fulton County, Georgia’s election offices with director of intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and with the midterms on their way, it’s time to ask how much damage a vindictive president could do.

Guest:  Ari Berman, voting rights reporter at Mother Jones. 

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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.

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Scamming attempts might seem to just come out of nowhere to suddenly appear in your WhatsApp, but a special economic zone in Laos has emerged as a hotbed of cryptocurrency schemes—where victims of human trafficking are trapped and forced to attempt more crime.

Guest: Andy Greenberg, senior writer for WIRED.

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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, and Patrick Fort.

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He’s discontinuing Tesla’s signature models, taking SpaceX public, and putting more chips on A.I. and robotics. As Elon Musk prepares for his next phase, will he rein in any of his excesses? 

And in this week’s Plus segment: Elon in Epstein files.

Guest: Faiz Siddiqui, technology reporter for the Washington Post’s Business Desk, author of “Hubris Maximus: The Shattering of Elon Musk.”

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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, and Patrick Fort.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.