Vibes Only

Vice President Kamala Harris has gone all vibes in selecting Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate in her 2024 presidential bid. We discuss what went into that decision and everything we know about the straight-shooting, cable tv messaging mastermind veteran-turned-teacher-turned-public official. We also discuss Trump's train wreck appearance at the NABJ conference, some news out of...

The stakes are unprecedented, and according to our guest, Democracy is in Retrograde. Here to help us check the vibes this week is Sami Sage, co-founder of Betches and co-author of the new book, Democracy in Retrograde .  We discuss the high vibes surrounding VP and presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, the new (accurate) attack line calling Trump/Vance and Republicans "weird," Biden&ap...

The vibes have taken quite a turn. We discuss the seismic vibe shift since Biden dropped out of the race on Sunday and Kamala Harris became the presumptive nominee.  The K-hive, congressional Dems, party leaders, donors and delegates have all rallied behind Vice President Harris in the hours since Biden's announcement creating a buzz of optimism not seen in... well, quite some time.  We'...

The vibes this week... Days after former President Donald Trump was struck in a mass shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania, he named Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate. Brian and Glennis discuss the political reactions to the Trump rally shooting and the VP pick representing, perhaps, the most radical ticket in U.S. history.  To top it all off, on Monday Judge Aileen Cannon went out on a li...

This week, Brian and Glennis check the vibes of American politics as Joe Biden emphatically insists "I'm not going anywhere," while folks in DC and across the country continue to murmur. Meanwhile, the GOP announced its extremist agenda with a full embrace of MAGA, and Trump is likely on the verge of a VP selection. They take on Project 2025's president who publicly fantasized...

The vibes this week are... oof. SCOTUS has both granted Trump broad immunity and overturned the Chevron deference. Both decisions make the prospect of another Trump term (who now has a roadmap to dismantle the federal government with Project 2025) that much more dire.  We catch up on last week's debate: from Biden's performance and the reactions of pundits, strategists, donors, and voter...

Joining Vibes Only  to preview the first presidential debate of 2024 and to do an audit of the the race for the White House, as it stands today, is Democratic strategist and friend of the pod, Keith Edwards. You'll hear a couple of friendly debates in THIS pod episode, a Trumpy round of It's Giving, some tea from the friends of the Vibes Only group chat, and a good vibe to say goodbye on...

The polls are still (hopefully?) broken. The stakes are more unprecedented than ever.  Last week, the Supreme Court unanimously protected the abortion pill, mifepristone (for now), but didn’t close the door to hear new cases involving plaintiffs “with standing.” They also protected bump stocks, a tool that effectively turns a semi-automatic rifle into a machine gun. Now Senate Republicans are play...

This week we are pleased to be joined by Lisa Graves. Lisa is a legal expert and researcher who has exposed dark money and corruption. She is also the host of COURIER's podcast, Grave Injustice .  In this episode, we take a look at some of the issues at the heart of Supreme Court cases that we'll be getting decisions on this month.  Those include cases involving abortion, guns, Trump&apo...

No more deliberations The verdict is in. The fallout from the first former president in American history to be a convicted felon continues. The Trump campaign and conservative media like Fox News are in lockstep, suggesting that "they" are coming after "you," and Donald Trump is just standing in the way... absurd. We also discuss an eyebrow raising new report from ProPublica ab...

No burying obviously newsworthy stories.  NO full-blown freakouts.  Just Vibes. And the vibes this week:  We learned this weekend that The Washington Post knew about nod to Stop the Steal at Justice Samuel Alito's house in January of 2021 but decided it...wasn't worth mentioning to the public.  A number of media outlets, pundits and Dem strategists have been recently sounding the alarms...

The courts are broken. The stakes are unprecedented.  And the vibes this week…  Brian and Glennis discuss the public display of - not just partisanship, but MAGA allegiance - at Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's household. ICYMI, it was JUST reported that an upside down flag, a symbol adopted by the "stop the steal" crowd, was raised at Alito's house mere days after the Jan...

No pollsters. No media pundits "running around with their hair on fire." Just vibes. And the vibes this week:  A new Times/Siena poll dropped this week that, again, showed Trump leading in 5 of 6 key swing states. We talk about the media discourse since it dropped.  Michael Cohen testified this week in the case involving Trump paying off Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal off in exchange...

This week, Brian and Glennis are joined by Ari Berman to talk about his new book, Minority Rule: The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People―and the Fight to Resist It .  Ari lays out how our entire system of government, from its founding, was designed to benefit a select few (white, land-owning men). They also talk about how Donald Trump has exploited that system and the stakes of this year&a...

This week, we are pleased to be joined by NextGen America president, Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, for a vibe check on the youth vote. Cristina tells us where we are and how Democrats need to message to hold and strengthen turnout and enthusiasm for Gen Z and Millennial voters. Brian and Glennis also discuss the Time Magazine article that used interviews with Trump and some of his closest allies to o...

Not a judge or a jury. Not fake electors. Nope. The ‘24 election and the fate of democracy hinges on… say it with us… Vibes.  The vibes this week: Joe Biden signed a foreign aid bill into which also included a forced sale of TikTok.  Donald Trump faced a litany of legal battles including the 2016 Election Interference (hush money) trial which is underway,  a hearing on whether he is in contempt of...

This week on Vibes Only:  History is made as Trump becomes the first President in US history to stand criminal trial for falsifying business records to reimburse his former “fixer,” Michael Cohen, for paying porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in October 2016 to stay quiet about an alleged affair with Trump (while BTW, Melania was at home with their new-born son). Brian and Glennis discuss the sleep...

This week, we are pleased to be joined by Taylor Lorenz. Taylor covers technology and social media for the Washington Post. She is the author of Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence and Power on the Internet, and she hosts a new podcast, Power User . Before our vibe check with Taylor on the TikTok legislation,  how social media shapes the vibes of politics, and all things online -...

SPECIAL GUEST to talk through the vibes of the week: Katie Grossbard. Katie is an attorney, founding member of I am a voter and This is About Humanity. She is a digital creator that aims to empower people to be more informed and less overwhelmed. We love that.  Brian, Glennis and Katie talk about Trump’s Easter meltdown coupled with right-wing media’s freakout over the Trans Day of Visibility land...

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments for FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine , a case involving mifepristone or "the abortion pill" as it's come to be known. Brian and Glennis discuss why this case, as they suggest could be the most consequential abortion case since ROE .  They then discuss the whirlwind week that saw NBC hire election-denying former RNC Chair, Ronna McDaniel...

This week on Vibes Only Brian and Glennis talk about Donald Trump’s unhinged rally in Ohio where he said migrants were “not people” but rather “animals.” He also said there would be a “bloodbath” (“least of” which for autoworkers) if he didn’t win the election, and in a flip-the-script strategy, said that Joe Biden is a threat to democracy. They also discuss what should possibly be the biggest sto...

Joe Biden delivered a powerful State of the Union address last week. Democratic Strategist, Keith Edwards, joins Brian and Glennis to talk about how the speech reset the vibes and set the tone for the general election. They also discuss: Biden’s proposed 2025 budget, Trump’s willingness to cut “entitlements” such as Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, and a bill that in the House that would ba...

This week we’re joined by Annie Wu Henry. Annie is a political consultant & digital strategist from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. She - like us - is chronically online and has helped craft digital strategies for organizations like the Working Families Parties and AOC. She received high praise for her role in John Fetterman’s Senate campaign - leading his TikTok content and strategy. If any...

Here to help us check the vibes this week is Emily Amick, aka @emilyinyourphone.  Emily is a lawyer and formerly served as counsel to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Now you can find her on Instagram sharing expert legal and political analysis.  We talk with her about:  The Alabama Supreme Court decision that ruled frozen embryos are "people." The right-wing war on women more broad...

The vibes this week:  Nikki Haley trolled the media by making everyone think she was dropping out only to announce that she'd stay in the race (even though she'll inevitably get beat in her home state) Donald Trump was ordered to pay $350 million in the New York civil fraud case - with the Judge claiming that Trump and his children were "borderline pathological."  The New York...