Where It All Starts

Nate Silver, Clare Malone, and Galen Druke discuss the most competitive Senate races heading into the midterms in this excerpt from their new podcast, Still Counting. To hear the rest, head over to Still Counting and subscribe! New episodes drop every Wednesday evening. You can request a transcript by emailing transcripts@crooked.com. Include the podcast name, episode title, and air date. Please a...

In June 2022, a 14-year-old girl named Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped from her Utah home and held captive for nine months. She endured abuse and torture before police finally rescued her. Now, she's an advocate for other survivors, and she has a new true crime podcast, "The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart," which centers on their stories. Jane talks to her about what she's learned about getting...

Friday marks the 25th anniversary of 9/11. And earlier this week, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the release of records related to the government’s response in the aftermath of the attacks, as well as the settlement of two lawsuits brought by 9/11 Health Watch. On today’s show, Jane speaks with Andrew Carboy, an attorney for 9/11 Health Watch, about the survivors of 9/11 and the deva...

College football is back and so is Congress. What does one have to do with the other? More than you think. Jane talks to veteran college sports analyst Paul Finebaum, host of The Paul Finebaum Show, about the Protect College Sports Act and why some members of Congress have taken an interest in sports this session. Show Notes: Check out Paul’s show Call Congress – 202-224-3121 Subscribe to the What...

President Donald Trump is going all in on... President Donald Trump. And he's hoping GOP lawmakers will do the same at their midterm convention in Dallas this week. Jane talks to Antonia Hylton, host of the new MSNOW show, "The Assignment," about Trump's strategy for the midterms. Show Notes: Call Congress – 202-224-3121 Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy What A...

On today's show, our guest host, Todd Zwillich, talks with Nate Soares, co-author of If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies , and the President of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, about recent AI hacks, the great AI debate, and Vice President JD Vance's comments about the end times on the Bryce Crawford Podcast. Show Notes: Check out Nate's book - If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies Call Co...

Here at What A Day, we’re keeping an eye on the midterms — which are likely to hinge on which party can tackle the skyrocketing cost of living . On today’s show, Jane speaks with The Atlantic’s Annie Lowrey about why it's so damn expensive and complicated to be low-income in America. Show Notes: Check out Annie's book - The Time Tax Call Congress – 202-224-3121 Subscribe to the What A Day Newslett...

On today's show, Jane talks with Maine Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson about what he thinks it will take for him to beat longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November’s midterms. Show Notes: Call Congress – 202-224-3121 Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast Follow us on Instagram – https:/...

The House passed a short-term measure today to fund the federal government into early December , a move designed to avoid a chaotic shutdown as lawmakers campaign for reelection. On today's show, Jane speaks with Slow Boring’s Matt Yglesias about what Democrats need to do – and avoid – to make November really count this year. Show Notes: Check out Matt's work – www.slowboring.com Call Congress – 2...

In case you missed it, President Donald Trump announced a deal that would give the United States a stake in Venezuela’s vast oil reserves on Friday. And over the weekend, the United States and Iran exchanged fire for the first time in a month. The Bulwark’s Tim Miller joins What A Day host Jane Coaston to break down Trump’s increasingly imperial adventures! Jane and Tim also take a moment to say g...

In the last year and a half, President Donald Trump has put his name, image, or both, on a whole host of things — federal buildings, passports, the resident National Park pass, the administration’s child savings accounts, the under construction border wall, and of course, the Kennedy Center. But why? Why is Trump so obsessed with seeing his name on pretty much everything that isn’t nailed down (an...

Yesterday, we heard from former USAID administrator Dr. Atul Gawande about the lives lost because of the gutting of the United States Agency for International Development. On today's show, we focus on people in Nepal and their experiences before and after the cuts to foreign assistance. In Nepal, USAID helped fund organizations whose efforts centered on fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS. And some of...

It’s been more than a year since Elon Musk and the DOGE boys fed the United States Agency for International Development – or USAID, into a QUOTE “woodchipper.” And since then, according to reporting from NPR and other outlets, the dismantling of USAID has resulted in the deaths of more than 700,000 people. That’s because USAID worked globally to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS, end childhood malnutri...

We’ve all seen how Customs and Border Protection has run roughshod over the civil rights of immigrants both legal and undocumented alike across the country. But if you’re an American citizen, you might not think that these abuses could ever happen to you. In fact, maybe the only time you’ve ever even seen Border Protection agents has been at the airport. And yet, that’s where journalist Matthew Pe...

President Donald Trump is back at it with his nonsensical trade wars, and this time he’s targeting one of our closest allies: Canada. After trade negotiations crumbled at the eleventh hour, Trump’s 50% tariffs on scores of Canadian imports  kicked in over the weekend. Meanwhile, Trump is also threatening to make moves that could lead to the U.S. being involved in a trade war with China. Here to br...

The United States national debt reached a record-breaking $40 trillion dollars this week. If you spread out that debt to every resident of the U.S., we would each owe more than $115,000 dollars. So how did we get here? To find out more about what our big bad debt means for you, we spoke with Scott Lincicome. He’s the vice president of general economics at the Cato Institute. And in headlines, Trum...

Americans spend nearly $30 billion a year on plastic surgery procedures, including fillers and Botox. And there's probably no better example than the White House, where the "Mar-A-Lago face" – a very specific, very smooth, very… augmented appearance – runs rampant. But maybe that's starting to change. Faced with actors, actresses, influencers, and AI, some people are starting to forgo their pursui...

You may have heard about the conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln — the carrier where sailors have been facing food shortages and broken toilets. They’ve gone without a traditional port call for eight and a half months, and counting. But they’re not the only vessel facing long deployments and concerning conditions. In May, the USS Gerald Ford finally returned to port in the U.S. after 11 mont...

You’ve probably heard a lot about the Democratic Socialists of America this year. Political figures who are either members of the organization or associated with its beliefs are running in primaries across the country, sometimes even winning against their more moderate opponents. But what does D.S.A. want? Does the organization want to elect more left-leaning Democrats – or replace them? Is this a...

The fact that the US Congress is absolutely rotten with creeps is one of the worst-kept secrets in Washington. From former Representatives like California Democrat Eric Swalwell and Texas Republican Tony Gonzales, to sitting lawmakers like North Carolina Republican Representative Chuck Edwards – it turns out sexual misconduct is bipartisan, and so is the pushback. A bipartisan effort fronted by Fl...

The Women’s National Basketball Association has been making the headlines lately. In fact, according to a Media Matters report , since the end of June, Fox News has devoted at least 206 segments to the WNBA. But why are the likes of Sean Hannity and Bret Baier suddenly paying such close attention to women’s basketball? To get to the bottom of how the most LGBTQ-friendly sports league became a favo...

Donald Trump’s poll numbers are trash — and numbers for right-wing influencers on YouTube, Twitter and elsewhere are going down the tubes, too. As the New York Times reported at the end of last month, some of the biggest names in right-wing media are experiencing massive declines in clicks and views to their content. David Pakman is the host of the David Pakman Show on YouTube – and he’s been thin...

On Tuesday, Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong narrowly lost to Milwaukee’s county executive, David Crowley, in the Wisconsin gubernatorial primary. Now, the somewhat unknown is facing Republican Representative Tom Tiffany in November — but Crowley he may not have an easy time winning over the Democrats who voted for Hong. For more on what Democrats can learn from the race, we spoke with Holly Ot...

It’s voting day in states across the country – including in two Southern states that have already voted once this year. In South Carolina, Republicans will select their new Senate nominee after Lindsey Graham’s sudden death. And in Alabama, voters in several congressional districts are heading back to the polls after the Supreme Court told the state to use a map from 2023… despite that map being s...

Last month, Trump bragged that the Board of Peace had accomplished a monumental breakthrough : an agreement for the disarmament of Hamas in Gaza. However, this “agreement” didn’t really stand much of a chance because Hamas and the Israeli government were stuck in a classic standoff. And on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turned down the deal. So not only are we nowhere near a pea...