Gracie Gato's Speakeasy Podcast

Skip the Butter: The Forensic Analyst New Hampshire Kept Putting on the Stand For 43 years, a New Hampshire State Police forensic analyst kept getting walked up to the witness stand — sworn, trusted, in the most serious cases this state has ever tried. This is what his own employer's records say about him. And what the public was never shown. This week on The Gracie Gato Podcast we trace the docum...

“Welcome back to the Gracie Gato Podcast. Pour something, settle in. Here’s a riddle for you. What do you call a man running for Congress who won’t take money from corporations, won’t take money from PACs, won’t take a dime from the wealthy — and won’t even take five bucks from you*, the voter who likes him? You call him Matthew Emerson. And you call him my guest tonight.* Nine Democrats are clawi...

She filed for Congress yesterday. Today she’s in the Speakeasy. Carleigh Beriont is a Harvard-educated union organizer, mom, Marshall Islands teacher, and Hampton Select Board Chair who looked at New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District — packed with establishment money and dynasty names — and said: not today. No AIPAC. No social media. No apologies. Just Medicare for All, a ban on Congressional...

Starting today, Gracie Gato’s Speakeasy has a new recurring segment. Every week, Concord City Councilor Stacey Brown sits down with me to give you a direct, unfiltered report on what is happening inside Concord City Hall — the votes, the budget decisions, the things that get approved quietly and the things that get cut loudly. No spin. No press releases. Just a city councilor with a stack of docum...

FOUR BEDS AND A BOARDROOM — EPISODE 2: THE FAMILY TREE Last week, we followed the money. This week, we follow the people. One city councilor with two jobs and zero recusals. One lawyer with six hats and one sealed grand jury report. One professional network stretching from the New Hampshire Supreme Court to a $12,500 line item in a municipal budget — and somehow, every thread leads back to the sam...

SPECIAL EDITION: “She Begged Them” The Marisol Fuentes Story — and the institutions still not answering for it Marisol Fuentes went to court. She begged them to protect her from her husband. They didn’t. On July 6th, 2025, he killed her in Berlin, New Hampshire. What happened next is a masterclass in how powerful institutions manage catastrophe — not by fixing it, not by owning it, but by going qu...

Part 1 of 2: Four Beds and a Boardroom For ten straight years, the City of Concord wrote the exact same check — twelve thousand, five hundred dollars — to the same domestic violence nonprofit. No contract. No fee schedule. No public accounting of where the money went or what services it bought. The city’s police department helped staff the nonprofit’s annual fundraiser. Without a contract. Without...

My name is Gracie Gato and my only talents are media!!!! So, here I am, covering New Hampshire politics whether Concord likes it or not. 🎙️We're making some big changes to the podcast. Late night format. Political guests. Gen X edge. Real conversations about what's actually happening in this state. Free subscribers get the show. Paid subscribers get the bonus footage. Everyone gets the truth. Like...

What happens when the man who built his career defending white collar criminals and sex abuse cases becomes the go-to counsel for the organizations claiming to protect survivors? What happens when the ethics committee watchdog is caught whispering strategy to the very people targeting a sitting councilor — while technically recused? What happens when a victim reportedly recruited to serve the Dioc...

In 1999, New Hampshire State Representative Sherman Packard filed a bill — not to close a loophole in child protection law, but to explicitly legalize photographers manufacturing nude images of teenagers with parental consent. That man is now the Speaker of the New Hampshire House. Under his gavel: Rep. Ellen Read was banished from the chamber for saying one word during a survivors’ rights hearing...

Some people write letters to their representatives. Ellen Read became one — and then got on a boat. She sailed with the Freedom Flotilla toward Gaza. She got sick. She fought to stay aboard. The IDF intercepted the ship before it ever arrived. Ellen Read didn’t make it to Gaza. But she showed up in a way most people never will — and she hasn’t stopped since. Gracie Gato’s Speakeasy. Because the tr...

Get full access to The Gracie Gato Podcast at gracieformermrsgato.substack.com/subscribe

Get full access to The Gracie Gato Podcast at gracieformermrsgato.substack.com/subscribe

She's 13. She's from Concord. And She's Already Paying More Attention Than Half the Legislature. Meet Esther — Gracie Gato's Podcast newest Junior Political Correspondent and certified Agent of Chaos. A young woman of color growing up in New Hampshire, Esther represents something this state doesn't always make room for: the next generation of voters, watching right now , taking it all in — and not...

Watch Rep. Ellen Read of Newmarket. Get full access to The Gracie Gato Podcast at gracieformermrsgato.substack.com/subscribe

On April 17, 2026, New Hampshire State Representative Ellen Read of Rockingham District 10 became the first Representative in state history to be formally banned from the chamber, gallery, and anteroom of the State House on non-session days. Her offense? A single word — f**k — spoken in a public hallway while she watched sexual assault survivors be given three minutes apiece to testify on her own...

What the bill actually does HB 1633 is the simplest bill you will ever read. It requires hospitals, police departments, crisis centers, and prosecutors’ offices to hand a sexual assault survivor a palm card. A wallet-sized card. On the card is a list of the rights that survivor already has under existing New Hampshire law. Rights that are already on the books. Rights the legislature already passed...

It was supposed to be a routine week at the New Hampshire State House. It wasn’t. In 2021, the Speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives called a female colleague a b*tch — on a hot mic — in chambers. In his official capacity. With a gavel in his hand. He apologized. He kept his job. He kept his gavel. Fast forward to 2026. Rep. Ellen Read — a survivor, a legislator, a woman who spent...

It was my birthday dinner. Ellen Read was at my table. So was Concord City Councilor Stacey Brown. We were having a normal human evening when my phone lit up with a Facebook post from a Concord city councilor — and NHCADSV ally — accusing Rep. Ellen Read of illegally parking in a handicap space at CVS on Hall Street without a placard. The post included photos. In those photos, hanging from the rea...

The Gracie Gato Podcast | Agents of Chaos What happens when advocacy, lobbying, and public funding start to overlap? In this episode, we take the next step—away from headlines and into the financial and political connections shaping influence in New Hampshire. We follow the trail through Grimbilas LLC , lobbying activity, and the funding pipeline connected to the New Hampshire Coalition Against Do...

What if the most important part of the Owen Labrie case… wasn’t what happened—but what it changed? In this episode, we step away from headlines and into something far more unsettling: A legal precedent that quietly reshaped how cases like this can be charged—and remembered. While the public narrative focused on outrage, one editorial raised a warning that few people heard: “Charging someone with a...

What happens when the people telling the story… become part of the story? In Episode 1, Gracie Gato pulls back the curtain on New Hampshire’s media and political ecosystem—where power, relationships, and narratives collide in a state small enough that everyone knows everyone… and stories don’t always travel far. This episode introduces the key players, the connections between media, politics, and...

In this episode of the Gracie Gato Podcast , Grace Gato sits down with Claire Best, Concord City Councilor Stacey Brown, and State Representative Ellen Read for a candid conversation about transparency, power, and accountability in New Hampshire. The discussion centers on the influence of the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence (NHCADSV) in state politics and the controver...

Get full access to The Gracie Gato Podcast at gracieformermrsgato.substack.com/subscribe

Get full access to The Gracie Gato Podcast at gracieformermrsgato.substack.com/subscribe