Impolitic with John Heilemann

John is joined by the world’s most celebrated data nerd, polling aggregator, and election forecaster, Nate Silver, to discuss the 2024 election. Nate offers unnervingly precise takes on just how close the race is (it won’t calm your nerves a bit); Kamala Harris’s likelihood of winning each of the battleground states; the thesis advanced in the New York Times that the GOP’s advantage in the Elector...

John is joined by Andrew Ross Sorkin of CNBC, The New York Times, and Too Big Too Fail fame to assess the state of the American economy and its political dimensions six weeks from Election Day, with Sorkin offering his takes on an array of related topics: how Jerome Powell stuck the landing and why that achievement isn't more widely heralded; the tax-cutting ardor of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump...

John is joined by former South Bend, Indiana, mayor and once and future presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg to discuss the state of the presidential race with 45 days to go before November 5: why Kamala Harris is playing a stronger homestretch hand than Donald Trump; what Trump and J.D. Vance’s incendiary lies about the Haitian immigrants of Springfield, Ohio, have in common with Joseph McCarthy...

John is joined by Doug Emhoff for a wide-ranging discussion of his role as Second Gentleman of the United States and Mr. Kamala Harris. The two Gen Xers talk through Emhoff’s shot-out-of-a-cannon introduction to the American electorate; his current role on the hustings stumping for his wife’s presidential campaign and his prospective one as the nation’s first-ever First Gent; his otherworldly capa...

John is joined by Dan Harris, former ABC News anchor of Nightline, World News Sunday, and Good Morning America’s weekend edition, to discuss Dan's transformation into a full-time meditation and mental health guru and entrepreneur — and accidental social media influencer. The longtime pals discuss strategies for staying sane in the face of the flood of anxiety and agitation unleashed by the 2024 el...

John is joined by his Puck partners Dylan Byers and Peter Hamby to discuss the first (and maybe only) 2024 general election debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump—a mirror image and diametric opposite of Joe Biden’s debate debacle versus Trump in June. The Puck Superfriends analyze Harris's command of the sphere of battle, Trump's inability to avoid being triggered, baited, rattled, and enr...

John is joined by The Daily Show’s Jordan Klepper to discuss the return of Jon Stewart to the show, the challenges of covering the RNC and DNC live, and his signature forays into the dark, savage, achingly comical heart of the MAGA-sphere at Donald Trump’s rallies. The two pals—who worked together when John dragooned Jordan into guest hosting his Showtime series The Circus—also debate the merits o...

John is joined by Pod Save America co-host, New York Times bestselling author, must-read Substacker, and former Obama campaign and White House communications whiz Dan Pfeiffer to discuss the state of the presidential race as we enter the post-Labor Day home stretch: from Kamala Harris’s performance in her first post-nomination sit-down interview to Donald Trump’s ridiculously desperate shape-shift...

John is joined by two-time Pulitzer-prize-winning New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof to chew over the presidential race: from Joe Biden’s decision to bow out and the wave of enthusiasm that has greeted Kamala Harris to Bill Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s speeches at the Democratic convention. They also discuss Kristof's recently published memoir, Chasing Hope: A Reporter’s Life, the work that...

John hooks up with his pal Alex Edelman—the young genius behind last year’s sold-out Broadway sensation and this year’s Emmy-nominated HBO comedy special Just For Us—at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to discuss his discovery that lobbyists bum him out but a roomful of Democratic delegates sets his heart aflutter; the bit of his about Joe Biden's age that some found unfunny but crack...

John is joined by CEO of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, Patrick Gaspard, and Politico senior political columnist Jonathan Martin to discuss the second two days of the Democratic National Convention. From the rat-a-tat succession of star turns by Bill Clinton, Tim Walz, and Oprah Winfrey on Wednesday to Kamala Harris sticking the landing on Thursday, the three friends chop up what wo...

John is joined by James Bennet—Lexington columnist for The Economist and former editor-in-chief of The Atlantic and editorial page editor of The New York Times—to discuss the first two days of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago: from Hillary Clinton’s roof-raising revisitation of that highest, hardest glass ceiling she cracked but failed to shatter and Joe Biden’s way-past-prime-time po...

John is joined by veteran Democratic strategist and former Clinton White House political director Doug Sosnik, who helped guide his boss against the odds to a landslide reelection in 1996, to assess the state of this year’s campaign on the eve of the Democratic convention. Having concluded a month ago that Joe Biden no longer had a viable path to victory, Sosnik discusses the top-to-bottom transfo...

John is joined by Ezra Klein—pioneering blogger in his twenties, founder and editor-in-chief of Vox in his thirties, and now columnist and host of a popular, eponymous podcast at New York Times—to discuss Donald Trump’s round-the-bend behavior in reaction to Kamala Harris’s ascent, Nancy Pelosi’s preternatural intuition and how it fuels her political mastery, and why the Democratic Party didn’t fl...

John is joined by two rising stars of sports journalism and commentary, Pablo Torre (formerly of ESPN and now host of the hit podcast Pablo Torre Finds Out) and Cari Champion (also formerly of ESPN and now host of The Cari Champion Show on Amazon Prime Video) to talk about the Summer Games: from the athletic prowess of Simone Biles, Gabby Thomas, and Katie Ledecky to the cultural currency of Snoop...

John is joined by Nicolle Wallace—host of Deadline: White House on MSNBC, former aide to George W. Bush and John McCain, and author of three bestselling novels (Eighteen Acres, It’s Classified, and Madam President) about life inside the White House—to discuss Kamala Harris’s selection of Tim Walz as her running mate and its potential impact on the election. The two close friends talk about the sec...

John is joined by Michael Bennet, Colorado’s senior U.S. Senator, and Errin Haines, editor-at-large of The 19th, longtime Kamala Harris chronicler, and member of National Association of Black Journalists—whose annual meeting in Chicago this week was the site of Donald Trump’s latest spasm of racial animus and ignorance. The legislator and the journalist discuss the event where the former president...

John is joined by #NeverTrump stalwarts George Conway (founder of the new Anti-Psychopath PAC and ex-husband of Kellyanne) and Sarah Longwell (publisher of The Bulwark and ubiquitous focus group impresario) to discuss the state of the presidential race after the mother of all resets. The trio assess why Kamala Harris’s unexpected elevation to the top of the Democratic ticket, the swift coalescence...

John is joined by #NeverTrump stalwarts George Conway (founder of the new Anti-Psychopath PAC and ex-husband of Kellyanne) and Sarah Longwell (publisher of The Bulwark and ubiquitous focus group impresario) to discuss the state of the presidential race after the mother of all resets. The trio assess why Kamala Harris’s unexpected elevation to the top of the Democratic ticket, the swift coalescence...

John is joined by two faces of the Democratic Party’s future—former New York City mayoral candidate and current head of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Maya Wiley, and former presidential candidate and 10-term Ohio congressman, Tim Ryan—with different backgrounds and ideological moorings but a shared sense of optimism about Kamala Harris’s ascension and prospects against Donal...

John goes deep on Joe Biden’s historic, campaign-upending decision to exit the presidential race with NBC News presidential historian and author of nine books on the presidency, Michael Beschloss, and Robert Costa, CBS News chief election correspondent and co-author (with Bob Woodward) of the New York Times No. 1 best-seller, “Peril." The three friends discuss the internal and external forces that...

John is joined by a trio of prominent if disaffected (or fully lapsed) Republican strategists: former Trump White House staffer and current co-host of The View and political analyst for CNN, Alyssa Farah Griffin; former chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle, co-founder of The Weekly Standard, and editor-at-large of The Bulwark, Bill Kristol; and former Jeb Bush adviser and Republican Nationa...

John is joined by two veteran G.O.P. operatives turned #NeverTrump stalwarts—Mitt Romney's 2012 chief strategist, Stuart Stevens, and The Bulwark's Tim Miller—to discuss the opening night of the Republican National Convention and the extraordinary weekend that preceded it, when an assassin’s bullet nearly claimed Donald Trump’s life. Tim and Stuart assess Trump’s subdued entrance and rapturous rec...

John is joined by James Carville, the most celebrated political strategist of the modern era—and one of the earliest and loudest influential Democrats to argue that voters’ doubts about Joe Biden’s capacity to serve well into his eighties could be his undoing. James explains his conviction that, despite Biden’s determination to stay in the race, he'll almost certainly have no choice but to drop ou...

John is joined by Jonathan Freedland—Guardian columnist, BBC radio presenter, cohost of the podcast Unholy: Two Jews on the News, and author of the best-selling book The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World—for a tour d’horizon of political news in Europe and the U.S. as seen from across the pond. Jonny explains the electoral landslide last week that put Labour back...