Krystal Kyle & Friends

We talk to Will Menaker of Chapo Trap House about what’s at stake here for the “ultra-MAGA contingent” posing a roadblock to McCarthy’s confirmation. We’ve got a number of different theories which might actually combine to explain the standoff: McCarthy just doesn’t have the confidence of his colleagues; people like Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert see him as a sellout and would prefer an even furthe...

This week, we’re joined by the TV host and author Touré to discuss his book The Ivy League Counterfeiter , a gripping and thought-provoking story about elite crime and punishment. Specifically, what kind of elite crime merits punishment? In Touré’s book we found an incredible opportunity to think about the legalized forms of financial corruption and predation that take place every day in ivory-tow...

It seems like every few days a new free-speech scandal, UI nightmare, or flame war goes down with Musk at the reins of Twitter. (Maybe you like knowing how many views your Tweets are getting, but it feels like the latest unwanted design nightmare under the leadership of the guy who proposed single-lane car tunnels under Los Angeles.) Matt, along with other journalists from outlets like CNN and the...

Want to get rich quick? In a country with massive wealth disparity and intense precarity caused by expensive housing, healthcare, and education, scams and schemes profiting off of everyday people are literally all around us. This week’s guest Coffeezilla has made it his focus to analyze modern-day scams, to understand how their messaging plays into social and financial concerns and gets the buy-in...

“Real OG” radio host Thom Hartmann joins us for an interview that’s been a long time in the making; Thom is a major influence for Kyle, someone whose coverage of leftist issues inspired him to work in left independent media. He joins us to talk about money in politics, the legal precedent for the treatment of corporations as people (bet you didn’t know that this precedent goes all the way back to...

One common theme in our conversations at KK&F — which has been around just a few weeks longer than the Biden presidency, letting us follow and comment on Biden’s methods of governance from the very beginning — has been the way that this White House denies its access to certain forms of presidential power when it could benefit working people most. We’ve compared Democrats’ and Republicans’ willingn...

Welcome to our hundredth episode with commentator Farron Cousins, our guide to Florida politics and how it’s shaping the nation. The big question is whether the rise of DeSantis means the collapse of Trump. We discuss how the two major right-wing figures are pitted against one another for future presidential campaigns. Perhaps the greatest plus for Trump would be the major three-ring circus in the...

This week’s episode with writer Matt Stoller takes us to that million-dollar question (probably more than a million-dollar question, actually): Is crypto just a scam? After all, can’t we apply all of the negatives of crypto to fiat currency? Isn’t it all made-up on some level? Matt argues that the governmental institutions that support fiat currency, as well as its societal usage, draw an importan...

This week, Marianne Williamson joins us to share her own analysis of the big midterm elections earlier this week, saying we have new proof that the Democratic Party shouldn’t be afraid to put its foot on the accelerator and go for the bold legislation and robust social programs that Americans clearly have an appetite for. Instead of sizing up Tuesday’s electoral offerings as the very limit of what...

According to this week’s guest, economic analyst Rana Foroohar, the Democratic Party is facing an existential crisis. Those who were active in government during the start of neoliberal policymaking — and who perhaps even worked to implement it — are in the same party as new legislators who have seen the catastrophic effects of those policies on the working-class people they represent. Understandin...

We’re grateful to Alexandra Hunt for delving into the tough issues of the “manosphere,” toxic masculinity, and how the left should view and respond to sexual frustration among young men. She considers young men’s increasing radicalization by far-right figures around issues of sexuality to be an issue the left should take on, and one that has major implications for our political system. Alexandra a...

Even among fellow Conservatives, former PM Liz Truss’s agenda registered a shock. She pushed policies of deregulation that directly attacked working people, while cutting taxes for the wealthy. And, as of Thursday, she’s out of office. Now the party will be tasked with putting up another Prime Minister to carry out a political program that lacks public consent. We dive into the past, present, and...

After years of a pandemic, layoffs, the beginning of a recession, and so many other hardships for working people, why should we be reassured by centrism? What makes this political vision attractive at all, and why do we still have to contend with it? We’ve seen how Biden has scaled down or outright abandoned the central campaign promises that made his candidacy bare-minimum palatable to many lefti...

Welcome back to KK&F — this week we’re joined by Katie Halper to discuss how she was dismissed from her appearances on The Hill’s Rising in retaliation for her coverage of Israeli apartheid. As ironic and counterintuitive as it sounds, conservatives literally make a career out of crying “cancel culture.” And when right-wingers do face consequences (books pulled from shelves, Twitter accounts perma...

Comedian RM Brown joins us this week for a conversation about bringing comedy to left politics, right-wing attacks on basic freedoms — from trying to shut down gay marriage to book-banning frenzies — and where our movement’s priorities should be right now. As you’ll see in this exclusive interview, he views our current moment as an opportunity for a “collective project” for public well-being (thin...

Welcome back to KK&F, where we’re confronting capitalism with sociologist and leftist thinker Vivek Chibber. We’ve brought him on the show to discuss everything from what it means to be a socialist, why we can’t take our eye (and our organizing) off of electoral politics, what role incrementalism should play in our politics, and much more. The share of our organizing that should focus on electoral...

Welcome back to Episode 90 of KK&F. Our guest this week, Ryan Grim, has given us a great line to help us think about how the Biden admin has positioned itself on major issues like labor and climate, offering some improvements (e.g. through climate funding) while continuing to uphold an establishment status quo that is hostile to the working class. “If you’re used to getting punched in the face wit...

Welcome back to KK&F, where we’re joined this week by political commentator, comedian, and Chapo Trap House co-host Matt Christman. Following the news of more legal struggles for Trump’s allies, we’re taking a look at how the former president and the members of his political team have survived various attempts at prosecution and alienation from their base of supporters — and why (if at all) that m...

Welcome back to Krystal Kyle & Friends — minus the Friends this week, as we’re giving you a special episode of in-depth conversation between our two hosts. This week, we’re focusing on COVID policy, from vaccines and masks to lockdowns, in terms of what health and safety precautions have shaped American life in the past two years. We’re taking this opportunity to examine how the imposition of thes...

COVID didn’t start the struggles that American teachers face today. It did, however, force our country’s educators to face new political and economic threats. Now, as teachers stand up and fight back on picket lines across the country, we’re also asking questions about what our educational system could and should look like. What new roles could public education play in students’ lives, and why is...

From an assessment of the motives behind Trump’s retention of classified info to explainers on the Espionage Act, Special Access Programs, and everything else that’s further complicating the debacle at Mar-a-Lago, our guest Ken Klippenstein joins us to demystify the raid on Trump’s property and give us some insight into what comes next. This discussion of how Trump went rogue with top-secret gover...

In an exclusive interview, Jesse Ventura takes us through his journey as an antiwar advocate, a pro wrestler, and a famously successful third-party candidate for Governor of Minnesota. Ventura is known as a major, widely renowned wrestler, and he explains how wrestlers like him brought significant attention to Saturday night wrestling. But as we know from his legacy as an organizer within the wres...

This week, we’re bringing you a lively discussion — and some friendly debate — between KK&F host Kyle and our friends Adam and Sitch of the Sitch & Adam show. Adam and Sitch have positioned themselves as enlightened centrists, taking a critical stance on some issues at the core of traditional left politics but embracing progressive ideas like Modern Monetary Theory. That is to say, there’s plenty...

If you told me a cosmic ray hit Washington and flipped everyone’s brains, giving Schumer the Machiavellian cunning of a Republican and giving McConnell the guileless approach of a Democrat, that might be a more plausible explanation for this display than the truth. So says Prospect editor David Dayen in a recent piece on the shocking Manchin-Schumer deal that will use $369 billion in funding to co...

We’re thrilled to bring Zac and Gavin of The Vanguard podcast onto the show for Episode 82 of KK&F. These terrific guests bring wit and welcome insight to their exploration of today’s independent media landscape — and of what that landscape can tell us about free speech, misinformation, and freedom of the press in the United States. Zac and Gavin see their channel’s interventions into left-media d...