Politix

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm It’s the first Politix podcast of Donald Trump’s second presidency, and it began more or less how we expected: with a lot of bluster and bullshit, but also real demonstrations of lawlessness. Thanks John Roberts? In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss: * Trump’s immigration executive orders, with a special focus on his e...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm It’s the final Politix podcast of Joe Biden’s presidency! Soon Donald Trump will be inaugurated president for a second, non-consecutive term. Inflation and crime and border crossings will fall, wages will rise, and America will be great again. Except…all those things already happened. In this episode, Matt and Brian discu...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm Multiple developments over the holiday break raise real questions about who will call the shots in Donald Trump’s still-forming administration. Elon Musk seemed to commandeer aspects of legislative strategy, immigration, and foreign policy. Republicans in Congress seemed to heed Musk over Trump, while leaving Trump wide b...

The mailbag episode is here! Thanks to all who sent questions, and apologies to those who didn’t get answers. We hoped to get through more, but brevity isn’t our strong suit and we ran out of time. But the answers we DID deliver are choice, in our opinion. We touch on: * Ezra Klein’s terribly wrong ideas about the political impact of blue-state and blue-city misgovernance; * What Donald Trump’s at...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm The mailbag episode will have to wait, but for good reason! An opportunity arose for us to interview Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair (and DNC chair candidate) Ben Wikler. So we jumped on it—and warmly extend an invitation to other DNC chair candidates to join us in the new year. In this episode, Matt and Brian ask Ben: *...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm Last week, a big public uproar forced the health-insurance carrier Anthem to backtrack on a plan to cut reimbursements for anesthesia. Then, an assassin—suspected to be a 26 year old ivy league graduate named Luigi Mangiano—murdered Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Healthcare. In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss: * W...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm Donald Trump and Joe Biden marked the weekend after thanksgiving with two big news developments that look a lot like chess moves in a high-stakes match between the revenge-obsessed far right and the outgoing liberal establishment. First, Trump nominated Kash Patel, an aggrieved loyalist with a literal enemies list, to run...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm A blustery Donald Trump statement threatening large tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports (plus increased tariffs on Chinese goods) raises the question of why the outgoing Biden administration, the lame-duck Congress, and the broader civil society have taken few proactive steps to create obstacles to coming Trump abuses...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian take stock of Matt Gaetz, Pete Hegseth, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Tulsi Gabbard—Trump’s Fanatic Four nominees to head the Departments of Justice, Defense, Health and Human Services, and the national intelligence directorate. They discuss: * Why Hegseth’s personal mediocrity (C-list Fox News hos...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian review the incoming Trump administration as it takes shape, and what if anything Democrats can do, without official power or a real media arm, to limit the damage. * Who has Trump nominated already, and who is he being gun-shy about, given that some of his loyalists would have a hard time getting...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian discuss the unexpected final (?) twist of the 2024 campaign: The immense backlash to Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden. * Why did a bad comedian’s offensive comments about Puerto Rico break through, when he and other speakers made equally racist comments about black people, Jews, Pale...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian discuss the merits and drawbacks of field organizing, and why it’s worth knocking on doors or making calls if you care about the outcome of the election. They tackle questions including: * Can feel your own contribution to turnout, even if canvassing operations are expensive for the campaign? (Sp...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian examine the quadrennial liberal October panic, and think through practical ways for Democrats to close strong: * Is it possible to increase the salience of Democrats’ top issues (abortion, democracy, and health care) when Trump is hoovering up attention to his fascist freakshow? * Might the fasci...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian take a big-picture view of Republicans for Kamala, including: * Why the Emerging Democratic Majority thesis of the aughts and early 2010s made people assume that outreach to Republicans would lead to betrayal on policy grounds. * The academic basis for Harris to view support from influential cons...

JD Vance is the more polished debater. And whether it was because he was jittery or prepped not to take a wrecking ball to anyone except Donald Trump, Tim Walz wasn’t generally able to convey that Vance is much more extreme than he pretended to be on stage Tuesday night. So how did he win? In this free post-VP debate episode, Matt and Brian discuss: * Whether Vance’s polish is really more appealin...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian take stock of Donald Trump’s late pitch to young male voters, who are significantly more Republican curious than young men were in the Bush and Obama years: * Are young men really drifting in a more conservative direction? Or are they mostly attracted to Trump’s teflon libertinism? * Is America s...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian take stock of the many ways Republicans have flailed since Donald Trump lost last week’s debate against Kamala Harris: * If they’re trying to change the topic, or convince people Trump won, why are so many MAGA influencers still trying to “prove” ABC rigged the debate for Harris? * Is the discour...

That was way better than the first one! In what may be their only debate Kamala Harris reduced Donald Trump to a smoldering mass of anger, deranged lies, and incoherent rambling. It’s fair to say everyone agrees she won, because pro-Trump influencers are already attacking the moderators. In this free post-debate episode, Matt and Brian discuss: * How Harris pivoted away from Biden’s failed debate...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Brian takes a much needed vacation and Matt is joined by The Atlantic’s Jerusalem Demsas to talk about housing and the 2024 campaign. * Barack Obama’s striking and unexpected embrace of the YIMBY diagnosis of the housing issue at the Democratic National Convention. * Kamala Harris’ more equivocal embrace of the...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian look back at what went right at last week’s Democratic National Convention, how it maps on to the lead Harris built in her first month on the campaign trail, and what it augurs for the fall campaign: * How exactly did Harris build a lead so quickly? * Is maintaining or growing it really as simple...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Semafor ’s Dave Weigel joins Matt and Brian from Chicago to assess the Dem convention in Chicago: * Is DNC’s treatment of credentialed journalists another sign that Democrats are consciously decoupling from the mainstream media? * Are there any politically meaningful differences between how the convention is pl...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian survey the news periphery for various black swans and Chekhov’s guns that might change the trajectory of the race. They discuss: * How Kamala Harris’s joy-themed campaign might affect economic sentiment, and whether the economy itself is at risk of contraction; * Donald Trump’s coverup of a $10 m...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian offer near-instant reaction to the news that Kamala Harris has nominated Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for the vice presidency. They discuss: * The pros and cons of this decision; * The factors that likely persuaded Harris to select Walz rather than a swing-state or red-state governor; * How adding...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian delve into the new discourse, ignited by vice-presidential shortlister Tim Walz, about the inherent weirdness of MAGA leaders. * What do Democrats mean when they say Republicans like Donald Trump and JD Vance are “weird”? * How normal are Democrats, actually? * Having drawn this line, can Democra...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian discuss the Democrats brand new presumptive presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, and how she might end up on top after the dust from this shakeup settles. * What can and should Harris do to broaden her appeal relative to Joe Biden, given that she’s both inheriting his campaign and is viewed to be...