Signal Fire

Trump increased his personal wealth by 2 billion dollars last year while running the federal government. He profited from crypto while his administration eliminated crypto regulation. Three Supreme Court justices voted against birthright citizenship even though the Constitution clearly allows it. And Trump is sending people back to Haiti while his own State Department has it listed at the highest...

The president of the United States has 1500 nuclear weapons and the power to use them in under 28 minutes and most Americans have stopped thinking about that. Trump just walked away from the Iran war with nothing and called it a win. Iran kept its missiles, got billions of dollars, and now controls the Strait of Hormuz. Jon and Lisa sit down with Tom Nichols from The Atlantic and the US Naval War...

This week on Signal Fire, Lisa and Jon examine the aftermath of the Iran conflict and the agreement President Trump is calling a victory. They explore what the deal actually contains, what it means for American credibility abroad, and why allies may be rethinking their dependence on the United States. The conversation also explores the growing influence of billionaires and technology companies in...

Local news is dying and no one is replacing it. Newsrooms have shut down across the country. No one is sitting in on your city council meetings anymore. No one is filing public records requests on your school board. The platforms that filled that gap were built to spread the most engaging content, not the most accurate. Misinformation travels 70% farther than truth on social media and the people r...

Why do corporations pay no taxes? 88 of the biggest companies in America paid zero in federal taxes last year. Some got money back from the government. Tesla made $5 billion in profit and paid nothing. Pepsi and Yum Brands did the same thing. This is completely legal. Jon and Lisa break down how companies avoid taxes by moving billions through Ireland, Malta and the Cayman Islands. They cover the...

Katherine Stewart has spent 17 years going inside the rooms where the movement to dismantle American democracy operates. Her newest book Money Lies and God documents the machinery, the money, and the people behind it. And she says it is further along than most people realize. Christian nationalism is not a religion. It is an anti-democratic political ideology that exploits faith for power. It has...

In this episode of Signal Fire, Lisa Senecal and Jon Zieger examine the real-world outcomes of the modern “America First” agenda and ask who is actually benefiting from it. The conversation explores rising debt, inflation, Social Security, immigration, healthcare, and the growing influence of political patronage in American policymaking. They also discuss the long-term consequences of governing th...

Jon Zieger and Lisa Senecal break down artificial intelligence and wealth inequality — and the alarming ways they are accelerating each other. Elon Musk is about to become the world's first trillionaire. He just called Social Security a Ponzi scheme. Jon argues the real story is not that billionaires avoid taxes. It is that they have engineered a system that taxes you instead. Data centers are dri...

Justin Glawe is the only journalist in the country who filed to unseal the FBI affidavit that authorized the raid on a Fulton County elections warehouse. He read every document. He filed every motion. And he has two alarming conclusions. The first is that this is the first time in American history that the federal government has seized records from a local elections office. Not during Reconstructi...

Hosts Lisa Senecal and Jon Zieger break down the week American democracy took some of its worst hits yet. The Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act. Southern states had backup redistricting maps ready before the ruling was announced. The DOJ is arresting a former FBI director for posting seashells on Instagram while quietly dropping hundreds of human trafficking cases. This is not a coinciden...

Hosts Lisa and Jon speak with Ken Harbaugh, a former U.S. naval aviator who flew intelligence missions off North Korea, about the Iran war, the drone warfare gap that is already costing American lives, and what Pete Hegseth's first moves at the Pentagon reveal about where this administration is headed. The conversation examines why America is fighting the wrong war with the wrong strategy, why Ukr...

Hosts Lisa and Jon speak with Napp Nazworth about the growing divide within American evangelicalism and how political identity has reshaped religious belief. The conversation examines how partisanship, media ecosystems, and cultural shifts have influenced faith communities over the past decade. It also looks at the emotional and social consequences, from fractured churches to divided families. The...

Lisa Senecal sits down with Professor of communication, Jennifer Mercieca,to examine how modern media shapes our understanding of truth. They explore how normalization, propaganda, and algorithm-driven information systems have made it increasingly difficult to maintain a shared sense of reality. Drawing on ideas from Plato’s Cave to the concept of the Overton Window, the conversation connects hist...

Lisa and Jon examine how recent U.S. foreign policy decisions are reshaping global alliances and shifting the balance of power. They explore the implications of weakening NATO commitments, escalating tensions in Iran, and lifting sanctions that may benefit geopolitical rivals. Their conversation examines how these moves ripple through global energy markets, military strategy, and international tru...

Jon and Lisa reflect on the meaning of protest and argue that speaking out against the government is one of the most patriotic acts in a democracy. They unpack the idea behind the “No Kings” movement, contrasting the role of a president with the dangers of power being treated like personal authority. Drawing on history, they compare modern leadership behavior to the values set by figures like Wash...

The collapse of local news and the rise of social media have reshaped how people consume information. Tara McGowan explains how Courier Newsroom is building a new model by meeting audiences where they are and delivering news in formats people actually engage with. The conversation digs into the power of platforms, the risks of relying on them, and why owning your audience matters more than ever. I...

How do people process misinformation and why do certain types of language feel persuasive even when they lack meaning? Cognitive psychologist Gordon Pennycook explains the difference between lying and what he calls “bullshitting,” where the speaker is indifferent to whether something is true. The conversation examines why people often share false information online, and why content is focused on e...

Lisa and John speak with political strategist and author Stuart Stevens, joining from Kyiv after several trips supporting Ukraine since the full-scale invasion. Stevens describes what daily life looks like inside a city at war and reflects on how Ukrainians view shifting American support. The conversation also examines the broader geopolitical moment, from the risks of expanding conflict in Iran t...

In this episode of Signal Fire, Journalist and Author, James Fallows, joins the conversation to examine the collapse of local news and what it means for democracy. The discussion explores how storytelling shapes national identity, why the State of the Union has transformed into political spectacle, and how media institutions are struggling to adapt in an era of polarization and performance. Fallow...

Lisa Senecal and Jon Zieger sit down with Liz Minnella, founder of Connect Forward, to examine how influencers, algorithms, and culture are reshaping political power. Drawing on her background in marketing and organizing, Liz explains how trusted messengers and lifestyle creators have become central to modern persuasion, often succeeding where traditional institutions fail. The conversation explor...

Four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the carnage has not stopped. What has faded is the world’s attention. In this episode of Signal Fire, investigative journalist and founder of The Counteroffensive, Tim Mak, joins Jon and Lisa to discuss what happens when algorithms move on, when infrastructure becomes a weapon, and when empathy itself becomes a threat to authoritarian power....

The American justice system is being reshaped by power, money, and political loyalty. Former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence, Frank Figliuzzi, draws on decades inside the Bureau to explain how white collar crime enforcement has been weakened while pardons increasingly shield the well connected. The conversation explores what happens when accountability erodes inside institutions mea...

This episode of Signal Fire examines how modern elections are undermined long before a single vote is cast. Author and politician David Pepper joins the conversation to unpack how ballot seizures, voter roll manipulation, and manufactured investigations create doubt without ever formally overturning results. The discussion connects recent state-level actions to a broader national strategy that rel...

In this episode of Signal Fire, Jon and Lisa examine how modern authoritarianism no longer relies on ideology but on systems designed to exhaust, confuse, and undermine trust. Journalist and author Peter Pomerantsev traces how propaganda has evolved from persuading audiences to eroding their sense of reality and agency. The conversation connects historical examples with present-day media dynamics...

Former political strategist Matthew Dowd reflects on what has changed inside American politics, journalism, and public trust, and why traditional ideas of balance no longer hold. The discussion moves beyond partisan framing to ask what democracy requires when shared reality itself is under threat.