The Back Room with Andy Ostroy

Brian Tyler Cohen is a progressive YouTuber, podcaster, and host of the No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen podcast. He’s built an audience of millions across platforms and billions of views on YouTube. His first book, Shameless, was a #1 New York Times bestseller. His new book, THE DAY AFTER: How to Wield Power in a Post-Trump World, goes on sale July 14th. Brian and I discuss the book and the current...

Emily Suttle-Braun is the founder and CEO of Doodle Mom Strategies, a growth and sales partner for political tech companies, agencies, and data platforms. She has over 15 years of experience in campaigns, advocacy, and political tech highlighted by her work on the 2016 Hillary Clinton and 2020 Biden-Harris campaigns. About a decade ago Emily dated embattled former Maine U.S. Senate democratic nomi...

Suzanne Vega emerged as a leading figure of the folk-music revival of the early 1980s. Since the release of her self-titled, critically acclaimed 1985 debut album, she has written and recorded numerous songs that have become part of the contemporary music vernacular, including “Luka,” “Marlene on the Wall” and “Tom’s Diner,” an a cappella piece that was remixed by U.K. electronic dance duo DNA and...

Rina Shah is a Washington, DC-based geopolitical risk adviser, political strategist, and frequent on-air commentator. She is the Founder of Vental Strategic Advisory Group. With experience as a Capitol Hill senior aide to two members of Congress, chief spokesperson for two presidential campaigns, and trusted counselor to CEOs, elected officials, and diplomats worldwide, she’s been a leading voice...

Before the internet and the ubiquity of social media influencers, there was Robin Byrd – the spirited, anything-goes New York City public access host, clad only in her signature black crochet bikini. From 1977 to 1998, Robin created, produced, and hosted the late-night call-in show that incorporated performances and interviews with adult entertainers and experimental artists. Each show ended with...

Robert Stone is a critically acclaimed, multi-award winning documentary filmmaker. He is an Oscar nominee for Best Feature Documentary and a three-time Emmy nominee for Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking. Four of his films have premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, including Closing Night Film. His recent 6-hour epic history of the effort to land a man on the Moon, Chasing the Mo...

Dr. Mary Anne Franks is a legal scholar, advocate, and award-winning author specializing in the intersection of civil rights, free speech, and technology. She is the Eugene L. and Barbara A. Bernard Professor in Intellectual Property, Technology, and Civil Rights Law at George Washington Law School, where she teaches and writes about First and Second Amendment law, family law, and criminal law and...

Justin J. Pearson represents Tennessee House District 86, and is now running for Congress in the state’s Ninth Congressional District. He rose to national prominence as part of the Tennessee Three, standing up for gun reform and being reelected after expulsion. A lifelong organizer, he helped lead the victorious Byhalia Pipeline fight, shut down a cancer-causing sterilization plant, and now challe...

Marisa Renee Lee is the award-winning and bestselling author of Grief is Love. For her work on grief and healing, she has been featured on Good Morning America and NPR, in Vogue and The Atlantic, among other outlets. Her new book Waiting for Dawn: Living with Uncertainty reflects on her experiences with chronic illness and grief, offering solace to folks living with all kinds of uncertainty. A lon...

Jeffrey Toobin is a legal journalist who last year joined the New York Times as a contributing opinion writer. He also writes for The New York Times Magazine and continues to offer commentary on CNN. In 2024, NBC Universal released “Homegrown: OKC,” a podcast based on his book, “Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism.” He’s a noted lecturer and an instructor at Harvard Law...

Barbara McQuade is a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, where she teaches criminal law and national security law. She is also a legal analyst for NBC News and MSNOW and co-host of the #SistersInLaw podcast From 2010 to 2017 she served as the U.S Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. She was appointed by President Barack Obama, and was the first woman to serve in her posit...

Adam Mockler is a GenZ political commentator who's become a hero to Democrats and a giant thorn to Republicans over his ability to fact-check his conservative counterparts in real-time. At 23, and armed with receipts, he can debate the liars and gaslighters better than many analysts twice his age. Join us for this insightful and humorous chat about how to effectively beat down the right-wing bulls...

Andrew McCabe is the former deputy director, and acting director, of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He is also the author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump. He is currently a senior law enforcement analyst for CNN, a distinguished visiting professor at the George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Governme...

Batya Ungar-Sargon is the host of Batya! on NewsNation, where she is a weekend anchor. She is a frequent contributor to the New York Post and a columnist for the Free Press. Her new book is The Jews and the Left. She joins me for a spirited conversation about the book, antisemitism, and her thoughts on how the progressive wing of the Democratic Party has driven a wedge between Jews over Israel. Go...

Alisyn Camerota is an award-winning journalist, author and former CNN New Day anchor. Before CNN, she was an anchor and correspondent at the FOX News Channel. In her three+ decades in journalism, Alisyn has covered major stories nationally and internationally, earning two Emmy Awards, the Edward R. Murrow Award, and a DuPont-Columbia Award. Alisyn’s debut novel, Amanda Wakes Up, was selected by Na...

Keisha Lance Bottoms has served as senior advisor to former President Joe Biden, leading the transformation of the White House Office of Public Engagement, and acting as a liaison and media surrogate. Before joining the White House, she worked with CNN as a political commentator based in Atlanta, Georgia, where she served in all three branches of government, as judge, council member, and mayor. Sh...

Danielle Crittenden is a journalist, author, and former host of the The Femsplainers Podcast and Substack, known for her incisive commentary on women and modern life. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and more. She is the author of five books, including What Our Mothers Didn’t Tell Us: Why Happiness Eludes the Modern Woman, and...

Mallory McMorrow is a Michigan State Senator who in 2018 flipped a district that had previously voted Republican by 16 points, then helped Democrats take control of the Michigan Senate for the first time in 40 years. She’s stood up to extremists to repeal Michigan’s abortion ban, expand voting rights, and pass sweeping gun safety laws, and refuses corporate PAC or AIPAC money. She was thrust into...

Asha Rangappa is a lawyer, scholar, and media commentator. She’s held senior administrative and teaching roles at Yale University for nearly two decades, where her work including advising deans on governance and strategy helped guide institutional growth during periods of transition, and teaches courses on national security law, Russian information warfare, and leadership and ethics. Prior to Yale...

Ruth Ben-Ghiat is Professor of History at New York University. She writes about fascism, authoritarianism, and propaganda. She is the recipient of Guggenheim and other fellowships; an advisor to Protect Democracy; an MSNBC opinion columnist and television commentator; and publishes Lucid, a newsletter on threats to democracy. Her latest book, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, looks at how illib...

Kristy Greenberg is the host of "Courtside with Kristy Greenberg" on YouTube, and an MS NOW Legal Analyst. Kristy was a former SDNY Criminal Division Deputy Chief, where she oversaw the work of SDNY's Criminal Division and prosecuted fraud, cybercrime, and sex trafficking cases of national significance. Kristy and I discuss the legality of Trump's $1.776 slush-fund and IRS immunity deal; Todd Blan...

Jonathan W. Jordan is a historian and an award-winning author of five books, including the New York Times bestseller Brothers, Rivals, Victors: Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley, and the Partnership That Drove the Allied Conquest in Europe. He is a regular book critic for The Wall Street Journal and the author of nearly two dozen articles appearing in MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History, Worl...

Andrew Weissmann is the co-host of the popular podcast Main Justice and is a frequent legal analyst for NBC/MSNBC. He serves on the board of Just Security and writes frequently for it, as well as The New York Times, The Atlantic, & The Washington Post. From 2017-2019 Andrew served as a lead prosecutor in Robert S. Mueller’s Special Counsel’s Office. His memoir about the Special Counsel investi...

Nate Soares is the President of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute. He has been working in the field for over a decade, after previous experience at Microsoft and Google. He’s the author of a large body of technical and semi-technical writing on AI alignment, including foundational work on value learning, decision theory, and power-seeking incentives in smarter-than-human AIs. Nate joins...

Jonathan Vigliotti is an Emmy and Edward R. Murrow Award–winning CBS News national correspondent whose work has appeared on numerous platforms including CBS Sunday Morning, Face the Nation, 48 Hours, and more. His reporting has taken him to more than forty countries and territories across six continents. He is the author of Before It’s Gone: Stories from the Front Lines of Climate Change in Small-...