The Insurgents

Dan Boguslaw of The Intercept joins us to recap Trump’s second indictment and whether its as big of a deal as some pundits are making it seem. We also discuss military contractors and weapons manufacturers rainbow-washing their corporate image this month through participation in Pride events. And we update you all on Cornel West’s switch to the Green Party, clearing up ballot access issues we disc...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.insurgentspod.com There are a couple dozen or so Supreme Court cases that will be announced in the next few weeks and Mark Joseph Stern, senior writer at Slate, joins us to go through some of the big ones. Cases include topics like affirmative action in college admissions, LGBTQIA+ discrimination, independent state legislatures and...

Ben Terris, author of “The Big Break: The Gamblers, Party Animals, and True Believers Trying to Win in Washington While America Loses Its Mind,” joins Jordan for a fun chat about the characters, stories and insights in his new book. The conversation ranges from an oil tycoon’s granddaughter funding progressive politics to a right wing lobbyist faking it until he makes it. We also talk about disgra...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.insurgentspod.com Ken Klippenstein is back and joins us this time to break down the theatrics and spectacle of the debt ceiling negotiations. Despite politicians bemoaning the colossal amount of debt, the military budget remained unscathed and, in fact, even grew. Food stamps and other social safety net programs, however, took a cut...

Kylie Cheung, writer at Jezebel and NBA twitter extraordinaire, joins us for a fun conversation about Ron DeSantis’ first week running for president. The extremely unlikable Florida politician has already made waves with his cringey behavior but what’s worse is his attacks on the LGBTQIA+ community and abortion rights. We look at the right’s war on abortion rights and how its fared in other red st...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.insurgentspod.com Brett Erlich of The Young Turks joins us to dissect the right-wing outrage campaign over very tepid acknowledgements that the LGBTQIA+ community exists. From the freak-out over Target offering Pride themed clothes, to Chick-fil-A hiring a diversity officer, to Milk-Bone slapping a pride flag on a tub of dog treats,...

Gaby Del Valle and Felipe De La Hoz of Border/Lines join us to discuss the latest news on the immigration front. With the expiration of Title 42, many Conservatives are trying to now gin up fears over a “surge” of immigrants at the southern border. Felipe and Gaby explain what Title 42 is, why it’s not so much gone as it is replaced and the moves the Biden administration have made recently to resp...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.insurgentspod.com Ben Smith, co-founder of Semafor and former editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News, joins Jordan to discuss his new book Traffic: Genius, Rivalry and Delusion In The Billion-Dollar Race To Go Viral. The two discuss how the rivalry between Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed’s co-founder and CEO, and Nick Denton, founder of Gawker, s...

Annie Wu Henry, digital strategist for progressive campaigns, joins us to break down the election results in Pennsylvania, highlighted by Sara Innamorato’s primary win for Alleghany County Executive. We also discuss Helen Gym’s great campaign for Philadelphia mayor and the challenges she faced from within the Democratic establishment and GOP megadonors working to stop her. Annie explains how progr...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.insurgentspod.com Senator Dianne Feinstein returned to the Senate this week and gave some incredible quotes to Slate about how she never actually was gone. Impressive! We discuss the ongoing push for her resignation, Rob’s new king, Elon Musk’s interview with CNBC in which he claimed there was no evidence a Nazi mass shooter with Na...

After Rob takes our brand new AI co-host for a spin while Jordan is away in Japan, to mixed results, Alex Peter joins the show to talk about the Jordan Neely case, defunding the police, how his experiences as a public defender in NYC informed his views on criminal justice and prison abolition, and much more. Follow Alex on twitter here and on Tik Tok here. Check out Mutual Aid Hub here to get invo...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.insurgentspod.com In this episode, recorded before Jordan’s extravagant and unsanctioned Japan vacation, he and our friend Jack Crosbie of Discourse Blog have a conversation about ChatGPT and the future of AI automation, Twitter’s Elon Musk era, the Barstool to Tucker Carlson pipeline and more. There’s also some unfortunate comments...

Olga Lexell joins us to talk about the WGA strike, what writers are calling for, how the shifting landscape toward streaming in the entertainment industry has allowed giant companies to further exploit writers for their work and more. At the top, we discuss the tragic death of Jordan Neely, who was killed on the New York subway by a bystander. After his death was caught on film, conservatives just...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.insurgentspod.com Molly Jong-Fast, host of Fast Politics , joins us to recount her trip to DC for White House Correspondents Dinner weekend. She shares some hot goss from the swamp and we get into the criticisms of the event itself and the risks that arise from close proximity between the media and political establishment. We also d...

Jessica Burbank, host of the new show Funny Money , joins us to break down the debt ceiling debate in Congress. The right is using this as an opportunity to, yet again, try to cut social safety net programs, but of course they have no issue raising the debt ceiling when a Republican is in the White House. We open the show with Rob’s realization that Canadians are not allowed to comment on US polit...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.insurgentspod.com Kat Abughazaleh of Media Matters joins us to discuss Tucker Carlson’s sudden firing. We discuss the impact he had on his viewers, the white nationalist acts of violence he inspired, including mass shootings by perpetrators who mirrored his rhetoric in their manifestos, and more. We speculate (responsibly) about wha...

Andrew Lawrence of Media Matters joins us to discuss Fox News settling with Dominion at the last minute in its defamation case over the network airing election lies and smearing the voting machine company in the process. The $787 million settlement is the largest defamation settlement in US history, and while the right-wing television network narrowly avoided its top talent taking the stand, we ex...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.insurgentspod.com Sam Biddle, technology reporter at The Intercept, joins us to discuss his new story about the Georgia National Guard using location tracking to recruit high school children. We get into the pitfalls and dangers of using an inaccurate method to try to identify and follow young people for purposes of military recruit...

LucidFoxx returns to the show this week to discuss Sen. Dianne Feinstein refusing to resign despite being absent for months, missing over 50 votes and holding up the judicial confirmation process. Her supporters and Dem loyalists insist she should be able to resign “on her time” but as this debate plays out, the right is, yet again, using the court system to further chip away at abortion rights. W...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.insurgentspod.com Chris Geidner, writer of LawDork , joins us to discuss ProPublica’s huge story revealing Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has secretly accepted luxury trips from a prominent conservative billionaire for nearly 20 years. We explore the ethical implications and potential avenues for accountability. Even more biz...

Abraham Josephine “Josie” Riesman, author of the New York Times bestseller “ Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America ” joins us today for a great discussion on how kayfabe, the art of presenting staged acts as authentic, has evolved and spread beyond the world of wrestling and into our politics. Josie explains the concept of neokayfabe and how the WWE has slyly blurred the lines betw...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.insurgentspod.com Alex Pearlman, Pearlmania500 on TikTok , joins us to discuss the “RESTRICT Act,” the bipartisan piece of legislation that purportedly will ban TikTok but ultimately has much broader implications. We get into the threats it poses to individual privacy and free speech rights, how the rhetoric around TikTok is ultimat...

Ken Klippenstein (still under a lifetime ban from the podcast) joins us today to react to Donald Trump’s felony indictment over his hush money payments to Stormy Daniels. We take a look at some of the funniest reactions from folks on both the left and right, discuss whether Trump will actually be convicted, what this means for Trump’s likely top opponent in the GOP primary Ron DeSantis, and much m...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.insurgentspod.com Ari Drennen, LGBTQ Program Director at Media Matters for America, joins us to discuss the latest in the anti-trans panic. This time, right-wing talking heads using the Nashville shooting on Monday to further their crusade against trans people and, despite transparently hollow calls in the past to not “politicize” m...

Spencer Ackerman, author of the fabulous book “Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump,” joins us to reflect on the US invasion of Iraq 20 years later. We discuss the way Americans behaved in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and in the run-up to the invasion, taking their anger and fear out on innocent strangers who, in many cases, were not from Afghanistan or Iraq...