The Nicole Sandler Show

It's a Monday and, unfortunately, the news doesn't stop churning over the weekend... A new friend of the show is Dr. Art Jipson. In addition to being a professor of sociology at the University of Dayton and teaching those impressionable college students, he's a prolific writer on substack and a few other venues, writing about the issues in the news that are so troubling to us. And he h...

It's another Emptywheel Friday ! Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net graciously joins us each Friday to talk with me about the news that hit since we spoke last week. I'm running on Springsteen fumes today (he played Phoenix last night for THREE amazing hours ) but Marcy Wheeler and I still had a full show: Orban lost in Hungary, the DOJ is reversing convictions of Jan 6 convicted terrorists,...

Heather 'Digby' Parton from Salon and digbysblog.net joined me today after missing Tuesday's show (red-eye flight, we've all been there), and we had one of those cathartic conversations that allows us to clear the crap left by D'ump and co. We started with the big news: Viktor Orban lost in Hungary. And honestly? It gave us both a little hope — not just because a mini-Trump got...

A new book about Trump's Secretary of Health & Human Services is out.. RFK Jr: THE FALL AND RISE hit stores yesterday. Today, its author Isabel Vincent was my guest. It was obvious from the start that she and I have different opinions of the man. At the end of the program, a news story broke at just the moment I was explaining how it was affecting many of us. Advertising Inquiries: https:/...

Digby was supposed to be here today, but I was supposed to remind her yesterday, so I'll blame both of us! We'll reschedule. We wound up spending most of the hour talking about our "man" problem as evidenced by Eric Swalwell. I'm lucky in that I never had to worry about my husband, who joined me on the air to discuss the problems we face. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircl...

Is the pro-democracy media ecosystem helping — or accidentally making things worse? Nicole Sandler opens with the weekend's wildest news before sitting down with Micah Sifry , who mapped 236 pro-democracy Substacks and found what he believes is a troubling pattern: alarm is winning over action. Then Dr. Art Jipson , professor of sociology at the University of Dayton, joins the conversation to...

It's another jam-packed Emptywheel Friday with Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net. Trump's threat to annihilate Iran, what the "ceasefire" actually means (and who it benefited), JD Vance's trip to Hungary to shore up a Russian asset, and the death of an American soldier that Russia helped cause — which Trump is ignoring. And, of course, Melania. Ooh boy did her little presser yest...

Yes, I want our nation and the world to be rid of the demented orange man currently occupying the Oval Office. Judging by his actions and statements this week alone, it's clear that he's not fit for office. That seems to be the situation that the 25th Amendment to the Constitution was written to address. Or was it? Our first guest today is Maureen Tkacik, investigations editor of The Ameri...

Comedy writer, satirist, and Morning Sedition / Daily Show veteran Jim Earl joins us LIVE to talk Trump's wild weekend — from death rumors to threatening a "whole civilization" to calling a 2-week ceasefire a win. We'll dig into the Iran deal Iran is calling their victory, the Strait of Hormuz toll road nobody asked for, Pete Hegseth crediting God for wartime diplomacy, and who&#39...

Today's episode features journalist and political analyst Frederick Clarkson , Senior Research Analyst at Political Research Associates , who has spent four decades covering the intersection of religion and politics in America. Fred joins us to break down the growing influence of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) — a charismatic Christian movement whose leaders claim direct revelations from...

This is a problem in 2026 and in the D'ump regime. There has been creeping Christianity in our government for more than a few years now, but this cabal of creepy "Christians" has taken it to a whole new level. And it reared it's ugly head over the Easter and Passover holidays. Jonathan Larsen (of The Fucking News ) today puts on his serious JonathanLarsen.substack.com journalist&#3...

Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net joins me every Friday to discuss most of the news that you need to know about since we spoke the week before. Today, we began with the breaking news this morning that a US fighter jet was shot down over Iran. One of the two pilots had been rescued. The other was still missing when we finished recording at about 1pm Eastern. If anything happens to that missing pilot,...

Sometimes I don't exactly what I'll be talking about until shortly before the show begins. I had a few ideas for today... but two hours before showtime the breaking news dropped in my lap and my plans changed... Pam Bondi is OUT as Attorney General. We had hints it would be happening, and then it did. Also, the orange pustule showed what a spoiled brat of an insolent child he is with a nas...

Today is April 1st, April Fools Day, and our nation's biggest fool again made a fool of himself, becoming the first-ever sitting guy in the oval office (sorry, I can't call him president) to attend a Supreme Court hearing. That the case is over an Executive Order he issued on his first day in office makes it even more idiotic. Or, if you prefer, the word he likes to call other people, &#34...

Tim Karr is Senior Director of Communications & Strategy for FreePress.net, an organization that's been fighting to protect media and technology, knowing they're essential to our democracy, and to make sure they're used for justice. Today Tim and I spoke about how this regime's takeover of the FCC is being used to control all aspects of those components, doing grave danger to o...

We did it! For the third time now, millions of patriots took to the streets of the USA and many more joined in from foreign shores to stand up for democracy and against an evil, sociopathic narcissistic ruler who thinks he should be king in a nation that was borne on the premise that there are no kings. His actions have set our 250-year young experiment with a fragile democracy on a collision cour...

Emptywheel.net's Marcy Wheeler joins me each Friday to recap much of the most important news of the week. We were both our last week, so there was a lot to talk about today. We didn't worry about what we missed last week, but dug into the seriousness of the mess he's gotten us in to. Yes, it's depressing, but we all need to arm ourselves with the truth and as much of it as we can s...

This has been a really a strange week on The Nicole Sandler Show. Good thing tomorrow's Friday. But then again, who knows.. The walls are closing in on donOLD, and when a mad animal is trapped, it tends to become very dangerous. And that's what we're witnessing coming out of the Oval Office. We'll attempt to peek in and see what we can find. News reports are not very encouraging. T...

Trying to hold on to some semblance of sanity in times like these is more of a challenge with each passing week. And this week has brought with it some special challenges for me! Somehow, despite not getting enough sleep, we're still standing. I'm a bit over-taxed today and almost didn't do a show. But when Brian Karem responded to my email inviting him on today, I figured that if he c...

The once-varied and somewhat diverse media landscape in the US has vastly changed to where a small cartel of billionaires and conglomerates dominates much of what Americans see, read and hear. Today's guest - Tim Karr of freepress.net - got delayed (he'll be back next week), so I spent most of the hour ranting about what has happened to our media in the 40 + years I've been part of the...

Ezra Levin, co-founder and co-director of Indivisible , joins Nicole Sandler on her first day back from vacation to talk about No Kings Day #3 coming up this Saturday, plus some history of what has grown into a movement, organizing, democracy. And Nicole's studio's gremlins re-appeared to welcome her back from vacation. Then some news and phone calls from listeners too... Advertising Inqui...

I'm on a bit of a forced vacation this week. The house we live in is a rental, and the owners are putting in a new roof, now. So the noise makes it impossible for me to do a show. And that's just as well, because my main computer melted down this weekend, and now I'll have to figure out a solution. So for now, anyway, I'm only able to stream audio. And that's just as well, as I...

Today is the 14th day of this insane war against Iran, launched by the demented orange man who's still occupying the White House for no apparent reason and appears to have no plan to end it either. Every Friday, Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net joins me to discuss what happened since we spoke the week before and today, Marcy goes in-depth to pull all the crazy together and tries to help us make...

So many aspects of our society have taken a major hit during both of the orange guy's time in office, notably education. I think, uniformly, all administrations - except for the current one- have tried to make the US system of education the best in the world. But in this Dump-led regime, the goal is the break it. That's just one of the topics I'll discuss with today's guest, a fasc...

The world of progressive political talk media is relatively small. We don't ALL know each other, but most of us aren't much more than 2 degrees of separation apart. A relatively new show on the air and online, The Politics Bar , is hosted by an old friend and colleague Shawn "Smith" Peirce and a newer friend Jody Hamilton . We spent some time today talking a bit about everything fr...