The Nicole Sandler Show

It was a chaotic week, again, in the Dumpster fire that is Trump's Amerikkka in 2025. As she does every Friday, Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net joins me to unpack most of the important news we need to know, and injects some of her unique Wheeler wisdom to the insanity of it all. Get full access to The Nicole Sandler Show at nicolesandler.substack.com/subscribe Advertising Inquiries: https://re...

Sometimes our best laid plans get derailed. Perhaps it was last week's massive haboob that ate Phoenix, or Quantum Fiber, my Internet provider, is just making excuses (I pick that one), but my internet has now been out more than 18 hours... and counting! We'll reschedule Greg Palast for next week. Today I'll try to cover Trump's illegal killing of 11 people in a boat off the coast...

It was an historic morning on Capitol Hill as 10 of Jeffrey Epstein's victims gathered with their lawyers, Congressmen Ro Khanna, Thomas Massie, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and lots of reporters, protesters and concerned citizens to hear the survivors speak out, some of them for the very first time. On today's show, we listened to these women. We heard them and we believed them. Meanwhile, Tru...

It's the day after Labor Day. Fall has unofficially begun. However, Autumn doesn't officially begin for another 20 days. And unfortunately, this is only 2025. At least if it was Sept. 2, 2026, we'd be gearing up for the midterms. But now is all-hands-on-deck time and we cannot wait to gear up for anything. We must anticipate everything that's coming at us and get prepared now. To t...

Happy Labor Day! On holidays, I prefer to let the music do the talking. And today’s show celebrates Labor Day. Sadly. organized labor has taken the slings and arrows from the right for gar too long. But it is through the efforts of unions that we have what few workers’ rights we still enjoy. Today, I support unions through song… Enjoy! No video today as YouTube copyright violates me any and every...

It's another Emptywheel Friday when Marcy Wheeler of Emptywheel.net and I get together to bring you up to speed on a lot of the important news that we need to know from this week. As usual, there's more than we could fit into an hour (and then some!). Get full access to The Nicole Sandler Show at nicolesandler.substack.com/subscribe Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Priva...

It's been a while since I've spoken with Timothy Karr , Senior Director of Strategy & Communications at FreePress.net . We've spoken many times going back at least a decade about the challenges we've faced regarding the media, from broadcast to the internet. Looking back, they were all important issues, but I think they pale in comparison to the terror that the D'ump regime...

I often rail against the evils of Dump, the MAGAts and Republican politics in general on this show. And I also criticize Democratic strategies, policies and actions or inactions as I feel necessary. Today is necessarily one of those days. It's regarding the constant barrage of fundraising emails and texts and the fact that, in many cases, they’re scammy spam. Sadly, I'm not hearing much ab...

When Digby first began blogging in 2002, the very early days of the blogosphere, most readers had no idea she was a woman! When she went public a few years later after being presented with the Paul Wellstone Award, (according to a 2008 LA Times article ), many were shocked. They shouldn't have been. I say that as a woman who knows, to quote Harry Belafonte (who I know didn’t write it), ‘ Man S...

It's another Monday, so on today's show, Jonathan Larsen brings us the latest of The Fucking News , which he diligently writes just about every day at TheFuckingNews.substack.com and discusses here on my show. Get full access to The Nicole Sandler Show at nicolesandler.substack.com/subscribe Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privac...

What a day this has already been, and I'm not even talking about the news! I'll explain, but the short version is I got sick today. But I soldiered through and was able to talk with the one and only Driftglass today about all the shit we're going through. Get full access to The Nicole Sandler Show at nicolesandler.substack.com/subscribe Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/bran...

While we, mere mortals, try to discern fact from fiction when trying to get a handle on what is truly happening in the world, investigative reporter Jason Leopold has mastered the ins and outs of the of the few tools available to US citizens to dig through the drek to get at the truth. FOIA Man, as I call him, returns to the show today. Then I checked in with a town in Arkansas that's in the n...

It's my never-ending question during the Dump Days of America... Delulu Don keeps signing Executive Orders that are expressly unconstitutional, but he doesn't care. In many cases he's breaking the law, but is he if there's no one to enforce the laws he's breaking? Chris also just returned from a vacation. He was in the UK and wrote about the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and seeing...

On Mondays, Jonathan Larsen joins me on the air to tell us wtf is going on with a bit of snark and humor because it sure beats letting the seriousness of what's happening make you sad, anxious or crazy. kingNews.substack.com and get Jonathan’s original reporting without much snark at JonathanLarsen.substack.com . Get full access to The Nicole Sandler Show at nicolesandler.substack.com/subscrib...

It's another Emptywheel Friday! Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net joins me each Friday to wrap up much of the news that happened each week to help us understand wtf is going on Get full access to The Nicole Sandler Show at nicolesandler.substack.com/subscribe Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's that time of year again. The kids are going back to school! So today, we'll chat with Professor Art Jipson , Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Dayton. This week marked the 8th anniversary of the Unite the Right Nazi rally in Charlottesville, so I thought this was a good time for a primer into these hate groups and "accelerationism." Accelerationism also hap...

The man known to social media denizens as @LOLGOP, but to his parents and others as Jason Sattler , joins me on the show today. Jason is still all over social media, has his own newsletter at thefarce.org (that's also his handle on Bluesky), and he produces Marcy Wheeler's Ball of Thread podcast and others too. He joins me on today's show to unpack ice, media and the right's monopo...

Just a couple of hours before I hit the air today at 3ET, the Washington Post sent a breaking news alert with the headline, " Texas Republicans dare Democrats to stay out of state another month ." (gift link) They further explain, "The lawmakers put new pressure on absent Democrats to return to the state, testing whether they'll stay away another month to try to kill a plan to redr...

Demented Don hit the ground running this morning with a soft launch of Martial Law. That's really what it is. He announced that "today is Liberation Day" in DC. Wait a minute. Didn't we just have "liberation day" on April 2, and wasn't that about tariffs? It's all so confusing. I guess every day is Liberation Day in the Dumpster fire that is his brain. It would be r...

Thankfully we made it to the end of another week. Not only because I get to unplug from the news for the weekend, but because I get to wrap up the week with Marcy Wheeler of Emptywheel.net. We get together every Friday to stick a fork in the week, as Marcy fills in the blanks and explains some of the news stories and issues that came to light during the week. Today we touch on the resurrection of...

Bringing you the honest, real news - the truth- is what I strive for each day. In order to do it effectively, I believe we need to inject a bit of humor, irreverence and snark lest we lose our minds (or I do mine, anyway). That's why I often invite journalist, author, filmmaker, podcaster Brian Karem on the show. You can read him on his Reporter’s Notebook Substack and at Salon.com , hear him...

It's about time! I've been a fan of Allison Gill' s work for years but have never had the pleasure of meeting her. I've cited her reporting regularly, as she has been on top of the news since she launched the Mueller, She Wrote podcast back in 2017. Allison is incredibly busy, currently hosting three podcasts, plus interviews & writing articles on her substack at muellershewrot...

There was a time when, upon hearing the term "party down," I'd think it was time to get ready to have fun. Today, sadly, I think of the headlines telling me that despite the complete transformation of the Republican Party to a frightening cult led by an orange buffoon, the Democratic Party is still struggling to find its way to being what we need it to be and to do! For years I've...

It's the first Monday in August when many Americans are - or used to be- or wish they were on vacation. August used to be what was known as a "slow" news time, but those days are long gone. The shit keeps coming at us, by Trumpian design, and I've accepted the challenge to report on as much of it as I can physically and mentally stand. Thankfully, I'm joined in this task each M...

Yes, my vacation is over and it's as if I never took a week off at all. Ugh. I did tune out from the news and Dump's chaos while I was away, but there was still plenty of shit hitting the fan. Thankfully, today is Friday so Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net gets me pretty much caught up on what happened and is still happening. As usual, we cover a wide range of issues all revolving around th...