The PoliticsGirl Podcast

This year Supreme Court issued decisions on birthright citizenship, nationwide injunctions, religious freedom, transgender rights, gender affirming care, gun violence, and the executive branch’s apparent authority to do whatever it damn well pleases. These justices act like they’re all powerful but are they. Join me and Supreme Court expert Dahlia Lithwick as we discuss what comes next for court a...

America’s health is in danger. We’re not testing our food, water and drugs like we should. We’re limiting access to vaccines. We aren’t testing for covid or bird flu or any other communicable illness going around, and the people in charge of our health from the Administrator of the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid to the Surgeon General are on a spectrum from quack science to anti science. On top...

Historian and author, Rutger Bregman believes there’s an antidote to the sense of emptiness that so many people feel, and it’s the will to make the world a better place. To devote your career to the greater challenges of our time rather than just making money. That the time has come for a moral reawakening. That moral ambition not just financial ambition is what we need if we want to fix the world...

The foundations of our democracy are being torn apart and organizations like the ACLU are showing up every day to hold us together. As their president Deborah Archer says, this might be the work the ACLU was built for but we know they can’t be left to fight alone. We have been divided on purpose, but the time has come to come together. We can’t just have justice by geography, or gender, or sexual...

Over the weekend Donald Trump waged an unprovoked attack on Iran by bombing them then demanding peace. Understand where we are and what it means.  As always, if you find worth in what we do, please consider SUBSCRIBING to PoliticsGirl Premium. You’ll get this podcast ad free and it, and the rants delivered directly to your inbox so even if we’re shut out of social media, you’ll still get access to...

In a world that’s become deeply transactional, we need to get more relational. We need to have the difficult conversations about access to health care, abortion care, women’s rights, minority rights, human rights…because ultimately they’re all connected. Planned Parenthood, an organization used by 1/3 of American women and 1/10 American men is under direct attack by the Big Beautiful Bill and it h...

Those who seek to destroy democracy want us to feel overwhelmed, burnt out, hopeless and alone. Which is why we need each other for strength, camaraderie, and courage. As the Resistance on Andor say, “I have friends everywhere.” As we do too. Friends, fellow countrymen, and brave patriots who want what we do. A country that’s free, fair, just and stable, and leaders who will represent us and fight...

The budget bill in the Senate right now is a nightmare for the American People. Join me and Senator Elizabeth Warren as we discuss.

LGBTQ Americans live in a paradox. On one hand we have a growing population of LGBTQ Americans, a group whose rights are codified nationally with a supermajority of Americans supportive of life outside the heteronormative box, and yet we’re seeing a rising level of hate and extremism against that same community and anyone - be they individuals or corporations - who stand up as public allies. How c...

Combat veteran Kris Goldsmith reminds us when fascism grows it grows in our backyards. That if we want to tear this movement up from it’s roots, we need to do it together. As Kris says, with unity comes strength, and whether you learned that unity fighting side by side on a foreign battlefield or standing side by side in your hometown, we need to support each other as we step up and fight for our...

Today’s guest Joanna Johnson, internet sensation and brilliant teacher otherwise known as Unlearn16, reminds us that capitalism isn’t our natural state. We pretend this economic system failing us is out of our hands, but we’re the one’s who built it. It’s man made. We can change the game because we made the game, and it’s possible the fascism we’re seeing is simply the result of end stage capitali...

As today’s guest, Robert Reich, former US Secretary of Labor, wrote in his substack “Brace yourselves. The economy is heading into very bad weather.” That while prices and unemployment are going up. Everything else is going down. This is, of course, the polar opposite of what President Trump campaigned on, and exactly we, the president’s opposition said he would do. If anything good is going to em...

It’s ok to feel scared right now. To be angry and frustrated and not know what to do. It’s fine to have those feelings, but as Michigan Secretary of State, and leading candidate for Governor, Jocelyn Benson asks, what do we do next? How do we stand up for what’s right when the stakes are high? How do we change the world not let the world change us? We talk today about finding purpose in rage, in t...

This administration is unhinged - a government ignoring the constitution, defying the courts, literally disappearing people off the streets? Every day they seem more brazen, more illiberal, more unlawful, and yet, when we see the tide turning on people like Pete Hegseth or the hesitation to just blindly invoke the insurrection act, we see that public pressure still works. So, today, instead of tal...

Will the American president use the American military on the American people? The fact that’s even in question indicates how far down the road towards autocracy this country has gone. Does that mean we’re helpless? Is there nothing we can do? What about the military itself? Will it, or can it, do anything? Join me and Janessa Goldbeck, CEO of VetVoice Foundation, as we discuss where we are with th...

America appears to be in free fall and 30% of the country seems on board for a million decisions they didn’t vote for and will only hurt them? How is that possible? David Pakman joins us to talk about his new book, instant New York Times bestseller, The Echo Machine: How Right Wing Extremism Created a Post Truth America, which addresses how the fall of critical thinking and rise of reactionary pol...

We have this preconceived notion of who can, and should, be a leader. We need to throw that out the window. According to our guest, President and Co-founder of Run For Something, Amanda Litman, “Party recruitment is the most important thing we can be doing right now.” These are the people who will change the game. The candidates who will connect with the voters and set us on a brighter path. As Am...

The Trump administration is actively seeking to destroy everything we know, but we can’t allow it. We need to fight back. Do more than we’re doing now. This is a nation built on causing a ruckus. So, that’s what the good citizens of America must do. We must recommit to the principles of truth, justice and freedom and stand up and fight for them. Trump is waging a systemic war against facts, intell...

Current leadership isn’t just letting our military down, they’re setting them up. Cutting benefits, firing veterans, changing allies….Our soldiers might be, as Commander Jones says, “trained to absorb a lot” but they shouldn’t have to absorb this kind of disrespect. The American military are not there to make the president appear more manly, or be used as an enforcement brigade to deliver real est...

Expert in Soviet and Ukrainian history, Andrea Chalupa joins me and human rights activist and expert in Russia and disinformation Marcus Kolga, to discuss how important it is Canada not follow America down the path to authoritarianism laid by Russian influence and disinformation. Canadians need to understand they’re dealing with the same psychological warfare that was successful in America, and us...

If people are wondering where the pushback to the nightmare of the Trump administration is, it’s in the courts. In the absence of executive leadership, and with the abandonment of of legislative leadership, the judicial branch has gone from democracy’s last line of defense to it’s first. In fact, there are lawyers and activists working day and night to hold off the worst instincts of presidency. A...

Trump’s first cabinet meeting was basically run by Elon. Republicans voted for a budget that would cut Medicaid and SNAP to ensure billionaires get even more money. Republican representatives are choosing to forego town halls after realizing they can’t answer for their party’s actions. Trump put out the disgusting Trump Gaza video and showed the world America is now Russia’s ally in the Oval Offic...

America is a hot mess, but you wouldn’t know it listening to legacy media. Which is why our guest, Michael Steele, former RNC Chair and co-host of MSNBC’s The Weekend, was such a breath of fresh air when he let loose saying people need to start giving a damn and wake the hell up. It’s time we accept that our county is under attack, so we can start doing something about it. Join us to discuss the c...

On the campaign trail for DNC chair Ken Martin said the Democrats need a work horse not a show pony and, now that he has the job, he’s being clear the ultimate goal is to win - to beat back this horrible, far right extremist Republican Party so the party can start making real change from a place of power. Join us as we discuss how he plans to do that. The mainstream media is a joke. Our country’s...

Stripping women of their rights has never been about one specific issue. It’s always been about control, and how you exercise control over women. But this war on women won’t just stop with us. Project 2025, which is being implemented line by line is about remaking society so it aligns better with one specific set of far right, nationalistic, religious values. The target is moving one, and these ac...