The Secret Podcast

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com There’s a little bit of everything in this one: joy, exhaustion, some well-earned gloating, a few wild theories, and even a few tears. And that’s what makes the Secret Podcast special. Join Bulwark+ while our 20% off flash sale lasts for more of these unfiltered conversations with Sarah and JVL. Sarah and JVL are stil...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Sarah and JVL are ready for midterms. * Early voting numbers and the possibility of a Republican turnout collapse. * Why gas prices might be Trump’s biggest problem. * JD Vance getting the “pugnacious” treatment from the New York Times. * Peggy Noonan’s MAGA redemption fantasy. * Haley Stevens’ jaw-dropping weekend. I...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com This is it: The last Friday Secret before the elections. * JVL has complaints! * Sarah has solutions! * Are the polls right or wrong? * Will Sarah ever read the Triad? And at the very end, we have the surprise you’ve been waiting for . . . The Secret Podcast with JVL and Sarah is exclusively for members of Bulwark+. R...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Sarah and JVL talk: * Elon dropping another $76m on the election * Fake pollsters * Trump grifters getting cut loose by Big Orange But the big story is Vivek Ramaswamy working with a woman who aided and abetted a pedophile-rapist. You know the ad we’re talking about. Sarah did a focus group with Ohio Trump voters. The...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Sarah and JVL talk about: * The Media obsessing over the wrong problem with Katie Zacharias. * The Alina Habba - Ric Grenell cage match. * Kimberly Guilfoyle’s stylist Ruby Rhod Fancy James. * Another big inflation jump. And that’s before they get into Senate polling numbers looking really bad for Republicans. You wan...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Elon Musk threatened to destroy Trump’s Republican allies. Now he’s spending hundreds of millions to keep them in power. Sarah Longwell and JVL discuss Musk’s humiliating surrender, the billionaires lining up behind Trump, the MAGA smear campaign against James Talarico, and why Trump’s desperate deal with Putin repres...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Sarah and JVL break down Jon Ossoff’s Terminator-style destruction of Mike Collins. Seriously: It was so brutal that someone should have stopped the debate. Then it’s off to: * The Eric Deters interview on Bulwark Takes that broke our brains. * Pete Hegseth tugging it at the prospect of a livestreamed execution. * The...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Sarah and JVL are back apart, as God intended. And there’s lots happening: * The new jobs report is bad! * Should Democrats try to impeach Pete Hegseth? * Trump is sending a third aircraft carrier to the Middle East. * And then there are the two interviews. JD Vance seems to be living in one world while mush-brain Don...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com JVL is already in Ohio. Sarah is about to run to the airport. It’s a wheels-off kind of show. This week: * The government seems to have lied to a court again. * JD Vance was the leaker who threatened national security. * Mary Peltola gets caught in context collapse. * Trump had compromat on Susan Collins. * JVL feels...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Sarah and JVL are together again and JVL is raging. * The president of the United States accused the Democratic party plotting to assassinate him and . . . everyone just pretends it didn’t happen. * Diesel prices are going to the moon. * Trump wants to demolish the Kennedy Center. * Joe Manchin came back from the grav...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Bill Kristol sat in for Sarah today and JVL wore a little treat for everyone to mark the occasion. In case you’re not watching the video, the surprise is here . It’s amazing and you’re going to want one. After that unveiling, JVL and Bill talked about JD Vance’s speech, Iran’s devastating attacks on a Saudi pipeline a...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com It’s almost Book Week! How to Eat an Elephant drops on Tuesday and the Best Friends really want to get it to #1 on the NYT best seller list. To do that, we have to unseat . . . a biography of Clarence Thomas by Ted Effing Cruz. Don’t let Teddy Cancun and High Life Clarence win. Order a copy of Sarah’s book now. (If yo...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com JVL is out this week, so Tim and Sarah discuss Mark Cuban’s comments that he could run for president as a Republican (and why Tim isn’t buying it), and Sarah’s conversation with the New York Times discussing her book, and what Democratic voters REALLY want right now. They also discuss the race Rob Sand is running for...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Sarah and JVL did a BIG show today. Sample awesome: * Sen. Darlene Graham says that voters in South Carolina don’t care about Taiwan—they care about boys playing girls sports. * Spoiler: There are exactly zero (0) boys in South Carolina playing girls sports. * Top CIA analyst Julia Curlee served Trump, Biden, and then...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Lots of stuff this week. (1) There are still balcony seats left for the Best Friends Show in NYC on September 8. Come sell out the 92nd Street Y with us! You can get tickets here. If we sell this show out, JVL will do something nuts. (2) Sarah, Tim, Sam and I are coming to South Carolina, North Carolina, and Atlanta i...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com JVL and Tim did a GIANT show this week. * Uncanny Callista Gingrich. * Thom Tillis publishes his burn book. * Tucker’s running for president. * Burrito discourse. * And more! Seriously: Instant classic. This one goes in the vault. Read JVL’s Triad newsletter: https://www.thebulwark.com/s/thetriad The Secret Podcast wi...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Sarah and JVL have a super-sized, instant classic: * The Trump administration is using ChatGPT for everything. * Why are Cornyn and Tillis even bothering with their fake protest of Todd Blanche? * The Dem Senate map is looking . . . possible? * Trump has raised $800 million from “donors” since coming back to office. *...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Big show today: It’s the dawn of Streamer JVL? Plus: Some questions for Tom Homan about shooting January 6 insurrectionists; Haley Stevens and authenticity; and the Mitch McConnell conspiracy theory. Also, a conversation about raising good men. But the big topic is the Department of Defense suddenly removing the names...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Sarah Longwell and Sam Stein (filling in for JVL) discuss Trump’s tedious (and still scary!) election speech, the documents that undercut his election claims, JD Vance’s cringe appearance on Joe Rogan, Trump voters’ brutal reactions to Vance, and Democrats’ missed opportunities at the Todd Blanche hearing. Finally: Th...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Sarah and JVL are back together, looking at Trump’s NATO disgrace, wondering if Mitch McConnell is really talking to people on the phone about detailed policy questions, and analyzing the factional fight in the Democratic party between the people trying to elect Democrats and the insurgents focused on displacing the e...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Sarah Longwell and Bill Kristol (filling in for JVL) take on America’s 250th birthday under Trump—and how far the GOP has fallen from Reagan’s “you can become an American” to 2,000 ICE arrests a day. They break down the right-wing meltdown over the birthright citizenship ruling, Megyn Kelly’s race to the bottom, why t...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com It’s a special show this week where JVL gives Sarah a series of impossible choices. Will she choose institutionalism, or Secretary Mayor Pete? Will she endorse the political analysis of [REDACTED] ? What will she do when Cletus says that he doesn’t like democracy and wants minority rule? Come find out! Also: There are...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com The Iran war deal is falling apart (already). Israel is turning on Trump. And the two most insipid trad-Cath poasters in America are podcasting together again. Plus: JVL (finally) explains his disdain for the NYT’s DEI Trump apologist. Hit the like button ❤️ and come to the comments so JVL doesn’t get all needy. show...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com A super-sized Secret this week: * Sarah and JVL are coming to the legendary 92nd Street Y in New York on September 8. Come and hang out with them in JVL’s back yard! It’s possible he’ll have the championship belt! (Tickets on sale here.) * JVL actually thinks the Iran deal might be real this time. He’s got a theory. *...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Sarah and Sam take on the Graham Platner mess. Plus: is Susan Collins a fraud? The GOP's slush fund cave explained. And Sarah's past as a Republican operative gets dug up—and she's ready for it. The Secret Podcast with JVL and Sarah is exclusively for members of Bulwark+. To watch or listen to future episodes and join...