Too Close To Call Podcast

With just over three weeks from Election Day 2024, Too Close To Call will be entering the sprint with a busier posting schedule, offering razor-sharp analysis and prescient reporting on the key questions and data that will determine the HarrisVTrump contest. And as always, probing the conventional wisdom. Tonight’s video post — which raises the question of whether Arizona and it’s 11 electoral vot...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davidcatanese.substack.com The opening month of the year was awful for the journalism industry. The 2024 presidential campaign — media’s quadrennial premiere event — also kicked off with a whimper. Dave talks about how the twin slumps are intrinsically linked and what declining public interest in both means for the political mediasphere...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davidcatanese.substack.com I began formulating this #Rant with the premise that Nikki Haley would very likely beat Joe Biden in a 2024 general election match-up. But then I thought through all four quarters of what 2024 will look like if Haley — or any Republican — was able to upend Trump in the primary. Fair and square. And that scenar...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davidcatanese.substack.com Just because an interview is conducted, there’s no obligation to ever run it. Just because off-the-record groundrules are requested, there’s no requirement to agree to them. In this latest #Rant, Dave talks about recent tussles with political flacks from Capitol Hill to the campaign trail — and offers predicti...

Ron DeSantis dismissed Republican rivals Nikki Haley and Mike Pence on Monday as candidates who won’t be able to win the persuadable pool of GOP presidential primary voters necessary to defeat Donald Trump , according to audio obtained by McClatchyDC and published, in part, above on #TooCloseToCall. Speaking to about 30 members of the Virgin Islands GOP committee virtually, DeSantis said his campa...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davidcatanese.substack.com Do you tip before or after tax? If there’s a 7% service fee tagged onto your bill, how much are you tipping? Where did all the servers go? And where can I get the best plate of rigatoni in Washington, D.C. Washingtonian Magazine’s Jessica Sidman joins the podcast to answer these questions and more in the incre...

Rep. Seth Moulton, a Democrat from Massachusetts and a combat veteran, has established a uncompromisingly hawkish position regarding U.S. aid to Ukraine’s war with Russia. “We have every moral obligation in the world to stand with Ukrainians — no matter how long it takes,” Moulton tells me in the latest #TooCloseToCall podcast. In addition to Ukraine Q&A, Dave dives into the possibility of a gover...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davidcatanese.substack.com Dave lays out the three most likely scenarios to play out regarding Mitch McConnell’s deteriorating health, based on reporting he conducted this week for McClatchyDC. He also breaks down the top contenders to succeed McConnell in Kentucky if Republican Daniel Cameron wins this November’s governor’s race — or n...

The body language. The smirking. The rapid-fire quips. Vivek Ramaswamy was certainly the story of Wednesday night’s Republican presidential primary debate … but did his hyper-aggressive posture do him more harm than good in the long-run? Or was his fiery approach just what the GOP base is looking for in 2024? Aaron Kall, the director of debate at the University of Michigan, who was on the ground i...

Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign has tried to cling to the impression that the fight for the Republican nomination remains a two-man race. But with his campaign shirking in size and strength and falling further behind front-runner Donald Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy is moving expeditiously to stamp out that impression for good. The 37-year-old biotech investor is beginning to make an argument similar...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davidcatanese.substack.com This week’s #pod pokes behind the curtain on how my 6-week dive into Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign got made. The 2,400-word story published Tuesday in McClatchyDC markets after a long, slow negotiation with the DeSantis campaign and featured character, campaign manager Generra Peck , a push-and-pull with...

For now, Twitter remains the central town square for noxious political debate, but Instagram (and increasingly Threads!) is where cultural disputes are being hashed out. Hence, a few weeks ago when the @washingtonianprobs account weighed into the eternal silly argument pitting life in New York City against Washington, D.C. In this #TooCloseToCall #rant, Dave jumps out of the wine-soaked comment se...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davidcatanese.substack.com Marianne Williamson is a candidate for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination. In this #TooCloseToCall podcast, we take up psychedelics, rumblings of a debate with Robert Kennedy Jr., whether she thinks Vice President Kamala Harris is up to the job and who she’d rather run against, Donald Trump or Ron DeS...

Austin Nasso is a 28-year-old comedian and social media influencer who began incorporating Ron DeSantis into his sketch repertoire at the behest of The Howard Stern Show. He describes his caricature of DeSantis as “elongated and nasally” as he integrates him into a routine that already includes Donald Trump and Joe Biden. What’s his process for learning a new character? Who is the hardest pol to d...

Adding a certain word to a request can make people 50% more likely to say “yes.” Certain words predict if a relationship is on the rocks or the race of a suspect in an alleged crime. “Language reveals a lot — even if people don’t intend it to.” Level up your #TCTC subscription. That’s the mantra of Jonah Berger, a marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and auth...

Bo Seo, a two-time world debate champion, couldn’t bring himself to analyze a 2016 presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton . He rendered it more a spectacle than an exchange of ideas. In this #TooCloseToCall pod, I ask him about that experience, how he thinks American political debates should change and the four core questions everyone can use to evaluate the merits of an argu...

On this free edition of The #Rant, Dave broadcasts from his new digs in a new Washington, D.C. neighborhood, reflecting on how moving has made him think about consumption and the potency of crime as a real-life issue. Listen ABOVE, or enjoy on Spotify or Apple Podcasts and toss some stars to your liking. Then consider going #paid or donating to the #TooCloseToCall cause. This is a public episode....

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davidcatanese.substack.com Dave rants on the Ron DeSantis 2024 rollout, why successful presidential launches are rarely helpful in evaluating a campaign’s long-term mettle, what will matter most for the Florida governor over the next week and the key factors that will determine whether he can overtake Donald Trump. Listen ABOVE, or enjo...

Rep. Mark Pocan, progressive Democrat representing Madison, Wisconsin, joins the podcast to discuss why an Addams Family-styled Congress is thwarting the chances at any major legislation, the debate over banning TikTok, Trump vs. Biden Round 2 and what happened to Wisconsin Democrats in the 2022 U.S. Senate race. Listen ABOVE, or enjoy on Spotify or Apple Podcasts . This is a public episode. If yo...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davidcatanese.substack.com In a special consumer edition of #TheRant on #TCTC, Dave takes a tour through his less desirable experiences with D.C. restaurants and how he’s learned to leverage the power of the Google Review. Upgrade to hear the full #rant > Plus: A revelation that #Rants are more popular with listeners than interview podc...

Oliver Heldens is an Netherlands-born electronic music producer known for toggling between the House and Techno music genres, frequently performing as his alter-ego HI-LO, in which he displays a darker more underground European sound. In this #TooCloseToCall pod, Heldens and I discuss the laborious process of song-making and why one jam took more than six long years to be finalized, the burdens of...

“People try to compare me to Kari Lake” Democratic Rep. Eric Sorensen’s political launching pad sat in local television news in northwest Illinois, where he furnished weather forecasts and tracked storms. In November, he secured a seat in Congress by a 4-point margin in a district that feels more Iowa than Chicago. The freshman Sorensen is already on the target list for Republicans in 2024. But he...

Instead of a pol for this week’s pod, I present a party promoter, with international cred. It’s #MiamiMusicWeek and I’m traversing the 305 to cover all the festivities for The Miami Herald and of course, #TooCloseToCall. You can read my preview of the six days of electronic dance music nirvana HERE. On this breezy, fizzy 15-minute free #pod, Juan Arnau , founder and CEO of ElRow, talks through how...

With Miami Music Week upon us (running March 21-26) , EDMTunes president Scott Lombardo joins #TooCloseToCall to provide his picks for shows outside of Ultra, the mega electronic music festival that anchors the week in Bayfront Park. Lombardo explains why the Afterlife event next Wednesday night could dominate the week. He delves into the shift in sound at this marquee music affair and recommends...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davidcatanese.substack.com Dave #rants for paid subscribers on his latest ghoulish assignment of combing through a politician’s long history to prepare an obituary, the delicate politics of age and frailty and why he (tries) to keep his phone outside of his bedroom on odd days of the week. #Share and #Subscribe Press play above or throw...