What A Day

The California Attorney General sued Exxon Mobil this week for misleading the public on the sustainability of single use plastics. How did plastics recycling go from an exciting promise to a scam perpetuated by Big Oil? Max and Erin tear into Exxon’s decades-long campaign to unwrap the truth—with help from journalist Oliver Franklin-Wallis and the AG himself, Rob Bonta. Why is it so hard to recycl...

Federal officials on Thursday unsealed an inducement charging New York City Mayor Eric Adams with a litany of corruption and illegal campaign finance crimes, making him the city's first sitting mayor to charged with a crime. But in good news, New York's WNBA team has made it to the league’s semifinals! While 2024 has been a banner year for the WNBA, players have also had to deal with a torrent of...

Vice President Kamala Harris laid out what she called her “pragmatic” approach to growing the economy during a speech in Pittsburgh Wednesday. While Harris has been closing the gap with former President Donald Trump, when it comes to which candidate voters trust more to handle the economy, most polls show he still has the edge on one of the top issues in the race. But it’s not like Trump has parti...

In his final address to the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday, President Joe Biden reflected on his foreign policy legacy and called on world leaders to “end this war” in Gaza. But privately, senior administration officials have reportedly acknowledged that Biden's time is running out to reach a deal for a ceasefire and the return of the remaining hostages to Israel before he leaves office. The prospe...

Let’s talk about polling! A bunch of new polls have us feeling a whole lot of feelings right now. 'Pod Save America' co-host Jon Lovett joins us for a vibe check on the state of the presidential race, and shares what he thinks we should all take away from the latest polls. Later in the show, New York magazine reporter Kevin Dugan explains former President Donald Trump's latest foray into the world...

A slew of new polls shows Vice President Kamala Harris with a slim lead over former President Trump in the must-win swing state of Pennsylvania. With just about a month until Election Day, both presidential running mates spent the weekend campaigning in the state to shore up support for their respective tickets. One person who definitely knows how to connect with voters in Pennsylvania, though, is...

Kamala has offered very few details on her climate and energy plans while openly promoting American fossil fuel production. Yet a lot of climate and environmental groups seem to adore her. What’s going on here?! Max and Erin explain how, even though Harris might sound pretty moderate on the campaign trail, Biden has actually tilted the energy economy so heavily that she’s set up for success. What’...

In a bombshell story Thursday, CNN reported that the Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina, Mark Robinson, made crazy statements on a porn website’s messaging board more than a decade ago. Robinson, who’s also the state’s sitting lieutenant governor, reportedly referred to himself as “a black NAZI” and a “perv.” He wrote about wanting to reinstate slavery, and he admitted to enjoying...

In the week since the presidential debate, former President Donald Trump’s lies about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, have sown chaos in the small city. Members of the Proud Boys, a right-wing extremist group, started showing up. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said more than 30 fake bomb threats have been called in, forcing schools, government buildings and stores to close temporarily. Dr. R...

Questions continue to mount around the Secret Service two days after a second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. On Monday, the interim director of the service admitted that agents did not search the perimeter of Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course, where the alleged gunman waited for 12 hours before he was spotted. Former Secret Service agent Michael Matranga talks about the...

Voters in more than 30 states will get to weigh in on elections for their state supreme courts this November, with 82 seats up for grabs. While state judicial races often get overshadowed in a presidential election year, the outcomes of these races have massive consequences on people's lives. It's often state supreme courts that get the final say on local abortion restrictions, redistricting and g...

We're officially fewer than 50 days out from Election Day. While most of the attention has been on the five states that decided the 2020 race for President Joe Biden – Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, and Arizona — there's another state that went for former President Donald Trump that Democrats are putting back in play this year: North Carolina. Trump won the state by a little more than...

2024 is on track to be the biggest year for public stadium subsidies we’ve ever seen. Billionaire team owners keep asking for—and receiving—more exorbitant arenas and upgrades from local governments. But who’s footing the bill? The taxpayers! Even though most economists say the returns from these facilities never live up to the hype, city officials continue to court teams and kowtow to their deman...

Thursday night kicked off the start of week two of the NFL season. And after years of ceding the proverbial playing field to Republicans, Democrats are trying to take back football! Drew Magary, columnist for Defector and SF Gate, explains how adopting the language of football became a winning strategy for Dems heading into November.   And in headlines: Former President Donald Trump insisted he wo...

It’s been about a week since federal agents seized the phones of New York Police Commissioner Edward Caban and other top NYPD officials. Caban is one of a few top deputies in Mayor Eric Adams’ administration who are currently under investigation by federal authorities, though details are so far scant. But it’s yet another potential stain on the oldest, largest, and arguably most scandal-prone poli...

On Tuesday night, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump faced off in their first and currently only scheduled presidential debate. The candidates went back and forth on the biggest issues in the election, including reproductive rights, the economy, immigration, and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. But while VP Harris largely stayed on message, Trump often descended into consp...

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are set to square off tonight in their first — and so far only — scheduled debate before the election. The stakes are immense, especially for Harris, who entered the race less than two months ago. Many voters still say they need to know more about her before they cast their ballots. Errin Haines, editor-at-large for The 19th, explains...

Arizona is one of 10 states where voters will get to weigh in directly on abortion access in November in the form of a ballot measure that would enshrine the right to the procedure in the state's constitution. On today's show, we're welcoming our new host of 'What A Day," Jane Coaston. Jane tells us more about her recent trip to Arizona with the 'Pod Save America' guys and speaks with Chris Love,...

Brazil’s power struggle with Elon Musk over censorship on X (formerly Twitter) escalated this week, with the country’s Supreme Court upholding a ban on the platform. 40 million Brazilians lost access to the site, which had come under fire for allowing election deniers to incite an insurrection—sound familiar? Erin and Max take a look at other countries that have enacted similar social media bans,...

Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign kicked off a weeks-long reproductive freedom bus tour this week, with a 50-stop route that runs through some of the biggest swing states in the upcoming election. It's an issue that plays to Harris' strengths — and former President Donald Trump's biggest weaknesses. While Trump loves to take credit for appointing the Supreme Court justices that ultimately he...

Georgia police on Wednesday said four people were killed, and nine others were taken to the hospital with injuries after a shooting at Apalachee High School outside of Atlanta. Police identified the alleged shooter as a 14-year-old student at the school. Natalie Fall, the executive director of March For Our Lives, talks about how gun safety advocates are responding to the latest school tragedy. A...

A new poll from ABC News/Ipsos adds more evidence to reports of a growing gender divide among voters heading into the November election. It shows Vice President Kamala Harris has a 13-point advantage among women voters, while former President Donald Trump is leading by 5 points with men. The poll also showed white women have made one of the biggest political shifts in the last few weeks, with Trum...

Israel spent the last few days engulfed in mass protests and paralyzed by a national strike after the bodies of six hostages, including an American Israeli, were recovered from a tunnel in southern Gaza this weekend. But despite national outcry for a ceasefire, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemed to double down on his terms for a deal with Hamas during a press conference Monday night. While t...

2024 is on track to be the hottest year on record, beating out the current #1…2023. In a world where extreme heat is becoming the norm and more and more people are living in cities, are urban areas literally and figuratively cooked? To get a sense of the unique climate threats facing cities and what mayors are doing about it, Max and Erin take a closer look at Boston, Phoenix, and Hoboken. Can soa...

As we've been covering on the show for a while now, Republican-led states across the country are attacking trans communities by banning or attempting to ban everything from life-saving healthcare to sports participation for school-aged youth. In South Carolina Thursday, a trans man, families of trans youth, and the ACLU sued the state to overturn a ban on gender-affirming healthcare signed by Repu...