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I mentioned in an earlier post how I got hooked on podcasts during the pandemic. Perhaps we should all be paying attention to podcasts these days. According to this article, Top Political Podcasts You Need to Listen to in 2025,
Headlines were made when Joe Rogan interviewed with Donald Trump, reshaping the election itself. Trump reached millions of listeners, bypassing traditional media and energizing his base like never before. The episode sparked debates, dominated social media, and cemented the power of podcasts as a political force–with 26 million listeners tuning in. Many believe the Joe Rogan Experience was pivotal to Trump’s win.
Meanwhile, Kamala Harris used podcasts for down-to-earth discussions, appearing on multiple podcasts to engage in deeper, policy-driven conversations. Both used the podcast medium to connect, engage, and make their voices heard (literally) like never before.
The surge in political podcasting wasn’t just anecdotal – Triton Digital collaborated with Signal Hill Insights to examine the impact on political podcasts, revealing a 28% year-over-year download increase, with consistent growth over the past six months.
I often listen to podcasts while doing household chores. I walk Monty several times a day - great time to listen to a podcast. Also, I live at 5-10 minutes from town, so while driving around I listen in the car.
The challenge, of course, is we listen to the podcasts we want to hear. I suppose if I really wanted to hear what MAGA thinks, I should be watching FauxNews or following MAGA personalities. That said, I have zero interest in listening to Candance Owen’s Candance, Steve Bannon’s Bannon’s War Room or The Joe Rogan Experience. Since actions speak louder than words, sadly we’re all seeing with acute clarity, what they’re talking about in their podcasts.
“I wonder if the rise of podcasting is due in large part to people not wanting to listen to their own thoughts.”
~ Sahil Lavingia
I do have my own thoughts, but I have to admit many of my opinions and beliefs are being shaped by what I am hearing on some podcasts. I keep learning so many interesting things and hearing differing opinions, that I find myself constantly rethinking and reevaluating in this time of tremendous change.
Here are some of my favorite podcasts:
Hacks on Tap
This particular episode with Rahm Emmanuel is fantastic. Highly recommend.
To the Contrary with Charlie Sykes
I sometimes post his YouTube video version. I make a point of always listening to his conversations with Tom Nichols.
The Bulwark Podcasts
The Bulwark has a number of podcasts — take your pick. Tim Miller’s is very popular, but I enjoy Sarah Longwell and George Conway. Mona Charin always has pretty literate discussions. They’re all good. Check them out: The Bulwark Podcasts
Non-Political
Against the Rules
I love this podcast — Michael Lewis is such a great storyteller and I learn so much by listening to this one. Season 5 has been about gambling, which has been enlightening to say the least. Season 4 was called Judging Sam and highlighted his book about Sam Bankman-Fried. I learned something about crypto-currency in the process.
Rethinking
If you’ve been reading my posts, you know how much I love Adam Grant and his work. While the podcast is usually non-political, this particular episode with Sharon McMahon was excellent.
Revisionist History
This is such a fabulous podcast. The description is “Revisionist History is Malcolm Gladwell’s journey through the overlooked and the misunderstood. Every episode re-examines something from the past — an event, a person, an idea, even a song — and asks whether we got it right the first time. Because sometimes the past deserves a second chance.” There have been several that have really made me rethink a lot things about history. One that I think is particularly worth listening to is: Miss Buchanan’s Period of Adjustment
Kelly Corrigan Wonders
When you subscribe to Kelly Corrigan Wonders, her feed also includes Thanks for Being Here and For the Good of the Order, which are also worthy. I just really enjoy listening to this podcast.
There are literally millions of registered podcasts and I randomly tune into maybe 30 different ones. It’s only with long road trips, that I am able to clear the queue, so I miss listening to a lot of the episodes and skip through things that are unappealing.
Do you have favorite podcasts? Let me know and I’ll add to my playlist.
Thought for the day in honor of his birthday…
“The principle of neutrality pretends that a nation can best gain safety for itself by being indifferent to the fate of others. This has increasingly become an obsolete conception, and, except under very exceptional circumstances, it is an immoral and shortsighted conception. The free world today is stronger and peace is more secure because so many free nations courageously recognize the now-demonstrated fact that their own peace and safety would be endangered by assault on freedom elsewhere.” ~John Foster Dulles
What I read every day…
Must Read Article:
Even those who expected the worst from his reelection expected more rationality. Today, it is clear that what has happened since January 20 is not just a change of administration but a change of regime—a change, that is, in our system of government. But a change to what? …. Trump is installing what scholars call patrimonialism… Patrimonialism is less a form of government than a style of governing…Based on individual loyalty and connections, and on rewarding friends and punishing enemies (real or perceived), it can be found not just in states but also among tribes, street gangs, and criminal organizations…
Patrimonialism suffers from two inherent and in many cases fatal shortcomings. The first is incompetence… Patrimonial regimes are “simply awful at managing any complex problem of modern governance,” they write. “At best they supply poorly functioning institutions, and at worst they actively prey on the economy.” Already, the administration seems bent on debilitating as much of the government as it can. Some examples of incompetence, such as the reported firing of staffers who safeguard nuclear weapons and prevent bird flu, would be laughable if they were not so alarming… Patrimonialism is corrupt by definition, because its reason for being is to exploit the state for gain—political, personal, and financial. At every turn, it is at war with the rules and institutions that impede rigging, robbing, and gutting the state.
Do the Democrats need a positive message of their own? Sure, they should do that work. But right now, when they are out of power and Trump is the capo di tutti capi, the history of patrimonial rule suggests that their most effective approach will be hammering home the message that he is corrupt. One thing is certain: He will give them plenty to work with.
Quote of the day:
“Traditionally, the deputy FBI director has been a career FBI agent. That is particularly important when the director has no experience at the FBI. Donald Trump tonight announced he is appointing as deputy director Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent and prolific conspiracy theorist. He has never spent a day working at the FBI, but he has spent many hours spouting baseless falsehoods about the bureau, such as that the FBI lied when they said they don’t have a suspect in the pipe bombs as outside the RNC and DNC on 1/15/21. Current and former FBI officials are appalled—and extremely concerned for the national security of the country.”
~ Ken Dilanian
What I’m reading today…
The Real Goal of the Trump Economy The president isn’t trying to engineer prosperity for Americans. He’s seeking power for himself.
“The president’s public communion with the business titans who have submitted to him has been analyzed as a signal of his authoritarianism and his alliance with the rich. But it also reveals another emerging aspect of Trumpism: his rejection of the capitalist principles that ultimately generate prosperity...He believes, like Putin, in political control of the economy’s commanding heights—success for those executives and companies who please him, failure for those who don’t. And he seems to be seeking that control more actively than he did in 2016…Putting the screws to media owners in particular, especially early on, seems to follow the same playbook that Putin and other strongmen have used to consolidate their power. So does finding opportunities for personal enrichment along the way. (Putin, a lifelong public servant, has become one of the world’s wealthiest men.) Filing weak or groundless lawsuits and expecting his targets to settle for fear of government retribution appears to be a perfectly legal way for Trump to collect baksheesh.
Shortly after noon Sunday, organizers of the Principles First Summit received an email threatening several of its high-profile speakers and claiming to have planted pipe bombs on site. The threat was later deemed unfounded. But organizers and law enforcement took it seriously, especially because it came after pardoned seditionist Enrique Tarrio showed up at the event to harass some of the police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6. Anti-Trump summit in DC evacuates after receiving ‘credible bomb threat’
Putin can't win unless we let him
Three years into this war, the stakes are the same as they were on the night it began. Putin, who yesterday launched one of the largest attacks of the entire war, still seeks to destroy Ukraine’s sovereignty, civil society, democracy, and freedom. He still wants to show the world that the era of American power is over, that America will not defend allies in Europe, Asia, or anywhere else. He still wants to nullify the rules and laws that kept Europe peaceful for eight decades, to create instability and fear, not only in the countries that border Russia but across the continent and even around the world. The war will only end, truly end, when Putin gives up these goals. Putin’s Three Years of Humiliation
How Elon Musk’s deep ties to – and admiration for – China could complicate Trump’s Beijing policy
But on one topic, Musk stands somewhat apart from others in the coterie of aides and advisers around Trump: China. In contrast to the many hawks in the new Trump cabinet who call for a hard-line approach on China, Musk is a striking outlier… his long history of espousing pro-Chinese sentiment is not surprising, given that he has sought throughout to get a business hold in the country.
Preparing Trump’s Military Purge: What MAGA Did Not Want the U.S. Naval Academy to Hear
There is no doubt that Trump intends to politicize the military and make loyalty to his person the overriding ideal. He has spoken about possibly using the military against civilians, has amplified social media posts suggesting a civilian be subjected to a military tribunal (former Republican politician Liz Cheney, to punish her for her leadership of the House Jan. 6 committee), and has suggested that former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley deserved to be executed. This where the dismissals of the JAGs come in.
The image, posted to the president’s Truth Social account, contains an edited screenshot from an episode of the popular children’s cartoon…The email appears to have been sent at the behest of Musk, an adviser to Trump who leads the federal spending task force DOGE, which threatened federal workers who fail to reply with termination.
“In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.” ~ Kamala Harris
As federal staffing cuts loom for HUD, $1.4 billion in funding for WNC could be delayed
The Trump administration had already planned on making significant staffing cuts to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which administers federal aid for housing and community development, including funding for disaster recovery projects. But a reported 84% staffing cut within the agency’s office of community planning and development would drastically reduce the department's workforce, which could delay delivery of disaster recovery funds set aside for the region.
NC Sen. Thom Tillis capitulated to pressure from Trump to vote for Pete Hegseth
Trump kept Tillis in his pocket, as he has most of the other 53 Republican senators and the entire Republican majority in the House…For Tillis and many others, nothing seems to matter as much as keeping themselves in office. Here’s how he rationalized it in a response to one of my emails: “The American people delivered a clear message that they want the country to move in a new direction by electing Donald Trump as president.”
Obviously, a form letter since I got the same sentence in my letter.
The message is actually far from clear, as Trump fell short of 50% of the vote. And it’s doubtful that most of those voters really approve of how Trump is decimating the federal work force; cutting off vital aid to domestic and foreign charities; claiming the right for the U.S. to own Gaza and expel its more than 2 million residents; demanding Greenland; insulting our good neighbor Canada by saying it should become our 51st state; breaking his inflation pledge by imposing tariffs willy-nilly; and much more. His daily outrages are flooding the zone, to use a sports analogy, with nothing but cowardly compliance from the Congress.
