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This is an I Heart Podcast. Guaranteed Human if audiobooks are your thing or you've been meaning to listen to more of them, you should check out a podcast called earsay, the Audible and I Heart Audiobook Club, hosted by Cal Penn.
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Each episode spotlights standout audiobooks on Audible across all kinds of genres Sci fi, comedy, romance, thrillers and more. With Cal talking to guests who help break down what makes each story worth listening to.
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It's a fun, easy way to discover your next great, great audiobook.
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Check out Earsay on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the Enhanced Games. Some call it grotesque, others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast Superhuman documented it all embedded in the Games and with the athletes for a full year.
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Within probably 10 days, I'd put on £10. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.
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Listen to Superhuman on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Before we had ATT Business Wireless coverage, our delivery GPS wasn't the most reliable. Once our driver had to do a 14 point turn to get back on route. A 14 point turn. An influencer even livestream the whole thing. Not good for business. Now with AT and T Business Wireless, routes are updating on the fly and deliveries are on time. And the influencer did get us 53 new followers though AT and T Business
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Wireless Connecting changes everything. Hey there folks. It is Saturday, May 2nd and it was one of our favorite field good stories of the year last year and this morning. It feels like crap because a man who against all odds was exonerated after being convicted of murder got out of prison and won an election. And he's supposed to take office on Monday, but the governor just eliminated the position altogether with that welcome to this episode of Amy and tj. I said it was a story. We felt good about. Robes. This was one you were over the moon about. Mr. Calvin Duncan in New Orleans.
A
I have chills in you. Just say his name. Calvin Duncan. And when you see his smiling face when he victoriously and overwhelmingly won the office of Court Clerk for New Orleans and against all odds, the joy in his face. After all this man has overcome being wrongfully convicted of murder, spent 28 years behind bars, got out, put himself through law school, got his law degree at 60. He's there to serve and to give back. Because he's been pointing out that the legal system, the judicial system specifically there in Louisiana and in New Orleans, has been unfair to black and brown people incarcerated. They haven't had access to their court records, to their court documents. What he fought so hard to get so that he could free himself. Now he was gonna be the man in charge, overseeing that whole operation to set it right.
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Kind of an awesome story.
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It was beautiful. Full circle. Now he's going to lead the. The organization that he had such a hard time accessing to free himself to now make it better for other inmates and for other wrongfully accused folks.
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You cannot think of anybody more perfectly qualified to do the role that he was about to do. And the role of clerk is not one that gets a lot of attention. But Robes, his. Got attention, yes, because of what you just mentioned, because of his background. Because of his background, Robes, he wasn't supposed to have a chance to win. And the reason he ended up winning, Robes, is because they tried to throw something in his face that backfired. In particular, in New Orleans, he had been exonerated. His opponent during the race tried to make a big deal about. Well, you weren't really exonerated. And that's when New Orleans started paying attention.
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Correct. Because the incumbent was pointing to the fact that Duncan and had agreed to a guilty plea for a lesser charge, which made sure that he could be released from prison. He did that to get out of prison. But once he got out of prison, he then set out on a journey to fully exonerate himself. And that is what he did. He had to plead guilty to get out. When he got out, he got that thrown out because a judge found him factually innocent. He is listed on the national registry of exonerations. And that is an independent organization that is maintained by scholars. So he has been exonerated. So for the comment to try and act as though he really did do something, people did not like that. Voters rallied around him.
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They didn't like it because they are voters in New Orleans, which is notorious for this stuff. Sorry, love y' all in New Orleans, but you all know better than anybody, it has one of the highest rates of wrongful convictions in the country, period. So they. This incumbent starts attacking this guy in that community where there are plenty of people, if not the criminal themselves or the alleged criminal, they had family members that. Everybody has been touched in New Orleans by a wrongful convict conviction or being screwed over by the man or by police. And so when they attacked him for this, his popularity shot through the roof. And here he comes.
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I love it. Yeah. The incumbent's name, Darren Lombard. And he thought, oh, he could do. He could just swat this guy away. And it blew up in his face. I love it. Because he did that. All the attention then got focused on Duncan Lombard. Sorry. Yes. And he then got forced into a runoff. Now he's in a runoff with him. And it was Darren Lombard. Sorry. And Calvin Duncan. Yeah, sorry, I got the names confused. But then he won by a single significant margin. I love this story.
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We did a full episode on this guy when he won last year. Excited as all get out. And I'll be honest with you, Rose, I hadn't kept up with him. And as he was getting prepared to take office, well, folks, it was time down in New Orleans for them to start the new people who were elected to take office on Monday, this coming Monday, May 4th. Right. Well, Mr. Calvin Duncan is not going to be taking office because the office does not exist and it was done away with days before he was set to take office. So guess we got to explain here a little bit, Rose, but Republicans down there, the governor in particular and included, are making a claim that this is part of a bigger effort to revamp the judicial system in New Orleans and to what kind of consolidate some things to make it more streamlined is the argument they're making. And as a part of this, they have combined that clerk's office that he won with another clerk's office. So he's left out to dry. The robes, the office he was elected to, they got rid of days before he was supposed to serve.
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Do not tell me this is a coincidence. That is, they are claiming. Yes, to sum it up, they're claiming their rights to the government.
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They usually. They usually use that word, right?
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Sizing was the word. Isn't that so offensive? Downsizing. Right, sizing, whatever. But oh, my goodness, the timing. It just so happened that Louisiana's governor, Jeff Landry signed this law into effect this week, again, as you pointed out, days before he was set to take office, to completely abolish the role altogether. And they're just claiming it's financial, it's restructuring, it's right sizing. And guess what? I love it. Calvin Duncan. This is a man who is not afraid to fight. This is a man who is patient. This is a man who has spent his time learning how to fight the man. The authorities, and you know what? They can say whatever they want, but my money's on Calvin Duncan. It's Just a shame that he's having to fight again. It makes me actually sick that a man who has had to fight his whole life for basic rights, for truth, now is having to do it again as he tries to fight to maintain the office that he rightfully and overwhelmingly won. Let me ask you this. Do you believe, do you believe that if the incumbent had won, do you believe that if Darren Lombard, who had been in that office for a long, long time, had won the election as he fully expected to, would we be having a conversation about this office being eliminated before I.
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My one question is when the effort started. I would like to know when discussions started in the governor's office or wherever about. Maybe these conversations have been going on for years about right sizing or when is the right time to do it or how should we do it? I would like to have that question answered first. Because robes. If this was a scramble since the election to start doing robes. This, this is mean. This is. This is the same system that cost him nearly 30 years of prison, of his life by having him behind bars. He got out, did everything he was supposed to do. And you're still. You won't. You still found a way to get him. This is disgusting to me in that respect, Rose, because you took from him and then you, you're still taking like what else do you want him to do? He is perfectly qualified to do this job and he is. You are making an example. You all, you all are proving his points. Look at what you did to him,
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L.A. and you continue to do for
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him this 62, 63 year old black man. You took 30 years of his life in a wrongful conviction. You can't just let him have a job that he earned by the way through vote.
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I am, I am not saying this dramatically. Like this story actually makes me want to cry. Like it makes me that mad. Like this person has been through so much and really you're going to be that much of an asshole and eliminate the position days before. This is a job he has sought and looked. I probably. He probably didn't even dream that this could be his job while he was in prison. But once he got out, everything he did to put himself through law school, everything he did to run for this job, everything he did to win this election and to have this happen days before he's scheduled to take office is just so patently unfair and I just. It seems so unjust and it makes me so angry for him.
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I try. I want to leave room for. Maybe this was underway and maybe this has nothing to do with I want to leave room but that seems naive. It seems, I mean, just absolutely stupid to just think in good faith this was done and he just happened to have to be a consequence. Robes, this is wrong. But what's happened to him? But folks, we don't, don't, we don't have to cry for Mr. Duncan. He's been there and done that. And like Robes just mentioned, he is fighting back and this ain't over. Stay here. We'll tell you what his next move is.
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If you're always on the lookout for a great audiobook or just want help figuring out what to listen to next, there's a podcast you should know about.
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It's called earsay, the Audible and I Heart Audiobook Club. Hosted by Cal Penn.
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Each episode takes a closer look at some of the most talked about new audiobooks on Audible, spanning a wide range of genres, from sci fi and literary fiction to rom coms, thrillers, and comedy.
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Kyle is joined by guests who dig into what these stories are about, what makes them stand out as audiobooks, and why they're connecting with listeners right now.
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If you're looking for your next listen, this is a great place to start.
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Listen to Hearsay, The Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque, others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.
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Within probably 10 days, I put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.
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Listen to Superhuman on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Hi everyone. I'm Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things. I'm excited to share that I have a new podcast called Mind Over Mountain. In each episode, I interview athletes, adventurers and adrenaline seekers to discuss the inner landscapes and life experiences that informed and inspired their extraordinary feats. I also bring a bit of advice into the mix so we too can better understand how to face our own seemingly insurmountable challenges.
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Do you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna pull out what you already have inside. We come into this world fighting for our lives. All I'm gonna do is pull out what you already got inside.
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We're there to support and celebrate each other. And that is not like a your story versus my story.
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You're gonna Walk up and over that dang mountain, you're not just gonna put your mind over it.
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Yep, yep. Exactly. And if I can't walk up and over it, I'm gonna go through it.
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Listen to Mind Over Mountain every Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Will Ferrell's Big Money Players and I Heart Podcast presents. Soccer moms.
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So I'm Leigh Ann.
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Yeah.
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This is my best friend Janet. And we have been joined at the hip since high school.
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Absolutely.
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Now, a redacted amount of years later, we're still joined at the hip.
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Just a little bit bigger, hips wider.
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This is a podcast. We're recording it as we tailgate our youth soccer game games in the back
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of my Honda Odyssey with all the snacks and drinks.
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Sidebar. Why did you get hard seltzer instead of beer?
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Well, they had a bogo. Well, then you got it. You had a white collar stuff here.
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Just hang it.
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What are y' all doing? Microphones?
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Are you making a rap album?
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I would buy.
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It cuts through the defense like a hot knife through sponge cake.
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That sounds delicious.
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Oh, you're lucky I'm not a drug addict. You're lucky I'm not an alcoholic. You're lucky I'm not a killer.
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I love this team, and I'm really
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trying to be a figure in their
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lives that they can rely on.
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Oh, oh, Listen to soccer moms on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
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you get your podcasts.
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All right. We continue here on AMTJ on this Saturday, which again, what was such a feel good story that I had lost track of? I'll be honest, I didn't know Calvin Duncan was supposed to take office on Monday as the new criminal court clerk in New Orleans. A guy who had spent 28 years in prison, wrongfully convicted, got out, got his law degree, ran for office, and this is the office robes that he said he had all kinds of hell with when he was in prison because he couldn't get documents. He couldn't get stuff he needed for his own case. He said, this office is a mess.
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Yeah. He couldn't have access to his own files, that he needed to try and defend himself. So how perfect that he would then be elected to that very office so he could make sure that other inmates had the basics, access to their files.
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He understands it better than any. There is no one who could say, well, I have this many years in politics or I used to work in city government. There's nobody better qualified Than this guy. It's it for that part of this job. It's just not. I know it has some other functions. I know it deals with elections. Are they worried about that? We can't have this guy in charge of our. What? I don't know what they're doing. This one just stings. But the guy, like we said, robes. I said don't cry for him. This man has been through it. And even though our hearts might hurt for him and what is being seemingly done to him, he ain't sitting in the corner. So.
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No, he knows we mentioned he's a lawyer and he's putting all of that legal expertise into good use. He has filed a civil rights lawsuit. He filed it this week in Baton Rouge federal court. After that, that bill passed. The final vote passed, and then Landry signed it. He is alleging in his lawsuit. I love this. The governor, Jeff Landry, and the attorney general, Liz Merle, who has been very outspoken against him. They're both named as defendants. And in this lawsuit, he is claiming that they both engaged in a coordinated conspiracy to keep him from taking office, in part by pushing lawmakers to pass the measure in retaliation for his outspoken criticism of the criminal justice system during his campaign last year for office.
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I want to hear more about that case. If he can prove that case, I'll sit in front row. Listen.
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Here's a quote from. From the filing. They aim to illegally obstruct Mr. Duncan's assumption of office by retroactively redefining the meaning of clerk of court that existed on November 15, 2025. That was the date of Mr. Duncan's election. So, too, are they working in coordination to retaliate against Mr. Duncan, an exoneree who was wrongfully imprisoned for 28 years for his outspoken claims that the criminal legal system in Orleans is unjust and frequently discriminatory against black people.
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I will listen to that case. I will listen. He's suggesting this was not just. There is a coordinated conspiracy going on. I will listen to that story. I don't know what the merits are and how far that may go, but he's not giving up. I don't know what this means for the law, though. Does this mean what happens on Monday? Is he going to show up at the office to take his oath and they're going to turn him away?
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I'm not sure. He's represented by the ACLU of Louisiana, so they know what they're doing. And they are claiming along with him that this was a coordinated effort to silence him. They say it was a violation of his First Amendment rights. And so this is a big, large lawsuit that is going forward and thank goodness it is. But in terms of what happens on Monday, that is unclear right now. He was elected to that office. The Louisiana State legislature just eliminated that office. So it's hard to know what is supposed to happen because he. The suit is asking for the judge to stop the state.
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Wow.
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From enforcing this and order that Duncan take office at midnight on May 4th.
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I don't know how that's going to. Our phone is ringing here. Forgive the line here. But yeah. I don't know what that means for him moving forward. If the law is a law, it has been implement it. It has. It's in place. Is somebody going to deem it unconstitutional? But it has been passed. It means it is legal. It means robe that it is the law of the land at this point in. In Louisiana. So it. Can anything be done at this point? I don't know. But Monday there will be a showdown of some kind with Mr. Calvin Duncan to see whether or not he does in fact become the clerk of Louisiana. And the office of clerk doesn't exist anymore. But robes. I'll be very curious to see what happens on Monday. But it's. It's the law of the land. The judge would have to deem the law what is unconstitutional. No, they've passed the law. The other thing. He would have to look at it and say in. You can't put a stay on the law.
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You know, it's. It's. They're asking them to put a. Yeah. To stop the state from enforcing this bill that was passed and signed by the governor. I'm not sure do that legally what a judge is going to feel like he can or cannot or she. I might want to just assign a gender to the judge. But that the judge could do what they want to do because the lawsuit claims. Look, this is interesting that they are attempting to do what they could not during the election. They were trying to get him unelected by all of the things that the attorney general was making public statements that were directly challenging his innocence. She was putting out statements to try and keep the incumbent in office and to try to make sure that he was not elected by trying to make voters in Orleans Parish believe that this man actually was a criminal.
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Some of us just call that politics.
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Yes.
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Right. Can you do. Is that legally. Can that legally be challenged? I don't know. But it might prove. Is that what you're about to say? It proves that there was a coordinated Effort.
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Yes. And that leads to the point where they couldn't stop him from getting elected, but now they're trying to literally unseat him after he was legally elected. So, look, I don't know if a judge can look at this and say, yeah, I see what's going on here. I'm going to put a stay on this. Can you put a stay on a bill that was signed by a governor?
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You could put. You put a stay on other judgments. You don't put a stay on a bill.
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I can't do that is what they are asking. They're asking the judge to stop the state from enforcing the law, the law that is a legit law that won't allow him to be in the position he rightfully and legally earned.
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Okay, it's going to get. We don't have legal degrees. His lawsuit is going to get tossed, but he's going to have to challenge the law itself, the civil one. You can't challenge a law. It's. I mean, it's on the books now. It's. Unless that law is deemed unconstitutional, it's the law of the land.
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I've never heard of a. Of a government elected, like an elected position being eliminated before the person who was elected to the office took office. I mean, I've. Maybe it's happened before. I've never seen this before.
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We will see it again. And this is the problem. And this is scary, Robes. This will. This is where we're going. If you can't beat them at the ballot box, you change your congressional map, you write a law to eliminate the position. This is what's happening in politics now. It's not even a matter of who wins on election day. Robes. We are seeing a pattern of everybody now. We're just finding another way to win an election that's not on election day.
A
So scary.
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I'm going just get myself more seats in Congress. I am literally going to sign a bill to eliminate the thing you were elected to.
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Dirty politics is what this is always.
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New Orleans, baby. It's all good. And with that, folks, we always appreciate you spending some time here with us. Calvin Duncan. We'll see what happens on Monday.
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We will follow this on Monday midnight.
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By Monday, your prediction is what's going to happen on Monday?
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I don't know. I don't have one.
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He's going to work.
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I love it.
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He's showing up to work. They could do what they want.
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I believe he'll show up to work, too.
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He'll show up because it's his job. This is what the people voted me to come do. And the governor said something else. Take it up.
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We need to get him on the podcast.
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We'll see him next week as well. This guy. This is your guy. All right, folks, we just wanted to give you that update. See what happens on Monday. But for this Saturday, for my dear Amy Robach, I'm T.J. holmes. We'll talk to y' all soon.
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This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
Podcast: Amy Robach & T.J. Holmes Present (iHeartPodcasts)
Date: May 2, 2026
This episode explores the dramatic story of Calvin Duncan, a man wrongly convicted of murder, exonerated after 28 years in prison, who then went on to study law and recently won election as Court Clerk in New Orleans. However, just days before he was to be sworn in, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed a bill eliminating the office altogether—effectively blocking Duncan from taking office. Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes dissect the political and racial undertones of the story, the potential motivations behind the governor’s actions, and what comes next for Duncan, who is now fighting back in court.
The tone is candid, passionate, and outraged at times. Both hosts blend legal analysis and personal empathy, combining journalistic detachment with clear advocacy for justice.
This episode delves into modern American politics, systems of racial injustice, and the resilience of an individual like Calvin Duncan. Through personal storytelling and pointed political critique, Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes illustrate how administrative tactics can undermine electoral outcomes—and ultimately, the faith of communities in real democratic progress. The story is ongoing, with Duncan continuing to fight in court as the episode closes.