Podcast
Impolitic with John Heilemann
Hosted by Audacy | Puck · EN
Join Puck’s chief political columnist, MSNBC/NBC News national affairs analyst, and best-selling author John Heilemann as he roams the corridors of power and influence in America on this twice-weekly interview show, taking you behind the scenes and beyond the headlines with the people who shape and shift our culture: icons and up-and-comers, incumbents and insurgents, moguls and machers in the overlapping worlds of politics, entertainment, tech, business, sports, media, and beyond. The conversations are rich and revealing, unrehearsed and unexpected … and reliably impolitic. A Puck-Audacy joint, new episodes drop every Wednesday and Friday.
105episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Al Sharpton: How Jesse Jackson Kept Hope Alive
Feb 2001:02:14Tap to summarizeJohn welcomes Reverend Al Sharpton, founder and president of the National Action Network, to discuss the life and legacy of Reverend Jesse Jackson. Sharpton, whose relationship with Jackson – his friend, political mentor, personal taskmaster, and father figure – stretched back nearly 60 years, reflects on Jackson’s place in history as the preeminent civil rights leader of his time and pathbreaking political figure whose campaigns for president in 1984 and 1988 paved the way for Barack Obama's election. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcribe →Marc Elias: Start the Steal
Feb 1601:11:21Tap to summarizeJohn welcomes back Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias to discuss Donald Trump’s recent slew of suggestions about changing the way elections are run in the U.S.—and his apparent plans to mess with the November midterms. Elias also analyzes Attorney General Pam Bondi’s cringeworthy performance last week before the House Judiciary Committee, the Justice Department’s failure to secure indictments (at Trump’s behest) of the half-dozen congresspeople who released a video reminding soldiers that they had no obligation to follow illegal orders, and the Republican push to enact Voter ID. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcribe →Sally Jenkins: The Bad Bunny Bowl, Quad God Olympics, & WaPo Sports Section (R.I.P.)
Feb 1301:16:42Tap to summarizeJohn welcomes acclaimed sportswriter and bestselling author Sally Jenkins to discuss the twin mega-stories this week where politics, culture, and elite athletics invariably come crashing together: the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics. Jenkins also weighs in on the heedless obliteration of the Washington Post’s vaunted sports desk, where Jenkins worked for three decades before joining The Atlantic last year. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcribe →Jon Favreau & Jon Lovett: The Year in Politics, Part I
Dec 26Summary readyJohn welcomes two of the Pod Save America dudes, Jon Favreau and Jon Lovett, to the show for the first installment of a two-part, year-end review of the national political scene in 2025. See all the ways bp is investing in America at bp.com/InvestingInAmerica . To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
SummaryRick Wilson: “Strip Club Glitter Never Comes Off”
Dec 15Tap to summarizeJohn welcomes lapsed Republican strategist and Lincoln Project cofounder Rick Wilson back to the show to discuss the mounting signs that, less than one full year into his second term in office, Donald Trump has reached his sell-by date – and the implications of Trump's political decline for the MAGA-fied Republican Party. See all the ways bp is investing in America at bp.com/InvestingInAmerica . To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Presenting: Otherworld | Zaza
Nov 8Tap to summarizeOtherworld tells real stories of people who have experienced something paranormal or unexplainable. Host Jack Wagner takes an open minded and journalistic approach to the subject matter and aims to uncover some of the biggest mysteries of the world and how people react to it. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Pablo Torre: Bad Bunny & Bad Ballmer
Oct 13Tap to summarizeJohn welcomes the host of Pablo Torre Finds Out back to the show to discuss a pair of freak-outs at the intersection of sports, politics, and commerce: the Republican outrage over Bad Bunny being chosen to headline next year's Super Bowl halftime show, and the NBA's panic over the unfolding scandal, exposed by Pablo's exclusive reporting, involving billionaire LA Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and the team's superstar forward, Kawhi Leonard. Pablo explains why the NFL's increasing financial and cultural dominance make it impervious to partisan controversies; what drove Ballmer to engineer an egregious scheme to circumvent the NBA salary cap; and why the former Microsoft CEO's status as the league's richest owner (indeed, the richest in all of sports) presents a vexing quandary for Commissioner Adam Silver and the NBA's investigation of Ballmergate.
Transcribe →Dylan Byers: Bari's New Perch & Kimmel's Curtain Call
Oct 6Tap to summarizeJohn welcomes Puck's master of the media multiverse, Dylan Byers, back to the show to discuss Bari Weiss's elevation to editor-in-chief of CBS News and Jimmy Kimmel's east coast victory lap after the furor around his suspension and reinstatement by Disney and ABC. Byers also weighs in on the panic in Hollywood over OpenAI's Sora and the first signs of the remaking of the Washington Post's op-ed page as directed by Jeff Bezos. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcribe →Jonathan Mahler: NYC’s 1980s Reinvention & The 40-Year Era it Spawned
Sep 1Tap to summarizeJohn welcomes Jonathan Mahler, New York Times Magazine staff writer and bestselling author of “The Bronx Is Burning,” to discuss his new book, “The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990.” Mahler unpacks the reinvention of the Big Apple in the second half of the Eighties; riffs on the outsized characters (from Ed Koch and Rudy Giuliani to Larry Kramer, Al Sharpton, and, of course, Donald Trump) who played key roles in it; and argues that the rise of Zohran Mamdani signals an end to the 40-year era spawned by that transformation. He and Heilemann also reminisce about crossing paths as undergrads in 1987—first as teammates and then as cellmates. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Presenting: The C-Word
Aug 31Tap to summarizeWith every episode, Lena Dunham and Alissa Bennett take you on a historical deep dive into the life of a woman society dismissed by calling her mad, sad, or just plain bad: Lindsay Lohan, Judy Garland, Winona Ryder, Mariah Carey, Lil Kim and many more. Join them for a rich, hilarious, and heartbreaking look into exactly what it means when we call a woman “crazy.” The C-Word was originally published behind a paywall from 2019 - 2022. This is the first time it’s being released to all major podcast platforms. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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