Podcast
Schindler's Gist
Hosted by Martha Jean Schindler · EN
Everything is broken. Nobody in power is telling you the truth. And we might as well talk about it.
Schindler's Gist is hosted by Martha Jean Schindler, an organizer and independent journalist, and the woman who ran for mayor of a deep-red Georgia city and got a third of the vote. Each episode cuts through the noise on politics, local power, and the systems designed to keep regular people confused and compliant.
No spin. No both-sidesing. Just the gist.
4episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Ep. 4 | Shots Fired, Free Speech Limits, and the Socialism Debate
Jun 401:48:42Tap to summarizeEpisode 4 was recorded April 30, 2025 and published May 27, 2025.What we cover:The White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting (April 25, 2025) at the Washington Hilton. Suspect Cole Thomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, was apprehended at the scene and charged in federal court with attempting to assassinate the president. A Secret Service officer was struck but protected by a bulletproof vest. No one was killed. This was Trump's first Correspondents' Dinner as a sitting president, having skipped all four years of his first term and the first dinner of his second.The Butler, Pennsylvania shooting from 2024 and ongoing questions about what the government has and has not disclosed, including the cremation of shooter Thomas Crooks approximately 10 days after the shooting, the FBI closing the investigation in November 2025 with no determined motive, and Tucker Carlson's November 2025 investigation claiming Crooks had a larger online footprint than initially reported.The Charlie Kirk shooting: a defense court filing from March 27 cited an ATF report stating the bureau was unable to identify the bullet recovered at autopsy as having been fired from the rifle tied to defendant Tyler Robinson. The preliminary hearing was pushed from May 18 to July 6 through 10.Minocqua Brewing Company owner Kirk Bangstad and his "Free Beer Day" posts. Bangstad was arrested in October 2024 on criminal defamation charges (dismissed), arrested again in June 2025 for harassment, disorderly conduct, and bail jumping (harassment and bail jumping dropped, convicted on disorderly conduct on a no contest plea), and interviewed by the FBI and Secret Service over posts about Trump. He announced a run for Wisconsin governor in the Democratic primary in early May 2026, two days after the FBI visit.The connection between Bangstad and Rebecca Cook, who is running against Republican Congressman Derek Van Orden in Wisconsin's 3rd District: Cook previously worked as a campaign operative and fundraiser for Bangstad.The debate over European free speech laws, including Germany's Basic Law Article 5 and the European Convention on Human Rights Article 10. European countries do have free expression protections, with broader carve-outs around hate speech, Holocaust denial, and incitement than the US has.The UK Tobacco and Vapes Act, which received Royal assent on April 29, 2025, one day before this episode was recorded. The generational ban applies to anyone born on or after January 1, 2009 and penalizes retailers, not buyers.Drug legalization, harm reduction, and the argument for safe consumption spaces. The case of Wisconsin's lack of medical or recreational marijuana access.Marijuana rescheduling: a DEA final order moved FDA-approved marijuana drug products and state medical licensed marijuana from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3, effective April 28, 2025. The hemp loophole was closed by the Continuing Appropriations Act of 2026.The Nazi economy debate: whether the Third Reich was socialist in any meaningful sense. The mainstream historical view is that the "socialist" label was a populist recruitment tool, the regime crushed actual socialists and trade unions, and historians generally describe the Nazi economy as a war economy or authoritarian capitalism rather than socialism. The Nazis also privatized a number of state-owned firms in the mid-1930s.Fiat currency versus the gold standard. The US closed the gold window in August 1971.The 2022 Paria diving disaster at the Paria Fuel Trading Company facility in Trinidad and Tobago, in which five divers were pulled into a 30-inch pipeline and four died. Survivor Christopher Budrum crawled through the pipeline for nearly three hours.The Comey "8647" Instagram post, and Watts v. United States (1969), in which the Supreme Court ruled that political hyperbole is not a true threat. The case involved a man at an anti-war rally saying he wanted President Lyndon B. Johnson in his rifle sights.Joseph McCarthy, Republican US Senator from Wisconsin, and the origins of the term McCarthyism.The Master Plan podcast.Next episode: A deep dive on rights, including why Tyler does not believe housing or healthcare qualify as rights under his framework.
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Ep. 3 | What We Take For Granted and What We Will Not Give Up, with guest Nick Tigges
Apr 1700:59:50Tap to summarizeThis week Martha Jean is joined by her friend and stand-up comedian Nick Tigges for a wide-ranging conversation about politics, government, economic precarity, and what we owe each other in a moment like this one. Nick has a bachelor's in political science from Emory University, a master's in public administration from Georgia State, and worked inside the Georgia Senate Budget Office before pivoting to stand-up comedy four years ago. He is one of the sharper people Martha Jean knows, and this conversation proves it.The episode is structured a little differently than usual. Interview clips are woven together with Martha Jean's own commentary and analysis, so think of it less as a straight interview and more as a dialogue she gets to keep adding to after the fact.Topics covered include European democratic socialism and what it actually means, why most people agree on the big problems but fight about the solutions, why local politics is where the real looting happens and why nobody is paying attention, the PFAS contamination crisis in North Georgia's water supply, the documented human rights abuses inside ICE detention facilities, the paradox of tolerance and why Nick says it is not actually a paradox, the banality of evil and what Hannah Arendt has to teach us about this moment, why niceness is not the same as being good, and Gene Metcalfe, the last living man who trained at Camp Toccoa and jumped into World War II.Timestamps0:00 - Three questions that frame the episode0:17 - Introduction of Nick Tigges and format explanation3:06 - Nick defines himself as a European leftist3:11 - What European democratic socialism actually looks like, including Finland's proportional speeding fines5:53 - Most people agree on the problems, the disagreements come in the solutions7:08 - Why people disengage from local politics11:07 - Martha Jean's DeKalb County boil water story12:17 - Monologue: DeKalb County's crumbling water infrastructure, Cherokee County's cancer-linked contaminants, PFAS pollution from the North Georgia carpet industry, the EPA rollback, entropy and local government, manufactured culture war as distraction from corporate looting23:24 - The paradox of tolerance is not actually a paradox25:06 - The woman with the Trump sign at the bridge protest29:12 - Visiting Dachau, Nazi gas vans, ICE detention, and our collective tolerance for horror34:07 - Monologue: Good intentions stopped being a defense, the case for confrontation over civility, Hannah Arendt and the banality of evil, documented ICE abuses, why social consequences matter51:21 - Nick on the Georgia Senate Budget Office, $19 billion in Medicaid funds, and consultant overspending53:54 - Camp Toccoa, Operation Living the Legacy, and Gene Metcalfe57:33 - What happens when you tell people you do stand-up comedy57:55 - How to follow Nick58:32 - OutroLinks and ResourcesFollow Nick Tigges on Instagram and TikTok: https://www.instagram.com/the_nicktiggesGene Metcalfe's book, Left for Dead at Nijmegen by Marcus Nannini: https://bookshop.org/p/books/left-for-dead-at-nijmegen-the-true-story-of-an-american-paratrooper-in-world-war-ii-marcus-a-nannini/e52e108d169780efNGA CAN mockery and confrontation blog post referenced in the episode: https://www.ngacan.org/post/why-mockery-and-meanness-are-essential-in-the-fight-against-fascismSenator Jon Ossoff's ICE detention human rights abuse report: https://www.ossoff.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/260114_Report_Patterns_v5.pdfACLU report on Fort Bliss detention facility: https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/detained-immigrants-detail-physical-abuse-and-inhumane-conditions-at-largest-immigration-detention-center-in-the-u-sEWG tap water database for Cherokee County: https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/system.php?pws=GA0570002EWG tap water database for Woodstock: https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/system.php?pws=GA0570003Decaturish reporting on DeKalb County's $4.4 billion water infrastructure crisis: https://decaturish.com/2024/05/replacing-all-of-dekalb-countys-aging-water-pipes-will-cost-4-4-billion/North Georgia Community Action Network: https://www.ngacan.orgCherokee County write-in candidate recruitment page: https://www.ngacan.org/cherokee-write-in-2026Help a Neighbor mutual aid fund: https://www.ngacan.org/help-a-neighborAbout Schindler's GistSchindler's Gist is a progressive political podcast hosted by Martha Jean Schindler and Tyler Kluth, based in Georgia and Wisconsin. New episodes drop weekly (mostly). Find us wherever you listen to podcasts.
Transcribe →Ep. 2 | No Kings, No Plan: Democracy, the Two-Party Trap, and What We're Actually Fighting For
Apr 601:45:51Tap to summarizeRecorded April 2, 2026In Episode 2, Martha Jean gives Tyler a full debrief on the No Kings III rally in Canton, Georgia, where NGA CAN drew 350 to 400 people. From there the conversation sprawls into bigger territory: what the No Kings messaging actually communicates, whether protest is a gateway to real civic engagement or just a feel-good exercise, and why both hosts think the two-party system is broken, even though they disagree on what to do about it.Topics covered in this episode:The No Kings rally in Canton, what worked, what the turnout meant, and why Martha Jean is already skeptical of the messaging. The permit fight, and how cities are using insurance requirements, attendee estimates, and selective enforcement to quietly suppress protest. Third parties and the lesser-of-two-evils trap, where Tyler makes the case that voting Democrat is voting to maintain the system, and Martha Jean pushes back with the practical problem of Trump. Jill Stein, the Green Party, and whether spoiler candidates are a DNC talking point or a real concern. May Day and the general strike, and why calling for a strike in this economy is easier said than done. ICE, what abolishing it actually means, what it doesn't mean, and why Martha Jean thinks the whole agency needs to start over from scratch. And a preview of a bigger conversation about democracy itself, including whether it is inherently good, what the difference is between a democracy and a constitutional republic, and whether states should have the right to secede.Fact checks from this episode are at the top. We got two quotes wrong and Martha Jean called an AR-15 an AK-47.Have something to say? Email us at schindlersgist@proton.me.If you want to get involved in civic action in North Georgia, find us at ngacan.org.
Transcribe →Ep. 1 | A Leftist & a Libertarian Walk Into a Podcast
Apr 301:46:27Tap to summarizeWelcome to Schindler's Gist. I'm MJ Schindler, a leftist organizer based in Cherokee County, Georgia. My co-host is Tyler Kluth, a libertarian in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. We met playing music in Atlanta. This is our first episode.We recorded this on March 26th, 2026, the day before NGA CAN's No Kings protest in Canton, Georgia. Canton went well. Full debrief comes next episode.In this episode we get into executive orders, how we both ended up where we are politically, and what it actually looks like when two non-culty people try to have an honest political conversation.No party line. No kool-aid. New episodes weekly.Website: https://schindlersgist.com Follow NGA CAN's organizing work: https://ngacan.org
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