D (3:01)

Oh, that makes me so happy.

B (3:03)

So I think that's great. And then I think Tennessee Holler posted about your show on Blueski, which is what we're calling it now.

D (3:10)

Yeah, Blueski. Oh, my God, that video. I mean, I dislike that, man for so many reasons. And now it's Blueski, which I sort of want to call it Blueski. Yeah.

B (3:22)

Like when you see blue and sky next to each other, don't you? Anyway, yeah.

D (3:26)

Mark Wayne, Marqune, Mark Wayne.

B (3:32)

I don't even think Marquane is on Blueski, but I might have him blocked, you know, just by my.

D (3:37)

Yeah, I don't know. I definitely don't. First I heard of him, I guess I wasn't paying attention is when he got named as the, as the replacement. I mean, I'm sure I've heard him speak but never realized who it was.

B (3:48)

Mark Weing, or did you see him in that committee hearing when he like threatened to fight one of them?

D (3:53)

Oh, yes, I did.

B (3:54)

That was him that you want to go? Let's go.

D (3:57)

Everyone's like, you guys are sitting senator. Shut the up.

B (4:00)

You're a senator. Oh, man, he stood up out of his chair.

D (4:05)

Yeah.

B (4:07)

Well, I just, you know, I every day there's a new horror with this administration.

D (4:14)

There is a new, there is a

B (4:15)

new horror with the Republican Party. Later in the show today, I'm going to be talking with author Sasha Abramsky. You're going to want to definitely listen to that. His book, American Carnage. We've had him on the show before. But we're going to talk about how, you know, Doge kind of led to mass deportation, kind of led to this war, this illegal war of choice by Donald Trump. We'll talk all about that later in the show. I'm looking forward to that. All right. We have tons of news we have to get to today, as you could hear in the introduction. So let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right, first up from cnn, Iran has begun laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important energy checkpoint that carries about one fifth of all crude oil, according to two people familiar. The mining is not extensive yet, with a few dozen having been laid in recent days, according to the sources. But Iran still retains upward of 80 to 90% of its small boats and mine layers. That's according to one of the sources. So its forces could feasibly lay hundreds of mines in the waterway. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which now effectively controls the strait along with Iran's traditional navy, has the capability to Deploy a gauntlet of dispersed minelaying craft, explosive laden boats and shore based missile batteries. That's according to cnn. The IRGC previously warned any ship passing through that strait would be attacked and the channel has effectively been closed since the start of the war. The state of the strait has been described to CNN as a death valley given the risks involved in transiting. U.S. officials said today that the U.S. navy had not escorted any vessels through the strait, though Trump said Monday that his administration was looking at options to do so. And I do have kind of a breaking update here. So Energy Secretary Chris Wright and I'm going to show you all these posts over on the Beans talk later today. But the Energy Secretary had tweeted that the Navy successfully escorted an oil tanker through the strait and then immediately deleted it. Caroline Levitt had to answer to that in her press briefing today saying that was a mistake. It was taken down. And then Reuters right now is just reporting, Dana, that the Navy has told merchant ships, no, we're not going to escort any boats through the strait right now. The Strait of Hormuz is too dangerous. It's a safety risk for our personnel and, and we're not going to do it. This is kind of along those lines of that video that six of our lawmakers made that says do not follow illegal orders. And I'm wondering if there's going to be a showdown between Donald Trump and the Navy. Is Donald Trump going to order the Navy to escort these boats when the Navy says it is simply too dangerous to do so?

D (6:57)

It'll be interesting to say and Reuters has actually been doing some great investigative work. They just reported as many as 150 US troops had been wounded in the 10 day war with Iran. This is from two people familiar with the matter. That's what they told Reuters on Tuesday. The casualty figure has not been previously reported and not surprising because this administration doesn't want to admit that our military is getting injured and killed. Now that casualty figure just came out from Reuters. Prior to Reuters publication of the figure, the Pentagon had only disclosed eight, eight US Personnel seriously injured. In a statement after Reuters published the report, the Pentagon estimated the figure to be approximately 140 wounded and said the vast majority of them were minor and I quote, since the start of Operation epic fury, approximately 140 US service members have been wounded over 10 days of sustained attacks. This is chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell. He said 108 of the wounded service members had already returned to duty. Parnell said the eight seriously wounded service members are receiving the highest level of medical care. Reuters could not determine the types of injuries and whether they include traumatic brain injuries, which are common after exposure to blasts. Iran has launched retaliatory strikes against US military bases since the start of the conflict on February 28th. It's also struck diplomatic missions in Arab Gulf states, as well as hotels and airports damaged in oil infrastructure.

B (8:24)

So 140 injured, not eight. Okay. Yeah.

D (8:28)

It seems like a big difference.

B (8:29)

That's separate from the eight that have died.

D (8:31)

Correct.

B (8:32)

And the rumors are is that the US And Israel are going to try to seize an Iranian oil port, like a little island. Iran's oil experts would stall and output have, like, be cut in half if the US And Israel were to seize its port on Kharg island, triggering further attacks from Tehran on regional oil infrastructure. That's from JP Morgan. In a note, Axios reported March 7 that the U.S. administration had discussed seizing the island, which sits some 30 kilometers off Iran's coast in the Gulf and processes about 90% of its crude exports. So they're trying to seize this island, I guess. I mean, they're so freaked out about this increase in oil price, which. How did they not see it coming? I've.

D (9:16)

Of course, you know, they didn't see any because they don't plan for this shit, even though they should.

B (9:20)

They knew that they are going to kill US Troops and civilians overseas to try to get oil prices to come down, which they caused to be raised in the first place. Now, next up from the Post, the Social Security Administration's internal watchdog is investigating a whistleblower complaint that alleges a former US DOGE Service employee claimed he had access to two highly sensitive agency databases and planned to share the information with his private employer, a claim that, if true, would constitute an unprecedented breach of security protocols at an agency that serves 70 million of us. The agency's inspector general is investigating the disclosure and has alerted members of Congress of its existence, according to a letter by the acting inspector general to top members of four congressional committees. And this letter was reviewed by the Post and to people familiar. The Post has reviewed the complaint and spoken with the whistleblower who issued the complaint anonymously for fear of retaliation. And according to the disclosure, the former DOGE software engineer who worked at the Social Security Administration last year before starting a job at a government contractor in October, allegedly told several coworkers he was bragging like a dick bag that he possessed two tightly restricted databases of US Citizens information and he had at least one on a thumb drive. The databases, called Numident and the Master Death File include records for more than 500 million living and dead Americans, including Social Security numbers, places and dates of birth, citizenship, race and ethnicity, and parents names. 500 million insane there are 330 million people in the United States right now, so this is living and dead. The complaint does not include specific dates of when he is said to have told colleagues of this information, but at least one of the alleged events unfolded around early January, according to the complaint. While working at doge, the engineer had approved access to Social Security data. According to the complaint, he told the whistleblower, this guy that he needed help transferring the data from a thumb drive to his personal computer so that he could sanitize the data before using it at his company. The engineer told colleagues that once he had removed personal details from the data, he wanted to upload it into the company's system. Wow. What company?

D (11:35)

Yeah, no kidding.

B (11:36)

He told another colleague, who refused to help him upload the data because of legal concerns that he expected to receive a presidential pardon if his actions were deemed to be illegal.

D (11:47)

Wow. We knew this though. Everyone knew this. Everyone listening to this podcast knew this. All your they stole all of our and they're selling it to the highest bidder. I mean, it's just mind blowing. I hope this guy gets jail time now that we're going to my home state New Mexico this is from the Times. New Mexico State investigators on Monday descended on Zorro Ranch owned by Jeffrey Epstein, beginning what may be the first three thorough search of an overlooked but important part of the convicted sex offender's empire. The examination of the property is part of a renewed effort by state leaders to scrutinize the deceased financiers. No, that would have been again convicted sex offenders crimes in New Mexico, which they say have never been fully investigated. The state's Department of Justice, which opened a criminal inquiry into the property last month, is carrying out the search along with the local sheriff's office. A spokeswoman for New Mexico's Attorney general declined to comment further. It was not clear what parts of the ranch had been searched or how long the operation would even last. Victims of Epstein have said that they were abused and trafficked at that property. Yet New Mexico officials recently unsealed documents indicate the federal authorities may have overlooked the 30,000 square foot mansion and its sea of surrounding grassland after they took over a state level inquiry into the actions in 2019. In addition to the state attorney general's criminal investigation, New Mexico lawmakers voted unanimous unanimously last month to in panel a bipartisan four member truth commission in the state legislature equipped with subpoena power to look into what might have happened at Zero ranch. The authorities have worried that the passage of time may complicate their efforts. The property has changed hands since Mr. Epstein's death, and evidence may have been lost in transfer. The ranch's new owner, a Dallas real estate magnate named Don Huffus, said it will comply with state investigation. In the column for the Albuquerque journal last week, Raul Torres, the attorney general of New Mexico, said there would be real obstacles to unearthing physical evidence and prosecuting potential offenses, but pledged to issue a public report as the investigation's conclusion. And I just want to say this guy Don Huffanus, who bought this things, Huffines, whatever the fuck his name is, is turning it into a Christian camp. If that doesn't scare anybody listening. I want cadaver dogs out there. I want. Do you know how much land is out in New Mexico? I want cadaver dogs out there. I want them deep digging, and I want to know if they find remains.

B (14:10)

Yeah, and don't we have some sort of, like, infrared camera, sonar technology that can, like, look into the ground to find remains? Don't. Don't we?

D (14:18)

I'm almost positive we do. The military definitely does. They use it. Yeah.

B (14:22)

I mean, that's what I kept looking for. I read like six stories on this particular search. And I was trying to find. Are you digging up the ranch? Are you digging up the grounds? Because that's.

D (14:33)

Because they've already started, like, construction on the ranch when they sold it. They literally started breaking ground as fast as they could when they heard this investigation was happening. The new owner. So one, I hope they freeze that, and two, I really hope they get every single. It's New Mexico, man. The base is out there. I grew up there. You've got Kirtland air force base. You've got access to tools out there. I don't know what you can use from the military, what you can use. If you're using the, you know, the department of justice out there in New Mexico, New Mexico's attorney general, all of those things. But you have things in your backyard. You've got Los Alamos and Kirkland air force base, for God's sake, use it.

B (15:11)

Yeah, I'm not sure Kegseth would.

D (15:13)

No, in a heartbeat he wouldn't. But, man, I tell you what, Sansberry is going to get some done. She's incredible.

B (15:20)

Yeah. And hey, come to your neighbor, California. We've got all sorts of great technology over here. I mean, look at me. I'M like, so not a tech expert. I'm like, we got things that can find bodies in California for sure. If you don't have them there in New Mexico. I honestly don't know. But yeah, I don't either. They need to do a very, very thorough investigation because anything that was in the house is probably long gone. I find it hard to believe they didn't search the 30,000 square foot mansion in 2019.

D (15:47)

I mean, it seems like if they. I don't know. You know, listen, I know there's lawmakers that were around during that time. I don't know if it's Richardson that's connected to this. Not necessarily connected to Epstein, but if he was in power, I don't know. I'm sure some people listening to this who live in New Mexico would be able to figure out the timeline for me. But I also want every single one of those people subpoenaed. I want to know what you knew because you had to have known something.

B (16:11)

Yeah. And the feds didn't do it. The feds under Trump, the feds under Biden. Nobody went to search that place. There's no statute limitations on murder. I don't understand. Unless there were people from the FBI who were just hiding from the doj, which does happen because.

D (16:24)

Huh. If you have a governor or someone involved in any of this, and I hope to God you don't, but, you know, they would. They would try and cover it up, too.

B (16:34)

Yeah. All right. Some better news. This is from the Times. The DNC Democratic National Committee is suing. The Trump administration filed their lawsuit on Tuesday to compel the government to say whether it's planning to put armed federal agents or military personnel at polling places or election offices this year. And I like that they added election offices, not just polling places. But, you know, are they going to send people to where we count the votes and just yank stuff? Just take ballots, you know? Now, the lawsuit filed in Federal Court in D.C. says that 11 separate freedom of Information act requests filed in October to the doj, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense have prompted no meaningful response, which is a violation of the law. Quote, to ensure that American people obtain timely knowledge of potential threats to free and fair elections and to enable the DNC to take appropriate action to ensure voting rights are protected. The DNC now seeks this court's aid to enforce its Freedom of Information act requirements. Now, there are no current reported plans. Reported plans for the administration to use armed agents or troops in the upcoming elections. United States federal law, bans military personnel or other armed agents from being at any place where a general or special election is being held. But fears of the Trump administration might disregard the law have percolated for months among Democrats and voting rights groups. Gosh, I wonder what would make anyone think that Donald Trump would disregard the law.

D (17:57)

I know

B (17:59)

who point to his publicly stated desires to nationalize elections and his stated regret over not having seized voting machines in the 2020 election. Other actions taken by the administration, including a raid in late January by the FBI at a local election warehouse in Fulton county, have only heightened those concerns. And now we have a new one in Maricopa County, Arizona. They've, they've rated Maricopa County's voting information, and we're going to talk about that on the Unjustified podcast this weekend.

D (18:28)

All right, thanks so much, Alison. And a little more good news. Like we said, this is from the Times. Two teenage brothers and mariachi stars who visited the White House last summer were released with their family on Monday from ICE detention centers in South Texas, immediately following the visit of a delegation of Democratic lawmakers who pressed for them to be freed again. Democratic lawmakers the case had drawn national outrage, and Representative Joaquin Castro of Texas, who led the delegation, had been working to secure their release since the family was detained over a week ago. After visiting with one of the brothers, Caleb Gomez Cuyard, and members of his family inside the detention center, Mr. Castro waited in the parking lot with other visiting lawmakers for hours as they were processed for their release. Another brother is also a member of the mariachi group, Antonio. He's 18. He was released from a separate facility for adults, the Elle Detention center in Raymondville, Texas. When the family finally walked out of the detention center dressed in maroon and navy sweatshirts and gray sweatpants, they told the Democratic lawmakers waiting to greet them that they had been offered money to self deport when they originally apprehended near the border. The father, Luis Antonio Gamez, said that his response was, and I quote, we don't want to take that dirty money. On Monday, they briefly sat on a bus with the lawmakers, who gave them boxed sandwiches and thanked them for securing their release before getting into a car driven by a member of Mr. Castro's staff that was to take them to Alice, Texas. Mr. Gomez has said that his family entered the United States in 2023 at the border crossing in Brownsville, Texas, and claimed asylum because they were fleeing threats in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, where he had been kidnapped by cartel members. The delegation of lawmakers that visited the family with Mr. Castro, including Representatives Nanette Baragan, and I'm sorry if I said that incorrectly. Someone can definitely correct me. Julia Brownlee and Sarah Jacobs, all of California, Catherine Clark of Massachusetts, Madeline Dean of Pennsylvania, and Jim McGovern of Massachusetts. Representative Monica De La Cruz, the Republican who represents the district where the family had settled and who invited the band to Capitol Hill last year, had not yet visited the center on Monday, after facing pressure over the case. She wrote on social media that she was working to explore every legal option available to help Mr. Gamez Cuyar's family, and that she had requested a visit to a detention center in Raymondville where Antonio, the older brother, was being held. She posted that she was on her way to meet with him in Raymondville and then claimed credit for securing his release. Get the fuck out of here. Writing in a news release that had followed her direct advocacy with the White House and Homeland Security officials, Democratic lawmakers said the family members they met with on Monday expressed frustration with Ms. De la Cruz that she had not shown interest in their case until the public outcry. This is a quote they said to me, no, she hasn't done anything. She isn't helping us. This is from Ms. Barragan. And later on Monday, a person close to Antonio said his release from the center in Raymondville had been delayed until the Republican congresswoman could arrive for a fucking photo shoot. What a piece of garbage.

B (21:44)

That's just so infuriating.

D (21:46)

It's disgusting and not surprising.

B (21:49)

I mean, it's disgusting enough when folks like Lauren Boebert claim credit for infrastructure shit that Joe Biden put together that she voted against in her district, but to do this with human people, like lives to take credit for their real. Oh, it's all because of me. You're gonna have to stay detained just a little while longer. I gotta get my makeup and hair done for a photo opportunity, so just. Just hang tight.

D (22:12)

So disgusting.

B (22:13)

You. Oh, everybody vote for the Democrat. Okay, we have. We have an interview with Sasha Abramsky next, followed by the good news. Everybody stick around.

C (22:24)

We'll be right back after these messages. We'll be right back.

B (22:30)

Before I upgraded to my Helix mattress, I would wake up in the middle of the night constantly and then spend hours trying to get comfortable again. I'd be covered in sweat. I woke up with stiff, cranky back. Like, it was awful. And in the morning, it carried through the whole day. It just wrecked everything. I was like a cartoon robot. But Helix helped with all of that. I sleep better now. I wake up less. I start the day of feeling rested and ready to go. My sleep tracking data backs that up too. My Apple watch has shown more nights with deeper sleep, fewer wake ups and and a study Helix ran found that 82% of participants increased their deep sleep cycle while sleeping on a Helix mattress. So I thought my old mattress. Honestly, I blamed myself. I thought it was my stress, my anxiety, whatever. But no, I was sleeping on a mattress made for someone else. But then Helix changed everything. Now if you're shopping for a mattress, Helix makes it easy. The Helix Sleep quiz matches you with the option for how you sleep. It's like a custom mattress. They ship it free in the United States. They deliver it straight to your door. You can try it for 120 nights. It comes with a limited lifet guarantee. The Happy with Helix guarantee makes returns and exchanges straightforward and simple. Helix also is the most awarded mattress brand, by the way, reviewed by places like Forbes and Wired. So go to helixsleep.com dailybeans for 27% off site wide Sleep Week Sale exclusive for the Daily beans listeners. That's helixsleep.com dailybeans for 27% off site wide exclusive for listeners of the Daily Beans. Make sure you enter our show name after checkout so they know we sent you helixsleep.com dailybeans hey y'.

E (24:01)

All.

B (24:01)

Before Rocket Money, I was spending way too much time each month trying to organize my finances. I had to jump between dozens of apps. I spent hours scrolling through transactions, moving numbers around and still feeling totally unsure if I missed anything important. It did not feel like a plan. It felt like I was spending all my time doing damage control. But Rocket Money gave me a clearer view of everything all in one place, which meant less time hunting for answers and more time actually living my life. The best part is the mental relief there's no more of that money stress when you're not constantly wondering what you forgot to track or if you're missing a bill. And you can use that time for things that actually matter. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your Savings. Go to RocketMoney.com beans now. Rocket Money makes it a lot easier to understand your finances because it automatically categorizes transactions across your accounts in one place. It's fantastic. So instead of staring at a long list of charges trying to make sense of it all, you can actually see where your spending is going. What makes it even more useful is that you can customize categories and add tags so your budget reflects your real life instead of some generic template that helps reveal patterns that you might otherwise miss, like how much you're really spending on having food delivered to your house, something that kind of took me by surprise. Also, it can separate out ride shares or pet care. It's amazing. That kind of organization is especially helpful when you're saving for something important. Maybe you're trying to build up a fund for a new laptop or a home office setup. Maybe you want some new microphones for your podcast. But being able to tag certain purchases and to see where you can cut back gives you a lot more control. It feels less vague and more like a realistic plan you can follow. So let rocket money help you reach your financial goals faster. Go to rocketmoney.com beans to join. That's rocketmoney.com beans rocketmoney.com beans you'll be glad you did

E (25:59)

it's no surprise that newsmakers try to manipulate the audience. They want you to believe that they are the one holding the line, and they'll use any trick they can to get you there.

B (26:07)

But don't let them fool you.

E (26:08)

Get Unspun I'm Amanda Sturgill. I've been a reporter and today I teach future reporters to cut the spin and think critically about what newsmakers say. My podcast, Unspun, shows you how to know when you're being manipulated by the news, learn to spot the tricks, and how to make up your own mind about what's true. So if you're to trying tired of being fooled by the news? Subscribe to Unspun today. Unspun because you deserve the truth.

B (26:37)

Hey everybody, welcome back. I'm honored today to be joined by somebody we had on the show in January, right around the time his book was released. His book is called, by the way, American Carnage How Trump, Musk and Doge Butchered the US Government. And then we had a book talk where we did a chat and an interview at Warwick's Books in La Jolla, California. And we're doing a follow up today because this through line of what started with the dismemberment of the US government, the carnage, you know, per the book title with Doge, has led us to where we are now. And that through line continues with the ripping away of all of our civil government guardrails that would normally have been there. So please welcome author and just all around incredible human. He had many publications he's written for in the uk, the us writes for the Nation, the Atlantic, New York Magazine, Mother Jones, Village Voice, Rolling Stone, Guardian. You can find him everywhere. Please welcome Sasha Abramsky. Hi, Sasha, how are you today?

C (27:38)

I'm good. Alison, thank you again for having me on the show.

B (27:41)

It's always good to see you, my friend. When we were at Warwick's in La Jolla, we were in the middle of Operation Metro Surge and had just gotten out of Operation Midway Blitz. And we had a really great lengthy discussion about what you outline in your book, because your book is like the first book length telling of what has happened following the lives of multiple people who were civil servants that were cut by Doge, which is Department of Government Efficiency, just so everybody knows, so called Doge. And the discussion that we had had a lot to do with how what happened with Doge brought us to what was happening with mass deportation. Can you talk a little bit about that, briefly about the discussion we had? And then let's bring it to the present day, where now we are in an illegal war of choice with no end in sight, possible boots on the ground, and 15 different reasons to try to justify the war, none of which went through Congress, as is supposed to happen in our Constitution.

C (28:50)

Yeah, I mean, basically what Doge's mandate was was to fire and destroy large parts of the government civil service. So the title was Department of Government Efficiency. The reality was it should have been the Department of Wrecking, Wrecking Government. It was never about efficiency. It was about putting a wrecking ball to the parts of government that could stand in the way of Trump's agenda. So anything to do with public health, anything to do with the environment, anything to do with, with federal efforts to use the education system to redress inequality, all of that stuff was in Trump's sights right from the get go. And one of the other things in Trump's sites was USAID soft power, where America used its expertise overseas to generate goodwill. And so one of the first things Doge did was it started wrecking the overseas aid infrastructure and it also started wrecking large parts of the State Department. So if you sort of fast forward a year and you say, all right, well, that was in 2025. Why should we care about that today when there's so much else going on? You don't get to the immigration surges in Minnesota or in Chicago unless you've neutralized large parts of the federal civil service. You certainly don't get to the war in Iran unless you've had expertise just thrown out the window. Because anybody with the expertise, anybody who studied the region, anybody who spent time in the region. And anybody who's done any basic research of how these things tend to sort of devolve would have said to the Trump administration, you're insane. Yes, you've got lots of bombs and lots of airplanes and lots of missiles, and you can inflict lots of short term damage. But this isn't a way to change the regime, and it's certainly not the way to win hearts and minds, because what we've done basically is go in strewn missiles left, right and center. We hit a school, we torpedoed an unarmed naval vessel 2,000 miles from the conflict. We're destroying the infrastructure in Tehran and other major cities. Well, at the end of the day, if you just send thousands of missiles into a country, you create a massive groundswell of resentment. And I think we're beginning to sort of see that. We've seen these huge rallies in Tehran in support of Ayatollah Khamenei's son being ordained as the new Ayatollah. That's not because there's any love of the regime in Iran. The Iranians have been demonstrating against regime for months and years. There are millions of people in Iran who want nothing more than the end of the Ayatollah's reign and the creation of a democratic system. But there's a realization growing that none of this is going to be accomplished, that all this is doing is consolidating the very, very worst elements of the Iranian regime. Now, as I said, if we hadn't hollowed out the State Department, if Doge hadn't gone on this firing by quota sort of, you know, surge in 2025, we wouldn't have ended up in this situation where the government has no expertise to call on, where they're basically winging it on one of the most important foreign policy decisions of the last 20, 25 years.

D (31:50)

Right?

B (31:51)

And we have Kash Patel, as we know, firing nearly a dozen experts, you know, in Iran and counterterrorism because they were associated with the investigation into Donald Trump's willful retention, illegal willful retention of classified documents at Mar A Lago, one of which, by the way, that he waved around at Bedminster, had to do with potential attacks on Iran from General Milley. And Susie Wiles is in that audio. That's right. So now we've got no experts. But I remember back in Trump 1.0 when we still had a couple of experts in the room when Donald Trump sort of passed over Ukrainian experts and sent his, what I called the Ukraine Clown Posse, right? The Fruman Parnas, Rudy Giuliani over there who eventually had our ambassador removed, Masha. And we're all sitting there like, okay, so there were some people who were against that in that particular White House and that administration. And some people fought back. We had some whistleblowers, we had some people talking about it. We had an impeachment about it. But now fast forward to where we are now, and not only have we removed and killed the Ayatollah, now his son is installed, he's more hardline with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. But we have also completely dismantled, through Doge and other means, our entire national security apparatus here in the United States. Doesn't that also put us at risk?

D (33:27)

Absolutely.

B (33:27)

But you know where Donald Trump says, you know, he's asked, could this awaken sleeper cells here in the United States and be dangerous and make us more vulnerable to attack? And he said, I guess, yeah.

C (33:39)

I mean, look, Doge went on a mission of firing by quota. And Elon Musk was very explicit about that. He's like, you know, we're going to just fire one in eight or whatever. He said of the federal workforce, well, if you by quota, you're basically dismantling expertise gratuitously. It's an act of vandalism. And I think the more I reported the book and the more I talked to people about what was going on, the more that struck me as the way to understand this. This is basically vandalism of a system that took 100 years to create the professionalized, skillful civil service in the United States. And the result is you end up with major policy decisions being done on the hoof. So vaccine mandates being just shredded and then reimagined, sort of almost at whimsical. But when it comes to war and peace, you would have thought a basic strategic analysis of going to war in Iran would have contemplated the possibility the Iranians might close the Straits of Hormuz and cause an oil crisis. I mean, that doesn't take sort of a vast amount of education or insight to realize that would be one of the Iranian strategies. They're never going to match the Americans airplane for airplane or missile for missile. But in a game of asymmetric warfare, it's entirely possible that Iran could end up with the upper hand by causing a global energy cris this. And yet the administration seems to have not even considered that possibility. I mean, it's completely extraordinary. They were completely blindsided by the fact that a week into the war there was a spiraling oil price crisis. And you're seeing today they're sort of trying to do these backstops. So they're saying, well, we're going to temporarily liberate sanctions on Russian oil. So having told the Indians in particular a couple months ago, we're going to punish you with really punishing tariffs because you're buying Russian oil. They are now telling the Indians today, oh, by the way, we changed our mind. You can buy Russian oil because we're fighting somebody else at the moment. I mean, this is clown show politics. This is the kind of stuff that you wouldn't expect a good middle school student to be doing. They're making decisions that have no strategic rationale at all. And they're doing it in front of the world's cameras and they're doing it backed up by the world's most powerful military. And it's a complete clown show. And again, you know, coming back to Doge, I don't think you get to the sort of scale of this until you've dismantled the civil service. And we're seeing this now. Look, am I allowed to swear on your show?

D (36:02)

Yes, you are.

C (36:03)

Good, good, good. Because one of my sources in, in my book American Carnage, he said, look, there's a phrase that's doing around and find out. And you know, I'm not very up on phrases like that. So I was like, what do you mean? He said, well, around and find out means if you around with something, you basically break it and then you find out the conse this. And he was talking about it in the context he was a fired forest service worker in Colorado. He was talking about it in the context of what happens when you fire a whole bunch of fire service people on the edge of fire season. Or what happens if you're a CDC worker, you're working on measles, and Robert F. Kennedy decides that's no longer a priority and you're fired for working on measles. Around and find out was what he said. Well, I think the same thing holds internationally. If you fire all of the experts, if you fire the national security teams, if you fire the State Department people, if you fire the soft power people who've been on the ground all over the world protecting America's interests not through military, but through soft power, if you fire all of those people and you have this America first agenda that doesn't believe in international alliances, doesn't believe in international organizations, believes only in brute force. This is Steve Miller's vision of the world. Believes only in brute force. Well, at the end of the day, you end up making really big, stupid decisions And I think we're seeing that in Iran. It may be the sort of single stupidest foreign policy decision. Well, since the last really stupid foreign policy decisions in the Middle East. But you have to go back 20 years. You have to go back to the invasion of Iraq a little over 20 years ago. But Trump came in with a pledge to end forever wars. People voted for him. A large number of MAGA supporters voted for him, thinking he would get rid of international entanglements. Well, if this is getting rid of international entanglements, God help us, because essentially, he's embedding America in a strategic catastrophe in the Middle east that could impact the entire world for years or even decades to come.

B (37:56)

He's bombed eight countries nine times in the last less than a year. I mean, I think one of his strategic statements from the past week has. I believe he said the bombings will continue until peace improves, which is just. I mean, I'm paraphrasing, but those are the words that came out. Marco Rubius. And we did it preemptively in a defensive manner. It was just. It's the most bizarre thing.

C (38:24)

Well, it's bizarre, but I mean, it's also Orwellian. It's a use of language that is just meaningless. It's literally meaningless language. And that's a classic sign of authoritarianism that you can use language in such a malleable way that it ceases to have any sort of real function other than as a propaganda tool. That's what Putin did in Ukraine when he said, we're going to have a special operation. Well, what did that mean? It meant we're going to have an invasion, a war. But the use of the word war was seen as sort of somehow illegitimate. So they use the word special. Special operation. Well, Trump's using the word defensive operation. You know, there's really no difference.

B (39:00)

He's trying to.

D (39:01)

I mean, he's changed the name of

B (39:03)

the Department of Defense to the Department of War. It makes it kind of hard to. To say that, you know, you're not at war. And they've. They've all used it.

C (39:09)

Well, also, when you have. Who goes on camera and. And revels in the fact that we can, quote, unquote, rain death and destruction down from the skies all day long. Well, who talks like that? Even if that's the military objective, to kill a lot of people through bombing from the sky, who revels in raining death and destruction on a civilian population, which is essentially what they're doing, because they're bombing Tehran, which is one of the most densely populated cities in the region. So whatever you think of the ayatollahs, and I don't know anybody who likes the ayatollahs. They're ghastly. Their regime is ghastly. But how are you possibly making that situation better by killing thousands of civilians in densely populated urban areas? That, to me, is just. It makes no sense at all.

B (39:52)

No, there were 10 ways to replace. Remove the ayatollah or to neutralize the ayatollah. We have chosen the worst way to do it. It's the like look.

C (40:04)

I mean, that's not a surprise. Look at Trump's cabinet. You put Kristi Noem, until she was fired for being even too incompetent for Trump, in charge of homeland security. You put Robert Kennedy, who's completely insane, in charge of public health. You put Pete Hexseth, whose only qualification to be Secretary of Defense is that he was a Fox News pundit, in charge of the world's most powerful military. You put Cash Patel, who, I don't know if anyone's seen the footage of him drinking like a frat boy and screaming like a lunatic when the US Hockey team won. You put him in charge of the FBI. At every step of the way, they've deliberately put clowns in charge of major institutions of government. And that's not an accident. If you put those kind of low caliber people in charge, they owe everything to the boss, to Donald Trump, It's a way of securing sycophancy. You don't want highly skilled people in those offices because then they may actually push back. When Trump comes up with a really dumb idea like bombing Iran, it's also

B (41:02)

aligned with his goal to destroy the government. When you put put destructive people in charge of these entities, these agencies, you're helping destroy the government, which is what Doge was initially about. And I thought of you this week because an independent journalist named Marissa Kabas, through a FOIA request, got some body cam footage of the takeover of the US Institute of Peace. And in that body cam footage, you can hear the Doge people and the Metropolitan Police acknowledging that it was a private institution. I know that there's some litigation going on about whether the U.S. institute of Peace is a private or a public agency, but you can hear them acknowledging that, but going in anyway and routing out the US Institute of Peace, putting Trump's name on the front door of it, Trump's Institute of Peace instead. And then he wants the Nobel Peace Prize, and then he puts together the Board of Peace, and then he Starts a war. So it's just everything is opposite day. But when I saw that body cam footage from Marisa Kabas, I thought of you. Because it goes back to the Doge times, the early days of dismantling the government. Pulling out all those guardrails.

C (42:14)

Yeah, I mean, look, if you wanted to design a system guaranteed to hobble the ability of government to do basic function, you would design Doge. I mean, that's what you do. You'd sit in a room with a few people who didn't like the concept of the federal government, and you'd say, what can I do to make it completely non functional? I know I will hire a bunch of tech bros who will go in and bulldoze their way into very sensitive government databases and use those databases to fire people they don't like. That's number one. Number two, I will destroy absolutely critical government agencies that project American soft power abroad, that protect public health and education and so on here at home, and I will destroy them cavalierly, with no sense of consequence. And number three, I will use all of the information that I get illegitimately, and I will use it as an information heist. I will essentially rob different government agencies of protected information, and I will use it to go after immigrants, which is what they've done. They've used it to locate immigrants, to track them down, to hunt them, to detain them, to deport them. You couldn't create a system better designed to just paralyze large parts of the government, because what it did was you fire people at quota. And the survivors are terrified because they've seen their colleagues being marched out, oftentimes by armed federal marshals, locked out of their email accounts. Their pay has been canceled and their healthcare has been canceled. And the survivors look at that and they're like, I don't want that to happen to me. What can I do to stay employed? Well, it turns out what you can do to stay employed is you swear fealty to Donald Trump. So you stop pushing back against Donald Trump's vision. You stop putting up bureaucratic obstacles. You stop putting up question marks saying, well, are you sure you want to do this? Because maybe we do need measles experts because we have a measles epidemic. Or maybe we do need workplace safety inspectors because we have people dying of toxins in the workplace. Or maybe we do need the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau because we have an awful lot of Americans who are being being preyed on by predatory lenders. But now you've got nobody pushing back, saying, well, we need these things. You've got people saying, all right, you want to scrub the EPA of any function of monitoring pollution, that's fine, as long as I keep my job. You want to scrub the National Park Service of any reference to slavery, we'll go along with that as long as we can keep our jobs. Now, not everybody. I don't want to sound like every federal worker who survived became dishonorable. That's not the case. There are plenty of very honorable federal workers. Plenty of them hate what's going on. There are people who've resigned in protest at what's going on. But you do have some people who are willing to play along, to get along. And I think that was one of the messages of DOGE was forget about the impartial civil service. Forget about professionalism. Forget about the original purpose of the agencies that you work for. It's now all about fealty to Donald Trump. Well, again, to beat a dead horse here, that's not really democratic. That's exactly what authoritarian leaders and authoritarian governments do. They've done it in Russia, in Hungary, in Turkey. You can go around the world and look at the authoritarian playbook. And Trump's basically taking one page after another out of it. And Elon Musk, when he was on the ins instead of on the outs, he was also taking one page out of another. This was quintessential authoritarianism. And today, in 2026, we're bearing the consequences of all of that.

B (45:35)

Yeah. And I think that's why your book why American Carnage is so important, because it actually documents and follows people from the civil service, the federal civil service, who experienced that sheer terror, that trauma, as Russ Vogt intentionally wanted to inflict upon them when he said, we want to inflict maximum damage, it could cause trauma in our federal workforce. That is the goal of doge. And so when, you know, I encourage everybody to pick up the book, because when you read it, you get a real personal, on the ground, practical, where the rubber meets the road sense of what went on inside the civil service in the early days of Doge and following that through to, you know, later on, what became of them and what they saw happening to themselves and their fellow federal workers.

C (46:24)

Yeah, I mean, look, I was very lucky. I got to interview 11 extraordinary people from different parts of the government, and they were generous with their time and their stories. This is what I love about journalism. People basically pay me to tell interesting stories about a country in transition. And I've written 11 books. This one really felt personal to me because I was telling a story of people whose lives had been gratuitously upended. It wasn't for any grand strategic vision that would make government genuinely better. Their lives were being gratuitously upended to fulfill Trump's ego, essentially, and Elon Musk's ego. And these were not highly paid people. These were people who were earning a basic middle class salary, doing a job in the public sector that they thought and believed was important to better the well being of fellow members of the community. And suddenly they were being told, you know what, you were wrong. You aren't here to make the world a little bit better. You're actually an enemy of the people. Well, when the world's most powerful individuals, Musk and Trump, turn on individual federal workers and say, you're an enemy of the people, that's extraordinary and it's devastating. And my book, I hope, tells the story of what that does to people when their lives are turned upside down. But I also hope it tells the story of what happens to America when America's turned upside down.

B (47:41)

Yeah, it does. And I highly recommend everybody grab a copy if you haven't already. It's called American Carnage. And I really appreciate your time. Thanks for checking back in. I know we'll probably talk again in another couple of months when something massive is happening probably in primary, the middle of primary season, and we can talk about how its origins, that being allowed to happen, started with Doge and how they butchered the government. So thank you for your time today, my friend, Sasha Abramsky. Everybody grab American Carnage. I hope you have a. I hope your week gets better.

C (48:12)

Always a joy to be on the show. Thank you.

B (48:14)

No problem, everybody. Stick around. We'll be right back with the good news. Hi, I'm Frances Collier.

D (48:20)

And I'm Angela V. Shelton.

B (48:22)

And we're Frangela.

D (48:23)

You know what you mean in your life the Final Word podcast.

B (48:27)

Yes, you do.

D (48:28)

That's right. It is the final word on all things political and pop cultural, where we make real news.

B (48:33)

Real funny, Marie. Inspire you so you can resist. Subscribe and get a new episode of the Final Word podcast each week. It's the news we think you need to hear.

D (48:44)

That's right. We think you need to hear it.

C (48:46)

Okay.

B (48:47)

Yeah.

D (48:47)

It's what we say, so. That's right. And because all we do is give. Every Thursday, you can listen to our hysterical podcast, idiot of the Week.

B (48:54)

We round up the stupid.

D (48:56)

Because you know what?

B (48:56)

Somebody has to.

D (48:58)

Okay?

B (48:59)

All we do is give. Everybody. Welcome back. It's time for the good news. Who likes good news?

D (49:07)

Everyone.

C (49:08)

Then good news, everyone.

B (49:23)

Good news, good news. And if you have any good news or good trouble, maybe you want to give a shout out to someone that you love. A spouse, a partner, maybe a small business in your area or a nonprofit that you know about. You want us to know about too. Shout out to a government program that's helped you or a loved one self. Shout outs. Tell us why you're awesome. We love those so much. Any little bit of good news at all? Maybe your favorite joke, misheard song lyrics? Just something that'll bring a smile to our face. Send it to us dailybeanspod.com and click on Contact. And all you got to do to get your submission on the air is to pay your POD pet tariff. And that just means attach a photo of your pet. Or if you don't have a pet, send an adoptable pet in your area. Or if you don't have that random animal photo on the Internet always works. Or you can send family photos, baby pictures, your baby pictures. You can send us photos of you flipping the bird to Trump buildings. Those are fun photos to share. We all get a smile out of those. You can send us your favorite memes or maybe photos of a rally or protest you've gone to your favorite like protest signs so that we can get ours ready for no kings on March 28th. Anything at all really. Just send it to us dailybeanspot.com, click on contact. First up is your Good trouble. You're good trouble today. Use your Five Calls app. First of all, if you don't have the Five Calls app, download the Five Calls app or go to Five Calls number five calls.org call your senators, tell them to vote no on Marquain's nomination. Okay? Vote no on Marquain Mullen's nomination to be the Secretary of Department of Homeland Security. And then also hold the line on DHS funding and maybe throw in there that if you want this government funded or if you want more funding for the military, you got to get rid of Hegseth Stephen Miller. You know you got to get rid of some people because no money until this shit is fixed. So that's your good trouble for today. And we appreciate an anonymous listener sending that in.

D (51:21)

I got some more Good trouble. This is from Anne Pronoun. She and her hey Beans Queens, thanks for all you do. And to the team, a shout out and time sensitive fun trouble. An amazing group of activist artists in the D.C. area have put together. I wish I had known about this. The 2026 Donnies brought to you by the Mag Academy Awards. The Mag Academy has announced its 2026 nominations for the Donnies. The Donnies satirizes the administration's theatrical drama filled nature and recounts the biggest scandals of 2025 against the backdrop of the US Capitol. And the categories are. Best achievement in cover ups. Best performance by a supporting actor. Best achievement in directing.

B (52:00)

Oh, I already know who my nominees would be. Best achievement in coverups. DHS in Alex Preddy and Renee Goode. Best performance by a supporting actor. Stephen Miller, who's ghost leading the Department of Homeland Security. Best achievement in directing. You know no one.

D (52:19)

Yeah, no, they're real. We got no directors here at all. Now the Donnies are going to be held in D.C. on March 14th. Just March 14th this week. It can't make it to the prestigious awards ceremony. See who has been nominated and submit your vote online. To cast your vote, go to. We're going to have a link in the show notes, but it's TheMagacademy.com TheMagacademy.com Academy is spelled a C a D a M Y on purpose. A C a D a M y Maga Kadamy in the link. March 14 at 3pm Upper Senate Park, Washington D.C. my pod pet tax is our rescue pup bosh. Rescued from the sands of Kuwait.

B (53:01)

Aw, look at that sweet baby.

D (53:05)

We got Russ Vaught for everything everywhere all at once. The story of Project 2025, which is actually fucking brilliant and terrifying. Elon Musk for the federal chainsaw massacre. Vladimir Putin. Putin, Putin for From Russia with Love. And Stephen Miller for Minority Report. No, really report every minority. These are fucking hilarious.

B (53:28)

Okay. From Russia with Love was our theme song for Mueller she wrote, by the way.

D (53:33)

Oh, wow.

B (53:34)

If you ever go back and listen to the Mueller she wrote podcast that's from Russia with Love. And we actually, for one of our Patreon levels, gave away a bag of tea. My friend owns a tea company and we called it polonium tea and we would give that away. That's very funny. There was no actual polonium in that. Fantastic. All right, next up from Charlie in Washington state. I was wondering about the cost of the Iran war. So Todd, my brilliant friend developed this website. It is startling. Irancost.com so I r a n c o s t dot com we're gonna have a link in the show notes. Enclosed is a picture of what it's like trying to sleep with pupper and kitties. The pup and one kitties are on top of me, of course. Hope this brings You a laugh. Oh, my God. Look at this.

D (54:23)

Oh, my God.

B (54:25)

Oh, it's a pile. Okay, so here's the website. Operation Epic Fury. We're up to 10,639,000,370. And it goes by day, minute, month, gas. It tracks everything. Everybody gotta check this out. This is a really cool tool@ironcost.com.

D (54:49)

yeah. Thank you so much. This is from Justin Ruggles. Pronoun he and him. Justin, I love your name.

B (54:55)

It's a great name I was thinking of too.

D (54:57)

Hello, lovely ladies of the Leguminati. Just writing again to say we've got to boost candidates challenging do nothing Democrats in the primaries. I agree. My bright spot is Joe Gerard. Challenging. Challenging. U.S. rep. Joyce Beatty. Integrity Index, rated F in the May 5 primary in Ohio's third. All right, Ohio's third. Everyone support your own local challengers that will fight for the things we need to take our democracy back and make it better. Let's lift up their voices because they are our voices too. For potpet, tariff, gouda and Bri. She's the Maine coon. One is a lady that's also part raccoon. One is jumpy tramp with the sweetest heart. Both best kitties.

B (55:38)

Look at Cocoona's face. So is the void kitty. Hi, baby.

D (55:43)

I know. My goodness.

B (55:46)

Thank you, Justin Ruggles. Appreciate you. All right, next up from Melissa. She her. Wow. Just wow. Allison, at the GLAAD Awards, you're effortlessly fabulous every day, but glammed it up perfectly. For the GLAAD Awards. That means I normally look like a schlub, but I actually clean up pretty nice. The epitome of just because I don't doesn't mean I can't. Dana, that suit. Wow. Wear perfection to you both. Anyway, these times I've been keeping my sanity by decorating houses for the most chill cat to ever. Cat. At least they claim she's a cat. We call her a creature. Attached her some photos of her enjoying the latest creation. My good news, I've signed up for an improv class with Curious comedy in Portland, Oregon. And it was an excellent choice. Safe space, like minded people, and so much laughter and joy. These two hours are the highlight of my week. Comedy keeps me going, the class makes me an active participant. And I'm so grateful. Frau is a blank. Immigrant rescue from Kuwait. This is the second dog from Kuwait we've had today.

D (56:50)

Yeah.

B (56:51)

Oh, my God. The cat's amazing. British shorthair, Scottish fold. Let's see. Foldex, a Scottish fold. And exotic short hair. So I would. Was 75% there. I got the Scottish fold and I got the British short hair, real quiet, exotic short hair. Beautiful, beautiful baby. And that's so cool, everybody. Like, I'm a little weird around people and sort of introverted. I. I do great with solo comedy, but being around others in a crowd is. Is somewhat different. But taking an improv comedy class, like, really opened up a lot of stuff for me. It was tough. But everybody in the class is so cool with how willing or not you are to sort of be an active participant. You know what I mean?

D (57:37)

Yeah.

B (57:38)

Like, everybody's amazing in those classes. I would highly recommend it if it's something that you think you know, something you could do.

D (57:45)

All right, this is from Anonymous Pronoun. She and her. This is a shout out to the people of Threads who are so kind, supportive, and fun. Well, most of them. We quickly block the assholes. A man who wants no publicity about it has been a primary caretaker for the memorial in Minneapolis ever since Renee Goode's murder. He was asking for some help. And do you know who jumped right in. This does not surprise me, by the way. Your dear friend and ours, Kathy Griffin. She venmoed the gentleman much of what his immediate needs were. That was so kind. Do you know Kathy has been dubbed the mayor of Threads? I did indeed. She posts great content. She's supportive of accounts big and small. Everyone who gets a response from her is absolutely thrilled. What a treasure she is. And you are lucky to know her. Impersonate G&DG. Sweet. Grand pets for tax. I do know three breeds for the dog, if you care to guess. I'm sure you know the cats,

B (58:35)

the dog.

D (58:36)

Dog. Well, maybe some.

B (58:38)

There's no black lab.

D (58:40)

Pity and boxer.

B (58:42)

And you are correct because there's no answers. So correct.

D (58:45)

I Knew it.

B (58:46)

You're 100% right. So we are 175%. That's not how percentages work. But we're 175% here in the Trump administration.

D (58:54)

We are 1,050% correct.

B (58:58)

Raised our pet guessing correctness by 600% today.

D (59:04)

Yes, indeed.

B (59:04)

Absolutely incredible. You all are amazing. Thank you so much. Please keep sending in your good news. Thank you for the compliments I just had. I was just so blown away by the GLAAD Awards. I've never been to anything that size or scale, and it was just. I'll never forget it as long as I have. I'll never forget.

D (59:20)

I'm a little behind on my Patreon post, but I'm going to Be posting some pictures and videos that I have not put on Instagram, so you all can have some special stuff. Sorry about the sirens in the back. I'm in a hotel in Nashville and I'm right by a window and apparently there's a problem. So if you are not part of my Patreon yet, you can go to danagoldberg.com and join the Dugout and the Dissenters is our team and we've got great content. I'll be having a newsletter out on March 15th and some rants. I've put up a couple videos so far, and we're just going to keep getting more and more content. All of those of you that join a level where you get to pick a hat or a T shirt, they're being printed. So we're going to get those out to you as soon as possible. And we'll have our first zoom for all of our second basers, I believe, second base level and above. We'll have our first zoom at the end of the month. So go to danagoldberg.com and Patreon and join us and hang out. It's beginning to shape up to be an incredible, incredible community.

B (60:14)

Amazing Dissenters. In the Dugout. In the dugout, yeah. So, danagoldberg.com click on the Patreon link. And again, it's Wednesday. Dana is at Zany's tonight.

D (60:27)

I am. So for if you're listening and you're like, oh, shit, I'm just hearing about this, there's still tickets available. You could literally walk up to the box office in Nashville and say, I'm here to see Dana Goldberg and they will let you in.

B (60:37)

Yeah. So everybody, if you haven't seen Dana, I highly, highly recommend it. I've seen her several times. And you're gonna have one of the most amazing times at a comedy show.

D (60:46)

All right, everybody's my friend.

B (60:48)

Yeah, no problem. Hey, thank you for being so fucking funny. It's amazing. It's inspirational how funn you are. You'll want to go home and be like, I want to be that funny. And then it's. It's seriously, it's. It's awesome. You will have one of the best times, swear to God. All right, everybody, thank you so much for listening. We're going to go record the beans Talk. If you haven't checked out beans talk yet, sometimes we throw the audio here into the daily beans feed. It has its own audio feed if you'd rather listen to it where it's there daily. But you can also watch our videos and our clips and we show you the tweets and Instagram posts and tiktoks that we talk about over on Beans Talk. And you can find it at MSW Media's YouTube page. Just just Google MSW Media Beans Talk and it'll pop right up for you. It's all free to watch. So thank you so much everybody. We'll be back in your ears tomorrow. Until then, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health and take care of your family. I've been ag. I've been DG and them's the beans. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Allison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarlane with art and web design by Joelle Reader with Moxie Design Studios. Music for the Daily Beans is written and performed by they Might Be Giants and the show is a proud member of the MSW Media Network, a collection of creator owned podcasts dedicated to news, politics and justice. For more information Please visit msw media.com msw media.