Social Studies (feat. Ben Sheehan)

Summary

The Daily Beans – Episode Summary: "Social Studies" (feat. Ben Sheehan) Release Date: July 31, 2025

Host: Alison Gill
Co-Host: Dana Goldberg
Guest: Ben Sheehan (Host of Civics Made Easy on PBS)

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1. Major News Highlights

1.1. Emil Bovey Confirmed to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals

• Alison Gill kicks off the episode by highlighting the recent confirmation of Emil Bovey to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. This development is particularly contentious due to revelations that the Department of Justice Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, mishandled whistleblower complaints related to the Epstein case.

1.2. CBS News Exposes Inconsistencies in Epstein Jail Video

• Alison Gill discusses CBS News' investigation into the Epstein jail footage, uncovering multiple camera failures that cast doubt on the official narrative of Epstein's death by suicide in 2019. Notably, Ben Sheehan and the hosts emphasize the skepticism surrounding the timing and authenticity of the video evidence.

  "The same inspector General that lost the Bovey whistleblower stuff... determined that at approximately 10:40, a corrections officer believed to be Noel... the inspector General's report also states that there were two additional cameras recording events in the vicinity of the Epstein unit. One was actually covering an elevator bank used to transport inmates, and another focused on a nearby guard desk. What's interesting is neither of those videos have ever been released."
  — Alison Gill [06:20]

1.3. House Oversight Committee Rejects Ghislaine Maxwell's Immunity Request

• The hosts delve into the recent decision by the House Oversight Committee to deny Ghislaine Maxwell's demand for immunity in exchange for her testimony. Despite her attempts to negotiate terms, the committee, led by Jim Comer, remains firm in its stance.

  "The House Oversight Committee... would respond to the letter soon. But we're not going to grant congressional immunity for her testimony."
  — Alison Gill [13:09]

1.4. Texas Redistricting Plan and Its Implications

• Dana Goldberg brings attention to the GOP's proposal to redraw Texas district lines, which aims to secure five additional Republican House seats. This move is seen as a strategic effort to bolster Republican control in the narrowly divided U.S. House ahead of the 2026 midterms.

  "With control of the narrowly divided U.S. house hanging in the balance in the 2026 midterm elections, Republicans in Texas... released the preliminary maps after days of contentious hearings."
  — Alison Gill [19:01]

1.5. Trump Administration's Scrapped Health and Research Funding Impasse

• The episode covers the Trump administration's initial attempt to block billions in health research funding, a move that was later reversed following internal pushback. This incident underscores ongoing tensions between the executive branch and scientific communities.

  "The Trump administration... was actually scrapped Tuesday evening after senior White House officials intervened."
  — Dana Goldberg [21:38]

1.6. Kamala Harris Declines to Run for California Governor

• Alison Gill reports that Vice President Kamala Harris announced she will not seek the governorship of California in the upcoming election. Instead, Harris is considering a 2028 White House bid and plans to focus on advocacy and organizational efforts to support Democratic initiatives.

  "Kamala Harris is not going to be running for governor of California next year... I'm a devout public servant... But after deep reflection, I've decided that I will not run for governor in this election."
  — Alison Gill [27:53]

1.7. Democratic Lawsuit Against ICE for Access to Detention Facilities

• A dozen Democratic members of Congress have filed a lawsuit against ICE, alleging that the agency has obstructed their oversight of federal immigration detention centers. This legal action aims to ensure greater transparency and accountability within ICE operations.

  "A dozen House Democrats have sued Donald Trump and the administration officials... alleging that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has prevented them from conducting oversight of federal immigration detention facilities."
  — Alison Gill [25:09]

1.8. DOJ Briefs on Epstein Grand Jury Materials and Schumer's Legal Maneuver

• The Department of Justice has submitted a brief seeking limited access to Epstein's grand jury materials, targeting only two witnesses related to Epstein's crimes. Concurrently, Senator Chuck Schumer has invoked a century-old law, Title 5, U.S. code, Section 2954, to compel the DOJ to release comprehensive Epstein files to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

  "Chuck Schumer... is actually invoking a rarely used law to request all the files in the Jeffrey Epstein case... under the jurisdiction of the committee."
  — Alison Gill [10:33]

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2. In-Depth Discussion: Epstein Case and Inspector General's Report

2.1. Flaws in the Official Narrative

• Alison Gill and Dana Goldberg critically examine the inconsistencies found in the Department of Justice Inspector General's report on Epstein's death. They highlight the malfunctioning cameras, the questionable behavior of corrections officers, and the unexplained presence of a third individual in the footage.

  "The Inspector General's report, Horowitz again, the guy who lost the Bovey... "only two staff members entered the unit after midnight... The presence of a third unidentified individual seen on the video is not addressed at all."
  — Alison Gill [07:11]

2.2. CBS News' Skeptical Analysis

• CBS News' forensic experts express doubts about the authenticity of the Epstein jail footage, suggesting that the orange shape moving up the stairs may not be a corrections officer but rather an inmate in disguise.

  "Video and forensic experts... suggested that the shape looks like a person dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, not a guard carrying a jumpsuit."
  — Dana Goldberg [07:11]

2.3. Whistleblower Complaints and Inspector General's Failures

• The episode delves into how Inspector General Michael Horowitz mishandled whistleblower complaints related to the Epstein case, further eroding trust in the DOJ's oversight mechanisms.

  "Mike Horowitz, the inspector general... lost that whistleblower's account. That's what he's saying. But it languished in his office since May."
  — Alison Gill [04:24]

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3. Hot Notes

3.1. Texas Redistricting and Democratic Retaliation

• The GOP's redistricting in Texas, which aims to secure five additional Republican seats, has sparked concern among Democratic-controlled states. States like California, Illinois, and New York are contemplating redrawing their own districts to counterbalance Texas' moves, potentially adding more Democratic seats in response.

  "Democratic controlled states like California, Illinois and New York are exploring options to retaliate by redrawing their own lines to give their party more House seats if Texas approves new maps."
  — Alison Gill [19:01]

3.2. Implications for the 2026 Midterms

• The proposed Texas maps could significantly influence the balance of power in the House of Representatives during the 2026 midterm elections. With Republicans potentially holding 30 out of 38 districts in Texas under the new plan, Democrats are strategizing ways to mitigate this advantage.

  "Under the new plan, they would likely win 30 out of 38. Trump won all 30 of the proposed districts by 10 points or more last year, making it extremely difficult for Democrats to win any of them."
  — Alison Gill [19:01]

3.3. Health Research Funding Controversy

• The Trump administration's initial attempt to block $15 billion in NIH funding threatened vital research into diseases like diabetes and cancer. However, internal resistance led to the reversal of this decision, highlighting the ongoing struggle between political agendas and scientific funding.

  "Officials from the Department of Health and Human Services... reversed course after the Journal story was published Tuesday."
  — Alison Gill [21:38]

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4. Guest Segment: Ben Sheehan on Civics Made Easy

4.1. Introduction to Civics Made Easy

• Ben Sheehan, host of PBS's Civics Made Easy, joins the podcast to discuss his new 12-episode series aimed at educating adults on the fundamentals of American government. Drawing parallels to the beloved Schoolhouse Rock, Sheehan emphasizes the importance of accessible civics education in fostering informed and engaged citizens.

  "I wanted to create resources for adults to all catch up together, to admit that it's okay that we don't know this stuff... so that we can exercise our power as citizens."
  — Ben Sheehan [36:19]

4.2. Importance of Civics Education

• Sheehan highlights the alarming decline in civics education, noting that only seven states require at least one year of civics or government studies between kindergarten and 12th grade. This gap contributes to widespread ignorance about governmental processes and voter suppression.

  "We also don't teach civics and government as much as we used to in our schools... we have been graduating people who know less about how the government works than our parents and grandparents did."
  — Ben Sheehan [36:19]

4.3. Addressing Voter Suppression Through Education

• The conversation underscores how inadequate civics education serves as a subtle form of voter suppression. By not teaching citizens how the government operates or how to influence it, the system discourages participation and engagement.

  "The most insidious form is not teaching people why they should care in the first place and not teaching them how to affect the government."
  — Ben Sheehan [38:29]

4.4. Making Civics Engaging and Accessible

• Sheehan discusses his approach to presenting complex governmental topics in an understandable and unbiased manner. By interviewing diverse perspectives and avoiding partisan bias, Civics Made Easy aims to bridge the knowledge gap and empower listeners to participate actively in democracy.

  "I start by... every episode starts with me talking to people on the street and asking them questions about what they know about a certain topic... present both sides of what, you know, for example, the Electoral College episode."
  — Ben Sheehan [40:38]

4.5. Positive Reception and Future Topics

• Despite minor pushback from trolls, Sheehan reports a largely positive reception. Upcoming episodes will cover topics like the filibuster, taxation, and the history of political parties, aiming to demystify the workings of American government.

  "It's been mostly positive... some topics are going to make people angry, but so far the reception has been positive."
  — Ben Sheehan [45:05]

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5. Good News Segment

5.1. Listener Stories of Hope and Resilience

• The hosts invite listeners to share uplifting stories, emphasizing the importance of community and positivity amidst challenging times. Highlights include personal triumphs, animal rescues, and moments of political shift.

  "If you have a good news confession or correction, especially pronunciation corrections... you can send that to us... it really makes a difference for other people to hear."
  — Alison Gill [48:11]

5.2. Personal Triumph: Alison Gill's Battle with Cancer

• Alison Gill shares her journey of overcoming breast cancer, celebrating her recovery and the support systems that aided her through treatment.

  "My good news is I just had my last radiation treatment today, and I'm officially cancer free."
  — Alison Gill [49:23]

5.3. Community Support and Advocacy

• Listeners contribute stories of advocating for loved ones in the medical field, overcoming rare diseases, and fostering community initiatives like fabric workshops. These narratives highlight the resilience and solidarity within the community.

  "If you have ever had to advocate for yourself or a loved one in medicine, we want to hear about that."
  — Dana Goldberg [54:22]

5.4. Heartwarming Pet Stories

• The segment is peppered with adorable anecdotes and photos of pets, reinforcing the theme of finding joy and comfort in everyday moments.

  "Look at Ozzy. Oh my God, he's adorable."
  — Alison Gill [56:59]

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6. Closing Remarks

• Alison Gill and Dana Goldberg conclude the episode by encouraging listeners to engage with their communities, take care of their well-being, and continue fostering positive change. They also promote Civics Made Easy, urging support for PBS and advocacy for comprehensive civics education.

  "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."
  — Alison Gill [63:34]

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Notable Quotes:

• "It is the most insidious form of voter suppression when people don't know how the government works."
  — Ben Sheehan [38:29]

• "When Donald Trump filed with the judges to get the grand jury testimony released... they're asking to redact all the names of high-profile perpetrators. So that whole thing was just, is just a smokescreen."
  — Alison Gill [09:24]

• "Only a third of people born in the United States can pass the civics test, the same test that 100% of people have to pass to become naturalized citizens."
  — Ben Sheehan [37:13]

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Conclusion:

This episode of The Daily Beans provides a comprehensive overview of significant political and social issues, delving deep into the controversies surrounding the Epstein case, redistricting battles, and the state of civics education in America. Featuring insightful discussions with guest Ben Sheehan, the episode underscores the imperative of informed citizenship and community resilience. With a balanced mix of hard-hitting news and uplifting good news stories, The Daily Beans continues to inform and inspire its progressive audience.

Transcript

[Alison Gill]

MSW Media. Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Thursday, July 31, 2025. Today, Emil Bovey has been confirmed to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals after it was revealed the Department of Justice Inspector General lost whistleblower complaints. CBS News unveils new inconsistencies in the Epstein jail video. The House Oversight Committee has rejected Ghislaine Maxwell's demand for immunity in exchange for her testimony. The Trump regime has scrapped its plan to impound health and research funding a new Texas district map and adds five safe Republican House seats. Kamala Harris has announced she's not going to run for governor of California. Twelve Democratic members of Congress are suing ICE for access to internment camps. And the DOJ has filed its brief to get the Epstein grand jury materials. And by the way, it's for only two witnesses and only for Epstein crimes. And finally, Schumer has invoked a 100-year-old rarely used law to get at the Epstein files. I'm Alison Gill.

[Dana Goldberg]

And I'm Dana Goldberg.

[Alison Gill]

Hey, Dana. How. How are. How are you? And I mean that.

[Dana Goldberg]

I'm okay. Like, I. I mean, I think I'm okay. I just. There's so much going on right now that there's moments and days that I have hope that maybe this is what breaks the dam. And then I have to. You know, my brain goes back to all those other times of. But nothing else did. And so I'm sort of like, on this roller coaster of just, like, control. What? You can stop reading all of the news. Whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen. You're doing your best. You're fighting the good fight. You're gonna vote in 20. You know what I mean? When you need to vote and then sort of just, like, take a breath. But it's a lot.

[Alison Gill]

It is. It is a lot. And the news isn't too much better today, but I'm feeling feistier today. I don't. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe I'm running out of fucks. I'm not sure.

[Dana Goldberg]

Hey, I like that.

[Alison Gill]

I'm not sure. I have a jar of fucks here on my desk that a listener gave me to remind me that, you know, we should always give a fuck, but, you know, maybe I'm running low. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm feeling feisty today.

[Dana Goldberg]

I love it.

[Alison Gill]

According to a new poll, by the way, from the Washington Post, Trump has a 16% approval rating when it comes to the Epstein files. 89% of MAGA want these files released. That's a mandate. Not. Not what he won the election by.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah. No. Well said.

[Alison Gill]

So whatever we're doing, it's working. So I'm just, you know, I'm just sort of like. I feel like I have a machete and I'm chopping through the trees and I'm just marching forward and. And doing my job because it seems to be working, at least for. For the limited amount of stuff that we can do. Right.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah.

[Alison Gill]

I also talked to the coolest person. His name is Ben Sheehan. He. He hosts a show called Civics Made Easy on pbs.

[Dana Goldberg]

Nice.

[Alison Gill]

I wanted to bring him on because I know we have so many listeners who are like, what do I even say to my MAGA uncle? I don't even know what to say.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah.

[Alison Gill]

And this is a nonpartisan. Here's some facts based on history. And generally, people, when you. When they hear facts, think it's woke. But, you know, it's. You know, maybe something that. That can help. Something's got to reach and get through to folks. The thing that I was so just livid about, I have. I have this innate thing. Maybe it's in my DNA where if something is unfair, I just fucking hate it. It just drives me crazy. And Emil Bovey was confirmed.

[Dana Goldberg]

Oh, my God.

[Alison Gill]

Last night. Yeah. With Murkowski and Collins voting no with all the Democrats, because, you know, they're allowed to. And I told. I did say. I said no. Democrats would vote no. I know a lot of people were like, there's going to be some Democrats who vote yes. You watch. I said no. I don't think so. Not on this one. But they voted on this. Despite an audio recording of Bovee at a meeting about Eric Adams coming out proving that he lied to Congress during his confirmation hearing. They have tapes.

[Dana Goldberg]

It's just disgusting.

[Alison Gill]

And if that doesn't make you mad enough, the reason that they didn't get the tapes till yesterday, it turns out Mike Horowitz, the inspector general, one of only two that Trump didn't fire when he came into office and swept out all 18 or whatever, he apparently lost that whistleblower's account. That's what he's saying. But it languished in his office since May. And McCabe and I are going to talk about that. McCabe like Andy.

[Dana Goldberg]

I love McCabe. That's right.

[Alison Gill]

We're going to talk about that on this weekend's Unjustified. Because if you've listened to Unjustified or the Jack podcast for as long as you've listened to Andy McCabe and I, you know, got feelings about Horowitz. Oh, sure. But let's talk. Before we get to the hot notes, let's talk about the latest in the Epstein case. He is underwater on this issue so badly. And so let's talk about what's going on with that in today's Long story short. And to make a long story short. All right, according to CBS and the Department of Justice Inspector General report, the same inspector General that lost the bovee whistleblower stuff that the Horowitz. This is his report from 2023. The fact. And his. By the way, his report is just jacked. It's full of shit. The fact that multiple cameras weren't working at the prison where the Epstein prison video was made, where Epstein died in 2019, makes it actually impossible for the DOJ to come to the conclusion it came to with any certainty that he died by suicide.

[Dana Goldberg]

Right. Because without any visible evidence, I mean, the case relies on the word of the staff members, this is Nolan Thomas, that apparently no one entered the cell. Yeah, Right. So at one point, the Justice Department noted both of them appeared to have fallen asleep at the same time, mind you, although Noel actually denies that part.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah, And. And this. This was like, okay, I'm sorry, but if all your cameras are broken except one shitty one, and your dudes are falling asleep and somebody who's on suicide.

[Dana Goldberg]

Watch, all at the same time who.

[Alison Gill]

Just took an unmonitored phone call from the other room. Anyway, just before 10:40pm in. In this video, an orange shape is seen moving up the stairs leading to Epstein's Tear here, where cell is. And that's what the report says, quote. Through review and analysis of the SHU video footage, witness statements, and Bureau of Prison Records, the office Inspector General determined that at approximately 10:40, a corrections officer believed to be Noel, the sleepy person, carried linen or inmate clothing up to the L tier. That's where Epstein's cell was. Now, video and forensic experts who reviewed that footage at the request of CBS News were real skeptical about that interpretation and suggested that the shape looks like a person dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, not a guard carrying a jumpsuit. Right.

[Dana Goldberg]

And of course, we know about the missing minute, which is actually closer to three. Or as Wired reports it, like I said, the missing 2 minutes and 53 seconds. And we know that Pam Bondi lied about that when she said it's because the system resets at night and that all the videos are missing that one minute because a person with knowledge told CBS that the minute exists in the RAW files that the DOJ has but never released. And we all know that that whole video can be tracked back to Adobe.

[Alison Gill]

That it was edited and stitched together because the aspect ratio changes. Beep boop. Right Then when the video flips, it reminds me of Speed. Remember the movie Speed, where they put the. On the loop and the lady moves her purse and you're like, oh, yep, that's what it. That's what it looks like to me. And the Inspector General's report, Horowitz again, the guy who lost the bovee. Shit. Says only two staff members entered the unit after midnight. One is a corrections officer identified as CO3, and the other is described as the Morning Watch Operations Lieutenant. The presence of a third unidentified individual seen on the video is not addressed at all in the Inspector General's report.

[Dana Goldberg]

Oh, my God. But in. Okay, so in addition to the cameras that failed, apparently, to record other angles of the SHU common area, which is where they were, the Inspector General's report also states that there were two additional cameras recording events in the vicinity of the Epstein unit. One was actually covering an elevator bank used to transport inmates, and another focused on a nearby guard desk. What's interesting is neither of those videos have ever been released.

[Alison Gill]

Right. And if you wanted to prove that that skippy weird minute is a thing on all the things those videos, all.

[Dana Goldberg]

You gotta do is ask for those videos would have them.

[Alison Gill]

And someone who has reviewed the tapes reached out to me to confirm, by the way, that there's no missing minute or missing 2:53 because of a nightly reset. That's just bullshit. And that Pam Bondi lied about that. We know that. CBS is reporting that, too. A government official has said. And in another Epstein thing, remember when Donald Trump filed with the judges to get the grand jury testimony released?

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah.

[Alison Gill]

And they filed in New York for Epstein and Maxwell. They filed in Florida for Epstein. Florida already turned him down. But the judges in New York were like, you didn't even go through the, you know, seven. There's like, seven reasons you can get grand jury materials, and you have to go through all seven and say why. They're called factors. Right.

[Dana Goldberg]

Okay.

[Alison Gill]

It's a test that the court does like. Like the publics need to know who's asking, why are they asking? What are you going to redact? And they also failed to acknowledge the survivors at all.

[Dana Goldberg]

Wow.

[Alison Gill]

Right. And so the judges were like, okay, you have until July 29th at midnight to tell us to do your job. And they did. They handed it in a couple minutes. Early. And what we found out from that is that there's only two grand jury testimony transcripts, that they want testimony from an FBI agent and testimony from a New York detective. And that the government is only seeking testimony about the Epstein and Maxwell crimes, no one else's. And they're asking to redact all the names of high profile perpetrators. So that whole thing was just, is just a smokescreen and the public is.

[Dana Goldberg]

Not going to be happy about it. And I'm actually sort of impressed because NBC News had reported that Chuck Schumer, of all people, he's actually leading all seven senators on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. He's actually invoking a rarely used law to request all the files in the Jeffrey Epstein case and have them delivered to the committee next month. There was a letter sent to Pam Bondi, the Attorney General, and the group says basically it's requesting the files under the law, which says, and I quote, an executive agency, on request of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental affairs of the Senate or any five members thereof, they shall submit any information requested of it relating to any matter within the jurisdiction of the committee. This is in the jurisdiction of the committee. Now. The group requests the documents to be delivered to Congress by August 15 with a briefing of the committee staff no later than August 29th. Now, I don't know what happens if the DOJ just goes, no.

[Alison Gill]

Right.

[Dana Goldberg]

I don't.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah, right, let's talk about that. Because I mean, for the wonks who want to know which law this is, it's a hundred year old law. It's obscure, it's, it's Title 5, U.S. code, Section 2954, Information to Committees of Congress on request. And it's the five person rule. If you can get at least five people together from the Homeland Security Department and request something from the Department of Justice, they shall hand it over. They have to. Right. But they're just gonna ignore that. I'm. I'm imagining. I would assume so will not only.

[Dana Goldberg]

Ignore it, but Pam, Bonnie would be like, new phone. Who dis.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah, right.

[Dana Goldberg]

You up?

[Alison Gill]

Epstein files. I need him. So I think he's just gonna ignore it and then he'll probably drag Schumer through the mud for even asking. Right. Like what you fake. It's Democrats made it. It's a hoax. Hussein Obama made me do it or whatever. And so I imagine that they can sue. They have standing to sue under this law.

[Dana Goldberg]

Okay.

[Alison Gill]

And then it'll be really fun to watch the originalists and the textualists on the Supreme Court argue against a 100-year-old law that. Because it doesn't have anything to do with controlling women's bodies. Right.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah, no kidding.

[Alison Gill]

They only support hundred year old obscure laws that control women's bodies. So we'll see what happens. But hats off to the Dems on the Homeland Security Senate Committee.

[Dana Goldberg]

Absolutely.

[Alison Gill]

For doing this. It's creative. You know, we've been like, get creative, be weird, find obscure laws. They found one and they're going for it. So it's, you know, 0% chance it's going to succeed.

[Dana Goldberg]

No kidding.

[Alison Gill]

But it's a way to keep the pressure on. And this is kind of a shocker. This is from NBC. The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday actually declined the request from Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyers to grant her immunity in exchange for testifying to Congress. And you'll remember Maxwell's lawyer said in a letter on Tuesday after, after the two day meet and greet with Todd Blanche, Maxwell's lawyer sent a letter saying that Maxwell, as we know, associate of Jeffrey Epstein and fucking criminal sex trafficker, would be willing to testify if she received formal immunity alongside other requests, like four other things she wanted red M M's in my dressing room.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah.

[Alison Gill]

But a spokesperson for Oversight Committee Chairman Jim Comer said the committee would respond to the letter soon. But we're not going to grant congressional immunity for her testimony. Jim Comer shocked me. Jim fucking Comer.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yep. We'll see what kind of pressure comes down. There's going to be a meeting with Trump. If this motherfucker all of a sudden is like, all right, we're going to do it. I want a full investigation on what he got blackmailed for, what he got promised.

[Alison Gill]

Right. And so then in my mind I'm like, well, if Jim Comer doesn't want it, then Trump must not want it either. Like what I know what is going on there. Can't that can't just be he's doing the right thing.

[Dana Goldberg]

I mean, I think there's part of it is like they have the files. I mean, they don't have them in Congress. So they're going to compare her testimony. At some point they're going to have to say we need the files to compare the testimony she just gave us to see if she is lying under oath to Congress. Otherwise how else are we supposed to know?

[Alison Gill]

Yeah. And that's why she wants.

[Dana Goldberg]

And they're not going to want that to happen.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah. And that must be it, you know, but to just have not, have to wait for Democrats to Come back. And for comer to say no, I was like, all right, okay, yeah, but of course, my mind is like, why? What's in it for comer?

[Dana Goldberg]

Of course.

[Alison Gill]

But anyway, so that, that's sort of everything that's going on in the, in the Epstein universe today. And we do have a lot of other news to get to. We're going to have to do a whole block just on this stuff to get you the news. But we are going to hit the hot notes right after this quick break. Stick around. We'll be right back after these messages.

[Ben Sheehan]

We'll be right back.

[Alison Gill]

Hey, everybody. I used to wake up exhausted. No matter how early I went to bed. My back was stiff, my hips were aching, especially my hips because I'm a side sleeper. Most nights I would wake up sweating through the sheets. You know, menopause. I assumed it was just how sleep is supposed to feel when you're 51. But then I got my Helix mattress. Everything changed. Partnering with Helix made sense because they are the leaders in sleep technology and genuinely care about my comfort and yours too. My mattress changed everything for me starting the very first night because, you know, I use my Apple watch to track my sleep and my sleep scores were awful. But right after I got the Helix mattress, they started to trend up. Fewer wake ups, deeper sleep stages, lower variability in my heart rate overnight, which is important. I even stopped overheating. The temperature control on my mattress is amazing. And I no longer wake up drenched in sweat or kicking off the covers and then putting them back on and then putting one leg out. You know, forget all that. My back pain has also improved. My hip pain is gone. I used to dread getting out of bed in the morning, but now I wake up with no stiffness, no soreness. It makes a huge difference in how I conduct my day to day everything. And it's not just a better mattress, it's a better relationship with sleep. And I love sleep. I'm sharper, more patient, less anxious throughout the day because I'm finally getting rest that feels restorative. So if you deal with chronic pain, temperature issues, general restlessness, Helix can genuinely make a difference for you. And I'm proud to work with this brand for years now because they deliver on quality that helps people feel better in their bodies every day. So go to helixsleep.com dailybeans for 27% off site wide this is exclusive for daily beans listeners. That's helixsleep.com dailybeans for 27% off site w make sure to enter our show name after checkout. So they know that we sent you again. That's helixsleep.com dailybeans with Helix. Better sleep starts now. Everybody, welcome back. It's time for Hot notes. Hot notes. All right, first up from the Washington Post. With control of the narrowly divided U.S. house hanging in the balance in the 2026 midterm elections, Republicans in Texas on Wednesday unveiled their opening proposal to redraw new district boundaries that would give Republicans five more safely red seats. At the urging of Trump, the GOP led legislature, which has convened in a special session to draft the plans and address this summer's deadly flooding in the state, released the preliminary maps after days of contentious hearings. Their proposal set off a broader partisan dispute with some Democratic controlled states threatening to retaliate by adding more seats for the Democrats. I'm going to get to that in a minute. Put a pin in it, okay? The maps released Wednesday would tilt five districts now held by Democrats to Republicans. That would give Republicans a potential backstop for keeping control of the House, even if they perform poorly elsewhere in the midterm elections. Under the current maps, Republicans hold 25 of the 38 congressional districts. Under the new plan, they would likely win 30 out of 38. Trump won all 30 of the proposed districts by 10 points or more last year, making it extremely difficult for Democrats to win any of them. Four of the five potential GOP pickups have Hispanic majorities, and that's according to demographic information released by the state. Democratic controlled states like California, Illinois and New York are exploring options to retaliate by redrawing their own lines to give their party more House seats if Texas approves new maps. And Democrats, if you're listening, Democrats, if you want to get your approval rating out of the gutter, stop contemplating redrawing your lines. Stop exploring options. Show me the maps. And I appreciate Eric Swalwell saying we're going to pick up five in California if you do this. Texas don't do five. Don't go seat for seat. Blow them out of the water. We could get nine or 10 more.

[Dana Goldberg]

I think they should do this regardless. Right now, now is the time to save our democracy. If we get the House back, there's some semblance of balance back in this. Fucking do it. Whether Texas is going to do it or not, at this point, if it is not against the law and it's not unconstitutional, do it right.

[Alison Gill]

And if the Supreme Court says it's unconstitutional, then it's unconstitutional for Texas, too. And we're right back where we were.

[Dana Goldberg]

Exactly. Well said.

[Alison Gill]

So fucking do it. And then endorse Mom. Donnie, please, will you stop? Not you, Dana.

[Dana Goldberg]

The people.

[Alison Gill]

Like, come on, you guys. This is something that should be I. We should have the maps in our hands right now.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yep, absolutely.

[Alison Gill]

Newsom is saying we're going to do this. Hochul is saying we're going to, we're going to do this. Pritzker, I don't think he said it as strongly, but I don't want to hear your we're going to do this. Yeah, do it. Yeah. That will get, that will get you the cred. Democrats approval rating and their numbers will go through the roof if you do this.

[Dana Goldberg]

Totally agree. Absolutely agree.

[Alison Gill]

No, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

[Dana Goldberg]

By the way, this next story is from that left wing Marxist rag, the Wall Street Journal. You know how historically they're known to be that a Trump administration effort to block all funding that flows to outside health researchers. It was scrapped Tuesday evening after senior White House officials intervened. This is from people familiar with the matter. The funds, which is billions of dollars to study diabetes, cancer, a lot more, they're set to flow again. Really interesting. I wonder who pushed back on this. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier Tuesday that an initial pause had come in the form of a footnote from the Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vaught's office. Which surprises me. In a document that doles out federal funds to the National Institutes of Health, the footnote stipulated that the agency's funding for the remainder of the fiscal year could only go to staff salaries and expenses, not new grants or certain grants that are up for renewal. Most NIH funding research, it's done by outside scientists at labs across the country. Officials from the Department of Health and Human Services, they spent the past several days fighting the funding pause. People familiar with the matter. That's what they said. The OMB reversed course after the Journal story was published Tuesday. Now, the footnote put a Halt on roughly $15 billion in NIH funding. That's according to an estimate from the office of Senator Pat Murray, a Democrat in Washington and also the vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Vaught, who holds an expansive view of presidential power, has threatened in the past not to spend congressional appropriated funds, setting up tension between his office and lawmakers.

[Alison Gill]

Tension. Tension. Impeached Donald Trump because of it.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yep. He's been critical of certain research projects conducted by the NIH previously, noting that many of the efforts don't fit with the administration's policy views.

[Alison Gill]

Tension. I mean, sometimes the Wall Street Journal is going to Wall Street Journal tension. We impeached him for impounding Ukraine funds. And this is interesting to me, the fact that some White House officials made him change course. I know because the initial headline, I had it here in my notes, but it changed between the time I, you know, when I, when I write the shows and I get ready to research, I see a story, I grab it, I copy the link and I put it, I drop it in my notes and, and the story that's in the notes says, let's see, Wall Street Journal, Trump Administration puts New Chokehold on Billions in Health Research Funding. But by the time I got to writing the story, within 12 hours, the headline changed. When I click on it and open it up, the new headline is, Trump Administration Scraps Effort to Polish Health Research Funding. So in that short amount of time, Dana, somebody like you said at the White House, changed direction. And that's bizarre. Makes me wonder, are there, I mean, obviously not a lot, but are there some adults in the room? Makes you wonder.

[Dana Goldberg]

I know we thought that there was no guardrails, but it seems like maybe there's some, I don't know, bowling bumpers that people are putting up.

[Alison Gill]

Bowling bumpers is perfect because little training wheels. Because, you know, I've been watching this thing with Fed chair Jerome Powell. You all saw the viral video of him correcting Donald Trump on the $3.1 billion.

[Dana Goldberg]

It was glorious. I watched it on loop.

[Alison Gill]

Yes. I've watched it like 12 times. It brings me so much joy in these dark times. But I've been watching this because, you know, Trump wants to fire him. Trump wants to cut interest rates. Right. So that he and his billionaire buddies who just got a massive tax break can borrow for nothing.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah.

[Alison Gill]

And spend other people's money. Okay? So I'm like, he wants to fire him. But recently SCOTUS said, and I think it was in the Consumer Protection Commission case, said as a side note, one of the conservatives said, you know, this isn't like the Fed, the Federal Reserve. You can't just fire these people. Like they kind of hinted at the fact that the Supreme Court would not be down for Trump firing a Fed chair. And so what, like he can with the Merit Systems Protection Board and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, that kind of stuff. Right? These multi member boards, they, the Supreme Court specifically said that. And so it seems like somebody told Trump, no, bro, you can't do this. You can't fire the Fed chair. So I think what he's doing, Dana, this Horowitz guy, this inspector general that flubbed the Epstein 2023 jail video report. The one who sat on the Emil Bovey whistleblower report and didn't turn it into Congress. That a hole he has left recently the Justice Department and he is now at the Federal Reserve as their watchdog. Wow. So I think Trump now was moving him as an insider because I think Trump wants to investigate the $3.1 billion buildings and the waste and the fraud and abuse. And I think he was trying to set that up in that video with Jerome Powell. And Jerome Powell's like, no, no, you're wrong. Look, it says right here, that's a five year old building. Shut the fuck up. So I think that that's what this is about. I think he's trying to, that makes.

[Dana Goldberg]

I mean that tracks.

[Alison Gill]

I think he's trying to get a, get cause to fire Jerome Powell through an investigation by Michael Horowitz, his lap dog Inspector general who he just moved to the Fed Reserve. Anyway, tinfoil hat time. Let's move on. Democracy docket says a dozen House Democrats have sued Donald Trump and the administration officials Wednesday alleging that U.S. immigration and Customs Enforcement has prevented them from conducting oversight of federal immigration detention facilities, AKA concentration camps. AK Dermot Camps, you and I've been talking about these representatives who have not been allowed in. The lawmakers represented by Democracy Forward argued in their suit that the Trump administration is encroaching on their constitutional authority to conduct oversight in the executive branch. Quote, defendants have denied each plaintiff crucial information needed to conduct oversight on at least one occasion, but in many instances on multiple occasions by obstructing a requested or attempted oversight visit to a DHS facility where non citizens are detained or otherwise housed. That's what the lawsuit says. And it comes after dhs, which is ISIS parent agency, has taken steps to limit lawmakers ability to conduct oversight. Remember, they want a 72 hour notice or a one week notice or whatever.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah.

[Alison Gill]

So this was filed in D.C. in the District Court and it demands that Trump officials comply with federal laws that prohibit DHS and its sub agencies from denying Congress access to facilities that it operates and uses to hold undocumented immigrants while they're conducting their oversight. Quote, the obstruction of congressional oversight is not just an affront to the Constitution, it's a threat to our democracy. That's what Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Adriano Espiat. Am I saying that right? I think said in a statement, If I'm not, send me a correction. The congressman added that the Trump administration has created the perfect storm for abuse and impunity by putting internal watchdogs in executive branch agencies. And the Trump administration has not only denied entry to the lawmakers it arrested, for example, Representative Lamonica McIver when she was attempting to conduct oversight on ICE facilities. And Mayor Ras Baraka, too, who, by the way, is now suing the shit out of them. As a result of Trump's mass deportation efforts, ICE is holding a record number of people in facilities across the US last month, it held almost 60,000 people, indicating that its facilities were 40% over capacity. That's according to an internal government data set obtained by CBS News last month. And that's what the this government is reporting. But they could be lying to boost their numbers. But still, it's we're way over capacity. And the record numbers have been accompanied by growing reports of mistreatment and overcrowding, unsanitary conditions inside the facilities, including those that hold children. So we'll see where this lawsuit goes. But it's good to know that members of the Senate or members of the House can sue the administration. We'll see if they're standing.

[Dana Goldberg]

This next story surprised me. A little disappointing, but also all right, what's next? This is from the Post. Kamala Harris is not going to be running for governor of California next year. She announced this on Wednesday. They think she's leaving the door open for another White house bid in 2028 as the former vice president considers her political future following her loss to Trump last fall. Harris has kept her counsel close for months as she weighed whether to enter the crowded field of contenders who are vying to replace term limited Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. The Oakland native returned to her home state in January after attending the inauguration of Trump, who she faced in 2024 after Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race and backed her as his successor. Having ruled out a run for governor, Harris is exploring the prospects of forming new groups to keep her involved in politics and positioned to advocate for the idea she championed during the 2024 campaign. I like this, she said, and I quote, over the past six months I have spent time reflecting on this moment in our nation's history and the best way for me to continue fighting for the American people and advancing the values and ideals I hold dear. This is what Harris said, and she went on to say, I'm a devout public servant and from the earliest days of my career I believe that the best way I could make a difference in people's lives and fight for a better future was to improve the system from within. And it's been a profound honor to do that work and serve the people of California and our nation as prosecutor, attorney general, United States Senator, and vice president. I love the state, its people, and its promise. It is my home. But after deep reflection, I've decided that I will not run for governor in this election. That's what she said in a statement. For now, my leadership and public service will not be in elected office. Harris added to that statement. She said, I look forward to getting back out and listening to the American people, helping elect Democrats across the nation who will fight fearlessly and sharing more details in the months ahead about my own plans in the immediate future. Harris is most focused on potentially writing a book and building out a new organization that would allow her to travel the country ahead of the 2020, 26 midterms to try to help Democrats regain control of the U.S. house. When it comes to her potential advocacy and policy work, her confidants said she is particularly interested in focusing on the issues that Gen Z Americans are facing and the future of work in a world that could be dominated by artificial intelligence.

[Alison Gill]

All right, so I like this. She's saying, look, I think I can do more for democracy from the outside.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah.

[Alison Gill]

Because if she runs for governor, that's all she'll be doing.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah.

[Alison Gill]

So that's interesting. I respect whatever decision she made. I'd be like, fuck y'. All. Bye, peas. You know, like, yeah, no. So, I mean, God, I just.

[Dana Goldberg]

I'm. I just had flashbacks of these stadiums in the DNC and then Trump's fucking pathetic rallies, and it just makes my blood boil because I just don't believe everything was free and. And I don't know why. I do know why. I don't know. It's coincidence that it's happened to the two powerful women that were running against him. You know what I mean? Because I think it would look. It would be a better look for the country if it had happened to two white men. Meaning that we wouldn't look so misogynistic. We would look at it as, okay, maybe something nefarious happened.

[Alison Gill]

Bad people don't care what that looks like. Right, Right.

[Dana Goldberg]

I know. I just. Man, when I look back at that, the joy and the power and the momentum and everything, and there were some mistakes made, but she had a hundred days. There wasn't a lot of Runway, and she landed a fucking jet liner on a really short Runway. So anyway, I'm just.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah, when you were saying, as a senator, as a prosecutor, as a. I was like, I was it. That speech. I was seeing it in my Head.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah.

[Alison Gill]

And I was. Remember when you and I went to the convention and.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah.

[Alison Gill]

What about us? And we.

[Dana Goldberg]

It was electric. Electric.

[Alison Gill]

Best time. Those were the times of my life. Okay, all right. Talk about this because, you know, that whole campaign was incredible. And it was about motivating people to do something. So let's get into some good trouble. What are you guys doing? All right, so this is something I stumbled upon on my own. Dana. We have something here in San Diego called the Social study. These are 60 minute lectures in bars with professors and researchers and storytellers. Small room, good drinks, big ideas. Teachers leading researchers, authors, industry experts deliver engaging thought provoking talks. Kind of like TED talks, but in a bar. No PowerPoints, just insight. And events are held across San Diego in breweries, bars, other laid back spots. And I was thinking I would love to encourage all of y' all to start your own social study where you live. Nice.

[Dana Goldberg]

That's a great idea.

[Alison Gill]

So. And you can get ideas and best practices and stuff on their Instagram. It's at thesocial study. And it's just the coolest thing. It feels like an underground. Like we're learning and we're learning how to be critical thinkers to push back against fascism in laid back bars and breweries around the country. While, you know, I don't know, it just seems super cool to me. It seemed raconteur. It seemed sabotage y in a way.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah.

[Alison Gill]

And so check it out again. It's the social study. It's a San Diego thing. And maybe you can start one where you live and they just go around to different cool breweries and everybody shows up and learns something.

[Dana Goldberg]

Anyway, sounds pretty incredible to me.

[Alison Gill]

That's your good trouble. All right, we're going to be right back with Ben. He's going to talk to us about the PBS show about civics. You don't want to miss this. And then we'll do some good news. Stick around. We'll be right back. All right, everybody, welcome back. I found the coolest thing ever. You have to share it with your family. You have to share it with your friends. And joining us today is the host of this new show on PBS called Civics Made Easy. It's a 12 episode series and it covers the basics of American government, like Schoolhouse Rock for adults. Please welcome the host, Ben Sheehan. Hi, Ben, how are you?

[Ben Sheehan]

Hi, Alison. Thanks for having me.

[Alison Gill]

First of all, I love Schoolhouse Rock. I grew up on it. And I think it's really important that people get kind of basic civics lessons because of you. Know things that are going on in schools and book bannings and whatnot, trying to, I guess, tamp out critical thinkers here in the United States and try, you know, defunding things like PBS and npr, you know, because of the important work like this that you do. Talk about what made you want to start this show?

[Ben Sheehan]

So I grew up in Washington, D.C. and I had family members who worked in and with the government. And over dinner every night, I would get these mini civics lessons. I would have a. My mom would draw the capital on a napkin and put the number 100 on one side and 435 on the other. I'd get these little mini lessons about Congress and the president and checks and balances and basically how things work. And it wasn't until much later in my life that I realized that not only is that particularly rare, but we also don't teach civics and government as much as we used to in our schools. In fact, today only seven states require at least one year of civics or government at some point between kindergarten and 12th grade. So for at least a couple decades, we've been graduating people who know less about how the government works than our parents and grandparents did when they got lots of civics classes in the 40s and 50s and 60s. So I would have friends over the years coming up to me and ask me questions, and I would speak at an event, you know, some sort of panel, and there would be an opportunity for people to ask questions, and nobody raised their hand. And then afterward, there tons of people will come up to me and ask me questions one on one. And it's because they felt embarrassed about not knowing these things, and they didn't want to be publicly shamed or feel stupid for not knowing something. So I want to tell people that it is not your fault for not knowing how government works. Unless you had a parent who happened to work in the government and would give you lessons over the dinner table, odds are you got either no civics classes a half year or at best, a year in schools. So don't feel ashamed for not knowing this. And so I wanted to create a resources for adults to all catch up together, to admit that it's okay that we don't know this stuff, that we don't teach it as much as we should. So let's get caught up together so that we can exercise our power as citizens.

[Alison Gill]

That's so awesome. I remember it wasn't long ago, it was after the first Trump election when I decided to look up what the citizenship test test was like, because there was a lot of, you know, talk about, oh, you couldn't pass a citizenship test, etc. It's a hard test. And I think that me thinking it's a hard test is because, like you said, we just don't get the kind of civics education that we used to get. And even, you know, when I was in grade school, which was in the 80s, we still didn't get, like, full civics lessons. And I know that there's tons of people and sometimes I'm a little envious of them who maybe don't even know what the Third Circuit Court of Appeals is or does. And yesterday I was kind of wishing I was one of those people because of what happened with Emil Bovey. But, you know, I think it's so important that we make sure we don't talk down to people for not knowing stuff, because I think that pushes people away.

[Ben Sheehan]

I agree. And you know, just to make a point about your bringing up of the civics test, only a third of people born in the United States can pass the civics test, the same test that 100% of people have to pass to become naturalized citizens. And I do think that there's something a little bit more insidious behind us not teaching civics in government. I think it's a form of voter suppression. And I think that we spend a lot of time talking about voter suppression in the sense of, oh, there are people who are having their names removed from voter rolls or polling places, have too few voting machines, or they're moving places at the last second, or it's harder to register, or even at the. The end of the, you know, supply chain of voting. Right. When we talk about gerrymandering, once your vote is actually cast, there are ways to make it count less. But I think the most insidious form is not teaching people why they should care in the first place and not teaching them how to affect the government and not teaching them how the government actually affects them. Because then you have people who are just disinterested and tune out and don't pay attention and don't get involved. And this system that we have in the United States only works if more people participate. It's a numbers game. You know, people can get as civically engaged and can vote as often as they're legally allowed to and get as engaged as they want. But ultimately the power comes from the more people who are involved.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah, I totally agree. I remember I wrote up a thread on some social media site probably right before the 2020 election, talking about voter suppression and how, you know, there's overt voter suppression, you know, scary people with guns hanging out at the polls and. And things like that. But like you said to me, the most insidious kind of voter suppression is the billion dollar industry of making people think that their votes don't matter when they absolutely do. And then we see, you know, we lost the house by what, 7,700 votes or something in this last election. So I think that that is such an important message and such an important way to deliver it. In your show, how do you make sure that you're not, like, talking at people, that you're speaking with people? Because that's something that I noticed that I thought was super important.

[Ben Sheehan]

I start by. Every episode starts with me talking to people on the street and asking them questions about what they know about a certain topic. One thing is that because it's on pbs, it's nonpartisan, so there's no endorsing of a specific ideology. I present both sides of what, you know, for example, the Electoral College episode, I don't give my own opinion on it. I give people's opinion who like the Electoral College, people's opinion who don't like the Electoral College. I give the history of how it came to be, which you can't really dispute because we have all the notes from the Constitutional Convention. We know what they thought of it, by the way, most of the people at the convention didn't even like the Electoral College. This was like a compromise. That was one of the last things they decided. Nobody was really happy with it. But I think that, you know, just playing it down the middle and straight and trying to simplify things without dumbing it down. I think that a lot of times, civics and government politics are discussed at a really heady level, and people will try to talk about it in a way that makes them sound really impressive with lots of big words in legal terms. But I just want to find a way to present it so that it is as accessible as possible, so that people feel like they have very minimal barriers to entry. Because, again, this system of government only works when you have people participate en masse.

[Alison Gill]

And do you find that when you do explain the facts and the history of, like, say, the Electoral College, do you find people are surprised or do you find, like, I don't know, you know, when you're talking to folks in the street, I mean, civics, engagement and democracy these days tends to come down on one side of the aisle. So I know you say you're Playing it down the middle. But we're living in a world where facts are somehow leftist things now. So what have you noticed when you maybe tell people the history, for example, of the Electoral College, Are they like, oh, wow, I didn't know that.

[Ben Sheehan]

Yeah, well, I'd sort of just explain, you know, what. What led to it. And it was, you know, for most of the convention, Congress was going to pick the President. That was the method they decided on. And then as it got closer to the end of the convention, they thought, well, if the Congress is picking the president, then the President probably isn't going to veto a whole lot of bills if they rely on Congress for their job, so maybe we should come up with a different way. So they thought about maybe state legislatures would pick the President. Maybe it would be a popular vote. That got a big reaction because a lot of people didn't want you and I to vote for president. They didn't think we had the information and the wherewithal to make a good choice. We weren't, you know, men of the highest echelons in society. And so that's really who they wanted to be, these electors, which was the compromise they came up with. And then obviously, the Electoral College has a tie to slavery. The reason that Southern states went along with the Electoral College as the method of picking the president was because they got representation in the Electoral College based on their number of enslaved people. And, you know, one of the preeminent scholars on the Constitution, a guy named Akil Reed Amar at Yale, points out that Thomas Jefferson won in 1800, the initial round of Electoral College voting by a smaller margin than the electoral votes he got from. From Southern states just based on their population of slaves. So this was a part of the reason that Southern states went along with it. So that's the darker part of the compromise. But even so, the way it was designed just isn't the way we use it today, because now we tie it to a popular vote. And the electors of that, the party of the winning candidate, are the ones who cast the votes. And they usually have to follow how their state votes, which is a much different system of how it was designed. In fact, the people at the convention who were still alive when we started to do this in the 1820s and 30s were horrified. They were like, what are you doing? Don't let people be able to dictate this. We're trying to have electors so that they don't vote how the ordinary average person votes. So that is just the real history. But the one thing I'll add is that when you isolate issues from the politics and just present it simply as do you think it is fair that billionaires have the ability to spend unlimited money when it comes to influencing our elections? You'll often get a strong agreement across the ideological spectrum, at least among voters, maybe not among billionaires that know they don't like these types of things.

[Alison Gill]

And just, you know, before I let you go, is that were there any other topics that you covered that got a lot of feedback, negative or positive, that stood out to you as something that people are at least very interested in, no matter what side they came down on?

[Ben Sheehan]

There's definitely the the filibuster was a fascinating episode. Taxing and spending was another. And then political parties, just the history of political parties, how we got a two party system, how are the way. How can we add methods to our elections that make third parties independent candidates more competitive? You know, these sort of things that we take for granted. But when you go back and look, they're not in our Constitution, they're not written down in any federal law. It really is up to a bunch of different states have massive amounts of control over our elections. And so I think people really not just need to familiarize themselves with the US Constitution, but also their state's constitution because so much of what dictates their life is in there. And as a document we really don't spend a lot of time thinking about. And it's also a document in many states that we have the ability to change. It's a lot easier to change that than it is the federal Constitution.

[Alison Gill]

That's very true. And my final question is about possible pushback you might get. Every year I think NPR reads the Declaration of Independence on public radio and there's a lot of pushback from certain voting blocs saying get this woke stuff off my radio, et cetera. Do you find any of that kind of pushback when you're just giving the facts, or has it been mostly positive so far?

[Ben Sheehan]

It's been mostly positive. Obviously you have a few trolls in the YouTube comments saying things like glad you were defunded or whatever, but I.

[Alison Gill]

Never read the YouTube comments.

[Ben Sheehan]

Never read the YouTube comments. I know that's lesson one that I violate, but I've been really surprised and encouraged by the fact that I would try really hard just to give the information, represent both perspectives. I also have an advisory committee that makes sure it's not coming off too biased. And so I've been really happy with the reception so far. There are some topics that are Going to make people angry. There's nothing I can do about that. But so far the reception has been positive.

[Alison Gill]

Oh, that's wonderful. Would you tell everybody where they can find the series? Because a lot of listeners to this podcast are often like, look, I've got a maga uncle or a my dad or I've lost my dad to Fox News or whatever. And I think that these sort of talking with people instead of talking at them sort of civic lessons could be extremely helpful for sharing that kind of information. So could you tell everybody where they can find this show and follow you and the show?

[Ben Sheehan]

Sure. So what's great is that the episodes are short, they're only 10 minutes long. And you can find them on YouTube, on PBS's main YouTube channel. You can find it on the PBS app and on PBS.org and then you can follow me on social media. My handle on Instagram is En Sheehan, my name. And then I also write a substack called Politics Made Easy where I try to distill the issues of the day as simply as possible for people to grasp.

[Alison Gill]

Oh, that's so fantastic. Thank you for the work that you're doing. And if you know everybody, definitely check out these shows. Support pbs, support your local stations and, you know, let's keep trying to educate everybody as best we can. So thank you again for your time and thank you so much, everybody. Ben Sheehan, everybody. Stick around. We're going to be right back with the good news, Everybody, welcome back. It's time for the good news, everyone.

[Dana Goldberg]

Then. Good news, everyone.

[Alison Gill]

And if you have any good news confessions corrections, especially pronunciation corrections, I know I got a lot of stuff wrong. You can send that to us if you have a shout out, any, any shout out to yourself. Something happy, something great that happened, even no matter how small, it really makes a difference for other people to hear. You can really brighten somebody's day, I promise you. Brighten mine all the time. So shout outs to loved ones, small businesses in your area, great activism. You're seeing maybe a rally you've been to. You want to share some signs? We would love to see that, what you're making and what you're creating. I know we have a lot of makers and creators that listen to this show. I'd love to see some photos of that. If you have a shout out to a government program that's helped you or a loved one, we would love to hear that too. And all you got to do to get your stuff right on the air is pay your pod pet tariff, which Means attach a photo of your pet. If you don't have that, you can attach a photo of an adoptable pet in your area. We'll see if we can find him a home. If you don't have that, really, just grab a random photo off the Internet. We love baby animals, right, Dana?

[Dana Goldberg]

We really do. Otters, pandas, anything. Any baby animal actually makes me very joyful.

[Alison Gill]

Yes. And then, of course, family photos, if you have any. If you want to share that with us. Baby pictures. Your baby pictures, if you have some. Awkward. Family photos are always fun. Bird watching you and your friends flipping off trump properties and musk properties, even pillow man properties. We want to see it all. Send it to us dailybeanspod.com. click on contact first. Chris from Tacoma. I love Tacoma. Have you been, Dana?

[Dana Goldberg]

Oh, yeah.

[Alison Gill]

Oh, my gosh. That high school where they filmed 10 Things I Hate about you. It's a public high school.

[Dana Goldberg]

It's crazy that public school kids got fucked.

[Alison Gill]

So cool. All right, this is a shout out to a government program and some good news. Like, Dana, I am not 50 yet.

[Dana Goldberg]

Thank you, Chris, for acknowledging that. I appreciate you very much.

[Alison Gill]

You guys. Fuck you all. And when I had my first mammogram in May, a tumor was found in my right breast. I had surgery in July, and not only was I able to stay home and still get paid for two weeks under Washington State's pfmla, but so was my husband in order to take care of me.

[Dana Goldberg]

That's amazing.

[Alison Gill]

My good news is I just had my last radiation treatment today, and I'm officially cancer free.

[Dana Goldberg]

I hope you rang that bell, my friend.

[Alison Gill]

Just a reminder to all, do not put off your cancer screenings, exclamation point. My pod pet taxes, my little nurses after they had their first professional baths. And the acorn squash that may take over my entire garden.

[Dana Goldberg]

Oh, my God, how cute. And I just realized I said something that I don't even know is true. I realized when people finish chemo, you ring the bell when you finish chemo and you're cancer free. And I guess I'm wondering if you do that same thing after radiation when you're cancer free. Someone write in and tell me softly and gently if I was.

[Alison Gill]

I wonder.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah, I'm curious.

[Alison Gill]

I wonder. Look at these handsome.

[Dana Goldberg]

Oh, the pugs.

[Alison Gill]

They're so cute. Oh, my gosh. This reminds me so much of Sarah and Ian. And they're.

[Dana Goldberg]

Oh, my gosh. Yes.

[Alison Gill]

Oh, they're so great. Oh, obviously pugs. They put them.

[Dana Goldberg]

There we go. We got another one.

[Ben Sheehan]

We Got another one.

[Alison Gill]

We got it right. I wasn't even trying.

[Dana Goldberg]

That's right. I don't mean to brag, but look at that. All right, this is from anonymous pronoun. She and her. The other day, lovely listener shared information about a hidden disease that you might know. Excuse me. That you not. Not. Wow. Dana, listen, everyone's in a moment gets tied. Everyone. Which is embarrassing for a lesbian. But the other day, a lovely listener shared information about a hidden disease that you might not know about. It inspired me to share another and in part share good news too. My son was born in 2014 and I had really strange issues immediately. They were all innocuous enough that his pediatrician just brushed a lot aside. He didn't sleep longer than two hours at a time, had issues with nursing, showed a lot of signs of reflux. Nothing really helped. He also had very weird skin rashes, usually on his face. Fast forward to age, approximately 15 months. He started having a new symptom, one that filled multiple diapers throughout the day. I'll spare you with the shitty details, but know that word is appropriate. He stopped eating and he started losing weight. We saw multiple pediatric GIs and kept hearing that he would just outgrow his issues. One even said that I, and I quote, fed him too healthy and maybe take him to McDonald's once in a while.

[Alison Gill]

Excuse me.

[Dana Goldberg]

All the while, as a toddler, he was in a lot of stomach pain.

[Alison Gill]

Poor baby.

[Dana Goldberg]

In 2017, when he was three and a half, we moved across the country. After explaining his issues for what felt like the 14 millionth time in his short little life, a doctor finally took us seriously. First we discover that he had dysphagia, meaning liquid was leaking into his lungs when he was drinking. He also referred us to Cincinnati's Children's Hospital. There we finally received an actual diagnosis and treatment. Our lives changed significantly that day and we discovered his rare disease. His diagnosis is eosinophilic gastrointestinitis. Wow. That wasn't even close. That was close.

[Alison Gill]

Gastrointesturitis and it's eosinophilic gastroenteritis.

[Dana Goldberg]

Thank you. Gastroenteritis and mast cell activation disorder. These are mainly found via scopes and biopsy. Eos diseases are more widely known for eosinophilic esophagitis. But there is actually a whole network of issues that can continue down through the GI tract. They're difficult to treat, but because of the incredible work of Cincinnati's Children's Hospital at an amazing patient run organization called Cured C U R E D There have been multiple advances in treatment in just the past few years. These illnesses tend to wax and wane, but thankfully we've been without a flare in over a year. My son might need medication forever, or might not. We don't know. But what I do know is that he is healthy, amazing, incredible kid. He is today because one doctor said we're not doing right by him. In the rare disease world, there's a saying that, quote, when doctors hear hooves, they think horses, but sometimes it's zebras. My son is a zebra, and because of an incredible work being done in places like Cincinnati, he's a flourishing one. What a great sentence. If you, your kid or someone in your orbit is having severe GI issues, ensure their biopsies are examined for eosinophils and mast cells. We're learning more and more that this is much less rare than it might seem. I do firmly believe most doctors are doing their best, but medicine is constantly changing. Being your own advocate pays off in spades. Don't hesitate to stand up for yourself or your child. I'm enclosing a pic of our incredible kid as a baby and his dog, Ozzy. Ozzy is pretty gross and stinky, but my son's love for him is limitless. Just another reason he's the coolest kid I know and oh my God, Ozzy and this baby and I just want to apologize to anyone in the medical field for butchering of those words. Allison had to help me several times.

[Alison Gill]

It's. Oh, I know. It's only. I only worked in hospitals for like over a decade. That's why.

[Dana Goldberg]

Oh I. That's. I was like, why do you know those? But that makes total sense now.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah, I was in the medical field before I became a well known podcaster and comedian. Yeah, I had a PhD in public health and I worked for the Department of Veterans affairs for over a decade. Got it before Trump kicked me out. So these photos are fantastic and thank you so much for that. Anonymous and anybody if you have, if you've ever had to advocate for yourself or a loved one in medicine, we want to hear about that. Because I think these stories are powerful and I just learned a ton just reading this. So thank you so much for that. Next up from Nick Pronouns he and him hello, AG and dg. Over Memorial Day weekend, we lost our beloved half corgi, half mini Aussie cookie. Grr. The Wonder asshole had never been without a canine companion before. And while he seemed okay at first, first, we eventually noticed he was no longer his usual lively fridge thieving self. We realized we had to do something to help him. So on July 19th we made a roughly three hour round trip, still a somewhat casual jaunt by South Dakota standards, to pick up a nine week old puppy to mend Gur's seemingly broken heart. Leguma Verse I present Ozzy. His full name is Ozzy Osbone, Prince of Barknos. Thank you Andy McCabe. I also present him as a what the mutt. He definitely lifted Gur's stubby legged spirits immediately upon introduction and now they regularly drive us up the wall with all their barking together. He's still at the very wiggly hyperactive puppy stage, so he can be difficult to get a good picture of. So also included is a picture of Megatron's paw and claws relative to my left index finger. Keep up the good fight because the good fight is the only one worth participating in. They're so sorry by the way. Yeah, about Cookie, but look at Ozzy. Oh my God, how cute. I. I can't even think like we.

[Dana Goldberg]

Know the one in the back is a corgi, right? We're not trying to guess that one.

[Alison Gill]

That's Ger Ba Ozzy here. A Portuguese water dog, maybe? Maybe Newfoundland? Schnauzer, Giant Schnauzer?

[Dana Goldberg]

I actually don't know, but the dog's adorable.

[Alison Gill]

He's a half corgi, half poodle.

[Dana Goldberg]

Oh my God, that must have been the cutest goddamn puppy on the planet.

[Alison Gill]

Coodle. He's a. He's a kitten caboodle. Oh my God. He's adorable.

[Dana Goldberg]

Oh my gosh. This is. Thank you for this. Thank you, thank you. Oh my God. This next one's from anonymous pronoun she and her hi, longtime listener, first time messenger here. First, I just want to thank you both for your helping to in trying to keep me sane while living through a single dumbest fall into fascism in recent history. My good news is small, but it's something I think I'm originally from a moderate sized suburb in Texas, but I have spent almost two decades living in New York City. Even when I was in school in Texas, I was always far more more progressive than majority of those around me. As a result, the last decade of evil Republican nonsense has ended a lot of social media friendships from my childhood because I'm not necessarily what you'd call.

[Alison Gill]

Quiet about my opinions upside down smiley face.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yep, since this new reception situation, someone I knew in middle school and had long ago written off a and hopelessly GOP had started liking responding and reposting A lot of my political posts on Instagram. Again, it doesn't seem like much, but to me, seeing someone who has historically had an ass backwards view of our democracy suddenly having a turnaround is huge. For my tariff, I've added two pictures. One is of my perfect dogs who are troublemakers and also the most wonderful. The little one, Duncan is sweet as can be, but has maybe three little brain cells ricocheting off each other in his adorable little head, while Portia, my beauty queen, is incredibly intelligent and empathetic. You're welcome to try to guess Duncan's breed, but you'll probably be about as right as I am. Okay, well, now we know he's half King Charles cavalier and half. We don't know. Portia's at a blue nose. Oh, Izzy. Blue nose Staffie. My other picture is from Trump's first impeachment day in 2019. I was at the time taking a Somalier course across the street from Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue and just had an overwhelming need to let him know how I felt. Thank you so much. Keep up the good trouble. All the babies. Look at these dogs.

[Alison Gill]

Oh, blue nose. And. Oh, yeah, I guess it does look like a King Charles, but also sort of like a little boxer. Adorable. Anyway, and that is a mighty middle finger you have.

[Dana Goldberg]

I was just about to say the same thing. I was like, is that a Hebrew National? Like, it definitely looks like a cigar, right? Yeah. The length of a barbecue hot dog. Hebrew National.

[Alison Gill]

Is that kosher? Oh, my gosh. That's fantastic. And very cool. Taking a sommelier course.

[Dana Goldberg]

I was thinking the same thing.

[Alison Gill]

I said I want to do that. All right, thank you so much for that. Next up, Anonymous. She, her. Hi, Agdg and the behind the Beans Crew. I want to shout out an organization I volunteer with here in Knoxville, Tennessee. It's called the Fabric Workshop, and it's a huge community resource. The workshop operates out of a room in the South Knoxville Community Center. We take an unwanted fabric notions, sewing machines, yarn patterns. Really anything sewing or fiber arts related. We cook the donations. Bedbugs are no joke. And then we make them available to the community at no charge. Our customers are creative people from every demographic in the city. We see everyone from super specialized fiber artists to church pageant customer designers to high school kids making clothes they feel comfortable in, and lots and lots of quilters. We hold classes where people can learn to sew, knit, or crochet, as well as shows to display our community's breathtaking creativity. Everything we do, we do for free. We're 100 volunteer run and our space is donated by the city. That's cool. That is cool. We organize on Facebook. There'll be a link in the show notes. Photo tax. When I heard you all yipping this morning. Yep, yep, yep. I knew I had to send a photo of my friend arriving at a Halloween party.

[Dana Goldberg]

Stop it. This is so good.

[Alison Gill]

I love the yips. And I love all y' all the beans. I've been listening since the kitchen table days. Oh, my God. Okay.

[Dana Goldberg]

I love this human being.

[Alison Gill]

All right, so if you're not a patron, I don't think you can see the pictures. If you want to become a patron, do it now. It's.

[Dana Goldberg]

It's worth the 3 bucks for just.

[Alison Gill]

Photo alone to see this photo. Patreon.com melisserote but I will describe it to you. It is a red sports car. T top. Okay. And in it is a red yip.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yep.

[Alison Gill]

Driving.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.

[Alison Gill]

Sports car.

[Dana Goldberg]

It's so good.

[Alison Gill]

Vroom. Oh, my gosh. This is incredible. I love the yips, too. Thank you so much. Anonymous.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yep. This one's from Stacy Pronoun. She and her hi beans Queens. You had asked if we had any info on people who have changed their minds on politics. Our kids threw my husband a surprise 65th birthday party. It was great because our friends traveled to our retirement town. One of our friends who I went to college with and I knew didn't agree with me politically. They came in the past. I listened to her and her husband put down Obama, et cetera. Anyway, she pulled me aside at the party and asked me to look at her bracelet, and it said fuck Trump. She told me she made the bracelet and would happily send me one. She's been liking my political posts lately, which surprised me, but this confirmed her full conversion. She told me she hates Trump and wakes up each morning hoping he's gone. She told me even though she is very conservative, she'd rather vote for AOC than Trump. I was blown away. Her husband hasn't converted. She told me he thinks she's hysterical, but I'll take the small steps. This actually made my week. I'm including me at our Virginia beach family first protest at the sweltering heat last Saturday. Also, our pup, who doesn't look like a husky except his eyes, but his personality is 100% husky. Oh, my God, this dog's cute. I bet it's like a husky beagle mix or something.

[Alison Gill]

Something, right? Huskies are just. They're so funny. Oh, God, they're so funny clowns to me. Oh my gosh, look at this rally. Hell yeah.

[Dana Goldberg]

Love it.

[Alison Gill]

Yes. If you have a story about a conversion, somebody who's left the cult let us know about it. That this gives me a little bit of hope. This makes me feel good. This is microdosing hope. This is exactly what we need. This is why we do the good news, people. So thank you so much for your submissions. If you have anything you want to send to us, send it to [e-mail] click on Contact. Please become a patron if you're able. If you can swing it. Patreon.com militiarote we could use all the support we get these days. And that's our show for today. Like I said, I was feeling feisty today. Dana.

[Dana Goldberg]

I love it.

[Alison Gill]

Any final thoughts, my good friend? Nah, nah. We'll be back in your ears tomorrow. Plenty of time for that. Until then, please take care of yourselves, take care of 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.