Podcast
The Lincoln Project
Hosted by The Lincoln Project · EN
The creators of the most watched and talked-about ad content in the political/cultural sphere, THE LINCOLN PROJECT, and co-founder/host Rick Wilson, have a reputation for saying the things others are afraid to say.
Headed up by LP's notorious creative team, THE LINCOLN PROJECT podcast features a range of special guests, from leading political minds to the hottest pop-culture icons. Broadening the subject matter beyond politics and making the conversation more relatable to everyone, The Lincoln Project podcast’s mission is to reignite the political flame in every American and break down the biggest topics of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
99episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Trump Could Not Stand Up. Blanche Could Not Shut Up.
3d ago00:37:36Tap to summarizeTwo acts, one circus. Part one: Trump shuffled out last night, grabbed the podium like it was the only thing keeping him upright, and delivered a low-energy, incoherent rerun of his greatest 2020 grievances. And here's the thing — it doesn't matter what he said or how badly he said it. The speech had exactly one job: to poison the well before the 2026 election, to get millions of Americans primed to distrust the results months before a single vote is cast. It wasn't a rant. It was a pre-game. Rick Wilson breaks down why the incoherence is the point, and why the "rigged" groundwork being laid right now should have every one of us paying attention.Part two: enter Todd Blanche, stumbling through an AG confirmation hearing that played like an audition for a job he'd already promised to somebody else. He dodged and dissembled on the Epstein files, made a spectacle of himself under basic questioning, and then — in a Freudian slip for the ages — referred to himself as "Trump's lawyer." Which, let's be honest, is the truest thing anyone said all day. Rick digs into what it means when the person up for the nation's top law enforcement job can't stop admitting who he actually works for. Grab a drink. You'll need it.•••••Rick Wilson is @TheRickWilson on socials and on Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and on X @ProjectLincoln.#Trump #ToddBlanche #Epstein #Election2026 #ElectionIntegrity #RickWilson #LincolnProject #ElephantInTheRoom #Politics #PoliticalPodcast #CurrentEvents #Podcast
Transcribe →Dominion Conspiracies, Jared Polis’ Capitulating, & My Pillow Guy’s Endorsement: The Tina Peters’ Commutation Starter Package
6d ago00:35:39Tap to summarizeHere's a sentence that should stop you cold: a Democratic governor just cut loose one of the most notorious election criminals in the country — because Donald Trump told him to. Tina Peters, the Colorado clerk convicted for helping breach her own county's voting system and handing the guts of it to Mike Lindell's crew, was doing nine years. Then Trump started posting "FREE TINA," and Governor Jared Polis obliged — slashing her sentence and springing her on parole, dressing it up as a "free speech" stand. His own party censured him. All six Colorado Democrats in Congress lit him up. And it still happened.This week Rick Wilson is joined by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold — the election-integrity watchdog who fought Peters from the start — to break down what this commutation really signals: that the pressure campaign works, that the people who attacked our elections are being rehabilitated in real time, and that it's a dress rehearsal for what's coming this fall. Rick and Jena get into how the machinery of election sabotage actually operates, why the midterms are the next target, and — most importantly — what we can do right now to lock the doors before November. The last election deniers got prosecuted. This time they're getting pardoned. Time to pay attention.•••••Jena Griswold is the Colorado Secretary of State. Check out her campaign for Colorado Attorney General at https://jenaforcolorado.com and follow her @JenaGriswold.Rick Wilson is @TheRickWilson and on Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and on X @ProjectLincoln.#TinaPeters #JenaGriswold #JaredPolis #ElectionIntegrity #Trump #Colorado #RickWilson #LincolnProject #Midterms #Democracy #Politics #Podcast
Transcribe →Send in the Clown: Trump Does NATO
1w ago00:28:59Tap to summarizeTrump flew to Ankara for the NATO summit and turned it into an open-mic disaster. In two days he threatened to bomb Iran again, screamed at Europe for blocking his Greenland obsession, called Spain "a terrible partner," and trashed half the alliance for skipping his war — then spread his arms and declared it all a lovefest of "tremendous love." This week's Elephant in the Room, Rick Wilson breaks down the clown show.Here's what the spin can't hide: our allies aren't laughing with him — they're backing away. Rick gets into what it actually costs when a president treats the most powerful alliance on earth like his personal roast: the credibility bleeding out, the adversaries taking notes, the friends who've quietly stopped counting on us. Greenland grabs, Iran threats, insulted partners, and a standing ovation he gave himself. It'd be hilarious if it weren't our national security.•••••Rick Wilson is @TheRickWilson and Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and @ProjectLincoln.Go to https://shopify.com/lincolnproject to start your free trial today. #Trump #NATO #Ankara #Greenland #Iran #RickWilson #LincolnProject #ElephantInTheRoom #ForeignPolicy #Politics #CurrentEvents #Podcast
Transcribe →Erin Brockovich: Big Tech Is Draining Your Town Dry for AI
2w ago00:39:24Tap to summarizeSomewhere near you, Big Tech is quietly bolting together a windowless box the size of a stadium — and it's thirsty as hell. The AI gold rush has unleashed a wave of massive data centers that swallow staggering amounts of water and electricity, spike local utility bills, and buckle small-town grids that were never built to feed a machine that never sleeps. The trillion-dollar companies get the profits and the press releases. The town next door gets the drained reservoir, the power crunch, and the bill. If that racket sounds familiar, it should.This week, Rick Wilson sits down with the one and only Erin Brockovich — the legendary crusader who's spent her whole life dragging corporate giants into the light and making them pay — to break down the fight communities are waking up to across the country. They get into who's really footing the cost of the AI boom, why local families keep getting steamrolled by companies with unlimited lawyers, how ordinary people are actually beating these projects when they organize early and loud, and exactly what to do if a data center shows up on your doorstep. It's a David-and-Goliath story with a very 2026 twist — and Erin's entire career is proof that Goliath bleeds.•••••Erin Brockovich is a legendary environmental activist and consumer advocate. Find her work at Brockovichdatacenter.com, thebrockovichreport.com, and follow her at @ErinBrockovich.Rick Wilson is on X @TheRickWilson and on Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and on X @ProjectLincoln.#ErinBrockovich #DataCenters #BigTech #AI #WaterCrisis #RickWilson #LincolnProject #Environment #Grassroots #Politics #Podcast
Transcribe →America at 250: This Is Our Moment
2w ago00:24:55Tap to summarizeLet's be honest about the moment we're in: it's dark. The institutions are strained, the norms are cracking, and it's easy to look around and wonder if the whole American experiment is finally running out of road. But here's the thing the doomscrollers keep forgetting — we have been here before. We've faced worse, stared down bigger, and clawed our way out of holes that made this one look shallow. A civil war. A depression. World wars. Movements that had to bleed for the rights the Constitution only promised on paper. Every single time, the smart money bet against us. Every single time, they were wrong.This week's Elephant in the Room is Rick Wilson's case for exactly that: Americans don't fold in the dark — we do our best work there. Across 250 years of tragedies and triumphs, failures and moonshots, this country has been at its most inventive, most stubborn, and most extraordinary when the odds looked impossible. That's not a fairy tale; it's the pattern. The fear is real, the opposition is real, the darkness is real — and so is the thing Americans have always done when the lights get low. This isn't the end of the story. It's the part where we decide how it goes. This is our moment. Let's go earn it.•••••Rick Wilson is @TheRickWilson on socials and therickwilson.substack.com on Substack. More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and on X @ProjectLincoln.#America250 #ThisIsOurMoment #RickWilson #LincolnProject #ElephantInTheRoom #July4th #Democracy #History #Hope #Politics #Podcast
Transcribe →America at 250: We Ran It Into a Ditch. Now We Dig Out
2w ago01:04:35Tap to summarizeAmerica is 250 years old, and the fix is in — the DOJ bent to serve whoever's holding the whip, the rule of law treated like a suggestion, the guardrails quietly sawed through while everyone's distracted by the fireworks. This week Rick Wilson sits down with two people who've seen the rot up close and refuse to shut up about it: Congressman Jamie Raskin, the constitutional scholar who's spent his career defending democracy on the House floor, and Liz Oyer, the DOJ pardon attorney who got fired for one unforgivable sin — saying no. What she saw inside the building should scare the hell out of you, and what Raskin knows about how this ends should light a fire under you.Here's what they won't tell you at the birthday party: the republic doesn't save itself, and nobody's riding in to do it for us. Rick, Jamie, and Liz get into what's already broken, what we can do right now before the next crisis lands, and the longer fight to reclaim, rebuild, and reinforce a country worth keeping. At 250, the tools are still in our hands and the door's still open — but not for long. They stole it in broad daylight. This is the conversation about taking it back.•••••Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD-08), constitutional scholar and author, is at @RepRaskin.Liz Oyer, former U.S. Pardon Attorney at the Department of Justice, is at @lawyeroyer.Rick Wilson is on X @TheRickWilson and on Substack at therickwilson.substack.com or https://www.againstallenemies.net/. More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and @ProjectLincoln.#America250 #JamieRaskin #LizOyer #RickWilson #LincolnProject #TakeItBack #RuleOfLaw #DOJ #Democracy #Politics #July4th #podcast
Transcribe →America at 250: This Is the Part of History They'll Ask You About
3w ago01:06:14Tap to summarizeAmerica is 250 years old and the guardrails are cracking in real time — the courts, the rule of law, the FBI, the DOJ — and the people doing the cracking are counting on you not to notice. This week Rick Wilson pulls up two of the sharpest legal minds in the country: Jeffrey Toobin, who's spent a career dissecting the Supreme Court, and Asha Rangappa, a former FBI special agent who knows exactly how democracies get gutted from the inside. No hand-wringing, no doomscrolling — just a straight, unsparing conversation about what's already broken, what's still worth saving, and how we reclaim, revise, and reinforce the whole rickety machine before the next crisis finishes the job.Here's what the fireworks won't tell you: the republic doesn't defend itself. Every generation either fights for it or hands it to whoever's willing to burn it down — and at 250, that generation is us. This is the last clean shot we get to take it back. Sit down, buckle up, and let's talk about saving the country.•••••Jeffrey Toobin — lawyer, legal analyst, and bestselling author @JeffreyToobinAsha Rangappa — former FBI special agent, attorney, and Yale lecturer @AshaRangappa_ or asharangappa.substack.comRick Wilson is on X @TheRickWilson, Bluesky @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and @ProjectLincoln.#America250 #JeffreyToobin #AshaRangappa #RickWilson #LincolnProject #TakeItBack #RuleOfLaw #SupremeCourt #Democracy #FBI #Politics #July4th #Podcast
Transcribe →America at 250: The Most Important Founder You've Never Heard Of
3w ago00:31:58Tap to summarizeSix men signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. You can probably name Franklin. You've almost certainly never heard of James Wilson — the man who did more than almost anyone to put "We the People" at the heart of American government, sat on the first Supreme Court… and then died broke, on the run from creditors, and was quietly erased from the story of the founding.As part of our special 250th podcast rollout celebrating this amazing country of ours, Rick Wilson sits down with Jesse Wegman — New York Times editorial board member and author of the new book on James Wilson — to resurrect the most important founder nobody remembers. They get into how Wilson shaped the Constitution, why his radical idea of popular sovereignty still defines (and haunts) American democracy, how a founding genius ended up in a debtor's ruin, and what his erasure tells us about the myths we build around 1776. It's the perfect 250th-birthday story: not the founders on the money, but the one history decided to forget — and why remembering him matters now more than ever. •••••Jesse Wegman is a member of the New York Times editorial board and the author of the new book, The Lost Founder: James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People's Constitution. Find more of Jesse's work at the Brennan Center for Justice, the Kohlberg Center on the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Future of the Constitution Advisory Committee.Rick Wilson is on X at @TheRickWilson, on Bluesky at @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and you can check out Rick's Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. You can check out more of LP's work at www.lincolnproject.us and on X at @ProjectLincoln.#JesseWegman #JamesWilson #LostFounder #America250 #RickWilson #LincolnProject #FoundingFathers #Constitution #PresidentialHistory #July4th #History #Politics #Podcast
Transcribe →James Carville on America at 250: How the Hell Did We Get Here?
3w ago00:40:45Tap to summarizeTwo hundred and fifty years ago, a handful of revolutionaries bet everything on an idea no one thought would survive a decade — a country that governs itself, with no king and no crown. So how the hell did we get here? This week, Rick Wilson sits down with legendary Democratic strategist James Carville — the Ragin' Cajun himself — for a no-holds-barred conversation about America's 250th birthday and the long, strange road that led to this moment.A Democrat and a Never-Trump Republican walk through how the country actually got to the brink: the slow erosion of norms, the parties that lost the plot, the voters nobody listened to, and the economic anxiety that keeps getting ignored while Washington fights culture wars. Carville and Wilson don't agree on everything — but they agree the experiment is closer to the edge than it's been in a long time. Equal parts history lesson, gut check, and two old bulls telling it exactly like it is. America has survived worse than this. The question is whether we still remember how.•••••Follow James at https://www.youtube.com/@Politicon and on social at @JamesCarville. Rick Wilson is on X at @TheRickWilson, on Bluesky at @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and you can check out Rick's Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. You can check out more of LP's work at www.lincolnproject.us and on X at @ProjectLincoln.#JamesCarville #RickWilson #America250 #LincolnProject #PresidentialHistory #July4th #Democracy #Politics #PoliticalPodcast #Elections #CurrentEvents #Podcast👉 Hydrate your liver at the cellular level with LTVIf you’re tired, bloated, or feel like water isn’t working anymore, this could be the fix. 🔥 Get up to 64% OFF for a limited time and visit http://drinkltv.com/Lincoln#adProtect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at https://ethos.com/lincolnproject. Application times may vary. Rates may vary. Trustpilot rating as of 6/1/2025. #ad
Transcribe →250 Years of Presidents: From Washington to… THIS?
3w ago00:41:39Tap to summarizeTwo hundred and fifty years ago, a handful of revolutionaries bet everything on an idea no one thought would work: a country that governs itself, with no king and no crown. This week, Rick Wilson is joined by acclaimed presidential historian Timothy Naftali — former director of the Nixon Presidential Library and one of the sharpest minds on the American presidency — to walk the entire arc, from George Washington voluntarily handing back power to the constitutional crisis staring us down in 2026.Rick and Tim get into what the founders actually built, the presidents who tested the guardrails and the ones who saved them, how close the Republic has come to the edge before, and what history tells us about a moment when a sitting president treats the Constitution like a suggestion. They dig into Nixon and the limits of executive power, the long erosion of democratic norms, and why the 250th birthday is less a fireworks-and-hot-dogs photo op than a genuine gut check. America has survived worse than this — the question is whether we still remember how. Happy birthday, America. Now let's talk about keeping you.•••••Timothy Naftali is a presidential historian, former director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, and professor at New York University. Find his work and writing at https://www.sipa.columbia.edu/communities-connections/faculty/timothy-naftali, and follow him at @TimNaftali.Rick Wilson is on X at @TheRickWilson, on Bluesky at @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and you can check out Rick's Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. You can check out more of LP's work at www.lincolnproject.us and on X at @ProjectLincoln.#America250 #July4th #PresidentialHistory #TimothyNaftali #RickWilson #LincolnProject #Constitution #Democracy #Nixon #Trump #Politics #PoliticalPodcast #Washington #History #Podcast
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