Podcast
The Nicole Sandler Show
Hosted by Nicole Sandler · EN
Speaking Truth to Power from a progressive point of view with the irreverence it demands
91episodes
Episodes
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Emptywheel Friday with Marcy Wheeler on the Day Before Independence Day
2w ago01:00:45Tap to summarizeIt's Emptywheel Friday on the day before the 4th, and Marcy Wheeler and I have plenty to dig into. Top of the list: Trump's "Freedom 250" — the private, secretive operation that hijacked America's real 250th birthday commission and turned it into a money-laundering vehicle for his cronies, according to a new House Natural Resources Committee report. We also cover the record heat descending on the whole country and especially DC this weekend, Trump's nearly $2 billion in stock trading profits while in office, Jeanine Pirro's ridiculous prosecution of an Olympic canoeist, the ongoing fight over the Epstein files, and NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's striking speech on American exceptionalism. Plus, Arizona AG Kris Mayes gets a well-deserved shoutout, and I leave you with a 4th of July reminder about fireworks and dogs.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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How to Be a Dissident in These Ugly Times (with Julia Angwin & Ami Fields-Meyer)
2w ago01:09:57Tap to summarizeI'm still not feeling great, but today's guests and subject matter were too important to postpone.Julia Angwin and Ami Fields-Meyer are the authors of the brand-new book On Courage: How to Be a Dissident in an Age of Fear. Julia's a longtime tech journalist, Ami worked on tech policy in the Biden White House, and together they interviewed over 100 people across five continents about what it actually takes to resist authoritarianism — and it's not what you think. We talk about building a "political home," the concept of a "belief cascade," and why the celebrities going quiet on us might matter more than we realize.Then Spocko calls in and we dig into QUI TAM lawsuits, Katie Fang's case against Todd Blanche over the Epstein files, and — I promise this is real — the Onion officially taking ownership of Infowars tonight.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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The Day SCOTUS Hit Us with Citizens United (and Killed Air America Too!)
2w ago01:55:58Tap to summarizeWith the Supreme Court ending their term yesterday with what I call the sequel to Citizens United, NRSC v FEC, which will make things exponentially worse than its predecessor, and I'm not feeling great today, I thought I'd reach back 16.5 years to the day when the Extreme Court handed down that devastating opinion in Citizens United v FEC. It was January 21, 2010. They didn't even wait until the end of the term! To add insult to injury, later that afternoon, I lost my job along with everyone else who worked at Air America Radio. At about 5pm, they pulled the plug on the network for good.At the time, I hosted a late night show from 11pm-1am Eastern, so I decided to take that night's guests which included John Fugelsang, John Bonifaz, Congressman Alan Grayson, Congreswoman Donna Edwards and others (it was a 2-hour show back then!) and go live with video on uStream. We didn't have YouTube then, so this show has never been on YouTube.And it still isn't, but it will be. It's been sitting on Vimeo. How it got there, I don't know! But I found it and am playing it today for the first time since then. I think there are lessons to be learned. Do you? Let me know.As soon as YouTube will edit out the fullsongs I played (fingers crossed). In the meantime, you should be able to hear the audio streams... I hope.This is history in your ears. I hope you'll check it out.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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Lisa Graves Joins Us as SCOTUS Screws Us Once More in This Term
2w ago01:10:19Tap to summarizeThe Supreme Court actually finished its term on time this year — and handed down four rulings on the very last day. Our favorite legal expert Lisa Graves joins me to walk through all of it: birthright citizenship surviving by a shockingly narrow margin, a cruel ruling against trans athletes, and a campaign finance case that makes Citizens United look modest by comparison. We also get into Clarence Thomas's corruption, retirement speculation, and what a Trump SCOTUS pick might look like next.After the break: a caller helps me sort out the confusing 6-3 vs. 5-4 reporting on the birthright citizenship case, and I dig into the deeply disturbing story of Scott Wiener — a longtime trans ally and congressional candidate — getting chased out of San Francisco's Trans March over his stance on Gaza. I've got thoughts on what that kind of infighting actually does for us heading into the midterms.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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Score One From SCOTUS, But Tomorrow's One Last Day
2w ago01:19:45Tap to summarizeIt's the penultimate day of this Supreme Court term and it wasn't as bad as they've been lately. Dr. Art Jipson from the University of Dayton joins me to help us sort through they four new opinions they gave us— including a mail ballot ruling that actually went our way. But, as usual, they saved the worst for last, so tomorrow is birthright citizenship and transgender athletes, and I'm bracing. At least today had a bit of humor as we also get into Trump's disastrous Freedom 250 fair (attendance: sparse), the baby name Donald hitting an all-time low, and I open with another edition of "The Mal Ladies" featuring the broken mass of flesh and bones that is me and a health update you may relate to if your own body is betraying you. Plus my husband David Sloane drops in with some pointed takes on fascism, scapegoating, and why Nixon looks like a Boy Scout by comparison.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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Emptywheel Friday with Marcy Wheeler
2w ago01:26:22Tap to summarizeIt's Emptywheel Friday, and Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net is back to help us wrap up another ridiculously absurd and awful week. We cover the Supreme Court's TPS ruling — which strips protection from hundreds of thousands of Haitians and is dressed up by Alito as something other than what it plainly is: racism with a legal fig leaf. This ruling has a human cost that people need to understand.Marcy breaks down who's actually running things in the White House right now — Bill Pulte, illegally installed as acting DNI and already firing analysts; Natalie Harp, the gatekeeper to the president's social media diet- and quite likely a whole lot more (eew); and a man who, as Marcy puts it, is rotting in plain sight, mentally and physically, doing whatever the last person in the room tells him to do.We spend serious time on what I think is one of the most important and under-covered stories going: DOJ's systematic effort to criminalize protest. The Prairie Land sentences — up to 100 years — are shocking. The new Minnesota indictment is terrifying in a different way: it sweeps up organizers, AFL-CIO members, DSA members, and 50501 activists by trying to make "Antifa" into an actual organization on par with the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. It is not. There is no membership, no dues, no leader, no headquarters. Marcy has an extensive post at emptywheel.net breaking the Minnesota case down in detail. Read it.We also get into Todd Blanche being ordered by a judge to follow the Epstein Transparency Act, Kushner and Witkoff's suspected cut of the $300 billion Iran reconstruction deal, JD Vance's Nixon rehabilitation tour, the reflecting pool con and manufactured "Antifa vandalism" narrative, Tulsi Gabbard's cult history, and Elon Musk's brief, already-over trillionaire moment. Buckle up, it a rough and rocky one.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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SCOTUS Goes Full Alito (just about) and It's All Bad
3w ago01:19:32Tap to summarizeIt's Alito's world and we're just living in it. The formerly Supreme, now Extreme Court handed down four of the remaining 12 opinions this morning, and three of them came from the pen of Samuel Alito — all 6-3 decision. The fourth was a 7-2 written by Kavanaugh, with the bizarre twist of Ketanji Brown Jackson and Neil Gorsuch dissenting together.We'll run them down today, along with a bit of today's news. The next opinion day is Monday and the term technically ends Tuesday, when Lisa Graves will join me to navigate the damage.Strap in. Today's were and are pretty rough ones.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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The Deflecting Pool, Democrats & Dylan: Driftglass and Nicole Discuss it All
3w ago01:13:35Tap to summarizeIt's Wednesday, which means Driftglass is here — and today's conversation went deep and wide.We started with Trump's "deflecting pool" — his preferred name for what used to be the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool before a no-bid contract turned it into an algae-choked disaster, and the administration started blaming "antifa" with a knife. Senator John Hickenlooper of Colorado is calling on Trump to personally pay for the damage, which is exactly the right call.From there, Driftglass and I traced the accountability vacuum that got us here — Obama's "look forward, not back" decision after Bush, Gerald Ford's pardon of Nixon, and the lesson that gets learned every single time: if you don't hold them accountable, they just come back worse. George W. Bush walked so Trump could run.My husband David jumped in with a sharp, pointed history of antisemitism — how it was essentially a marketing tool in the early days of Christianity and has never gone out of style — and we talked about how that history connects to what's happening right now as the Democratic Party fractures over the Israel-Palestine issue in the primaries.I said some things about the primaries that will make some of you mad at me. I stand by them.And I wrapped up by finally telling you - and Driftglass - about seeing Bob Dylan in Phoenix last night. Musically brilliant. Dylan in a hoodie behind a keyboard, totally anonymous. Songs you've probably not heard before and, if you had, you likely wouldn't have recognized. Lucinda Williams, post-stroke and as angry at this administration as I am. It was exactly the kind of evening that reminds you why music matters. And we were running late, sadly, thanks to the shitty GPS who sent us in circles downtown, so we missed all but one song from John Doe. He sounded good though!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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To Dylan or Not to Dylan? Variety's Chris Willman Joins Me to talk Music that Heals
3w ago01:19:12Tap to summarizeMusic is the medicine I needed today. Variety's senior music writer and chief critic Chris Willman joins me for a wide-ranging conversation about Bob Dylan's current tour — which I'm catching tonight in Phoenix — the legacy of Clive Davis, Bruce Springsteen's Land of Hope and Dreams run, Taylor Swift, and the new artists worth paying attention to. We also cover Keir Starmer's resignation as UK Prime Minister and what it means (or should mean) for a certain American president who has no intention of following suit. A necessary break from the madness — and a reminder of why music matters more than ever right now.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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The Reflecting Pool as a Metaphor for Everything D'ump Has Done to America
3w ago01:11:41Tap to summarizeI don't like Mondays. Yeah, it's a song but it's also a general rule. It hit 114 degrees here in Chandler, AZ today, I wasn't feeling great, and the news was its usual dumpster fire self. But I showed up, because that's what we do.I started with a Jonathan Pie clip that had me cackling despite myself — his breakdown of Trump's Iran "victory" is one for the ages. Then the incredibly talented Patrick Fitzgerald with a parody of the Doobie Bros "Black Water," - done as "Green Water" about the reflecting pool disaster that features Marco Rubio as the pool boy. You need to see the image.Then Dr. Art Jipson joined me, and we covered a lot of ground: the $14 million no-bid reflecting pool catastrophe and the three-time Olympian being arrested for touching a peeling piece of paint; the mainstreaming of "re-migration" by white nationalist networks and Stephen Miller; the Reagan-to-Trump throughline on the destruction of norms; and the Obama Presidential Center dedication — including Michelle Obama's moving words about John McCain.My husband David popped in to note that the term "re-migration" would make George Orwell smile. (He's right.) I think what made me feel so sick today is the knowledge that it's not even close to over. But there is music in the air...Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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