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
82episodes
Episodes
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The Reflecting Pool as a Metaphor for Everything D'ump Has Done to America
Yesterday01:11:41Tap 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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Emptywheel Friday: Deal or No Deal or Surrender Donald and Much More
4d ago01:25:55Tap to summarizeIt's Emptywheel Friday — the one day a week where Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net and I sit down to connect the dots and try not to lose our minds. This week we dig into Trump's Iran capitulation: what's actually in the 14-point MOU, why the $300 billion "reconstruction fund" is a payoff to Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff and their Gulf state clients, and why the Strait of Hormuz was already shut again within hours of the announcement. We also cover the reflecting pool algae disaster, the Epstein files and what Todd Blanche was really doing in that Ghislaine Maxwell interview, Bill Pulte at ODNI, FISA 702 going dark, the Broadview 6, and Pete Hegseth's Juneteenth record. Plus — I found out my own voter registration was marked inactive. Check yours. Arizona primary is almost 29 days out (the deadline!). We end with one genuine piece of good news. You'll want to hear it.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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Trump Surrenders, Obama Wins (Again) and Will Bunch Weighs In
5d ago01:30:05Tap to summarizeToday's show opened with the split screen to end all split screens: the dedication ceremony for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago — featuring Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, and a stunning speech from Michelle Obama — running simultaneously with JD Vance's press conference trying to sell the world on Trump's Iran "deal" that is, in fact, a memo of understanding signed two days early in Versailles. Yes, Versailles.I played extended clips from Michelle Obama's remarks, including her powerful tribute to Barack and the barely-veiled contrast she drew between his presidency and the current one. Then Philadelphia Inquirer national columnist Will Bunch joins me to dig into JD Vance's authoritarian true-believer tendencies, discuss what Bill Pulte is really doing vying for the DNI position the spectacular failure that is Trump's Iran policy, plus the historical echoes of Versailles, the collapse of congressional independence since Watergate, the Chris Rabb primary win in Philadelphia, and the complicated politics of Israel in the 2026 Democratic landscape. Whew. Yeah, the show ran a bit long again today.Tomorrow is Emptywheel Friday — Marcy Wheeler joins me every Friday. And tomorrow also happens to be Juneteenth, the official opening day of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. I'll be in Arizona and Marcy in Ireland, both as usualAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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Jan 6ers Still Want Our Money, Trump Has No Deal and Driftglass is Dodging Storms
6d ago01:13:42Tap to summarizeMy friend Driftglass is best-known as one of the OGs of the Progressive Blogisphere. Today I helped him mark the eve of the Professional Left Podcast's 1,000th episode with a wide-ranging Wednesday that covers everything from the 40-year history of right-wing media radicalization to Trump's Iran "deal" - actually just a memorandum of understanding that doesn't understand anything. I pulled out a clip from 1984 when one of the original right wing hate talk radio voices Bob Grant -whose show I produced at WMCA at the time. The clip is a shocker to hear today, 42 years later. He was warning candidates then not to be mean. Seriously! He said that the meanest candidate loses. I'd love to see data on that. In other news, we learned that the January 6th rioters are now attempting to collect millions of dollars of taxpayer money via an obscure federal tort loophole. And while Trump continues lying about President Obama and the deal he made with Iran 10 years ago- and said that the Iranians laughed at him, we looked at the Lego propaganda videos coming out of Iran that are, frankly, more accurate than anything you'd ever hear from the orange one. Plus: JB Pritzker, Illinois politics, and why your uncle probably isn't getting deprogrammed anytime soon.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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Nurse Lee for Me (AZ-05) & Wow, Do We Disagree (on a different topic)
1w ago01:25:26Tap to summarizeToday's show started out chaotic — I discovered live on air that Arizona had quietly changed my voter registration to "inactive." I have my registration card right here. Correct address. Everything. And yet..So yes, I'm going to say it again: go to vote.gov and check your registration right now. Arizona's primary is July 21st and you need to be registered 29 days out. Don't get caught the way I almost did.The good news is I had a wonderful guest — Elizabeth Lee, the nurse running for Congress in Arizona's 5th district. She is the real deal. The district is splitting a third Democrat, a third Republican, a third independent, and she has already canvassed 60% of it. She's got two primary opponents. Should she win (and she should), her opponent would like be former Pinal County sheriff Mark Lamb, who apparently doesn't even live here- and that's the least objectionable thing about him. He's a liar, a cheat and a felon. You know, just like today's Republican leadership. Nurse Lee does live here, and is the real thing! I'm voting for her and I think you should too if you're in AZ05. Check her out at nurseleaf4az.com.Then the show took a turn I didn't entirely plan. I read aloud a Sam Harris essay called Why I Won't Debate Critics of Israel. I'd had it in my inbox for days and read it for the first time last night. I agreed with every word of it. I didn't know what to expect, but he was spot on. Apparently, quite a few of my listeners didn't agree. Oh well. As I said, you don't have to agree with me on everything.. But I'd like to know what you don't agree with. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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A Weird Weekend- Dr J Helps Us Understand the WTF About It
1w ago01:25:46Tap to summarizeOn Sunday night, the evil orange guy who occupies the White House hosted a UFC fight on the South Lawn. With a branded octagon. And military honor guards as ambiance. And a fighter who, after winning his match, grabbed the mic to announce to smear Michelle Obama by saying she's better than he is (that's what he meant, right?). While Joe Rogan grinned next to him like a golden retriever who just found out about steaks.I didn't watch it. I don't do fights, certainly not trashy fights at the WH, but you can't avoid the sickening clips.To help make sense of all of it, I brought back Dr. Art Jipson, professor of sociology at the University of Dayton, who studies extremism, culture, and the ways societies lose their collective minds. We talked about what laws the White House UFC event may (or may not) have broken, why we can no longer tell parody from reality (there was an AI video that nearly convinced me the Trump family was suing MSG owner James Dolan over crowd boos, and honestly, I didn't immediately doubt it), and Jean Baudrillard's concept of hyper-reality — which sounds very French-professor-y but is actually the perfect framework for what we're all living through right now. And a whole lot more, including two clips from one of the early hate-talk radio precursors to today's moronic mic hogs- Bob Grant in 1984 (yes, I was his producer then) that might blow your mind.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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Emptywheel Fridays with Marcy Wheeler, from Dublin to Belfast to Mar-a-Lago
2w ago01:22:12Tap to summarizeIt's another Emptywheel Friday, when Marcy Wheeler brings her vast knowledge from emptywheel.net to the Nicole Sandler Show, and we covered a lot of ground today. Elon Musk's paper trillionaire status and the fact that he's ALSO currently inciting far-right riots in Belfast (third time in the UK, by the way). The stolen election scanner situation in Maricopa County. The terrorist slush fund — which a federal judge just put on hold, thank you Judge Brinkema. Trump's "Fraud Task Force" that is itself fraudulent. The Epstein investigation, including what the big New York Times piece mysteriously forgot to include (hint: it rhymes with "Schmelania"). And, of course, the UFC cage at the White House, sponsored by Bud Light, Pit Boss Grills, and approximately six other brands, because apparently we live here now.And as Marcy tells us regularly, the fight against fascism is a slog. It's supposed to be a slog. You will lose sleep and battles and people along the way. But we keep fighting on every front — legal, political, activist — because that's the only way any of this actually moves. And Trump said he loves inflation. So there's that...Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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Oil and Water and Climate Change and War Don't Mix: The ImPerfect Storm
2w ago01:21:34Tap to summarizeI warned you. I've been talking about the coming El Niño for weeks while the corporate media looked the other way — and then the AP runs the story the same morning I'm finally doing a show on it. Of course!On today's show, I bring in two essential guests: Kurt Cobb, energy writer and author of the peak oil novel Prelude, breaks down just how precarious the global oil situation is — with the Iran war disrupting supply, strategic reserves draining fast, and futures prices that may spike to $150–$200 a barrel by fall. And Tom DiLiberto, former NOAA El Niño forecaster and now media director at Climate Central, confirms what I've been dreading: El Niño is officially here, it could be the strongest in recorded history, and with climate change amplifying everything, we're in for a rough ride through 2027.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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Driftglass Unmasked! Plus: Trump's War, Your Money, and the GOP's "Both Sides" Lie
2w ago01:05:59Tap to summarizeDriftglass , one of the OG progressive bloggers left, and co-host of the Professional Left podcast — is back on the show! Tomorrow, episode #999 of the Pro Left Pod drops, and next week, their 1000th! A milestone worth celebrating. And today, Driftglass returned for his first of a Wednesday "residency" on my show on Wednesdays. To mark the occasion, we actually got to Driftglass's face on camera!We covered a lot of ground today. We dig into Mike Johnson's very revealing hot mic moment about "adjusting" Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid — spoiler: that means cutting them. We talk about Trump's war spending, the strategic oil reserves being drained to nothing, a monster El Niño brewing in the Pacific, the Trump Freedom 250 trucks spreading Christian nationalist and antisemitic propaganda (and lying about Muhammad Ali, of all people), and the GOP's oldest trick: run up the debt, then demand Democrats fix it while screaming about fiscal responsibility.Whew! And remember, he'll be back next week. I'll see you tomorrow. Peace Out. Please.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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Get Your Religious Lies Out of My US History | Jonathan Larsen on Trump's Freedom 250 Propaganda Trucks
2w ago01:23:06Tap to summarizeAmerica's 250th birthday is just weeks away and Trump is using the occasion as if the nation is celebrating his birthday. And he's doing it in a truly sickening manner, skirting convention with a commercial moneymaking UFC violent and bloody fight on the South Lawn, no-bid contracts for his golf buddies, and a fleet of propaganda trucks with content created by PragerU and Hillsdale College, rewriting the founding as a Christian nationalist fairy tale. I talked to Jonathan Larson, who broke the story about what's actually inside those things at jonathanlarsen.substack.som. It's not great. Neither is any of the rest of today's news. But we got through it. Mostly.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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