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
111episodes
Episodes
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Primary Day in Arizona and a Look Backward and Ahead in Michigan Too
3w ago01:22:08Tap to summarizeIt's primary day in Arizona, and the characters -er- candidates on the ballot could fill a Carl Hiaasen novel. I dig into the AZ-04 primary between Rep. Greg Stanton and progressive challenger Kai Newkirk, why the local DSA guide warned about risking a "fascist ghoul" taking the seat, and why I've been urging a vote for Stanton despite my meh opinions about him. Then there's Mark Lamb, the AZ-05 Republican frontrunner facing a serious sex scandal & more that Turning Point USA allies tried to silence at a recent district meeting. There's the Biggs vs. Schweikert race to challenge Gov. Hobbs. A quick item about missing Howie Klein right now and his upcoming memoir, and a mini review of Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. To wrap the show, I pull from the archive: my full 2019 conversation with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, now running in the Democratic primary for Michigan's open Senate seat, on Medicare for All, the Mueller report, and running for office as a proud Muslim candidate.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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A Show That Was Planned as One Thing but Turned Out to Be Something Else Entirely
3w ago01:34:13Tap to summarizeToday was Day Two of the Senate confirmation hearings for Todd Blanche in his quest to be our next Attorney General. I could have told you it wasn't going to go well, and probably did. But once again, I'm truly sleep deprived and that set the tone for the day today, which began by watching the early morning hearings --but then I had to leave to get an ultrasound. And, of course, Medicare and the imaging center set the tone for the rest of the day, in a not-good-way.I finally got home and started the show, which quickly veered off to a topic very different from the hearing... We talked about the Massie amendment to the NDAA that the House was voting on yesterday, when half of the Dems found their spines, something they should've done a decade or two ago.I did take some great listener/viewer phone calls and, by the end of the show, decided to make it long weekend. Marcy Wheeler is out tomorrow, and now so am I,I hope you'll come back Monday by which time I plan to have recharged myself and forge ahead into the awful unknown.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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Nicole Sandler Watched the Senate Confirmation Hearings So You Didn't Have To
3w ago01:15:43Tap to summarizeToday was a Senate confirmation hearing double-header — Todd Blanche in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee for his Attorney General confirmation, and Jay Clayton in front of Senate Intelligence for Director of National Intelligence. I had five monitors going and I still barely kept up. Blanche early on said the quiet part out loud by literally calling himself Trump's lawyer, got lost in a circle of double negatives while talk about the Epstein survivors (and insisted on calling them victims), and got pressed hard on a $50,000 payment to Tom Homan nobody will explain. Clayton, meanwhile, spent his hearing refusing — repeatedly — to answer who won the 2020 election, while Senator Ossoff, skillfully and patiently. would not let it go. And I invoked my old friend Howie Klein, who fought valiantly on this show for more progressives in Congress - a stance I was right there with him for, as I hoped he'd understand my stance in being opposed to Kai Newkirk challenging Greg Stanton's safe Blue seat in the district next door to mine. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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FOIA 'TERRORIST' TURNS MOVIE PRODUCER- JASON LEOPOLD GUESTS
4w ago01:15:07Tap to summarizeJason Leopold — executive producer of the new Paramount+ docuseries "The Real Wolf of Wall Street," premiering today — joins me to talk about the FOIA documents he spent over a decade sitting on before they became the backbone of this project. We get into what the Scorsese film got right, what it dramatized, and what really happened, including Jordan Belfort's activity at a Trump casino while out on bail.After Jason moved on to other interviews, I cover Trump's reaction to Lindsey Graham's death, the ongoing fight over election administration in Maricopa County, the truth about who actually damaged the National Mall's reflecting pool, and what to expect from Trump's planned Thursday address on the 2020 election.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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AZ Voting Woes & TV Watching Blues Too - 7-13-26
4w ago01:13:48Tap to summarizeToday I'm digging into a story that hasn't gotten the attention it deserves: the ugly power struggle inside Maricopa County's elections office, where an election-denying recorder is trying to seize control from the Board of Supervisors — with Stephen Miller's law firm involved and a ballot scanner mysteriously "borrowed" in a pickup truck. Then my old friend Sue Wilson from the Media Action Center joins me to talk about the Trump FCC's assault on ABC's broadcast licenses and why our public airwaves are worth fighting for. Plus, my honest take on why this is not the moment to primary safe Democratic incumbents.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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Wrapping Up the Week with Marcy Wheeler on Emptywheel Fridays
4w ago01:04:43Tap to summarizeMarcy Wheeler joins me for Emptywheel Friday from an undisclosed location in Ireland and, as usual, we cover a lot of ground: ICE killings in Houston, the collapsed Iran ceasefire and Trump's humiliating plane-swap on the way to NATO, the reflecting pool/canoeist indictment, Musk's antitrust settlement, the Graham Platner fallout and what it says (and doesn't say) about the GOP's rapists, the Maine and Michigan Senate races, my own frustration with the AZ-4 primary challenge to Greg Stanton, Mitch McConnell's mysterious absence, Trump's rollout of new ways to cheat elections, and Marcy's ongoing obsession: Harmeet Dhillon's apparent frame job of journalist Georgia Fort and Don Lemon. We have more on the Epstein files, Todd Blanche's confirmation fight, Pete Hegseth's failures at DOD, and the NATO summit where Trump tried (and failed) to look like he wasn't a laughingstock. I think that's enough for one day... week... decade!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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Voters Beware & Informed: Primary Challenger You Need to Know About
Jul 902:18:29Tap to summarizeGraham Platner withdrew from Maine's Senate race, and I share my reaction early in the show — but today's episode is really about a primary challenge happening right next door to me in Arizona's 4th Congressional District. Incumbent Democrat Greg Stanton is facing a challenger, Kai Newkirk, who presents himself as a progressive organizer and activist. I went looking for more information on him and found a long, in-depth investigative piece from DC Media Group, archived via the Wayback Machine, detailing his history leading other organizations and campaigns. I read most of it on air today because early voting is underway right now, and he's gaining traction but shouldn't be. Remember, I was correct about Platner.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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Donny's Dementia on Display on a Driftglass Wednesday
Jul 801:15:57Tap to summarizeRandy Rainbow's "Demented" opens the show today, and it's a fitting soundtrack for a day where Trump referred to Iran as the "Islamic Republic of Japan" and mixed up Zelensky for Putin at a NATO press conference — audio included. Driftglass joins me for our Wednesday get-together, which wanders from the collapsed Iran ceasefire into a long, honest look back at the 1976 Bicentennial, growing up during Vietnam, and how differently college and careers worked back then versus now. We wrap up with this year's Emmy nominations, plus a few words about a soap opera that just might have a Daytime Emmy nod coming its way next year, and close things out with some thoughts on David Brooks' new Atlantic column and where that leaves those of us in the progressive movement right now.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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Digby and I Get at the Real Problem — And It's Frightening
Jul 701:23:11Tap to summarizeHeather 'Digby' Parton joins me today, and we start with something genuinely moving — a reworked "Star-Spangled Banner" from the Marsh family in England that stopped me in my tracks. From there we go through the wreckage of Trump's July 4th/250th weekend: the Patriot Front marching on the Mall, Doug Burgum's strange comments about it, and the wave of goodwill for America pouring in from other countries while our own government turned the anniversary into a spectacle. We talk about the World Cup controversy Trump inserted himself into, the healthcare system's ongoing failures (including my own frustrating search for real answers), the fallout from Graham Platner's campaign, the controversy around a New York candidate, and a hard conversation about antisemitism that I don't think gets talked about honestly enough. We close with a new poll on what's actually driving DSA primary wins — and where I think our energy needs to go from here.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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Emptywheel Friday with Marcy Wheeler on the Day Before Independence Day
Jul 301:00:45Tap 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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