Episodes

  • Michael Steele: Gum Up the Works

    Michael Steele: Gum Up the Works
    Feb 6 2025
    After the dumbest member of the Senate, Tommy Tuberville, was able to block military promotions for months during the Biden administration, Dems should not back down from slowing the roll of Kash and the other remaining abominable nominees. Meanwhile, more federal workers are going to have to speak up—lawsuits don't make good visuals. The nation needs to see the faces of the men and women who are our public servants. Plus, Elon's poll numbers slip, Trump's Gaza gambit is BS, and who is the new DNC Chair, Ken Martin? Michael Steele joins Tim Miller.
    Show more Show less
    52 mins
  • Ben Stiller: 'Severance,' but Real Life

    Ben Stiller: 'Severance,' but Real Life
    Feb 5 2025
    With Elon's 20-something operatives running the Treasury Department, it's hard not to feel that we've been severed from reality and a better Earth someplace else. Ben Stiller talks with Tim about metaphysics, avoiding politics in public, and advocating for the millions of people displaced around the world.

    Plus, the origin story of Severance, Adam Scott, John Turturro, and whether the show is a metaphor for life itself. Also, Tim gives a pop quiz, Ben shares his love for the Knicks, and both ponder why there aren't good comedies anymore.

    Ben Stiller joins Tim Miller.
    show notes:

    Watch Severance
    The Albert Brooks film, 'Real Life.'
    Trailer for "Real Life'
    Ben's New York Times interview
    Video of one of Musk's engineers/operatives
    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 3 mins
  • Anne Applebaum: Outside the Rule of Law

    Anne Applebaum: Outside the Rule of Law
    Feb 4 2025
    If the Chinese hacked the U.S. government the way private citizen Elon has, it would be a major act of cyber warfare. And since Elon is a government contractor, he's now in a position to make policy calls that benefit his own companies and hurt his competitors—following the Russian oligarch model. We are in a completely lawless realm, and this is likely to continue until he is stopped. Meanwhile, government employees are being forced to choose between conforming or protecting the public. Plus, Elon is also sabotaging America's soft power and influence in Africa while he and the other tech overlords plot how to derail Europe's effort to regulate them.

    Anne Applebaum joins Tim Miller.
    show notes

    • Wired article on the young, inexperienced engineers helping Elon

    • Anne's 2020 piece about complicity (gifted)

    • Josh Marshall's piece about Elon's operative *already* rewriting code at the Treasury Department

    • Book Anne mentioned, "The Captive Mind"

    • Anne's piece, "Europe's Elon Musk Problem" (gifted)

    Show more Show less
    57 mins
  • Will Saletan and Scott Lincicome: A Crime Boss Has Taken Over

    Will Saletan and Scott Lincicome: A Crime Boss Has Taken Over
    Feb 3 2025
    The president of the United States is putting his Jan 6 accomplices in charge of the Justice Department and the FBI, and clearing out any officials who would be willing to investigate the administration. It's anti-democratic, it's a coup, and it's allowing Elon and his 20-something DOGE buddies to act with impunity as they illegally access classified information and the Treasury's payment system. Meanwhile, the White House can't even get its messaging straight on the tariffs as they sabotage our relationship with allies in the process. Plus, the ethnic scapegoating continues and the Dems at the DNC go all Portlandia when they need to be fighting the aspiring authoritarians.

    Will Saletan and Scott Lincicome join Tim Miller.
    show notes
    Tim's interview with J.J. McCullough on Canada's retaliatory tariffs
    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 16 mins
  • Andrew Weissmann: A MAGAtocracy and a Babytocracy

    Andrew Weissmann: A MAGAtocracy and a Babytocracy
    Jan 31 2025
    While Republican senators worked to protect Kash Patel from answering some ver-wee hard questions at his confirmation hearing, not one of them had the audacity to suggest that he is the best person to lead the FBI. Meanwhile, the new administration is clearing out some of the most seasoned and effective veterans at the bureau who will be needed during a crisis. Plus, Elon is trying to get our private financial records at the Treasury Department, and Paramount is so worried that mean Mr. Trump would block a merger deal that it's ready to settle his frivolous, written-in-crayon lawsuit against "60 Minutes." Also, Tim makes an earnest plea to Sen. Bill Cassidy from the heart of New Orleans.

    Andrew Weissmann joins Tim Miller for the weekend pod.
    show notes
    Weissmann's and Mary McCord's podcast, "Main Justice"
    Weissmann's Substack page
    Tim's playlist
    Show more Show less
    54 mins
  • Tommy Vietor: Deniability Is All That Matters

    Tommy Vietor: Deniability Is All That Matters
    Jan 30 2025
    Republican senators don't care that Trump's nominees are lying—like Kash pretending he didn't know a Nazi-adjacent podcaster whose show he's been on eight times—because the confirmation process to them is all a game and truth is irrelevant. And nominees are also mad-flipping on their signatures issues: RFK, Jr. on vaccines, Tulsi on Edward Snowden, and Kash on the Jan 6 cop beaters. Meanwhile, RFK knows embarrassingly little about the programs he'd be administering, Democrats should try combat on for size, and the Fox hosts/reality show stars turned in quite a performance after the first plane crash in 16 years.

    Tommy Vietor joins Tim Miller.
    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 6 mins
  • Mona Charen: A Moment of Truth

    Mona Charen: A Moment of Truth
    Jan 29 2025
    Trump is trying to seize powers he doesn't have—like unilaterally rewriting laws and deciding on his own how he wants to spend money Congress appropriated for a particular purpose. Will the Supreme Court stop him? And if it rules against him, will he obey the court's orders? Plus, the money angle behind RFK, Jr.'s conspiracies, and Elon's attempt at a mass buyout is not about making the government leaner and meaner. He's trying to replace good, smart people with lackeys and flunkies, like Tucker Carlson's son. Mona Charen joins Tim Miller.

    Mona Charen joins Tim Miller.
    show notes

    • Mona's piece on RFK and his anti-vax damage in Samoa

    • Bulwark piece on Trump's high-speed power grab

    • Adrian Carrasquillo's newsletter on Trump turning schools into immigration battlegrounds

    Show more Show less
    41 mins
  • Chris Hayes and Alex Kantrowitz: Trying To Break the Whole Thing

    Chris Hayes and Alex Kantrowitz: Trying To Break the Whole Thing
    Jan 28 2025
    The directives putting a pause on federal grants and the firing of career DOJ prosecutors is about trying to make the entirety of the federal government the tool of the man occupying the presidency. And it's all illegal and unconstitutional. Meanwhile, Trump is exactly the kind of broken sociopath who can dominate the war for attention—the defining resource of our time. Plus, a rundown on DeepSeek, the new Chinese AI model, and why Bitcoin fans aren't more angry about the worthless, scammy Trump and Melania coins.

    Chris Hayes and Alex Kantrowitz join Tim Miller.
    show notes

    • Chris's new book, “The Siren's Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource."

    • Undercover video of Russ Vought on Project 2025, from August 2024

    • Alex's "Big Technology" on Substack

    • Alex's "Big Technology" podcast
    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 10 mins