The Muckrake Political Podcast

CLNS Media Network

The Muckrake Podcast is the political podcast that promises to dig deeper. Political analysts Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman tackle the news of the day but go beyond the stale and tired narratives to provide historical context and alternative perspectives, all to bring a little order to chaotic times.

  1. 2d ago

    Giuliani: We Did Asbestos We Could

    This is a preview of The Weekender. Sign up for our Patreon and get access to the full episode each Friday as well as special Live Shows and access to our community discord: http://patreon.com/muckrakepodcast Co-hosts Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman open on the 25th anniversary of September 11th and the question running through the whole episode: who knew what, and what were they willing to ignore? Nick wonders whether the conspiracy theories are the attack's real legacy, while Jared argues the distrust behind them was earned by generations of leaders and that the true winner of the war on terror was the class that profited from it, a point Nick drives home with Palantir's founding date. Mayor Zohran Mamdani's release of 170,000 pages shows the Giuliani administration knew the air around Ground Zero wasn't safe while telling people it was, and successive mayors kept the records locked away, which Jared chalks up to honor among thieves. A new book reports that Benjamin Netanyahu was warned by the UAE and Egypt ten days before October 7th and never told his own security chiefs, which makes his "they didn't wake me up" defense look even worse. Then it's off to the half-empty GOP midterm convention in Dallas, where Trump promised every adult $5,000 if Republicans keep Congress, a pledge Nick holds up against 18 U.S.C. 600, and John Fetterman sent a video endorsing Dave McCormick that Jared is convinced took several takes. On what we're watching, Nick shrugs his way through Ted Lasso's unnecessary new season and gives Lanterns a lukewarm endorsement, while Jared recommends the horror film It Ends, grinds through For Whom the Bell Tolls, and cannot let go of a commercial VHS tape getting taped over on The Paper.

  2. Sep 1

    Crude and Unusual Punishment

    Co-hosts Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman open on the Iran war flaring back up after a month of quiet, with new strikes exchanged, a missile wiping out a base in Jordan, and Trump posting AI-generated videos of Kharg Island being obliterated while the real military runs out of interceptors. Meanwhile, leaked Pentagon documents reveal six four-star generals filed formal dissent against extending the campaign, and Defense Secretary Hegseth's response to the worst military crisis in a generation is to start visiting Iowa and South Carolina for a 2028 presidential run. They trace the Venezuela oil grab for what it is: the U.S. overthrew a government, installed a puppet, and that puppet just signed over 100 years of oil rights to an unnamed private company while 80% of Venezuelan households live in poverty. From there they connect the collapsing food supply, where blueberries are killing people and Trump is deregulating meat processing live on Glenn Beck's radio show, to the Project 2025 blueprint that laid all of this out in black and white. They close on Jim Clyburn going on Meet the Press to announce that impeachment is not a Democratic priority, which tells you everything about why Hakeem Jeffries was meeting with Jared Kushner last week: the captured resistance has no plans and no platform two months before the midterms. Support the show by signing up to our Patreon to hear the full Weekender episode each Friday as well as special Live Shows and access to our community discord: http://patreon.com/muckrakepodcast

  3. Aug 21

    Democratic Congressional Nominee Fred Wellman Of Missouri Speaks Out

    The full Weekender is normally only available to our Patreon subscribers, but we're unlocking this one for everyone. If you like what you hear, sign up at http://patreon.com/muckrakepodcast for the full Friday episode every week, special live shows, and access to our community discord. Jared Yates Sexton is out this week, so co-host Nick Hauselman sits down with Fred Wellman, the Democratic nominee in Missouri's second congressional district and a four-time combat veteran who spent 22 years as an Army officer, including service under General David Petraeus and General Martin Dempsey. Wellman makes the case that the Iran war is the biggest strategic blunder in American military history, bar none, and lays out exactly why the USS Lincoln is suffering: the administration launched a war with no allies and then got the bases that supply the fleet blown up, leaving 5,000 sailors stranded on a ship with no port to dock at while Pete Hegseth flies to Iowa to prep a presidential campaign. He talks about running against Ann Wagner, who has quadrupled her net worth to $26 million while in Congress, and why the voters he meets at doors in suburban Saint Louis care less about culture war issues than about whether their kids can afford to live in their own hometown. He lays out what he'd do from day one in Congress on stock trading, gun safety, abortion rights, and military oversight. And he's clear he's not going to Washington to work for Hakeem Jeffries or the DNC but to fight for 750,000 Missourians.

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About

The Muckrake Podcast is the political podcast that promises to dig deeper. Political analysts Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman tackle the news of the day but go beyond the stale and tired narratives to provide historical context and alternative perspectives, all to bring a little order to chaotic times.