Countdown with Keith Olbermann

iHeartPodcasts
  • 4.7 (5.2K)
  • POLITICS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

“Countdown With Keith Olbermann,” the landmark news and commentary program that reordered the world of cable news, returns as a daily podcast. Olbermann’s daily news-driven mix will include his trademark “Special Comment” political analysis, the tongue-in-cheek “Worst Persons In The World” segment, and his timeless readings from the works of the immortal James Thurber. The man who turned SportsCenter into a cultural phenomenon will broaden the content to include a daily sports segment, a daily call for help for a suffering dog, and a remarkable series of anecdotes covering a career that stretched from covering the 1980 Olympic Miracle on Ice a month after his 21st birthday, to anchoring the 2009 Presidential Inauguration and the 2009 Super Bowl pre-game show in a span of just twelve days, to rejoining ESPN as a “rookie” baseball play-by-play man at the age of 59.

  1. 3H AGO

    "THE ART OF THE NO-DEAL" ON ICE - 1.29.26

    SEASON 4 EPISODE 54: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: At this moment, the biggest threat to the future of democracy at this minute is Chuck Schumer. He and the other members of the milquetoast caucus of Senate Democrats are ready to give away their chance to turn MAGA's panic over the ICE murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti (and Keith Porter Jr) into a forced re-structure of the entire damnable structure. Instead of demanding a new organization with bipartisan control and a blanket ban on any activity near polling places or in fact in the week before an election, Schumer is willing to sell that for four trivial concessions. He's willing to forfeit the last chance to get these death squads off our streets in exchange for a "uniform code of conduct," the end of "roving patrols," the discontinuation of masks, and the use of body cameras. Because obviously the threat that ICE's next slaughter of an innocent bystander will be captured on video completely kept these Trump Death Squads from killing Alex Pretti.  It's beyond Schumer's usual naiveté. It's criminally negligent. He shouldn't just be ousted as Minority Leader, he should be expelled from the Senate. Trump blames Bovino. Bovino blames Noem. Noem blames Miller. Miller blames Border Patrol. Roger Stone blames Lewandowski. Trump blames the 2nd Amendment. They're imploding, Chuck. Get out of their way, you moron. ROBERT FICO: Slovakia’s pro-Trump prime minister who last year spoke at CPAC (it's pronounced Fitso) was quoted by five Politico sources as having been shaken after a meeting with Trump on the 17th, alarmed by Trump's "psychological state" and convinced Trump was "out of his mind." Denials all around.  (33:00) BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: If you didn't know, Saturday he wrote an ICE protest song. Uploaded it to social media yesterday. Calls 'em all out by name, including "King Trump." Chills. With Bruce's kind permission, we're playing it in the podcast. Superb stuff. I wish Bruce were Senate minority leader. B-Block (40:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: A News Nation moron reduces the death of Alex Pretti to a "scrum." Melania doesn't know her icons from her iconoclasts. And Katie Miller insists all Conservative women are far more attractive than all Liberal women. You have to give her credit: who knew she had gotten this far with such devastatingly impaired vision? C-Block (50:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Just past the anniversary, now 45 years, since a famed New York morning disc jockey responded to something I said on the air one hour by threatening to kill me, and then responded to something I said on the air the next hour by trying to hire me full-time on his station. The Ted Brown Saga - revisited.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    1 hr

  2. 3D AGO

    THE MURDER OF ALEX PRETTI IS TRUMP'S WARNING: SUPPORT ME OR ELSE - 1.26.26

    SEASON 4 EPISODE 53: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: Alex Pretti may not have been murdered by Trump's Paramilitary Death Squad AS a warning to American governors and mayors and citizens, but the Trump Dictatorship is exploiting the state-sponsored terrorism against a VA Nurse to issue that warning anyway: You "better support President Trump," said Attorney General Bondi. The implied threat that followed was easy to decipher: if you don't, ICE won't leave your city alone and it won't leave you ALIVE. Bondi's comment came as she explained her (extortion) letter to Governor Walz, offering to remove ICE and Border Patrol from Minnesota providing Walz gives the DOJ records and data and especially his voter rolls. Because it's easier to fix elections if you have the voter rolls. But behind it was the bigger picture: “We sent Governor Walz a very strong letter today. We got it out saying that he BETTER SUPPORT PRESIDENT TRUMP. He better support the men and women in law enforcement because if he doesn’t, we are, and that’s what we’re doing right now.” The United States of America is at this moment without a functioning government. In place of a government, it has a Trump terrorist organization, enforced by a paramilitary death squad, Proud ICE Boys, masked gunmen, street gangs in Nazi leather trenchcoats. We are without a government and we are without a functioning Constitution and we are without a functioning president. We are destabilized – from within – by state sponsored terrorism. Our OWN state. With our OWN terrorist – the worst terrorist this nation has ever faced: Donald John Trump. What to do about it? It starts with the Democrats in the Senate not just attacking ICE funding but shutting all funding down, indefinitely. This Trump junta must be broken. B-Block (35:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: We could devote the segment just to those idiots who defended ICE after the Renee Good murder and are now done, professionally. But we'll limit it to three medalists and some runners-up: two New York Post writers, Tony Dokoupil, Senator Fetterman, Clay Travis, Scott Jennings, Stephen A. Smith C-Block (47:00) COMIC RELIEF: THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: New year, new round-numbered anniversaries. 30 years ago I was wined and dined by a Chicago radio station that was willing to double my salary and build their franchise around me if I quit SportsCenter. And they convinced me to do it. And then half an hour before I was going to say 'let's make it happen' they... took the station off the air. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    1h 6m

  3. JAN 22

    TRUMP PLANS 2020 ELECTION INDICTMENTS, SHOW TRIALS - 1.22.26

    SEASON 4 EPISODE 52: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: It's the Big Lie Redux. Trump appears to be planning some kind of SHOW TRIALS over the 2020 Election - and Nicolas Maduro might be his key “witness." He let it slip at the World Economic Forum yesterday. He told the audience in Davos that he will be prosecuting people over the 2020 Election. Never mind that there's nothing to prosecute anybody for; never mind that he lost; never mind that this has already been through the courts: "It was a rigged election. Everybody now knows that. They found out. People will soon be prosecuted for what they did. That's probably breaking news." In the last week, he has twice insisted Joe Biden and his administration ‘should be arrested’ and he has now said "we caught 'em." In his fugue state News Conference Tuesday, Trump had a question planted about ‘finding things out’ from Maduro about 2020. And Maduro's role in some nonsensical conspiracy theory may be the real reason Trump had Maduro renditioned from Venezuela – not drugs. Regardless: all the tea leaves suggest Trump is going to roll out the Big Lie again, this time perhaps with a phony confession from Maduro in exchange for a pardon or something. Trump is insane and desperate, so now he will actually try to focus the Department of Justice and all elected Republicans on prosecuting Biden and others. You think his Greenland Clown Show is crazy? You think his terrorism in Minnesota is crazy? You ain’t seen nothing yet. And god help us if it gets any traction. If media pushback were insufficient to counter the tsunami of propaganda Trump and his criminal gangs could generate, he might try to use the subsequent unrest as an excuse to interfere with the midterms or even rationalize violating the constitution and seeking another term. B-Block (32:30) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Anchors Aweight, Buffalo Bills' owner Terry Pegula, who has fired his coach even though he thinks Sean McDermott did an "admiral" job. Then there's Labor Secretary Lori Chavez DeRemer and the accusations of an affair with a staffer on the public dime. She's chosen to be represented by a lawyer named Dr. Nick. And then there are America's two most overrated journalists Jim "What Is A Woman?" VandeHei, and Anderson "You Really Think Trump Is Insane?" Cooper and yes they each actually asked those questions this week. C-Block (45:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: How different was flying nearly half a century ago? There we were, the president of Cornell University and I, waiting to board a plane from New York to Ithaca and there they were, two airline employees, trying to fix a problem in the undercarriage by stuffing paper towels up into it.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    49 min

  4. JAN 19

    DID CRAZY TRUMP JUST THREATEN TO ARREST JOE BIDEN? - 1.19.26

    SEASON 4 EPISODE 51: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: In Trump’s War against the United States of America, as he readies 1500 members of the 11th Airborne in Alaska to parachute into Minnesota in a bid to provoke Civil War, as he threatens conflict with NATO while being unable to remember America is IN Nato, is the dictator’s next step an attempt to arrest Joe Biden? To indict Kamala Harris? To convene grand juries to pursue the former First Lady and Jen Psaki and Kareen Jean-Pierre and god knows who else? “Everyone is asking about the Autopen (question mark)” because he’s nearly 80 and he still doesn’t know how to use punctuation marks. It starts with usual Trumpian stupidity and then turns very dark very fast. Quote: “it was an absolutely illegal act perpetrated by the Radical Left Insurrectionists who illegally ran the Biden Administration. Every one of them should be arrested for what they have done… the whole thing was rigged, there must be a price to pay, and it has got to be a big one,” end quote. This is no longer one of those 'signs of his mental illness' from the 1st administration; this is something one of his whores at the Department of Justice will act upon because a) they ARE whores and b) because they are soft and frankly getting an indictment against Joe Biden for something that amounts to “Being President Without Trump’s Permission” is just easier than confronting the whining pants-soiling Jabba the Hutt with bronzer currently occupying the White House – until the floor beneath him collapses. Possibly – given Trump’s weight – LITERALLY. MEANWHILE: We are blackmailing NATO and the EU over Greenland, and he is trying to start a civil war in Minnesota. And his minion is caught on tape ordering CBS to run an interview unedited and this clown Bari Weiss is caught complying.  B-Block (30:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: It HAD to happen some day - and this is the day. All three medal winners are either my exes, or connected to my exes. Katy Tur, Megyn Kelly (God no), Laura Ingraham, Kyrsten Sinema. Lawsuits, journalistic disasters, self-contradictions, and me actually defending Katy's husband. C-Block (43:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Just passed the anniversary: the day I met the great '60s-'70s-'80s American actress, star of "Bewitched," portrayer of Lizzie Borden, and instant friend for life, Elizabeth Montgomery. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    53 min

  5. JAN 15

    TRUMP HAS LOST THE MORAL AUTHORITY TO RULE THIS COUNTRY - 1.15.26

    SEASON 4 EPISODE 50: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: The newest crimes this week mean he's now committed 32 of the 40 "sins" Thomas Jefferson accused King George III of in The Declaration of Independence: He's telling those protesting the dead on the streets of Iran that he'll defend them while telling those protesting the dead on the streets of Minneapolis that his 'government' was right to kill them. He's raided the home of a journalist, trampling the 1st Amendment He's threatened taxation without representation over sanctuary cities He's unilaterally cut off visas from 75 countries (including thirteen countries headed here in June for soccer's World Cup)  Trump has now lost any remaining moral authority to continue as president of this country.  We must peacefully counteract his increasingly repressive and immoral and violent actions and threats and what looks like only two options regarding the midterms and 2028: he wants to either fix the elections for Trumpists or eliminate them outright. Object? He’ll buy you or blackmail you or hire somebody to KILL you. I mean, what are ICE agents if not private paramilitary gangsters, hired by Trump, to kill you? On what Trump promises is “the day of reckoning and retribution” against Minnesota.  What do we do next? B-Block (30:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Bill Maher bristles at a joke (well, when was the last time he actually made, or heard, a joke?) There's another new idiot Congresswoman who wants Tim Walz arrested over the murder of Renee Good. And the Fox News writer who believes we are under attack by gangs of ANTIFA WINE MOMS. C-Block (41:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The "Ford Finger" incident with Trump reminded me of the day the right wing tried to bury Tom Hanks over what they thought was disrespect to staffers at a movie event. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    55 min

  6. JAN 12

    ARREST THE ICE MURDERER AND IMPEACH KRISTI NOEM - 1.12.26

    SEASON 4 EPISODE 49: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: BREAK the cover-up of the ICE murder of Renee Good: 1) INVESTIGATE regardless -on the state and county levels. 2) INDICT and ARREST the ICE shooter, Jonathan Ross (and the Trump militia members who were with him as accessories). 3) IMPEACH Homeland Security Chief Kristi Noem, Ice Director Todd Lyons (and Border Czar Tom Homan. Representative Angie Craig says now the Noem impeachment will proceed). 4) Iif Noem or any other ICE or DHS official continues to stonewall local investigators seeking justice for the murdered women, indict and arrest them for OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE. 5) When the Senate takes up the resolution to fund the government past January 30, all Democrats must refuse to vote yes unless ICE is neutered (and Trump's magic war wand as well). This is a pivotal moment in American history. ICE's reaction to its crimes has been to double down. It is now hiding behind this empty, corrupt demand that we all need to improve the “tone” and when they say “we” they mean “you” and when they say “tone” they mean “any criticism at all.” Tom Homan went on Fox and actually added to this bankrupt bromide, NEW threats. "There will be more bloodshed unless we decrease the hateful rhetoric.” Translation: if you keep criticizing us, we will keep shooting you. The acting ICE chief, Lyons, may be even worse. He is daring Minnesota to enforce its laws. “My message to the sheriff is: try and arrest my folks, let’s see what happens.” What should happen is the sheriff serving warrants to Ross, Noem, Lyons and the rest of their ICE street gang - with the Minnesota National Guard standing behind the sheriff. ALSO: Why are these fascists so obsessed with killing Americans? It may be the guns. Not the access to them: the physical impact on a shooter's brain by firing a weapon, as established by new tests. Plus updates on Trump doubling down on his Epstein Cover-up, Jim Jordan's moronic decision to let Jack Smith testify in public, and some Trump madness we should encourage. He wants to repel from a helicopter like Navy Seals. Yes please! Do it! B-Block (32:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: How Will Chamberlain, Laura Loomer, Matt Walsh and the philosopher of MAGA, Catturd, 180'd on action in places like Venezuela once they realized Trump had 540'd. The headline says 'Visas for Only Fans Models' but the article does not. And the only person who thinks Stephen A. Smith is a Democrat or a viable presidential candidate is Stephen A. Smith. Up to now it's been funny and a little sad. But now that he has defended the murder of Renee Good and sucked up to Trump and MAGA, it has to be said: to save the brand that they and a lot of people worked their lives to build, Disney chief Bob Iger and ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro have to fire Smith. Oh and - accordingly - I've re-named Stephen. C-Block (45:00) MONDAYS WITH THURBER: Only fitting. Next month it will have been a startling 95 years since James Thurber prophesied the advent of Trump. What would happen when America finally lionized its Worst? "The Greatest Man In The World." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    58 min

  7. JAN 8

    TRUMP'S TERRORISM KILLS MINNEAPOLIS POET RENEE GOOD - 1.8.26

    SEASON 4 EPISODE 48: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (2:30) SPECIAL COMMENT: This is Trump’s terrorism; this is the Kent State of our time. A peaceful, unarmed protestor, murdered by Trump’s ICE, while Trump’s Lie Factory and Trump personally smeared her, blamed her, made up a story of threat where there was no threat, altered images, lied about her, lied about what the Gestapo they sent to kill Americans in American cities did to her. Two weeks from Saturday, it will be ten years since he said it. January 24, 2016: I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.” And once again his stochastic terrorist murderous wish has come true. Only it was on East 34th Street in Minneapolis. One of his Border-Patrol-ICE militia shot and killed Renee Macklin Good. ICE killed her, and then they slandered her. Trump has his wish. The Trump Administration has begun its shooting war, its reign of terror, against the peaceful and unarmed citizens of the United States. It can be disputed whether Renee Macklin Good was the first. It cannot be disputed that unless Trump is legally restrained, she will not be the last. And later, the ICE/Border Control militia attacked a Minneapolis high school. And Trump chose the day of his crime-by-proxy, after the murder, to insist that he has quote “determined” that the military budget for 2027 needs to be increased from the obscene level of one trillion dollars… by FIFTY PERCENT to a trillion and a half. That is the military he wants to use against American civilians on American streets. That is the military he JUST used against American civilians on American streets in Minneapolis. ALSO: I DON'T MAKE THE RULES. Trump's renditioning of Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela means, simply, that any country that would like to send a squad to this country to abduct one of our leaders needs only to have first indicted Trump in their own country - and cut a deal with JD Vance to take over as presidency and swear fealty to their country. B-Block (29:00) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Earlier this week seemed to have been dedicated to Trump's most concentrated revelation of his insanity. Tuesday, at a Republican retreat, he hit all the notes, and pretty much cemented the idea that he indeed suffers from anosognosia (an inability to perceive an illness, especially a dementia-related one). C-Block (37:00) DEATH BY MEDIA: This is just day six of the Tony Dokoupil debacle but if you don't think CBS could bail out of this fast, I was a witness when they took their third most profitable news property - the local CBS News in Los Angeles - and invented a new format called "The News Wheel." It went over so poorly it was cancelled after a month and a day. And since Bari Weiss skipped right past trying to emulate Fox News and went directly to Alex Jones News, they may have to bail out. But there's a whole back story you may not know about. WHY Weiss personally selected Dokoupil to helm this disaster, and why Katy Tur married him. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    57 min

  8. JAN 7

    BULLETIN: OUR KENT STATE - ICE KILLS PROTESTOR - 1.7.25

    BULLETIN PODCAST: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN The Trump Administration has begun its shooting war, its reign of terror, against the peaceful and unarmed citizens of the United States. A woman is dead in Minneapolis, killed by ICE, reportedly a legal observer during a raid in a local neighborhood.  In one statement, ICE claimed the victim was trying to run over an agent; in another it claimed an agent HAD been run over. Neither claim is true. Multiple videos show without a shadow of a doubt that this is a lie. As a car – which was not even blocking a street - moves out of the way of an ICE vehicle, a militia member exits HIS car, approaches the victim’s car from the back and the side, and shoots the driver three times through the driver's window. Reportedly in the face. The shooter is clear of the vehicle.  Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis has told ICE to "get the f***" out of Minneapolis. Minnesota governor Tim Walz has taken a preliminary step towards mobilizing his national guard, issued a so-called “warning order” to the Minnesota National Guard – as he termed it, a “heads up” to its members that he may call up the Guard. A full Countdown podcast will follow at Midnight. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    7 min
See All (686)

Trailer

Hosts & Guests

4.7
out of 5
5,176 Ratings

About

“Countdown With Keith Olbermann,” the landmark news and commentary program that reordered the world of cable news, returns as a daily podcast. Olbermann’s daily news-driven mix will include his trademark “Special Comment” political analysis, the tongue-in-cheek “Worst Persons In The World” segment, and his timeless readings from the works of the immortal James Thurber. The man who turned SportsCenter into a cultural phenomenon will broaden the content to include a daily sports segment, a daily call for help for a suffering dog, and a remarkable series of anecdotes covering a career that stretched from covering the 1980 Olympic Miracle on Ice a month after his 21st birthday, to anchoring the 2009 Presidential Inauguration and the 2009 Super Bowl pre-game show in a span of just twelve days, to rejoining ESPN as a “rookie” baseball play-by-play man at the age of 59.

Information

  • Channel
    iHeartPodcasts
  • Creator
    iHeartPodcasts
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    686
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    2026 iHeartMedia, Inc. © Any use of this intellectual property for text and data mining or computational analysis including as training material for artificial intelligence systems is strictly prohibited without express written consent from iHeartMedia
  • Show Website
    Countdown with Keith Olbermann
  • Provider
    iHeartMedia + Entertainment, Inc

More From iHeartPodcasts

You Might Also Like