Update Feb 6th: Several days in a row this podcast has been posted by 9am EST, excellent! I hope this continues. Thanks podcast team!
Update 1-30-25: Yesterday AND today this pod was up and available by 9am EST! Great job podcast team! Update 1-21-25: It is Tuesday at 12:52pm and neither Tuesday nor even Mondays show have been uploaded to Apple Podcasts. Seriously? 12/12/24 Update: Still the best AM news podcast. However it is 10:50am EST on a Thursday morning and this mornings show has not been posted. This show airs at 5am est I believe (may be 6am but I’m pretty sure it’s 5am). CNN needs to add more employees to make sure this podcast gets uploaded shortly after it airs. Update: 1-9-25. Show is still my favorite “morning” News show. Once again, however, it’s 12:45 pm EST and it’s not uploaded. Update: 6-13-24 This show has a new, shorter format with a single host. I like the changes, it’s less of a “morning show” and more hard news. So for example, you don’t listen to find out which sandals are trending this summer, but to get election coverage or coverage of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Also the shorter format means you can listen to the whole thing in the time it takes to get ready in the morning, or while commuting. Basic coverage of all the major stories of the day. Some stories seem very one-sided though. I feel like their “analysts” are not very good, not actually very informed or analytical. Except the lawyer they have on, he’s pretty knowledgeable about American legal matters. Sometimes I wish instead of having two more neutral/moderate analysts, they would invite guests of two opposing viewpoints to give a contrasting opinion. Example: when they cover the war in Gaza, I’ve heard interviews w politicians, mostly of the same opinion, IDF spokespersons, Israeli citizens personally affected, but I have yet to see even one Arab/Muslim/Palestinian guest talking about this subject on their show. (Columbia prof Rashid Khaleedi for example, or Palestinian doctor and politician Mustafa Barghouti, or really anyone with a contrasting pov). Another option would be a liberal non-Arab American like Bernie Sanders to come on the show to provide an opposing viewpoint. They do this with numerous topics, not just the Middle East. It honestly ends up feeling like you’re being fed a line. However, all that being said, for US morning news, it’s still my favorite podcast. It’s coverage is just way better than other morning news shows like Up First (NPR), Start Here (ABC), Morning Joe (MSNBC I think), etc. The CNN podcast team is evidently still struggling as 7+ hours after this show aired on TV, the podcast is still not available in Apples podcast app. By this late in the day, that news is now old news and we all have moved on to more up-to-date coverage. Podcast team, do better. Early 2024: This podcast is more helpful than most other morning news podcasts I’ve listened to. It basically covers all the major news stories of the day. If you can just listen to the first 30 minutes you’ve gotten a good news summary. If you listen to it for full 90 minutes you’ll have gotten the weather and sports news as well. There is one major flaw in this podcast - it’s the showcast of a show that runs from 5-6:30am EST. Previously, they used to usually post the pod around 11-noon. So the news was already old, but still informative if you hadn’t gotten your news yet. But recently, the podcast won’t get posted until the afternoon or even later in the day- which completely misses the point of listening to a MORNING news podcast. By that time the news is very old, and there is better news coverage of the same stories on other pods. Today, for example, I’m writing this at 1:15pm EST and it still hasn’t been posted. CNN Podcast Team - Do better.
Update 7/8/25
Once again this news network (all American media right or left does this) provides a one-sided analysis by platforming a long segment of a former Israel official. Did they also invite a Palestinian/Arab/Muslim guest as well? Why does CNN always offer Israel such favorable and biased coverage?
Also if anyone has read this far one more thing: CNN lets IDF censor any of their reporting out of Gaza and possible other areas in Occupied Palestine but do they mention that, oh this story we are covering has to go an Israeli censor before we can air it? Stop playing into Bibi’s hands. We’ve seen what he did when Aljazeera aired unfavorable coverage of him and the Israeli war machine- he confiscated all their equipment for intelligence and they kicked them out of the country! Why does C’N not cover, or only briefly cover the genocide and refuse to call it what it is? Do better CNN. BE better.