The Daily Beast Podcast

nathan Kott, who worked for Joe Manchin for seven-and-a-half years, joins The New Abnormal, and co-host Molly Jong-Fast gets right to the point: "Are you surprised by what you're seeing right now" from the West Virginia Senator?"No," says Kott. "He's the exact same person he's always been. It's just he's getting more attention in the last year than I think he had before." Plus, Molly and co-host Andy Levy run through even more Republican fuckery, starting with Trump's fear of fruit. "If you're that worried about tomatoes, I guess you just assume that everything is very dangerous and you might as well give everyone guns' jokes Molly. Finally, Marc Caputo of NBC explains what's happening in the great state of Florida, where "conservatives are a lot more Trumpy "now. "In 2016 when Donald Trump won people thought it was a fluke. And then in 2018, when Ron DeSantis won by less than half a point, they're like, 'okay, Andrew Gillum, his gubernatorial opponent was a flawed opponent. And then in 2020, Donald Trump won so big here by a bigger margin than Obama did in 2008 and that kind of got conservatives or Republicans to realize, 'there is nothing to fear from Democrats anymore in Florida, let's keep pushing the envelope.' And so that's where we are. We're in some serious envelope pushing." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There’s only text sent by former First Daughter Ivanka Trump among the 2,319 CNN-obtained text messages between Trump’s inner circle from the days after the 2020 election and something about that feels peculiar to The New Abnormal podcast co-host Andy Levy. He and co-host Molly Jong-Fast tackle those in this episode along with special guests Congressman Ro Khanna (D-CA), who shares his thoughts on Elon Musk buying Twitter, and Amanda Litman, Co-Founder & Co-Executive Director of Run for Something. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hawaii senator Sen. Brian Schatz joins the show to explain why he let Josh Hawley have it on the Senate floor this month and what he thinks his colleague Joe Manchin will do, or not do, about climate change. Plus, Molly and co-host Andy discuss Dr. Oz, listen to clips of Tucker Carlson saying that the “Libs of TikTok” account is real journalism and break down Fox News star Jesse Watters’ creepy meet-cute with his wife. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In another jam-packed week of GOP fuckery, The New Abnormal co-hosts Molly Jong-Fast and Andy Levy looks at look at the party’s profiles in cowardice, starting with the new revelations about House Minority “Leader” Kevin McCarthy cozying back up to Donald Trump and then shifting to Ron DeSantis’ anti-Disney jihad and what Molly calls the party’s new brand of “unpopular populism.” No one is crying for Disney or its special tax status, says Andy, but it’s still nuts that “the government of Florida is now basically telling businesses, ‘just shut up and don't take any, you know, even the most milquetoast of stands” or we’re going to punish you even if you’re a company that brings the state billions in revenue a year. Then the Daily Beast’s Roger Sollenberger comes in to break down his recent reporting on the Maga Goon Squad’s new money woes, as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Madison Cawthorn, and Matt Gaetz collectively spent $275,000 more than they took in the first quarter of 2022. Plus, Gisele Barreto Fetterman, the second lady of Pennsylvania whose husband, John, is now running for the Senate, and the founder of the Free Story in Braddock, “actually the first free store in the country,” tells Molly how that came from “this idea that some of us have so much and some have so little and there's so much excess, and how can we bring all those worlds together to do good. I really believe in mutual aid and having people connect who maybe would otherwise think they don't have anything in common and the free store was a place where all of that could happen.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tucker Carlson’s constant pushing of junk science on his Fox News show reached an apex this week when he discussed “testicle tanning” with Kid Rock. Of course, The New Abnormal hosts Molly Jong-Fast and Andy Levy had to break down that video immediately. Also on the show: Democratic strategist James Carville, co-host of the Politics War Room podcast, holds no punches blaming the Democrats for Biden’s approval rating and Ruy Teixeira, a senior fellow at American Progress, explains why a handful of Hispanic voters voted for Trump last election despite the awful things he’s said about them. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘Freezing Order’ author Bill Browder, one of Moscow’s most wanted, joins this bonus episode of The New Abnormal to talk about “evil” Putin and why the former American banker still chooses to speak out against the Russian president despite being targeted and followed for it. Plus, co-hosts Molly Jong-Fast and Andy Levy react to a few very bizarre clips of Republicans and a rap about Matt Gaetz. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

the focus on The New Abnormal this week is on Donald Trump Junior, as CNN reporter Zachary Cohen breaks down his reporting on the namesake’s post-election text messages to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows scheming on how to steal the election: “We either have a vote WE control and WE win OR it gets kicked to Congress 6 January 2021.” Plus University of California Law professor Rick Hasen, the co-director of the university’s Fair Elections and Free Speech Center and the author of Cheap Speech: How Disinformation Poisons Our Politics—and How to Cure It, explains how “if we had the same polarized politics of today, but the technology of the 1950s, we likely wouldn't have had Jan. 6 and the insurrection and millions of people believing the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rep. Eric Swalwell joins this episode of The New Abnormal to weigh in on the Don Jr. texts and explain what he calls the Costco Effect—and how it relates to the Trumps. Plus, Jodi Hicks, Planned Parenthood California’s President and CEO, explains what happened with the Texas woman who was held on $500K bail for having an abortion. Naturally, co-hosts Andy Levy and Molly Jong-Fast have a lot to say about all of the above, and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

J. David McSwane, author of Pandemic, Inc. shares his reporting on some of the fraudsters who got their hands on PPE contracts during the pandemic. Plus, a fun segment in which co-hosts Andy Levy and Molly Jong-Fast listen and respond to the wildest GOP clips from this week—including one in which Josh Mandel tells MLK Jr’s daughter she needs a history lesson Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s “a sea of performative moronics” ahead of the mid-terms, says New Abnormal Molly Jong-Fast, and we’re all drowning in it. Just look at “the cruelty, the stupidity and the racism” coming out of Texas right now, where Gov. Greg Abbott seems more interested in getting booked on Fox News than getting anything done. Then Jan. 6 committee member Jamie Raskin joins the pod to explain how Republicans transitioned from the party of Lincoln to the party of Trump, “a minority party, a shrinking minority party” that nonetheless “wants to get rid of Liz Cheney, who represents pretty big parts of the conservative Republican establishment. They want to get rid of Adam Kinzinger and Mitt Romney and so on because they don't follow the leader in the way that they're supposed to.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You know who’s telling on themselves? The American conservatives cheering about Putin pal and proto-fascist Viktor Orban’s big re-election win in Hungary. “It’s a pretty good litmus test,” says The New Abnormal co-host Molly Jong. “If you are celebrating that, you're probably a bad guy, like the people who are still support Putin.” Speaking of people telling on themselves, Washington Post investigative reporter Michael Kranish joins the pod to run down his reporting on MAGA mutts Madison Cawthorn, Mo Brooks and the inimitably awful Ted Cruz, who somehow managed to escape much scrutiny for months into his pivotal role in pushing Trump’s big lie, and doing everything he could to stop Joe Biden from taking office. Plus, Press Run founder and editor Eric Boehlert explains to Molly why “the coverage of the Biden economy is unlike anything I’ve ever seen” as the press coverage “reeks of both sides.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this bonus episode of The New Abnormal, Majority Minority author Justin Guest, a George Mason University professor, breaks down a sociological experiment he conducted to see if Hannity could make his viewers liberal with surprising results. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Madison Cawthorn has Republican leaders like Kevin McCarthy deathly afraid that people in his district will start asking him questions using words like “orgy” and “key bump.” Molly Jong-Fast and Andy Levy, The New Abnormal’s unflappable (seriously—they’re being forced to picture a debaucherous Louie Gohmert and Newt Gingrich) hosts, are ready to parse whether it’s better or worse for him if Cawthorn’s telling the truth. Also on this episode: George Conway, a lawyer and Washington Post contributor, explains why the 7-hour gap in Trump’s White House phone logs may not be so much a conspiracy as good old-fashioned incompetence; and Jena Griswold, Colorado’s secretary of state, breaks down the legislation she’s pushing to keep election security tight—and why it’s so “frightening” when the call, when it comes to voter fraud, comes from inside the house. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Charles Bethea of the New Yorker joins to break down his reporting on all that, and to break down his recent scoop about the very unlikely ballot cast in 2020 by former Trump Chief of Staff and still Big Lie enthusiast Mark Meadows: “He had recently sold in 2020 his and his wife’s house in the state, and as the election neared I think he wanted to vote in North Carolina, partly because he was thinking about and talking about running for Senate and you want to have a record of voting in the state where you run and he didn't own a property. So it looks like he did something that's still sort of inexplicable, but, and he hasn't given us a reason–” Plus New Lines Magazine editor and Daily Beast contributing editor rejoins the pod to explain what’s happening in Ukraine now, and why this refugee crisis has electrified the West in a way that the Syrian refugee crisis never quite did — including when Putin militarily intervened there. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kid Rock of all damn people is boasting about how Donald Trump would call him up after Sarah Palin introduced him and Ted Nugest to the president, and ask things like “What do you think we could do about North Korea?” “I’m like, What? I don't think I'm qualified to answer this.” Then again, it could always be worse with this set. As Molly asks, “Do you think Kid Rock is stupider than Junior?” And, notes Andy, at least Kid Rock “was self-aware enough to know that he shouldn't be talking, giving advice about North Korea.” Plus, Florida Agriculture Commissioner and gubernatorial candidate Nikki Fried — who went to high school with Judge Jackson — joins to explain how she won office in a red state and her bid to become its first female governor. She says the party needs to “follow my lead” to win again in the Sunshine State: Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s the 200th episode of The New Abnormal, starting with a wild “flashback” to the very “first” episode in the summer of 1998, when co-host Molly Jong-Fast foresaw a future of “racist babies,” with Molly wishing “if only there was a senator with a ridiculous mustache” to being the issue to light. Jump ahead to 2022, and co-host Andy Levy says Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson “really missed a chance there” when that senator with the ‘stache, Ted Cruz, asked her to define what a woman is. Jackson could have said, joked Levy: “Yes, senator, I define a woman as someone you marry and then defend them when someone else calls them ugly,” like Trump did to Cruz’s wife—who didn’t think that, or Trump saying his dad had killed JFK, was reason enough to stop sucking up to The Donald. Later in the episode, the Beast’s Matthew Fuller joins the party to break down the fuckery of the Jackson hearing and its “straight racism, just the full-flavored version." Plus, Buzzfeed’s Christopher Miller, who’s been reporting from the Ukraine for years, considers the first month of the Russian invasion—“When Putin announced his invasion, I was in the Eastern city of Kramatorsk, near the front lines of the longer simmering war in Eastern Ukraine and (was) awoken by an airstrike on an airfield that was about 2000 feet away from me, which is definitely 2000 feet too close—and the history that led to this moment. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Josh Hawley is attacking Biden’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson and is using the word “pedophilia” to do it. Naturally, The New Abnormal hosts Molly Jong-Fast and Andy Levy have choice words, and a new title, for him. Also on this episode: NBC News political analyst Susan Del Percio has a very scary midterm prediction involving Jim Jordan and Danielle Carnival, head of Biden’s White House Cancer Moonshot program, breaks down how exactly her team plans to meet the president’s goal of decreasing cancer by 50% in 25 years. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The war in Ukraine has made Vladimir Putin one of the most hated figures in the world. But any attempt to remove him from office could unleash more violence inside Russia. Moisés Naím, author of The Revenge of Power: How Autocrats Are Reinventing Politics for the 21st Century, tells Molly what that could look like in this bonus episode of The New Abnormal. Plus, Molly and co-host Andy Levy listen to a clip of Trump trying to “teach” Joe Biden about nuclear weapons, and they break down Sean Hannity’s “hard-on” for Ronald Reagan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Author Francis Fukayama thinks Zelensky’s communication-style, and his creative team, will be one of the main factors in overcoming Russian forces. Both he and former ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch joined this episode The New Abnormal to talk about the Ukrainian president’s transformation from comedian to hero and what they each think will be the outcome of the war (hint: it doesn’t look good for Russia.) Yovanovitch also details what she was told the night Trump ordered her to be removed from her position. Plus, co-hosts Molly Jong-Fast and Andy Levy discuss the Russian social media influencers who are very mad at Putin because of his Instagram ban and attempt to answer a vital question: Does Kyrsten Sinema understand Daylight Savings Time? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Putin may not realize how poorly the war is going for him, but his troops do. Ukrainian diplomat Olexander Scherba joins the pod to explain what he’s hearing from soldiers on the ground, including stories of them refusing to fight. Plus, The Nation’s Elie Mystal pleads with Biden to say the word “abortion” and hosts Molly Jong-Fast and Andy Levy discuss whether Tucker Carlson can feel embarrassment and Molly actually sorta defends Mitt Romney when it comes to Tulsi Gabbard. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Retired NYPD sergeant Valarie Carey joins today’s bonus episode along with Adell Coleman, co-host and executive producer of the podcast Say Their Name, to talk about her sister Miriam Carey, who was shot by law enforcement 26 times when she drove into a restricted zone outside of the U.S. Capitol. Plus, co-hosts Molly Jong-Fast and Andy Levy talk about why Ted Cruz is full of crap about vaccines—no one is hugging him as much as he says they are—and listen to clips of Don Jr. defending his dad, whom he weirdly calls “Trump.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In a jam-packed new episode of The New Abormal, co-host Molly Jong-Fast rips into the “contingent of very stupid Republican Congresspeople” who don’t want the U.S. aiding Ukraine before building a border wall here, which makes sense since “the country of Mexico is shelling, Texas and they're using cluster bombs and stud missiles—Oh wait… There is no war at our Southern border, but no one has told Rep. Doug Collins.” Plus, Melissa Moss of the 65 Project explains how that was “set up to protect democracy; by holding accountable lawyers who bring bogus lawsuits to overturn legitimate election results” to account, and breaks down the three sorts of lawyers her group is going after. And the Atlantic’s Tom Nichols considers Putin: "This guy is not a good strategist. He blunders into things… and bluffs his way out, or tries to murder his way out. I don't know how this ends, if he were the strategist that everybody thinks he is, he would find an off-ramp.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nearly two weeks into Russia’s invasion, News Lines news director and Daily Beast editor at large Michael Weiss joins the pod to explain how and why the Ukranians have defied everyone’s expectations except their own. Plus, Steven Brill of NewsGuard looks back at his group’s conversations with Facebook. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this bonus episode of the New Abnormal, Kyiv-based film producer Egor Olesov— an executive producer at FilmUA, one of the largest film studios in Ukraine, where we worked extensively with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his acting career — calls in from Lviv. Olesov—in a conversation also joined by John Wynn, a Vietnamese-American filmmaker who worked with Egor on the film The Rising Hawk, which was shot in Ukraine in 2019 and 2019—tells host Molly Jong-Fast that “We came back and right now we are doing what we can do as much as possible to support our people, to defend our country and to show to the world the truth about this crazy Russian invasion in Ukraine. It’s like horror dream. It's a really crazy situation. It's a big war in the center of the Europe.” Plus Andrew Rice, New York Magazine Contributing Editor and the author of the Year That Broke America, explains how “I came to the conclusion that the seeds of the future were sewn in 2000 in the election between Bush and Gore (as) all the things that we now see coming to fruition in distressing form in our society were sort of just starting to come into being at that time and in one place, in Florida. which I call the unlikely crucible of the future” — one where “at the time the recount was going on, the 9/11 pilots were training in Florida, sort of serenely flying above it”—just after Trump ran for the reform party nomination that year in his first presidential campaign and “all these stories I sort of brought together in the book tell this sort of ribald, picaresque and ultimately sort of tragic story of how America took a wrong turn.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has become an icon around the world for his bravery and leadership since the Russian invasion began—and New Abnormal co-host Molly Jong-Fast herself has a special place in her heart for him. Zelensky “is my age and a Jewish comedian, so I feel very connected to him,” she says on the latest episode of The New Abnormal. “My generation, we’ve had a tough time of it. We’ve never really had our moment. So this may be as close as we ever get to our moment.” Later on the episode, Face the Nation moderator and CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan joins to talk about the conflict in Ukraine and the exodus of a million Ukrainians. Finally, former presidential candidate Evan McMullin, who’s now running as an independent to unseat Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), comes on talk about his race and the Russia-Ukraine war. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The attack on Ukraine isn’t going how Russian President Vladimir Putin thought it would, co-host Molly Jong-Fast posits in today’s episode of The New Abnormal. Vladimir Ashurkov, a colleague of anti-Putin opposition leader Alexei Navalny, joins the pod to explain what’s next for Putin—whether he wins or loses the war. Then, NBC News’ Jonathan Allen talks about what he saw at CPAC (the The Conservative Political Action Conference), including a screaming match at a bar where two men argued about Ukraine and one called the other a “shrill for the Queen.” Plus, co-host Andy Levy has a message for Marjorie Taylor Greene: “It’s OK to cancel Nazis.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Barbara McQuade, a former Michigan prosecutor, joins the first unlocked bonus episode of The New Abnormal to explain how Trump’s big lie is a provable crime. Plus, Andy Levy makes his Sunday episode debut, just in time to listen to clips of Josh Mandel sounding stupid and to unpack Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott’s criminalization of trans kids. It’s a move Andy calls “full-on fascist.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Biden is not doing much with Russian sanctions as they now stand, says PBS NewsHour Special Correspondent and documentary filmmaker Simon Ostrovsky, who is also Russian-American. He came on this episode to share what he thinks Biden really needs to bring to the negotiating table with Putin. Speaking of Putin, co-hosts Andy Levy and Molly Jong-Fast discuss all the ways they’re sure the dictator turns on right-wingers like Tucker Carlson and Ben Shapiro. Plus, Charlie Sykes, editor-at-large at The Bulwark, tries to understand what broke Sen. Ron Johnson’s brain and made it…Trumpy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse is not pleased with Mitch McConnell’s handling of dark money. He came on the pod to explain why he’s pinning the lack of dark money legislation on McConnell as well as what’s happening with climate change legislation. Plus, author Wes Moore tells TNA co-host Molly-Jong-Fast why he’s running for Governor of Maryland and what he wants to change. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gal Beckerman, editor at The Atlantic, explains why places like Twitter are no longer cutting it when it comes to social movements and makes the case with a story from the Black Lives Matter movement. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Donald Trump is closer to wearing an orange jumpsuit than he’s ever been. That’s what TrumpNation author Tim O’Brien thinks anyway. He came on this episode of The New Abnormal to share why he thinks this Trump Org investigation is going south for Trump. Plus, Molly asks former Biden White House Senior Advisor Andy Slavitt if COVID will ever go away, what the new Pfizer COVID-19 pills will be able to do, and if we should try to stay cautious or just live as normally as possible. And Daily Beast politics reporter Ursula Perano breaks down the restrictive Texas voting law, SB1, that’s ironically hurting rural districts, including red ones with Republican politicians. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Truckers part of the so-called “Freedom Convoy” have co-opted a conspiracy theory about Justin Trudeau’s biological father, which Canadian author and frequent New Abnormal guest Jeet Heer tells co-host Molly Jong-Fast all about on Tuesday’s episode. Plus, Molly and co-host Andy Levy run down the “terrifying” political candidates who billionaire Peter Thiel is backing and Imani Perry, author of South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation, makes the case that the South should be a source of inspiration. If you haven't heard, every single week The New Abnormal does a special bonus episode for Beast Inside, the Daily Beast’s membership program. where Sometimes we interview Senators like Cory Booker or the folks who explain our world in media like Jim Acosta or Soledad O’Brien. Sometimes we just have fun and talk to our favorite comedians and actors like Busy Phillips or Billy Eichner and sometimes it's just discussing the fuckery. You can get all of our episodes in your favorite podcast app of choice by becoming a Beast Inside member where you’ll support The Beast’s fearless journalism. Plus! You’ll also get full access to podcasts and articles. To become a member head to newabnormal.thedailybeast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The first thing Donald Trump noticed about Sarah Palin was her looks according to New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters, the author of Insurgency: How Republicans Lost Their Party and Got Everything They Ever Wanted. That’s not all that caught his attention, though, and Peters fills co-host Molly Jong-Fast in on this bonus episode of The New Abnormal. Plus, Peters tells Molly about the time he interviewed the former president in Mar-a-Lago a few weeks after the Jan. 6 insurrection and he weighs in on whether he thinks Trump will run again in 2024. If you haven't heard, every single week The New Abnormal does a special bonus episode for Beast Inside, the Daily Beast’s membership program. where Sometimes we interview Senators like Cory Booker or the folks who explain our world in media like Jim Acosta or Soledad O’Brien. Sometimes we just have fun and talk to our favorite comedians and actors like Busy Phillips or Billy Eichner and sometimes its just discussing the fuckery. You can get all of our episodes in your favorite podcast app of choice by becoming a Beast Inside member where you’ll support The Beast’s fearless journalism. Plus! You’ll also get full access to podcasts and articles. To become a member head to newabnormal.thedailybeast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The TNA crew considers who in the GOP is really a moron and who’s just playing one. Plus, former Rep. Max Rose previews his rematch with Trump-loving Nicole Malliotakis, and the Beast’s Zachary Petrizzo explains what it means to be in “Facebook jail.” If you haven't heard, every single week The New Abnormal does a special bonus episode for Beast Inside, the Daily Beast’s membership program. where Sometimes we interview Senators like Cory Booker or the folks who explain our world in media like Jim Acosta or Soledad O’Brien. Sometimes we just have fun and talk to our favorite comedians and actors like Busy Phillips or Billy Eichner and sometimes its just discussing the fuckery. You can get all of our episodes in your favorite podcast app of choice by becoming a Beast Inside member where you’ll support The Beast’s fearless journalism. Plus! You’ll also get full access to podcasts and articles. To become a member head to newabnormal.thedailybeast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode of The New Abnormal, Rep. Ilhan Omar breaks down the toxic ‘high school’ cliques in Congress, defends progressives, and explains why she’s so disappointed in President Joe Biden. Plus, Jared Bernstein, Economic Policy Advisor for the Biden Administration, breaks down how the Biden admin is trying to fix inflation and makes an admission about student loan forgiveness. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Writer and filmmaker Rupert Russell and author of PRICE WARS explains how a move by longtime former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan to deregulate the commodity markets in 1998 has caused decades of market trouble and sparked a “butterfly effect” of problems around the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There were rumors just a year ago that Jeff Zucker was going to run for mayor of New York, and now the chief who was “in some ways the voice to the network” and “the guru for a lot of the top anchors” is out. Daily Beast media editor Andrew Kirell breaks it all down with The New Abnormal crew, as co-host (and former CNN guy) Andy Levy says “pretty much everyone knew that the two of them were in a relationship for a long time. I mean, I knew it and I couldn't have been lower on the totem pole at CNN. I heard people talk, nobody seemed upset by it, particularly, but it was just like, it was just known. It wasn't even an open secret cuz it really wasn't even a secret.” Then co-host Molly Jong-Fast talks with New York Magazine's David Wallace-Wells of New York Magazine about the biq questions: whether or not the virus is endemic already or still a pandemic, and if the environment has already passed a point of no return. Plus, the gang rips into conservative cuckold Jerry Falwell, and former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander explains what it is that the coasts don’t get about politics in the middle of the country, and why the key to winning there isn’t about being in the political middle. If you haven't heard, every single week The New Abnormal does a special bonus episode for Beast Inside, the Daily Beast’s membership program. where Sometimes we interview Senators like Cory Booker or the folks who explain our world in media like Jim Acosta or Soledad O’Brien. Sometimes we just have fun and talk to our favorite comedians and actors like Busy Phillips or Billy Eichner and sometimes its just discussing the fuckery. You can get all of our episodes in your favorite podcast app of choice by becoming a Beast Inside member where you’ll support The Beast’s fearless journalism. Plus! You’ll also get full access to podcasts and articles. To become a member head to newabnormal.thedailybeast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joe Rogan might be a moron. But at least he’s an honest moron. On Tuesday’s episode of The New Abnormal, Andy Levy and Molly Jong-Fast discuss the nuance of podcaster Joe Rogan on the heels of his Spotify misinformation apology. Plus, Margaret Sullivan, a media columnist at The Washington Post and author of Ghosting the News, joins the show to discuss “four billion dollars worth of defamation lawsuits” including Sarah Palin’s against the New York Times and Dominion Voting against Fox News, and Adam Jentleson, a former Harry Reid staffer and the author of Kill Switch, explains why we don’t have a “Democratic Harry Reid,” and how student loan forgiveness being the thing that could save Joe Biden. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Garry Kasparov is one of the great strategists and a longtime critic of Putin, so naturally, in this bonus episode of The New Abnormal, Molly Jong-Fast asked the chess Grandmaster how he thinks the current crisis in Ukraine and Vlad’s stronghold on Russia will end. He shares a few theories that could checkmate Putin once and for all—and details how Biden’s presidency is part of the endgame. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“They are literally killing their viewers. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that,” says The New Abnormal co-host Andy Levy. “It was really interesting to see actual correlations between Trump voting counties and Fox News viewership and rates of death from COVID. It’s just amazing what they're doing." “Fox News has one job, right?” says Molly. “Get Republicans in power, keep them in power. So it's worth branching out into the idea that like Tucker Carlson is the kind of the spiritual leader of the GOP these days.” Andy says. Speaking of Fox hosts, The New Abnormal producer Jesse Cannon notices that in the midst of testing positive for COVID and then continuing to dine out in New York, Jesse Waters made sure to interview Sarah Palin from her hotel room, even though they’re in the city. Whatever the network says about COVID, its strict protocols for its own talent and building shows what they really think. Plus, Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent talks about how Glenn Youngkin managed to convince Virginians that school board members trying to follow the law were “power-mad bureaucrats who are trampling on the rights of virtuous parents,” and Stanford Prof. Michael Rosenfeld, the author of The Rainbow After the Storm: Marriage Equality and Social Change in the U.S , explains how America went from 11% support for marriage equality in 1988 to about 70% now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

George Conway joins this episode of The New Abnormal to address the possibility of a Mark Meadows indictment from Merrick Garland’s DOJ, co-hosts Andy Levy and Molly Jong-Fast talk about why Newt Gingrich is ‘minutes away’ from becoming the next Rudy Giuliani and Johann Hari, aka the guy who gave a viral TED Talk on rats and addiction, talks about his new book Stolen Focus and how getting stoned during work is actually more productive than answering emails during a task. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Angelo Carusone, president and CEO of Media Matters for America, joins this bonus episode of The New Abnormal to break down the fall of One America News Network, also known as OAN, and how the channel is trying to save itself. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“He’s essentially persona non grata in the royal family, and you know, the royal family survives because – it may look like this sort of a constitutional structure made entirely of cobwebs, but in fact it's got a really kind of canny PR operation behind it,” says Dunt. “And they know when to cut their losses. It’s a family, kind of, but it's not a family like any other kind of family. And when you got a bad (one) in there, you are gonna cut your losses and that's pretty much what they've done. ”The no-longer royal highness may not have regular people money worries, says Dunt, but “maybe more of a struggle is the complete reputational collapse that he's experienced over this period. And that goes quite deep. I mean, it's more, even than the moral outrage, it's also that he is now a very regular figure of mockery. If you saw the interview where he said that he was incapable of physically sweating, that has never gone away. Pretty much anytime anyone in conversation mentions the subject of sweat… that is the joke that will follow.” Plus, Dunt tells Americans what Boris Johnson’s friends call him (it isn’t Boris), co-host Andy Levy considers the civil case against the Trumps and lets the world know that, just like Letitia James, he won’t be running for governor of New York, and New York Times reporter Peter S. Goodman discusses his new book, Davos Man, about how billionaires devoured the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Preet Bharara, former Southern District of New York Attorney General and Justice Is…, is very concerned that Merrick Garland has likely not yet investigated Trump in relation to the Jan. 6 riots. He tells co-host Molly Jong-Fast why on this episode of The New Abnormal. Then, CNBC’s Fast Money panelist Dan Nathan joins to explain what’s happening with inflation in the U.S. and the Biden administration’s potential plan to fix it. But not before co-host Andy Levy and Molly discuss Paul Gosar’s intelligence, or lack thereof, and whether Ron DeSantis is more dangerous than Trump? Or will his boring personality be his 2024 kryptonite? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein joined co-host Molly Jong-Fast on this bonus episode of The New Abnormal to talk about his book Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom and what a journo who has seen it all thinks about today’s distrust of the media, outlets like Fox News and today’s Republicans, or as Bernstein calls them, “a party of sedition.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The “Joe Rogan” experience is off the cuff, unedited, and very often entirely off the rails. Alex Patterson of Media Matters says the podcast is “a bastion of toxic masculinity… that leads listeners further down rightwing rabbit holes,” and notes that Rogan’s “dedicated listeners are mostly young men… listening to all three hours and taking in completely unfounded conspiracy theories without any of the fact-checking that would come for a more traditional journalistic enterprise.” Plus, Samuel Woolley, the author of The Reality Game: How the Next Wave of Technology Will Break the Truth and the director of the Propaganda Lab at the University of Austin’s Center for Media Engagement, explains why “the right is a lot better than the left at leveraging the internet and leveraging both organic engagement and inorganic engagement to megaphone out their content,” including by using networked propaganda, where “what begins on social media as a quote unquote organic phenomenon, which is oftentimes not organic, then ends up on cable news, then back on social media and so on and so forth until it's really unclear where it came from.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Co-hosts Andy Levy and Molly Jong-Fast parse out whether Jim Jordan is telling the truth about his Jan. 6 knowledge, Jared Holt, a fellow at AtlanticCouncil’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, explains two big tactics far-right kingpins like Steve Bannon are using to take over democracy and Nandini Jammi and Claire Atkin of Check My Ads join the pod to explain how to play a role in bankrupting people like Charlie Kirk, Dan Bongino and other notorious disinfo machines. If you haven't heard, every single week The New Abnormal does a special bonus episode for Beast Inside, the Daily Beast’s membership program. where Sometimes we interview Senators like Cory Booker or the folks who explain our world in media like Jim Acosta or Soledad O’Brien. Sometimes we just have fun and talk to our favorite comedians and actors like Busy Phillips or Billy Eichner and sometimes its just discussing the fuckery. You can get all of our episodes in your favorite podcast app of choice by becoming a Beast Inside member where you’ll support The Beast’s fearless journalism. Plus! You’ll also get full access to podcasts and articles. To become a member head to newabnormal.thedailybeast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Canadian author Stephen Marche, whose new book The Next Civil War: Dispatches from the American Future chronicles what he saw while reporting in far-right Ohio aka Oathkeepers’ Country, came on The New Abnormal to share the troubling stories with host Molly Jong-Fast, including dreams of a Civil War, and explains how one little Trump decision could destroy an entire city. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Watching Florida’s governor offer a long-awaited update on his state’s coronavirus response this week, Molly Jong-Fast noticed something disturbing. “He’s really struggling to breathe,” she says on the latest episode of The New Abnormal. Also on the show John Heilemann of Showtime’s The Circus, The Recount, and the podcast Hell and High Water talks about Jan. 6 and the moment the GOP decided to choose Trumpism over democracy. Finally, Rep. Jake Auchincloss, who represents Massachusetts’ 4th District, explains why he declared on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021. If you haven't heard, every single week The New Abnormal does a special bonus episode for Beast Inside, the Daily Beast’s membership program. where Sometimes we interview Senators like Cory Booker or the folks who explain our world in media like Jim Acosta or Soledad O’Brien. Sometimes we just have fun and talk to our favorite comedians and actors like Busy Phillips or Billy Eichner and sometimes its just discussing the fuckery. You can get all of our episodes in your favorite podcast app of choice by becoming a Beast Inside member where you’ll support The Beast’s fearless journalism. Plus! You’ll also get full access to podcasts and articles. To become a member head to newabnormal.thedailybeast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Co-hosts Molly Jong-Fast and Andy Levy discuss some new nicknames for the former first daughter, including Ivanka “I Tried” Trump, as well as the reason Trump won’t ever diss the vaccines. Plus, vaccine expert Dr. Peter Hotez tries to answer Molly’s COVID-19 questions, including what the CDC was thinking when it made that 5-day rule and if Omicron will go away and The Nation columnist Jeet Heer confirms that Canadians are in fact prepping for America to become a fascist state. If you haven't heard, every single week The New Abnormal does a special bonus episode for Beast Inside, the Daily Beast’s membership program. where Sometimes we interview Senators like Cory Booker or the folks who explain our world in media like Jim Acosta or Soledad O’Brien. Sometimes we just have fun and talk to our favorite comedians and actors like Busy Phillips or Billy Eichner and sometimes it's just discussing the fuckery. You can get all of our episodes in your favorite podcast app of choice by becoming a Beast Inside member where you’ll support The Beast’s fearless journalism. Plus! You’ll also get full access to podcasts and articles. To become a member head to newabnormal.thedailybeast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices