Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

Click here for the extended interview“Like who the fuck is reading anything from Rolling Stone now?” asked Zac and Gavin, hosts of the Vanguard podcast, when pondering our mysterious — and completely unjust — firing at the hands of the iconic music magazine. Katie and I would like to know the same thing. And, Zac and Gavin? We’re with you. None of it makes any sense to us, either. “I just think it’s crazy that you as a company would have Matt Taibbi and Katie Halper in to do a podcast, and then a year in, it’s like, ‘Oh, they said something controversial!’” said Gavin, shaking his head. “Cause they already have that centrist bloc down. It’s like, anyone who goes to Rolling Stone for their news, they’re probably not a firebrand fuckin’ progressive.”He went on. “I’m not gonna listen to Useful Idiots if it’s hosted by Ezra Klein, and Samantha Bee, or whatever the fuck.”“Fuck Rolling Stone, basically,” added Zac.Frankly, even if Rolling Stone tried to hire us back, we’d say no. We’re happy here at Substack. But with the help of shows like Vanguard, we’d like to build a groundswell of support, and make them beg. And this time, as Katie points out, we’ll go in “guns blazing,” and accept the job “on our terms.” It’s no secret that part of the reason we left was that the magazine shut down our plans to bring in Bashar al-Assad as a third host, and that was when he was willing to work for free. Well, screw that. In order to even consider coming back, we not only want Assad, we want him at cost, plus one more full-time, adult salary. What do we need that for? Listen to the episode above and, as the flag on Gavin’s wall says:Oh, and also: we interview some guy named Noam Chomsky (extended interview coming next week), and scrutinize the thrilling PBS interview of former al-Nusra/al-Qaeda leader-turned-very-handsome-man Abu Mohammed al-Jolani. Katie taps her beard-crit background, while we both investigate the two most important questions of our time: which four goateed male celebrities combined look like one PBS interviewer Martin Smith, and why do I keep thinking Smith is British?All that, and more, in this week’s free episode of Useful Idiots. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

We interview some guy named Noam Chomsky (extended interview coming next week), get to the bottom of why we broke up with Rolling Stone, and scrutinize the thrilling PBS interview of former al-Nusra/al-Qaeda leader-turned-very-handsome-man Abu Mohammed al-Jolani. Katie taps her beard-crit background, while we both investigate the two most important questions of our time: which four goateed male celebrities combined look like one PBS interviewer Martin Smith, and why do I keep thinking Smith is British?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

[This interview was recorded before the Governor of Arkansas Vetoed the anti-transgender health care bill].] The Arkansas Senate just passed a bill with a title straight out of dystopian fiction: the Arkansas Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act, or SAFE. Roundly denounced as the most extreme law of its type ever passed, the bill is one of about two dozen laws aimed at trans care currently being considered at the state level. To find out what’s actually in these bills, we spoke with Dr. Erica Anderson, a trans clinician and psychology professor from the University of California, San Francisco.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

In this Useful Idiots interview, Matt Stoller walks us through some of the myths about big tech. Many members of Congress seem to believe the firms don’t intervene enough; Stoller explains that their massive existing levels of intervention are the problem, that the financial incentives of what he calls “surveillance advertising” move firms like Facebook to push users in the direction of ever more enraging, divisive, and conspiratorial content. Plus Matt (Taibbi) and Katie talk about Ted Cruz, Woke-washing and penis mishaps.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

The House Energy and Commerce Committee held hearings with the CEOs of Facebook, Google, and Twitter this week, the latest in a long series of efforts by Congress to demand “accountability” for fake news, hate speech, and foreign propaganda. “The time for self-regulation is over. It’s time we legislate to hold you accountable,” said Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the committee’s chairman. As one member after another stood up and demanded that the executives clamp down on harmful content, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Sundar Pichai, and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey pushed back, a little. “I don’t think we should be the arbiters of truth,” said Dorsey, “and I don’t think the government should be either.”With those hearings on the way, we invited Matt Stoller, Director of Research at the American Economic Liberties Project, to talk about the issues surrounding speech and tech monopolies. While there’s a rising sentiment among Democratic legislators like Pallone and new New Economic Council appointee Timothy Wu for a re-think of the First Amendment that would enlist tech monopolies as partners in speech control, Stoller outlined a different strategy, based on altering the financial model of these firms. “The question that we have to ask is not whether you should block crazy people from saying things,” Stoller told us. “The question, though, isn't whether Alex Jones should have a platform. The question is, should YouTube have recommended Alex Jones 15 billion times through its algorithms so that YouTube could make money selling ads?”In this Useful Idiots interview, Stoller walks us through some of the myths about big tech. Many members of Congress seem to believe the firms don’t intervene enough; Stoller explains that their massive existing levels of intervention are the problem, that the financial incentives of what he calls “surveillance advertising” move firms like Facebook to push users in the direction of ever more enraging, divisive, and conspiratorial content. “It's like if you were in a bar, and there was a guy in the corner that was constantly egging people onto getting into fights, and he got paid whenever somebody got into a fight, Stoller said. “That's the business model here.”Check out the video and audio above for more from Matt, as well as for the four food groups, which include: the “Wokewash of the week,” Ted Cruz’s hilarious use of the word “cynical,” and two horrifying penis-mishap stories, including an amazing re-enactment with a doorknob hole, and a lawsuit filed by a man who just can’t hold it anymore. Watch this space and your RSS feed for more content in the upcoming days! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Jesse Singal and Katie Herzog, co-hosts of the podcast Blocked And Reported, join Useful Idiots to talk about the failed campaign to get Singal driven off of Substack and what, according to Herzog, some of Singal's most vocal critics have in common with QAnon. They also talk about how they met and why they started their podcast and how they're not exactly canceled. Singal discusses his new book "Quick Fix," about the dangers of fad psychology. And Matt and Katie discuss the indefensible hoarding of vaccine, and debate the important question: can robbing blind people ever be funny? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

We spoke to legendary Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg about the nuclear threat nobody is talking about, the end of the world and how he, despite all that, stays hopeful. But before diving in with Ellsberg, Matt and Katie talk about, of course, Dems sucking, Republicans sucking, things being weird and terrible and even bring you a stoned moment. Stand by for the youtube episode. And, dear paying subscribers, stand by for the paywalled video and audio sections dropping soon where we talk to Ellsberg about the way he’s been cynically rehabilitated by his critics as a “good whistleblower” in order to present Snowden, Assange, and Manning as bad ones. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Useful Idiots, the podcast Matt Taibbi and Katie Halper started in the summer of 2019 at Rolling Stone, is moving. After eighty episodes that included interviews with the likes of Tulsi Gabbard (our first guest), Roger Waters, Andrew Yang, Erin Brockovich, Michael K. Williams, Noam Chomsky, Marianne Williamson, Adam McKay, Bernie Sanders, Nadya Tolkonnikova of Pussy Riot, Tim Robbins, Adolph Reed, Chris Hedges, and many others, the show that was created with the idea of being a home for voices shut out or shouted down in traditional media outlets is moving, appropriately, to Substack.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This was a crazy one, even by Internet standards. As if it weren’t enough that reporters and editors are being purged at mainstream news organizations all over the world, from the New York Times to the Guardian to Teen Vogue, a new campaign has begun targeting writers already shunned by the regular press, working as independent contractors at Substack.Last week, a series of articles and Tweets, including a much-circulated piece by Jude Ellison Sady Doyle called “In Queers We Trust: All Others Pay Cash,” targeted this platform, home to thousands of writers covering a huge variety of subjects, as a purveyor of bigotry and hate speech. Doyle called Substack a perfect example of how “patriarchy and capitalism function together,” among other things because it publishes… Jesse Singal, a soft-spoken Brooklyn-based writer who would probably win an inoffensiveness contest with a “Hang In There, Baby!” poster.Singal and his co-host, Katie Herzog have nonetheless long been bêtes noires to the American left, for the crime of covering taboo gender controversies like detransitioners (people who have transitioned to one gender and then later transitioned back) the wrongful termination case of Canadian sex researcher Kenneth Zucker (despised by the trans community), and “desistance” (ostensibly, young people who stop experiencing gender dysphoria). Not liking their reporting is one thing. Doyle went further and called Singal a “high-profile supporter of anti-trans conversion therapy who is also widely known to fixate on and stalk trans women in and around the media industry.” The stalking and “conversion therapy” accusations were gobbled up by a sizable portion of professional media figures, who seemed untroubled by the total absence of evidence for such claims. “Nobody can even name a victim,” says Herzog. “It’s fucking QAnon!”As far as Singal is concerned, the crazy episode wasn’t all bad, unmasking as it did an increasingly common sentiment across the media business. “Even Jesse Singal, center-left shit-lib-ism,” he said, “is apparently too far to the right for these people.” Ultimately, Doyle threatened to leave Substack unless the platform dropped Singal, which triggered a massive Internet fracas involving high-profile journalists on both sides. Free-speech advocates rallied behind Singal in an episode with Je Suis Jesse overtones, while backers of Doyle doubled and tripled down on invective geared toward Singal as the root of all evil in the universe.Herzog, who’s had her own run-ins with many of the same critics, rushed to her co-host’s defense, and though Substack ultimately did the right thing and refused to give in to demands that Singal be ditched, it was a bizarre example of just how weird and unfriendly the news business has become in recent years. Since Useful Idiots is all about making sure the targets of moral manias have a chance to tell their side of a story, we were glad to have both Jesse and Katie on for what turned out to be a fascinating discussion in this week’s episode. We’ve reproduced the bulk of it here, with more to come in a bit, along with a series of other segments geared more toward other issues in the news of late. Also: Singal discusses his new book Quick Fix, about the dangers of fad psychology, while Katie and I talk about the Sovietization of media, the Biden administration’s indefensible hoarding of vaccine, and debate the important question: can robbing blind people ever be funny? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Here is our first truly independent podcast episode of Useful Idiots! [It is audio only and video will be released Tuesday.] We spoke to legendary Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg about the nuclear threat nobody is talking about, the end of the world and how he, despite all that, stays hopeful. But before diving in with Ellsberg, Matt and Katie talk about, of course, Dems sucking, Republicans sucking, things being weird and terrible and even bring you a stoned moment. Stand by for the youtube episode. And, dear paying subscribers, stand by for the paywalled video and audio sections dropping soon where we talk to Ellsberg about the way he’s been cynically rehabilitated by his critics as a “good whistleblower” in order to present Snowden, Assange, and Manning as bad ones. You will be able to find us on RSS feeds soon. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

We will be dropping our first Useful Idiots UNCHAINED episode with Daniel Ellsberg shortly. Here’s an audio trailer so it gets into the Apple Podcast pipeline, which is something we barely understand. Enjoy. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Stella Moris, lawyer and life partner of Julian Assange, joins the show to discuss the current status of Assange's case and it’s implications for global journalism. Hosts Matt Taibbi and Katie Halper discuss arguments for and against independent journalism outlet Substack.Merch link: https://teespring.com/stores/useful-idiotsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Shahid Buttar joins the show to discuss Democrats, Fox News, and free speech. Hosts Matt Taibbi and Katie Halper discuss Tennessee GOP efforts to prohibit kneeling during college sports national anthems.Merch link: https://teespring.com/stores/useful-idiotsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Journalist Aaron Maté joins the show to talk about the start of Biden's foreign policy, and his reporting on Syria and the OPCWMerch Link: https://bit.ly/3uiFz4DLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Glenn Greenwald rejoins the show to discuss recent journalism news, content moderation, and more on GameStop/Wall Street. Hosts Katie Halper and Matt Taibbi trade off takes related to the contentious confirmation hearing of Neera Tanden.Merch Link: https://teespring.com/stores/useful-idiotsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Congressman Ro Khanna makes another appearance to discuss the state of Covid relief, his experience during the January 6 riot and more. Hosts Katie Halper and Matt Taibbi discuss other recent news, including an inspired metaphor from Thomas Friedman on the Gamestop story.Merch Link: https://teespring.com/stores/useful-idiotsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

David Dayen joins hosts Matt Taibbi and Katie Halper to break down the GameStop/Wall Street Story. They also discuss the early days of Biden's presidency, and the moves that are available to him with his new authority.Merch Link: https://teespring.com/stores/useful-idiotsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Thomas Frank joins hosts Matt Taibbi and Katie Halper in this special post-inauguration episode, looking ahead to the Biden era, and how the media can transition from Trump.Merch Link: https://teespring.com/stores/useful-idiotsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Matt and Katie talk about the fallout from the storming of the capitol. Andre Damon of the World Socialist Web Site discusses how censorship has affected political opposition from the left.Merch Link: https://teespring.com/stores/useful-idiotsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Disclaimer: this episode was taped early Wednesday, before the events at the Capitol. Investigative reporter Stefania Maurizi joins the show to give an update on the Julian Assange case. Hosts Katie Halper and Matt Taibbi discuss the reconfirmation of Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House.Merch Link: https://teespring.com/stores/useful-idiotsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Matt and Katie discuss the latest on the debate over Covid stimulus negotiations, NYU professor Mark Crispin Miller talks academic freedom.Merch Link: https://teespring.com/stores/useful-idiotsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Vice writer Edward Ongweso Jr joins the show to discuss surveillance by tech companies, Biden's 'Biracial Commercial' thoughts, the DOJ's antitrust lawsuit against Google, and more. Matt breaks down a recent piece from his substack, 'TK Media,' about the flailing efforts by democrats to pass the Covid relief package.Merch Link: https://teespring.com/stores/useful-idiotsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Matt Christman joins the show to talk modern political identity in America and 'Chapo Trap House.' Katie and Matt watch a clip from MSNBC ridiculing him for his record of passing legislation that he's writtenMerch Link: https://teespring.com/stores/useful-idiotsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Erin Brockovich joins hosts Matt Taibbi and Katie Halper to discuss her recent book on the U.S. water crisis, Biden's EPA transition pick, Michael McCabe, and how to effectively fight against corporations who pollute.Merch link: https://teespring.com/stores/useful-idiotsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Ryan McMahon and Jon Thompson join the show to talk about their excellent podcast Thunder Bay. Katie reads a couple passages from former president Barack Obama's recent memoir 'A Promised Land.'Merch Link: https://teespring.com/stores/useful-idiotsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Legendary rock musician Roger Waters joins the show for a wide-ranging conversation on U.S. foreign policy, what happens after Trump, Julian Assange and more.Merch Link: https://teespring.com/stores/useful-idiotsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Thomas Frank rejoins the show to talk about the past, present, and future of the Democratic party.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Glenn Greenwald joins to discuss the election (taped on Thursday), leaving the Intercept, and more. Matt and Katie ponder the future of both parties after a tightly contested result.Merch Link: https://teespring.com/stores/useful-idiotsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Genre-bending singer, Tinashe, joins hosts Matt Taibbi and Katie Halper in a livestream event, sponsored by Yappa, to discuss the 2020 election and moreLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti from The Hill's 'Rising' rejoin the show ahead of the US election. Matt and Katie discuss Jared Kushner's viral clip on Fox. They also express concern on what the handling of the Hunter Biden story portends in media.Merch Link: https://teespring.com/stores/useful-idiotsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Katie and Matt analyze the Jeffrey Toobin story and come up with a few ways to pitch Biden to undecided voters. Pollster Ben Tulchin, who worked on Bernie Sanders' campaigns in 2016 and 2020, joins the show to break down the polls and what to look for on election night.Merch Link: https://teespring.com/stores/useful-idiotsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Hosts Matt Taibbi and Katie Halper go over Nancy Pelosi's strategy for passing a new stimulus bill, and review a contentious appearance of hers on Wolf Blitzer's CNN show. Poly-hyphenate Antonio García Martínez joins the show to discuss the recent report from the ICO in the U.K. that seemed to unravel the heated accusations against Cambridge Analytica from a few years back, and how much influence they may have had on the 2016 US presidential election.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Journalist David Sirota joins the show to talk Trump and Covid, Biden and the election, and how 80s pop culture relates to today.Merch Link: https://teespring.com/stores/useful-idiotsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Renowned actor Michael K. Williams joins the show to discuss his activism, the presidential debate, his acting process and more. Katie and Matt discuss a few moments from the debate and a frustrating Fox News story.Merch Link: https://teespring.com/stores/useful-idiotsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Yale professor of law and history, Samuel Moyn, joins the show to discuss the Supreme Court after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Matt and Katie discuss a dustup in Syria that hasn't gotten much media attention.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Glenn Greenwald returns to the show to discuss a few media moments he was involved in recently, one regarding the Intercept and Reality Winner, the other an appearance he made on Tucker Carlson's show on FOX. Katie and Matt dive into the viral clip of Joe Biden playing a clip of 'Despacito' at a recent Hispanic Heritage Month event.Merch Link: https://teespring.com/stores/useful-idiotsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Katie and Matt discuss the revelations from Bob Woodward's book regarding Trump, Juan Passarelli describes the extradition hearing against Julian AssangeLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

California Congressional candidate Shahid Buttar, running to unseat Nancy Pelosi, shares his perspective on recent allegations of sexual and workplace misconduct. Matt and Katie break down the Massachusetts primary returns and Trump's Fox News interview with Laura Ingraham.Merch Link: https://teespring.com/stores/useful-idiotsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Attorney, author and former New York gubernatorial candidate Zephyr Teachout joins hosts Katie Halper and Matt Taibbi to talk about the role of monopolies in the American politics, economies, and tech. Matt and Katie break down the drama in the Ed Markey vs. Joe Kennedy III Massachusetts Senate race, and react to the first half of the Republican National Convention.Merch Link: https://teespring.com/stores/useful-idiotsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Former congresswoman Katie Hill joins hosts Katie Halper and Matt Taibbi to talk about her life after resigning last fall. Matt and Katie review the first two days of the DNC, and analyze what's going on with the USPS and its media coverage.Merch Link: https://teespring.com/stores/useful-idiotsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Massachusetts congressional candidate Alex Morse joins the show to discuss his perspective on the misconduct allegations against him. Katie and Matt discuss Biden's selection of Kamala Harris as his running mate.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Author Thomas Frank joins the show to discuss his latest book ‘The People, NO: A Brief History of Anti-Populism.’ Katie and Matt dissect Biden's most-stoned moment ever.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Leading biomedical researcher Dr. Robert Gallo shares his thoughts on the various theories for potential covid-19 vaccines. Matt and Katie caution against overconfidence by the left heading into the presidential election. Katie decries a 'Sharkaganda' story from AustraliaLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Thomas Chatterton Williams talks cancel culture and his contribution to the Harper's Letter on Justice and Open Debate. Matt and Katie discuss the departure of Bari Weiss from the New York Times. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Liz Franczak and Brace Belden, hosts of the podcast True Anon, discuss the arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell and the wider Jeffrey Epstein story, Matt and Katie talk about reactions to the much-debated Harper's open letterLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Matt and Katie discuss Matt's review of "White Fragility," Professor Adolph Reed joins to discuss identity politicsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Omar Wasow, assistant professor of politics at Princeton, joins the show to discuss his paper on protest tactics and 'Agenda Seeding,' and the polarized reaction it's received. Matt and Katie analyze a scene from Delaware involving a manly encounter with a shark.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Dr. Cornel West joins the show (for the first time) for a wide-ranging conversation about his new podcast The Tightrope, what went wrong for Bernie’s campaign and why he had endorsed Sanders again in 2020, and the tactical efficacy of violent vs. nonviolent protesting.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Shahid Buttar returns to the show to talk about his campaign against Nancy Pelosi, police reform, civil liberties and more. Matt and Katie look at the significance of Kente cloth, and discuss the recent turmoil in major newsrooms around the countryMerch Link: https://teespring.com/stores/useful-idiotsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe