Show overview
What the Hell Is Going On has been publishing since 2022, and across the 4 years since has built a catalogue of 219 episodes, alongside 15 trailers or bonus episodes. That works out to roughly 200 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a weekly cadence.
Episodes typically run thirty-five to sixty minutes — most land between 48 min and 1h — and the run-time is fairly consistent across the catalogue. The publisher flags most episodes as explicit, so expect adult themes or strong language throughout. It is catalogued as a EN-language News show.
The show is actively publishing — the most recent episode landed 4 days ago, with 34 episodes already out so far this year. The busiest year was 2024, with 64 episodes published. Published by AEI Podcasts.
From the publisher
The American Enterprise Institute’s Danielle Pletka and Marc Thiessen address the questions we’re all asking in their podcast, “What the Hell Is Going On?” In conversational, informative and irreverent episodes, Pletka and Thiessen interview policymakers and experts, asking tough, probing questions about the most important foreign policy and security challenges facing the world today.
Latest Episodes
View all 219 episodesWTH Should I Read This Summer? "Israel on Trial" by Roy Altman
WTH Should I Read This Summer? "Twenty Times I Almost Died" by John Spencer
WTH Should I Read This Summer? "The Arab Case for Israel" by Hussain Abdul-Hussain.
WTH Are Americans Not Having Babies? Nicholas Eberstadt Explains.
WTH LIVE! From the Aspen Security Forum: WTH Is Going On with Trump's Foreign Policy? Stephen Hadley, Robert O'Brien, and Michèle Flournoy Explain.
WTH Is Going On (Again) With the Ceasefire in Iran? Nicholas Carl Explains.
WTH: America's 250th! John Yoo on the Supreme Court in 2026.
WTH: Is Trump Right to Fear Global Depression? Economist Glenn Hubbard Debunks.
WTH Is the State of the Iranian Nuclear Program? David Albright Explains.
WTH: Turning the Tide in Ukraine. George Barros Explains.
WTH Is Trump Doing In Iran? Miad Maleki Explains.
WTH Is Going On with Iran? General Jack Keane Explains.
WTH Are Your Tax Dollars Funding Terrorism? Adam Kaplan Explains.
WTH Do Democrats Really Oppose Deportations? Howard Husock Explains.
WTH: Did the Supreme Court Gut the Voting Rights Act? Sarah Isgur Debunks.
WTH: Is the Iran War Depleting Key Munitions? Mark Cancian and Chris Park Explain.
WTH Is Going On In Lebanon? Ambassador David Hale Explains.
WTH: The Iran Blockade? Miad Maleki Explains.
WTH Is Going On With NATO? Secretary General Mark Rutte Explains.
Ep 367WTH: The Mythical MAGA Split on Iran. Kristen Soltis Anderson Explains.
EThe story from mainstream media is that the core of MAGA is "split" on the war with Iran, strikes in Venezuela, the Houthis, and other Trump 2.0 international policies. This supposed "MAGA schism" over foreign policy challenges Trump's coalition of America First isolationists and hawkish establishment Republicans. But the data tells a different story. Drawing on our coverage of the Reagan National Defense Survey and the work of our guest Kristen Soltis Anderson, we find no evidence of such a divide. In fact, MAGA voters appear overwhelmingly hawkish and strongly supportive of President Trump’s military operations, particularly in Iran. If a divide does exist within the Republican Party, it is more likely generational than ideological. What might that mean for the future of conservative foreign policy leadership? And as we look to 2028, what does a successful Republican candidate project on foreign policy according to the polls?Kristen Soltis Anderson is a pollster, speaker, TV personality, New York Times opinion writer, commentator, and author. Kristen is Founding Partner of Echelon Insights, an opinion research and analytics firm that serves brands, trade associations, nonprofits, and political clients. She is an on-air political contributor at CNN and previously has been a contributor to Fox News Channel and ABC News. She currently writes the newsletter “Codebook” on Substack and is the author of, “The Selfie Vote: Where Millennials Are Leading America (and How Republicans Can Keep Up).”Read the transcript here.Subscribe to our Substack here.