639. “This Country Kicks My Ass All the ...

Macy’s wants to recapture its glorious past. The author of the Wimpy Kid books wants to rebuild his dilapidated hometown. We just want to listen in. (Part two of a two-part series, first published in 2024) SOURCES:Mark Cohen, former professor and director of retail studies at Col ... Show More

<p>The iconic department store calls the parade its “gift to the nation.” With 30 million TV viewers, it’s also a big moneymaker — at least we think it is: when it comes to parade economics, Macy’s is famously tight-lipped. In this 2024 episode, we try to loosen them up. (Part on ... Show More

Popular podcasts in the "manosphere" helped sway young men to go MAGA in the 2024 election. New Yorker writer Andrew Marantz explains how Democrats can win them back. Also, Ken Tucker shares songs by Neil Young, Benjamin Booker and Teddy Swims. Learn more about sponsor message ch ... Show More

<p>Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is one of just 13 Democrats to represent a district that Donald Trump won. Her distinctive economic message, and a willingness to buck her own party, helped her win re-election. But now the reality of the Trump era is coming home.</p><p>G ... Show More

<p>The tariffs President Trump unveiled this week were both bigger than most people expected and a lot more confusing. These aren’t the flat tariffs he proposed during the campaign. And they aren’t reciprocal tariffs, as he claimed in his Rose Garden speech. So what is Trump actu ... Show More

<p>“It’s so insidious, people don’t realize it,” Barbara Kingsolver told me, describing the prejudice against “country people.” Kingsolver is one of those “country people,” as well as a literary legend in her own time, who set out to write the “great Appalachian novel.” And I thi ... Show More

Story #1: Will sits down with Founder & Co-chair of the Forward Party & 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate, Andrew Yang to discuss the crisis of leadership and lack of direction within the current Democrat party, and whether, in a country where the political alignment is radi ... Show More

“Everything’s a question mark, because we no longer live in a democracy. We live under the tyranny of Joe Manchin,” says Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) of the current state of Congress. The congressman, who represents “America’s most impoverished district,” New York’s 15th, joins Mol ... Show More

Story 1: Hamas and Israel have agreed to start putting President Trump’s 20-point peace plan in motion, and even CNN had to admit it was an impressive accomplishment for someone that they typically lambaste at every opportunity. Will reacts to the media coverage of the peace deal ... Show More

<p>President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard from red states into blue cities isn’t just a partisan attack; it’s also a geographic one. In the 2024 election, Donald Trump won rural areas by <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/06/26/behind-trumps-2024-victo ... Show More