You know what time it is. It’s time to open your ears and your mind, because Strange Days is back and this week’s episode is sure to leave you astounded. Do you remember reading George Orwell’s “1984” in school? Did you ever think, this can never happen in America? It’s time to rethink that because we ARE in Oceania right now. We have to address the news that Sinclair Broadcast Group forced their nearly 200 stations across the country to air their dog whistle propaganda and we found the rare opportunity to speak with an employee of Sinclair, keeping their identity hidden of course. As always, we continue to follow the Trump administration closely by speaking with David Corn, chief of the Washington bureau for Mother Jones, and author of the new book, “Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump”. WAIT! You thought that was it? Oh no. To wrap up our show, we turn back the clocks to the days of jailhouse rock and blue suede shoes. We’re speaking of course about The King, Elvis Presley. We were humbled to speak with a member of the original Memphis Gang, Jerry Schilling, in anticipation of the new HBO documentary, “Elvis Presley: The Searcher”, that Schilling executive produced, airing April 14th. Enjoy!
He’s Gonna Go Medieval on Mueller
Bienvenidos Strange Days faithful! This episode is sure to be a treat. A lot has happened since we last spoke. Trump’s lawyer called it quits (I don’t blame him), Mueller and the investigation have been repeatedly attacked, and the army of women seeking justice against Trump gained victories. If you feel over your head in trying to comprehend everything that’s happened, you are not alone. So we will attempt to sort through it all with our friend and CNN legal expert Katie Phang, joined by the fearless journalist Marc Caputo of POLITICO Florida. We continue with our “Flip That Seat” series this week, speaking with the former prosecutor and man who is determined to replace Devin Nunes in Congress, Andrew Janz of the 22nd District of California. So take out your handy pocket-sized copy of the Constitution because it’s about to get real. Enjoy!
Hijo De Putin
Greetings Strange Days listeners! This week has brought us a very strange call from Trump to Putin, congratulating him on his election win. Huh?! It really does get stranger and stranger. We cover all the developments in the Trump-Russia saga with Steven Lee Myers, author of “The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin”. Do you like books with pictures in it? Because we spoke with two graphic novelist who used a fresh approach to difficult subjects. Author Shannon Wheeler, of “Sh*t My President Says”, illustrates the mind-boggling tweets from 45. The next, Khalil Bendib, author of “Verax: The True History of Whistleblowers, Drone Warfare, and Mass Surveillance”, uses beautiful illustrations to detail the dark history of covert operations and information gathering. Enjoy!
The Fearsome Foursome
The Resistance Strikes Back! Congrats to Conor Lamb on your win in a district Trump won by 20 points. This week has seen some more shake ups in the White House, believe it or not. Rex Tillerson is out and Mike Pompeo is in. Who better to analyze this move than former CIA Deputy Director Philip Mudd, who happened to work with Gina Haspel, the woman set to take over as CIA Director. And how could we leave out the M&M boys (Marc Caputo and Michael Grunwald of POLITICO) who are with us in the studio to discuss many things, including the #Gunshine state of Florida, which surprisingly adopted a gun reform bill right before session ended. We stay with the world of clandestine behavior, speaking with Daniel Golden, author of Spy Schools, a book about how the intelligence agencies recruit young people from right under our noses. Enjoy the episode and subscribe to the show however you listen to podcasts.
Airborne!
Happy Thursday Strange Days listeners! This week, we take a bird’s eye view of foreign policy, corruption, and conflict in the Middle East with the brilliant Rula Jebreal, a Middle East Policy analyst, journalist, screenwriter, and university professor. Then we have “Thanks Obama” author David Litt share what it was like working at his dream job as a speechwriter in The White House during the Obama years. And finally, as part of our “Flip that Seat” series, we interview veteran and West Virginia State Senator Richard Ojeda, who once survived a brutal beating two days before his primary, and recovered to become a Democratic State Senator in the heart of Trump country and is now on the warpath to represent his district in Washington. Enjoy!
The Snake
Strange Days have found us again my friends. This week made our heads spin, so we tried to break it all down with the help of the brilliant Allan Lichtman, author of The Case for Impeachment. Then we speak to Frank Sharry, founder of America’s Voice, to discuss immigration under the Trump administration and the future of DACA along with our intern, Dreamer Maryajosé Zubillaga Sanchez. And of course, we had to bring in a Strange Days favorite, POLITICO’s Michael Grunwald, to talk typical Trumplandia and why he’s the next John Muir. Enjoy!
A World Without Mind
Newly-minted PBS News Hour White House Correspondent Yamiche Alcindor explains why the Stoneman Douglas students are revolutionizing the gun reform debate, the lovely Chenell tackles the existential threat of sea-level rise and global climate change with authors Ashley Dawson and Jeff Goodell, and not to be missed, a must-listen discussion with The Atlantic’s Franklin Foer who warns us about how our insidious reliance on big technology is creating a World Without Mind.
