News and Happenings

Andy starts the show with some good news about COVID-19, regarding case numbers, child vaccines, and a new study on long COVID and Omicron. Then, Obama’s former political advisor and Pod Save America host Dan Pfeiffer joins to react to the Jan. 6 hearings and explain why Democrats suck at political messaging. Plus he gives Democrats handy tips to level the political playing field, including how to make politics feel like a righteous adventure.

Texas hasn’t had a Democratic governor in nearly 30 years. Why does Beto O’Rourke think he can change that? Andy sits down with the former presidential candidate to discuss how the families of Uvalde victims are doing, his thoughts on Congress’ bipartisan gun bill, and how he plans to defeat Greg Abbott in November.

This week’s bipartisan hearings on the January 6 insurrection coincided with the preliminary announcement on a bipartisan gun bill in the Senate. We take a look at what led to this cross-party cooperation – in Congress and in public opinion – by inviting in a US political historian and a Trump official who blew the whistle on the former president’s support of domestic terrorism. Are we making progress or papering over our problems, and what does history tell us is about to happen?

Texas hasn’t had a Democratic governor in nearly 30 years. Why does Beto O’Rourke think he can change that? Andy sits down with the former presidential candidate to discuss how the families of Uvalde victims are doing, his thoughts on Congress’ bipartisan gun bill, and how he plans to defeat Greg Abbott in November.

Our pocketbooks are reeling from May’s 40-year high inflation, and price gains don’t seem to be easing. Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers saw this coming last year, when he predicted inflation would become a big problem in the U.S. What’s his money on now? Andy asks Larry to make predictions about how the federal government’s attempt to lower inflation by raising federal interest rates could impact the price of gas, our jobs, home values, and retirement accounts. Larry has an answer.

Four years after the first March for Our Lives rally in Washington D.C., survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida are once again organizing student-led demonstrations around the country this weekend in response to the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Andy speaks with Parkland survivor Samantha Fuentes and ER physician Dr. Megan Ranney about how they turned their trauma into action, and how you can, too.

Actor Jay Ellis is in the hottest movie of the summer – Top Gun: Maverick. Andy escapes with Jay into a world of nostalgia, childhood dreams coming true, and trying to act while traveling 1,200 mph and 8 Gs without puking. Jay shares how growing up on Air Force bases with a jet mechanic for a father prepared him for this role and the communal power of a packed movie theater after years of pandemic isolation. Jay also hosts The Untold Story on Lemonada Media.

As the man responsible for manufacturing and distributing the COVID-19 vaccine in less than a year, US Army four-star General Gustave Perna has a thing or two to say about today’s supply chain issues. He says product shortages, from vaccines to baby formula, are preventable if you center mission over profit and run hypotheticals that prepare your team for worst case scenarios. Andy relives Operation Warp Speed with the general as they discuss what we can learn from it.

The price of goods like gasoline and food is up sharply amid the highest inflation since the 1970s, and a stock market slump may be impacting your investment portfolio. What should you do as you watch the pump tick up and your 401(k) tick down? Andy sits down with two money experts, the Washington Post’s Michelle Singletary and President Obama’s Economic Advisor Betsey Stevenson, to better understand what’s going on in our economy right now and how to weather this storm.

Many Americans don’t feel like the politicians they elect are creating the laws they want, including common sense gun regulations, paid family leave, and universal health care. Why don’t our policies reflect the will of the majority? Andy explores that question with former Minnesota Senator Al Franken, who explains why we don’t have the elective democracy we think we do and gets emotional reflecting on his time in Congress during the Sandy Hook shooting.