The Nicole Sandler Show

It's Friday, so when the show ends, the weekend has arrived! Since this is the first full weekend of autumn, the weather should be universally beautiful, a good time to get out and encourage people to vote! In some places, early voting has already begun. And if you get your ballots in the mail, they should be arriving any time. (Ours showed up today!) Vote early if you can. That's one way to avert any bad surprises on election day and make sure your vote will count. If you need some convincing that that is necessary, you're in the right place. Investigative journalist Greg Palast is my guest today. As you likely know, he's been on the voter suppression beat for years now, honing in on Georgia, which is one ground zero in the fight for our voting rights. *Unfortunately, there are a few ground zeros, as the Republican war against Democrats' voting has been intensifying for years. So, Palast has been in Georgia, sleuthing, investigating, asking questions and getting in the faces of the people responsible for kicking so many voters (mostly black people, brown people, and others who are more likely to vote for Democrats). The result is the new film "Vigilante: Georgia's Vote Suppression Hitman"! There are a few screenings this week... we'll tell you how you can see it when Greg Palast joins in at around the :30 minute mark.

A bit of what's news for now

It's Thursday, the day of the week that Howie Klein joins in. Howie was president of Reprise Records when I first met him, probably 25-30 years ago in LA. So our discussions often veer off into the music world. Just some context there. Since leaving Reprise and Warner Bros, Howie's been ensconced in progressive politics. He blogs at DownWithTyranny.com and runs the Blue America PAC along with Heather Digby Parton and John Amato. His latest piece up at DWT is "Good for American: More Ro Khanna, Less Herschel Walker." That sounds like a good place to start today's discussion...

A bit of what's news, for now

Do you remember the term "tough love"? It was a behavior modification approach to troubled teens popularized in the last century. Sort of a last resort for kids that just don't learn from their mistakes and keep getting into the same kinds of trouble repeatedly. Well, today on the show, I speak with Ed Burmila, author of the new book, "Chaotic Neutral: How the Democrats Lost Their Soul in the Center," that seems to suggest putting that practice into action. To be more accurate, he calls out the party on all the mistakes they keep making, and identifies the eight pathologies that are at the core of why the Democrats are their own worst enemy. Tough love. So don't get angry at what we'll discuss today. Take it as constructive criticism for the party that needs to figure this out if they are going to rise to the occasion of saving what's left of our American form of democracy. And did I mention that the book is funny? Perhaps I'll have time to share a few passages... we also have some news to cover too!

A bit of what's news for now

Last week, my husband sent me an opinion piece from the Washington Post headlined "I don't want your god in charge of my health care," knowing it would strike a chord with me. So I reached out to the author, Kate Cohen, and invited her on the show. Today's the day. So we'll talk about the unsettling trend of Catholic-owned hospitals and doctors offices refusing to provide essential healthcare services because of the religious dogma of the church. She's also putting the finishing touches on her new book, "We of Little Faith," in which she encourages those who are atheists or nonbelievers to be loud and proud (my words, not hers!). But there's lots of news to cover before Kate Cohen joins us at around the 30 minute mark... Day 2 of the new SCOTUS term, and Kejani Brown Jackson is making herself at home, and making herself heard. Finally! Of course, there's the latest outrage to fill you in on concerning the liar/hypocrite Herschel Walker, and the truly reprehensible Ron DeSantis, whose sleaziness is further exposed each day..

A bit of what's news for now

Welcome to the first Monday in October. As happens every year on this day, the Supreme Court began a new session. For the first time in history, a Black woman is sitting on the bench as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Ketanji Brown Jackson making her debut today, asking more questions than Clarence Thomas did in the entire decade leading up to Antonin Scalia's death. (And with more substance in her first round of questioning than he ever displayed, but I digress.) With Justice Brown Jackson in place, there are now a record four women on the court. Unfortunately, one of them is as wing-nutty as they come, and she is one of six on that court with extreme right wing views. That said, as much as I look forward to KBJ on the court, I am NOT looking forward to their decisions taking away yet more of our liberties. Our guest today is the FOIA Master himself. Jason Leopold, now in place at Bloomberg News, shared a big surprise on Friday, and it was something he didn't even ask for (probably because none of us knew it had happened). The transcript of an off-the-record oval office meeting, three days before Trump's inauguration, between President Obama and a group described as "progressive columnists". For once, we really are that proverbial fly on the wall!

A bit of what's news for now