Politics + Media 101

The Daily Beast's Matt Lewis sits down with John and Justin to discuss his new book, Filthy Rich Politicians. Matt explains how politicians get rich through leveraging their position as elected officials -- legalized corruptions of sorts, including book deals and stock trading. Matt examines Marjorie Taylor Greene, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, and many more politicians in this interview. You can buy Matt's book here:  https://www.centerstreet.blog/filthy-rich-politicians 

Justin and John discuss the recent discord in the House Freedom Caucus, as members move to punish Marjorie Taylor Greene for embracing GOP Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The Republican conference may move to oust McCarthy from leadership before the end of the year.The pair then discuss the differences in leadership style between Republicans and Democrats. They also offer first thoughts on the new Meta app Threads, launched to rival Twitter.

Justin sits down with Tingting Liu, News Anchor, Foreign affairs and military correspondent for TVBS to discuss Taiwan's domestic politics ahead of the 2024 Presidential election. Tingting provides analysis on how the three leading political parties approach the cross-straight relations (Taiwan - China), the ongoing Me Too movement on the island, and what we should look forward to during the next six months of the campaign. Follow Tingting on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/tingtingliuTVBS?s=20 

Justin and John sit down with Gregory B. Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program and Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.Greg recently returned from the Shangri-La Dialogue, a defense forum held in Singapore and attended by the United States, China, and other key players in the Asia-Pacific. He describes the arguments made in the American and Chinese presentations and assesses how they were perceived by crucial Southeast Asian states. More from Greg here: https://www.csis.org/people/gregory-b-poling

After an explosive expose, CNN's CEO Chris Licht was fired by his bosses at Warner Bros Discovery. This came after a year of disappointing ratings and head-scratching programming decisions.Justin and John sit down with Meg James, senior entertainment industry writer for the Los Angeles Times. Meg helps explain the crisis at CNN, based on her own reporting from the company. They also discuss the macro forces threatening the very existence of cable news.Read more from Meg here: https://www.latimes.com/people/meg-james

Justin and John discuss the surprise deal reached between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), who had backed the upstart rival LIV Tour. John draws on his experience working on public investment projects in the Arab Gulf States.

Justin and John discuss Ron DeSantis's presidential campaign launch, which was held on Twitter Spaces with Elon Musk and David Sacks. The PM101 hosts draw on their extensive experience in social audio to critique the unusual launch event.

In this episode, John and Justin breakdown former President Trump's recent CNN townhall, how the media approaches Trump and more.

Justin and John address two media controversies that unfolded in previous weeks, Donald Trump's indictment on 34 criminal counts by New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the social media boycott of beer brand Bud Lite. They discuss how public figures have responded to these stories and whether wading in these controversies is truly necessary.

In this episode John and Justin discuss Silicon Valley Bank and the state of the US banking system with Aaron Klein, the Brookings Institution's  Miriam K. Carliner Chair and senior fellow in Economic Studies. This discussion also gets into the Biden Administration's response and what policymakers and regulators must do in the future to ensure a strong US banking system.