Impolitic with John Heilemann

In which John Heilemann talks with actor Adam Scott, best known for his roles in beloved sitcoms including Parks and Recreation and The Good Place. Heilemann and Scott discuss his latest role in Severance, the new Apple TV+ sci-fi series directed by Ben Stiller; why the comedy veteran was eager to take part in the psychological drama; and how the backdrop of Covid-19 and the Trump presidency contributed to the dystopian nature of the show. They also reflect on Scott’s career – from his decade-plus as a struggling actor, his breakout role in Step Brothers, and his penchant for playing wanton assholes to hilarious effect – and look ahead to Scott’s highly anticipated return as Henry Pollard in the forthcoming reboot of the cult comedy classic STARZ series Party Down.Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the aftermath of the Democratic Party's successful showing in last week's midterm elections, John Heilemann welcomes Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham, author of the recent presidential biography, And Then There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle. Heilemann and Meacham, a friend of President Joe Biden, discuss Biden's buoyant mood after the midterms and how he'll determine whether he'll run again in 2024; Meacham's belief that Americans voted to support Democrats over Republicans in key swing states because they dislike having rights taken from them; that the ability of Democrats to put democracy on the ballot was a key determinant in their favor; how Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania's next governor, has become an an ascendant political star; and why presidents and vice presidents never have close relationships. They also talk about Ron DeSantis' recent deeply narcissistic political ad and why his anti-woke message may not play well on the national scene if he tries to be the Republican's presidential nominee in two years; debate Donald Trump's chances of becoming president again; and weigh the potential for election chaos if Republicans don't support the rational rule of law in 2024.Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With Election Day upon us, John Heilemann welcomes Joe Scarborough, co-host of MSNBC's Morning Joe, to talk through the big themes, large lessons, and lasting takeaways from the 2022 midterm campaign. Heilemann and Scarborough discuss the high degree of uncertainty around the outcome of the contests for control of Congress and 36 governships across the country, and why these midterms might not produce the kind of resounding wave favoring one party or the other; the importance of the Hispanic vote in determining the final results and why Republicans have been able to capture a larger share of these voters; how Barack Obama in the election's final days put on a master class in messaging that Democrats would do well to learn from, and why Joe regards Michigan state senator Mallory McMorrow and Pennsylvania attorney general and gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro as two the party's most promising rising stars. S Scarborough also explains why he'll never return to his one-time home in the Republican Party (which he describes as "irredeemable") and Donald Trump will never (and can never) win another election.Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John Heilemann welcomes The Daily Show's Jordan Klepper on the eve of his new election special, Jordan Klepper Fingers the Midterms -- America Unfollows Democracy, which premieres on November 1, and on the heels of of his turn as a guest host on Heilemann's Showtime series The Circus. Heilemann and Klepper dig into the all-important Pennsylvania Senate race and the eagerly awaited, much-discussed debate last week between John Fetterman and Dr. Oz; Klepper's comedy heroes, from British icons such as Monty Python, Chris Morris, and Steve Coogan to his Daily Show forerunners Jon Stewart, John Oliver, and Samantha Bee; his career on The Daily Show, including his trademark interviews with MAGA voters at Trump rallies; his new special, and how the election denialism he encountered in places such as Michigan and Arizona fed his fear that the midterms could be the beginning of the end for American democracy. Klepper also explains why he sees Bob Dylan (yes, Bob Dylan) as a comic genius— and the first verse of his song Highway 61 Revisited as the greatest joke in the history of rock lyricism.Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With just two weeks to go before Election Day, John Heilemann welcomes former Obama strategic and message maestro (and bff of the podcast) David Axelrod back to #HHW for his third time in the fire pit/splash zone. Axelrod — director of the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, host of The Axe Files podcast and co-host of Hacks on Tap, and senior political commentator for CNN — discusses the state of the midterm battlefield across the country, along with detailed analyses of key Senate races (AZ, GA, NV, OH, PA, WI) and gubernatorial contests (AZ, GA, OR, TX) that everyone will be watching on November 8; whether Democrats over-emphasized abortion rights at the expense of economics in their communications this fall; the impact of Republican demagoguery on crime in races such as Ron Johnson v. Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin and Dr. Oz v. John Fetterman in Pennsylvania (including his view that Fetterman has more to worry about in his debate with Oz related to that topic that concerning his health); whether Axe's former boss, 44, was right when he told Pod Save America that Democrats were doing themselves no favors politically with their ardent woke-ism and propensity for being a "buzzkill;" and the perils posed in the realm of international security by a Republican takeover of the House, as it becomes clearer every day that the likeliest next Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, is ready and willing to sign on to a foreign policy inspired by Marjorie Taylor Greene. Axelrod also waxes lyrical about a prominent New York politician who is currently waging war against the booming rat population in Manhattan — and whom Axe suggests might run for president one day, branding himself The Verminator.Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Three weeks out from Election Day, John Heilemann kicks off the Hell & High Water Midterm Homestretch Scramble with Matthew Dowd, chief strategist on George W. Bush's 2004 and Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2006 reelection campaigns (and now a prominent #NeverTrumper), and Jennifer Palmieri, communications director for Barack Obama's White House from 2013 to 2015 and Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign (and now co-host of Showtime's The Circus alongside Heilemann). Heilemann, Dowd, and Palmieri discuss several of the key Senate races, all within the margin of error per current polling, that will likely determine which party controls the upper chamber in 2023: Herschel Walker v. John Warnock in Georgia, John Fetterman v. Dr Oz in Pennsylvania, Mandela Barnes v. Ron Johnson in Wisconsin, and Tim Ryan v. JD Vance in Ohio. They also discuss some intriguing gubernatorial contests — including in Arizona, where election-denier Kari Lake has momentum against Democrat Katie Hobbs, and in South Dakota, where Dowd believes MAGA darling Kristi Noem is more vulnerable than most realize -— as well as Trump’s subpoena from the 1/6 committee, Nancy Pelosi’s badassery during the attack on the Capitol, and the politics of weed.Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John Heilemann sits down with the New York Times's Maggie Haberman — the dominant/defining reporter on the Donald Trump beat for the past decade and the author of the instant best-seller Confidence Man — for an epic, two-part episode of the podcast. Haberman discusses her most recent scoop that the Justice Department believes the Former Guy still has classified documents in his possession and how it might increase his degree of legal peril; her long history of covering Trump and what it's taught her about how the outer borough, 1970-80s New York milieu from which he emerged shaped his essential character; what Trump most loves and hates about his media coverage; his performance as a candidate, president, insurrectionist, and potential future criminal defendant — and whether he will run for president again in 2024. Haberman also addresses the criticism that she withheld critical news about Trump for her book; provides an exclusive, never-before-heard audio clip from one of her book interviews with Trump on his handling of Covid; and explains why the Herschel Walker abortion scandal may prove to be a replay of Trump's own Access Hollywood imbroglio.Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John Heilemann sits down with the New York Times's Maggie Haberman — the dominant/defining reporter on the Donald Trump beat for the past decade and the author of the instant best-seller Confidence Man — for an epic, two-part episode of the podcast. Haberman discusses her most recent scoop that the Justice Department believes the Former Guy still has classified documents in his possession and how it might increase his degree of legal peril; her long history of covering Trump and what it's taught her about how the outer borough, 1970-80s New York milieu from which he emerged shaped his essential character; what Trump most loves and hates about his media coverage; his performance as a candidate, president, insurrectionist, and potential future criminal defendant — and whether he will run for president again in 2024. Haberman also addresses the criticism that she withheld critical news about Trump for her book; provides an exclusive, never-before-heard audio clip from one of her book interviews with Trump on his handling of Covid; and explains why the Herschel Walker abortion scandal may prove to be a replay of Trump's own Access Hollywood imbroglio.Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John Heilemann sits down with President Biden's first White House press secretary, Jennifer Psaki, who recently left the administration to join MSNBC as a political analyst and host of a new show that will launch next year on Peacock. Psaki discusses how it feels to be free of the burdens of discussing current events from the podium in the White House briefing room, with the eyes of the world scrutinizing every word; her take on the biggest stories of last week, from Hurricane Ian to Iranian women cutting their hair as a form of protest; Psaki's tangles with Vladimir Putin and the degree to which he seems to be losing control of the narrative over the war in Ukraine; the moment in nearly a decade of working for Barack Obama that moved her the most and she knew instantly she'd remember forever; and Psaki's struggles with imposter syndrome — her recurring worry that she wasn't really qualified for any of the jobs she's done so well. Psaki also admits that no one was more surprised than her to see her regular smackdowns (aka, #psakibombs) of reporters trading in bullshit or bad faith turn into a social-media sensation.Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Six weeks out from midterm Election Day and on the eve of what may be the January 6 committee's final public hearing, John Heilemann sits down with Rick Wilson and Stuart Stevens, co-founder and senior adviser (respectively) at The Lincoln Project and two of the savviest and most savage #NeverTrump ex-Republican strategists in the political universe. Wilson and Stevens discuss the myriad legal threats Trump is facing and whether, at long last, accountability may be at hand for him; how and why Trump's chances of winning the GOP presidential nomination in 2024 would actually improve were he indicted on federal criminal charges; the possibility that, rather than challenging Trump, Florida governor Ron DeSantis could wind up being his running mate; and the degree to which fears of physical (in addition to political) harm animates the slavish obeisance to Trump by Republican elected officials. Heilemann also asks Wilson and Stevens about the controversies that engulfed The Lincoln Project last year, including the investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by one of its co-founders, and the five-part Showtime docu-series about the group set to premiere on October 7. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices