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Every episode
The Best People with Nicolle Wallace
30 episodes
Tim Snyder on the “Tiny Infinitesimal Amount of Courage” We Need
Ep 65 · Aug 17, 2026 · 39 min
Tim Snyder sees through the myth of President Trump’s strength. “He’s not actually strong,” the “On Tyranny” author and historian tells Nicolle, likening the Commander in Chief to the smoke and mirrors that build up the image of the Wizard of Oz. “He’s not actually even that good at being corrupt.” As a scholar of autocracies and failed experiments in democracy, Snyder expresses his disappointment with the American disposition that freedom is guaranteed “because it’s America,” telling Nicolle th…
Marc Elias: We’re Not Heading Towards the Precipice — “We’re There”
Ep 64 · Aug 10, 2026 · 53 min
Marc Elias is adamant: what’s dangerous in this era is that many people think President Trump’s second term is just business as usual. As the administration works to undermine fair elections ahead of the midterms, the chair of Elias Law Group and founder of “Democracy Docket” joins Nicolle to analyze Trump’s tactics — and why the Democratic party needs to stop operating on the “presumption that there is good faith” on the opposing team. In Elias’ telling, “Democrats need to be the party that is…
Brian Driscoll on the Hollowing Out of the FBI: "It's Devastating”
Ep 63 · Aug 3, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min
Brian Driscoll doesn’t have to be a “hopeful guy” — and yet, he is. A year ago, he was fired as acting director of the FBI after resisting demands to hand over the names of agents who worked on January 6 insurrection investigations. Now, the career special agent joins Nicolle to reflect on his decades-long tenure at the department and the state of the FBI under its current leadership. “The American people deserve better than any agenda can offer,” he says. “They deserve selfless service.” He tal…
Sue Gordon: Trump’s Approach to Intel is “Breathtakingly Reckless"
Ep 62 · Jul 27, 2026 · 54 min
Sue Gordon is indefatigable. Nicolle calls her a “unicorn”: a rare case of somebody who served with honor and integrity as the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence — and who Donald Trump, at least for a while, kept around. “I am for America,” Gordon says, declaring that as her North Star. Throughout her decorated career in intelligence, Gordon has always understood that telling the truth is imperative in keeping the president informed and the nation safe. She talks bluntly about th…
Heather Cox Richardson on America’s Vibe Shift
Ep 61 · Jul 20, 2026 · 57 min
If historian Heather Cox Richardson ever had an agenda, it’d be protecting democracy. The history professor and author of the “Letters from an American” Substack joins Nicolle this week to consider the knock-on effects of economic pain at the grocery store and unpredictability at the podium on voter’s perception of Trumpism. She reflects on violence from ICE officers in her home state of Maine, the whiplash messaging in the war with Iran and concerns about the cyclosporiasis outbreak — which she…
Rachel Maddow: Donald Trump is ‘Emotionally Incontinent’
Jul 16, 2026 · 18 min
Nicolle sits down with her dear friend and colleague Rachel Maddow for a revealing conversation about the state of the nation and Rachel's coverage of the Trump administration's cruel and violent immigration policies in the wake of two tragic shooting deaths by ICE agents in the span of a week. They also delve into how Trump's erratic behavior, which Rachel describes as his spiral into "emotional incontinence," has made him incapable of making strategic decisions. The duo talks about the dangers…
Jim Acosta Is Still Asking the Tough Questions
Ep 60 · Jul 13, 2026 · 51 min
Jim Acosta is pretty sure that when 60 Minutes is in trouble, we're all in trouble. A year and a half after stepping down from a storied career as a White House correspondent and anchor at CNN, the independent journalist begins by addressing his departure from the network: “There was intense pressure for me to be gone,” he tells Nicolle. But there is a freedom he now relishes to speak openly and directly about the dark corners the president has awoken in his second term. Calling the 2024 electio…
Sen. Raphael Warnock: "The Power is in the People. It's Not the People in Power”
Ep 59 · Jul 6, 2026 · 51 min
Senator and Pastor Raphael Warnock recognizes that “Democracy is the house we live in. It's the context in which we get to fight.” Coming off the release of his new book, “The Crooked Places Made Straight,” he joins Nicolle to talk about an increasingly activist court and a system he sees as “overrun with money and corruption.” They begin by addressing why decisions from the Supreme Court on redistricting (Louisiana v. Callais) and ending temporary protected status for Haitian and Syrian immigra…
Exclusive: Jack Smith Will Not Be Intimidated
Jul 2, 2026 · 47 min
Jack Smith is speaking out. In his first news interview since criminally charging Donald Trump and finding himself on the President’s enemies list, the former DOJ Special Counsel sits down with Nicolle Wallace. On “Deadline: White House,” he and Nicolle discuss all things Trump: the threats, the conspiracies, the attacks on the rule of law, and the existential threat he poses to our democracy. In fact, Jack Smith understands better than anybody the kind of crucial moment in which American politi…
Eddie Glaude Wants You to “Tell the Truth With Love, Lit by Rage”
Ep 58 · Jun 29, 2026 · 48 min
Eddie Glaude believes that, “if we're not angry about our current moment, something's wrong.” Bonded by their experiences covering some of the nation’s most haunting modern stories, the author and Princeton professor joins Nicolle to speak candidly about America as it approaches its 250th anniversary — its complicated history and the sweeping wave of white nationalism surging across it. He touches on his new book, “America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation's Anniversaries,” whose first senten…
Pablo Torre: America’s Story is the Story of the Knicks
Ep 57 · Jun 22, 2026 · 51 min
Pablo Torre thinks sports are the “skeleton key.” The journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning host of the podcast of “Pablo Torre Finds Out” joins Nicolle to talk about the potent power of the game: how sports weave their way through the political spiderweb, the colossal economic influence of a winning team franchise and how the game — any game — can bring people together and give strangers commonality. But Pablo is quick to call out the increasingly transactional lines between the economics of sp…
Don Lemon Lives Rent Free in Donald Trump’s Head
Ep 56 · Jun 15, 2026 · 54 min
Don Lemon was one of the first journalists that “pissed Trump off,” Nicolle charges out of the gate. A year and a half into the president’s second term, the independent journalist and former CNN anchor is upfront about President Trump’s waning energy, noting that his “battery is fading” and that what happened at MSG during Game Three was a vibe shift: “I think that there'll be a reckoning, and I think that that reckoning started at Madison Square Garden with the boos.” Operating independently as…
Liz Oyer Won’t Be Bullied by Anyone — Even Trump
Ep 55 · Jun 8, 2026 · 54 min
Liz Oyer understands the transactional nature of the current Justice Department more than most. In March of 2025, she was fired from her position as the US Pardon Attorney for refusing to reinstate actor Mel Gibson’s gun rights. Since then, she’s talked openly about her time in the DOJ and its unceremonious end and she's been targeted by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche as a result. Still, she continues to shine a light on the abuses within the department she once revered. She joins Nicolle…
Bob Costas Steps Up to the Plate
Ep 54 · Jun 1, 2026 · 46 min
Bob Costas believes democracy is worth going to bat for. The legendary sportscaster and 12-time host of NBC’s Olympics coverage is no stranger to speaking up when the moment calls — which, as he tells Nicolle this week, is rare: 99.9% of the time he is calling balls and strikes. But when Bob finds an “interstitial moment” to talk about an issue in the zeitgeist (think: domestic violence, CTE from repeated concussions, or recognizing the racially charged name of a pro-team) he is unafraid to use…
Ben Rhodes: “The Best Speakers Build Movements”
Ep 53 · May 25, 2026 · 55 min
Ben Rhodes believes “we’ve lost the art of speaking to one another.” Amid the megaphone of social media sound bites and the ever-increasing coarseness of our politics, the speechwriter and former Obama Deputy National Security Advisor identifies something that can make or break us: communication. He joins Nicolle this week to talk about his new book, “All We Say,” which tells the story of America through 15 of its most pivotal speeches. From Benjamin Franklin’s carefully crafted argument at the…
Ken Burns Knows We’ve Been Here Before
Ep 52 · May 18, 2026 · 55 min
Ken Burns thinks we’re going to make it. An award-winning documentarian, Ken’s celebrated career seeks to find humanity in our country’s imperfect story. He threads this idea through his documentaries about everything from our national pastime (“Baseball”), to our offbeat experiments (“Jazz”), and our violent beginnings as seen through his latest project, “The American Revolution.” As our nation's 250th anniversary approaches, he joins Nicolle at 92NY for an intimate conversation about the Ameri…
Chris Hayes Makes His Curiosity the Antidote to Anxiety
Ep 51 · May 11, 2026 · 56 min
Chris Hayes’ antidote to anxiety is always curiosity. Whether on TV with "All In," on his podcast (aptly named “Why Is This Happening?”), or writing about our waning attention spans in his latest book, he looks to make sense of this era’s firehose of information by seeking out the reasons behind the very human decisions we make. This curiosity prompted a deep dive series on his podcast into artificial intelligence: "The AI End Game," tracing AI's evolution to how it will impact our democracy and…
Introducing WITHpod: The AI End Game
May 5, 2026 · 1 min
AI – and coverage of it – is everywhere. But what is artificial intelligence, really, beyond the buzzword? Each week, in a special new miniseries - ‘The AI End Game’ - Chris Hayes is joined by preeminent experts on AI and its effects to help make sense of this revolutionary time in history. The series will feature in-depth conversations with experts, including: The Atlantic journalist Derek Thompson; professor at Wharton and New York Times bestselling author Ethan Mollick, professor of psycholog…
Sarah Longwell Knows the Cheat Code to Politics
Ep 50 · May 4, 2026 · 54 min
Sarah Longwell listens to voters. As a GOP strategist and pollster who felt herself languishing in the wilderness as Trump 1.0 took root, she founded “The Bulwark” in 2019 with a stated mission “to put country over party... and to build a home for the politically homeless.” This masthead has become a movement, and Sarah, its fearless leader, sees defending democracy as the quintessential goal. After leading voter focus groups for the last eight years, Sarah understands that what matters in the b…
Gov. Mikie Sherrill Runs New Jersey Like a Busy Mom
Ep 49 · Apr 27, 2026 · 52 min
Governor Mikie Sherill's best leadership lessons came from the Navy—and her kids. As a mom of four, the retired Navy helicopter pilot and former Congresswoman doesn’t have time to waste, and with less than 100 days under her belt as New Jersey's governor, she’s showing Democrats a refreshing governing approach: move quickly and fix things. She believes in the American ideal of kids doing a bit better than their parents but is not looking to replicate the pre-Trump era that held “a great deal of…
Sherrilyn Ifill on Rebuilding Post-Trump: " It's Gotta Come Down to the Studs”
Ep 48 · Apr 20, 2026 · 56 min
Sherrilyn Ifill maintains that we need a cultural reset from the ground up. The renowned former head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Howard University law professor has been in the trenches of defending civil rights for decades. Sherrilyn urges every American to confront the truth about what lives in our nation’s DNA, because she understands that threats to democracy go beyond Donald Trump’s embrace of the "raw animal core of this country"—they are everywhere in our culture. She joins Nicoll…
Kara Swisher on Death and Doritos
Ep 47 · Apr 13, 2026 · 55 min
Kara Swisher is always one of the smartest people in the room. A long-revered voice in tech and media, her trademark, B.S. free ability to pinpoint coming trends and predict fading technologies has earned her trailblazer status for her podcasts, “On with Kara Swisher” and “Pivot” with co-host Scott Galloway. In her upcoming TV series, “Kara Swisher Wants to Live Forever,” she applies that perceptive curiosity to the world of wellness, tech and longevity. She joined Nicolle on one of the very fir…
Best of the Best: Yes, Robert De Niro is Talking to You
Ep 46 · Apr 6, 2026 · 40 min
Last weekend the legendary actor spoke at a protest in New York City. “The concept of No Kings is a great rallying cry, and hugely successful, as millions of us have answered the call. I support this movement 150%” he said. “Afraid of Trump?! Please. No, they should be more afraid of us.” In the conversation he recorded with Nicolle in February he expounded on the principles in that brief speech, and so this week we’re re-running the episode as a Best of The Best People. Robert De Niro commands…
Alex Wagner: Trump’s MAGA Base is "Mad at Daddy"
Ep 45 · Mar 30, 2026 · 49 min
Alex Wagner is journalist to her core, forever on the hunt for the next story “bubbling up on the ground.” From her 2020 reporting for Showtime’s “The Circus” on right-wing militias intent on reacting to a Joe Biden win, to her post-election MS NOW podcast “Trumpland” which found her standing outside a DC jail on a cold January night waiting for pardoned J6’ers to emerge, she believes in talking to people where they are to understand how they feel. Alex now helms Crooked Media’s “Runaway Country…
Julie K. Brown Continues to Break Open the Epstein Story
Ep 44 · Mar 23, 2026 · 51 min
When Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie K. Brown first started digging into the story behind Jeffrey Epstein’s sweetheart plea deal back in 2018, she did not envision the firestorm that would build around her reporting: breaking open decades of abuse of young girls and young women, and eventually leading to Epstein's arrest on charges of sex trafficking of minors. Brown initially tracked down close to 100 women who were allegedly victimized by Epstein and as they began to share their stor…
Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling Knows Leadership… And When It’s Lacking
Ep 43 · Mar 16, 2026 · 55 min
“ We anticipate your unit taking about fifty percent casualties.” This is what Retired Army Lieutenant General Mark Hertling heard in an intelligence briefing at division headquarters before deploying to Iraq in 1991. This would be the first of three combat deployments in a 38-year career in the United States Army, retiring after leading over 40,000 men and women as Commanding General of the U.S. Army Europe. It was this deployment that led Lt. Gen. Hertling to begin keeping a war-time journal,…
How Tig Notaro's "Laugh Hang" Got Her to the Oscars
Ep 42 · Mar 9, 2026 · 50 min
Tig Notaro is spectacularly funny. She’s also a fiercely dedicated friend. The Emmy and Grammy nominated comedian now adds “Oscar Nominee" to her impressive list of accomplishments for her work producing the deeply personal documentary, “Come See Me in the Good Light.” The film explores the life and death of her dear friend, the late poet and activist Andrea Gibson, who passed after a hard-fought battle with ovarian cancer in July of 2025. Notaro joins Nicolle in this episode to honor Gibson and…
A Mayor, a Military Pro and a Professor on Affluence, Grievance and Greed
Ep 41 · Mar 2, 2026 · 53 min
After Nicolle's fiery conversation with Princeton Professor Dr. Eddie Glaude, former NOLA Mayor Mitch Landrieu, and The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols on "Deadline: White House" a few weeks back, it was clear they needed to continue their thread beyond a single TV segment. So this week, she convened the trio to pick up where they left off: how to make sense of this moment in our history. “We're facing some serious headwinds, right? We're running deficits in courage,” alerts Glaude, while Nichols, lookin…
Yes, Robert De Niro is Talking to You
Ep 40 · Feb 23, 2026 · 40 min
Robert De Niro commands every room he enters. His decades-long career and Academy Award winning performances have gifted the world some of its most beloved films, from instant classics like "The Godfather II" and "Raging Bull" to countless gems like "Goodfellas," and "Casino." But despite the rough and tumble characters he often portrays, he tells Nicolle, “I’m not a tough guy. I’m a concerned citizen.” He brings that inextricably human sensibility to this episode, having been a consistent and p…
Scott Galloway Wants You to Resist and Unsubscribe
Ep 39 · Feb 16, 2026 · 30 min
Like many Americans, Scott Galloway was feeling powerless against the Trump administration's worst policy impulses. And then it hit him: knowing Trump responds only to changes in the market, why not use our keyboards and our spending power to push back through economic action? Designed as a "coordinated economic strike targeting tech and AI companies enabling state power,” ‘Resist and Unsubscribe’ is a movement aimed at harnessing the power of economic boycott to create repercussions for compani…
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