Big Take

Catch up on some of the week’s biggest US stories. Bloomberg’s Mario Parker, Megan Scully and Zoe Tillman join this episode to talk about the Congressional stopgap bill that has temporarily averted a government shutdown; the latest on Donald Trump’s legal battles; and the narrowing Republican presidential field.

Listen to The Big Take podcast every weekday and subscribe to our daily newsletter: https://bloom.bg/3F3EJAK 

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Congress averted a government shutdown with days to spare. The way lawmakers did it — by leaving out deep spending cuts and relying on a bipartisan coalition to pass the bill — has already put House Speaker Mike Johnson on thin ice with some hardliners in his party.


That disdain for compromise among members of the right flank of the GOP is one of the factors that cost the previous speaker his job.

None of the infighting came as a surprise to former Representative Denver Riggleman, who served one term in Congress as a Republican for Virginia’s fifth congressional district before losing a primary challenge from a more conservative candidate. 


Like many in his party, Riggleman supported small government, the Second Amendment, and border security — but he also supported legalizing marijuana and providing some exceptions for abortion.


“I was told I was a new type of Republican,” Riggleman said on the Big Take podcast.


On this episode, Riggleman shares the story of his brief and explosive tenure in congress. 

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The transition from combustion engines to electric vehicles is well under way. It's a critical part of a historic transformation that will soon affect all consumers and businesses alike. In the race to dominate the market for EVs, China has been the standout as US companies struggle to become competitive. 

Bloomberg’s Colin McKerracher and Malcolm Scott join host Rosalind Mathieson to dig into how the EV revolution is shaking up the global economy.

Read more: EV Market’s Surge Toward $57 Trillion Sparks Global Flashpoints

Listen to The Big Take podcast every weekday and subscribe to our daily newsletter: https://bloom.bg/3F3EJAK 

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Bloomberg’s Paige Smith and Scott Carpenter join this episode to talk about why the subprime auto loan market is thriving—and what that means for lower-income car owners who face high interest rates and the possibility of losing their vehicles.

Read more: How Wall Street Makes Millions Selling Car Loans Customers Can’t Repay 

Listen to The Big Take podcast every weekday and subscribe to our daily newsletter: https://bloom.bg/3F3EJAK 

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Bloomberg’s Ashlee Vance joins this episode to talk about his exclusive reporting on Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain implant startup that’s gearing up for its first human clinical trial. 

Read more: Elon Musk’s Brain Implant Startup Is Ready to Start Surgery 

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At Bloomberg, we’re always talking about the biggest business stories, and no one is bigger than Elon Musk.

In this new chat weekly show, host David Papadopoulos and a panel of guests including Businessweek’s Max Chafkin, Tesla reporter Dana Hull, Big Tech editor Sarah Frier, and more, will break down the most important stories on Musk and his empire. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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What do Nike, Bud Light, Target and Disney have in common? They’re all brands that have been caught up in America’s political and culture wars. Corporations once tried to stay out of politics. Now they often find themselves under pressure from customers to take a stand on issues including racial discrimination, police violence and LGBTQ rights. And that’s sometimes led to protests and calls for boycotts.

Bloomberg Businessweek’s national correspondent Joshua Green reports that many CEOs must now weigh which poses a bigger risk to their brands—speaking up or staying quiet.

Read more: No One Understands Corporate Boycotts Like This Former Trump Researcher

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During the pandemic, the US government granted millions of homeowners a temporary pause in their mortgage payments. Hundreds of thousands of military veterans were among those who participated in the program. After the pause lifted, they thought they would pick up their payments where they’d left off. For many of them, that wasn’t the case.

Bloomberg's Caleb Melby and Polly Mosendz join this episode to explain why veterans across the country have found themselves battling lenders that are threatening to foreclose on their homes—and what if anything is being done to help them.

Read more: Veterans Got a Mortgage Break. Now They're Losing Their Homes

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New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu is still playing the Republican presidential primary field. With a little more than two months until the first caucus, the four-term Republican governor still hasn't made a pick. And he’s a major voice in his party — someone who some Republicans and independents wish had run for president himself. He instead chose to advise other candidates in the race.

“Republicans could be in real trouble in ’24,” Sununu told Senior Washington Correspondent Saleha Mohsin. “We lost in ’22.”

Mohsin spoke with Sununu over Zoom about the third Republican presidential primary debate and what the 2024 election means for the future of the party.

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Bloomberg’s Pratik Parija and Kai Schultz join this episode to discuss why the packaged food and beverage industry has its sights set on India—and what that means for the health and wellbeing of the 1.4 billion people who live there.

Read more: Junk Food's $30 Billion Opening Is India's Next Health Crisis 

Listen to The Big Take podcast every weekday and subscribe to our daily newsletter: https://bloom.bg/3F3EJAK 

Have questions or comments for Wes and the team? Reach us at [email protected].

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