CAFE Insider

This week, we’re sharing a recording of a live conversation between Preet Bharara and Joyce Vance on Substack. They look back on the biggest legal headlines from 2025, while sharing their predictions for 2026.

We’ll be back with a new Insider episode in the new year. Wishing you all a happy holiday season.

We hope you’re finding CAFE Insider informative. Email us at [email protected] with your suggestions and questions for Preet and Joyce. 

Watch livestreams on YouTube or Substack.

This podcast is brought to you by CAFE and Vox Media Podcast Network. 

Executive Producer: Tamara Sepper; Supervising Producer: Jake Kaplan; Associate Producer: Claudia Hernández; Audio Producer: Matthew Billy; Deputy Editor: Celine Rohr; CAFE Team: Nat Weiner, Jennifer Indig, and Liana Greenway.

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What makes Preet happy? In the bonus for Insiders, 10% Happier founder Dan Harris turns the tables and puts a pointed question to Preet about what gets in the way of his happiness.

Thank you for being a member of the Insider community.

Tweet your questions to @PreetBharara with hashtag #AskPreet, email us at [email protected], or call 833-997-7338 to leave a voicemail.

Stay Tuned with Preet is brought to you by CAFE and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

On the Insider docket:

– Two grand juries declined criminal charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James;  

– A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to end the National Guard deployment in Los Angeles; and

– The legality of the U.S.’s aggressive actions against Venezuela, including the seizure of an oil tanker and multiple strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats.

Shownotes & transcript can be found at CAFE.com.

We hope you’re finding CAFE Insider informative. Email us at [email protected] with your suggestions and questions for Preet and Joyce. 

Watch livestreams on YouTube or Substack.

This podcast is brought to you by CAFE and Vox Media Podcast Network. 

Executive Producer: Tamara Sepper; Supervising Producer: Jake Kaplan; Associate Producer: Claudia Hernández; Audio Producer: Matthew Billy; Deputy Editor: Celine Rohr; CAFE Team: Nat Weiner, Jennifer Indig, and Liana Greenway.

Has the No Kings movement moved the needle at all? In the bonus for Insiders, Preet Bharara and historian Jill Lepore discuss Lepore’s reporting on political rallies and whether they can still make a difference. Plus, the lines she draws as a journalist in a political moment.

Thank you for being a member of the Insider community.

Tweet your questions to @PreetBharara with hashtag #AskPreet, email us at [email protected], or call 833-997-7338 to leave a voicemail.

Stay Tuned with Preet is brought to you by CAFE and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

This week on the Insider podcast, Preet Bharara is joined by constitutional law expert and Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law Erwin Chemerinsky, while Joyce is out. 

On the Insider docket:

– Supreme Court oral arguments in a case that could give a president more power to fire government officials;

– The New York Times’s lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s new press policy at the Pentagon;

– Trump’s threat to sue the BBC over an edited video of him; and 

– Legal challenges to state laws mandating that the Ten Commandments be displayed in public school classrooms.

Shownotes & transcript can be found at CAFE.com.

We hope you’re finding CAFE Insider informative. Email us at [email protected] with your suggestions and questions for Preet and Joyce. 

Watch livestreams on YouTube or Substack.

This podcast is brought to you by CAFE and Vox Media Podcast Network. 

Executive Producer: Tamara Sepper; Supervising Producer: Jake Kaplan; Associate Producer: Claudia Hernández; Audio Producer: Matthew Billy; Deputy Editor: Celine Rohr; CAFE Team: Nat Weiner, Jennifer Indig, and Liana Greenway.

What exactly makes New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani so popular? In the Stay Tuned bonus for Insiders, Preet and writer and political analyst Anand Giridharadas chat about the physical attribute that Anand thinks contributed to Mamdani’s quick rise through the political ranks. 

Thank you for being a member of the Insider community.

Tweet your questions to @PreetBharara with hashtag #AskPreet, email us at [email protected], or call 833-997-7338 to leave a voicemail.

Stay Tuned with Preet is brought to you by CAFE and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

On the Insider docket:

– The National Guard shooting in Washington, D.C., which President Trump used as the basis to pause all migration from what he is calling “third world countries”;

– A federal judge’s inquiry into whether the Trump administration defied his orders when it carried out deportation flights to El Salvador; and

– The legal challenges to Texas’s new gerrymandered congressional map.

Shownotes & transcript can be found at CAFE.com.

We hope you’re finding CAFE Insider informative. Email us at [email protected] with your suggestions and questions for Preet and Joyce. 

Watch livestreams on YouTube or Substack.

This podcast is brought to you by CAFE and Vox Media Podcast Network. 

Executive Producer: Tamara Sepper; Supervising Producer: Jake Kaplan; Associate Producer: Claudia Hernández; Audio Producer: Matthew Billy; Deputy Editor: Celine Rohr; CAFE Team: Nat Weiner, Jennifer Indig, and Liana Greenway.

In the Stay Tuned podcast bonus for Insiders, Preet Bharara and Jon Finer break down Trump’s recent meeting with Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House, revisiting the fallout from Jamal Khashoggi’s killing and what the encounter suggests about how the administration is handling its relationship with Saudi Arabia.

Thank you for being a member of the Insider community.

Subscribe to The Long Game podcast.

Tweet your questions to @PreetBharara with hashtag #AskPreet, email us at [email protected], or call 833-997-7338 to leave a voicemail.

Stay Tuned with Preet is brought to you by CAFE and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

On the Insider docket:

– President Donald Trump’s directive to his Justice Department to investigate Democrats over alleged ties to Jeffrey Epstein, while avoiding similar scrutiny of himself and Republican allies; 

– MAGA fallout over the Trump administration’s stonewalling of the release of Epstein files, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s break with Trump; and 

– A magistrate judge’s opinion in former FBI Director Jim Comey’s prosecution, criticizing DOJ for possible government misconduct that could lead to dismissal of the charges.

Shownotes & transcript can be found at CAFE.com.

Subscribe to The Long Game podcast. 

We hope you’re finding Insider informative. Email us at [email protected] with your suggestions and questions for Preet and Joyce. 

Watch livestreams on YouTube or Substack.

This podcast is brought to you by CAFE and Vox Media Podcast Network. 

Executive Producer: Tamara Sepper; Supervising Producer: Jake Kaplan; Associate Producer: Claudia Hernández; Audio Producer: Matthew Billy; CAFE Team: Celine Rohr, David Tatasciore, Nat Weiner, Jennifer Indig, and Liana Greenway.