Krystal Kyle & Friends

In an exclusive interview, Jesse Ventura takes us through his journey as an antiwar advocate, a pro wrestler, and a famously successful third-party candidate for Governor of Minnesota. Ventura is known as a major, widely renowned wrestler, and he explains how wrestlers like him brought significant attention to Saturday night wrestling. But as we know from his legacy as an organizer within the wrestling community, Ventura brought attention to the unfair contracts and compensation that he and his fellow wrestlers received. He’s carried this spirit of class struggle with him into his advocacy against war, where he brought attention to the draft as a method of exploiting young working-class people to the benefit of the wealthy.

Our conversation with Ventura captures his unique experiences organizing his pro wrestling colleagues, formulating a politics against violence and exploitation, and creating a viable path to third-party victory in his home state of Minnesota. We hope you enjoy the discussion. You can listen to this episode as a podcast on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, and more. If you’d like to support our work, which will always be available to you ad-free and for just $5 a month, we invite you to become a paying subscriber and get your episodes one day early. Take care and see you next week for more.

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This week, we’re bringing you a lively discussion — and some friendly debate — between KK&F host Kyle and our friends Adam and Sitch of the Sitch & Adam show. Adam and Sitch have positioned themselves as enlightened centrists, taking a critical stance on some issues at the core of traditional left politics but embracing progressive ideas like Modern Monetary Theory. That is to say, there’s plenty of room in this conversation for beliefs to be challenged, new ideas to be introduced, and the latest in big news — from the Alex Jones trial to the limitations of Roe v. Wade — to be discussed from different political angles.

We hope you enjoy this episode of KK&F, featuring our breakdown of the Alex Jones trial; a discussion of Roe v. Wade and what Kyle, Adam, and Sitch see as the ideal situation for reproductive rights in the U.S.; and much more. Thanks for subscribing — remember that you can listen to this episode when it’s released tomorrow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and more.

Thumbnail image: Sergio Flores / Getty Images

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If you told me a cosmic ray hit Washington and flipped everyone’s brains, giving Schumer the Machiavellian cunning of a Republican and giving McConnell the guileless approach of a Democrat, that might be a more plausible explanation for this display than the truth.

So says Prospect editor David Dayen in a recent piece on the shocking Manchin-Schumer deal that will use $369 billion in funding to combat the climate crisis and address energy security. David is a seasoned political writer, covering issues from Build Back Better to the Supreme Court in recent weeks, and his piece captures the senator’s surprising heel turn from forestalling governmental action on climate disaster to allowing a basic level of climate funding to see the light of day.

Of course, the funds set up by the Inflation Reduction Act are only the beginning of the resources and dedication required to tackle the issue of impending environmental disaster. As long as Manchin preserves his lucrative ties to the fossil fuel industry, we won’t see the bold action on climate change that our government is more than capable of, and the American working class will be the first to suffer as a result. So, with David, we take a well-rounded look at what this bill means for the American people, what it means for the future of power relationships within the Democratic Party, and what it means for our shared future.

This episode is also available on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and more.

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We’re thrilled to bring Zac and Gavin of The Vanguard podcast onto the show for Episode 82 of KK&F. These terrific guests bring wit and welcome insight to their exploration of today’s independent media landscape — and of what that landscape can tell us about free speech, misinformation, and freedom of the press in the United States. Zac and Gavin see their channel’s interventions into left-media disputes as interventions into deeper, more perennial conversations about the role and responsibility of the political commentator. They mention recent coverage of a certain commentator’s threats to sue over a disagreement — and how that conversation evolved into a bigger discussion of defamation, freedom of speech, and other issues that shape what messages are censored and who is allowed to participate in these debates.

Then it’s time to consider what lies in store for us in 2024, especially whether the Left will have a candidate to coalesce behind. From familiar faces like Bernie and Marianne to potential newcomers, we imagine the campaign that could bring a left perspective to the 2024 presidential election. You can listen to this podcast on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, and more.

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This week, we’ve prepared a conversation for you with the brilliant scholar Gary Gerstle, whose research on what defines the global neoliberal order can also help us understand what might bring that order to a close. We’re sharing this conversation on the heels of the news that Manchin, who’s made no secret of his opposition to Biden’s most meager proposals for social welfare, will oppose the shell of Build Back Better that remains. Specifically, he’s vetoing measures to address climate change and taxing the rich — that is, the watered-down measures that remain on the Biden agenda. The political agenda he supports — means-testing, sacrificing us all to the whims of the market — suggests that the neoliberal order is alive and well.

We hope you’ll enjoy this discussion on Episode 81 of KK&F, with Gerstle’s insights on how neoliberal economic approaches continue to shape the world we’re living in, on what could come next, and on how this all fits into the political moment we’re living through. Thanks for joining us for another week of Krystal Kyle & Friends.

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In an episode months in the making, Krystal Kyle & Friends’s Kyle Kulinski is joined by psychologist and political commentator Dr. Jordan Peterson. For Kyle, it’s the “perfect situation” of getting to speak with someone whose work in psychology and philosophy has been particularly interesting to him — but who differs from him significantly on most political issues. They’re here for a back-and-forth on everything from Twitter controversies to Trump, economics, liberal versus conservative mindsets, and interpreting the results of Kyle’s personality quiz.

We hope you enjoy the episode! It’s also available as a podcast on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, and more. If you liked this conversation, consider becoming a paying subscriber for $5/month:

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Sixty-one percent — a majority — of Americans support the legalization of abortion. Yet in last week’s Supreme Court decision, five out of nine judges voted to overturn the prior decision that federally protected abortion as a right. As we’ve seen from the extremely contentious appointments of Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, and more, everyday people don’t even have a direct say in who gets to be on the court, much less in the life-changing opinions that the court hands down.

Roe v. Wade is our focus this week, with guest Pascal Robert (he hosts This Is Revolution podcast, and you can find the Patreon here). With Pascal, we discuss the history of unaccountability and undemocratic decision-making within the highest court in the country, as well as the path forward offered by liberalism — and how that path may well be a dead end.

Thanks for tuning in. You can tune into the podcast through Pandora, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more.

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This week, the Supreme Court landed the death blow to Roe vs. Wade, a decision which federally protected the right to abortion. Trigger laws are taking effect; abortion clinics are closing. It will take the grassroots struggle of working people to make abortion — an essential element of basic healthcare — not only legal across the nation, but also free and easy to obtain in a way it has never been before. We’ve seen all too clearly that the Supreme Court won’t deliver when it comes to protecting our basic rights, and when our lives are on the line, the Democratic Party has only performative, empty gestures to offer.

We’ve got a great show for you this week, centering on issues of free speech and attacks on independent media. Journalist Branko Marcetic, author of Yesterday’s Man: The Case Against Joe Biden, as well as a staff writer at Jacobin magazine, joins us to discuss online censorship of left and independent media, the extradition of Julian Assange, and much more.

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Welcome back to Krystal Kyle & Friends, where we’re joined by Humanist Report host Mike Figueredo. Our conversation with Mike is wide-ranging: We talk with him about everything from his experiences as a “veteran” leftist commentator and the way his work has evolved over the years, to the invigorating prospects of the energized labor movement, to the personal story of Mike’s coming out to his family. His trademark wit, candor, and brilliant insight make this episode an essential listen.

We hope you enjoy this episode of Krystal Kyle & Friends. Audio is available through Pandora, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more.

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This week’s guest, journalist David Wallace-Wells, speaks with us about the defining issue facing humanity, climate change — and the task of getting our government to treat it as such. Currently, fossil fuel corporations are free to chase endless profit at the expense of our health and safety, and our planet’s future.

When we wonder why our representatives don’t take on these corporations in defense of the planet and its people, it’s illustrative that these representatives bring in a formidable haul from the fossil fuel industry — up to $93 million in stocks, according to the American Prospect, as of 2020. What’s clear is that to make climate change the priority we need it to be in national politics, electoral change is needed — alongside the organizing work that extends far beyond anything that can be accomplished at a ballot box in November.

We hope you enjoy this conversation. Audio can also be found on Pandora, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe