Krystal Kyle & Friends

Congressman Ro Khanna is back on the show this week! For Episode 249, we’ve brought him to KK&F for a conversation about his fight with Thomas Massie to get the Epstein files released. Ro explains to us how and why he’s taken on the massive task of bringing the Epstein files to light, something Republicans up to the highest levels of power — including Donald Trump, whose involvement in those files is clear — have worked both secretly and explicitly to prevent. For a month, Mike Johnson has been able to prevent a vote on releasing the files. With Democrat Adelita Grijalva waiting to be sworn in (and suing for delay), Khanna and Massie will get the 218 signatures they need for a vote, and the vote will happen a week later.

The Republican Party establishment, in other words, is in crisis as party members scramble, in increasingly obvious ways, to cover up the involvement of the world’s most powerful people in child trafficking and sexual abuse. It comes down to whether or not Republicans can run out the clock and continue to delay the seating of Democratic legislators, as they have tried to do and are trying to do now. Our conversation with Ro illustrates exactly what’s happening right now as he, Massie, and their supporters fight to make sure Trump and his lackeys can’t put the files out of sight and out of mind. We hope you’ll appreciate Ro’s insight into the inner workings of our legislative body as some of its members try to get justice for the survivors of Epstein’s crimes, and as they’re forced to go up against the president and his supporters in order to do so.

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Kat Abughazaleh, Illinois Congressional candidate, joins us to talk about how Chicago is peacefully fighting back, her unorthodox campaign organized around mutual aid and livestreams, and how her time studying online right wing extremists prepared her for this moment. Recently, a video circulated of her being thrown to the ground by jackbooted government thugs outside the Broadview ICE Detention Facility in a horrifying display of tyrannical violence. I really hope you’ll take the time to hear her testimony and imagine how transformational it would be to have political leaders with her courage and principle in charge. If you are moved to support her campaign her website is here.

We hope you’ll enjoy this conversation with a fearless fighter going up against government fascism. You can listen to the episode above or on all streaming services, including Spotify, Pandora, and Apple Podcasts. See you next week!

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Welcome back to KK&F. This week we’re joined by Abdul El-Sayed, a Democrat running for US Senate in Michigan. As a doctor, public health official and the son of immigrants, Abdul is truly a unique politician. He has foregrounded ending the scourge of money in politics, securing Medicare for All, and a foreign policy grounded in justice including justice for Palestinians. Abdul isn’t afraid to speak truth to power and to remind his base that when AIPAC wins, Americans — and tens of thousands of people in countries suffering and dying from U.S.-made weapons — lose everything. In our conversation with Abdul, we cover the past two years of American coverage and political responses to a genocide in which our government and tax dollars are directly involved.

How will politicians continue to keep the pressure on the government to cease our support of the genocide, even as a ceasefire may give us a false sense that the struggle has ended? We talk to Abdul about this important question. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, and more.

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On Episode 246 of KK&F, Ken Klippenstein lets us in on Trump’s demonic plan to crush dissent. Trump’s new National Security Presidential Memorandum — shortened to NSPM-7 — will have massive chilling effects in the world of leftist organizing. And it will strip basic rights from people totally uninvolved in political organizing just to prevent any struggle against Trump’s repressive government. Ken tells Kyle what he saw in the Memorandum and what effects it will have on everyday people. For example, if you want to express an idea that might be even cynically interpreted as being anti-Christian or anticapitalist, Trump wants to make sure you know that there could be massive repercussions for your doing so.

Believing in the basic rights of your fellow Americans could get you labeled an extremist on gender, race, and immigration status. So while we’re all extremists over here, how can we fight back? What follows is an insightful and compelling conversation with an extremely talented journalist who’s covering the issues that mean the most to us. Thanks for tuning in! You can listen to this episode when it releases tonight on Spotify, Apple Music, Substack, Pandora, and more.

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Welcome back to KK&F! This is Episode 245 with journalist Chris Hedges. Our conversation digs into the rise of American fascism and how it’s manifested lately. MAGA has sanctified Charlie Kirk as a martyr and is using his murder to paint all of their political opponents as radical terrorists. As ICE torments 5-year olds and disappears people into black sites, we’re being asked by the right to believe that they’re the ones under attack. We’re not buying it.

Chris also helps us understand, by thinking about the massive unpopularity of fascist regimes in history, that fighting back is possible, and that our overlords don’t have the numbers (even though they have the money. In our conversation with one of the leading voices on why we should reject fascist control, we dig deep into the quickly escalating war our government is waging against the people, and what we can learn from the past.

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Welcome to Episode 244 of KK&F, where we’re talking to Cenk Uygur about Trump 2.0 and making sense of this week’s chilling implications for the future of free speech in America. After TPUSA founder and right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk was shot last week, the American political landscape has reacted with everything from shock to sympathy to outrage to apathy — and, in the case of conservatives within and beyond the White House, to identifying the shooter as a left-winger and scrambling to demonize trans people for a roommate’s perceived involvement.

Things have spiraled quickly into a dark moment for freedom of speech. People have been fired from their jobs for voicing negative opinions about Kirk, others have been doxxed, and as a recent media flurry has focused on, Jimmy Kimmel’s show has been suspended for some pretty benign remarks about the conservative freakout. This week, we discuss and debate with Cenk about where things are headed and what we can do about it.

Thanks for tuning in to KK&F. You can listen to this podcast episode via major streaming platforms, including Spotify, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, and more. See you next week!

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

We’re back this week with a powerful episode featuring political commentator Joy Reid: she talks us through the issues MSNBC didn’t want her to cover, what political convictions inspired her to take on her media role and informed her decision to speak out on Gaza, and how she sees the current media landscape in an age of conservative disasters.

Joy Reid is a household name. Her show on MSNBC has drawn millions of viewers, and she’s covered everything from the Iraq war to the Trump years. Now, after being fired from MSNBC earlier this year, she’s continuing with The Joy Reid Show, a podcast and YouTube series airing daily. What was it like to leave the channel where she built such a massive following, and why did it happen in the first place? She says that after she spoke out on Israel’s violence following October 7, she was getting HR complaints, others cautioning her not to talk about it and risk being fired. Her own convictions — her commitment to the journalistic profession, to its standards of truth and courage, and her desire to use her platform for good — led her to speak out against the mainstream media narrative demonizing Palestinians and denying their genocide.

Joy also gives us really important insight into the changing landscape at MSNBC leading up to and through the Trump years. She recalls other commentators — Melissa Harris-Perry comes to mind — who were treated badly and pushed out by the network for not conforming to the demands it made on its employees. Watching the repressive attitude at the outlet over the last decade and more, Joy’s able to give insight into what the network wanted its liberal audience to hear and what it didn’t.

We hope you’ll enjoy this conversation; thanks for listening. This episode will be available as a podcast tonight on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and other major streaming platforms.

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In this conversation with the heroic Dr. Mo, Krystal has a heartbreaking and deeply personal conversation with the doctor about the horrors he’s seen in Gaza and why the world can’t turn away.

Who gives a f**k about the celebrity news of the week? We’re not engaging at all in whataboutism when we notice the utter lack of coverage given to the defining crime against humanity of this century. While bread and circuses grab public attention in the U.S., there are unbelievably courageous people working with practically no international support or material aid to do what they can in keeping Palestinians alive. Dr. Mo is one such person. He’s made multiple trips to Gaza and seen what many Westerners are too afraid or cowardly to see. The driving force of our conversation is the grief and outrage that he feels when noting the lack of aid coming in from other nations to make the lifesaving work of doctors on the ground in Gaza possible (and also to keep those doctors safe). Quite the opposite, in a place like the U.S., where our tax dollars fund Israel’s genocide and our president completely supports and enables Netanyahu. Dr. Mo’s work has also been to bring attention to this situation, calling on world leaders to pay attention to what they don’t want to pay attention to.

There’s nothing harder to listen to than Dr. Mo’s account of the brutality that Palestinians face as they’re murdered and mortally wounded at every moment, while the rest of the world turns away. He’s seen children covered in burns and given them treatment. He was one of the first people to enter Gaza after the Central Kitchen Workers were killed. He’s seen the evil tricks the IOF play to use the humanity of Palestinians against them and kill them in cold blood. But Dr. Mo sees the humanity of Palestinians as the reason why they will be free. That level of care for others, that unrelenting bravery and sense of justice with which they approach every day and care for one another in the face of death, will overcome the brutal, inhuman, and pathetic cruelty of Israel. Our conversation covers both grief and hope, and although it’s difficult to hear, we hope you, too, won’t turn away.

Thanks for tuning in. You can listen to this conversation starting tonight on major streaming platforms.

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Hello all,

Please disregard the previous Episode 240 with Richard Ojeda which was sent out as it contained an audio error. This version corrects that issue. Our sincere apologies for the mistake! We are troubleshooting our process to make sure it does not reoccur.

Sincerely,

The KK&F Team

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Welcome to Episode 240 of Krystal Kyle & Friends, featuring politician and current North Carolina congressional candidate Richard Ojeda. He’s here for a tell-all on MAGA, especially in working class regions of the U.S. where the far right has taken hold. How is Donald Trump, an exploitative billionaire, able to go to the veterans in North Carolina or the coal miners’ communities in WV and sell hard-working people empty promises? Richard takes us through the history of those communities and what they faced at the hands of company owners just like Trump. From the start of mining jobs in the U.S. as basically “legalized slavery,” with wages paid in company scrip and goods bought at company stores, miners have always had to fight uphill for survival. Now, Trump is able to play on these narratives and speak to the fear and anger people feel at their lack of mobility in order to win support for his deeply anti-worker politics. He’s always portrayed blue-collar workers as a cornerstone of the MAGA coalition. Is there any way for these workers to be won back in favor of policies that actually center their needs?

That’s exactly the mission Richard’s on, seeking to offer something other than mainstream Democrats’ stock response to the loss of the party’s working-class base. We discuss Richard’s path to victory and what that victory would mean for working people. You can listen to this episode as a podcast starting tonight on major streaming platforms. Thanks for tuning in.

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