Raw Signal Media

Every two years, you hear the word "midterms," and you're either deeply plugged in or quietly wondering what exactly that means and why everyone keeps saying it like you already know. This episode is for both.

On November 3rd, the midterms decide who controls Congress for the rest of Trump's second term. And whether you get two more years of unchecked Republican power — or something that looks like a wall — comes down to a handful of races and whether the Democratic Party is actually running this right.

I brought in someone who's been inside this work for a long time. Charly Carter is a Democratic strategist, founder of Step Up Maryland, and has worked with the ACLU, Maryland Working Families, and the Democracy Initiative — a national coalition of over 75 labor, civil rights, and environmental organizations fighting for voting rights and civic infrastructure. She knows what it takes to win. And she doesn't sugarcoat what breaks down when they don't.

We get into what the midterms actually mean, why the margin matters as much as the win, whether the Democratic Party is even running the right play, and how the public is responding to two years of unchecked Republican power.

Eight days. Let's go.

Charly Carter:🌐 stepupmaryland.org📩 Substack: Charly Says📸 Instagram: @theprogressiveadvocate🔗 linktr.ee/gocharly

We Vote Too:📩 TikTok: rwsignal🌐 Website: rawsignalmedia.com📸 Instagram: rwsignal

Big news first: We Vote Too won a Signal Award for Best Driveway Moment, a Silver, and Listener’s Choice. We’re celebrating what the show is all about: breaking down complicated politics so everyday people can understand it and get involved.

Then the stories from this week. The latest on the Bend, Oregon school shooting. An intel memo warning that Iranian plots against U.S. officials have reached “advanced stages.” On the Road to the Midterms, sponsored by We Vote Too: Ohio’s ugly governor’s race and Texas early voting breaking records. And Jay-Z closes out 30 years of music at SoFi Stadium.

Listen to We Vote Too on Raw Signal Media’s Spotify channel, also on iHeart, Apple, Pandora, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Raw Signal, formerly MAPS Media’s We Vote Too, hosted by Leise Winnie.

#RawSignal #WeVoteToo #News #Midterms2026

Five stories, five minutes. This week: a school shooting in Bend, Oregon, that left three children and a teacher dead. A fatal fall on a Six Flags coaster in Georgia, and why no federal agency checks these rides. Trump’s new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, reportedly fired after five days on the job. Diddy’s prison transfer and the claims of a cushy life behind bars. And Road to the Midterms, sponsored by We Vote Too: the Senate map 18 days out.

Raw Signal, formerly MAPS Media’s We Vote Too, hosted by Leise Winnie. Follow, share, and make sure you’re registered to vote.

#RawSignal #WeVoteToo #News #Midterms2026

Leise Winny and Royce are back with a no-filter show and no easy answers. They start with the week’s chaos and then move into the questions most people avoid.

In this episode:

• The opening hot takes: Tyson, Humphrey, and Dez come out supporting Trump. Then there’s Trump’s Russian oil deal and the talk of a live execution.
• Anti-hero or villain? Jason was supposedly a good guy, but did we paint him as a villain? We rank the scariest characters and pick who we’d want on our team.
• Pop culture pit stop: Would you still pay for the HBO app if it came with ads? Is there a rule on black spaghetti? Is Buffy the Body really 40??? And is Interview with the Vampire a better vampire movie than Sinners?
• Comedy beef: People are attacking Mojo Brooks and claiming internet people aren’t funny at stand-up.
• Black churches and “the smoke”: Why do black churches and conservative black folks have so much more smoke for homosexuality than for racism, child abuse, or poverty? Do religion and capitalism teach us to look forward to death?
• Should we keep the death penalty? We break down the Christa Pike execution debacle and ask whether the death penalty actually leads to less crime.
• Accountability vs. punishment: Why do so many people hear “accountability” and think “punishment”?
• Who is to blame? A six-year-old shot his teacher. We play the body-cam video and ask who is responsible. We also discuss the Baltimore case of a 12-year-old who robbed someone, which led to a fatal hit-and-run, and no charges were filed.

New episodes drop weekly. Follow, rate, and share with the friend who always has a hot take.

Let's be real. People are out here genuinely asking if there's even going to be an election. And the answer is yes — but not because everything is fine. Because people are fighting like hell to make sure it happens.

In this episode, we're breaking down exactly how we got here. From the Big Lie that didn't start in 2020 — it started in 2012 — to what they did to Fani Willis in Georgia, to voter roll purges happening right now, to the SAVE Act that could wipe out one in three voter registrations. We're talking about Dick Durbin on the Senate floor calling out the DOJ. We're talking about what Black people have always known about voter suppression — and the blood that was shed so we could even have this conversation.

They are playing in your face. They win only if you stay home.

This episode is for everybody who said: "What's the point?" This IS the point.

🗳️ RESOURCES — CHECK YOUR STATUS. KNOW YOUR RIGHTS.

• Check your voter registration: vote.org
• Find your polling place & get voting info: iwillvote.com
• State election offices & official voting info: usa.gov/state-election-office
• When We All Vote — nonpartisan voter participation: whenweallvote.org
• Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights — voter protection & legal resources: lawyerscommittee.org

The biggest stories of the week, broken down in plain English in about five minutes.

This week:
🌀 Hurricane Isaias slams the Florida Panhandle as the latest first hurricane of a season in over 100 years
🚨 Federal agents shoot a man in NYC with a 5-year-old in the car, and who holds them accountable
🗳️ Midterms in 24 days: new documents show DHS collected millions of voter records
⛽ Trump strikes a diesel deal with Putin as prices hit $6.23 a gallon, and Ukraine pushes back
🕊️ Navi Pillay wins the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize for defending international law

What happened, why it matters, and what you need to know. New episodes every Saturday.

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:10 Hurricane Isaias
1:00 NYC ICE shooting
2:00 Midterms and voter records
3:10 Russia diesel deal
4:10 Nobel Peace Prize
4:45 Wrap

Raw Signal Media | Narrated by AI, researched and produced by humans.

Leise Winny and Royce are back with everything your group chat has been arguing about this week.

In this episode:

• Jasmine Guy gets picked apart for aging, and why men never get the same treatment
• Trump says he “feels badly” for the Cornell 7
• Should billionaires fly their friends, first class? The Savannah James debate
• Unemployment is up, and Black workers are feeling it most
• Can we stop making Chrisean and Blueface famous?
• The Kai Cenat allegations
• BMF star Da’Vinchi says we need to “move on” from slavery
• The Living Single debate nobody asked for
• Royce: The creator economy’s biggest lie, why attention doesn’t equal value
• Leise: What is up with Chris Rock? The friend he didn’t help and being “ghetto famous”
• Royce: It’s okay to be awkward, because that’s where connection lives
• Leise: Are men taught to be more selfish?

Follow the show, leave a rating, and drop your takes in the comments.

#SidebarPodcast #ChrisRock #LivingSingle #BlackPodcasts #PopCulture

This Week on Raw Signal: Executions, Scandals, and the Road to the Midterms

Your 5-minute news snapshot for the week of October 4th.

This week: Tennessee's Christa Pike was set to be executed — she never made it to the chamber, and she's now unconscious on a ventilator, according to her lawyers. Cornell University is facing an independent investigation after a former student's lawsuit alleges she was gang-raped by seven fraternity members, and Governor Hochul says the school can't police itself. In the UK, the murder of former minister Ann Widdecombe just turned into a terrorism investigation with possible ties to Nigel Farage's party. Russia's hitting Kyiv's bridges to grind the city to a halt rather than level it. And September's jobs report came in ice cold — just 29,000 jobs added — handing both parties a number to fight over heading into the midterms.

🗳️ Raw Signal: Road to the Midterms — this week: the redistricting fight that could hand Republicans 10 extra House seats, and the Senate races that'll decide who controls Congress.

Plus: we've been nominated for a Signal Award for Best Driveway Moment. Vote for Raw Signal (formerly "We Vote Too," hosted by Leise Winny) at signalaward.com — voting closes October 15th.

https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2026/individual-episodes/genre/driveway-moment-podcast

A country singer nobody's heard of just dethroned Mariah Carey. Cornell University let a rapist stay on campus. Trump told America we have "the best poverty." And somebody put a dead man's face on an AI trend and called it content. We got into all of it.

Royce asks whether people actually want to be informed anymore — or if we're all just addicted to being right. Leise breaks down what's happening to comedy and whether we've lost the ability to recognize a joke. Then we get into whether we're becoming better partners or just better at performing like one. And we close out asking the question nobody wants to sit with: are men naturally selfish — or did we raise them that way?

Ninety minutes. No filter.

This episode:

• Ella Langley beat Mariah Carey's Billboard record — and nobody knows the song
• Cornell rape case: the accused gets to stay on campus
• A Different World sequel — are we ready?
• Trump says America has "the best poverty"
• Is Outkast wrong for suing Ovrkast over his name?
• MTV VMAs — are we still watching?
• Nolan Wells update
• The Takeoff AI trend and why it's digital necromancy
• Are we informed — or just turned on by being right?
• What even is comedy anymore?
• Are we better partners or better advertisements?
• Are men born selfish — or raised that way?

This week, Leise and Royce go there — from military death counts and House races to sacred sounds and secular beats to who really owns the definition of intelligence.

In this episode:

• Service member deaths that didn't make the news
• Trump blocking outlets, and what that means for press access
• All 435 House seats up for grabs
• Why millennials are being told to just... retire already
• A weekend with Joe and Jada
• Pretty privilege in VIP spaces
• Does leaning on AI mean you've checked out of real life?
• Coffee dates that turn into interview debates
• Jehovah's Witnesses and the blood transfusion rule change
• Why a sound becomes "sinful" based on who you first heard it from
• Association vs. morality — and why Black churches call Black culture "worldly"
• "Brown skin" vs. "dark skin": is the distinction itself the anti-Black move?
• Who gets to define "intelligence" — and now "Artificial Intelligence"
• Is AI doom messaging really about fear, or about losing the gatekeeping?
• Celebrating people's success while remembering they didn't do it for us
• Tyler Perry, "A24 Black," and what that term is really pointing at
• CBC sponsors — we have to talk about it

Buckle up. 🎙️