Shake It Off with Mert & Lucas Live

Our second hour begins with a conversation on last week's GOP Midterm Convention in Dallas, specifically President Trump's promise of a $5,000 stipend to all eligible American adults if Republicans win both houses of Congress in the November midterms. The show wraps with Stephen Reiner, keynote speaker and bestselling author, to discuss his new book Business Changes Fast, People Change Slow: A Leadership Guide to Accelerating Organizational Change and Building Competitive Advantage.

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Episode 114 begins with Mert, Ryan Pagano, and Alex discussing the 25 year commemoration of the September 11th attacks, and NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration releasing new documents about the air quality in Lower Manhattan post-9/11 being covered up. Then from the 21st century to the 18th century, Professor Frank Cogliano, Professor of American History at the University of Edinburgh, joins the show to discuss his new book Thomas Jefferson Survives: American Independence in His Time and Ours, co-authored with Peter S. Onuf.

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Our second hour begins with a look at yet incident in the unfriendly skies. The show wraps with Anne Fundner, the “Angel Mom” whose 15-year-old son Weston was poisoned by fentanyl-laced pills in 2022; a 2024 RNC speaker and founder of the Forever Weston Foundation, she discusses the fentanyl crisis, peer pressure, and her fight for stronger borders and awareness.

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Episode 113 begins with Mert, Matt Sambolin and Alex dive into facts and figures of Labor Day.  The show then shifts to an interview with Brendan Mahan, ADHD expert and host of the ADHD Essentials Podcast, who joins to discuss his new book Overcoming the Wall of Awful: Why It’s Hard to Get Things Done with ADHD, Autism, and Anxiety (and How to Do Them Anyway).

Website for the podcast: https://www.nfllp.com/

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Our second hour opens with a discussion of President Trump’s order to substantially reduce annual joint military exercises with South Korea, citing his relationship with Kim Jong Un, the high U.S. costs, and Seoul’s refusal to join efforts against Iran. The move sparked sharp bipartisan criticism, raised questions about alliance reliability amid strong public support for the partnership on both sides, and fueled debate over whether “America First” strengthens or undermines long-standing deterrence against North Korea. The show then wraps with an interview featuring Prof. Robert Parkinson, a Binghamton University historian specializing in the American Revolution, whose new book Tyrants and Rogues examines the 27 specific grievances in the Declaration of Independence and the British figures behind them on the document’s 250th anniversary.

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Episode 112 examines the viral debate over $20 burritos that began when a college student told Turning Point USA a burrito shouldn’t cost that much, turning a simple complaint into a symbol of inflation and everyday costs. Using real prices, inflation data, and surveys, it shows how delivery and extras can push a burrito to $20 while homemade or basic options stay far cheaper—and what that reveals about wages and affordability in 2026. The hour then shifts to an interview with Mike Lebowitz, a U.S. Army combat veteran, former Pathfinder officer, and senior DOJ National Security Division attorney who spent nearly a decade prosecuting 9/11, USS Cole, and top al Qaeda cases at Guantanamo Bay before serving as senior legal advisor to U.S. Army Cyber Command. His book Second Wave uncovers the 2003 intelligence discovery that al Qaeda had obtained nuclear materials and planned to smuggle them into American ports, the urgent multi-agency manhunt that followed, and the lasting questions it raises about national preparedness on the 25th anniversary of 9/11.

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In our second hour, the hosts dig into Francesca Hong’s narrow loss in Wisconsin’s August 11 Democratic primary for governor. The democratic socialist led the polls, but Bernie Sanders and AOC stayed out, old statements on Thanksgiving, policing, and prisons came roaring back, and David Crowley pulled the upset. We track the progressive fractures, the establishment’s relief, and the bigger fight over candidate quality versus ideology in a real swing state. The show wraps with an interview featuring Christian Briggs, Economist & CEO of Hard Asset Management, Inc., a specialist in rare coins and precious metals with nearly 40 years of experience advising individuals and family offices on undervalued hard assets. Briggs explains why hard assets matter now—as a tangible store of value that can protect wealth against inflation, currency debasement, and market volatility when paper assets and digital currencies face growing uncertainty.

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Episode 111 examines how two former NBA players’ declarations for the 2027 WNBA Draft have forced the league to confront its undefined eligibility rules and the broader clash between inclusion and sex-based competition. It also tracks the escalating responses—from Sophie Cunningham’s comments to the WNBPA’s refusal to be “political pawns”—as the WNBA faces a defining question about what the word “women” legally and competitively means. The show then shifts to an interview with Michael LeBlanc, a decorated Marine Corps major, Harvard Business School graduate, and entrepreneur who co-founded defense robotics company Foundation Future Industries after 13 years of service that included multiple Middle East deployments. In What If Anger Is the Answer?: A Harvard Marine’s Guide to Shaping Aggression, he argues that anger is not a flaw to suppress but a force that can be trained and channeled into courage, leadership, and purpose. Drawing on combat experience, ancient Greek philosophy, and Silicon Valley lessons, the book offers a practical framework for turning aggression into strength.

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In our second hour we examine the record-breaking success of Spider-Man: Brand New Day and how its story of a forgotten, isolated hero illuminates loneliness in modern life. Drawing on insights from Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and psychologist Pauline Boss, we explore why this emotionally resonant superhero tale has connected so powerfully with audiences worldwide. The show closes with an interview featuring Dr. Mark Evans, a composer, conductor, author, and founder of the Cultural Conservation foundation. Based in North Carolina, he hosts the television program Mark! My Words and has written definitive books on film scoring (including Soundtrack: The Music of the Movies) as well as cultural renewal. Through his foundation, he works to preserve America’s cultural heritage—music, language, history, and the arts—with the same care devoted to natural resources, promoting self-education to counter cultural decline.

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Episode 110 opens with the absurd political circus around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. A rushed no-bid renovation for America 250 peeled and failed from botched contractor work—yet the administration invented sophisticated midnight vandals, charged a former Olympian with a felony, then watched the DOJ quietly drop the case while Trump kept pushing the vandalism story. It’s a perfect, embarrassing metaphor for a system that would rather invent saboteurs and scapegoats than simply admit a high-profile paint job went sideways. The show then shifts to an interview featuring Dr. K. Alan Stokes, a minister, storyteller, and author with degrees in psychology and pastoral counseling. In his latest book, Continuing Covenant: Extending His Faithfulness to a Thousand Generations, Stokes shares his faith journey—beginning even before his birth—as a reminder that God’s covenant continues through every generation.

Website for the podcast: https://www.nfllp.com/

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