(Originally aired 1/3/21, but that was a weird week as you might recall. Plus, Julie's wicked awesome!)

Julie Mason, a White House correspondent with the Houston Chronicle, Washington Examiner and Politico, has been the host of The Press Pool on SiriusXM's POTUS channel since 2011 and will now have a new show called Julie Mason Mornings @MasonMornings. What's it like to be in the WH press corps? How different is it from one administration to another? Are politicians and Press Secretaries different on camera vs. off camera? Which tv show is most accurate: West Wing, House of Cards or Veep? And of course, isn't the entirety of the "MSM" completely in the tank for Hugo Chavez's zombie army that took over the election? Some of the answers may shock you!

Reed Galen, Co-Founder of The Lincoln Project talks about his background from growing up as the kid of a political strategist to his time as an intern on George W. Bush's Texas gubernatorial re-election campaign. We learn what it's like to be an Advanceman for a presidential campaign, working in an administration and all that led to his role with TLP. We dive in to what they knew about Trump and how they got to him. He also opens up about mistakes that were made, what they're doing to "get their act together" and getting back to work.

https://lincolnproject.us/

@ProjectLincoln

It's been one year since the first shelter-in-place orders were implemented. So this episode is dedicated to frontline and essential workers. One group in particular that hasn’t had nearly as much applause but certainly deserves it is truckers: The men and women who move everything from face masks to fresh food, toothpaste to toilet paper.

One of those truckers who’s been on the frontlines the entire time is my very own brother, Eddie Nathan. Eddie has an interesting trajectory that brought him to this career. He spent about 20-25 years at all levels of education including as a teacher as well as administration in both main stream public schools and charter schools. So not only does he have a broad range of experience in education, when he decided to transition to trucking a couple years ago, he was arguably one of the most highly credentialed individuals in the history of the trucking industry! 

And just so no one misses their healthy dose of politics and religion, we definitely get into it along with our dear old dad Ronnie. In fact, we get to hear all about Eddie's very refined, erudite analysis he calls "the a55h0le theory."

Danielle Pletka is a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and co-host of What the Hell Is Going On, having served as the SVP for foreign and defense policy studies there, and is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. Prior to joining AEI, Danielle was a senior staff member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations as the point person on Middle East, Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan. 

Dany discusses how she formed her conservative views, developing an expertise in foreign policy, her experience working on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee including with firebrand Senator Jesse Helms, her candid and nuanced assessment of the Trump Admin's Middle East policy, her concerns about the Democratic Party's "lurch to the left," and what happened leading up to and since January 6th.

Jessica Stone, author of the new book Crossing the Divide, is a veteran of national and international newsrooms where she’s covered the intersection of politics and business around the world. Her work has appeared in Yahoo Finance and USA Today among others, and she’s appeared on FOX and CBS radio & television. Her work’s taken her to 5 continents and has included accompanying President Barack Obama to Brazil and traveling with President Donald Trump to China. She’s interviewed former CA Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and former presidential candidates John Kerry, John Edwards, John McCain and Mitt Romney.

On this episode, we discuss Jessica's new book which is a candid account of different chapters in her own life that's culminated in "20 lessons to help you thrive in cross-cultural environments."

Sarah Stewart Holland, creator and cohost of the bipartisan political podcast Pantsuit Politics and author of ​I Think You're Wrong (But I'm Listening): A Guide to Grace-Filled Political Conversations, joins Ronnie and Corey for... a grace-filled conversation. Sarah discusses her background from conversations she had with her Papa Stewart about FDR and JFK to earning her law degree and working in politics; moving back to her hometown to raise her family and serving on the Paducah KY City Commission. We then cover a wide range of topics from "our people" to Christian Trumpism, progressive Christianity, Oprah, proportionate representation and the controversial subject of privilege.

Michael Gulker is President of The Colossian Forum. Much like us, he has a long-standing interest in the oft-times contentious intersection of faith and culture, in particular you might have read recently in publications like the Wall Street Journal about the program they’ve developed at the Colossian Forum that helps churches facilitate healthier conversations around politics and other challenging issues.  A native of West Michigan, he studied philosophy and theology at Calvin College, has a divinity degree from Duke Divinity School, and is an ordained Mennonite pastor. Before coming to The Colossian Forum, Michael served as pastor of Christ Community Church in Des Moines, Iowa.

Kurt Bardella was a rising star as a staffer for high profile political leaders such as Republican Senator Olympia Snowe from Maine and Republican Congressman Darrell Issa when he famously chaired the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. During that time, Kurt choreographed the media strategy for investigations related to the 2008 financial crisis, the bailouts of major Wall Street firms and probes into corporate conglomerates such as BP. He later went on to build and lead Endeavor Strategies which represented clients such as Breitbart until early in 2016 when Kurt notably parted ways with this major client on principle after Corey Lewandowski, then Trump’s campaign manager, seriously man-handled one of Breitbart’s reporters. Since that time, Kurt not only switched party affiliation from Republican to Democrat, he was most recently a Senior Advisor to the Lincoln Project and runs the Country Music media platform, the Morning Hangover. Kurt is also on USA Today's Board of Contributors and an NBC NEWS THINK contributor. 

Pete Dominick is a stand up comic, speaker, news commentator, host, journo activist, moderator, professional speaking consultant, husband and proud father of 2 daughters. Pete was the host of a daily 3 hour live radio show on SiriusXM for almost 12 years. The show welcomed 3-4 expert guests on a broad range of issues from parenting to politics, health care, sustainable living and so much more. 

Pete began his career as a stand up comic making a name for himself in the major leagues of stand up - the best clubs of the NYC comedy scene. Pete was hired for the very coveted gig as the warm up comic first for Jon Stewart and The Daily Show and then The Colbert Report on Comedy Central. Pete is now creating his own content while speaking on a wide range of issues, performing stand up and doing his best to continue to learn how to make the world a better place everyday.

https://standupwithpete.libsyn.com/

https://www.givewell.org/

Dr. Southers is a Prof. of the Practice in Nat'l & Homeland Security, Dir. of the Safe Communities Institute (SCI) and Dir. of Homegrown Violent Extremism Studies in the Sol Price School of Public Policy at USC. He was CA Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Deputy Dir. for Critical Infrastructure of the CA Office of Homeland Security and President Obama’s first nominee to head the TSA.

Ronnie and Corey discuss Dr. Southers' humble beginnings as a kid from New Jersey who is the son of two educators, was a competitive body builder and then traversed a career at every level of law enforcement from dog catcher to the FBI to being nominated by President Obama (with many stops along the way).

We get into some timely and salient issues including his informed insights about the attack on the Capitol, constructive police reform and how he's standing on the shoulders of his parents who marched on Washington for Civil Rights in 1963.

We also discuss his book Homegrown Violent Extremism and the work he's doing with LEWIS (named after John Lewis) Law Enforcement Work Enquiry System.