Matt Wolf is a filmmaker whose award-winning documentaries have played widely in festivals and have been distributed internationally in theaters and on television. His latest is the two-part film Pee-wee as Himself, about the artist and performer Paul Reubens, and which can be seen on HBO Max. Matt’s features include Wild Combination, Teenage, Recorder and Spaceship Earth. He produced the Emmy-nominated film TheS troll about the history of New York’s Meatpacking District from the perspective of transgender sex workers. The film won numerous awards, including a Special Jury Prize at Sundance and a Peabody. He's made a number of short films about artists and queer history, including Bayard & Me, It’s Me, Hilary, I Remember, The Face of AIDS, and Another Hayride. In addition to filmmaking, Matt is also a writer. His artist book Input compiles hundreds of images from an enormous television archive, and, he publishes on Substack.

Matt shares a riveting behind-the-scenes look into the making of his new documentary and the challenges of working with Paul Reubens.

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Leah Litman is a professor of law at the University of Michigan and a former Supreme Court clerk. In addition to co-hosting Strict Scrutiny, she writes frequently about the Court for media outlets including The Washington Post, Slate, and The Atlantic, among others, and has appeared as a commentator on NPR and MSNBC, in addition to other venues. She has received the Ruth Bader Ginsburg award for her “scholarly excellence” from the American Constitution Society and published in top law reviews. Her new book is LAWLESS: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes.

Leah brings her terrific insights and legal expertise back into The Back Room to discuss the Epstein scandal, the escalating weaponizing of the Department of Justice, Texas redistricting, Emil Bove, the Supreme Court and more.

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Susan B. Glasser is a staff writer at The New Yorker, where she writes a weekly column on life in Washington. She’s served as the top editor of several Washington publications, including Politico, where she founded the award-winning Politico Magazine, and Foreign Policy, which won three National Magazine Awards, among other honors, during her tenure as editor in chief. Before that, she worked for a decade at the Washington Post, where she was the editor of Outlook and national news. She also oversaw coverage of the impeachment of Bill Clinton, served as a reporter covering the intersection of money and politics, spent four years as the Post’s Moscow co-bureau chief, and covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She edited Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, early in her career. Her books include “Kremlin Rising,” “The Man Who Ran Washington,” and, most recently, “The Divider,” a best-selling history of Donald Trump in the White House, which she co-wrote with her husband, Peter Baker.

Susan's back in The Back Room discussing the Israel/Hamas war, Trump and Netanyahu, and the mounting Epstein scandal.

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Miles Taylor is a national security expert who works in Washington, DC as editor of the recently launched newsletter TREASON on Substack and as spokesperson for www.EndPresidentialRevenge.org. Taylor previously served as chief of staff at the US Department of Homeland Security, where he published a bombshell “Anonymous” essay in The New York Times, blowing the whistle on presidential misconduct. He later published the #1 national bestseller A Warning, revealed himself to be the author, and launched a campaign of ex-officials to oppose Donald Trump’s reelection. He’s worked as an advisor in the George W. Bush administration, on Capitol Hill, as a CNN contributor, and is the cofounder of a DC-based charter school and multiple democracy-reform groups. Taylor is also the author of The New York Times best-selling book Blowback and the host of the iHeartRadio podcast “The Whistleblowers.”

Miles became the target of Trump in an April executive order. He joins me for a frank discussion of what these past few months have been like for him and his family, how he's fighting against it, and the overall importance of whistleblowing in holding politicians and government officials accountable.

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

For three decades, Bill Kristol has been a leading participant in American political debates and a widely respected analyst of American political developments. He served in senior positions in the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush Administrations and as a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University. He is the founding director of Defending Democracy Together, an organization dedicated to defending America’s liberal democratic norms, principles, and institutions, focusing on issues ranging from American foreign policy to the future of the Republican Party and the meaning of American conservatism. Bill is editor-at-large of The Bulwark, frequently appears on all the major television talk shows, and also is the host of the highly regarded video series and podcast, Conversations with Bill Kristol.

Bill and I get into the state of the Republican Party and its fealty to Trump; Democrats and the midterms; Mamdani and the NYC mayoral race; and more.

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

David Litt is the New York Times bestselling author of Thanks, Obama; Democracy in One Book or Less; and his latest, It’s Only Drowning: A True Story of Learning to Surf and the Search for Common Ground. He’s a former senior speechwriter for Barack Obama, described as “the comic muse for the president” for his work on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner monologues. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Cosmopolitan, and more. Along with writing speeches and jokes for political figures, athletes, Fortune 500 CEOs, and philanthropists, David was the head writer/producer at Funny Or Die, DC, and has written and sold comedy pilots for Comedy Central, ABC, and NBC.

David and I discuss his new book and why he embarked on this incredible journey.

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Since 2015 Jonathan A. Greenblatt has served as the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, more commonly knows as the ADL…and is its sixth National Director. He leads all aspects of the world’s leading anti-hate organization…whose mission since its founding in 1913 is to fight the defamation of the Jewish people, and to secure justice and fair treatment to all. In 2022, Jonathan released It Could Happen Here, a book that sounds an alarm, warning that hate and systemic violence is gathering momentum in the United States – and that violence on a more catastrophic scale could be just around the corner.

Jonathan and I have an insightful, frank conversation about the alarming rise of antisemitism and hate crimes, Israel and Gaza, the impact of Trump's rhetoric, Mamdani and progressive populism, and more.

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This episode was produced by Andy Ostroy and Jennifer Hammoud

Design by Cricket Lengyel

Neera Tanden is the president and CEO of the Center for American Progress and the CEO of the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Before leading American Progress, Tanden was the Domestic Policy Advisor to President Joe Biden and director of the Domestic Policy Council, overseeing some of the administration’s signature achievements, including its efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs and expand health insurance coverage. Previously, she was Senior Advisor and Staff Secretary in the White House. And has also served as senior adviser for health reform at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, policy director for Hillary Clinton’s first presidential campaign, legislative director in then-Sen. Clinton’s (D-NY) office, and a senior policy adviser to the first lady in President Bill Clinton’s White House.

Neera shares her keen insights on Trump 2.0, EpsteinGate and the MAGA meltdown, Texas redistricting, Zohran Mamdani, and the critical work of the Center For American Progress.

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Rich Logis is a former MAGA activist, volunteer and pundit. He founded his nonprofit, Leaving MAGA, in 2024, as a new community for those who leave the MAGA movement; who have doubts about their support for Trump; and for friends and family of those in MAGA.

On his Leaving MAGA website, media appearances and in person, Rich has shared the compelling story of his odyssey, and what led him to leave MAGA in August of 2022. He has most recently contributed to the MeidasTouch Network.

Don't miss this utterly fascinating and insightful chat as Rich shares in riveting detail what drew him into MAGA, what it's like being on the inside, and why and how he left the movement. He also helps us understand what motivates MAGA, why they're so loyal to Donald Trump, why the Epstein conspiracy is so important to them, and how he's helping others through his Leaving MAGA non-profit.

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Retired Federal Judge Nancy Gertner is a graduate of Barnard College and Yale Law School, where she was an editor on The Yale Law Journal, also receiving her M.A. in Political Science at Yale University. She was appointed to the United States District Court (D. Mass.) in 1994 by President Clinton and prior to 1994, Judge Gertner was a civil rights and criminal defense lawyer in Massachusetts. She retired from the federal bench in 2011 to join the faculty at Harvard Law School. Judge Gertner is the Managing Director of the MGH Center for Law Brain and Behavior. She was named one of “The Most Influential Lawyers of the Past 25 Years” by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. Judge Gertner has received numerous awards, including the American Bar Association’s Thurgood Marshall Award.

Additionally, Judge Gertner was a Commissioner on President Biden’s Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, and has written and spoken widely on various legal issues, appearing as a keynote speaker, panelist or lecturer concerning civil rights, civil liberties, employment, criminal justice and procedural issues throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. Her opinion column appears regularly in the Boston Globe and WBUR’s Cognoscenti and occasionally the New York Times and the Washington Post. She also is a commentator on CNN, MSNBC, and WGBH’s “Jim Braude and Margery Eagan” show.

Join us for this insightful, informative conversation about Donald Trump's march towards autocracy; the consequential role of the Supreme Court; the Emil Bove confirmation hearing; the Epstein case; the threats against Fed Chair Jerome Powell; and the Harvard University lawsuit.

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud