The Back Room with Andy Ostroy

Michael Cohen is host of the Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen podcast and is a two-time New York Times best-selling author. His latest book is Revenge: How Donald Trump Weaponized the US Department of Justice Against His Critics. He’s also Principal of crisis management firm Crisis-X. And he’s most notable for having served for many years as Donald Trump’s personal attorney and also as an executive in the Trump Organization.

Michael's back in The Back Room unpacking the mounting legal troubles of the Thief-in-Chief, his disgraced former lawyer #Giuliani and his other crooked cronies!

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Michael Steele is the former Republican National Committee Chairman, former Lt. Governor of Maryland, MSNBC political analyst and host of the Michael Steele Podcast.

Join us for this truly fun, insightful, compelling chat about Trump, Trumpism, the GOP, and the 2024 presidential election. We also explore Michael's childhood, his early influences, his initial desire to become a priest and he answers the burning question of why he became a Republican!

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Donovan X. Ramsey is a journalist and author who writes about issues of identity, justice, and patterns of power in America. His reporting has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, GQ, WSJ Magazine, Ebony, and Essence, among other outlets and he’s been a staff reporter at the Los Angeles Times, NewsOne, and theGrio. He just released to much critical acclaim his debut book When Crack Was King: A People's History of a Misunderstood Era, which explores how Black America survived the crack epidemic.

Join us for this extremely important, riveting conversation which explores the origins of the crack epidemic of the 1980's and early 90's; the "war on drugs" and "just say no" era; criminal injustice and racism; the current opioid and fentanyl crisis; and more.

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Eric Swalwell represents California's 14th Congressional District. A former prosecutor, he serves on the House Judiciary Committee and the House Homeland Security Committee. He was appointed by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi to serve as an Impeachment Manager for Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial.

Rep Swalwell is known for being tough on his Republican opponents, Trump and Trumpism. He speaks truth to power in this insightful chat about the House, the GOP and its threat to democracy, and where the country is headed as we approach yet another critical election. We also talk about balancing parenting and work, and the benefits of membership in the House Dad's Caucus.

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Taylor Lorenz is an author and Washington Post columnist covering technology and online culture. Before joining The Post, she was a technology reporter for the New York Times' business section. She was also previously a technology reporter at the Atlantic and the Daily Beast. Her first book Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet, will be released this October and is available for pre-order on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookshop.org, simonandschuster.com, etc.

Taylor shares her thoughts on META's new Threads app; the fate of Twitter; the Zuckerberg vs Musk battle (in and out of the cage-match ring!); her own sparring with Musk; Musk's new AI company; the real threat(s) from TikTok; and discusses her book, which is described as "the inside, untold story of what we have done to the internet, and what it has done to us"

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Lucas Kunce is a 13-year Marine veteran, national security expert, and antitrust advocate running against Missouri’s Republican Senator Josh Hawley. After three deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, Lucas was stationed at the Pentagon, where he served on the Joint Staff to contain the threat of nuclear and chemical weapons around the globe, and later represented the U.S. in arms control negotiations with NATO and Russia. After active duty, he became the National Security Director for the American Economic Liberties Project, a non-profit which advocates corporate accountability legislation and aggressive enforcement of anti-trust regulations. He currently serves in the Marine Corps Reserves.

Join us for this inspiring chat about family and community. About overcoming childhood poverty and family health challenges. About the fight to kick Mr. FistPump McManhoodBook to the curb and take power back for everyday, working-class families in Missouri and across America. About what Democrats can do to defeat Republicans, Trump and Trumpism in the 2024 election.

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Kat Abughazaleh is a senior video producer at Media Matters and a well-known Fox News watcher. She's a prominent social media personality who's become very popular through her TikTok videos and similar political content on Twitter. She regularly posts biting videos citing the dishonest, bizarre and often sexist, homophobic, racist behavior of Fox hosts, the network itself, and ex-Fox host Tucker Carlson.

Kat's back in The Back Room for a seriously fun, insightful chat about Threads vs Twitter, Musk vs Zuckerberg, Trump vs reality, Kat vs TikTok and more!

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Former Trump supporter and "MAGA Granny" Pam Hemphill says she was "brainwashed", in a "cult" and eventually served two months in prison for her role inside the U.S. Capitol during the January 6th insurrection. She's now full of regret and remorse, and is passionately fighting against her former cult leader, his cohorts and minions, and their gaslighting and dangerous rhetoric. This is her fascinating story of how and why she joined the cult, what it was like inside, and how she eventually got the motivation and courage to leave. It's a rare window into the MAGA mind and a truly don't-miss conversation....

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Saverio Guerra is an actor and writer best known for playing Mocha Joe on HBO's CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM and Bob on the long-running Ted Danson CBS series BECKER He has appeared on many other television shows including Law & Order, Billions, The Goldbergs and The Detour. His film credits include SUMMER OF SAM, BAD BOYS, SLEEPERS and LUCK YOU.

Join us for this truly fun, hilarious chat about acting, growing up in Brooklyn, Larry David and so much more! Come for the CURB, stay for the Pacino impression!

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Produced by Andy Ostroy and Matty Rosenberg @ Radio Free Rhiniecliff

Harry Sisson is a 20 year old Gen Z activist. He started his work in politics at a local level by interning with his councilwoman and State Senator. He then began utilizing social media to help get young people out to vote in the 2020 presidential election. Since then, he’s amassed over 800,000 followers across all platforms, he’s worked with President Obama, the White House and more.

Young folks like Harry are the future. He's incredibly tough, smart, articulate, passionate and focused like a laser on what's wrong with the Republican Party and how Democrats can capitalize and win everything. Join us for this fun, insightful chat about today's wild political and judicial landscape.

Got somethin' to say?! Email us at [email protected]

Produced by Andy Ostroy and Matty Rosenberg @ Radio Free Rhiniecliff