The Back Room with Andy Ostroy

Jennifer Palmieri is a co-host of Showtime’s “The Circus” and the author of the #1 NY Times bestselling book Dear Madam President and also She Proclaims: Our Declaration of Independence from a Man’s World. She’s a leading political and communications strategist who's served as national press secretary for the Democratic Party, White House deputy press secretary for President Bill Clinton, national press secretary for the 2004 John Edwards presidential campaign, President Obama’s White House communications director and head of communications for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Jennifer shares her early political influences and inspiration growing up in Mississippi, her thoughts on Hillary's 2016 campaign, Kevin McCarthy and the House drama, the "broken" GOP, Trump, Trumpism, Democrats/Biden, DeSantis and the race for '24. She also reveals whether she's a cat or dog person and the musical artists who comprise her all-time Top 5!

It's a truly fun, insightful chat you don't want to miss!

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

Produced by Andy Ostroy and Matty Rosenberg @ Radio Free Rhiniecliff

Cenk Uygur is the host and founder of online progressive news and commentary show The Young Turks and is CEO of TYT Network, which cites a global audience of more than 500-million monthly views per month and 21-billion total video views. he launched The Young Turks as a talk show on Sirius Satellite Radio in 2002 and started uploading videos on YouTube in 2005. Prior, he was the host of The Young Turks on Current TV, hosted MSNBC Live and has appeared on CNN, ABC News’ This Week with George Stephanopoulos, NPR, Headline News, Fox News and others. He is also the co-founder the Justice Democrats PAC.

Join Cenk and I as we dive into his childhood and his shift from Republican to progressive Democrat and discuss a range of hot-button political subjects including Trump, the Midterms, DeSantis and 2024, the Georgia Runoff, Kyrsten Sinema, Biden and Democratic messaging, Republican extremism, populism vs centrism and the lingering 2016 Bernie v Hillary debate.

And as always, you'll learn whether Cenk's a cat or dog person and which musical artists comprise his all-time Top 5!

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

Produced by Andy Ostroy and Matty Rosenberg @ Radio Free Rhiniecliff

James “The Ragin’ Cajun” Carville is America’s best-known political consultant with a knack for steering overlooked campaigns into unexpected landslide victories and for re-making political underdogs into upset winners. He most notably helped steer Bill "The Comeback Kid" Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign to victory. More recently he’s been focusing his strategic-thinking on international campaigns in more than 23 countries around the globe. He’s an 8-time NY Times best-selling author, actor, podcaster and public speaker whose latest book We’re Still Right, They’re Still Wrong released in 2016.

The inimitable James shares his entertaining and brutally-honest insights on a range of personal and political subjects including cats and dogs, his childhood, marriage, the '92 Clinton campaign, the midterms, Trump, Trumpism, Democrats, Republicans, 2024, his beloved New Orleans Saints and his Top 5 musical artists of all-time! You don't wanna miss this episode!

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

Produced by Andy Ostroy and Matty Rosenberg @ Radio Free Rhiniecliff

Tim Miller is The Bulwark’s writer-at-large and the author of the best-selling book Why We Did It: A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell. He was previously political director for Republican Voters Against Trump, communications director for Jeb Bush 2016, and spokesman for the Republican National Committee in 2012. He is an MSNBC political analyst and host of Not My Party on Snapchat. He's written about politics for Rolling Stone, The Ringer and Playboy and has appeared as a guest host in multiple episodes of this season's The Circus on Showtime.

Check out our Thanksgiving episode! It's an insightful, entertaining chat filled with lots of laughs and a bunch of really serious shit too. Matty, Jen and I (3 Jews!) debate Dave Chappelle's controversial SNL monologue and discuss our fav/least fav holiday food and Tim opens up about his past life as a gay Republican (he's still gay!) reveals the story behind his pearls, shares his thoughts on Trump, Trumpism, the midterms, immigration/xenophobia, GOP hypocrisy, Ron DeSantis & the 2024 election, his epic Steve Bannon interview on Showtime's The Circus and gives the funniest answer yet to the question "Are you a dog or a cat person?!" And, he hilariously reveals not just his Top 5 Musical artists of all time but, in a Back Room first, his bottom 5 as well!

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

Produced by Andy Ostroy and Matty Rosenberg @ Radio Free Rhiniecliff

The daughter of legendary author and social critic Erica Jong, Molly Jong-Fast is a special contributor to Vanity Fair and the host of the Fast Politics podcast. Join us for a fun, funny, insightful and frank conversation about a range of subjects including childhood family dysfunction, rehab, life with teenagers, Trump, Trumpism, the midterms, Nancy Pelosi, Marjorie Taylor Greene, anti-Semitism and Elon Musk and the crisis at Twitter.

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

Produced by Andy Ostroy and Matty Rosenberg @ Radio Free Rhiniecliff

Chris Matthews is an award-winning journalist, columnist, author, political commentator, television host and professor. His 15 years in politics and government includes serving as speechwriter for president Jimmy Carter and administrative assistant to House Speaker Tip O’Neil. He was a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle; syndicated columnist and Washington Bureau Chief for the San Francisco Examiner; and host of MSNBC’s Hardball. His books include Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero and his 2021 memoir This Country: My Life in Politics and History.

Join us for a lively, insightful, thought-provoking chat about the midterms, Trump and Trumpism, DeSantis, Biden, the Democratic and Republican Parties, the overall political landscape and the 2024 outlook. Chris also shares whether he's a cat or dog person and offers his Top 5 musical artists of all-time!

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

Produced by Andy Ostroy and Matty Rosenberg @ Radio Free Rhiniecliff

Mary L Trump is a trained Clinical Psychologist with a PhD from The Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies. She also has a Master’s degree in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University. As an adjunct professor at Adelphi University, she taught graduate level courses in developmental psychology, psychopathology, and trauma.

In 2017 Mary provided over 40,000 pages of documents to The New York Times, becoming a source for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning article written by Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner. She is the author of two New York Times best-selling books. The first, Too Much and Never Enough, published in July 2020, sold a million copies on its first day of publication. Her second book, The Reckoning, was published in August 2021.

Join us for a fun, fascinating and brutally honest chat about her life; her Uncle Donald, her cousins Ivanka, Eric and Don Jr and her grandparents Fred Sr and Mary Anne; her dysfunctional childhood; the current political landscape; the midterms; Trumpism; racism; and the future of American democracy. You'll also learn whether she's a cat or dog person, and hear her Top 5 musical artists of all-time!

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

Produced by Andy Ostroy and Matty Rosenberg @ Radio Free Rhiniecliff

Stuart Stevens is a Senior Advisor to the Lincoln Project. For twenty-five years he was the lead strategist and media consultant for some of the nation's toughest political campaigns including the presidential bids of Bob Dole, George W. Bush and Mitt Romney.

He is the author of eight books, including the New York Times bestseller It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump (2020). His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Esquire and Outside, among other publications. He has written extensively for television shows, including Northern Exposure, Commander in Chief, and K Street.

Join us for fascinating, in-depth political chat with Stuart about Trump, Trumpism, Democrats & Republicans, the midterms & the existential threat to our democracy. And, a brief campaign update from NY-18 candidate Rep. Pat Ryan.

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

Produced by Andy Ostroy and Matty Rosenberg @ Radio Free Rhiniecliff

Michael Fanone served as a DC Metropolitan Police Department Officer

But Michael's best known as one of the many law enforcement heroes who nearly lost his life defending our Congresspeople, Capitol and democracy during the insurrection of January 6, 2021. He’s the author of the new book, “Hold the Line: The Insurrection and One Cop's Battle for America's Soul”. He currently serves as an analyst for CNN, a security consultant and a firearms instructor.

Hear Michael's personal story as never told before.

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

Produced by Andy Ostroy and Matty Rosenberg @ Radio Free Rhiniecliff

Soledad O’Brien is a multi-award-winning documentary filmmaker, journalist, speaker, author, philanthropist and founder of Soledad O’Brien Productions, a multi-platform media production company dedicated to telling empowering and authentic stories on a range of social issues. She anchors and produces the Hearst TV political magazine program "Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien" and is a correspondent for HBO Real Sports.

Soledad's documentaries have appeared on HBO, Discovery Plus, Peacock, BET, PBS and elsewhere. She has over 1.3-million followers on Twitter, where she’s a frequent critic of the mainstream media. Her Op-Eds have appeared in the New York Times and Huffington Post. She's anchored shows on CNN, MSNBC and NBC, and reported specials for Fox, BET, A&E and others. She's won three Emmy awards, two George Foster Peabody Awards, three Gracie Awards, two Cine Awards and an Alfred I. DuPont Award. Her most recent series, “Black and Missing” available on HBO, won an Independent Spirit Award.

Join us for a truly entertaining, insightful, thought-provoking chat on subjects including family, the media, politics, the fate of our democracy and the October 19 Peacock release of the documentary "The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks", on which she serves as Executive Producer.

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

Produced by Andy Ostroy and Matty Rosenberg @ Radio Free Rhiniecliff