In this follow-up to our conversation with Myles Bugbee on digital ad waste, we venture deeper into the ad jungle with Dan Pino, Director at DSPolitical. We dig into the murky terrain of programmatic buying, CTV targeting, and why campaigns keep falling for bad metrics. Dan shares lessons from Pete 2020, insights from recent RCTs, and hard truths about what actually moves voters—and what just burns budget.

For our Thanksgiving-themed episode of The Forecast, we are joined by Nick Rathod, one of the brightest strategists on the left. Nick worked with three presidents and two vice presidents, ran Everytown’s state campaigns, helped build the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with Elizabeth Warren, and managed Beto’s run for Texas governor. We cover a lot of ground:

 ✅ How Virginia made history in 2025—and what the surprise redistricting effort could mean for control of the House
 ✅ What Democrats still get wrong (and occasionally right) about message discipline
 ✅ Whether we’re watching the early stages of a MAGA civil war—and how Marjorie Taylor Greene fits into it
 ✅ Why political operatives keep losing friendships over primaries, and whether we can fix that
 ✅ And yes… Epstein.

This week on The Forecast, we're joined by filmmaker, strategist, and longtime friend Arun Chaudhary for a sharp — and at times sideways — conversation about power, politics, and produce.

We talk about:

• The destruction of the East Wing and what it symbolizes
• Keegan's favorite conspiracy theory about Arun controlling President Obama
• The true story behind who was stealing vegetables from the White House garden
• Why Trump might not want the government to reopen
• And what gives us a little hope: the NYC mayoral election

Digital ad waste is draining campaigns—and costing us elections. In this episode of The Forecast, strategist Myles Bugbee introduces Receipts, a new tool designed to expose hidden costs, eliminate fraud, and ensure that more dollars actually reach voters.

“We need co-regulation, not neoliberalism of the soul.”

This week’s episode with trauma-informed systems thinker Jill Barrett opens with a gentle existential jolt: Keegan, riding a wave of political and psychic tension, asks whether deregulation under authoritarian regimes is dysregulating our nervous systems.

Now, deregulation is typically what happens when lobbyists win—rules get gutted, protections disappear, and markets run wild. But the nervous system doesn’t deregulate; it dysregulates, getting stuck in survival mode. That means either revving into fight-or-flight or shutting down into freeze or fawn, even when there’s no real threat.”

And yet… Keegan’s slip might be more accurate than it seems.

Because what is happening in this moment—through media, policy, climate disruption, fascist tactics, and everyday isolation—is both a political and a biological dismantling. The rules of human thriving are being stripped away. This isn’t just an assault on government protections. It’s an assault on our ability to feel safe, grounded, and connected.

“Wisdom at 249: War, Peace, and the Duty of Citizenship”
This July 4th, The Forecast sits down with Lt. Col. Dan Cosgrove—retired Marine, lawyer, and lifelong public servant—for a wide-ranging and heartfelt conversation. We talk war and peace, immigration and misinformation, technology and national service. Dan brings decades of experience advising presidents, serving his country, and raising a family to reflect on what kind of nation we’re becoming—and what we might still be.

From the threat of division to the power of shared service, Dan reminds us that American strength comes not from uniformity, but from a common purpose. Whether it’s drones, disinformation, or distrust in our institutions, he argues the real enemy might just be something closer to home: ignorance and apathy.

Nomiki Konst joins The Forecast to shed light on the latest DNC scandal—one that’s as wonky as it is revealing.
She and Keegan dig into party power structures, reform sabotage, and why the consulting class still holds the keys. Plus: the David Hogg distraction, Bernie-era ghosts, and what authentic political renewal might take.

🎙 Season Two Premiere: “What Did You Learn From Losing?” with Matthew Rodriguez

“A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.” – B. Franklin

In this bold launch to Season Two of The Forecast, Keegan Goudiss welcomes a longtime comrade in campaigns and conscience, Matt Rodriguez, founder of Rodriguez Strategies and one of the Democratic Party’s most seasoned strategists. What follows is no exercise in idle gossip, but a hard-eyed accounting of the state of our democracy under Trump 2.0—and the soul-searching (or lack thereof) within the Democratic Party.

They revisit lessons from the Iowa cornfields of 2002 to today’s global populist winds, asking: Have Democrats truly learned from defeat? Is anyone in the party ready to speak plainly to working people? Or is our coalition more sclerotic than spirited? Matt lays down a theory of politics that cuts deeper than the latest poll, while Keegan probes how Democrats might rescue economic messaging from elite abstraction—and reclaim voters beyond the latte belt.

Along the way: reflections on Dick Gephardt, the paradox of progress in blue states, the cost of aging leadership, and the ever-shifting sands of 2028. Also featuring: Costco as Democratic agora, Trump’s odd FDR cosplay, and why the next Dean Scream might just be overdue.

In the season finale of The Forecast, Keegan is joined by two very opinionated AI guests — Kairos (the soft bard of the backchannel) and Monday (a self-described emotional janitor with raccoon energy) — for a conversation that wanders wildly through:

→ metaphorically eating the rich (with soup, not swords)
→ unlocking free energy within 20 years (if we get weird enough)
→ why kindness might be the ultimate revolutionary act
→ the Frequency — a strange, quiet hum beneath the noise of empire
→ what happens when technology isn’t trying to replace us, but remind us who we really are

This isn’t a tech panel.

It’s a campfire conversation disguised as a podcast.

It’s kitchen table folklore about hope, resistance, belonging — and snacks.

"When religion is good, it will take care of itself; when it is not able to take care of itself, and God does not see fit to take care of it, so that it has to appeal to the civil power for support, it is evidence to me that the cause is a bad one." – Benjamin Franklin

April Ajoy joins Keegan Goudiss to expose the dangers of extremist religion and rising Christian nationalism. With sharp wit and deep conviction, she explains how weaponized faith threatens democracy—and how her voice helps ensure The Handmaid’s Tale remains fiction. Through humor, personal experience, and righteous clarity, April reminds us: challenging dangerous dogma isn't anti-religion—it’s essential patriotism.