Is the Iran war over, or just beginning? Meredith Lynch and Rebecca Sananès are joined by actress Ashlie Atkinson (The Gilded Age, BlacKkKlansman) and Arkansas congressional candidate Dr. Chris Jones for a wide-ranging conversation on draft talk, the Save America Act, and why the House majority could hinge on a state most people fly over. Plus: why Timothée Chalamet declaring opera dead reveals something nobody's talking about — and what the AIDS crisis has to do with it.

News decoded. Headlines dissected.

Welcome to The Moment — what you’d get if your smartest group chat turned into a news show. Hosted by Rebecca Sananès and Meredith Lynch, the show brings smart commentary, sharp guests, and the context you need to make sense of the week’s chaos. Come for the internet vibes. Stay for the newsroom chops. New episodes every Tuesday and Friday at 11am ET / 8am PT.

Substack: https://themomentshow.substack.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsthemomentlive

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@themomentislive

Credits

Host: Rebecca Sananès

Host: Meredith Lynch

Producer: Vienna DeGiacomo

The news keeps rolling and so does The Moment! Comedian Carolina Montisqueieu is taking the NYC comedy scene by storm, but this morning, she is here to break down everything from Bad Bunny to Bill Clinton.

Then Gen-Z icon and Fox News favorite, Hope Walz joins the chat to school our millennial asses on the next generation of the Democratic party and where she stands on matching friendship tattoos, spoiler alert, they are cringe. 

Need the video and our sources? We don't blame you, get them on our FREE Substack.

Should you show your kids online? What rules should you have in place if your child wants to start a YouTube? What have we learned so far about this mostly uncharted world of child influencing? Fan favorite journalist Fortesa Latifi (Rolling Stone, The Cut, etc) is back on the pod to break it all down. We get into the recent doc Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kid Influencing to discuss what can go wrong when kids become influencers and what parents should be aware of.

Pre-Order Fortesa's book here

Follow Fortesa on social 

Join Meredith's Patreon 

Our friends from the Private Equity Stakeholder Project are back to help us unpack what's at stake with the sale of Walgreens to private equity firm Sycamore Partners. Jim Baker, Executive Director of PESP joins us to get into Sycamore's track record and why that brings up concerns for their involvement in Walgreens. We also get into how Trump 2.0 has been responding to private equity and a few wins we have been seeing at the state level. It's an important episode of anyone who has ever needed to go to the pharmacy, so it's an important episode for basically everyone. 

Follow PESP on Instagram here

Subscribe to the Patreon here

First things first, BOSTON we hope you have your tickets to come see us Wednesday, June 25th at Laugh Boston. Tix here!

This week on the pod the King of Kansas City is here to discuss all the wild historical things that happened on the day we recorded this. Brace yourselves because it goes from Anne Frank to OJ Simpson FAST. We discuss some of our earliest attempts at being funny (don't cancel us), cursive writing, and the Christmas where every 14-year-old boy got a Structure sweater and a gold chain. AND I uncover why men become cops! PLUS a lil Taylor Swift. 

Follow Rob! 

Come see us live June 25th at Laugh Boston! Tix Here! 

My cousin in Christ Molly McAleer is in the house to talk about the Revolutionary War, Karen Read, and if anyone is switching cell phone providers in 2025. We get into Turtle Boy, what happened when I discovered the fifth wave of Beatles fans, and I invite Molly to be a city planner. 

Come see us June 25th and June 26th in Boston! Tix here! 

Get this full conversation on Pateron.

See the playground where it all went down. 

Follow Mollz 

Road trips, cannibalism, and coming to terms with the stories we tell—this week on the pod, I welcome journalist and author E.A. Hanks to talk about her memoir The 10, a powerful deep dive into family, loss, and the messy contradictions of America. We covered everything from growing up with famous parents (yes, those Hanks) to the truths she uncovered while driving the full stretch of Interstate 10. E.A. opens up about writing through trauma, confronting history, and what she found at the intersection of identity, immigration, and myth-making. Spoiler: there’s World War I, evangelical poetry, and a gas station tiger. Obviously.

We also talked about the writing process, creative burnout, and how making something real often takes a village. If you’re into memoirs that mix personal storytelling with sharp cultural critique, if you’ve ever lost a parent too young, or if you’ve ever wondered what America looks like when you actually go see it—this one’s for you. The 10 asks big questions about memory, meaning, and what we inherit, and EA was just as thoughtful, funny, and oddly specific as you’d hope.

The 10 by EA Hanks

Follow E.A. Hanks on Instagram: @EAHanks

Learn more about Hardcore History's Blueprint for Armageddon: Dan Carlin's Hardcore History

Book recommendation: This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust (on Civil War and grief)

Book recommendation: Motherless Daughters by Hope Edelman

Podcast: You Must Remember This (for the Manson series mentioned)

Meredith’s Patreon

Tickets for Boston Live Shows: Laugh Boston June 25 | City Winery June 26

Listen to past Oddly Specific episodes: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Unions are on the line with the Trump Administration and we need to chat. This week on the pod I welcome Teacher Pay with K, a high school math teacher and president of her local union to discuss all the ways in which these structures support teachers, students, and well everyone. Digressions include my storied high school math career, phones in school, and Pete Davidson, union kid at heart? 

Come to my live shows!!! May 8th in LA and June 25th in Boston, tix here. 

Follow Teacher Pay with K on IG and TikTok 

Subscribe to my Patreon

Once upon a time you would toggle between MTV and VH1 they way we toggle between TikTok and Instagram. While much is said about the impact of MTV there is considerably less about her cool, older cousin VH1. This week on Oddly Specific my friends Emilie Begin and Margaux Poupard from the Old Millennials podcast stop by to talk about their new series that covers everything from Behind the Music to Best Week Ever. Digressions include, AOL, the Century City Mall, and where the hell are kids suppose to hang out?? 

Follow their podcast

Follow Old Millennials on Instagram

Follow Emilie and Margaux

ALSO come to my live shows all tix are here

For more fun, join my Patreon!

With tariffs on the rise and the stock market plummeting it's a precarious time for wallets. Most Americans are looking for deal but are dollar stores the solution or do they cause more pain then they are worth? This week on Oddly Specific Meredith welcomes Kennedy Smith, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance whose work on the impact of dollar stores on communities will blow your mind. We also look at some ways cities like Tulsa are curbing the practices of these stores along with what happens when we keep business within our cities and towns. 

Learn more about Kennedy and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance here!

Subscribe to the Patreon 

Come see us live in LA or Boston