The Politics Lab

This week, Bill and Phil sort through the results of the 2025 midterms and discuss whether they tell us anything useful about American democracy, consider the legacy of Dick Cheney, and play another round of “What’s More Stupid?”.

This week, Bill and Phil ponder the metaphor of Trump tearing down part of the White House, return to the question propaganda and fascist politics in America, and then close with a new game we’re calling, “You’ve Got Hate Mail.”

This week, Bill and Phil share and reflect on their interview with Political Scientist and Author of How Democracies Die, Steven Levitsky. 

This week, Bill and Phil reflect on the deployment of the National Guard to blue cities across the country and then explore the difference between war and crime as it relates to Trump’s campaign against Venezuela.

This week, Bill and Phil look at the indictment of James Comey, Trump‘s speech to gathered military leaders, and the government shut down, and breakdown the ways that each represents the erosion of democratic norms.

This week, Bill and Phil discuss the growing embrace of Christian nationalism in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s death and then introduce a new game we’re calling, The Elephant in the Newsroom. 

This week, Bill and Phil talk through the aftermath and implications of the murder of Charlie Kirk.  

This week, Bill and Phil explore the growing divide between the federal district courts, which have been ruling against Trump, and the Supreme Court, which has largely ruled in Trump‘s favor. Then we introduce a new game that we’re calling “What’s More Authoritarian?”

On this week’s episode, Bill and Phil discuss whether this was the week that the American democracy drifted over the line into authoritarianism.

This week, Bill and Phil reflect on Trump’s high-stakes diplomatic meetings with Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky, and European leaders, and then ponder the effectiveness of Gavin Newsom‘s new social media strategy of trolling Donald Trump by imitating Donald Trump.