Where It All Starts

We’ve all seen how Customs and Border Protection has run roughshod over the civil rights of immigrants both legal and undocumented alike across the country. But if you’re an American citizen, you might not think that these abuses could ever happen to you. In fact, maybe the only time you’ve ever even seen Border Protection agents has been at the airport. And yet, that’s where journalist Matthew Petti got detained for hours by Border agents. Now he’s trying to figure out what happened and how to make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else. We spoke with Matthew about his experience with CBP and your rights as an American at the airport.And in headlines, Canada announced retaliatory tariffs on about $20 billion worth of American goods, two people in Pennsylvania have died from measles, and a federal judge rejected Ghislaine Maxwell’s bid for prison release.Show Notes:

• Check out Matthew's story – tinyurl.com/bdz6cj4d
• Call Congress – 202-224-3121
• Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy
• What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast
• Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/
• For a transcript of this episode, please email [email protected]

President Donald Trump is back at it with his nonsensical trade wars, and this time he’s targeting one of our closest allies: Canada. After trade negotiations crumbled at the eleventh hour, Trump’s 50% tariffs on scores of Canadian imports kicked in over the weekend. Meanwhile, Trump is also threatening to make moves that could lead to the U.S. being involved in a trade war with China. Here to break down what, if any, political strategy is in play for the White House is MS NOW’s Eugene Daniels.And in headlines, a new poll has found that more Americans are smoking marijuana than ever before, a sailor aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln says his father has been taken into ICE custody, and the Defense Department said U.S. forces have attacked another vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing two people accused of trafficking drugs.Show Notes:

• Check out Eugene's podcast – tinyurl.com/u6k8bs63
• Call Congress – 202-224-3121
• Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy
• What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast
• Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/
• For a transcript of this episode, please email [email protected]

The United States national debt reached a record-breaking $40 trillion dollars this week. If you spread out that debt to every resident of the U.S., we would each owe more than $115,000 dollars. So how did we get here? To find out more about what our big bad debt means for you, we spoke with Scott Lincicome. He’s the vice president of general economics at the Cato Institute.And in headlines, Trump-fixer-turned-frenemy Michael Cohen hosted the president on his radio show, the USS George Washington aircraft carrier is relieving the long-deployed USS Abraham Lincoln, and a Texas court slashes a $50 million judgment against Infowars founder Alex Jones to about $6 million.Show Notes:

• Call Congress – 202-224-3121
• Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy
• What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast
• For a transcript of this episode, please email [email protected]
• Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/

Americans spend nearly $30 billion a year on plastic surgery procedures, including fillers and Botox. And there's probably no better example than the White House, where the "Mar-A-Lago face" – a very specific, very smooth, very… augmented appearance – runs rampant. But maybe that's starting to change. Faced with actors, actresses, influencers, and AI, some people are starting to forgo their pursuit of aesthetic perfection in favor of something a little more natural. But does that mean more people are going to go without Botox – or will more people want procedures that don't make them look like they had Botox? To find out, we spoke with Amanda Mull, senior reporter at Bloomberg Businessweek.And in headlines, the national debt surpasses a record $40 trillion, North Korea launches multiple short-range ballistic missiles, and the U.S. has sent 20 deportees to Liberia as part of a new deal.Show Notes:

• Check out Amanda's piece – tinyurl.com/33w2rm56
• Call Congress – 202-224-3121
• Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy
• What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast
• Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/
• For a transcript of this episode, please email [email protected]

You may have heard about the conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln — the carrier where sailors have been facing food shortages and broken toilets. They’ve gone without a traditional port call for eight and a half months, and counting. But they’re not the only vessel facing long deployments and concerning conditions. In May, the USS Gerald Ford finally returned to port in the U.S. after 11 months at sea – the longest deployment since the end of the Vietnam War. Those months away from home featured a massive fire that raged for hours onboard, and – you guessed it – plumbing problems. So to talk more about what our men and women in uniform are facing because President Donald Trump started a war of choice, we spoke with Colorado Democratic Representative Jason Crow.And in headlines, Trump delays 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian imports, the Ebola outbreak in Congo reaches 5,000 cases, and college students at some universities can now pay their tuition using PayPal or Venmo.Show Notes:

• Call Congress – 202-224-3121
• Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy
• What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast
• Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/
• For a transcript of this episode, please email [email protected]

You’ve probably heard a lot about the Democratic Socialists of America this year. Political figures who are either members of the organization or associated with its beliefs are running in primaries across the country, sometimes even winning against their more moderate opponents. But what does D.S.A. want? Does the organization want to elect more left-leaning Democrats – or replace them? Is this a left-wing Tea Party movement? Or something else entirely? To find out, we spoke to Charles Homans. He’s a reporter for The New York Times and The New York Times Magazine who just did a deep dive into D.S.A.And in headlines, President Trump and his son-in-law disagree over whether the U.S. is negotiating with Iran, Meta is on trial in California for its platforms’ harms to children, and OpenAI launches ChatGPT for Teens.Show Notes:

• Check out Charles' piece – tinyurl.com/ha2chs3h
• Call Congress – 202-224-3121
• Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy
• What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast
• Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/
• For a transcript of this episode, please email [email protected]

The fact that the US Congress is absolutely rotten with creeps is one of the worst-kept secrets in Washington. From former Representatives like California Democrat Eric Swalwell and Texas Republican Tony Gonzales, to sitting lawmakers like North Carolina Republican Representative Chuck Edwards – it turns out sexual misconduct is bipartisan, and so is the pushback. A bipartisan effort fronted by Florida Republican Kat Cammack and New Mexico Democrat Teresa Leger Fernandez aims to rein in the frathouse behavior of their colleagues. To discuss what’s on the table, we called up Grace Panetta, political reporter with The 19th.And in headlines, Trump blames vandals for ruining a patch of grass on the National Mall, Attorney General Todd Blanche refused to pledge that he’ll operate independently from the White House, and the Supreme Court rejected another request to throw out a jury’s 2023 finding that Trump sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll and later defamed her.Show Notes:

• Check out Grace's work – 19thnews.org/author/grace-panetta
• Call Congress – 202-224-3121
• Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy
• What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast
• Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/
• For a transcript of this episode, please email [email protected]

The Women’s National Basketball Association has been making the headlines lately. In fact, according to a Media Matters report, since the end of June, Fox News has devoted at least 206 segments to the WNBA. But why are the likes of Sean Hannity and Bret Baier suddenly paying such close attention to women’s basketball? To get to the bottom of how the most LGBTQ-friendly sports league became a favorite subject of the right-wing media, we spoke with Leah Asmelash, a culture writer for CNN.And in headlines, the USS George Washington aircraft carrier is headed to the Middle East to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln, Luigi Mangione pleads guilty, and Cards Against Humanity wants you to join its “Official Elon Musk is a Sad Little Bitch with No Friends Monument Design Committee.”Show Notes:

• Check out Leah's piece – tinyurl.com/3m6v5sxksophie-cunningham-caitlin-clark-trans-bans-cec
• Call Congress – 202-224-3121
• Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy
• What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast
• Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/
• For a transcript of this episode, please email [email protected]

Donald Trump’s poll numbers are trash — and numbers for right-wing influencers on YouTube, Twitter and elsewhere are going down the tubes, too. As the New York Times reported at the end of last month, some of the biggest names in right-wing media are experiencing massive declines in clicks and views to their content. David Pakman is the host of the David Pakman Show on YouTube – and he’s been thinking a lot about the algorithms that control what we watch, read, listen to and think about. He stopped by to talk about how right-wing media has become a victim of its own success.And in headlines, Karoline Leavitt is leaving the White House at the end of the month to spend more time with her family, U.S. inflation declined slightly last month and what’s behind Zohran Mamdani’s approval rating after eight months in office.Show Notes:

• Check out David's show – https://tinyurl.com/3eh3tczj
• Call Congress – 202-224-3121
• Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy
• What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast
• Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/
• For a transcript of this episode, please email [email protected]

On Tuesday, Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong narrowly lost to Milwaukee’s county executive, David Crowley, in the Wisconsin gubernatorial primary. Now, the somewhat unknown is facing Republican Representative Tom Tiffany in November — but Crowley he may not have an easy time winning over the Democrats who voted for Hong. For more on what Democrats can learn from the race, we spoke with Holly Otterbein, senior politics reporter at Axios.And in headlines, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has convened a special grand jury in Washington, D.C., Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers may soon be outfitted with gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks to individuals, and the Trump administration plans to spend at least $900 million on White House construction.Show Notes:

• Call Congress – 202-224-3121
• Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy
• What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast
• Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/
• For a transcript of this episode, please email [email protected]