AFP Podcasts

The CDC tells us that one in four girls and one in 13 boys are, right know, as you read this, victims of sexual abuse – basically, let’s just call it what it is, child rape. Do the math, and it’s not good – we’re talking about 14 million girls, 3 million boys. Let that sink in: 17 million kids, in this country, our kids, raped. We only know about a fraction of these cases, because 90 percent of child-rape cases involve a perpetrator who is known to the victim – a parent, close family member, family friend – who either manipulates the victim into silence, or worse, threatens or uses violence to keep the secret. I can sense that you’re uncomfortable. Nobody likes talking about child rape, which is a big reason why we have the problem we have.

It’s looking more and more like NASCAR is going to have to settle the suit challenging its charter system, not so much to save face, but to at least have a hand in setting the future direction of its business model. Rod Mullins joins me to discuss the latest in the charter suit, which is playing out against a backdrop of the final race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, the Championship 4 finale in Phoenix. We break down how the final two drivers earned their way into the C4, and break down the chances of the Final Four – Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, William Byron and Kyle Larson.

A settlement conference in the NASCAR antitrust suit will head into a second day, after lawyers for the privately owned racing circuit and two of the sport’s top teams met in court on Tuesday to see if they could resolve their many disputes. Rod Mullins joins the podcast to report on the latest. We also spend some time on news from the track, with the 2025 NASCAR Playoffs down to the final two races – this weekend in our neck of the woods, down in Martinsville.

Healthcare isn’t a red or blue issue, says Pete Barlow, an Augusta County Democrat running for Congress in the 2026 midterms cycle. Farmers having markets closed to them because of the Trump tariffs – not a red or blue issue. FEMA not being there to respond to natural disasters – not red or blue. But for Democrats in Western Virginia to be able to be a part of the solutions, we need to open up the tent. “We always talk about being a big tent party. Well, let’s really be a big tent party and talk to people who we disagree with,” said Barlow, who stepped down from his job as a manager with FEMA earlier this year to throw himself full-time into his run for the Democratic Party nomination for the Sixth District seat in Congress.   Link: https://augustafreepress.com/news/pete-barlow-to-virginia-democrats-lets-be-the-big-tent-party/ 

When Lisa Vedernikova Khanna called her Russian immigrant mother a few months ago to tell her that she was running for Congress, mom was, let’s just say, a tad bit disappointed. “She was hoping that I was pregnant,” said Khanna, who went public last week with that news – that she is expecting, and due in February, meaning, she’s now running for Congress and about to become a first-time mother.

Denny Hamlin, who won Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series playoff race in Las Vegas, was described by our Rod Mullins as downright “humble” post-race, which leads to the question: did somebody do something to our Denny Hamlin? Rod joins the show to discuss. We also go in depth on the latest development in the NASCAR charter lawsuit, which appears to be headed to trial in December – though I wonder if NASCAR might be better advised to settle ahead of time, instead of allowing a judge to decide how the series does its business going forward. That, and we preview Talladega, coming up this weekend.

It’s the anniversary edition of the #TeamAFP podcast. My co-host and breaking news editor, Crystal Graham, said I do 25 years ago today, on Oct. 7, 2000. To mark 25 years of her having to put up with my nonsense, I made her acknowledge that she married me, which is no small admission. Then we get to business: talking through the recent spate of homes collapsing in OBX and the Trump administration’s effort to get UVA to bend the knee on ideology for a few extra bucks. Also: the very important story involving UVA Football being 5-1 and ranked 19th in the AP Top 25. That, and we have to get packing for our anniversary week trip to NYC.

Shane van Gisbergen, shocker, took the win at the Charlotte Roval, notching his fifth road-race win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season. Rod Mullins was down in Charlotte for us this past weekend, and reports back on van Gisbergen’s road-course dominance, and the scramble among the 12 drivers still in the playoff hunt to get to the cutline for the Round of 8. Also on this week’s show: we go into detail on the latest in the antitrust case in which two teams are challenging the NASCAR charter system.

Augusta Free Press reporter Crystal Graham breaks down two sides to an issue involving homeless people at a Waynesboro church.   While a couple who lives next door has raised concerns about safety and property values, residents nearby overwhelmingly have spoken out in support of the church's plans to become a re-education center for the unhoused population.   An upcoming meeting Tuesday night will bring both sides to the table.

Denny Hamlin drives for Joe Gibbs Racing. He’s also the co-owner of 23XI Racing, which has Bubba Wallace efforting to stay alive in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. So, when Hamlin bumped Wallace into the wall toward the end of Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400, that was going to get folks’ attention, including Wallace’s. The word “dumbass” may have entered the chat, for instance. Wallace is, right now, on the outside looking in, with one race left in the Round of 12, which becomes the Round of 8 after this weekend’s Charlotte ROVAL. Rod Mullins will be down in Charlotte covering the race for AFP. I chatted with Rod on today’s podcast to get into this Denny Hamlin-Bubba Wallace story, among other things, including the rumors that NASCAR is going to shutter its current playoff format to go back to the way things were down pre-2004. Matt Kenseth comes up as we talk through that one. Also, discussion of declining NASCAR ratings, and how politics is playing a role in that.

Erik Simonsen isn’t one to let obstacles get in his way, so when, toward the end of a recent 31-mile hike through the Vermont wilderness, for something called the Killington Spartan Ultra 50K, it was just a 60-pound sandbag between him and the finish line, OK, that one almost got him. “Just cruel, yeah, I think that they put it at the end was the cruel part. You know, in the middle, I could have done it fine and gotten through it. But the very last thing is just this huge sandbag carry, and it’s, oh, why is it here?” said Simonsen, a 33-year-old Waynesboro High School alum, who got past the sandbag carry to finish the Sept. 13 Killington Ultra in 12:26:12.

Jimmy Kimmel has doubts about the official story from the MAGA prosecutor handling the Charlie Kirk murder. So does Steve Bannon, among many others, but Bannon is also a MAGA, and a bit of a crank, so he’s safe. The Trump administration used a leverage point over a company seeking FCC approval for a $6.2 billion merger to force Kimmel off the air “indefinitely” – not so much about what Kimmel said about the Kirk murder investigation in the opening monologue of his late-night ABC talk show on Monday, but rather, that Kimmel is a frequent and high-profile critic of Donald Trump.

If the 2025 UVA Football season was one long game, we’re in the break between the first and second quarters. What we’ve seen so far: ‘Hoos 55, W&M 16 | UVA Football takes care of business in Cupcake Bowl UVA Football | Red zone issues, what else is new, doom ‘Hoos in 35-31 loss at NC State UVA 48, Coastal 7 | What do we know about this UVA Football team? Not a lot, not yet Good a time as any to ask: what do we know about this team, three games in?

Whit Babcock isn’t pleading poverty because he thinks he can get Virginia Tech donors to open up their checkbooks. He knows that Tech Athletics has pretty much tapped out what it can get from its money people. There isn’t another $50 million or $60 million a year just sitting out there waiting to be tapped. What Babcock is doing is, he’s daring the Virginia Tech administration to fire him. Be careful what you wish for there.

Christopher Bell took the checkered flag in Bristol Saturday night, giving Joe Gibbs Racing its third win in three starts in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. The win puts Bell in the 12-team second round, which begins on Sunday in New Hampshire at the USA Today 301. Rod Mullins was at Bristol Motor Speedway for Saturday’s night race, and breaks down the win for Bell, the issues with the tires that caused “uncontrolled chaos” at the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile.”

Donald Trump, on Thursday, speaking about the murder of MAGA provocateur Charlie Kirk, blamed the shooting on “radical-left lunatics,” and added, ominously, “we have to beat the hell out of them.” Not surprisingly, on Friday, we’re learning that the suspect in custody in connection with the shooting is a 22-year-old MAGA. Nothing from Trump, to this point, retracting the call to his supporters to “beat the hell” out of innocent people on the left, who had nothing to do with the murder of Charlie Kirk, which was an inside job. You’re not surprised to learn any of this, no doubt.

People who read AFP for our sports coverage know that I got the label “fringe media” from a mainstream sportswriter last year, and decided to adopt what was meant as an insult as a badge of honor, because that’s how you disarm people who want to diminish you – by making their attempts at insults into a big joke, to point out the absurdity. What I’m going to do here today is tell you, it’s not just the dwindling numbers in what is left of the sports media profession who treat us as fringy outsiders.

UVA Football faces William & Mary, an FCS school, in Week 3, so, not as much need to get folks ready. This allows us to take the mid-week to review the disappointing 35-31 loss at NC State in Week 2. It was disappointing because, in a lot of ways, the ‘Hoos did everything but win that game. Today’s postmortem grades the offense, defense and special teams.

NASCAR Podcast | Preview of the Bristol night race, playoff eliminator Denny Hamlin punched the second ticket to the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 12 with his win in Illinois. Who will join Hamlin and Chase Briscoe in the Round of 12? Rod Mullins will be representing AFP at Bristol Motor Speedway for Saturday’s night race, the eliminator for the Round of 12. On the podcast, we go through the drivers on both sides of the cutoff who have work to do to get to the next round.

I don’t live in the 35th House District anymore, but the wide-expanse district – which stretches from Bath County, into Highland County, through the western half of Augusta County, to the northeast into a corner of Rockingham County – is still where I spent the bulk of my life. The district covers 1,963.7 square miles – an area bigger than the state of Rhode Island (1,545 square miles), and not far behind Delaware (2,489 square miles). There are no cities in the 35th; there are a lot of wide-open spaces and beautiful vistas. And a lot of good, hard-working folks who have been abandoned by both political parties. The 35th voted 70.5 percent for Donald Trump and 73.0 percent for Ben Cline in the 2024 cycle, only to see the MAGAs approve what they called a Big, Beautiful Bill that cut healthcare to the point that one of our two regional hospitals, Augusta Health, has had to close down two primary-care centers serving the outer reaches in the 35th. Hospitals cutting services are just one impact of the trillions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid and Medicare that are on the horizon. “Please understand that Medicaid funds the Affordable Care Act subsidies that many of our neighbors rely on for health coverage. That includes cancer screenings, mental health services, addiction treatment, and doctor visits for chronic illnesses like diabetes and heart disease,” said Jena Crisler, a medical doctor who lives in Port Republic, in the southeast corner of Rockingham County, and is the Democratic Party nominee in the 35th.