The Nicole Sandler Show

Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net joins me every Friday to recap the momentous or newsworthy events of the week that you might not have heard enough about. Obviously this was a heavy-duty week. Unfortunately, I've been out of commission and certainly didn't pay as much attention as I usually do this week as I've been dealing with the death of my dog Jaxson, who was a member of my family. My baby boy. But Marcy brings us up to date not only on the Epstein emails that dropped on us like a bomb, but the keystone prosecutors of this administrators and, as you'd expect, much more. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

I was out earlier this week because my dog Jaxson, my fur baby, got very sick Monday and we lost him. I could probably use a few more days off, but Jason Leopold was scheduled to join me, and he's a dear old friend, so I thought I could make it through... For the most part, I did. Jason is the government-anointed "FOIA Terrorist," and with all the news and Epstein emails that dropped yesterday, the timing to have Jason on couldn't be better. He's been writing an ongoing series about the pedophile and Trump BFF and the 18,000 emails they uncovered at Bloomberg News where he's a Senior Investigative Reporter. Their latest on Epstein focused on the money laundering scheme he had going alongside the federal sex crimes that have been virtually shrouded for decades. Jason also recently started his new podcast, Disclosure and, of course, has his weekly newsletter, the FOIA Files, so you can keep up with his work when he's not here on my show. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Every Friday, we wrap up the week's news with Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net. And this was certainly a momentous week! Just this morning, Marcy posted a blueprint for much of today's discussion in a post titled "May This Week Be a Pivot". I second that emotion! Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

I was dreading yesterday's Supreme Extreme Court hearing regarding the felon's illegal and unconstitutional tariffs because of how the court has demeaned itself by bending over backwards to appease the dick-tator over the past year. But to my layperson's ears, it sounded like they - or at least enough of them - have finally reached their limit. And it wasn't only me. The actual legal experts who I read seem to have heard what I did yesterday. But, of course, when the Extreme Supremes are in the picture, I like to turn to my favorite legal expert, Lisa Graves. Though she's currently on a book tour in support of the excellent WITHOUT PRECEDENT, Lisa will take an hour off today to spend with us, explaining what happened yesterday and what the ramifications might be. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Yesterday was Election Day. It was about as close to a clean sweep as possible, with the people rebuking D'ump and taking back control. And hopefully, showing what's still to come.... That's not all we're talking about today. This morning, The Supreme Extreme Court heard arguments about the felon's illegal and unconstitutional tariff debacle that has cause prices we pay for just about everything to skyrocket. Joining me on today's show to discuss what it all means - as only he can - Driftglass! One of the OG progressive bloggers of the blogosphere (at driftglass.blogspot.com), Driftglass also co-host the Professional Left Podcast with his with, BlueGal Fran... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This year, my birthday falls on election day, something that wouldn't necessarily warrant a day off. But when my daughter tells me she's coming to town to spend my birthday with me, that's another story. So I figured we'd go back in time to Nov 4, 2016. That year, election day fell on Nov 9, so this was just a few days out. I was truly mortified at the idea that Donald Trump could actually become president. But we still had a few days left of relative sanity. Those days I did a daily news segment with the Talk Media News Service. On that particular day, the correspondent was Bob Ney, former Congressman from Ohio who got caught up in the Jack Abramoff scandal and did time in jail. (Google them if you're not familiar with the sordid story!) Then Brad Friedman of the BradBlog and BradCast joined in and so did actress and activist Mimi Kennedy. A slice of life before the world went completely mad... I'll be back tomorrow with OG blogger Driftglass. We'll have to ease back in to the real world slowly and with lots of humor... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's the Nicole Sandler Show for Monday, Nov. 3. Election Day is tomorrow. Unfortunately it's an off-off year so we don't get to dump the garbage, yet. But some of us will be able to get rid of some annoying trash, so there's that. Please vote! As he does on Mondays, Jonathan Larsen brings his latest scoops from thefuckingnews.substack.com and jonathanlarsen.substack.com. And we'll do our best to make light of the really dark and evil plans being cooked up in what's left of the White House. Are we having fun yet? Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

I'm finally here in my newly rebuilt studio in our new home. Hopefully we'll stay at this one for a while! Today is Halloween, but every day is frightening in this D'umpster fire of a nation these days... Thankfully, Marcy Wheeler is here to help us muddle through much of what transpired this week. I'm not much help today because I've been in moving hell. The good part of it was that I opted for more music, less of the old, addled, orange incapacitate squatter in the oval office.... But here we go.... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Today is the final day of my move, so we're up and running for good from the new home studio after today's special pre-Halloween episode, and this one is scary as Trump. David Daley literally wrote the book about gerrymandering. Now make that books, as he's written two more sequels since the original, Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn't Count, was released in 2017. Now that Trumpkin has enlisted his army of dirty tricksters to figure out how to use the gerrymander to guarantee a few more congressional seats from Texas are held by Republicans, he's coercing other Republican governors to do it in their states too. When the Texas story began heating up, I invited David Daley back on the show to explain just wtf is going on. This episode originally aired August 12, 2025. Yes, this episode is frightening. I hope it scares the bejesus out of everyone how hears it because we are the ones who'll save us... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's the day before Halloween. Since today's the day we have to be out of the old house and do a walk-through with the slumlord so we can get our security deposit back, I have to run another 'Best of' show. So I figured I'd pull out a truly frightening episode to run today. This episode originally aired on August 12 of this year. Here's what I wrote about this episode on that day: Just a couple of hours before I hit the air today at 3ET, the Washington Post sent a breaking news alert with the headline, “Texas Republicans dare Democrats to stay out of state another month.” (gift link) They further explain, “The lawmakers put new pressure on absent Democrats to return to the state, testing whether they’ll stay away another month to try to kill a plan to redraw congressional districts in favor of the GOP.” In other words, the Republicans who rule the Texas state legislature, following the Oval Office felon’s directives, are stretching the norms of the gerrymander to do away with any districts that might vote for the Democratic candidates in the 2026 midterms. Redistricting in the middle of the decade? Not a regular occurrence. Is it illegal? That’s one of the questions I have for David Daley, author of three books on the subject. The one that started it all was Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn’t Count. He followed that with Unrigged: How Americans are Battling Back to Save Democracy in 2021. Unfortunately, the landscape has since changed. Dave’s newest book, released in 2024, is Antidemocratic: Inside the Far Right’s 50-Year Plot to Control American Elections. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's Wednesday, October 29, 2025. I've been in and out over the last few weeks because we moved, again. I'm exhausted and every inch of my body hurts. But I somehow managed to rebuild my studio in the new digs. Today, we take it out for a spin. Today I'm thrilled to welcome Jim Earl to the show for the very first time. You know I like to deliver the news with some snark and attitude, especially when the news is as fucked-up and evil as it's been for much too long. Jim's the perfect guest to help me do that. You know Jim Earl even if you think you don't know him, but you know him! First of all, he's a former writer/performer for The Daily Show (even has an Emmy to show for it). He's a veteran of Air America Radio where he wrote and performed on the best morning show I never worked on, "Morning Sedition" as well as WTF with Marc Maron (RIP- the show, not the man) and National Lampoon's Final Edition. He thankfully quit the Jimmy Dore Show in disgust. He even wrote for the first incarnation (2016) of The Fucking News, which we dip into with Jonathan Larsen on Mondays... With all of those defunct jobs, it's no wonder that Jim Earl is obsessed with death. OK, I don't know that that's the case, but one of his Substacks-and his book-- are called "Mourning Remembrance: A Collection of Mocking Obituaries". Again, Halloween week.... He also writes "Jim Earl's Substack of Bile" where he says he likes to "spew ill-informed nonsense about current events, stupid and horrific". Perfect for dealing with the dumpster fire in DC... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

March 6, 2020 was a Friday. As I wrote in the description back then of that day's show, "We made it to the end of a horrible week that included a brutal Super Tuesday, the end of a number of campaigns, a stock market crash and the global explosion of the coronavirus. We have two great guests today: Jason Leopold of BuzzFeed News whose lawsuit might bring us the unredacted Mueller Report (read about it here), and OG blogger Heather “Digby” Parton (find her blog here, and at Salon here) to help me muddle through this crazy week that was! Of course now, five years later, Jason Leopold shares his FOIA Files from his current work home at Bloomberg News, and Digby's still plugging away at the same places linked above. And we're still screwed... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Nicole is almost done moving, so will be back here full-time with all-new live shows. In the meantime, we're listening back to some past episodes that are still relevant today. In August, she read an article by Professor of Sociology Dr. Art Jipson about a frightening religious sect that's been working its way into all branches of our American life. Actually, seven. And instead of branches, they refer to them as Mountains. Government is just one of the seven. This White "Christian" Nationalist movement is also known as the New Apostolic Reformation or NAR. Who better to teach us what we need to know than a professor, Art Jipson. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

I've been in and out as I've been moving, but I don't miss an Emptywheel Friday show unless it's completely unavoidable! After today's show, I'll break down my studio and move it to the new house where it'll take a few days to rebuild it. So I'll have a couple of Best of shows to start next week, and then I'll be back from the new digs. Although it feels less certain we'll actually reach the end of the week intact these days, we have. Sadly, the East Wing of the White House has not. That's where Marcy Wheeler and I began today's weekly wrap up of what transpired during the week. As usual, we covered a lot of ground today, starting with the White House grounds that will soon have D'ump's Epstein Ballroom with his new luxury bunker built beneath it. We spoke a lot about the many forms of corruption D'ump and his so-called administration have and are engaged in, including his ongoing quest to bilk the American public out of our hard-earn dollars. In this case, $230 million of them because we dared to investigate, charge, try (and find him guilty) his crimes. Well, some of them, anyway. Sadly, we never even got to the most serious ones... We talked about the "purported interim US Attorney" Lindsey Halligan and her idiotic stalking of Lawfare's Anna Bower via Signal chat, and then proactively attempting to say the 33-hour long text conversation was "off-the-record." NY Attorney General Letitia James was arraigned this morning. She, of course, pleaded Not Guillty. Trump freaked over a TV as run by the Ontario, Canada government, so had a social media tantrum and cut off all trade negotiations with our neighbor to the north. And a reminder that his illegal tariffs go before the Supreme Extreme Court in two weeks! We discussed the wannabe dictator's latest pardons for play and extrajudicial murders of people who happened to be in boats off the Caribbean... Yes, it was a busy episode. Strap in! For more news, come on over to nicolesandler.com/10-24-25 or subscribe to nicolesandler.substack.com. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

While Nicole is out moving, she's running some newsworthy shows from the past and throwing in a couple to take our mind off of the crap coming from Washington DC. Today we’ll take a break from the depressing, stress-filled world of news and politics to talk about the best job ever. Today’s guest is Paul Rappaport who spent his career at Columbia Records promoting rock records to radio and wrote a wonderful book recounting those glory days, GLIDERS OVER HOLLYWOOD: AIRSHIPS, AIRPLAY AND THE ART OF ROCK PROMOTION. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy