Could the Silicon Valley Bank collapse have been avoided? On this week’s podcast, we chat about how SVB’s risky investments lead to its eventual failure. We are joined by Sheila Bair, former chair of the FDIC, and Mark Cuban, entrepreneurial multihyphenate, to discuss where the regulation was for these banks, why we don’t bail out citizens like we do businesses, and what’s next for banks with similar investment strategies to SVB. Season 2 is now streaming on Apple TV+. CREDITS
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Bloody hell! Jon is in London to talk about populism. Turns out it’s not unique to America! Jon is joined by Ian Hislop, editor of the satirical current affairs publication Private Eye Magazine, to discuss the reign of Rupert Murdoch, the economic consequences of a government run by lunatics, and the explicitly corrupt yet unbeatable right-wing propaganda machine.  Season 2 is now streaming on Apple TV+.  CREDITS Hosted by: Jon Stewart  Featuring, in order of appearance: Ian...

Exciting news: We’ve got new TV episodes starting March 3! To celebrate, Jon is joined this week by executive producer and showrunner Brinda Adhikari, senior research producer Susan Helvenston, and staff writer Kasaun Wilson to discuss the stories we’ve been following and the anxiety they’ve given us. Plus, they chat about the news that the COVID-19 virus may actually have leaked from a lab in China, whether we’re on the brink of World War III, and other fun, breezy topics.  New episodes...

It’s our first-ever live call-in event! We’re joined by friends of the show Dave Lauer, CEO of Urvin Finance and creator of We The Investors, and David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect, to talk about the SEC’s newest rule proposals, PFOF, and the crypto collapse. Plus, we field listener calls and questions about the media, the Fox News lawsuit, and more—including a little love advice. Season 2 is now streaming on Apple TV+. CREDITS
Hosted by: Jon...

Thanks to the Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News filing, we now know what we’ve always believed is true: Fox News will do or say anything to retain their power, even if it means lying—over and over and over again—to their viewers. The question is: Will they finally be held accountable this time? We’re joined by RonNell Andersen Jones, professor of law at the University of Utah, for a lively discussion about defamation law (really!) and the possibility that Fox News might actually have to...

A freight train derailed in Ohio and released a mushroom cloud of toxic chemicals—so why has the media buried this story? This week, we’re breaking down the shocking but predictable conditions that led to this accident, how rail companies have chosen profits over safety, and what regulatory changes should be made to avoid a mess like this again. Our guests are Julia Rock, reporter at The Lever; Matt Weaver, Ohio legislative director for BMWED-IBT and member of the Railroad Workers United ISC;...

When a Chinese spy balloon was spotted above the U.S. last week, Americans reacted the only way they know how—by shooting it out of the sky with a missile. But why do we keep insisting that China is our sworn enemy? We’re talking with Jessica Chen Weiss, the Michael J. Zak Professor for China and Asia-Pacific Studies at Cornell and Senior Fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis, and John Glaser, adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute and host of Cato’s Power...

The media may have moved on from its wall-to-wall coverage of the killing of Tyre Nichols, but the nation is still hurting. This week, we’re discussing how incorrectly diagnosing the problem of police brutality has led to a system that hurts everyone. We’re joined by Heather McGhee, author and chair of the racial justice organization Color of Change, and Phillip Atiba Goff, Ph.D. Chair and Carl I. Hovland Professor of African American Studies and Professor of Psychology at Yale University....

The media is chasing the classified documents fiasco like it’s spy vs. spy, Trump vs. Biden. But on this week’s episode, we’re breaking down the absurdity of a national security system that makes it so darn easy to hoard classified documents. We’re joined by Matthew Connelly, professor of history at Columbia and author of The Declassification Engine: What History Reveals About America’s Top Secrets. He gives us the inside scoop on how unwieldy our system for keeping state secrets has become,...

Brazil’s insurrection is just the latest in a series of attacks on democracy around the world. So we’re talking to Anne Applebaum, a staff writer at The Atlantic and author of the book Twilight of Democracy, about why autocracy is making a comeback and how to stop it. We dive into democracy’s roots as an unstable form of government, the role of global elites on both sides, and why fascism is really just a money-laundering scheme. Plus, writers Henrik Blix and Maria Randazzo weigh in on George...

It’s 2023 and we’re coming in hot with a conversation about COVID vaccines! We’re joined by Dr. Gregory A. Poland (director of Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group), Dr. Saad Omer (director of the Yale Institute for Global Health), and Zeynep Tufekci (professor at Columbia University), who bring something that’s often lacking from these conversations: nuance. We talk through why many non-crazy people are hesitant to get vaccinated, how our public health institutions have failed to communicate...

The year is almost over and we’re going out with a bang! Entrepreneur Mark Cuban is here. Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa is here. Whip-smart journalist Julia Ioffe is here. Come on, you can’t beat that lineup. Join us as we break down some of 2022’s biggest moments: Elon’s Twitter tumult, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the coming AI apocalypse, and, of course, the collapse of crypto and Sam Bankman-Fried. Come for the copious amount of Yiddish, stay for a look back at the year that was,...

This week we’re joined by Miguel Cardona, the U.S. Secretary of Education. We cover why schools aren’t evolving fast enough to keep up with current challenges, how the shifting roles of schools and teachers are leaving many educators without the resources they need, and remaking the system so that it’s more about students and less about test scores and resume-building. Plus, staff writer Kasaun Wilson reveals that he lost a bet when Jon actually showed up at our holiday party, and Deniz Çam...

“Whatever fun name you wanna put on it, it’s the same damn thing we’ve seen over and over again.” David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect, joins us to discuss the spectacular rise and fall of crypto exchange FTX and its disgraced leader, Sam Bankman-Fried. We dive into the ways its collapse mirrors the worst failures of more mainstream markets, how SBF was able to use effective altruism as cover for garden-variety political influence, and why it’s a mess that the House...

Jon turned 60 this week, which had him asking: “Can I live longer?” So we’re talking with Celine Halioua, the founder and CEO of Loyal, a biotech start-up with a mission to extend a dog’s lifespan. She believes that if they’re successful, it could work on humans too. Jon and Celine talk about Silicon Valley culture and ask the big tech question: Just because we can do something, should we? Plus, writers Kasaun Wilson and Alexa Loftus discuss the latest Twitter happenings, and Jon gives them a...

You know it’s a must-listen episode when we’ve got not one, but TWO former U.S. secretaries of state as our guests. Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice are here for a fascinating discussion about American power, whether spreading democracy has actually made us safer, and how our role on the world stage should look going forward. Plus, they plan a little train trip together. The first half of Season 2 is streaming now on Apple TV+. Credits: Hosted by: Jon Stewart Featuring, in...

This week’s guest is Safi Rauf, an Afghan refugee who came to the U.S. as a teen and is now the president and founder of Human First Coalition. Also a veteran, he tells us about his work in Afghanistan helping to evacuate local interpreters who worked with American troops. He shares the astonishing story of how he was taken hostage—and eventually released—by the Taliban while working there. He also talks about the Afghan Adjustment Act and the obstacles he’s run into while advocating for it....

This week we’re talking to Rep. Katie Porter, the Democratic congresswoman from California’s 47th district, who wields her whiteboard like a weapon. She explains (in plain English!) what we’ve got wrong about inflation and why Congress isn’t jumping at the chance to fix it. She updates us on the midterm elections, breaks down the hypocrisy of Republican rhetoric on crime, and blows our minds about why political ads never show members of Congress doing actual work. Plus, we’ve got writers Jay...

The midterms are two weeks out and chaos just keeps building. The UK is cycling through prime ministers faster than James Bonds as their economic crisis continues. Meanwhile, election deniers in the U.S. are whipping themselves into a frenzy. Jon is joined by British journalist Gabriel Gatehouse to break down what’s happening in the UK, plus what his QAnon and election-conspiracy reporting might tell us about our democracy’s post-election fate—if this election ever ends. Writers Tocarra...

Jon is joined by Steve Hanke, a professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University, for a chat about why we find ourselves in this current inflation disaster and how we might get out of it. They get into whether the Fed is blowing it, the role of money supply, and whether anyone is looking out for the little guy in all of this monetary maneuvering. They don’t always agree, but Jon manages to score a passing grade from the professor! Plus, staff writers Kasaun Wilson and Henrik Blix...

SEC Chair Gary Gensler is back! Jon throws him some of the thousands of audience questions we got, and they dive into the issue of whether the SEC is doing enough to ensure market transparency, why there’s not more accountability for the market’s biggest players, and what the limits on SEC power mean in a practical sense. Plus, we set a record for most acronyms in a single episode–PFOF, DRS, PSA, UBS! You name it, we got it.  Below are definitions for some of the terminology used in this...

Rep. Elissa Slotkin (MI-08) joins Jon to describe the frustrating circumstances that led to her fiery speech on the House floor last week, when several Republicans tried blocking a bill for veterans before ultimately voting for it. Later, they explore why being from a competitive district like hers is different than a safe district—and the governing challenges of working with an opposing party that won’t compromise. Staff writers Jay Jurden and Kasaun Wilson are also here to break down...

This week we’re talking about the #MahsaAmini protests in Iran with Rana Rahimpour, an Iranian-British journalist with BBC Persian. Jon is also joined by staff writer Alexa Loftus and our Iranian supervising producer Reza Riazi. It’s a fascinating discussion about why this uprising is different from anything that’s come before, what comes next for the people of Iran, and what the U.S. can do to help. (The bad news is it involves Elon Musk.) And if that’s not enough, they go down a Lord of the...

Jon is joined by Geoffrey Berman, a former US attorney from the Southern District of New York—and author of the new book Holding the Line: Inside the Nation’s Preeminent US Attorney’s Office and Its Battle with the Trump Justice Department. They dig into how Bill Barr tried to have Berman fired, why nailing down powerful guys like Trump is so hard, and whether better guardrails could protect our democracy. Berman also happened to be Jon’s neighbor growing up in New Jersey, so they reminisce...

One Jon is nice—but have you ever heard a podcast with three of them? (Plus, a Tommy for good measure.) The Pod Save America guys are here to discuss midterm elections, the problem with polling, and whether we should look to journalism to save us. They also take a stroll down memory lane to the Obama White House, reminiscing about the good old days of government website crashes and that time a gaping hole opened in the bottom of the ocean. As of this week, we’re back to new episodes weekly!...