Fake Shakeups, Same Crackdowns

The Weekender, our weekly show for Patreon members, opens with fallout from Alex Pretti’s murder and the sudden sidelining of Bovino, with Tom Homan stepping in and the administration pretending this is accountability instead of damage control. Co-hosts Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman break down why this shakeup changes nothing, why ICE is still operating like a lawless occupying force, and why Democrats are offering cosmetic fixes while people are being abducted in the streets. They dig into the broader picture, from Kristi Noem’s political trouble to the FBI raid on Georgia election offices, and why the renewed obsession with 2020 looks a lot like groundwork for controlling future elections. The conversation circles back to the same question: if institutions won’t stop this, where does real resistance come from. They cool things down at the end with what they’re reading and watching, including Oscar contenders, a brutal takedown of The Rip, and why some messy, ambitious movies stick in your head long after the credits roll. Support the show by signing up to our Patreon and get access to the full Weekender episode each Friday as well as special Live Shows and access to our community discord: http://patreon.com/muckrakepodcast

Co-hosts Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman are furious, and they’re not trying to hide it. They dig into the killing of Alex Preti, a VA nurse who rushed in to help someone who’d been pepper sprayed, got tackled, disarmed, and ended up shot to death while the cameras rolled. Then came the part that makes it feel even darker: the immediate scramble to flip the story, smear the victim, and sell the public an alternate version of reality. They talk about what “they heard ‘gun’” is turning into, a magic word that apparently wipes out training, restraint, and consequences. And they get into the bigger trap people are stuck in right now: waiting for guardrails, waiting for Democrats, waiting for a system that keeps proving it won’t protect anyone. If this is “law enforcement,” why does it keep looking like an occupying force, and why is everyone being told to just accept it? Support the show by signing up to our Patreon and get access to the full Weekender episode each Friday as well as special Live Shows and access to our community discord: http://patreon.com/muckrakepodcast

Nick Hauselman is flying solo while Jared Yates Sexton is out, so he grabs his buddy Brian Kaplan for a relaxed Weekender that starts as a casual lunch in LA and somehow turns into a full-blown political autopsy. Between salad-fork confessions and talk of suspicious bruises, they dig into: whether Trump needs full time care, why congressional hearings are basically soundbite factories, and how “we all saw it happen” doesn’t matter when a party’s committed to an alternate reality. From Matt Gaetz and the ethics report mess to the Supreme Court’s consequence-free zone, the conversation keeps circling the same ugly theme: power, money, and the cruelty-as-strength brand that keeps getting rewarded. They also kick around the idea that America isn’t “going back” to anything, it’s stumbling into a new Gilded Age, and the only real rebuild might come from a generation that’s sick of watching the same fossilized leadership cling to the wheel. And because it’s the Weekender, they close it out with something actually pleasant: what they’re watching when the news gets too dark. Support the show by signing up to our Patreon and get access to the full Weekender episode each Friday as well as special Live Shows and access to our community discord: http://patreon.com/muckrakepodcast

Jared Yates Sexton is on the road without the studio setup, but he and Nick Hauselman still sound sharper than the people allegedly running the country. Nick reads a wildly unhinged letter Trump reportedly sent to Norway, a Nobel Peace Prize grievance tour that somehow swerves into Denmark, Greenland, and demands for “complete and total control.” From there, they dig into what it means when the U.S. starts treating allies like enemies, using tariffs like a cudgel, and drifting toward a real crisis over Greenland. They talk intelligence sharing, Five Eyes, why allies would start going dark, and how all of it connects back to the domestic crackdown, Minnesota, and the surveillance state getting upgraded right in front of everyone.

You’re hearing a preview of the Weekender. Get the full episode, bonus shows, and access to our community by subscribing here: http://patreon.com/muckrakepodcast. Co-hosts Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman dig into Trump’s latest authoritarian talk, from musing about skipping elections to floating Insurrection Act crackdowns. They break down reports of ICE ramp-ups in places like Maine, the expanding surveillance network tied to it, and why Democratic leaders keep blinking. Then it’s the Greenland talk, NATO fallout, and why chaos, outages, and “testing the fence” all feel like the point. They close with what they’re reading and watching, and a frank check-in on how to keep your bearings when the news cycle is a blender.

Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman take on the Department of Justice opening an investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a move they argue has nothing to do with accountability and everything to do with pressure and punishment. They break down how Trump’s long campaign against the Fed fits into a larger effort to control interest rates, bend institutions to his will, and reshape the economy around the needs of himself and his allies, regardless of the consequences for everyone else. From there, they connect it to what’s happening in the streets, the expanding role of ICE, the escalation following the killing of René Nicole Good, and the way intimidation, propaganda, and selective enforcement are becoming standard operating procedure. It’s a conversation about power, fear, and what happens when the people at the top decide that stability, norms, and even basic rights are expendable. Support the show by signing up to our Patreon and get access to the full Weekender episode each Friday as well as special Live Shows and access to our community discord: http://patreon.com/muckrakepodcast

Support the show and get the full Weekender episode by subscribing to our Patreon at http://patreon.com/muckrakepodcast. This is not an easy episode to record, and it is not an easy one to hear. Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman sit down early Thursday to talk about what happened in Minneapolis, where Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother and legal observer, was shot and killed by an ICE agent while sitting in her car, in front of her wife. They walk through what the video shows, how the official story formed almost immediately, and why the rush to justify what happened matters just as much as the act itself. This is a conversation about a life taken, about how institutions protect themselves, and about what it means when something so plainly tragic is treated like a political problem instead of a human one.

On this episode of the Muckrake Podcast, Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman confront what may be one of the most audacious and disturbing moments of the Trump era, which is saying something. The United States uses special forces to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro while bombing Caracas, then casually announces it will run Venezuela and seize its oil. No congressional authorization. No real pushback. No consequences. They break down how this operation could have happened, why it almost certainly required months of planning, and what it means when the most powerful military in human history is fully under the control of an authoritarian regime. The conversation explores the legality, or lack thereof, of the abduction, the hollow narco trafficking charges, and the chilling precedent being set for global politics. Jared and Nick also examine the implications for international law, NATO, and the postwar liberal order, drawing lines from the war on terror to Ukraine, Venezuela, and the emerging world of authoritarian spheres of influence. They discuss Mark Kelly’s warning to the military, the targeting of dissent, the role of oil companies, and why this feels fundamentally different from Trump’s first term. This is a bleak, furious, and deeply unsettling conversation about state power, fascism, and the collapse of norms that once pretended to restrain empire. If you are asking how far this can go, the answer may already be unfolding. Support the show by signing up to our Patreon and get access to the full Weekender episode each Friday as well as special Live Shows and access to our community discord: ⁠http://patreon.com/muckrakepodcast⁠

This is a preview of our regular Weekender show released in full every Friday on our Patreon at patreon.com/muckrakepodcast Please support the show by subscribing and unlocking special content as well as access to our discord and live shows. Co-hosts Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman ring in 2026 with resolutions, sugar hangovers, and a hard look at how a viral YouTube stunt and JD Vance’s megaphone spiraled into a federal freeze on Minnesota child-care funds. They break down the racist scapegoating of Somali communities, which plays right into the right’s conspiracy theories, and why this is political retribution dressed up as oversight. Then it’s the latest Epstein revelations implicating Mar-a-Lago’s spa pipeline and how it connects to Trump even more deeply before focuing on the Supreme Court's refusal to bless federal troop deployments that might turn into a roadmap for even more law-breaking. "What We're Watching" looks at the Stranger Things finale and why nostalgia is starting to feel like content slurry.

Co-hots Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman return for the final Muckrake episode of 2025, and the vibes are… kinda emotionally stable. They look back on a year that somehow felt darker than 2020, then pivot straight into the current circus: Trump raging at the media, posturing about the Epstein files, hosting Zelensky at Mar-a-Lago, and then parroting Putin’s lines like the Oval Office has a Kremlin teleprompter. From there, the conversation goes where 2025 always seems to go: Into the flashing dashboard lights of institutional collapse, Trump’s visible decline, and the unnerving signals that J.D. Vance is already laying 2028 groundwork with Turning Point backing. And if that wasn’t bleak enough, they close with an absolutely cursed focus group of Gen Z Republicans that reads like a “content brain” case study, complete with casual extremism, conspiracy marination, and the kind of political illiteracy that would be funny if it wasn’t actively setting things on fire. Support the show by signing up to our Patreon and get access to the full Weekender episode each Friday as well as special Live Shows and access to our community discord: http://patreon.com/muckrakepodcast