Midterm 2026: The Top Issues

I started over here. And I told myself — I’m coming back right here to have the first interview.” She kept that promise.Councilwoman-elect Bernice Cooper — first Black woman and first Liberian woman elected to the Brooklyn Park City Council — returns to the platform that had her first, for her first interview since making history. The full crew is back for it, and she holds nothing back: the moment the results landed (“no pressure, but now they’re looking for me to produce”), the attacks she survived and the therapist she kept the whole campaign, the man who gave up his own run to support hers, and the negative ads that accidentally became her best advertising. Plus the ninety-second civics lesson every resident needs — what a council member actually does — and the invitation that closes the show: make City Hall your second home.History came home. Now the work starts.Amplify. Empower. Elevate.

She defended Nicki Minaj’s right to pick a side for ten straight minutes. Then the host asked: “So are you still going to be listening to Nicki?” — “I’m going to take a break on her.”One Republican, one Democrat, one hour on the question nobody answers honestly: when celebrities pick a side, who really pays? Abe confesses why he doesn’t talk politics at pickup basketball. Ms. B explains why “shut up and dribble” never dies — and still defends Nicki’s right to speak as a resident and a taxpayer. The Kanye case study, the Rihanna model, why Gen Z trusts a kid filming in his bedroom over Beyoncé, and the Denzel doctrine: “The unsaid by Denzel is more powerful than the said.”Then it gets personal: is your loyalty to where you’re from — or where life happened for you?Tomorrow: history pulls up. Councilwoman-elect Bernice Cooper, live.Amplify. Empower. Elevate.

Three guys started this podcast. Three years later, they’re back in one room — and the room changes everything.Abe, Titus, and Sam Y — the original Inner Circle — on set, glasses up, nothing off the table. What the Somali community’s historic night should teach Liberians about unity. The ballot one community leader posted on Facebook and the loyalty politics behind it. The man who swore he was apolitical — until the danger reached his own employees, and he voted in the middle of his morning walk. A confession nobody saw coming: “You won’t believe it, man. I didn’t vote.” The media’s fraud double standard, with receipts. And the conversation every immigrant parent needs to hear about the Ghanaian teenager in the Bronx — grief, hard truths, and where the blame actually belongs.Plus the announcement: Bernice Cooper, Brooklyn Park’s history-maker, joins the Inner Circle Podcast on Tuesday November 10.The originals are back. The studio era has begun.Amplify. Empower. Elevate.

The morning after the blue tsunami, the Republican chair didn’t duck. “I believe America has spoken” — and then he autopsied his own party on air.Ms. B pulls up with precinct-level receipts: Bernice Davis Cooper makes history in Brooklyn Park — first Black woman, first Liberian woman on the council, by 250 votes — and she’s coming on the Inner Circle next week. Then the table goes where nobody else will: five Black governors won, but does the Republican count? “We will not name him and we will not cite him, but he will be included in the five.” Keisha Lance Bottoms, Texas flipped, the DEI truth nobody says out loud — “we were the face, not the beneficiary” — and Gen Z explains what actually drove them to the polls: “We barely make enough money and then we’re spending more. What is going to be left?”The results are in. The receipts are counted. The real conversation starts now.Amplify. Empower. Elevate.

Eight months ago she became a citizen. Today she voted — and it took five minutes.We went live as polls closed across America: Buela’s first ballot ever (yes, she got the sticker), the record early turnout, and the results rolling in while we talked — including history being made in Georgia. Then the conversations nobody else has on election night: the chair questioning his own party on air, the families who went underground during the crackdowns — “almost like hiding from the rebels in Liberia” — and the empty ballot lines nobody showed up to contest.We never told you WHO. We spent a month making sure you knew HOW. And the line that ends the cycle: “Don’t complain — because you didn’t go vote. If you don’t vote now, when are you going to vote?”Tonight: what the results mean for your wallet. Pull up. 7:30.Amplify. Empower. Elevate.

Ms. B doesn’t allow sleepovers. Her reason will make every parent rethink theirs.Our biggest episode yet covers everything November is about to throw at you: the Jay-Z halftime debate (“being Jay-Z is not enough — especially with no new album”), the kid who called him “Beyoncé’s husband,” GTA 6 finally landing November 19, and the fake celebrity video that almost fooled our own table — plus the rule for the AI age: that’s not him, go do your research.And the moment that matters most: this week, our community could make history — the first female Liberian elected official, right in Brooklyn Park, the Liberian capital of the world.Don’t use your January pay in December. We beg you.Election Day is here. Go vote — then pull up tonight. We’re live.Amplify. Empower. Elevate.

“People are exhausted. People are literally tired. And this economy does not allow room for rest.”Six days before the election, 84% of voters say the economy is driving them to the polls — per Pew. Tonight we show you why: $18.8 trillion in household debt and $1.26 trillion on credit cards, per the New York Fed, broken down at a table that lives it. The catch-22 nobody escapes — if we’re not spending, it’s a recession; if we are, it’s inflation. The $900 license tab. The budgeting rule that falls apart when you “don’t have 50/30/20 money.” And the question of the night: are YOU in a personal recession?The Fed held rates. Your bills didn’t. Amplify. Empower. Elevate.

We asked two immigrants what’s driving them to the polls. Neither one said immigration.For the first time ever, all four of us are at the table — seven days before the election — going through what this campaign is actually about, by the numbers: the economy at 84%, democracy, healthcare, education, immigration, per Pew Research. Then the conversations the polls never ask: livable wages, the local offices quietly raising your rent, and why Ms. B says your vote is private — but whether you voted is public record.And one thing every voter needs to hear this week: nobody is asking you for a passport or a birth certificate to vote. Don’t let anyone put fear in you.Election Day is Tuesday, November 3. Research your ballot. Then go use it.Amplify. Empower. Elevate.

$11.6 billion on political ads this election. We asked the only question that matters: has one ever changed your vote?“Not really.”Peterson is back, the full Tuesday table is on, and nobody holds back: who politicians really answer to when one donor writes a $250 million check, why the debates disappeared when the airtime is free, and the “sleeper offices” on your ballot — powerful positions running unopposed that nobody’s watching. Maybe somebody like you should be on that line.Three voters. Three different lanes. Zero minds for sale.Election Day is November 3. Research your ballot — then go vote.Amplify. Empower. Elevate.

We came to talk Halloween. A church picnic changed the plan.The full table is back — and before the first costume gets mentioned, Buela says she’s thinking about leaving her church, and the realest faith conversation we’ve ever had breaks out. Nobody scripted it. Nobody backed down. That’s the show: one table, different convictions, all of it aired.Then the holiday gets its turn. The $13.1 billion America spends on one night — per the National Retail Federation — and Ms. B’s theory on why this country keeps a holiday in every month. The costumes topping 2026, the aunties who still call it witchcraft, and the kids who just want candy. Ms. B finally delivers her weekend stories, including a love story 55 years strong, and closes with a ghost story from her own childhood house that you have to hear to believe.One week to the election. Tomorrow night we talk about what this campaign is actually about. Tonight, we earned the fun.Amplify. Empower. Elevate.