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Heather Cox Richardson This is a link to Heather’s Substack.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/
Heather is a history professor, which means she analyzes news with a long-view, thinking today about what a history student in 150 years will consider to be important. Her scholastic emphasis is to study the intersection of image or culture, and reality, with respect to politics. Ironically perhaps, Heather’s specific expertise has been the study of the history of the Republican party.
Heather provides her written daily content in many places, includes an audio format, and twice-weekly she does a chat in audio-visual format. She lists her sources (only once or perhaps twice serving as a reporter breaking news for the first time). Besides her books, her preeminent (and free) written contributions are her daily Letters From an American – which she first published on Facebook. She intended to flood the zone with accurate and truthful content to balance-out the disinformation and manipulative propaganda that invaded Facebook back when DOTUS was a new phenomenon. She has since expanded to Substack – and has a presence on YouTube too, where she posts online chats she gives several times a week on Facebook.
Jordan Feinstein of Jordan and the RituaL joined me to see Heather live when she was on her book tour recently, and it was fun to see Jordan wait in line with anticipation and excitement as if he were one of us fans going to a rock show.
Part of the joy of Heather’s work is seeing her make connections, both in past-history and in living-history. A recent column – September 13, 2024 – was a great example. We are all – well, we should be but not “all of us” I guess – laughing about the pet-eating rampage DOTUS went on during the debate – until it became Not Funny all of a sudden, when schools in Ohio started getting bomb threats. Here, Heather drew a connection from Ohio’s local politics and the seeds of truth that led to the disinformation campaign about the pet eating thing, and how Republicans are, right now, using it for their big push to flip blue Senator Sherrod Brown’s Ohio Senate seat red. Wow. Lights on. See the connections! When you see it: Tell everyone. Shed light.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/september-13-2024
Heather is a national treasure. She also has been spotted sporting a tie-dye t-shirt in her casual wear, once or twice, endearing her to me forever. We are nearly the same age. She knows waaaay more than I do. I cherish the opportunity to learn from her everyday.
Listen
The Daily Beans Podcast Motto: News, With Swearing. This is the brainchild of Allison Gill: News presented daily in about 10-20 minutes, usually with comedian and activist Dana Goldberg. Added bonus: a good news section at the end of every episode, fueled by pets pictures and happy stories sent in by readers. Not all news is grim.
Allison Gill is a Veteran who went to work for the VA, where she served as an advocate for Veteran’s health – and other issues – until, after a decade, she was fired by DOTUS. The firing may have been because Allison hosted a podcast called Mueller She Wrote, following the ill-fated but well-meaning Mueller investigation. The Daily Beans is her current podcast. Good interviews of newsmakers, sources quoted: this is a newscast with integrity but it employs humor so if you take everything literally this isn’t for you. Allison also does a weekly news wrap-up show with Peter Strzok (former FBI Russian counterintelligence specialist who was fired by DOTUS) and a weekly show on the Jack-Smith investigation with Andrew McCabe (DOJ lawyer fired by DOTUS about a week or so before he was to retire with benefits, who sued and won). The work has grown – in association with other content-creators – into the MSW Media network.
Allison did a live taping of her show (rare!) in San Francisco right after the DNC, which I attended, and the vibe was that of a rock show.
Watch and Listen
The Mary Trump Media Network, Jen Taub, and the New Avengers crew
Mary Trump is DOTUS’s cousin, and she is basically his polar opposite. Trained as a Ph.D. psychologist, she has gathered a variety of people from the world of journalism, law, academia, etc, – on a range of perspectives not just from the left – to regularly discuss what is happening daily before our very eyes. Here’s her YouTube channel, which is also networking now with other channels.
https://www.youtube.com/@MaryTrumpMedia
I found her to be a very good conversation-moderator, and a focused interviewer. Her insights are acute, specific, and interesting. The Nerd Avengers crew varies (according to who is available when, I believe) but my long-time fav is Jen Taub, a Professor of Law, and former appellate criminal defense lawyer. I admit it: I love Jen partially due to her facial expressions, which so often mirror my own as she is watching a video clip as part of the show. Jen does a daily YouTube show – live at 5:00-ish a.m. Pacific Time – with her top news takes, look for The Morning Jen. Here’s a link to her YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%40jentaub
The Nerd Avengers do regular shows on Tuesdays and Thursdays, plus they have “emergency” shows when something big happens. The conversation on these shows is informative and reactive to the news-of-the-day, so the mood varies. Mary Trump broadcast the whole DNC without talking over the little daily speeches before the big evening headliners, and it’s really interesting to listen without the network dribble. Mary and a few other Nerds broadcast the Kamala > DOTUS debate, Mystery Science Theatre style.
Personal note: The part of Queens where Mary grew up was the part of Queens where my dad grew up. I just love her accent, it feels like home at Grandma’s house.
Deadheads for Democracy 