Krystal Kyle & Friends

On KK&F this week, we’ve got Tommy Vietor on the pod to talk about the Dems’ Tea Party moment. About a month after he announced plans to “phase out” FEMA, Donald Trump is now scrambling to back up his policy after the recent flooding disaster in Texas — with over 120 now dead. We discuss the tragedy as one that was profoundly avoidable; nobody should have been abandoned to die by their government. As we get into during our conversation, the lack of preparedness for the floods is a system failure across every level of government, and one that will becom...

This is Episode 233 of KK&F, where we’re talking all things Big Beautiful Bill with David Dayen. The New York Times just released an article explaining how the hell a bill designed to gut our healthcare system and hike the debt ceiling is making it through the House and Senate. Totally absent from the considerations of House and Senate Republicans voting for the bill is any interest in the well-being of their constituents. Rather, they’re succumbing without any fight to Trump’s “charm offensive,” the epitome of shady back-room dealings.

It seems almost hard to believe th...

Zohran Mamdani won big in New York, and Dems are having a meltdown about it. How dare a Muslim socialist focusing on helping working people win the class war prevail over a disgraced sex offender? Cuomo had dark money on his side and used it to spread a message of fear about crime and homelessness in the city, trying to scare people into voting for the status quo. Cuomo and the media also baselessly smeared Zohran as an anti-Semite for daring to criticize Israel’s genocidal attacks on Palestinians. But it didn’t work. New Yorkers want better for them...

This week we sat down with TYT’s Cenk Uygur to hash out our disagreements on how to approach Trump 2.0. This debate comes in the midst of Trump and Netanyahu’s regime change war in Iran and as we await Trump’s final decision on whether we will start directly bombing Iran ourselves. Notably, a number of MAGA voices have vocally opposed direct engagement. Does this anti-war commentary represent a genuine rift in MAGA which can constrain Trump’s actions and peel off some of his committed base?

When Krystal and Cenk last spoke in December (full convo he...

For Episode 230 of KK&F, we sit down with YouTuber and lawyer Pisco and talk about the devastation and terror that Trump has brought upon immigrant communities in the U.S. Recent protests in L.A. reflect the anger of city residents at the cruelty of ICE agents abducting their neighbors. We take a look with Pisco at the political conditions that created these protests, as well as the brutal local and federal responses.

We also talk about the potential of a Trump impeachment. From Trump’s NFTs and crypto scams to his refusal to divest from hi...

We’re thrilled to have Former AOC chief of Staff, Saikat Chakrabarti on the podcast this week! Saikat is a co-founder of Justice Democrats as well as AOC’s former chief of staff. That’s to say that he’s played a hugely important role in progressive politics over the past years and has his finger on the pulse. By his own account, he decided to run when he saw Democrats doing nothing as Trump ascended to power a second time. Now, with an authoritarian in power, Saikat is both a talented, experienced progressive activist and an observer of everythi...

In this conversation with Naomi Klein, we identify the destructive rampaging of the Trump government as an incredibly nearsighted political program: it’s not building a sustainable and just government for the well-being of future generations. On the contrary, it’s running everything into the ground for a quick buck. Naomi mentions that even though aforesaid tech overlords have no scruples when it comes to wreaking havoc on the earth for working-class people everywhere, they harbor a strange obsession with surviving the downfall of Earth through technological advances. There may be an afterlife for those who can pay their way...

Kyle asks our guest Omar Baddar in this week’s episode whether a recent growing consensus in the international community (outside of the U.S) that Israel’s genocidal actions must be stopped is cause for hope. It’s true that countries like the U.K. and France have offered, as Krystal puts it, “strongly worded letters” reacting to the IDF shooting at ambassadors in Jenin, to new and horrifying information about the starvation campaign Israel is imposing on Palestine, and more. Could it be that the world leaders are finally waking up?

To Omar, the hard truth is t...

On this week’s episode, Hasan Piker gives us a bombshell report of his recent detention by CBP during his return to the U.S. from France. Like us, he’s heard the stories about people getting stopped at the airport and being asked invasive questions about their support for Donald Trump. On his way out of customs, CBP stopped Hasan and took him to a detention area in the airport, where they proceeded to interrogate him about his views on Israel, his allegiance to Trump, and, of all things, his Twitch fans.

It’s a harrowing story...

Lisa Gilbert joins the podcast for Episode 225 to help us understand how Trump is pulling a scam right out in the open with his crypto coin. Right now, Public Citizen is calling for Trump’s crypto activities to be investigated, because it’s clear that as Trump hawks crypto, a small fraction of wealthy investors actually see returns on the coin, and (to top it all off) a bill goes through Congress to provide barely-there regulation of cryptocurrency, there’s a whole lot of shady, back-room dealings going on between the people who are supposed to crack down on shady...

According to many political commentators, a liberal victory in the Canadian election wasn’t in the cards. So why did it happen? We tackle this question with this week’s guest, David Doel of The Rational National. The answer has to do with Trump. Trump’s trade wars and tariffs on Canada; his repeated jabs about Canada the 51st state; and his isolationist vision of the U.S.’s role on the global stage all made Trumpism deeply unappealing to Canadians. Pierre Poilievre, with his history as a union-buster and a friend to big business, fit into the Trumpian mold. Ma...

Economics professor emeritus and renowned political commentator Richard Wolff joins the show to turn a critical eye on Trump’s trade war with China. When we think about the U.S.’s unique position in the global economy in the age of Trump, we think about its power to cause harm — to threaten and cow other countries into submission by making them bend to economic pressure. As a nascent economic superpower, China isn’t bending. The 145% tariffs persist, as do China’s 125% tariffs on our goods, meaning a full-blown trade war is still unfolding. Trump is moving the goalposts as he says...

Ben Norton is a journalist and the founder of Geopolitical Economy Report focusing on international economics, which makes him the perfect guest for an episode centered on why Trump’s tariff tantrum isn’t going the way he hoped. When Trump threatened China with tariffs, many of us understood that of course, his main priority wasn’t the welfare of working people looking for more American jobs — it was just another opportunity for him to throw his weight around and shake a big stick at our enemies — but it’s still important to understand the appeal that he made, talking abou...

This week we talk to two grassroots Dem candidates interested in blazing a new trail for a worn-out, uninspiring party: Jackson Franklin and Kat Abughazaleh. In our interview with Jackson, we hear about the key policies he supports, including Medicare expansion, strengthening unions, banning corporate lobbying, and treating economic inequality as a serious issue. Meanwhile, Elon Musk has “personal beef” with Kat Abughazaleh, an Illinoisan, progressive, and extremism researcher (so you can see why they might have beef) — Kat’s now running for Congress to take on corruption in the Democratic Party as well as to defeat the Republicans’ agenda. Sh...

Insane escalations in the trade war Trump’s waging with China, grants being pulled from universities in the name of combating antisemitism, and more: it’s been another crazy week under the Trump regime. We got Michael Tracey on the show to talk to us about it.

We could be staring down the barrel of a global recession as Trump slaps trade partners with major tariffs, particularly triggering a crisis in US relations with China — which is reciprocating the tariffs. Then there’s the crazy (big if true???) news that Musk is on his way out. How would th...

Investigative journalist Greg Palast is rejoining the show to discuss the dire straits into which a recent Trump executive order is putting our country. Each week has its fresh horror, and Krystal’s conversation with Greg delves into the latest. Greg has a seriously impressive background in shining a spotlight on the Republican agenda of making sure people can’t vote so the far-right oligarchs can entrench their minoritarian rule. You hate to see it, and you certainly hate to see the newest policy, which, as Krystal points out, would basically let Elon decide who gets to vote, both in t...

In a special episode featuring your two hosts, we discuss Trump’s long game for a regime: taking the so-called presidency again in ‘28 and continuing to wreak whatever havoc doesn’t fit into the next four years. (Not to be too doomer about it — don’t mourn, organize!) He’s got the usual cast of characters running amok, from Steve Bannon telling Chris Cuomo that Trump will take that third term (and then who knows what, right?) As Krystal brings up, destroying Medicare and Medicaid will be so politically disastrous that Trump will basically have to be in a situation wh...

This week’s guest, Robert Weissman, walks us through the current climate of grassroots and organizational pushback against our government’s current self-destruct mode. To make a long story short, it’s not looking easy on the ground — but essential victories prove that there’s a limit to the number of times Trump and his cronies can buy out justice and rely on a conservative Supreme Court to do the heavy lifting.

A particular important victory comes in the form of the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision to rule Trump’s freeze on USAID funding unconstitutional. Weissman tells the amaz...

For Episode 216, we dive into the dumbest trade war ever with political writer Lule Savage. Trump has promised to go full steam ahead with tariffs that could devastate industries and cause massive job loss in Canada. Leveraging 25 percent tariffs on most exports would significantly affect the Canadian economy and destabilize the relationship between the countries. Trump has since pulled back some of the tariffs but the remainder are supposed to be put back in place on April 2nd.

What is Trump actually trying to accomplish here? Will he follow through next time at a time when the...

As Krystal puts it in this week’s episode during a discussion of the latest in Elon Musk’s quest for world domination, Elon thinks he’s Ready Player One, and we’re all NPCs. Rep. Maxwell Frost joins us to assess the damage. As our conversation takes a deep dive into the insights Maxwell has to offer into the psyches of two billionaire egotists, we talk about one of the biggest shockers of the Trump presidency so far: that Trump has finally found someone he’s willing to play second fiddle to, it seems.

Looming over Cabinet me...

This week we get a bombshell report from reporter Greg Palast regarding voter suppression that changed the 2024 election results. In our exclusive interview with him, Greg alleges that the 2024 election results are not valid; without the gross Jim Crow-era abuses of voting rights that predominated during this election, Kamala would have gotten an extra 3.5 million more votes, clinching states like Georgia and Michigan. Part of this episode is Greg’s overview of his work reconstructing on a state-by-state basis how Trump and his people relied on Ku Klux Klan legislation allowing for individual voter status to be challenged, laws th...

With Judd Legum of Musk Watch, we review the highlights (lowlights?) of This Week in Musk and, given the trends in Musk’s escalating power, what a Next Week in Musk might look like. From the insane reveal that Grimes objects to her ex’s bringing their son to hang out with Trump to careful analyses of Musk’s attacks on the various branches of government, we’ve got a full show covering all the points you’re interested in hearing about — so we’re glad you’re joining us.

In case you missed it, Tuesday featured a press conferen...

Welcome to Episode 211 of KK&F, covering the Musk rampage against the federal government with journalist Gil Duran. Reporting on the first weeks of the Trump admin is basically reporting on the unfolding of a coup. Musk has gotten keys to the Treasury systems, and is rampaging through the government. In this episode with Gil, we cover the central ideology that has led to the rise of figures like Musk and now motivates his destruction of our federal government.

Gil offers truly valuable insight into the psychology of Musk’s insane, unprecedented power play: his “shock and awe”...

Dotcom bubbles, housing bubbles — as this week’s guest, Ben Norton, explains to us, the bubble itself is not new. But as a keen observer of our financial systems and their manipulation by the wealthy and powerful, Ben Norton gives us important insights into what makes this current bubble — and its coming implosion — even more dangerous. For the past few weeks, for example, billionaires like Musk, Zuckerberg, and Warren Buffett have been dumping stocks, keeping an eye on any market instability or potential collapse. At this point, says Ben, the U.S. stock market has hit 200 percent of the GDP — hi...

Our expectations were low, but the first terrifying few days of Trump, round two have been worse than anyone could have imagined. Already we’re seeing the rollback of key civil rights legislation, attacks on immigrant communities, cutting immigration opportunities for refugees, and much more. After Elon Musk’s shenanigans on the Trump 2024 campaign trail, we expected oligarchs — Trump’s fellow elites — to bend the knee. And they have: Musk, Zuckerberg, and Bezos, the three richest Americans, were all in plain sight at the inauguration. What seems even more galling (if not surprising) is that Democrats have bent the knee, too...

Welcome to episode 208 of KK&F, where your hosts get into Biden’s final days for a special episode. As the sun sets on the Biden admin, it seems like until the last minute, Biden is asking, “Won’t somebody do something?” It’s a vibe that has haunted his whole presidency as for the last four years he’s performatively gestured toward shoring up essential policies like abortion rights, antitrust, and more, ultimately failing to enshrine Roe and bring Big Tech to heel because of the party’s own financial interests and conservative establishment. Listening to Biden’s account of the l...

This week on Episode 207 of KK&F, British journalist Owen Jones joins us to help make sense of what Elon is up to in Britain, whether his boost of the far right Reform Party will prove successful, and what to make of his falling out with Nigel Farage.

We’re so grateful to have Owen back on the pod to share his thoughts on everything from Elon’s British Invasion to the current state of the far-right frenzy that skyrocketed Trump back into the White House. He describes what it’s been like, from the perspective of a left...

Welcome to the show, Pisco of Lib & Learn! We’re thrilled to have him on the pod with us to discuss the current civil war hitting MAGA’s ranks and the future of the bromance between Trump and Elon (is it built to last?). Like the Democrats, Republicans have their own big tent that brings a vast array of political tendencies into a single party. From the paleoconservatives to Wall Street libertarians, across major divides over economic policy, Republicans don’t adhere to a single form of conservatism; rather, interpretations of conservatism abound, without the party’s top brass demandin...

With this week’s guest, Matt Bruenig, we debunk the biggest misconceptions and lies about single-payer healthcare. After the 2020 election, so many of us can mindlessly rattle off the most pernicious lines used among both conservatives and liberals to keep our healthcare system private. From zingers about wait times for care in Canada to (more than anything, it always comes down to this) the argument that we can’t afford to keep everybody insured, the case for private healthcare sure isn’t creative, but (among our representatives, if not among the American people) it’s held on for dear life.

In our interview with Ken for KK&F Episode 204, we cover everything we know about Luigi Mangione so far and the media’s fascinating, highly telling reaction to every new revelation about the case. Ken published a separate article about how the Times, for example, has made a point of avoiding pictures of Mangione’s face — anyone on Twitter the last few days will understand why. Apparently he’s too hot for the Times.

All of this points to the importance of the media’s role in managing public perception of significant events like the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s shooting...

We have Michael Tracey on this week to give us the lowdown on Trump’s Cabinet picks, from Pete Hegseth to Tulsi Gabbard. Michael addresses the perception of Pete Hegseth among some of Trump’s base as an anti-war figure, Trump’s leverage in getting his picks through the confirmation process, and much more.

Who is the cast of characters currently taking shape as Trump’s next admin, and who do we need to watch out for? You’ll hear about all of this and more on this week’s episode of KK&F. You can listen to this epis...

We’re back with KK&F Episode 201, featuring MSNBC regular turned critic Steve Schmidt. The “Morning Joe” duo has gone from comparing Trump to Hitler to begging for a meeting in two weeks time to their audience’s utter disgust, a move Steve describes as cynical capitulation in a blistering rant. Add the network’s rating collapse to the news that Comcast is spinning MSNBC off into a new entity, and the whole enterprise may be on the verge of collapse.

We can expect to see many similar heel turns from mainstream media outlets, corporations, and the like as Tr...

Episode 200 features Juan David Rojas talking to us about how AMLO, Mexico’s Bernie, won. From strategic alliances with billionaires to successful public works programs, AMLO followed what our guest calls a “politics of pragmatism.” By keeping the media at bay and ensuring the rich paid their fair share, he was able to pursue a left-wing political agenda without becoming, as Democratic candidates in the U.S. often are, embattled by media opponents and a dearth of wealthy supporters.

Our guest also makes the interesting observation that there’s a similarity to Trumpism here in the way AMLO was...

Welcome to Episode 199 of KK&F, with special guest Ettingermentum for election results analysis. Watching many voters shift away from Harris, whether toward Trump or rejecting voting entirely, reminded us that many groups — for example, the disaffected young bros that seem to have broke for Trump in surprisingly massive number — were moved by the message of Bernie Sanders but, now that the only choice is between neoliberalism and Trump-style conservatism, have simply shifted to the right: those people are Republicans now. And the Democrats were never interested in them. The Democrats, rather, trotted out Liz Cheney time after time to t...

Listen to our contentious debate with Will Chamberlain on this week’s episode of KK&F. A major point of contention comes up between us and our guest around analysis of the conflict in Israel-Palestine, which Will makes clear he’s unwilling to perceive as a genocide. As we see it, events and tactics like the current starvation strategy Israel’s using in north Gaza make it clear that this event should be perceived as an ethnic cleansing. Will argues that not only does this framing not apply, but his own preferred candidate, Trump, wouldn’t allow for an event li...

In this week’s conversation with Sam Butler about how Elon Musk amassed the wealth and influence to make a play for political power, Sam gives us necessary context about why this plan seems feasible. In places like Texas, where Elon has moved both his personal residence and the headquarters of some of the companies he owns, corporations have far more political sway, far fewer financial constraints. This analysis reveals Elon’s strategic thinking as he moves his operations from the blue state of California to conservative Texas, enabling the companies he controls to exert more power on the live...

As the election looms, we’re debating a pair of fellow YouTubers, Hutch and Pondering Politics, on what the Harris-Walz campaign has shaped up to be. We’ve got an exciting debate for you on whether Kamala’s decision to pander to Republican voters instead of making meaningful concessions to the left is a necessary, sound piece of political strategy or a total miss.

We’re nothing if not fair, of course, so our discussion delves into what has worked about the campaign — and what stands out is the excitement we felt as progressives about the decision to make Wa...

Welcome back to Krystal Kyle & Friends! This week’s conversation is on the escalating conflict in Lebanon and the ties we and our guest, Omar Baddar, see between this crisis and the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Omar provides insights into the “opportunities” for military escalation and struggle for dominance over Hezbollah that Israel sees in its current campaign in Lebanon. Because the U.S. plays such a major role greenlighting and funding Israel’s military activity, and because Biden refuses to set a true “red line” or rock the boat before the upcoming election, what we see now is Israel’s att...

Welcome to Episode 194 of KK&F, where we’re sitting down with the Vanguard to discuss whether the Harris campaign is poised to win it all — or whether they’re wasting this crucial moment. We talk about Democrats snubbing their base by leaning right on immigration, Republicans leaning left on abortion, and why the name of the game right now is trying to expand the party coalitions, courting independents, and getting those extra votes however it’s possible. But will it be enough for Kamala Harris, especially as some polls seem to suggest a gender gap in willingness to support...

This week on KK&F, we’re talking to conservative journalist Sohrab Ahmari in order to figure out what’s missing from the Trump campaign’s political calculations for 2024. To cut to the quick of what made Trump 2016 so compelling for millions of Americans it seems necessary to assess Trump’s relationship with the media — which isn’t as antagonistic as Trump has successfully made it out to be. While mainstream liberal outlets of course downplayed Trump’s prospects and disregarded him as a serious candidate for a long time, it’s also true that those same outlets, as a result of thei...