Evening Roundup, June 6
Featuring Carron J. Phillips, Ginny Canter, Sofia Matson, Ruben Bolling, Jen Rubin's Undaunted, Meredith Blake's Culture Picks, and The Democracy Index
There are three prominent podcast awards in the industry: the Webby Awards, the Signal Awards, and the W3 Awards. This year, only one news and politics podcast received recognition from all three—and that’s Talking Feds.
What makes this even more impressive is that Talking Feds is one of the few truly independent podcasts in the space. If you scroll through the winners’ list, you’ll see a lot of shows backed by major organizations, many of which have the resources to actively campaign for awards. And then there’s Talking Feds, the scrappy, little-engine-that-could podcast founded by Contrarian Founding Member Harry Litman. From day one, it’s been completely independent, and it still is.
That independence extends across the Talking Feds universe, which now includes Talking Books, Talking Feds 1-on-1, the Talking Feds Substack, a growing YouTube channel, and Talking San Diego, a series of live events with national figures.
So, a big congratulations to Harry Litman and the entire Talking Feds team.
Undaunted: A new South Korean president
If it were a Hollywood script, it might have been rejected as too far-fetched: A man born in poverty, maimed in an industrial a…
Tom the Dancing Bug
Follow Ruben Bolling on Substack here; Join Tom the Dancing Bug’s Inner Hive here; and here is the Tom the Dancing Bug website, with information about the new book, “It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug!"
Musk Turned a Government Role into a Profit Machine: Ginny Canter on Musk's Conflicts of Interest
Yesterday, while Trump and Musk were having a messy, public feud online, Democracy Defenders Fund released a breaking report investigating potential conflict-of-interest violations by Musk during his time as a special government employee. One of the authors, Ginny Canter, joins Jen to discuss the findings.
Contrarians on Breaking News! Abrego Garcia Returns to U.S.
Thank you Anna Du Pen, Michael Broder, David Aimone, Jeoffry Gordon, MD, MPH, Jeanne Elbe, and many others for tuning into the live video with Steve Vladeck! Join us for our next live video in the app.
Culture picks: Harvey Milk's legacy in film
This week, Military.com reported that Secretary of Defense and group chat enthusiast Pete Hegseth had ordered the Navy to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, an oiler named for the gay civil rights leader who was assassinated in 1978.
The Democracy Index
Last week in The Democracy Index, we highlighted the implications of Elon Musk’s flameout from the White House, framing it in the context of Otto von Bismarck’s immutable lessons of political realities. Well, there’s no highfalutin historical comparison for the messy meltdown that occurred Thursday, as the inevitable rupture between Musk and Donald Trum…
Summer Jelly Roll (le gâteau roulé)
“I am not yet convinced that any access to men in power gives a man more truth or light than the politics of a coffee house”—Jonathan Swift
Contrarian Pet of the Week
We told you we wanted to have fun, and we take fun seriously at The Contrarian. Each week we will share The Contrarian pet(s) of the week. (The pet need not be contrarian.) Subscribers are invited to submit their furry friend!
This slipped into the news this afternoon: "DOGE can access sensitive Social Security records, Supreme Court rules - POLITICO."..."A coalition of groups who sued over DOGE’s access said in a statement that the high court’s ruling “will enable President Trump and DOGE’s affiliates to steal Americans’ private and personal data.” It's just appeared in the WAPO. Will there be any Congressional oversight? Could we be seeing the first steps in a centralised Palantir-integrated data bank with citizens' Social Security, IRS and health information? Any thoughts?
I hope there will be coverage of the veterans united gathering at the National Mall today. Many heartfelt speeches.