My Assessment of U.S.-based Left-Wing Media Podcasts
I’ve been listening to left-wing podcasts since the 2024 election and this is how I feel about them:
1. Pod Save America: Regurgitation of MSNOW talking points, venting. Conditioning for eventual resignment of situation, not solution-oriented.
2. The Bulwark/Bulwark Takes: Conditioning for eventual resignment. Not solution-oriented at all. Listening to this makes me feel hopeless. Increasing regurgitation of MSNOW talking points.
3. The Rachel Maddow Show: On the days she’s actually on there and not substituted by someone else or not plugging her projects, she’s solution-oriented and calling for action. She’s actually the only solution-oriented host on MSNOW. All the rest are telling you to be afraid and worry. She’s relaying news about the growing resistance.
4. Countdown With Keith Olbermann: Highly solution-oriented. 2/3rds of his podcast is scathing but the final third focuses on sports or his rich personal life as a media veteran. (I’ve been a fan of Keith’s since he told then-president George Bush Jr. to “shut the hell up” back in 2008.)
5. Thom Hartmann Show: Thom used to be on Russia Today until their U.S. branch got kicked out of the country. Thom got wise and bailed ship when he saw the writing on the wall. Now he’s affiliated with the left, but sometimes offers good advice for resistance. The call-ins are interesting but too rushed. The AI slop filler music his wife makes for the show is so embarrassingly bad, it makes the show unlistenable at times.
6. The Thinking Atheist with Seth Andrews: Seth’s been increasingly political on his shows and his occasional speeches and monologues are often inspiring.
7. The David Pakman Show: If you can get past the self-serving snark, sometimes his analyses are insightful. No real call to action, but good for hearing different angles of corporate & government-pushed media narratives.
8. Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman and Juan González. Amy’s a long-time respected independent journalist and she often covers the stories corporate media won’t. She also covers protests on-the-ground that corporate media won’t. (She’s one of my role models.)
9. MSNOW podcasts (The Last Word, The Beat, All In, The 11th Hour, etc…) Corporate sponsor-filtered left-leaning talking points. Guests are either retired generals, writers for corporate-sponsored major publication companies, legislators or campaign spokespeople/advisors. All guests are given the same media training, starting their interview answers with “Look… “ , sprinkling a dozen mentions of “the American people” and ending with “At the end of the day…” They tend to focus on the Government stance and sensationalism, normalizing the current regime via high repetition.
🙏🙏🙏 Feel free to disagree! These are just my personal impressions but my perspective is just one of billions. If there are podcasts you recommend, do feel free to share them in Comments! I’d love to know alternatives! 🙏☺️ (NOTE: I personally want to listen to solution-oriented podcasters that give the public ideas on how to make change, not just a retelling of news narratives with reactions. Kinda tired of reactions at this juncture. Also, no rage-baiting podcasts, please. I understand the need for them, but my cortisol levels are dangerously high enough. Need something more thought-out and rational. And I can’t handle ad-libbers who say “like…” every other word. It throws my old regimented Autistic brain off too much. 😅🙏 I’m picky but that’s just me. I’m formally trained a bit in broadcasting and that background is where my standards come from. Thanks in advance? 🙏)