Dirty Moderate showcases the people who cut through the nails-on-a-chalkboard din of the modern-day American political scene. We promote rigorous analysis and lively debate with individuals on both sides of the aisle and beyond. Our host, Adam Epstein, is a 12 time, Tony Award-winning former Broadway powerhouse producer turned political provocateur. Adam can go toe-to-toe with anyone on politics as he did on Trish Regan Primetime every Thursday night in 2019 as the lone non-conservative pane ...
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Shabbos Kestenbaum is a graduate student at Harvard University, researching the intersections between between public policy and contemporary Jewish life in the United States. Shabbos is the lead plaintiff against Harvard University alleging pervasive and systemic antisemitism. Shabbos has appeared on CNN, Fox News, and in The New York Times, and ha…
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When he was elected Lt. Governor of Maryland in 2003, Michael Steele made history as the first African American elected to statewide office; and again with his subsequent chairmanship of the Republican National Committee in 2009. A longtime political analyst and contributor to MSNBC, Michael is currently the co-host of MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” which …
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Ron Reagan, the son of former President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan, grew up in Los Angeles and Sacramento while his father served as Governor of California from 1967-1975. After a brief career as a classical ballet dancer, Ron Reagan has spent the past 40 years as a correspondent, host and political commentator in television and radio, chiefly …
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John Pavlovitz is a writer, pastor, and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina. John was one of our very first guests on Dirty Moderate over 2 years ago, and we were thrilled to spend time with this deep thinking, generous, loving, and spirited human again. A 25-year veteran in the trenches of local church ministry, John is committed to equality…
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Stella is an Irish psychotherapist who had her own intense experience with gender as a child, and the resolution of her gender distress has made her curious about the wisdom of early intervention. As a result, in addition to facilitating a parent coaching site that provides practical help to parents who are navigating their child’s gender-related d…
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Reed Galen is a co-founder of The Lincoln Project, host of the Lincoln Project podcast and author of The HomeFront Substack, and a self-proclaimed Cassandra. Reed is an independent political strategist who has spent years advising Fortune 500 companies, and has also worked on several prominent republican campaigns. He joins Adam to assess the Never…
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William Inboden is Professor and Director of the Alexander Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida, and Peterson Senior Fellow with the Kissinger Center for Global Affairs, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He joins Adam in a discussion centering around his latest book “The Peacemaker: Ro…
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Alana Newhouse is an American writer and editor. She is the founder of Tablet magazine, a dynamic hub of Jewish life, which features news, essays, podcasts and opinion pieces. In November 2022, Alana wrote an essay for Tablet called “Brokenism.” The essay remains deeply compelling because, as Alana argues, that “the real debate today isn’t between …
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Mona Charen is a conservative American journalist, columnist, commentator and best selling author. She is the Policy Editor of The Bulwark, and host of the Beg to Differ podcast, which you need to subscribe to immediately. Mona fell hard for William F. Buckley as a teenager, and her first job was as editorial assistant at his National Review. She w…
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As the host of the podcast History of the Land of Israel, and his own YouTube show, Israel Explained, Shaiel Ben-Ephraim spends his time thinking about Israel and assessing Israel’s long term goals. Given Iran’s attack on Israel, we invited Shaiel back to Dirty Moderate so he and Adam could discuss the implications of Iran launching drones and miss…
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Mike Gonzalez is the Angeles T Arredondo E Pluribus Unum Senior Fellow at The Heritage Foundation. He is a longtime journalist who currently writes for The Washington Examiner. Prior to that, he wrote for the Wall Street Journal, where he was based in Hong Kong. Mike is an ardent conservative and he sees the re-election of Trump as the only stopgap…
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George Washington claimed that anyone who attempted to provide an accurate account of the war for independence would be accused of writing fiction. At the time, no one called it the “American Revolution”: former colonists still regarded themselves as Virginians or Pennsylvanians, not Americans, while John Adams insisted that the British were the re…
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As a young girl born in Canada, Yasmine Mohammed was born into a strict Islamic household. If she missed a word of her Koran readings, she was beat until her feet were bloody and raw. And the Canadian government said there was nothing they could do to help her. “This is your culture,” they smugly told her. But Yasmine escaped the horrors of her chi…
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Damon Linker, is a writer for the Atlantic and is a senior lecturer in political science at the University of Pennsylvania. He also writes the Substack newsletter “Notes from the Middleground” and is an Open Society Project senior fellow at the Niskanen Center. Damon joins Adam to discuss his latest article for the Atlantic, "The Dead-Enders of the…
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New York Times columnist David French joins Adam to discuss the role of religion in public life, and he offers up a unique portal into the pro-life movement, and its perils in the aftermath of Roe. David discusses the important role of the courts, and especially the critical role of the Supreme Court, in securing( or not securing) the guardrails ag…
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As arguably the pre-eminent voice warning about the dangers of Donald Trump, longtime political operative Steve Schmidt needs no introduction. But in case you have been abducted by aliens, Steve is the founder, author and host of The Warning, a digital media company comprised of a daily newsletter, podcast and video analysis on his YouTube channel.…
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It’s not playtime in America. It’s high time in America that we all stand up for democracy. It’s gonna take all of us, especially independents like myself who will back Biden in November because that’s putting America first. It’s America or Trump; you can’t have both.… Thanks for helping us save democracy one episode at a time! Join the Dirty Moder…
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Noah Rothman is an author and conservative thinker who is a Senior Writer for National Review, and whose recent bestseller, “The Rise of the New Puritans: Fighting Back Against Progressives’ War on Fun,” is the chief subject of the second episode of our new series Dirty Moderate After Dark. Adam and Noah do a deep dive into the origins of Puritan t…
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Tina Nguyen is a national correspondent for Puck covering the world of Donald Trump and the American right for their The Best & The Brightest newsletter. Previously, Nguyen was a White House reporter for Politico, a staff reporter for Vanity Fair Hive, and an editor at Mediaite. Her new book, The MAGA Diaries: My Surreal Adventures Inside the Right…
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Philip K. Howard is a lawyer, author and chair of Common Good (www.commongood.org), a nonpartisan organization aimed at replacing red tape with human responsibility and agency. In his discussion with Adam, Philip discusses his latest book “Everyday Freedom: Designing the Framework for a Flourishing Society,” which argues that the post 1960’s legal …
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James Kirchick is a columnist for Tablet magazine, a writer at large for Air Mail, and author of the instant New York Times bestseller, Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington. Jamie( as he is known,) sits down with Adam and details why he wrote “Secret City,” discusses his longtime interest in Cold War history and assesses the intersecti…
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As the host of the podcast History of the Land of Israel, and his own YouTube show, Israel Explained, Shaiel Ben-Ephraim spends his time thinking about Israel, assessing Israel’s long term goals and strategies and nuancing a discussion about Israel and the Palestinians which blessedly sheds more light than heat. A self described “Liberal Zionist,” …
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At once passionate and eloquent, Kaivan Shroff may just be the Democratic Party’s most effective communicator. A onetime digital strategist for Hillary Clinton, Kaivan is now the Press Secretary for Dream for America, a Gen-Z movement for freedom, democracy, & progressive government. As a regular pundit and commentator, Kaivan regularly and forcefu…
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Before we all settle in to watch Taylor Swift at the Super Bowl, check out Adam’s recent discussion about immigration with the second best blonde of the day, his Executive Producer, Dawn Sorokin in this special edition of Stay Dirty, Stay Moderate Thanks for helping us save democracy one episode at a time! Join the Dirty Moderate Nation on Substack…
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With the 2024 election less than a year away, Kyle Kondick, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, the University of Virginia Center for Politics’ nonpartisan election forecasting newsletter joins the podcast to look at our electoral landscape—both presidential and congressional—from 30,000 feet. Have a listen as Kyle and Adam discuss Biden’s vu…
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A Libertarian and a Dirty Moderate have drinks After Dark KOA Colorado Talk Show Host and longtime friend of Dirty Moderate , Ross Kaminsky returns to the podcast for a special, boozy episode. Swiveling bourbon as they shoot the shit about the shitshow that is today’s politics, Ross joins Adam for a sprawling convo about Trump v Biden, Trump’s many…
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Joe is a true patriot and a helluva great guy. Glad to be in the fight against that giant, dangerous, orange wanna be king with him. Do not miss this one! When you finish listening to Joe on Dirty Moderate, head over to his amazing podcast White Flag and give him a Follow on X/Twitter @walshfreedom We are covering the election through to the end, f…
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When it comes to profiles in courage, few people fit the description more aptly than former Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger, who also happens to be a quintessential Dirty Moderate! In opposing all things Trump, he put country over party and made a robust defense on behalf of democracy a cornerstone of his political identity. Bravo, sir. His new…
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Intelligence officer, former Congressman, Jan 6 data analyst, whiskey distillery owner and genuine raconteur, Denver Riggleman, joins the podcast for an insightful, epically entertaining and scathing takedown of all things Trump, MAGA, authoritarian as well as all the other BS infecting our politics today. His book, The Breach: The Untold Story of …
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When you are young, they assume you know nothing-Travis Kelce's girlfriend At only 16 years old, yes you read that correctly, William He has founded Dream4 America, a Gen Z-led non-profit founded in 2023 dedicated to mobilizing America’s students to promote the principles of freedom, democracy, & progressive government. Born as a progressive counte…
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Desmond Meade's life story has been one of pain, perseverance, and finally, triumph. From a drug addicted felon waiting for a train to jump in front of to heading up the groundbreaking Florida Rights Restoration Coalition which has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this year for: "their work in building democracies, supporting the human righ…
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Jewish Americans - much like the U.S. public overall – hold widely differing views on Israel and its political leadership. Israeli domestic policies and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict generate fiery attitudes toward Israel during peace time, and after the brutal Hamas attacks on Israel of October 7, feelings have intensified. And rightly so. We i…
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Stuart Stevens , Senior Adviser to the Lincoln Project, and longtime GOP campaign advisor and guru joins the podcast to talk with Adam about his new book: The Conspiracy to End America Five Ways My Old Party Is Driving Our Democracy to Autocracy Apart from their discourse on the dangers of democracy, Stuart and Adam lament the collapse of the party…
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Dr. Richard Barton is a Democracy Fellow at Unite America and a professor at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He has a PhD in Government from Cornell University, and his research examines how electoral and legislative institutions shape lawmaking in Congress and the American Political Economy. Partisan primari…
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Over the last three decades, Ethan Chorin has had an extraordinary view of developments in the Middle East and Africa as an American diplomat, oil and ports executive and advisor to senior government officials. We invited Ethan to return to the show to discuss his thoughts on the events unfolding after the Hamas attack on Israel. You may remember E…
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We have been clear since minute one of this most recent attack on Israel. Never Trump. Never Hamas. Always Democracy. Over the latest seven decades, war and conflict between Israelis and Palestinian terror organizations-currently Hamas- has resulted in countless lives lost, electrified the wider Middle East, and drawn global powers into the scenari…
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Adam on Israel. For more on the atrocities in Israel both modern day and historical join us in unabashedly standing up for Israel and our fight to save democracy by becoming a member of the Dirty Moderate Nation. @dirtymoderate Thanks for helping us save democracy one episode at a time! Join the Dirty Moderate Nation on Substack! Tell us what you t…
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Despite our deep partisan fault lines on the issue, America does has a border crisis and solving it must be of the utmost urgency. Our dysfunctional system allows an unlimited number of people to cross our borders, prohibits them from working, promises free housing, and then leaves them in seven years of legal purgatory before a judge rules on whet…
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Mitt has bid adieu to the Washington clown show and is seemingly officially out of whatever the Mormon version of fucks are. Thanks for helping us save democracy one episode at a time! Join the Dirty Moderate Nation on Substack! Tell us what you think on Twitter! Check out our YouTube channel! Are you registered to VOTE?…
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Sure, Hunter Biden is a little sketchy, but would the average drug addict who lied on a federal form be prosecuted with such verve? We think not. Thanks for helping us save democracy one episode at a time! Join the Dirty Moderate Nation on Substack! Tell us what you think on Twitter! Check out our YouTube channel! Are you registered to VOTE?…
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This year marks the 20th anniversary of George W. Bush’s transformative program to combat H.I.V. and AIDS in Africa, the Caribbean and elsewhere. The left’s villain of yesteryear, who was (somewhat) rehabilitated in the Trump era, and rightly maligned for the disaster that was the invasion of Iraq, Bush also waged a noble war against an epidemic. T…
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Could the future of the GOP be black and female? Democrat turned Republican, Mesha Mainor, a Georgia state legislator serving the 56th District is showing that it very well could be. Her recent political revolt against her Democratic colleagues is an valiant attempt to deviate away from partisan orthodoxy while also retaining her core values. Her R…
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Listen to Adam's take on last nights debate and Tucker's interview with you know who. Clif Notes version: Haley has no shot at the nomination, but if she did, she'd be viable with independents. Christie is anti-Trump in a MAGA party. DeSantis had the dazzle of an armoire. He's just so bad at politics. Pence is irrelevant. Vivek is a fraud. In the e…
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“I should not be here,” Ruby Freeman told the January 6 committee in her May 2022 deposition. “I signed up as an election worker because I believe in our democracy. I signed up to support my daughter, Shaye, whose entire professional career has been devoted to making sure that Fulton County elections are fair and that every vote is counted.” Like m…
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You don’t have to be a Republican to be continually aghast at the descent of the GOP into a haven for cranks, white nationalists, conspiracy theorists , performance artists and liars. We have a two party system in this country, and the collapse of the Republican Party into a Trump led cult, spells more than just trouble for our representative democ…
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There’s an old saying in politics: As Ohio goes, so goes the nation. Up until 2020, Ohio was a bellwether state in presidential elections voting for the winner every election cycle since 1960 except when John F. Kennedy won the general election, but Richard Nixon carried the state. Donald Trump won Ohio twice, but 2020 was the first year where Buck…
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This is not America’s first manipulative fascist rodeo. Our grand experiment has been peppered with religious and MAGA type freaks throughout its 247 years. When a large group of independent thinkers, adventurers, natives, freedom seekers, religious zealots, and young, scrappy and hungry individuals come together in one pot and create a beautiful s…
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The events leading up to Jan 6th have resulted in Trump's third indictment for, among other charges, conspiracy to defraud the United States. The only guardrails that we have against another assault on our democracy aren't the courts, but the ballot box. Trump must be soundly defeated in 2024 . It's the only way he will never get near the presidenc…
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Say hello to Carlos De Oliveira, Mar-a-Lago’s property manager, who allegedly assisted Trump aide Walt Nauta, in attempting to delete security footage that showed the men moving boxes of classified documents around the property to hide them from federal agents. Special Counsel Jack Smith filed three new criminal counts against Trump on Thursday bri…
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An unusual group of justices — including Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, both conservative, and the court's three liberal justices — formed the slim 5-4 majority that upheld the Supreme Court's past rulings on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The court said that in Alabama, a state where there are seven congressional seat…
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