Episodes

The Briefcase: Jason Silverstein on empathy in healthcare

London attacks and Derek Cohen on criminal justice reform

The Briefcase: Cincinnati City Councilman Chris Seelbach

Trump, the G7, and Beth's interview with Sarah Rumpf

The Briefcase: Political Fiction With Annie B. Jones

We talk today about the President's trip abroad, bipartisan legislation on cybersecurity, a religious freedom executive order, and the AHCA. Aaptiv What do you get when an app that Sarah is obsessed with becomes a sponsor of the show? Aaptiv - a fitness app that provides audio workouts guided by a trainer synched with the perfect playlist and fully customizable by workout type, machine, duration, and intensity. Aaptiv is are offering our listeners a free 30 day trial. Go to https://aaptiv.com, sign up for a monthly subscription, and enter promo code PANTSUIT. Third Love. Stop tugging at your bra straps and second-guessing your size. It’s time to put fit first, with ThirdLove. ThirdLove uses women’s real measurements—and super smoothing memory foam—to create bras that fit better and are more comfortable. They offer sizes from double-A to G, as well as their exclusive halfcup sizes. Just answer a few simple questions online, and ThirdLove will recommend a bra in the right size and style for you. And now ThirdLove is offering you a chance to try one of their perfect 24/7 bras FREE for 30 days! Just pay $2.99 for shipping—and you’re on your way to a perfect fit. You’ll get to really live in this bra. Feel free to wash it. Wear it all day. You might even forget that you’re wearing it. If ThirdLove isn’t your new favorite bra, just return or exchange it, for free. Go to thirdlove.com/pantsuit now to get your perfect ThirdLove bra… and try it for 30 days! CREDO Moblie What if you could make the world a little bit better every time you used your cell phone? Well, it turns out you can, thanks to CREDO Mobile. Because, whenever you use a CREDO product or service, you generate critical donations for progressive causes and vital activism work – at no extra cost to you. With over $150,000 donated every month to nonprofits like Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, CREDO truly does give you the power to make positive social change every day. Not to mention, they offer coverage on the nation’s largest and most dependable 4G LTE network, and you can easily transfer over with your existing number. So, if you want a better world for all of us, AND a better way to stay connected to it, you want CREDO mobile. And, right now, CREDO has a special deal for our listeners. Go to CREDOMobile.COM/pantsuit and get 2 smartphones FREE plus 50% off unlimited talk and text. Or call 1-866-689-0099. It’s time your phone company represented your value Leave us a review on iTunes by clicking here! Subscribe to Episodes: iTunes | Android Subscribe to our weekly email and get a free Pantsuit Primer audiobook! Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook The Pearls Aaptiv What do you get when an app that Sarah is obsessed with becomes a sponsor of the show? Aaptiv - a fitness app that provides audio workouts guided by a trainer synched with the perfect playlist and fully customizable by workout type, machine, duration, and intensity. Aaptiv is are offering our listeners a free 30 day trial. Go to https://aaptiv.com, sign up for a monthly subscription, and enter promo code PANTSUIT. Third Love. Stop tugging at your bra straps and second-guessing your size. It’s time to put fit first, with ThirdLove. ThirdLove uses women’s real measurements—and super smoothing memory foam—to create bras that fit better and are more comfortable. They offer sizes from double-A to G, as well as their exclusive halfcup sizes. Just answer a few simple questions online, and ThirdLove will recommend a bra in the right size and style for you. And now ThirdLove is offering you a chance to try one of their perfect 24/7 bras FREE for 30 days! Just pay $2.99 for shipping—and you’re on your way to a perfect fit. You’ll get to really live in this bra. Feel free to wash it. Wear it all day. You might even forget that you’re wearing it. If ThirdLove isn’t your new favorite bra, just return or exchange it, for free. Go to thirdlove.com/pantsuit now to get your perfect ThirdLove bra… and try it for 30 days! CREDO Moblie What if you could make the world a little bit better every time you used your cell phone? Well, it turns out you can, thanks to CREDO Mobile. Because, whenever you use a CREDO product or service, you generate critical donations for progressive causes and vital activism work – at no extra cost to you. With over $150,000 donated every month to nonprofits like Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, CREDO truly does give you the power to make positive social change every day. Not to mention, they offer coverage on the nation’s largest and most dependable 4G LTE network, and you can easily transfer over with your existing number. So, if you want a better world for all of us, AND a better way to stay connected to it, you want CREDO mobile. And, right now, CREDO has a special deal for our listeners. Go to CREDOMobile.COM/pantsuit and get 2 smartphones FREE plus 50% off unlimited talk and text. Or call 1-866-689-0099. It’s time your phone company represented your value Leave us a review on iTunes by clicking here! Subscribe to Episodes: iTunes | Android Subscribe to our weekly email and get a free Pantsuit Primer audiobook! Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook The Pearls President Trump has kicked off his first international trip with an ambitious schedule. We discuss the media coverage of his trip and his joint "strategic vision" with Saudi Arabia. We also happily discuss bipartisan, bicameral legislation that's been proposed to enhance our cybersecurity. Finally, we talk about President Trump's executive order on the Johnson Amendment, which poses interesting issues about taxation, government, and religion despite being, as Slate calls it, a non-solution to a non-problem. For our compliments to the other side, Beth compliments Texas State Representative Helen Giddings for her efforts to stop shaming around school lunch balances, and Sarah compliments Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen for her open and thoughtful communication about her decision to retire. The Suit Sarah talks with Harvard professor Jason Silverstein about the American Health Care Act. Professor Silverstein is in Harvard's Department of Global Health and Socail Medicine and frequently writes for VICE's Tonic. He has previously written on how the Affordable Care Act has helped dying children with treatment and hospice care and the Republican party's deficiencies on maternity care. The Heels In the Heels, we talk about Get Me Roger Stone and Sarah's obsession with The Nest's eco-settings.

It's been another whirlwind week! MEMBERSHIP DRIVE Pantsuit Politics takes time and energy to produce and that's why we're asking for your help and support. By pleading your monthly support for Pantsuit Politics, you make it possible to produce additional content, improve our offerings, and host events. Check out our Patreon page to see how you can support our show and get loads of additional content! SPONSORS: Aaptiv What do you get when an app that Sarah is obsessed with becomes a sponsor of the show? Aaptiv - a fitness app that provides audio workouts guided by a trainer synched with the perfect playlist and fully customizable by workout type, machine, duration, and intensity. Aaptiv is are offering our listeners a free 30 day trial. Go to https://aaptiv.com, sign up for a monthly subscription, and enter promo code PANTSUIT. WYNC On the Media: When our phones are our very own, tailor-made media universes, and our social media feeds are seeded with opinions and lies, how can we possibly find common ground? Thankfully, there is one way to maintain a level of frankness and transparency in your media. Listen to On the Media, WNYC’s weekly investigation into how the media shapes our world view. While maintaining the civility and fairness that are the hallmarks of public radio, the team at On the Media tackles sticky issues and untangles this era’s most intractable questions. Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield are your hosts on a search for the truth in a 24-hour news cycle. Catch them on their weekly podcast, On the Media, on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts! We catch up on the news since our Tuesday episode: On Tuesday morning, the President tweeted that he had properly shared information with Russian officials in order to pressure them to join the fight against ISIS. We then learned that Israel was the source of information shared with Russia. That's complicated, but we didn't have time to think about how complicated because... The New York Times reported that James Comey kept contemporaneous memos of conversations with President Trump, and that one of those memos details the President asking Comey to back off Michael Flynn. Meanwhile, the President met with the Turkish president, and protestors were attacked outside the Turkish embassy. Also, a subpoena was issued for financial records related to a loan Paul Manafort took out right after leaving the Trump campaign. Representative Jason Chaffetz demanded to see all the Comey memos. Members of Congress started openly discussing impeachment, and, of course, many Trump supporters say this is all the media crying wolf. AND, Rod Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller to serve as special counsel on the Russia investigation. We also share listener feedback from Brett and Kerri. Hi Beth and Sarah, I’m writing to draw your attention to two items that actually managed to make me feel a bit more optimistic about politics than I have been recently. First, I don’t know if either of you had a chance to see the town hall CNN hosted with Bernie Sanders and John Kasich. Most of the thing was taken up with discussion about the recent Trump/Comey/Russia stuff, but the last 20 minutes or so were pretty powerful and more philosophical about the direction of the nation, particularly with respect to division and polarization. These are two men who are certainly not perfect, and with whom I would disagree about various things (and who themselves disagree about many things), but their interactions at that town hall gave me a bit of renewed hope that a higher, more thought provoking, and generally more respectful discourse between different perspectives is absolutely possible when you recognize that the person opposite you is a human being with good intentions. Second, I was struck by the reporting about Emmanuel Macron selecting a member of a rival party to be France’s Prime Minister. I found that move to be incredibly refreshing, and a signal that his message about leading a centrist, inclusive government wasn’t just campaign talk, but an actual strategy he intended to pursue. I hope the arrangement works, because our country could certainly do well to see examples of people from various perspectives and ideologies working together in good faith. A truly centrist government feels like it’s a long way from a practical reality in the United States, but that sort of movement has to start somewhere. Being concerned about the breakdown of our national identity and discourse at the hands of partisanship, I found these two stories encouraging. Regards, Brett I appreciate your show. I wanted to comment on the thought, briefly mentioned on your latest episode, that none of what we're learning about Trump was not evident during the election. That may be true, BUT no one in the establishment thought he was actually going to be elected (not even Trump himself thought he was going to win). The election itself demonstrated over and over again that the Republican establishment is out of touch with its base (for better and worse), so for them to not really get what was going to happen after he was elected is really not a surprise. Very few people within the party backed Trump enthusiastically at any point during the campaign, really. I think most established Republicans did fear what might happen were he elected, which is why they didn't support him. Of course, now they see an opportunity to push their agenda forward and seem willing to publicly tolerate almost anything. Which is apparently true of their base, regardless. Sincerely, Kerri

Today, we're talking about the Washington Post's reporting that President Trump shared classified information with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. In the Suit, we discuss Evan Osnos's May 8 article "How Trump Could Get Fired." In the Heels, we reflect on our Mother's Day weekends. Membership Drive We're excited to launch our first annual membership drive. Pantsuit Politics has become more than we could have imagined, and we want to meet the expectations of our growing community. We are constrained only by time and resources, and we truly appreciate listener support. Visit our Patreon page to check out our goals and the ways that we are trying to thoughtfully provide additional value to subscribers. SPONSORS: Aaptiv What do you get when an app that Sarah is obsessed with becomes a sponsor of the show? Aaptiv - a fitness app that provides audio workouts guided by a trainer synched with the perfect playlist and fully customizable by workout type, machine, duration, and intensity. Aaptiv is are offering our listeners a free 30 day trial. Go to https://aaptiv.com, sign up for a monthly subscription, and enter promo code PANTSUIT. Harry & David Whether she’s a wine aficionado, a chocolate lover, or a fruit fanatic, Harry & David has something Mom’s guaranteed to love. UP TO 30% off select Mother’s Day items is an amazing deal, but it expires Friday. Harry & David is part of the 1-800 Flowers family of brands and the company we trust with Mom’s special day. Get up to 30% off select Mother’s Day favorites NOW! Just go to http://harryanddavid.com, click the radio icon and enter code PANTSUIT. CREDO Moblie What if you could make the world a little bit better every time you used your cell phone? Well, it turns out you can, thanks to CREDO Mobile. Because, whenever you use a CREDO product or service, you generate critical donations for progressive causes and vital activism work – at no extra cost to you. With over $150,000 donated every month to nonprofits like Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, CREDO truly does give you the power to make positive social change every day. Not to mention, they offer coverage on the nation’s largest and most dependable 4G LTE network, and you can easily transfer over with your existing number. So, if you want a better world for all of us, AND a better way to stay connected to it, you want CREDO mobile. And, right now, CREDO has a special deal for our listeners. Go to CREDOMobile.COM/pantsuit and get 2 smartphones FREE plus 50% off unlimited talk and text. Or call 1-866-689-0099. It’s time your phone company represented your value Leave us a review on iTunes by clicking here! Subscribe to Episodes: iTunes | Android Subscribe to our weekly email and get a free Pantsuit Primer audiobook! Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook The Pearls On Monday, the Washington Post published an extraordinary report entitled "Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador." This reporting rendered the Pearls that we recorded on Sunday night irrelevant, so we hopped on the phone Monday evening to share our thoughts on this report and the White House's response to it. The Suit In the Suit, we discuss Evan Osnos's "How Trump Could Get Fired," which appeared in the New Yorker on May 8. For more information, we recommend listening to Osnos's interview on Fresh Air. Osnos describes two paths for Trump's removal from power: the 25th Amendment and the impeachment process. We talk about the possibilities and perils surrounding a discussion of the President's mental fitness. We also discuss the impeachment process, which recent history has demonstrated is grueling for the country. In light of recent developments, including Jim Clapper's comments to Jake Tapper over the weekend, we wonder whether our institutions can withstand the Trump presidency. The Heels We discuss our Mother's Day weekends, which were exhausting and fun.

The Briefcase: What the Comey!?!

The Trump campaign successfully took over the Republican party, replacing conservatism with nationalism. Today, we discuss globalism as the new dividing line. In the Pearls, we talk about the House's passage of the American Health Care Act and the French election, and in the Heels we discuss the Kentucky Derby, Beth's car accident, and the way our brains and bodies work together. Membership Drive We're excited to launch our first annual membership drive. Pantsuit Politics has become more than we could have imagined, and we want to meet the expectations of our growing community. We are constrained only by time and resources, and we truly appreciate listener support. Visit our Patreon page to check out our goals and the ways that we are trying to thoughtfully provide additional value to subscribers. SPONSORS: Aaptiv What do you get when an app that Sarah is obsessed with becomes a sponsor of the show? Aaptiv - a fitness app that provides audio workouts guided by a trainer synched with the perfect playlist and fully customizable by workout type, machine, duration, and intensity. Aaptiv is are offering our listeners a free 30 day trial. Go to https://aaptiv.com, sign up for a monthly subscription, and enter promo code PANTSUIT. Harry & David Whether she’s a wine aficionado, a chocolate lover, or a fruit fanatic, Harry & David has something Mom’s guaranteed to love. UP TO 30% off select Mother’s Day items is an amazing deal, but it expires Friday. Harry & David is part of the 1-800 Flowers family of brands and the company we trust with Mom’s special day. Get up to 30% off select Mother’s Day favorites NOW! Just go to http://harryanddavid.com, click the radio icon and enter code PANTSUIT. CREDO Moblie What if you could make the world a little bit better every time you used your cell phone? Well, it turns out you can, thanks to CREDO Mobile. Because, whenever you use a CREDO product or service, you generate critical donations for progressive causes and vital activism work – at no extra cost to you. With over $150,000 donated every month to nonprofits like Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, CREDO truly does give you the power to make positive social change every day. Not to mention, they offer coverage on the nation’s largest and most dependable 4G LTE network, and you can easily transfer over with your existing number. So, if you want a better world for all of us, AND a better way to stay connected to it, you want CREDO mobile. And, right now, CREDO has a special deal for our listeners. Go to CREDOMobile.COM/pantsuit and get 2 smartphones FREE plus 50% off unlimited talk and text. Or call 1-866-689-0099. It’s time your phone company represented your value Leave us a review on iTunes by clicking here! Subscribe to Episodes: iTunes | Android Subscribe to our weekly email and get a free Pantsuit Primer audiobook! Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook The Pearls First, we talk about the House's passage of the American Health Care Act. Spoiler: we aren't impressed by the process. Senate Republicans have assembled a working group to try to rewrite the bill. It doesn't include any women. We also talk about Emanuel Macron's decisive victory over Marine Le Pen in France's election. In our regular feature of complimenting the other party, Sarah praised Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker for their comments on the AHCA. Beth complimented Senator Kirsten Gillibrand for her video series encouraging folks to run for office. The Suit We were inspired by several op-eds and an episode of This American Life to discuss the way views on globalism are redefining the political parties. In an op-ed in the New York Times, R.R. Reno described how the party of Reagan has become the "America First" party. Similarly, The National Review has lamented that Republicans have abandoned conservatism. In "The Beginning of Now," This American Life traces globalism's roots in the GOP back to Pat Buchanan, through Eric Cantor's defeat, to Brietbart, to Trump. We discuss what's happening with American identity and the future of the political parties. The Heels We obviously had to spend a couple of minutes on the Kentucky Derby (with a shout-out to Keeneland, one of the most beautiful racetracks in the country)! We also discussed this phenomenal article by Atul Gawande on the brain-body connection.

The Briefcase: Mo Brooks, Elizabeth Warren, and Andrew Jackson?

Considering the Death Penalty

With Sarah in New Orleans and Beth in D.C., the sound in this episode isn't ideal, but we hope the substance is worth it. First, we talk about Beth's experience at Vox Conversations before moving into a lightening round conversation about the news of the week:  Michael Flynn's acceptance of payments from foreign governments The White House's release of a tax reform memo Efforts to resuscitate health care reform in the House President Obama's lucrative speaking gig A federal judge enjoining President Trump's executive order on sanctuary cities Our Friday feedback comes directly from our listeners who attended dinner in DC.  Thanks for bearing with us through the audio! We'll be back on Tuesday with better sound and a robust discussion of the issues. 

Rehashing the Clinton Campaign

The Briefcase: Elections Around the World