The Rachel Maddow Show
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Rachel Maddow hosts a special conversation with guests from her "Burn Order" podcast, live from the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles to discuss the fight against the race-based incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II and how lessons from that episode in American history apply today. Want more of Rachel? Check out the "Rachel Maddow Presents" feed to listen to all of her chart-topping original podcasts. To listen to all of your favorite MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Rachel Maddow shares a look at how outrage over government corruption in Bulgaria prompted massive protests and eventually the resignation of the prime minister and his government. And in the United States, for all of Donald Trump's unpopular policies being protested across the country, the self-dealing and corruption that has become his administration's hallmark may ultimately be what leads to Trump's downfall. Julie K. Brown, investigative reporter for the Miami Herald who first exposed the scandal of how the Jeffrey Epstein case was handed, talks with Rachel Maddow about feedback she is receiving from survivors of Epstein's abuse about finding their own names in released documents despite heavy redactions that appear to make a greater priority of protecting the identities and information of people involved with Epstein than to protect his victims as the law instructs. Rep. Jamie Raskin joins to discuss how an ownership change and recent editorial decisions by CBS News is raising concerns that Donald Trump and the billionaires who support him are making progress on building state media. Want more of Rachel? Check out the "Rachel Maddow Presents" feed to listen to all of her chart-topping original podcasts. To listen to all of your favorite MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Rachel Maddow reviews how poorly Donald Trump's policies are being received by the American public as Trump continues to appoint laughably unqualified sycophants to top agency roles, and leadership failures mount. As a result, not only are Trump's poll numbers tanking, but even Republican politicians are recognizing that it's not in their interest to tie their fates to Trump's sinking ship. As Donald Trump fills the leadership roles of the U.S. public health system with quacks and kooks, sane states are taking it upon themselves to employ actual experts with real public health administration experience to make sure the public has credible guidance even if that guidance is not coming from the federal government. Dr. Debra Houry, former CDC official and new senior medical adviser to the California Department of Health, talks with Rachel Maddow about this new shift in public health authority as Donald Trump and his clown show are simply ignored. And the FBI is suffering a similar fate, with Trump lackeys in leadership driving out the agency's qualified staff and leaving behind only incompetent Trump loyalists to run the sadly weakened organization. Want more of Rachel? Check out the "Rachel Maddow Presents" feed to listen to all of her chart-topping original podcasts. To listen to all of your favorite MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Rachel Maddow hosts a prime time special event with historian Timothy Snyder about the rise of authoritarianism and how we can meet the moment. (Recorded on November 21, 2025 at the Harris Theater in Chicago’s Millennium Park) Want more of Rachel? Check out the "Rachel Maddow Presents" feed to listen to all of her chart-topping original podcasts. To listen to all of your favorite MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Rachel Maddow looks at a variety of legal tactics and pressure campaigns that are having success against the Trump administration's overreach in immigration enforcement and the Justice Department's vendetta prosecutions. Where people push back, Trump loses, or sometimes doesn't even try to fight, and the more Americans learn that lesson, the stronger the opposition Trump faces. Rachel Maddow explains that as Donald Trump's health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gives increasing credence and authority to crackpots, the authority and reputation of American medical expertise is suffering such extreme degradation that science-minded state officials are establishing new fact-based health alliances to advise the public on matters like vaccinations. Former CDC chief Dr. Richard Besser joins to discuss the crisis at the CDC under Trump and Kennedy. "Iceblock" app developer Joshua Aaron joins to discuss his lawsuit to unblock his app, a community-based ICE raid tracker, from Apple's app store. Want more of Rachel? Check out the "Rachel Maddow Presents" feed to listen to all of her chart-topping original podcasts. To listen to all of your favorite MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Rachel Maddow relays the details of a new Washington Post report that Donald Trump's secretary of defense, former weekend cable news host Pete Hegseth, gave orders to kill everyone on board a boat he accused of running drugs to the United States, which meant finishing off the survivors of an initial strike that destroyed the boat — the literal textbook definition of an illegal order. Rep. Adam Smith, ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee joins to discuss a new, bipartisan push to investigate Hegseth's orders. Rachel Maddow talks with Nadya Tolokonnikova, founding member of Russian dissident activism group Pussy Riot, about what it means that the Putin administration has declared her a member of an "extremist" organization, and the parallels to Donald Trump using a similar tactic to give himself the tools for targeting people he doesn't like. Want more of Rachel? Check out the "Rachel Maddow Presents" feed to listen to all of her chart-topping original podcasts. To listen to all of your favorite MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Rachel Maddow’s new series lays bare one of the most shocking decisions in American history. It’s story that reveals how an executive order authorizing the mass roundup of innocent Japanese Americans came to be, the powerful players who engineered it, and the burn order that tried to erase it from history. Stay right here to listen to a special preview of “Rachel Maddow Presents: Burn Order.” And for the full episode, search for “Burn Order” and follow the show. Want more of Rachel? Check out the "Rachel Maddow Presents" feed to listen to all of her chart-topping original podcasts. To listen to all of your favorite MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Senator Mark Kelly, in an interview with Rachel Maddow, emphasized his view that "it's almost comical" that Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth are calling it a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice that he cited part of the Uniform Code of Military Justice in a recent video. Kelly explained his participation in the video in the context of protecting members of the military from a president who "doesn't seem to care about the Constitution, the rule of law." Rachel Maddow shares reporting on bizarre behavior by former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who tampered with his ankle monitor while on house arrest and was sent to jail. Donald Trump subsequently boasted of speaking with Bolsonaro and expecting to see him soon, apparently unaware of Bolsonaro's incarceration. Did Trump accidentally reveal too much about why Bolsonaro was tampering with his ankle monitor? While there were questions at the start of the Trump administration about whether court rulings would be obeyed, it wasn't seen as a certainty that Donald Trump's representatives in court would lie so much to judges. Former federal prosecutor Barbara McQuade talks with Rachel Maddow about what the likely fallout will be for Trump's legal lackeys. Want more of Rachel? Check out the "Rachel Maddow Presents" feed to listen to all of her chart-topping original podcasts. To listen to all of your favorite MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
"Rachel Maddow Presents: Burn Order" is the story of one of the most shocking decisions in American history: the executive order to target and round up innocent citizens, Japanese Americans, at the outbreak of World War II. This six-episode narrative podcast will examine and shed new light on how that policy came to be, who was behind it, who attempted to stop it, and the heroism needed to end the policy for good. Listen to the trailer here and search for “Burn Order” to follow the show. The first two episodes drop December 1st. Want more of Rachel? Check out the "Rachel Maddow Presents" feed to listen to all of her chart-topping original podcasts. To listen to all of your favorite MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Rachel Maddow relays a series of stories that in any normal administration would be a shattering cascade of scandals, but in the perpetually disgraced Trump administration is merely a string of ordinary headlines of entirely typical waste, corruption and incompetence. As Donald Trump's anti-immigrant operations spread to new cities, residents are learning new lessons in how to resist and help protect their neighbors. MS NOW's Jacob Soboroff reports on a community training event in Charlotte, North Carolina where residents learned protest and resistance tactics to respond to ICE raids and arrests taking place in their city. Rachel Maddow shares the story of the small town of Newport, Oregon figuring out that the Trump administration was planning to install an ICE prison at their airport, turning out residents in droves to protest and demand answers. Oregon State Rep. David Gomberg joins to talk about the effort to find out exactly what is going on. Want more of Rachel? Check out the "Rachel Maddow Presents" feed to listen to all of her chart-topping original podcasts. To listen to all of your favorite MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Rachel Maddow looks at the powerful political momentum Democrats had built, including massive nationwide protests and a wildly successful election, only to have their unity falter on the shutdown fight with Republicans, resulting in capitulation that leaves many Americans who'd been encouraging Democrats to stand up and fight feeling hopeless and dispirited. Senator Bernie Sanders talks with Maddow about his objections to vote, Democratic plans going forward, and why "the Democratic establishment" should be the target of primarying. Rachel Maddow reports on a new set of dubious pardons from Donald Trump, this time of people involved in his schemes to overturn his 2020 election loss, on top of previous pardons of January 6 insurrectionists, and several with whom he has business conflicts. From these pardons a pattern is emerging that law-breaking is permissible when it's done in the service of Trump. Former DOJ pardon attorney Liz Oyer joins to discuss. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Rachel Maddow shares the results of several new polls, all showing the deepening descent of Donald Trump's popularity with the American people. Not only are Trump's actions being met with displeasure, but a remarkable number of people are supportive of the No Kings movement as MAGA's popularity fades. MSNBC's Carol Leonnig joins Rachel to discuss her new book about how the prosecution of Donald Trump in the classified documents case fell apart. And Rachel Maddow salutes the bravery and resourcefulness of people of Evanston, Illinois, who have not only activated to help protect their neighbors against the abuses of Donald Trump's ICE agents, but have rallied to collect food to help struggling neighbors as Trump's Republicans try leverage food assistance to force their budget to pass. Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss talks with Rachel Maddow about his community's activism and pushing back against federal agents going too far. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Rachel Maddow explains that while much of Donald Trump's abuse of power is typical of authoritarians, Trump has a new tool that no authoritarian before him has had: extremely advanced spyware. Trump is already deploying this new weapon through ICE, which intends to use this surveillance technology against immigrants but also against Americans who protest against ICE, and anyone they might snare with an extremely loose definition of "anti-fascist." Rachel Maddow considers reasons why protesting against authoritarians is important, from feeling empowered to ensuring that important rights don't atrophy or get taken away when they're not in use. But another important use for protest is to send a message to the people and entities that would capitulate and become accomplices in the authoritarian's abuses. Marc Elias, attorney and founder of Democracy Docket, talks with Rachel Maddow about the fight he expects Donald Trump to put up as Trump's unpopularity makes a clean election victory less likely. Even as Trump will abuse the power and credibility of the Justice Department to serve his ends, his past bad faith in making bogus election fraud accusations gives his legal opponents an advantage. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
We’re thrilled to share one of the most anticipated conversations from our recent MSNBCLIVE ‘25 event in New York City. Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell sit down to discuss coping with this political moment, the mechanics of presenting news, what we can learn from other tough moments in history and what civic actions, in their view, are most encouraging in this era. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Not even a year into his new term and Donald Trump is already seeing people take to the streets by the millions to voice their objections how he is approaching his job as president of the United States. Rachel Maddow gives each state, plus Washington, D.C., its due and highlights just a small portion of the No Kings protests that took place in each state on Saturday. Plus, Rachel talks with Erica Chenoweth about what it takes for a movement like No Kings to to become politically potent. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Rachel Maddow looks at Donald Trump's position of extreme weakness ahead of what are expected to be massive "No Kings" protests, with Trump's agenda running into resistance from everyone from students and universities to members of the media to sitting judges to everyday people on grand juries and in public polling. As Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson is set to keep the federal government closed for a fifth week, Rachel Maddow shares new reporting from the New York Times on information published by individual states showing the cost increase in raw dollars if Republicans succeed in making changes to subsidies, the very changes Democrats have taken a stand against in the shutdown fight. Bill McKibben, veteran climate organizer and founder of Third Act, talks with Rachel Maddow about the strong representation of older Americans among anti-Trump protesters and how the combination of personal experience and roots in civic activism has energized the older generation to speak out about the abuses and backsliding in the Trump era. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Ahead of the premiere of Rachel’s new documentary, “Andrew Young: The Dirty Work,” Rachel sits down with Andrew Young and John Hope Bryant in a discussion led by Rev. Al Sharpton at Clark Atlanta University. They talk about Ambassador Young’s historic career and his key role alongside Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the civil rights movement. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Jen Psaki is on a mission to show us how the Democratic party can use this political moment to fight and win again. On Season 2 of her podcast, “The Blueprint,” she interviews the people reshaping the party, starting with Texas Congressman Greg Casar, Chair of the Progressive Caucus. The first two episodes of “The Blueprint with Jen Psaki” are available now, and will continue to drop every Wednesday, from now through mid-November. Stay right here to listen to a special preview. And for the full episode, search for “The Blueprint with Jen Psaki” and follow the show. Plus, subscribe to MSNBC Premium on Apple Podcasts for ad-free listening. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Rachel Maddow points out the exceptional and unusually effusive praise and thanks that Donald Trump heaped on Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the president of Egypt, at an event tied to the Israel-Gaza ceasefire, in which Trump bizarrely mentioned his race against Hillary Clinton. The episode calls to mind a mysterious $10 million and a related investigation's questions left open-ended after Trump was inaugurated the first time. Rachel Maddow looks at recent examples of Donald Trump using the power of American taxpayers to cut deals for himself and his friends and family, and focuses on the especially galling case of Trump and his Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, sending an extraordinary $20 billion to bail out Argentina at a time when the U.S. government is closed for lack of funding. Rachel Maddow reports that the number of events planned for the "No Kings" day of protest on Saturday, October 18 already exceeds the previous "No Kings" protests that drew millions of Americans to voice their opposition to Donald Trump's overreach and attacks on democracy in the United States. Ezra Levin, co-founder and co-executive director of Indivisible, joins to discuss the planning and organizing taking place. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Democrats are looking to regain power, and there is a whole lot of warranted debate about what a winning formula looks like. “The Blueprint with Jen Psaki” is a forum where those discussions take place. On season two of her podcast, Jen sits down with some of the biggest names on the left side of the political spectrum to talk about confronting Trump 2.0 and how the Democratic party can shape the future they’d like to see. New episodes drop October 15th. Search for “The Blueprint with Jen Psaki” to follow the show. And subscribe to MSNBC Premium on Apple Podcasts for ad-free listening. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Donald Trump continues to terrorize urban populations with militarized ICE raids while trying every loophole he can find to justify using the actual military in U.S. cities. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker talks with Rachel Maddow about his threat to leave the National Governors Association of the group won't speak out against Donald Trump's use of the National Guard against U.S. cities. Pritzker explains how he sees the militarization of ICE and Border Patrol agents as a normalizing precursor to establishing a military presence in cities in time to interfere with the 2026 election. And as individuals find ways to assert peaceful resistance against the Trump regime, major corporations, like Apple, are giving up without a fight. Apple removed from its app store an app called ICEBlock that allowed people to flag where ICE raids were taking place. The app's creator, Joshua Aaron, talks with Rachel. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Rachel Maddow reviews how the Trump administration has made a practice of weaponizing access to personal data in order to attack people Donald Trump doesn't like, and talks with Rep. Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic candidate running for governor in New Jersey who had her full, private military personnel record released to an ally of her Republican opponent without the proper procedure, not the necessary redactions. Oregon Governor Tina Kotek talks with Rachel Maddow about Donald Trump's bizarre impression that the city of Portland is a war zone that requires U.S. military occupation, and her frustrating efforts to dispel Trump of this wrongheaded notion. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Rachel Maddow hosts former Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic nominiee for president, on the eve of the publication of her new book, "107 Days," to revisit some of the decisions and circumstances that shaped the 2024 election, and to discuss politics and activism in the second Trump term. Rachel shares her impressions of the interview with Lawrence O'Donnell at the end of the hour. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Rachel Maddow points out that Donald Trump is following the "strongman" playbook so closely, and with such a lack of originality, that his behavior in his second term has become entirely predictable. And yet, for all of his aspirations to be a strongman, his leadership suffers from some profound weaknesses, from the economy to healthcare to criminal justice to immigration. Rachel Maddow talks with Jonathan Mahler, staff writer for the New York Times Magazine, about his reporting on the concerted effort by the Trump administration to destroy America's global leadership in cancer research. What constituency supports Donald Trump sabotaging work that not only saves lives but supports countless American jobs? Former CDC director Susan Monarez is set to testify before the Senate this week as HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy is stacking the vaccine advisory board with vaccine skeptics. And the Trump administration claimed to have burned a massive quanitity of contraceptives meant to be distributed in developing countries, with the false explanation that the contraceptives are abortifacients, only for it to be discovered that the contraceptives are still sitting in storage. Follow Rachel Maddow on BlueSky at https://bsky.app/profile/maddow.msnbc.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
The estate of Jeffrey Epstein released materials today to the House Oversight Committee, including the "birthday book" that Donald Trump disputed (and continues to dispute) includes a crude drawing and note he submitted with his signature. Rachel Maddow looks at this and other new revelations and how much energy Trump is putting into denying what seems plain about Trump's role in a disgusting scandal of historic scale. Donald Trump's poor choice of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his HHS secretary has cost him a leadership role in public health as Kennedy dismantles key departments and agencies, cuts funding and fires experts, leaving state leaders to take charge of vaccine availability and other health issues. Dr. Tao Sheng Kwan-Gett, chief science officer for the Washington State Department of Health, joins Rachel Maddow to discuss.
Rachel Maddow highlights the difference between Donald Trump's rhetoric and his actions and notes that taking the big picture of Trump's actions can illuminate significant trends. For example, moving an individual out of one position in the administration into another may not seem particularly noteworthy until it becomes clear that Trump is moving people into ambassadorships instead of firing them. Similarly, a pattern appears to be taking shape as high-level military and national security leaders are being dismissed from service. Donald Trump is acting as though he has the authority to fire members of the Federal Reserve Board and had attempted to do so with Governor Lisa Cook. Paul Krugman joins to explain the disaster Trump is courting. Constantly making a mess of the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case hasn't stopped the Trump administration from continuing to do so. Today a judge prevented his deportation to Uganda. And red states that have sent National Guard troops to serve in Trump's military occupation of Washington, D.C. have cities with higher crime rates than D.C., exposing the lie that these deployments have anything to do with fighting crime.
Donald Trump seems to move from one unpopular catastrophe to another. With people still in the streets protesting his military take-over of Washington, D.C., his disgraceful capitulation to Putin in Alaska prompted even deeper disapproval, with a new Pew poll showing his numbers steadily worsening. Meanwhile, in Texas, state Democrats have returned, enabling Republicans to restart their gerrymandering effort, another facet in Trump's effort to manipulate the upcoming midterms to preserve his hold on power. BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/maddowblog.msnbc.com https://bsky.app/profile/maddow.msnbc.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maddowshow/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@maddowshow
Rachel Maddow cites example after example of Donald Trump going out of his way to help criminals, including some really terrible ones, so the idea that Trump's concerns about crime are behind his deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C. does not seem to hold water. Looking more closely at what Donald Trump has done instead of what he has said points to the more likely explanation that Trump really likes pointing the U.S. military at the American people. Meanwhile, Donald Trump and his health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for mRNA vaccine research, a move that has been widely panned by health experts across the political spectrum, including members of Trump's first administration.
Rachel Maddow points out that the thing most Americans were dreading has come to pass, and the United States has changed profoundly in only six months of authoritarian rule. "We have a consolidating dictatorship in our country." With freedoms likely to continue to be curtailed in deference to Donald Trump's power, that means Americans have the most tools for democratic resistance right now.
In an election year of astronomically high stakes, in the absolutely crucial Senate race in North Carolina, Democrats got their wish with popular former Governor Roy Cooper entering the race. Fresh from announcing his candidacy, Cooper talks with Rachel Maddow about his accomplishments leading North Carolina, and what he hopes to bring to Washington, D.C.
