Kickass News

As America waits for the full Mueller Report, I talk with the first Trump official to plead guilty in the Mueller Investigation.  George Papadopoulos was the young foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign who reportedly told an Australian diplomat that Russia had thousands of hacked emails that could damage Hillary Clinton and tip the 2016 election to Donald Trump.  He talks about the Maltese professor who first told him about the Clinton emails and why the mysterious professor has now vanished.  I ask him whether he ever attempted to take the professor up on his offer, whether he reported news of the emails back to the Trump campaign, and why he didn’t take this information to U.S. authorities at the time.  Papadopoulos explains why he refused to wear a wire for the FBI, why he says he didn’t intend to lie to the Mueller Investigation, and why he now believes that he was a "patsy" in what may have otherwise been a legitimate investigation into Donald Trump’s connections to Russia.  Plus he discusses why

Comedian Chelsea Handler recalls her anger in the wake of the 2016 election and how Donald Trump became the unlikely catalyst for Chelsea to work through some unresolved personal issues with the help of a clever psychiatrist named Dan.  She discusses her decision to walk away from her Netflix talk show in order to dedicate herself to political activism and campaigning for minority and female candidates in 2018.  Chelsea opens up about how the sudden death of her favorite brother impacted every relationship she has had since then, she says she's finally ready to find a serious partner now, and she lists some of her dealbreakers for a potential mate.  Chelsea talks about the moment she realized she was incapable of operating her own television or making herself a cup of coffee, how she cured herself of “domestic amnesia," and she describes the humbling experience of making a documentary about white privilege.  Plus we get into her deep attraction to Robert Mueller, her obsession with rescuing Chow-Chows, how to

Comedian Wyatt Cenac discusses how he wanted to distinguish his HBO docuseries Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas from his work as a correspondent on The Daily Show including forgoing the traditional studio audience and creating a fun retro 70s look for the show.  He talks about checking his own biases to explore different perspectives on the contentious issue of policing urban communities, what he wants to learn about America’s education system in Season 2 of Problem Areas, and why the topic of school choice is so controversial.  Plus we get into the college admissions scandal, goat yoga, and more. Season 2 of Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas debuts Friday, April 5 at 11 p.m. ET on HBO.  Visit www.wyattcenac.com for more info on Wyatt including his upcoming standup dates and follow him on twitter at @WyattCenac.  Please subscribe to Kickass News on Apple Podcasts and leave us a review, follow us on Twitter at @KickassNewsPod, and take our short listeners survey at www.podsurvey.com/kick. See omnystudio.com/listener fo

Preet Bharara talks about his eight years as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, what movies and TV get wrong about criminal investigations, and why the job is more than just "connecting the dots" or "following the money."  He says if you want to get a confession out of a bad guy, food works better than playing hardball, he discusses the devil's bargain of cutting deals with cooperating witnesses, and why sometimes the cases you don’t prosecute are just as important as the ones you do.  Plus Preet weigh in on the Mueller Report, whether U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr’s interpretation of the report can be trusted, why Mueller didn’t make any recommendations, and whether Mueller intended to "punt" those decisions to Congress rather than Barr. Order Preet Bharara's book Doing Justice: A Prosecutor's Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law on Amazon, Audible or wherever books are sold.  Subscribe to his podcast Stay Tuned with Preet on Apple Podcasts and follow him on Twitter at

has become a political superstar since running for governor of Georgia in 2018 and delivering the Democratic response to President Trump's State of the Union this February.  We talk about her private meeting with Joe Biden, the... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

discusses his 6 decades in Hollywood and what he learned about acting from dad Lloyd Bridges.  He recalls the "Little Rascals" version of Tucker that he and Francis Ford Coppola made prior to filming, laughing it up with... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bestselling authors Dr. Warren Farrell (Why Men Are The Way They Are) and Dr. John Gray (Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus) warn that boys around the world are in crisis and say it's largely the result of a crisis of fathers who suffer from a "purpose void" as their traditional role is being diminished. They reveal how moms and dads parent differently and how fathers use things like rough-housing with the kids to establish boundaries.  They discuss how the lack of boundaries can lead to ADD and ADHD in young men and caution parents to focus on the root cause of ADD before they resort to drugs like Aderall.  They talk about the difficulty they’ve had getting lawmakers to take the boy crisis seriously and offer some recommendations for how the government and our schools can help address this growing problem. Order John and Warren's new book The Boy Crisis: Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It on Amazon and learn more at www.boycrisis.org.  Keep up with Warren at www.warrenfarrell.com 

Alyssa Mastromonaco spent 6 years in the Obama White House as assistant to the president, director of scheduling and advance, and deputy chief of staff for operations.  She says working in the West Wing is a lot like VEEP and recalls some of the lighter moments including getting down on the dance-floor with Michelle Obama, impersonating a hedge hog for President Obama, and the time the leader of the free world tried to play matchmaker. She opens up about her at times comical struggles with irritable bowel syndrome including a few close calls at the most inconvenient moments, and the time that she contracted something called "beaver fever" (yes, it’s a real thing) during a state dinner in Tanzania.  She reveals all the care and protocol that went into every foreign trip she planned for President Obama, and why it was more than a little disheartening to watch President Trump bungle his way through a hastily thrown together North Korea summit.  She also warns that Trump’s use of a personal iPhone is a major secu

Actor/comedian Bryan Callen (THE GOLDBERGS, SCHOOLED, HANGOVER I & II) shares how his childhood growing up in countries all over the world inspired him to question labels and defy categorization, and he discusses his particular issue with the catch all term "Asians" to describe 48 different nationalities.  We talk about the polarizing effect of political parties, why he believes that liberals and conservatives share the same fundamental values, and why everyone should demand to be treated like a verb instead of a noun.  Bryan gets into the problem of political correctness and says that standup comedy is probably the last bastion of free speech in America.  We talk about how he became associated with mixed martial arts, what it’s like inside the surprisingly inclusive world of MMA, and how women in the UFC cured him of chauvinism.  Plus Bryan thinks he’d be a terrible border patrol agent, his proposal to make the world a better place thought "idea sex," and why at the end of the day we're all just complicated

Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute, returns to the podcast to call on Americans to reject the culture of contempt and the outrage industrial complex.  He talks about the event that woke him up to the ugliness of our political discourse two and a half years before the 2016 election.  He pulls back the curtain on how political parties are pushing us farther apart and how talking heads in the media are profitting from stoking division and hate.  Arthur reveals the connection between trolling on social media and personality disorders and his own strategy for handling angry emails and twitter trolls.  He shares what we can learn about civility from the Dalai Lama and a leading marriage counselor.  We discuss the power of stories to bridge divides and the necessity of the competition of ideas to a health democracy.  Plus, Arthur shares what he thinks about President Trump’s two hour speech at last week’s CPAC conference, the time he got mistaken for a Mormon (and loved every minute of it)

On the 50th Anniversary of the Navy's legendary fighter pilot school known as Top Gun, the founder Captain Dan Pederson discusses how the pilot losses he witnessed in the Vietnam War led to the formation of Top Gun, how he and the other original "9 bros" got it up and running in just a matter of weeks with little or no funding, and what they looked for in new recruits.  He recalls the days before Top Gun when aerial combat training was banned by the military and how he and his fellow pilots learned their skills at a secret fight club in the sky off the coast of San Diego.  He talks about getting to train against real Russian MIG fighter jets at the most classified location in America, the mental and physical stamina required to perform the kind of aerial acrobatics taught at Top Gun, and the toll that it can take on a pilot’s personal life.  Plus Dan shares what the famous movie Top Gun gets wrong, he reveals the absolute worst weather to fly in, and he offers a few choice words about the Pentagon’s current r

Roger McNamee was a mentor to a young Mark Zuckerberg and an early investor in Facebook, but now he warns that the social media platform has become a threat to democracy, privacy, competition, and even public health.  He talks about when he noticed the first signs that not all was well at Facebook and what happened when he brought his concerns to his old friend.  He discusses the role that Facebook played in the 2016 election, how its algorithms are actually designed to polarize and spread disinformation, and how Russian trolls and companies like Cambridge Analytica were able to exploit those flaws.  Roger shares how Facebook employs tricks from psychology and slot machines to keep us coming back for more, and how you’re paying for the service with your personal data. Order Roger McNamee's book Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe on Amazon, Audible or wherever books are sold.  Today’s podcast sponsored by Brother INKestment printers, BetterHelp, and season 2 of Breach podcast. Please support the sh

For 30 years, DEA special agent Jack Riley led the manhunt for the world’s most wanted drug-lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.   He reveals how El Chapo cleverly wrangled the cocaine trade from the Columbian cartels, how he saw America’s growing opiod epidemic as an opportunity to branch out into meth and heroine, and how he managed to run a multi-billion dollar drug empire from a Mexican prison (until he escaped).  Jack discusses being on the dangerous front-lines of the war on drugs as head of the DEA’s El Paso, TX office, how it led to $100,000 price on his head, and what he learned about policing the border, how drugs get into America, and where they go from there.  He reveals how Guzman escaped capture so many times,  and how the Mexican government had to postpone a raid on his compound because of actor Sean Penn.  We talk about the recent El Chapo trial, the US opiod epidemic and what needs to be done to address it, criminal justice reform, Donald Trump’s wall, and Trump’s wild assertion that El Chapo put

France’s leading public intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy accuses President Trump of following the same path of retreat begun by Barack Obama and suggests it has created a void that is now being filled by five old-world empires that are making an unlikely resurgence. Bernard-Henri talks about the Iran Nuclear deal and the larger problem of the Middle East, he discusses his long association with the Kurds who he says represent a hopeful new path for Islam, and he recalls his own role in the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi. He also gets into Russia’s election meddling and what he calls the assault on truth, why he worries that Brexit could lead to end of EU, and the rise of nationalism in his own country represented by the yellow vest protests. Order his book The Empire and the Five Kings: America's Abdication and the Fate of the World on Amazon, Audible or wherever books are sold.  Please support the show by taking our annual listener survey at www.podsurvey.com/kick, and register to win a $100 Amazon gift card. Ple

Parag Khanna says America has a China problem and the solution is Asia.  He suggests that rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership and building stronger ties with other countries in the region are much more effective and less risky ways to gain leverage over China than a direct trade war.  He reveals what President Trump gets wrong when he says that America holds all the cards with China, and suggests that Trump’s tariffs may actually hasten China’s push to become self-sufficient.  He talks about the booming markets emerging in other parts of Asia and how leading American tech companies are getting in on the game by signing major manufacturing agreements in place like India, South Korea, and Vietnam.  Parag also discusses the growing cultural influence represented by the hit movie Crazy Rich Asians and discusses a new trend of Asian-Americans crossing back over the Pacific to pursue opportunities as "American-Asians." Order Parag Khanna's new book THE FUTURE IS ASIAN on Amazon or Audible, and follow him at P

Legendary comedy writer and director Larry Charles (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Borat) talks about traveling the world in search of humor in the most unusual, unexpected and deadliest places for his new Netflix series Larry Charles’ Dangerous World of Comedy.  He talks about meeting former child soldiers who perform standup in a cemetery in Liberia, the "Jon Stewart" of Iraq who has a price on his head, and the imprisoned terrorist who wanted to show Larry the lighter side of ISIS.  Larry also tells stories about working on the early seasons of Seinfeld, why Kramer was his favorite character to write for, and what he says Seinfeld has in common with Superman.  He shares how Larry David used to fight with audiences in comedy clubs, why David threw a fit when NBC wanted to move Seinfeld to the most coveted time slot in television, and what it’s like to direct Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm.  We discuss how Borat and Bruno exposed racist and authoritarian leanings in the US and abroad long before 2016,

Former NJ Governor Chris Christie sets the record straight about his tenure as a corruption-busting prosecutor and a Republican running a Democratic state, as well as what really happened on the 2016 campaign trail and inside Trump Tower.  He recalls how his friendship with Donald Trump began and the nasty details of the infamous Charles Kushner case that would later come back to haunt him.  He talks about why he passed on running for President in 2012, Hurricane Sandy and that notorious Obama hug (which he says wasn’t really a hug), and how the Romney campaign used it as a scapegoat for their own candidate’s shortcomings.  Christie reveals that he even had to convince his own son that he had nothing to do with the George Washington Bridge closure and in the end it boiled down to stupid people doing stupid things.  I ask him if he thinks the Trump-Russia collusion may turn out to be a similar situation, he says he could tell General Mike Flynn was trouble from day one, he talks about his former colleagues Bob

Madeleine Albright fled fascists during her childhood and faced them down as Secretary of State, and today she comes on the podcast to warn that fascism is once again on the rise.  She shares how her own refugee experience during World War II and the Cold War shaped her worldview and recalls her meetings with with authoritarian strongmen like Kim Jong-il, Slobodan Milošević, and Vladimir Putin.  She reveals that most fascists come into office through democratic elections or a constitutional transfer of powers, not a bloody coup, and in her experience, dictators can be surprisingly normal and polite despite their monstrous cruelty.  She discusses the upcoming summit between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump, says Putin plays a poor hand well and Trump plays a good hand poorly, and calls out Donald Trump as "the least democratic President in American history." Order Madeleine Albright's book Fascism: A Warning on Amazon and follow her on twitter at @madeleine.  Today's episode was sponsored by BetterHelp.com. See

Former AOL exec and chairman of National Geographic Society Jean Case talks about her new book Be Fearless: 5 Principles for a Life of Breakthroughs and Purpose.  She says leaders need to start viewing risk as R&D and failure as a learning experience.  In fact, Jean Case encourages people to talk about their own mistakes by sharing her own "failure resume" and hosting "fail tests."  She discusses why CEO’s need to get out of their bubble and get uncomfortable, and how greater diversity actually affects an organization's bottom line.  Plus she reveals the coolest thing about being the first female chairman of the National Geographic Society and talks about National Geographic’s history of fearless women going back over 125 years. Order Jean's book Be Fearless: 5 Principles for a Life of Breakthroughs and Purpose on Amazon and learn more about the Case Foundation at www.casefoundation.org.  Today's episode was sponsored by Kronos Payroll Solutions, Blinkist, and Homesick Candles. See omnystudio.com/listener

Encore.org founder Marc Freedman says seniors are an untapped resource and calls on society to stop segregating the elderly from society and renew the bond between young and old.  Marc talks about the mentors who influenced his life, what we can learn from the movie The Intern, and the evidence that shows that seniors who take an interest in a young person actually live longer, happier lives.  He talks about the elderly neighbors who act as "surrogate grandparents" to his own children, calls out the interests who are trying to pit baby boomers and millennials against each other, and reveals why artificial intelligence may create greater demand for the kind of interactions that only seniors can offer.  Plus we talk about the starry eyed dreamer who accidently created an "age apartheid," how Otto Von Bismark decided your retirement age, and why your kid’s next college roommate might be older than you are! Be sure to visit Encore.org for more information and order Marc Freedman's book How to Live Forever: The E