PODCAST · news
Vibes Only
by Vibes Only
Politics doesn't have to feel like a doomscroll. Vibes Only is a weekly political podcast for people who want to actually understand what's happening without the panic, the jargon, or the takes designed to make you feel helpless.Every Thursday, Brian Derrick (political strategist, founder of Oath) and Glennis Meagher (political and new media strategist, co-founder of Generator Collective) break down the week in politics, elections, and culture the way two people who've worked inside the machine actually talk. Sharp, honest, and a little fun.This is your weekly reset. Just the vibes. And the receipts.New episodes every Thursday. Follow the show and leave a rating, will you? It's the best way to help us find the people needing honest vibes this election season.
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Arizona Primary Upsets | Michigan Primary Chaos | Troy Jackson Steps Up In Maine
Troy Jackson has the delegates in Maine, Amish Shah beat the DCCC in Arizona, and Michigan votes August 4. The party endorsement is now a liability.Arizona was the only state holding a primary this month, and it delivered the story of the summer. Amish Shah won the Democratic nomination in Arizona's 1st Congressional District over the candidate the DCCC spent real money to boost. Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher walk through why this might be happening, from Randy Villegas in California to Matt Dunlap in Maine, and what it means when the national party's blessing starts reading as a potential scarlet letter.Up in Maine, Troy Jackson has locked up the delegates to replace Graham Platner on the ballot against Susan Collins, and he is this week's Oath Candidate of the Week. A fifth generation logger who got into politics organizing his fellow loggers against a Canadian labor swap, Jackson starts from zero with a nominating convention set for July 25. Brian explains why this is one of the rare Senate races where an early contribution actually moves something.Then it's Michigan, where Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed are twelve days from an August 4 primary that has pulled in roughly $50 million in outside spending, including the largest single race investment AIPAC has ever made. Plus Pete Hegseth on the Hill pricing the Iran war at $37.5 billion while asking for tens of billions more, Kirsten Gillibrand pressing him on why a supposedly decimated Iran is still killing American service members, and the drone company investments Joe Rogan Googled live on his own show.Also this week: a rapid fire Clickbait or Double Click on the Cyclospora outbreak and your Crunchwrap Supreme, the Tate brothers' arrest in Miami, and Zohran Mamdani's viral Netanyahu video. Plus why Kamala Harris keeps getting handed the 2028 frontrunner label, and a Good Vibe Goodbye courtesy of John Cornyn, two ambassador nominations and PEPFAR.New episodes every Thursday morning! Follow so you never miss a check in!EPISODE LINKSSupport Oath Candidate of the Week: Troy JacksonSend us a text!Watch us on YoutubeFollow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok tooFollow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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Lindsey Graham's Sister Takes His Seat | Todd Blanche's AG Fight | More ICE Murders
Lindsey Graham's sister just got picked by Trump via Fake Social to take his Senate seat, Trump's pet Todd Blanche wants to run DOJ, and we still managed to celebrate the good vibes this week.We get into the recent ICE killings that have people marching from Maine to Texas. Joan Sebastian Guerrero was shot by an ICE agent in Biddeford on his way to work, days after Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was killed at a traffic stop in Texas, and the pressure is already forcing reversals out of DHS. As always, we're here to make the case for real accountability and in this week's episode of Vibes Only the podcast, we get into where the abolish versus reform fight actually stands for the party.Then the Senate gets weird. Lindsey Graham died, and his sister, Darline Graham Nordone, was sworn into his seat within days, reopening the South Carolina race and handing Dr. Annie Andrews a real shot at an open seat. We break it all down for you. As well as Todd Blanche, Trump's former personal lawyer now up for attorney general, and why an independent DOJ is the thing to watch. Plus a plain English take on Reconciliation 3.0 and the SAVE Act, including the Elizabeth Warren provision that would block defense contractors like Amazon and Google from stock buybacks.Also this week: a rapid fire Clickbait or Double Click on your paycheck versus inflation, a supposed uptick in threats against the Supreme Court, and the Strait of Hormuz is back in the news. This week's Oath Candidate of the Week is Ben Gruber, the conservation warden trying to flip the tipping point seat in the Wisconsin Assembly, and we've got a double Good Vibe Goodbye straight out of New York with Kathy Hochul's data center moratorium and a horse carriage ban for Manhattan inching closer.New episodes of Vibes Only the Podcast drop every Thursday morning! Follow so you never miss a vibe check.EPISODE LINKSOATH CANDIDATE OF THE WEEKSend us a text!Watch us on YoutubeFollow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok tooFollow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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Platner Is Out: Who Replaces Him and the Fight Over Maine
Graham Platner's Senate campaign just imploded, and it might be the best news Maine Democrats got all year. Here's who replaces him.Graham Platner is out, and the Maine Democratic Party has until July 27th to name a replacement. Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher get into who actually deserves blame for the whole mess in Maine and SPOILER it’s the consultants who recruited him, the party that let it get this far, and - of course - Platner himself. Then it's Weekend at Bernie's in the Senate as Mitch McConnell goes three weeks without a public sighting, and we walk through what happens in Kentucky if Governor Andy Beshear gets to make a move (Thomas Massie, anyone?).Donald Trump is still holding a genuinely good housing bill hostage over the SAVE Act, so we explain why that should shake anyone's trust in Donald Trump, the world’s worst businessman, on the economy. Plus we get into (not literally) the former Pfizer HQ on 42nd Street that's now leaning like a melted ice cream cone and forced nine buildings to evacuate, and yes, Brian needs a new apartment (Upper West Side leads welcome - DM us on instagram @vibesonlythepodcast).Also this week: a rapid fire round of Clickbait or Double Click on Iran, election funding, and Florida's Stop Woke law, this week's Oath Candidate of the Week is a real looker named Manny Rutinel in Colorado's 8th, and a Good Vibe Goodbye courtesy of the federal courts.Just the vibes. And the receipts. Every Thursday. Follow the show so you never miss a check in!EPISODE LINKSOATH CANDIDATE OF THE WEEKSend us a text!Watch us on YoutubeFollow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok tooFollow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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71
How SCOTUS Rewrote Campaign Finance & DSA Sweeps Colorado
Melat Kiros toppled a longtime incumbent and Phil Weiser beat a sitting senator: Colorado's progressive wave is real and we brought the receipts.This week Colorado handed progressives a statement night. Attorney General Phil Weiser defeated sitting US Senator Michael Bennet for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, 29-year-old democratic socialist Melat Kiros unseated 15-term Denver incumbent Diana DeGette in the 1st District, and state Rep. Manny Rutinel won the Democratic primary in the battleground 8th. Brian and Glennis dig into what's actually driving these wins: not a DSA litmus test, but voters hungry for candidates who fight and communicate.Then it's the Supreme Court's final day of the term. In National Republican Senatorial Committee v. FEC, the Court struck down limits on how much party committees can spend in coordination with their own candidates, a 6-3 ruling that reshapes money in the 2026 midterms. The justices also upheld state bans on transgender girls in girls' and women's school sports (West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox) and, a day earlier, let states count mail ballots that arrive after Election Day. In this episode of Vibes Only, we break down what each ruling means for real for real.Also: Trump's new financial disclosure showing more than $2 billion in 2025 income (roughly $1.4 billion tied to crypto and meme coins), the leaked 911 audio around Mitch McConnell being a breath from death, this week's Oath Candidate of the Week Keisha Lance Bottoms running for Georgia governor, and a rapid-fire round of Clickbait or Double Click.New episodes drop every Thursday morning! Tap follow now and stay ahead of the news cycle with us.EPISODE LINKSOATH CANDIDATE OF THE WEEKSend us a text!Watch us on YoutubeFollow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok tooFollow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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Is Mamdani a Kingmaker? How DSA Swept New York's Primaries
Zohran Mamdani is being called a kingmaker, and after this week's New York primaries it's easy to see why. Is the Democratic Party fundamentally shifting left, or are voters simply desperate for an alternative to the 70-year-old status quo?This week on Vibes Only, we break down the massive shockwaves from the New York primary elections. From Mayor Mamdani’s new proported kingmaker status to the DSA's historic triple-crown victories upending powerful establishment machines, we look at how young, energetic hustlers are changing the face of campaigning in 2026.Plus, we dive into the heartbreaking $27 million super PAC blitz that took down AI-reform candidate Alex Bores, why Trump is blocking his own bipartisan housing bill over the SAVE Act, and the terrifying reality of national security flying blind after the expiration of FISA. Pull up a chair cause the vibes are chaotic this week, but the analysis we are bringing - it is sharp.Vibes Only is a weekly political podcast hosted by Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher, two political operatives turned creators breaking down the news of the week in politics, elections, and culture with new episodes EVERY Thursday morning!EPISODE LINKSToday, Explained Episode with Alex BoresTulsi Gabbard Expose by The Washington PostOATH CANDIDATE OF THE WEEKSend us a text!Watch us on YoutubeFollow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok tooFollow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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The Behind-The-Scenes Story DC Tried to Kill (Mrs. Frazzled Full Interview)
Mrs. Frazzled (Arielle Fodor) did not set out to end a congressman's career. In this full bonus interview, the TikTok creator sits down with Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher to walk through exactly how she and a coalition of independent creators surfaced the sexual misconduct allegations that ended Eric Swalwell's run for California governor and his time in Congress.In this bonus episode of Vibes Only, Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher chat with Arielle about the parts of the scandal nobody posts, like… buying an umbrella insurance policy on her house as protection for her familytesting the Swalwell story on Threads before she ever made a videocalling CNN herself because she could not carry the reporting aloneAnd what it feels like to have an OPPO research binder written on you Also: why she is done with investigative content for good, how broken disclosure laws turn every creator into a suspected paid operative, and her advice for anyone trying to build real trust in political media right now.This is the full conversation behind Thursday's episode. If Vibes Only makes your week make sense, follow the show and leave a rating and review. It genuinely moves us up the charts and helps more people find the vibes. And the receipts.EPISODE LINKSArielle Fodor aka Mrs. Frazzled on TikTokCheyenne Hunt's Org "Reckoning Action"Meg Klink's Org "Pretty Informed Girls"OATH CANDIDATE OF THE WEEKSend us a text!Watch us on YoutubeFollow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok tooFollow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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Can Creators Take Down Politicians? (feat. Mrs. Frazzled)
A powerhouse coalition of independent creators just bypassed traditional newsrooms to end a sitting congressman's career. This week, Arielle Fodor (TikTok Star - Mrs. Frazzled) joins Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher to get into the takedown of sex pest, Eric Swalwell - from taking out umbrella insurance to testing the waters on Threads. Plus, the team breaks down Elon Musk hitting trillionaire status and Trump’s trashy UFC match on the White House lawn.This week on Vibes Only, Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher chat from across the pond to break down the sheer scale of infinite wealth, a pointless war that left us $100 Billion poorer, and the massive Supreme Court decisions dropping by the end of this month.Then, we are joined by the incredible Arielle Fodor (AKA Mrs. Frazzled) to pull back the curtain on how she, Cheyenne Hunt at Reckoning Action, and Meg Klink at Pretty Informed Girls bypassed traditional newsrooms to expose the open secret of former Congressman Eric Swalwell and Arielle shares what accountability can look like in the age of independent media.Tell your friends - Vibes Only is a weekly political podcast hosted by Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher, two political operatives turned creators breaking down the news of the week in politics, elections, and culture. New episodes every Thursday morning and a BONUS EPISODE (our full interview with Arielle Fodor aka Mrs. Frazzled) DROPPING TOMORROW!EPISODE LINKSArielle Fodor aka Mrs. Frazzled on TikTokCheyenne Hunt's Org "Reckoning Action"Meg Klink's Org "Pretty Informed Girls"OATH CANDIDATE OF THE WEEKSend us a text!Watch us on YoutubeFollow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok tooFollow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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Trump's 75% Inflation Spike & Bernie Sanders' Radical AI Plan
Hunter Biden went viral, Graham Platner won Maine, and the AI bubble started to wobble, all in one week. Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher break down the new inflation numbers and what they actually mean for your rent and your retirement, why Hunter Biden's chaotic run on X and his Candace Owens interview might be the best thing to happen to the Biden family in years, and how Graham Platner survived a brutal week of headlines to win Maine's Democratic Senate primary and line up a fight with Susan Collins.Then it's billionaire season. Bernie Sanders wants the public to own half of every major AI company just as SpaceX races toward a record-setting IPO, three big bills are jammed in Congress deciding exactly where your tax dollars go (ICE funding, FISA, and a 1.5 trillion dollar military budget), and FIFA is on track to make a fortune off a World Cup that New York taxpayers are helping foot the bill for, the same week the tournament kicks off.Also: the Knicks have had all of New York in a happy unifying chokehold, Spencer Pratt loses in LA, and Josh Turek is our Oath Candidate of the Week.If this podcast makes your week a little less unhinged, be sure to hit follow, leave us a rating and a review wherever you're listening. It takes a minute, and is 100% the single biggest thing that helps new listeners find a small podcast like our’s. Thank you for your support!OATH CANDIDATE OF THE WEEK: Donate to Josh Turek's Campaign HERE!Send us a text!Watch us on YoutubeFollow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok tooFollow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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Pattie Gonia vs Patagonia and Gerrymandering (Keith Edwards Full Interview)
Keith Edwards joins Vibes Only for the full interview on the Pattie Gonia vs Patagonia trademark fight, Trump's health, and the gerrymandering battle splitting the left.Our most frequent guest is back! Political strategist, commentator, and one of the fastest growing voices in the space, Keith Edwards sat down with Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher for the complete, unedited conversation. A slice of this aired in yesterday's episode. This is the whole thing.Keith opens on the question hanging over everything: is authoritarianism actually happening, or is the Democratic position quietly the strongest it has been in a decade? Then he gets into his running watch on the president's health, the bruises, the theories, and the stretch where Trump went six days without being seen in public.From there, everyone wades into the fight that took over Threads. Pattie Gonia versus Patagonia. Keith walks through why this is really a trademark case and not the simple corporate villain story the internet wants it to be, how a legal dispute ended up getting argued through Instagram posts, and whether Pattie Gonia took a genuinely good cause a step too far.That is where the real disagreement starts. Brian and Keith do not see gerrymandering the same way. Keith's whole thing is that you become what you are fighting, and Brian makes the case for caring about the outcome over the method and getting to a federal ban by 2029. Along the way they hit the podcast grift economy, why the parties keep getting more extreme, why Keith thinks most voters do not actually care about AI, the Graham Platner situation and the Maine Senate race against Susan Collins, and a closing round on knowing when it is time to step aside.Consider this your weekly pause from doomscrolling and consultant speak. Just solid vibes and receipts.Also: Keith is bringing red hats back - his makes an appearance, the girls are fighting (lovingly), and Keith reminds everyone he is still waiting on a billionaire to come buy his channel. Stick around for the goodbyes.Send us a text!Watch us on YoutubeFollow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok tooFollow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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65
What's Up with Trump's Health? (feat. Keith Edwards)
It is Pride Month, it is primary season, and the Democratic Party is having a moment. Brian and Glennis are back with our third-time guest, political strategist and one of the fastest growing podcasters in the game right now, Keith Edwards, for a wide-ranging conversation about Trump's health, the gerrymandering debate splitting the left, and the Patagonia versus Pattie Gonia trademark war that took over every progressive's Threads feed this week.But first, we have to talk about Maine. Graham Platner, the oyster farmer and Marine veteran running to unseat Susan Collins, is now facing reports that he sexted multiple women early in his marriage, the latest in a string of controversies that includes a covered Nazi tattoo and a pattern of bad online judgment. Brian and Glennis land in very different places on whether any of it matters, and the conversation ends up being less about Platner specifically and more about what Democrats are actually looking for in a candidate right now, and what they are willing to overlook to get there.Then Brian lifts the mood with the Oath candidate of the week: Bobby Pulido, a Latin Grammy winning musician running to flip a gerrymandered seat in Texas by performing at quinceañeras and meeting voters where they actually are. Glennis, reporting from Washington DC, takes us to the White House lawn, where a UFC cage is going up for Trump's 80th birthday.After that, Jared Polis, the Democratic governor of Colorado - who under pressure from Trump - commuted the sentence of Tina Peters. Miss Peters, if you’re nasty, was the election denier convicted of tampering with voting equipment. She walked out of prison and went straight to Steve Bannon's podcast to call herself a political prisoner and accuse Democrats of cheating in the midterms. Polis was censured by the Colorado legislature and responded by showing up to a public event with his mouth duct-taped shut. Brian and Glennis are speechless, and then they are not.We also check in on the AI IPO wave, with SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI all signaling public offerings at a combined valuation approaching three trillion dollars, and what that level of speculative concentration in the market actually means for the rest of us.Then Keith Edwards joins the pod. He makes the case that authoritarianism, while real, has not fully landed the way some feared, and that Democrats are in a stronger political position than they have been in a decade. He tracks Trump's health with his signature forensic attention, flags six days without a public presidential appearance, and wonders out loud why the mainstream media is not pressing harder on the story. He and Glennis dig into the Patagonia versus Pattie Gonia lawsuit, the online mob dynamics that made it impossible to read clearly at first, and why trademark law exists to protect small businesses too, not just outdoor apparel giants. And he and Brian go back and forth on gerrymandering, with Brian now firmly in the outcomes camp and Keith holding the line on means.Also, Keith did not respond to Pattie Gonia’s DMs. Glennis is wearing what may or may not be a Proud Boys jacket. Brian does his Rick Devens impression. And the gang has some things to say about Susan Collins' continued presence in the United States Senate.If you are enjoying the show, leaving a review wherever you listen goes a long way and helps more people find us. We read them and we appreciate every single one.A full bonus episode with the complete Keith Edwards interview drops this Friday, everywhere you get Vibes Only.KEEP UP W/KEITHKeith's Debate Club Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/keithedwards.bsky.socialNewsletter: keithedwards.substack.comInstagram: instagram.com/keithedwardsThreads: threads.net/@keithedwardsTwitter: twitter.com/keithedwardsTikTok: tiktok.com/@keithedwardsFOLLOW VIBES ONLYInstagram: instagram.com/vibesonlythepodcastTikTok: tiktok.com/vibesonlythepodcastBrian: instagram.com/brianderrick_Glennis: instagram.com/glennismeagherSend us a text!Watch us on YoutubeFollow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok tooFollow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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How CBS Torched Its Own Reputation (Eliza Orlins Full Interview)
This is the one we promised. Our full, unedited conversation with our first guest of Season 3; with public defender, creator, and iconic Survivor player Eliza Orlins. A slice of it ran in Thursday's episode. Here's the whole thing.Eliza anchored "Cover to Cover-Up," 24 straight hours live streaming a reading of the Epstein files, Cory Booker filibuster style, after Steve Schmidt and the Save America movement connected her with the redacted reading room in Tribeca. She takes us inside how it actually came together, the overnight scramble to fill the midnight to 7:30 AM hours, and what it felt like to read victim testimony out loud for a full day.She has been on the Epstein beat since 2018, when she watched the Manhattan DA's office quietly request a downward departure on his sex offender registration level, something she says she had never once seen in 15 years of public defending. She walks through what is actually in the files, the two million plus pages still hidden, the improper redactions in the pages we do have, and the Treasury documents that implicate Jamie Dimon and the banks. Then she makes the point that lands hardest: in every horrific case she ever read as a public defender, there was at least the promise of accountability. With Epstein, the richest and most powerful men in the world (Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Leon Black) have faced none. The reading room is now going on the road and opening two blocks from the White House, just in time for Trump's birthday.There is more here than made the Thursday cut. Eliza gets into the Democratic "autopsy," Rob Flaherty's much more honest version of it, and why she thinks the left is decades late on building real creator infrastructure because no one is watching cable news anymore. It is the clearest case we have heard for why shows like this one exist.Then things get a bit more personal as Eliza explains why she believes she will never be invited back to Survivor after she publicly torched CBS over its hard right turn, the $16 million settlement, Bari Weiss taking over CBS News, and a returning contestant's on air antisemitic rant. There are Survivor 50 hot takes, a MAGA alliance theory, and a Roy Moore connection you will not see coming.A programming note: this episode includes discussion of child sexual abuse and trafficking. Listener discretion advised.Send us a text!Watch us on YoutubeFollow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok tooFollow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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What’s Actually Hidden in the Epstein Files? (feat. Eliza Orlins)
Brian and Glennis are back with their first guest of Season 3, and it is a big one. Public defender, creator, and iconic Survivor player Eliza Orlins joins to talk about the 24 hours she spent live streaming a reading of the Epstein files, Cory Booker filibuster style, after Steve Schmidt and the Save America movement connected her with the redacted reading room in Tribeca.Eliza has been on the Epstein beat since 2018, when she watched the Manhattan DA's office quietly request a downward departure on his sex offender registration level, something she says she had never once seen in 15 years of public defending. She walks through what is actually in the files, the two million plus pages still hidden, the improper redactions in the pages we do have, and the Treasury documents that implicate Jamie Dimon and the banks. She makes the point that lands hardest: in every horrific case she ever read as a public defender, there was at least the promise of accountability. With Epstein, the richest and most powerful men in the world (Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Leon Black) have faced none. The reading room is now going on the road and opening two blocks from the White House, just in time for Trump's 80th birthday.Then it gets personal. Eliza explains why she believes she will never be invited back to Survivor after she publicly torched CBS over its hard right turn, the $16 million settlement, Bari Weiss taking over CBS News, and a returning contestant's on air antisemitic rant. There are Survivor 50 hot takes, a MAGA alliance theory, and a Roy Moore connection you will not see coming.After Eliza, Brian and Glennis turn to the Texas runoff that just wiped out John Cornyn. Ken Paxton, who is indicted, impeached, settled a whistleblower suit for $3.3 million in taxpayer money, and is comically corrupt by any measure, won by nearly 28 points on the strength of a single Trump endorsement. It capped the most expensive primary in US history at over $100 million, with roughly $80 million of that spent against Paxton, and it did not matter. Brian and Glennis dig into the chicken and egg of a Trump endorsement, why an unelectable nominee may be the best case scenario for Democrats and James Talarico, and the growing list of Republicans Trump is turning into lame duck enemies inside his own caucus.Then, in What Fresh Hell Is This number 642: the UFC cage Trump is building on the White House lawn for his birthday, the billionaires set to watch from the front row, Paramount's $7.7 billion UFC deal, and the illegal online casino sponsoring the whole thing that Trump keeps posting about. Brian and Glennis make the case that the whole spectacle is rage bait engineered to make liberals look out of touch, and lay out how to talk about it without taking the bait.They close on a genuinely good vibe out of South Carolina, where the state Senate killed a new map that would have eliminated its only majority Black district.And one more thing: a bonus episode with Eliza Orlins drops this Friday.A programming note: this episode includes discussion of child sexual abuse and trafficking. Listener discretion advised.EPISODE LINKSEliza's 24 Hour Livestream of the Epstein FilesEliza's YouTubeSend us a text!Watch us on YoutubeFollow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok tooFollow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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62
Inside Trump's $2 Billion J6 Slush Fund
Brian and Glennis are back, this time remote (Glennis is sick, not with hantavirus or Ebola, thanks for asking). And the corruption story of the season just dropped. Trump sued the IRS for $10 billion claiming emotional damages over a leaked piece of his 2019 tax return. A federal judge called it bullshit, brought in legal experts who agreed it was bullshit, then settled by creating a $1.7 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund" controlled by five allies of AG Todd Blanche, with no transparency requirements and the explicit purpose of paying out January 6 defendants. Glennis just paid her taxes. Brian explains why this is the most brazen self-dealing in modern American politics.This week, Brian Derrick (Political Strategist and Founder of Oath) and Glennis Meagher (Political and New Media Strategist and Co-founder of Generator Collective) walk through the slush fund, what it means that taxpayer money is about to flow to people who assaulted police officers at the Capitol, and why Brian thinks the Trump children and several cabinet members are still on a path to prison even if Trump himself never is.Then the corruption deep dive. New reporting that Trump made more than 3,600 individual stock trades in Q1, often on the same day he was visiting manufacturing plants, tweeting about specific companies, or calling into CNBC and Fox News to pump them. His personal net worth has more than doubled in a year. His inner circle is making prediction market trades minutes before Iran announcements move oil. The White House says he has nothing to do with any of it. Brian and Glennis go through the receipts.The political board is also moving fast. Bill Cassidy, the fake moderate Louisiana Republican who voted for all of Trump's nominees and then pretended to be outraged, came in third in his own primary after Trump endorsed against him. He gave a speech that could turn him into a serious thorn in Trump's side on committee votes, nominees, and DHS funding for the rest of his term. Sitting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth flew to Kentucky on duty to campaign against Thomas Massey, the last Republican still pushing on the Epstein files. Trump's approval is now 37%, the lowest of his political career. The Democratic generic ballot is at +11, larger than the 2018 wave. Plus the most expensive House primary in U.S. history (in Kentucky, of all places, where ad buys are cheap), Georgia Supreme Court races that could flip the court by 2028, and a Pennsylvania primary where Shapiro, AOC, and Bernie Sanders all backed the same firefighter.Then the Supreme Court reform conversation Kamala Harris just reopened. Glennis lays out her preference for 18 year term limits and two appointments per president. Brian walks through FDR's court packing threat and what it actually accomplished. And both of them dig into what Republicans just did in Utah and North Carolina, where they literally added seats and reheard cases to overturn rulings they didn't like. The case for Democrats getting comfortable with court reform is no longer theoretical.Plus Three Mile Island is being turned into a data center. AOC is on a community tour about data center siting and the energy bills they leave behind. The Musk versus Altman trial wrapped in two hours. Taco Trump threatened Iran and chickened out by sundown. Telehealth abortion access survived at SCOTUS. And Alligator Alcatraz, the Florida Everglades tarp over a swamp internment camp that cost $1.5 billion, is closing.The midterms are less than six months out and the receipts keep coming.Send us a text!Watch us on YoutubeFollow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok tooFollow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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61
Gerrymandering Just Cost Dems 5 House Seats
Brian and Glennis are back in studio for week two and a lot just happened. Trump's economic disapproval hit 70%, the highest of his political career. Inflation jumped to 3.8%. Gas hit $4.50 a gallon. The Supreme Court greenlit racial gerrymandering as long as you call it partisan. Five states moved to redraw their maps in seven days. And the President of the United States looked into a camera, on his way to Marine One, and said "I don't think about Americans' financial situation. I don't think about anybody."In this episode, Brian Derrick (Political Strategist and Founder of Oath) and Glennis Meagher (Political and New Media Strategist and Co-founder of Generator Collective) walk through the economic data dump that should be the only thing Democrats talk about: the biggest monthly jump in credit card debt since the pandemic, a savings rate at its lowest level since 2022, consumer sentiment cratering, and 80% of Americans saying Trump's policies are driving up the cost of living in their communities. While he spends a billion dollars on a gold ballroom and proposes a $1.5 trillion military budget, the largest in U.S. history and more than the next ten countries combined.Then the redistricting wave. Brian breaks down all five fronts. The Supreme Court ruling that opened the door. The Virginia Supreme Court body blow that overturned a ballot measure passed by voters and cost Democrats four seats. Tennessee breaking up the city of Memphis. Louisiana pausing a primary 40,000 votes in to redraw the map. Alabama getting a green light to eliminate its only majority Black district. He pulls out the board and walks through the math: Democrats are likely down five additional seats before a single vote is cast, which means flipping the House is now an eight seat lift, not three. The path is still there. He explains why.Plus the bombshell that Iran still has 90% of its missile capacity after $70 billion in U.S. bombing. The Pete Hegseth and Kash Patel circus on Capitol Hill (including Patel demanding $21 billion for the FBI while polygraphing his own agents over leaks). The unconstitutional War Powers Act workaround the Trump administration is trying to pull. The California gubernatorial jungle primary heating up between Tom Steyer, Xavier Becerra, Katie Porter, and Matt Mahan. And the Nebraska Senate move where a Democrat won her primary specifically to drop out and clear the path for independent Dan Osborne, after Pete Ricketts tried to buy the seat by recruiting a fake MAGA Democrat to split the vote.Also: Glennis recounts sitting ten feet from JD Vance and Kash Patel at a USA hockey game in Milan with effectively no security, the Mitch McConnell Capitol Hill moment that even Brian is calling elder abuse, Spencer Pratt running for LA Mayor as a 9/11 truther, the leaked Sam Altman texts that have now turned "directionally very bad" into a meme, and Glennis pitches a startup idea live on the pod called facial DNA.The midterms are six months out and the receipts are piling up - stick with us.Send us a text!Watch us on YoutubeFollow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok tooFollow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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Trump’s $72B War Sparked a Gas Crisis
We were gone for ten weeks and Trump started a war, the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, the government had its longest shutdown in history, two cabinet secretaries got pushed out over Epstein, and Republicans quietly added $70 billion more for ICE to a reconciliation bill nobody could stop. Season 3 of Vibes Only is here and Brian Derrick (Political Strategist and Founder of @oath.vote) and Glennis Meagher (Political and New Media Strategist and Co-founder of @generatorcollective) have a lot to catch you up on.In the Season 3 premiere, Brian and Glennis break down Trump's war with Iran, the $72 billion the U.S. has burned in 60 days, the 3,400 civilians killed, the 14 American troops dead, and why this is the first Middle East war in our lifetime that's actually a voting issue (it has a lot to do with the price of gas). Then they get into how Democrats got played on the ICE reconciliation bill — Schumer specifically — and the $1 million Oath has now raised for the ICE Accountability Fund to prosecute officers and back the people fighting on the ground.The bigger conversation is Louisiana v. Callais. Brian walks through what the 6-3 ruling actually does to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which Southern states are about to gerrymander Black voters out of Congress, and why Oath has always built its plan around flipping 12 House seats, not 3. Plus the Democratic counter-strike taking shape across ten states, why Brian is more fired up than worried, and the early primary signals out of Ohio and Indiana (Sherrod Brown is back, Janet Mills dropped out, and Trump just spent $15 million in Indiana on pure revenge).Also: Glennis brings receipts on Anna Nicole Smith, Brian compares the Trump assassination plot to a concept of a plan, and they make an official on-air challenge to Keith Edwards to come debate gerrymandering. The midterms are six months out. Buckle up.Send us a text!Watch us on YoutubeFollow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok tooFollow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Politics doesn't have to feel like a doomscroll. Vibes Only is a weekly political podcast for people who want to actually understand what's happening without the panic, the jargon, or the takes designed to make you feel helpless.Every Thursday, Brian Derrick (political strategist, founder of Oath) and Glennis Meagher (political and new media strategist, co-founder of Generator Collective) break down the week in politics, elections, and culture the way two people who've worked inside the machine actually talk. Sharp, honest, and a little fun.This is your weekly reset. Just the vibes. And the receipts.New episodes every Thursday. Follow the show and leave a rating, will you? It's the best way to help us find the people needing honest vibes this election season.
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Vibes Only
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