The Nicole Sandler Show

Today, we go back to April 17, 2020. We were in the thick of the pandemic and most of the country was under lockdown. A glance into what’s news from that day gave me this dire report: "The number of reported deaths in the U.S. from covid19 spiked to nearly double the prior record Thursday, as governors extended their lockdown orders, and the Trump administration released new federal guidelines to reopen the economy. "In the 24 hours ending at 8 p.m. Eastern time Thursday, 4,591 people were reported to have died from Covid-19, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University. The prior record was 2,569 on Wednesday. The number of new reported U.S. cases, meanwhile, was roughly equal with that on Wednesday at 31,451." WSJ That day on the show I had two guests… Ali Velshi of MSNBC was up first. Then I called on my old friend Kelly Carlin, yes - George's daughter - to help us cope with Covid, isolation and the challenges we're facing today.

This past year we saw Fox NOT News hit with $787 Million in damages after losing a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox admitted they lied and had to pay the largest fine ever levied on a media entity in history, yet their behavior hasn't changed, and its dangerous. Jen Senko is author of the book, The Brainwashing of My Dad.

So I’ve assembled some shows that really are best ofs to run until I can get my studio set up in a new home… It’s the end of September, so pretty soon we’ll all be inundated with ads for Medicare Advantage, as Medicare open enrollment begins on Oct 15, thru Dec 7…. Then open enrollment for the ACA begins on Nov 1… To make sure you’re informed about what’s available and to tell you the truth about so-called Medicare Advantage (neither Medicare nor an advantage), we’ll go back to Oct 15 of 2021 and an information packed conversation with health insurance industry whistleblower Wendell Potter….

Today’s show draws from two decades, neither of them the one we’re in. At this time in 1995, an artist named Alanis Morissette was climbing the charts. Her album Jagged Little Pill would hit #1 just a couple of weeks later. I was an early cheerleader for the album and because of that, as her mega star was rising quickly, she came into the radio station I was working at at the time for an interview with me. That was 28 years ago! My how time flies… But we’ll begin today with an interview from 2010 about psychedelics to treat mental health issues. You know I recently underwent a series of Ketamine Therapy treatments for depression. It might seem like I was jumping on the new trend bandwagon, but this exciting breakthrough in treating mental health with psychedelics is an idea I’ve been following since first reading about the work being done treating returning veterans suffering from PTSD… 13 years ago!

Today we just go back to March of this year…. As you may have heard me mention, I’m moving out of Florida- in large part to the fascist ways of the governor and his authoritarian rule over the state. One of his most heinous actions is his treatment of and lack of regard for the LGBTQ community. His vendetta against drag shows would be really funny if it weren’t so mean, discriminatory and harmful to people just trying to live their own lives…. So today, we’ll enjoy the awesomeness of The Kinsey Six, an acapella drag group who’ll show why desantis and his ilk are so scared of them… But on this day, March `13 of this year, 2023, we once again watched the government bail out billionaires (while us poor schmucks wallow in poverty…) as banks in Silicon Valley started failing… Mu old friend Dave Johnson lived there at the time and joined me at the top of the show to attempt to explain what’s happening there…

Today we go back to October of 2014 for a conversation with famed prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, best known for prosecuting Charles Manson and his followers for the Tate/LaBianca Helter Skelter murders. But Bugliosi wrote quite a few books, mostly dealing with famous homicide cases including the manson family murders, Kennedy assassination and even OJ Simpson. On this occasion, we were discussing his book, “The Prosecution of GWBush for Murder” and the documentary that came out of it, the Prosecution of an American President…

Today during our moving madness, we share some slices of history. The first time I called a global hotspot hotel to talk to a regular person was Feb 2, 2011, as protests engulfed Cairo's Tahrir Square at the start of the Arab Spring. One of the benefits of having been doing this show for so many years is the historical record left behind. Today we experience history unfolding… Remember the Arab Spring? We had such hope that Democracy would finally sweep through the middle east. It began with a singular act of defiance! On Dec 17, 2010, Mohamed Bouazizi, a young Tunisian street vendor who had his produce confiscated by police, set himself on fire to protest against police harassment and the authorities’ lack of concern, His actions triggered nationwide protests and calls for an end of the authoritarian rule of Pres Zine El Abidine Ben Ali… And then all hell broke loose… protests continued in Tunisia… the president fled to Saudi Arabia…. But the flame had been lit and the fire was spreading throughout the middle east, many converging on Egypt Egyptian activists called for a mass rally in a “Day of Anger” on Jan 25, 2011, set to coincide with the annual celebration of the Egyptian police, and the people took to the streets for unprecedented protests in Cairo as the city came to standstill…. Violent clashes between anti Mubarak protesters and police took over On Jan 28, Egyptian president Hasni Mubarek announces “I have ordered the government to step down and I will name a new government tomorrow”…. On Feb 2, protesters declared Feb 4 the “Friday of Departure” for Mubarak, as the clashes between pro Mubarak and anti government began in Tahrir Square…. That day, I decided to call hotels around Tahrir Square to get a first hand account of what was happening there from just an average working Egyptian…. You just have to get through to the correct person… Sadly, the Arab Spring fizzled and democracy didn’t come to the Middle East where things are just as bad as they were before that brave and fed up Tunisian man set himself on fire…. For our next segment, we jump ahead about a decade, to Jan 3, 2020. Unbelievably, Donald Trump was now in the WH and many of us worried about the reality that a mad man had the authority to push a button and launch another World War….terrifying! The US and Iran have had a fraught relationship for decades now with a very tenuous co-existence in place when Trump bragged about the US assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, He was the head of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and the architect of its military and political power.…. A US air raid at Baghdad int’l airport hit during the early morning hours killing Soleimani and others with him. Many worried that this would escalate the already high tensions between our nations, so I thought it might be a good time to pick up the phone again, this time to speak with an Iranian citizen human to human…. It was Jan 3, 2020

I'm moving! So today begins a series of Best Of interviews from throughout the years. Some special shows are coming up over the next few weeks. We kick things off with a brand new interview, never before aired, with HEATHER COX RICHARDSON, historian and author of the new book DEMOCRACY AWAKENING: NOTES ON THE STATE OF AMERICA. In the time left, we go back to 2014 for my sit-down interview with the Rev Dr William Barber, recorded at Netroots Nation in Detroit.

After today, this studio is done! I'll be tearing it down, packing it up and getting us the hell out of Florida. Let's put some collective energy into making sure the gremlins stay here and don't follow us to Arizona. For my last live show out of here, we'll visit with David Jolliffe, my old friend who's on the SAG-AFTRA executive committee who'll give us a strike update, and I'll share some final thoughts on moving out of the state that DeSantis DeStroyed...

It's Thursday, and since I tear down my studio after tomorrow's show for the move, this is the last time I'll speak with Howie Klein for a few weeks. Today, he brings along Maebe A. Girl, a Blue America-endorsed candidate who's running to replace Adam Schiff in the House. Schiff is, of course, running for Dianne Feinstein's Senate seat, leaving his congressional seat up for grabs. It also happens to be the district where Howie Klein lives, so this one is personal for him.

Marcy Wheeler is back at emptywheel.net after her vacation, with a broken foot no less, in time for one last episode together before I leave for our road trip move to Arizona. Today, we talk about a lot of the shit that hit the fan while Marcy was on vacation in another information-filled show.

It's one of those Tuesdays when GottaLaff joins in. Frankly, I'm so consumed with packing and producing shows for the few weeks we'll be in transit that I'm not sure which end is up any more! But Laffy's here today, we'll get on some kind of a roll, and will likely slide into another episode of the Mal-Ladies at some point...

We're in the home stretch. The PODS container will be delivered on Friday and we hope to be on the road out of Floriduh by Monday or Tuesday. So this is my final week of shows from this studio. Glutton for punishment that I am, I should have signed off on Friday and given myself this week to finish packing and purging. But no. I had to try to do as much here as possible before leaving, as I'll be off the air for a few weeks already. Next time kick me. Anyway, big news broke yesterday courtesy of Heidi Przybyla at Politico. Of course, I'd normally turn to our all things law expert Lisa Graves, but she was just on with me on Friday and I hate to be greedy! But there she was on my TV last night, explaining what we need to know about this stunning case. So I'll share that. There aren't too many people in Florida I feel I must bid a special farewell. But there is one without whom I wouldn't be doing this show or this work today! Jim DeFede is a South Florida news legend. He's been reporting on FL politics since 1991, making a name for himself at the Miami New Times, then the Miami Herald. We met in 2005 or so when I was hired to produce his new morning show on then-progressive talk 940 WINZ in Miami. My hiring was Jim's decision, an act that charted a course for my career over the past 15 years or so! Jim will join us during the second half hour of today's show.

The official legal authority of the Nicole Sandler Show, Lisa Graves returns today to tell what what we need to know about a bunch of stories that all happened this week, beginning with today's release of the Fulton County, GA Special Grand Jury report that recommended indicting upwards of 35 or so, many more than the 19 who were named in the official indictment released last month. Among them, Sen Lindsey Graham, then-Sen Kelly Loffler and then-Senate candidate David Purdue, and GA's sitting Lt. Governor, among other names both familiar and not. We'll also talk with Lisa about Fani WIllis' brutal letter to Gym Jordan about interfering with a state judicial matter, Peter Navarro's conviction yesterday on two counts of contempt of Congress for ignoring a subpoena, Elon Musk's apparent treasonous act in aiding and abetting Russia's war against Ukraine(!), Sen Tuberfield's one man crippling of the US Military, and whatever else we can fit in to the time we have together. Thank Dog the weekend is here....

It's Thursdays, so Howie Klein of Down With Tyranny and the Blue America PAC is here to talk politics, candidates and usually music too. Of course I must ask him his thoughts on the new Rolling Stones song and video that premiered yesterday to very mixed reviews. I'm among the negatives, in case you were wondering! I'll be sure to ask about some of the Blue America PAC endorsed candidates for the 2024 elections, and find out about the award he's being presented this weekend along with Sens John Fetterman and Bob Casey.

We're in the final stretch. I'll probably have a week or two more of new shows from here before I pack up my studio as the last room in the house before we move away. Leaving the formerly free, now fascist state of Florida for Arizona which is far from perfect, but they voted against the fascists! To join me in explaining the myriad of reasons we're outta here, I'm joined today by my old friend and fellow radio refugee Boca Brit Somers, and Florida state Representative Robin Bartleman. Thankfully some good reasonable people are staying behind to fight the good fight. But I'm getting the hell outta here....

Heather "Digby" Parton joins me on the show today as summer is unofficially over. Congress returns to work, though in this world that's not necessarily a good thing... Here we go!

Howie writes constantly at DownWithTyranny.com. Most of his posts are politically-oriented though, like me, he often veers off course into the music world. For good reason! When I first met Howie Klein some 30 years ago, he was President of Reprise Records, so it's in his blood. I never know what I'll see when I log on to DTW, and today didn't disappoint. The first thing I saw today was a post from Howie headlined, "Tim Scott And George Santos Are Both Gay Republicans— But VERY Different Gay Republicans". Whoo boy, it's going to be one of those days!! In terms of news, well, proud boy Joe Biggs was sentenced to 17 years in federal prison for seditious conspiracy. We'll have to wait until next week for Enrique Tarrio's sentencing. They do say good things are worth waiting for, I guess...

Will Bunch regularly writes columns for the Philadelphia Inquirer that you should read. But he knocked one out of the park this week with the one headlined, "Journalism fails miserably at explaining what is really happening to America". Will joins me at the bottom of the hour for a much needed dialog. But first, some good news to share, along with some not-so-good news too and an important milestone in my life. Welcome to Wednesday... at least we're halfway to the weekend now!

Laffy's here. You never know where we'll wind up!