The DSR Network

Original air date: April 5, 2026

Corruption and madness have hit a new high-watermark with the Trump administration. From the firing of Pam Bondi to blatant war crimes, it’s a good thing we have a robust free press to report on it all. Right? Dan Froomkin and Jeff Jarvis join David Rothkopf to explore why traditional media is failing miserably during this fraught moment and why high-quality journalism is needed now more than ever.
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Original air date: April 3, 2026

During Donald Trump’s speech on Iran this week, he revealed too much. In a line that sounded partly ad-libbed, he declared that the Strait of Hormuz “will open up naturally. It will just open up naturally.” This should be read as a straight-up admission that Trump has no idea how to fix the colossal mess he’s made, and that he’s just washing his hands of it entirely. That’s utterly damning. Meanwhile, Politico reports that Republicans privately fear the speech did nothing to help them politically; as one put it: “What the hell did he just say?” Those things are related: The worse this war gets, the more it will hurt Republicans in the midterms. We talked to foreign policy writer and podcaster David Rothkopf, author of a good piece about the speech. We discuss Trump’s implicit admission of failure, the deeper reasons this is developing into such a fiasco, why it’s a trap for Republicans, and what the post-Trump Democratic Party should look like.
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Original air date: July 22, 2026

As we fall, others rise. Global trust in the United States has fallen significantly while China’s geopolitical standing is rising. We’re not just stuck in a quagmire war with Iran - we’re in the middle of a fundamental identity crisis. Are we the superpower we believe we are or is our stupidity in Iran showing us that conflict has evolved past us? Has Pete Hegseth cracked the code with testosterone testing? Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations joins Ed Luce and David Rothkopf to discuss America’s place in a shifting global landscape.

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Original air date: April 20, 2026

Donald Trump just erupted at MAGA allies for opposing his war. In one tirade, he attacked Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and others as “FAKE MAGA.” In another, he slammed them as “Low IQ.” Similarly, his pollster, John McLaughlin, claimed the MAGA base “doesn’t consider” those critics “conservative” anymore. So disagreeing with Trump intrinsically makes you non-MAGA? This reveals Trump believes MAGA is whatever he says it is at any given moment—that Trump and his pollster really do view MAGA as a cult. We’ve written about this dynamic before, but decided it was worth a pod episode. So we talked to New Republic staff writer Perry Bacon, author of a great piece on Trump and the global right. We discuss why Trump’s international and domestic allies are deserting him, how his excommunication of top MAGA figures is shrinking the movement, why Trump believes he can control the minds of his voters, and why all this could hurt GOP chances of holding the Senate.

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Congress is broken. Justice is gone. Corruption runs rampant in our government, and our most vile politicians get off scot-free. Meanwhile, many still view the Democrats negatively, and this perception is going to present significant hurdles for the midterms this year and beyond. What is missing within the Democratic party? What is the most effective strategy here to save our democracy? Tune in as David Rothkopf and Norm Ornstein discuss why we need scorched earth Democrats and where we go from here.

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