Best Politicon LLC Podcasts (2024)

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59: Sgt. Aquillino Gonell 1:10:06

11M ago1:10:06

1:10:06

Today nearly three years after the attack on the US Capitol my guest is American hero, Aquillino Gonell, author of the new book American Shield: The Immigrant Sergeant Who Defended Democracy. You know Staff Sergeant Gonell as one of the brave members of the Capitol Police who defended our country and our constitution when insurrectionist mobs attac…

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58: Norman Lear: Even This I Get to Experience 56:36

11M ago56:36

56:36

Welcome back to Booked Up, a podcast that features you, me and our favorite authors. We release a new episode every Sunday morning. Today for the December book club, we are discussing Norman Lear, the Hollywood legend who passed this month at the young age of 101. There are gazillion people who have a thing or two to say about this ground-breaking …

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57: THE OCTOPUS IN THE PARKING GARAGE with Rob Verchick 1:02:47

11M ago1:02:47

1:02:47

Rob Verchick, author of the award-winning new book, The Octopus in the Parking Garage: A Call for Climate Resilience is Jen’s guest today. Why this unusual title? As he describes: “One morning in Miami Beach, an unexpected guest showed up in a luxury condominium complex’s parking garage: an octopus. The image quickly went viral. But the octopus—and…

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56: THESE ARE THE PLUNDERERS with authors Gretchen Morgenson and Josh Rosner 1:10:57

11M ago1:10:57

1:10:57

Today we are doing Jen’s favorite thing: following the big dirty money. This time the focus is on the world of private equity. Those two words together sound ever so restrained and elite, even contained. In reality though the world of private equity is rough and destructive and affects all of us from patients seeking health care to workers losing t…

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55: Chuck Collins on ALTAR TO AN ERUPTING SUN 54:05

12M ago54:05

54:05

Chuck Collins, author of several works of nonfiction including The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions is Jen’s guest today. They mostly discuss his debut novel, Altar to an Erupting Sun, a near-future story of one community facing climate disruption came out this May. “My bologna has a first name, it’s O-S-C-A-R. My bo…

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54: Orly Lobel on THE EQUALITY MACHINE 1:07:26

12M ago1:07:26

1:07:26

Today Jen’s guest is Orly Lobel, author of the recent book THE EQUALITY MACHINE: Harnessing Digital Technology for a Brighter, More Inclusive Future. Orly just sold the film rights to her book on Barbie to CBS Studios. The book is called YOU DON’T OWN ME: How Mattel v. MGA Entertainment Exposed Barbie's Dark Side. The book and the CBS production wi…

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53: THE WOMAN IN ME by Britney Spears 1:03:12

12M ago1:03:12

1:03:12

For our special book club episode today, we are discussing the new bestselling memoir – THE WOMAN IN ME by pop icon Britney Spears. As you know, Britney is a multiplatinum, Grammy-Award winning entertainer. She has sold an incredible 100 million records worldwide. She released her new book THE WOMAN IN ME around two years after she got free from th…

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52: Taylor Lorenz is EXTREMELY ONLINE 57:40

1y ago57:40

57:40

Today Jen’s guest is Taylor Lorenz, author of the new book, Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet. Together they discussed many topics including the controversy around mommy bloggers and the credit due to Julia Allison and other women social media pioneers. Taylor Lorenz is the sometimes controvesial, neve…

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51: Andrea Chalupa on DICTATORSHIP IS EASY 57:23

1y ago57:23

57:23

Today Jen’s guest is journalist, filmmaker, author, and activist Andrea Chalupa. You know Andrea from her award-winning podcast Gaslit Nation that she founded with Sarah Kendzior. Fake populism. Demonizing the press. Scapegoating. Propaganda. Personal militia. All ingredients for a successful dictatorship and topics of their conversation. Andrea an…

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50: Illeana Douglas on CONNECTICUT IN THE MOVIES 58:01

1y ago58:01

58:01

Film star Illeana Douglas is Jen’s guest today. Ileana is the author of the gorgeous new book: Connecticut in the Movies: From Dream Houses to Dark Suburbia. This spans around 100 years from the silent film era up through the early 21st Century. This beautiful coffee table book is filled with delicious never-before-seen movie stills and back lot st…

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49: ENOUGH by Cassidy Hutchinson 54:51

1y ago54:51

54:51

Today for the October book club, Jen Taub’s friends, authors Jennifer Rubin and Brian Karem discuss Cassidy Hutchinson’s new best-selling memoir, ENOUGH. Is Cassidy Hutchinson a heroic champion of the truth or just another Trump Administration insider who could have spoken sooner when it really mattered? Does the story she tells in ENOUGH make read…

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48: TRAE CROWDER & COREY RYAN FORRESTER on Round Here And Over Yonder 1:07:48

1y ago1:07:48

1:07:48

The hilarious self-named “progressive hillbilly” comedians Trae Crowder and Corey Ryan Forrester are Jen’s guests today. They co-authored the super-funny book Round Here and Over Yonder. I’m just going to steal their bios right from their book because nothing I could say would compare. Trae Crowder grew up in Celina, TN, a town sometimes described …

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47: ZEKE FAUX on NUMBER GO UP 1:05:14

1y ago1:05:14

1:05:14

Zeke Faux, author of the new bestseller, Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall is Jen’s guest today. Of all the books, and scholarly articles, and news stories, and blog posts, and legal complaints and, you get the idea… on crypto, Number Go Up is truly the first one to pull everything together in one place. And that result is…

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46: MICHAEL LEWIS on Going Infinite 1:03:19

1y ago1:03:19

1:03:19

Author Michael Lewis joins Jen Taub today to talk about Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, his new book that focuses on Sam Bankman-Fried, the crypto-wunderkind who is now on trial on federal criminal charges including wire fraud, securities fraud, commodities fraud, and money laundering. Though Michael needs no introduction, here’s…

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45: WOMEN IN INTELLIGENCE with Helen Fry 50:42

1y ago50:42

50:42

We are extraordinarily grateful that historian and biographer Dr. Helen Fry made time for us right as her latest book Women in Intelligence: The Hidden History of Two World Wars was released in the UK and is poised to launch in the United States. This new book is filled with intrigue hidden in plain sight. Spies recruited at cafés, ordinary women b…

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44: TUCKER with Rick Wilson and Martin Pengelly 1:05:10

1y ago1:05:10

1:05:10

Believe or not, this month’s Booked Up Book Club is TUCKER, the book, the man, the walking grievance machine. It’s true, Jen read Chadwick Moore’s authorized biography of Tucker Carlson. And joining her are Rick Wilson and Martin Pengelly, to talk about it so you don’t have to. Rick Wilson is a longtime Republican political strategist, award-winnin…

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43: ALI VELSHI: Banned Book Club 1:02:25

1y ago1:02:25

1:02:25

Ali Velshi is Jen’s guest today. You know him as an anchor and business correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC. His show Velshi appears every Saturday and Sunday from 10 - noon. Ali is also the host of the podcast Velshi Banned Book Club. And, in keeping with the focus of Booked Up, Ali is a nonfiction author himself. He wrote Gimme My Money Back and…

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42: Hadley Vlahos, THE IN-BETWEEN 1:00:31

1y ago1:00:31

1:00:31

Hadley Vlahos is the author of the bestelling new book The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life’s Final Moments. She is a hospice registered nurse, mother, and wife. Hadley’s husband Chris also works in the medical field as a doctor of physical therapy. She started her career as a registered nurse at twenty-two. Today as a hospice nurse…

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41: LAWYER, JAILER, ALLY, FOE with Eric Muller 1:19:41

1y ago1:19:41

1:19:41

In this haunting new book, LAWYER, JAILER, ALLY, FOE, Eric L. Muller brings into vivid color a world that is largely forgotten paper records. It’s no wonder that his book caught the attention of novelist John Grisham whose praise appears on the cover: “A fascinating and detailed account of one of America’s darkest chapters.” Eric’s accomplishments …

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40: Trump Booked Up Club with Jill Wine-Banks and Morgan Cloud 1:14:21

1y ago1:14:21

1:14:21

Donald Trump is the subject of our book club today. Trump is not known to be a big reader or even an author – his most popular book Art of the Deal, was ghost written by Tony Schwarz, as you probably know. Nevertheless, our book club episode today focuses on him. Not a book, but on the day he got booked up in Georgia. We recorded this episode on Th…

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39: Connie Schultz: She’s every genre 56:50

1+ y ago56:50

56:50

Pulitzer-Prize winning writer Connie Schultz is Jen’s guest today. Connie is the author of two memoirs. Her first Life Happens: And Other Unavoidable Truths and second …And His Lovely Wife: A Memoir from the Woman Beside the Man. Connie made her fiction debut in 2020 with her New York Times bestselling novel The Daughters of Erietown. And this comi…

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38: A PLACE FOR US with Brandon Wolf 57:57

1+ y ago57:57

57:57

Brandon Wolf, author of the memoir A Place for Us joins Jen on Booked Up today. Brandon is a survivor of the 2016 horric domestic terror attack at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida where his best friends, Drew Leinonen and Juan Guerrero, and 47 others were murdered. Brandon has honored the victims’ legacies with action, advocating for LGTBQ+ civi…

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37: WHY SINÉAD O'CONNOR MATTERS with Allyson McCabe 1:05:50

1+ y ago1:05:50

1:05:50

Today’s Booked Up guest is Allyson McCabe, author of the deeply felt, carefully researched book, Why Sinéad O’Connor Matters, which was published in May two months before the musician’s passing. Allyson interviewed Sinéad for NPR in 2021 in connection with her autobiography Rememberings. As guitarist and songwriter Vernon Reid wrote, “Acknowledging…

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36: BARBIE Book club with George Hahn & M.G. Lord 1:07:47

1+ y ago1:07:47

1:07:47

Today is all about BARBIE. The new film, the doll, the legend. Too much hype? No, not enough. This month’s new blockbuster film directed by Greta Gurwig starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling has more than just the best one-liners “She’s everything. He’s just Ken.” It also provides theater audiences the opportunity to share howls of laughter delig…

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35: Ben McKenzie 1:02:22

1+ y ago1:02:22

1:02:22

Jen’s guest today is Ben McKenzie, author of the new book EASY MONEY: CRYPTOCURRENCY, CASINO CAPITALISM, AND THE GOLDEN AGE OF FRAUD. In this incredibly fast-paced, relatable book, Ben, joined by journalist Jacob Silverman, takes us on a journey into the dark side of crypto. You don’t need any kind of expertise to follow along. Plus, even if you’ve…

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34: FANCY BEAR GOES PHISHING: Scott Shapiro 1:27:59

1+ y ago1:27:59

1:27:59

Jen’s guest today is Professor Scott J. Shapiro, author of the new book FANCY BEAR GOES PHISHING. That’s phishing with a PH. But Fancy with an F, as in Fancy Bear, the Russian hack. Subtitled THE DARK HISTORY OF THE INFORMATION AGE, IN FIVE EXTRAORDINARY HACKS. With this book, Scott hopes “that these true-crime stories – some accidental, some not –…

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33: Kathy Griffin is back, bitches! 1:06:04

1+ y ago1:06:04

1:06:04

Kathy Griffin is Jen’s guest today. They cover everything from her life on the D-List to her cameo in Pulp Fiction (while she was dating Quentin Tarantino) to how Donald Trump tried to destroy her, to her SOLD OUT show in Vegas at the Mirage. Plus a chills and ugly cry-induscing story about Stevie Nicks. No spoilers. You’ll have to listen. Kathy is…

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32: A MINOR REVOLUTION with Adam Benforado 1:08:28

1+ y ago1:08:28

1:08:28

This week Jen’s guest is Adam Benforado, author of the compelling new book A Minor Revolution: How Prioritizing Kids Benefits Us All. The Atlantic said A Minor Revolution is “An extremely sympathetic and worthy attempt to protect kids…. [this is] a book that reads like a manifesto. His ideas are bold, to the point, and ambitious.” Salon praised Ada…

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31: E. Jean Carroll and Mary Trump on their Backstory Serial 1:01:43

1+ y ago1:01:43

1:01:43

As featured in The New York Times, Mary Trump and E. Jean Carroll are collaborating with Jen on a serialized romance novel called THE ITALIAN LESSON. Mary is writing the novel, Jen is editing, and E. Jean is advising and responding to readers’ questions. The trio is releasing Mary’s novel in segments on backstoryserial.com (which is on Substack). Y…

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30: YES, I CAN SAY THAT by Judy Gold 1:16:07

1+ y ago1:16:07

1:16:07

They kvetched, they kvelled, they talked about Hitler. Naturally. What did you expect? This week Jen’s guest is two-time Emmy-Award winning comedian Judy Gold. Judy fit Booked Up into her busy schedule. This spring she finished her one-woman show called, “Yes, I can Say That”, based on her similarly titled book Yes, I Can Say That: When They Come f…

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29: ACCEPTANCE by David L. Marcus 1:08:03

1+ y ago1:08:03

1:08:03

Today Jen’s guest is her long-time friend and Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist David L. Marcus. They talk about Dave’s latest book Acceptance: A Legendary Guidance Counselor Helps Seven Kids Find the Right Colleges –– and Find Themselves. Dave also happens to be the cousin of Roy Cohn the disgraced and disbarred attorney who represented the late S…

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28: NAZI BILLIONAIRES by David de Jong 1:04:07

1+ y ago1:04:07

1:04:07

Jen’s guest is David de Jong, the author of a mindblowing new narrative nonfiction book called Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany’s Wealthiest Dynasties. Before he began researching for this book, David covered banking, finance, and hidden wealth for Bloomberg News. This book puts the lie to the often-heard claims by descendants and apo…

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27: Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir 1:06:53

1+ y ago1:06:53

1:06:53

This week for the book club, we have poet Maggie Smith talking about her tell-most own new bestselling memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful. You know Maggie from a poem she wrote in an Ohio coffee shop in 2015. That poem “Good Bones” was so deeply true and beautiful that readers passed it around. And it went viral a year or two later. Poems d…

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26: Steve Vladeck on THE SHADOW DOCKET 1:14:48

1+ y ago1:14:48

1:14:48

This week Jen’s guest is Professor Steve Vladeck, author of the sensational new book: The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic. The Shadow Docket is a must-read book, not just for court-watchers and garden-variety nerds, but also for anyone and everyone who wants to sound smarter on Twi…

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25: Ben Smith on TRAFFIC 1:05:30

1+ y ago1:05:30

1:05:30

This week, Jen’s guest is Ben Smith, author of Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral. This hot new book takes a close look at the people and the patterns behind the click-bait-journalism-world that helped inflate Donald Trump but also gave us a renewed faith in humanity with an endless supply of baby-animal r…

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24: Anastasia Curwood on her new biography of Shirley Chisholm 1:16:09

1+ y ago1:16:09

1:16:09

This week, Jen’s guest on Booked Up is Anastasia Curwood. They discuss her insightful new biography Shirley Chisholm: Champion of Black Feminist Power Politics. As you likely know, in 1968, Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to Congress and in 1972, the first Black major party presidential candidate. Anastasia Curwood is a belove…

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23: Book Club: YOUR BOOK! 1:06:09

1+ y ago1:06:09

1:06:09

Booked Up with Jen Taub has a special episode for April’s book club. The topic is your book.” You’re the author, it’s you. Today we are talking about how books get proposed, sold, written, edited, published and promoted. It’s kind of like back in 2006 when TIME magazine announced their person of the year. On the cover of that issue of TIME was a dr…

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22: Wajahat Ali Go Back to Where You Came From 1:14:14

1+ y ago1:14:14

1:14:14

In his written work and public persona, Wajahat Ali is known for his quick wit. Humor seems to come naturally to him, and yet, he has turned his gift into a craft deployed deliberately. In Go Back to Where You Came From, he notes, “Humor, both sublime and silly, sophmoric and sophisticated, unleashed with purpose, can often help communicate very re…

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21: Carissa Byrne Hessick 1:12:37

1+ y ago1:12:37

1:12:37

Jen speaks with Professor Carissa Byrne Hessick about her remarkable book, Punishment without Trial: Why Plea Bargaining is a Bad Deal. Her book goes beyond just showing why plea bargaining is a bad deal. She also shines a light on several other types of punishments without trial. These are pre-trial detention, civil forfeiture, and assorted fees f…

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20: Elie Honig asks –– is Donald Trump Untouchable? 1:05:55

1+ y ago1:05:55

1:05:55

This week, Jen’s guest is her good friend Elie Honig. Elie is a former prosecutor and currently a Senior Legal Analyst at CNN. At the Southern District of New York Elie prosecuted federal cases involving organized crime, human trafficking, public corruption, and violent crime. Among his successes were prosecutions of 100 members and associates of L…

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19: The Kneeling Man by Leta McCollough Seletzky 1:05:15

1+ y ago1:05:15

1:05:15

This week, Jen’s guest is Leta McCollough Seletzky. Leta is a former litigator who left the law to become a literary sensation. She is a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow. If you don’t already know her name, you will soon. Leta is the author of a beautiful new memoir that will be published this coming Tuesday, April 4th. It’s …

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18: Book Club: SPARE 1:09:19

1+ y ago1:09:19

1:09:19

This family has more money than God. Why in the world can’t they get some therapy? A Grandmother who never hugs her grandchildren? A father who does not hug his son after telling him his mother was killed? No, our book is not a soap opera, it’s SPARE by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex is our Booked Up book club selection this month. Jen’s three specia…

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17: The Sum Of Us Heather McGhee 1:02:04

1+ y ago1:02:04

1:02:04

Heather McGhee joins Jen this week to talk about the newly released, young reader edition of her best-selling book The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together. Heather’s book helps show how racism affects and harms all of us and how we need to face it head-on, together. An expert in economic and social policy. Heather …

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16: Ruth Ben-Ghiat 1:03:49

1+ y ago1:03:49

1:03:49

This week, my guest Professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert in authoritarianism, democracy protection, and propaganda and author of the bestelling book, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present. Ruth is both a professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University. Outside of the classroom, Ruth frequently appears on cable news to discuss the frigh…

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15: Mary Trump 1:11:26

1+ y ago1:11:26

1:11:26

You may think that Mary Trump needs no introduction, because you believe you know who she is in relation to a certain distasteful someone who shares her surname. Or you have read her first bestselling book: Too much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man. Or her equally stellar second, The Reckoning: Our Nation’s Tra…

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14: Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” 1:19:48

1+ y ago1:19:48

1:19:48

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” To help honor Black History Month at Booked Up, for our February book club we are discussing the letter Martin Luther King Jr. composed in April of …

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13: How We Win The Civil War with Steve Phillips 1:02:01

2y ago1:02:01

1:02:01

This week best-selling author Steve Phillips opens up about the very recent loss of his remarkable wife Susan Sandler and their shared goals on how to move America toward a multi-racial democracy. In the dedication to her of his new book, How We Win the Civil War, Steve writes, “The reality of cancer forces one to a more spirtual place of contempla…

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12: Servants of the Damned by David Enrich 58:29

2y ago58:29

58:29

This week Jen speaks with David Enrich about his nationwide bestseller, Servants of the Damned, praised by David Cay Johnston in the Washington Post as “A powerful and important picture of how mega law firms distort justice." While other large corporate law firms appear in Servants of the Damned, David explains why he made one firm in particular th…

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11: Lisa Guerrero 1:08:33

2y ago1:08:33

1:08:33

This week, Jen’s guest is the award-winning journalist Lisa Gurrero, on to talk about her new book Warrior: My Path to Being Brave. Lisa is a pioneer in the field of sportsbroadcasting enduring verbal abuse and sexual harrassment. She began her sports career in the 1980s as an NFL cheerleader, then directed entertainment including the cheerleading …

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10: Book Club: January 6th Committee Report 1:11:43

2y ago1:11:43

1:11:43

Who knows? One day perhaps we will look back on this episode of Booked Up to find out that Donald Trump has faced a different kind of booking. Or at least an indictment. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Today for our January book club meeting we are following the facts by discussing the content and implications of the Final Report of the Selec…

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