PODCAST

Smoke "Em If You Got "Em Podcast

Smoke "Em If You Got "Em

a podcast from the outskirts of the zeitgeist smokeempodcast.substack.com

news news commentary

All Episodes

25:46

230. Mike Pesca Convinces Sarah Sports Betting...

Smoke "Em If You Got "Em Podcast ·

2025/10/29

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comMike Pesca, host of the longtime daily news podcast “The Gist,” joins Nancy and Sarah to talk about sports betting scandal that threatens to destroy an entire industry. Marked cards, special contact lenses, the mafia: This is deep Scorsese territory. Sarah is so checked out on sports she didn’t know Pete Rose was dead, but she has questions about how betting went from taboo to industry goldmine. Pesca is Smoke’s

26:23

229. Women, Vengeance and Cancel Culture

Smoke "Em If You Got "Em Podcast ·

2025/10/23

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comNancy and Sarah talk about “The Great Feminization,” a Compact essay that’s stirred the hornet’s nest of social media. The recent story, by Helen Andrews, argues that many recent cultural shifts — cancel culture, wokeness, safetyism — can be explained by the influence of women, who tend to prioritize empathy over rationality and cohesion over competition. Is it true? Is it offensive? Let’s discuss! Also

22:11

228. Pitchforks Come for the Young Republicans

Smoke "Em If You Got "Em Podcast ·

2025/10/18

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comNancy and Sarah discuss a leaked Telegram group chat among Young Republicans with at least 251 slurs. Is it bad? Yes. Is it THAT bad? Let’s discuss, but let’s also ask the question: Does anyone care about privacy anymore? A conversation about gossip, the contagious nature of bullying, when we expect people to grow up, and how foul-mouthed dirty-minded men navigate the guilt that comes with maturity and

21:37

227. One (Portland/Antifa/Hollywood) Battle After...

Smoke "Em If You Got "Em Podcast ·

2025/10/12

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comNancy and Sarah talk Portland, where Nancy just returned from her forever-beat. The city of Portland is not on fire. What it is, instead, is a reminder of 2020’s worst political violence, and Nancy and Sarah talk about how it’s changed, and who wants that old feeling back. Then we discuss One Battle After Another, one of the most talked-about movies of 2025. It’s Big Lebowski meets political thriller meets

13:07

226. Ezra and Ta-Nehisi and a Cold Civil War

Smoke "Em If You Got "Em Podcast ·

2025/10/02

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comNancy and Sarah talk about a lightning-rod conversation between NYT podcaster Ezra Klein and award-winning writer Ta-Nehisi Coates. The two men spar on the political project of Charlie Kirk and the problem with / way forward for Democrats, and pretty much every side of the audience gets ticked off.Nancy was underwhelmed with the conversation; Sarah was reminded of private arguments she’s had and sees more common

2:30

The Sociopaths Among Us #2: Candace Owens

Smoke "Em If You Got "Em Podcast ·

2025/09/29

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comWelcome to episode #2 of The Sociopaths Among Us. If you haven’t listened to the disclaimer at the opening, go ahead and do that.I’ve been wanting to write about Candace Owens since 2019, when I engaged in a very short interview with her backstage at a political event. Was she charming and poised? Yes. Also, I’d never in all my years of reporting (or, heck, living) had someone suss me up so intensely and with

25:42

225. Meghan Daum on Our Culture's Catastrophe Hour

Smoke "Em If You Got "Em Podcast ·

2025/09/26

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comNancy and Sarah speak with Meghan Daum, the podcaster behind The Unspeakable and author of a great new collection of essays, The Catastrophe Hour. They talk about writing, Charlie Kirk, young people casting around for meaning, and a very eye-raising report in the New York Times about a recent blockbuster memoir about MDMA-assisted recovered memories of violent sexual assault. It raises some questions!Will this

25:55

224. On Faith, Lost Boys, and Erika Kirk's Forgiveness

Smoke "Em If You Got "Em Podcast ·

2025/09/23

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comNancy and Sarah discuss the Charlie Kirk memorial. Was it a Nazi rally? Of course not. Was it a turning point in saving Western Civilization? Hmm, sounds like a high bar. But it was: Huge, culturally important, occasionally annoying, occasionally profound, mixing feel-good megachurch vibes with a saber-rattling political rally. It also included one of the most moving speeches in political memory. Also

36:34

222. Michael Tracey on Kirk, Epstein Files, and...

Smoke "Em If You Got "Em Podcast ·

2025/09/16

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comInvestigative journalist Michael Tracey is hard to pin down, maybe because he doesn’t play for one team. A journo in the old-fashioned “stick-poking” mode, Michael started debating Sarah on his own introduction before she was half-way through. Fair enough! We go on to discuss Charlie Kirk — whom Tracey sees as a “mouthpiece” for the administration — and then go deep on the Epstein Files, which Tracey tore into,

105:31

221. Our 21st-Century Religious Wars and the...

Smoke "Em If You Got "Em Podcast ·

2025/09/11

Nancy and Sarah discuss the killing of Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Talking Points USA. He was a husband and the father of two young children, and he was shot yesterday while engaging with college students at a Utah College. There is no version of the world that makes his murder anything but a horror.We talk about political violence, radical movements, violence versus microaggressions, bloodlust in the human animal, ideology as a leverage for murder, and how politics became religion. We

26:05

220. Elizabeth Gilbert Melts Nancy's Brain, Tests...

Smoke "Em If You Got "Em Podcast ·

2025/09/06

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comNancy and Sarah go deep on Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love, whose new memoir has been excerpted in New York magazine. We have thoughts! Does Gilbert have her finger on the tender heart of what women want? Is she a serial grifter who makes millions off women’s low rattle of unhappiness? We talk about Gilbert’s long career — which has shifted from magazine profile writer to memoirist to social media

16:12

219. Bryan Burrough on America's Vigilante Past - and...

Smoke "Em If You Got "Em Podcast ·

2025/09/03

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comNancy and Sarah chat with Bryan Burrough, author of Gunfighters: How Texas Made the West Wild. Bloody history is something of a specialty for Burrough, a former Vanity Fair scribe whose other (great) books include Days of Rage, about violent radical movements of the ‘70s, Public Enemies, about the ‘30s crime wave, and Forget the Alamo, about, well, trying to remember that famous Texas showdown in a more accurate

21:48

218. Paul Kix on How Civil Rights Heroes Taught Him...

Smoke "Em If You Got "Em Podcast ·

2025/08/27

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comNancy and Sarah interview journalist Paul Kix, author of the award-winning book on the Civil Rights movement, You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live. Paul writes about the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s ten weeks in Birmingham through fully realized characters and complicated detail, and he tells us how the experience changed him.We also talk about Paul’s 2023 personal essay,

24:12

217. The Outrage Opportunists

Smoke "Em If You Got "Em Podcast ·

2025/08/19

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comNancy and Sarah take on the kerfuffles of the week: Chris Rufo mines the anti-woke vein by digging up the old tweets of a New Yorker writer, the Minnesota Vikings introduce two male cheerleaders (and people lose their minds), hunky provocateur-lite Matt Rife stars in a commercial for ELF makeup (and at least two people object). Welcome to the Outrage Opportunists, who glut up our social media feeds with their

32:10

216. "You have to wake up pretty early to be worse...

Smoke "Em If You Got "Em Podcast ·

2025/08/13

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comNancy and Sarah talk about the latest in the “WTF is wrong with men?” media series, this time in The Cut/NY Mag. They also discuss the strange case of the Canadian hockey team recently found not guilty in a high-profile sex assault case. They intended to talk about the new Marc Maron HBO special, but that’ll have to wait till next time.Also discussed:* Mexican barber shop!* That time Walter Kirn dressed down

21:21

215. Billy Joel Didn't Start the Fire (Sydney Sweeney...

Smoke "Em If You Got "Em Podcast ·

2025/07/29

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comNancy and Sarah discuss a new Sydney Sweeney ad for American Eagle. Is saying “my jeans are blue” a dog whistle? Or is “dog whistle” a 21st-century term for finding outrage in absolutely anything? Speaking of, you can count on the New York Times to detail another thing men are doing wrong. This week we talk “mankeeping!”But most of this episode concerns one Billy Joel, whose HBO doc has thrust him in the

21:42

214. The Trouble with Writing About Men

Smoke "Em If You Got "Em Podcast ·

2025/07/24

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comNancy and Sarah discuss a recent viral essay in NYT magazine called “The Trouble With Wanting Men.” Nancy had a meltdown reading this story, while Sarah saw romantic problems she recognized as well as behavior designed to fail. The two ladies talk about a vogue for female bitchery, a lack of grace in women’s voices, and whether men and women can ever repair the anger and resentment that’s erupted between them —

17:13

213. So You've Been Publicly Coldplayed

Smoke "Em If You Got "Em Podcast ·

2025/07/21

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comNancy and Sarah discuss the viral story of the week: Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and head of HR Kristin Cabot get caught cuddling on camera at a Coldplay concert. Who are these people, and why do we care? Good question! Celebrity in the 21st century is a relative term, and this story raises questions about surveillance, social-media Schadenfreude, the danger of online sleuthing, and why we have Kiss Cams in the

25:47

212. Women's Bodies! Landmines! Epstein!

Smoke "Em If You Got "Em Podcast ·

2025/07/17

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comNancy and Sarah are stumbling into land mines — quickly! — in this episode, where a convo about Jennifer Love Hewitt’s recent turn in the spotlight proves the ladies don’t even agree on that. It’s hard to talk about women and their bodies: Fat vs. curvy, skinny vs. anorexic, body positive vs. morbidly obese, Ozempic-face vs. mom-bod, Lena Dunham vs. #SkinnyTok. How the ladies discuss these subjects may offend

24:36

211. Eli Lake on "Barista Socialists" and Why He's...

Smoke "Em If You Got "Em Podcast ·

2025/07/09

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comEli Lake, host of the Breaking History podcast, loves America. But what does that mean? We discuss the long unfinished experiment of our country, and the fashionable anti-semitism that’s swept colleges/the youngs, or as Eli calls them, “barista socialists.” We talk about how elite colleges fell apart, when the left becomes violent, and why valuing ideology over human lives is never a good look.Also discussed:*

253 results

Smoke "Em If You Got "Em Podcast

All Episodes

Similar Podcasts

Expres Ráno

Expres FM

PBS News Hour - Full Show

PBS NewsHour

CD Voice

China Daily

Israel Today: Ongoing War Report

Noa Levi

Jeffrey Epstein: The Coverup Chronicles

Bobby Capucci