The Contrarian Pod – Details, episodes & analysis

Welcome to The Contrarian Podcast! Ever since we launched, six months ago, many of our supporters have given the feedback that they wanted the best of The Contrarian to listen to, so here we are: offering expert political and legal analysis, uncompromising interviews, and steps for actionable resistance in defense of democracy.

For our first episode, we are so thrilled to feature Jen Rubin's interview with E. Jean Carroll — who of course took Donald Trump to court twice and won big.

She's written a wonderful new book all about how she took Donald Trump to court twice and won big: Not My Type: One Woman vs. a President, detailing the trials and her tribulations and victory.

We hope you enjoy.

The Contrarian is owned by nobody. Your paid subscription helps us bring you the brightest voices in politics & culture and fight every day against the Trump chaos machine. Join us on Substack.

Today on The Contrarian Pod, we are so excited to have Pasha Dashtgard, the Director of Research from PERIL, to discuss a new report called “The State of American Men 2025.”

PERIL is the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab at American University, and they do such important work researching the pathways to radicalization and violent extremism, and intervention methods.

Pasha came by our substack to talk about how women, “wokeness,” and other MAGA bogeymen became enemies of masculinity; why parasocial relationships with online personalities are “empty calories”; and so much more.

The Contrarian is owned by nobody. Your paid subscription helps us bring you the brightest voices in politics & culture and fight every day against the Trump chaos machine. Join us on Substack.

Today on The Contrarian Pod, Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers since 2008 joined Norm and I for Coffee with the Contrarians. We discussed how the reconciliation package will affect rural communities and her new book that’s out in September: Why Fascists Fear Teachers: Public Education and the Future of Democracy.

Later on, Contrarian contributor April Ryan is here with Arne Duncan, the former Secretary of Education in President Obama’s cabinet. You can catch The Tea with April Ryan, live, every Thursday, at 5pm eastern on our Substack.

The Contrarian is owned by nobody. Your paid subscription helps us bring you the brightest voices in politics & culture and fight every day against the Trump chaos machine. Join us on Substack.

Today, a really great episode of The Contrarian podcast. First up, we are delighted to have back with us Justin Wolfers, Professor of Economics at the University of Michigan, who sat down with Jen Rubin to break down what Trump really wants from his trade war and where we might take it from here. So far, it looks a lot like sending bullets in every direction and not knowing where they’re going to land.

Plus, former Biden Council of Economic Advisors Chair Jared Bernstein and Ernie Tedeschi, former Chief Economist at the CEA and the Director of Economics at the Budget Lab at Yale break down the current landscape of the economy and answer our subscribers’ questions on inflation, rent, social security, and so much more.You can hear more from Jared Bernstein and even submit questions for him on his weekly Contrarian Substack Live, Let’s Do Lunch.

The Contrarian is owned by nobody. Your paid subscription helps us bring you the brightest voices in politics & culture and fight every day against the Trump chaos machine. Join us on Substack.

At The Contrarian, we take the most important issues and analyze them from all angles.

This week, editor-in-chief Jen Rubin broke down the Epstein scandal with Trump whisperer E. Jean Carroll [00:50], who noted that "..they will never accept a truth that goes to the heart of the cult, which is that Donald Trump is this Savior, and he's the one who's going to protect them against the evil Democrats."

Plus, Rep. Jamie Raskin [25:59] joins Jen to discuss the Trump administration’s refusal to release the Epstein files (despite bipartisan support to do so), why MAGA feels betrayed by Trump’s noncompliance, and the incomprehensible lack of accountability for the accused abusers.

And later, Tom Joscelyn [39:50], a Senior Fellow at Just Security joins to speak on why Trump’s refusal to release the Epstein files may be the kryptonite of the unified MAGA base.

The Contrarian is owned by nobody. Your paid subscription helps us bring you the brightest voices in politics & culture and fight every day against the Trump chaos machine. Join us on Substack.

The more people learn about the effects of the Big, Betrayal of a Bill, the less popular it gets. Why? Because no matter what type of health care you have, you will be impacted.

The passage of the Big, Betrayal of a Bill will result in roughly 16 million people losing their health care coverage.

Larry Levitt, the executive vice president for health policy at KFF, joins Jen to discuss the upcoming changes to the health care environment, why all hospitals will be negatively impacted (not just those in rural communities), and the possibility of Democrats to use this political moment to their advantage.

Plus, Bruce Siegel [21:11], America's Essential Hospitals President and CEO, joins Jen to explain why rural hospitals are at risk of closure, how the new work requirements will kick about 5 million people out of the healthcare system, and how we’re regressing to the pre-Affordable Care Act era.

The Contrarian is owned by nobody. Your paid subscription helps us bring you the brightest voices in politics & culture and fight every day against the Trump chaos machine. Join us on Substack.

Today on The Contrarian Pod, Former Senator Doug Jones joins Jen Rubin to discuss the DOJ’s “junk complaints” against federal judges, the Supreme Court’s coopting of the so-called “shadow docket,” and the need for Chief Justice John Roberts to use his bully pulpit to call out the Administration.

Later on, Contrarian contributor Jared Bernstein is here with economist Paul Krugman to discuss answer all of your econ questions. You can catch Jared and a guest every Tuesday at 12pm ET on our Substack.

The Contrarian is owned by nobody. Your paid subscription helps us bring you the brightest voices in politics & culture and fight every day against the Trump chaos machine. Join us on Substack.

Julie K. Brown, a member of the Miami Herald’s Investigative Team, began investigating and digging into Jeffrey Epstein years ago.

Her 2017 probe into Palm Beach sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein won multiple journalism awards, including a George Polk Award.

Brown told us not only is this a story about potentially the President of the United States, it's not just a story about other powerful men who were never brought to justice, it's a story about an entire elite society in Palm Beach who kept a horrible secret. Beyond that, it's a conspiracy that continued into the Justice Department and into the FBI who refused to follow the leads and refused to follow the money.

As a result, there are powerful men who have never been held accountable.

This is a story of evil. It's a story of deep corruption.

I hope you listen to the interview in its entirety.

The Contrarian is owned by nobody. Your paid subscription helps us bring you the brightest voices in politics & culture and fight every day against the Trump chaos machine. Join us on Substack.

This week, President Trump demanded that Texas Republicans throw out decades of political norms in a racist gerrymander to rig the system in his favor ahead of the 2026 midterm election.

Texas Republicans’ new, proposed redistricting map further disenfranchises Black and Latino voters in the state.

Ari Berman, Mother Jones’ voting rights correspondent, explains how the proposed map unfairly favors white Republican voters and how the Supreme Court has opened the door for even more gerrymandering.

And, you might have seen last Sunday, Texas House Representative Chris Turner left the state with his colleagues in order to break quorum as a means to block the Republicans’ plan. Rep. Turner spoke with Jen about how they decided to leave, and why every American—not just people in Texas—needs to care about this fight.

Then, constitutional law expert and civil rights lawyer Mimi Marziani breaks down why the proposed redistricting map is so harmful to fair elections across the country and where the fight could go next.

The Contrarian is owned by nobody. Your paid subscription helps us bring you the brightest voices in politics & culture and fight every day against the Trump chaos machine. Join us on Substack.

This week, National Guard troops were deployed to DC under Trump’s allegation that the city is “lawless”. And if that wasn’t enough, more than 120 FBI agents have been assigned for night patrol duty.

Andrew Weissmann, Former General Counsel for the FBI, joined me this week to explain what jurisdiction, if any, the FBI has in D.C., why the National Guard is being deployed now but not during the Capitol riots, and how this “state of emergency” in D.C. is a false pretense.

And after, Contrarian contributor April Ryan is here speaking with Maryland Governor Wes Moore [28:20] about how the Trump regime’s goal isn’t really fighting crime – it’s about inflicting cruelty on black and brown cities.by-state action.

The Contrarian is owned by nobody. Your paid subscription helps us bring you the brightest voices in politics & culture and fight every day against the Trump chaos machine. Join us on Substack.