Host Maya May Punches Up at the powers that need Punching, and Punches Up the message from the leaders who will get us out of this mess. Politics today is brutal - and with this election outcome, it's only going to get worse. Host Maya May and an amazing slew of political junkies, experts, thought-piece masters, smarties, and comedians are taking aim at those in power and those vying for power, because they are the ones Up there who need to get Punched. *(We won’t punch down. Nobody needs that).
NEW EPISODE: Join Rick Wilson & Joe Trippi tonight at 7p ET. J.D. Vance plays the martyr, Elon plummets in so so many ways, and Trump & Co want you to know that the recession that could make it hard to feed your kids is all a part of the plan. And, anyway, why not take up farming? Don’t worry! K?
Watch Rick & Joe tonight at 7p ET.
Trump has no mandate. Full stop. Does he want to pretend he does? You bet! But it’s a bad bet for Trump and he is way overplaying a bad hand. His sinking numbers with the American people on everything from the economy to Elon tell the story. Tonight, Lisa Senecal, executive editor of Resolute Square, joins Maya May to punch up at a very deserving bully, Donald John Trump, the POTUS Who Cried Mandate. They discuss why Trump’s attempt to show strength in last night’s Castro-esque rant before the joint session of Congress was really a huge tell of where he knows he’s weak and failing. Join Maya and Lisa at 7 PM ET!
Trump and his minions have a strategy to dismantle democracy. The fierce opposition must strategically and effectively fight back. Join us on March 4 when writer and international affairs expert Tom Nichols join Rick Wilson, Stuart Stevens, and Joe Trippi to discuss the (in)stability of America's relationships with NATO members and our other allies in the region.
Our institutions are falling like dominoes and our global influence is literally coming. To. An. End. And yet, there are those pundits on the left calling for the Democrats to hit pause on their attacks against fascism. Hit pause? Nothing says you’re getting the shit kicked out of you like desperately begging for a time out.
A time out ain't coming.
But that begs the question - how in the hell do we fight back? And how do we keep that fight going for the next four years? It’s only been a month for God’s sake!
Maya welcomes Santiago Mayer, the Executive Director of Voters of Tomorrow, to talk about running this marathon to win it. He’s spent the last four years organizing, strategizing, and building an army of Gen Z activists who will fight for their futures until the end. They’re the Zelenskies of American opposition politics, and we need to take notice.
As Trump continues his war on the media, our guest, journalist and media expert Mark Jacob says this might actually be an opportunity for journalists and outlets to regain their independence from the tyranny of ACCESS. Could these attacks actually make journalism stronger? It all depends on how media outlets respond. And how they respond will have a MASSIVE impact on our ability to self govern. There’s no getting around it - our lives depend on a strong media response to a homegrown autocrat.
Watch The Strategy Session tonight, with special guest Mark Jacob. Tuesday, 2.25.25 at 7p ET, from Resolute Square.
Kristin Brey is a Madison, WI native, media creator, radio host, and a hilarious person you just wanna spend time with - and tonight she's spending time with host Maya May. It's election season with a state Supreme Court seat up for grabs, so guess which billionaire, democracy-destroying broligarch is getting involved in Wisconsin politics? Elon Musk, of course. With an out of control news cycle, how do we see our way through the sh*tstorm to the essential issues - and have a powerful impact on them? Tune in at 7 PM ET tonight!
NEW EPISODE! Watch The Strategy Session with special guest, author and Economic Sociologist Brooke Harrington, Tuesday, February 18th at 7p ET.
The Broligarchy has taken over Washington, and it’s unimaginably bad. Not just for our economy or the widening wealth gap, but for our democracy. Brooke Harrington is a Professor of Economic Sociology whose new book, Offshore: Stealth Wealth and the New Colonialism investigates how offshore financial systems enable the ultra-wealthy to evade taxes, bypass regulations, and consolidate power, all while undermining democracy, capitalism, and environmental protections. Sound familiar?
Watch The Strategy Session, Tuesday, Feb. 18 at 7p ET.
Pete Hegseth. Russell Vought. White Christian Nationalism has found its way to the halls of power, and it’s darker than we imagined. They’re coming after Obergefell. They want to repeal the 19th amendment. They want to take access to power from women, people of color, the LGBTQ community, and place it in the hands of - you guessed it - white Christian men.
Don’t believe it? Tim Whitaker has seen it all firsthand. He is the founder of The New Evangelicals, a growing community dedicated to rethinking and reforming evangelical Christianity. He says that while the white Christian nationalists have a hold on our government and designs on a dystopian America, we’ve still got a shot. But it’s going to take all of us.
Watch Tim and host Maya May on Punching Up, tonight at 7p ET.
Tonight on Strategy Session, Rick, Joe, and Stuart are joined by election law attorney Mario Nicolais. Mario was one of the Colorado attorneys who took the battle to keep insurrectionist Donald Trump off the ballot to their Supreme Court. Though unsuccessful, Mario epitomizes why losing doesn't mean you were wrong and why fighting for what's right is always worth the effort. Mario, Joe, Rick, and Stuart will talk about the legal battles attempting to hold Trump in check - and how successful they are so far and might continue to be. 7 PM ET.
We’re all happy the Democrats seem to be waking up, but if we’re being honest, they’re two years behind the curve. Now is the time to fight back with everything we’ve got, but to also prepare ourselves for life under this regime while we fight. Because…it’s here, and it’s not going to be easy to make ground. Dems are going to use the law to try to stop a man who is lawless. We are going to protest against people without any shame or the ability to reflect on their behavior. Do we still need to do those things? Absolutely. Tonight, Maya’s talking with the amazing Elizabeth Booker Houston - lawyer, comedian, and public health advocate. She’s in the fight for social justice, reproductive rights, and all the stuff we need but are quickly losing. Join tonight at 7 PM ET!
Trump and his minions have a strategy to dismantle democracy. Strategist and attorney David Pepper joins the Strategy Session to break down what Trump and Musk are doing and why it's essential we fight back NOW! Join the fierce opposition on Strategy Session with Rick Wilson, Stuart Stevens, and Joe Trippi.
NEW EPISODE! Maya welcomes Reecie Colbert to Punching Up. We’ve seen the world coming down around us, and the democrats - who are supposed to be our opposition leaders - are basically silent, with a few notable exceptions. It can feel like we’re just screaming into the void, and the void is like, “Mailbox full.” So the people we expect to represent us - to guide us through this hellscape - are gone. But that doesn’t mean we’re alone. There are leaders out there who come with receipts. Black. Women. Black women have always voted overwhelmingly on the right side. To everyone else, MAGA bullshit looks like a smokescreen. Totally inscrutable. But black women can read it like the Rosetta Stone, and they’ve been trying to tell you for DECADES. Maya's guest, Reecie Colbert, knows how to fight. They talk about how to pick a fight & how to win it.
Week 1 of Trump 2.0 is in the books and, ya know, it wasn’t so bad. Maybe we all need to settle down and give the guy a chance. Kidding! He is as bad as we knew he would be and he’s only getting started. Not only are Trump’s actions predictable, they were published prior to the election in the Project 2025 manifesto. We sounded the alarms with help from all of you, so what now? Molly Jong-Fast joins the Strategy Session with Rick Wilson and Stuart Stevens to break it all down LIVE at 7P ET.
We are living through crises. Not a crisis. But crisEEEES. Many. Multiple. All the time. Every second. Just reading that is a gut punch. Really makes you feel hopeless, doesn’t it? But we got this. Juliette Kayyem, author of The Devil Never Sleeps: Learning to Live in an Age of Disasters, says crises will inevitably come. How we prepare for them before they happen and how we deal with them afterward really matters. Of course, right now, while we’re living through a crisis, we’re also dealing with the one that happened yesterday and trying to guess which one will happen tomorrow. Tonight on Punching Up, Juliette & Maya will talk survival. We can get through this, but we need to get to work. Watch Punching Up with Maya May, tonight at 7P ET.
You can't look at Trump's first 36 hours and legitimately deny that there is a fascist administration in the White House. That is our reality, so what is the strategy for fighting back against his abhorrent agenda, unacceptable nominees, and to win in '26 and beyond? To break it all down - and unpack what we saw and heard in his second inaugural address, join Rick Wilson, Stuart Stevens, and Joe Trippi with special guest Doug Jones at 7P ET.
The MAGA response to the California fires reinforces a really hard truth - no one is coming to save us. They want to argue about bathrooms and genders and pore over how many rounds can fit in a standard issue magazine. But they are not here to solve real problems. It turns out, that’s going to be on us. Tonight, Maya welcomes Alfredo Morales, an unlikely hero who fought fires in California for two years while incarcerated. His work - and the work of some 3,000 other inmates involved in California fire suppression each year - saves countless lives and huge swaths of land and property. In a world where the powerful spend their time placing blame and sucking up as much wealth as possible, it’s people like us - and Alfredo - who are going to have to step into the breach and solve problems. The world’s on fire, and we’re going to put it out together.
Watch Punching Up with Maya May and hear Alfredo Morales’s incredible story. Tonight at 7p ET.
Confirmation hearings for the Unacceptable Four and all their incompetent friends kicked off today with Secretary of Defense nominee and Christian nationalist Pete Hegseth. Where does his nomination stand after day one and are there any ripples in the Trump Swamp after the release of Jack Smith’s report? Simon Rosenberg joins the Strategy Session at 7 PM ET to talk about where we are and the strategy for getting to where America needs to be.
Host Maya May Punches Up at the powers that need Punching, and Punches Up the message from the leaders who will get us out of this mess. Politics today is brutal - and with this election outcome, it's only going to get worse. Host Maya May and an amazing slew of political junkies, experts, thought-piece masters, smarties, and comedians are taking aim at those in power and those vying for power, because they are the ones Up there who need to get Punched. *(We won’t punch down. Nobody needs that).
January 6th came and went without much fanfare...this time. Millions of people hold their breath, waiting for the next administration to take power. We are not waiting, and you shouldn't either. Tonight, we welcome former Senator Doug Jones to talk about how democrats - and all of us - can fight back starting right now. Join Rick Wilson, Stuart Stevens, and Joe Trippi with special guest Doug Jones, tonight at 7P ET.