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The Rachel Maddow Show

ByRachel Maddow, MSNBC
311 episodes

Podcast Summary

Dive into "The Rachel Maddow Show," where insightful analysis meets compelling storytelling. This podcast distills the week’s most pressing political events, blending meticulous research with Maddow's signature wit and clarity. Known for her deep dives, Rachel often features notable guests, including political strategists, journalists, and experts like John Meacham and Brian Stelter, who join her to unpack timely issues ranging from the January 6th hearings to the state of democracy in America. Each episode not only highlights current events but also explores the broader implications for communities across the United States. Maddow’s ability to connect the dots between local actions and national policies makes this podcast a must-listen for those seeking a deeper understanding of the political landscape. With its engaging narrative style and robust analysis, "The Rachel Maddow Show" empowers listeners to stay informed and engaged with the world around them.

#1

Trump makes a gross miscalculation about the popularity of his cruelty to immigrants

Rachel Maddow looks at fresh examples of communities across the United States rallying in defense of local immigrants being hunted by ICE agents, and notes that while Trump was open during the campaign about his policy of cruelty to immigrants, his expectation that Americans would support him in that cruelty was clearly misplaced.

2025-06-03•43mins
#2

Special Preview of “The Best People with Nicolle Wallace”

Who are The Best People? They’re the people who are the best at what they do and know how to bring out the best in others. On her new podcast, Nicolle Wallace speaks to the people who inspire her. As a mom. As an American. Or sometimes just as a super fan. In the first episode, she sits down with actor Jason Bateman. His show “Smartless,” which he co-hosts with Will Arnett and Sean Hayes, is the podcast that inspired her to do her own. On this special preview, Bateman shares his journey into podcasting and reflects on the political climate that gives him endless fodder for conversation. Search “The Best People with Nicolle Wallace” to listen to the full episode and to catch new episodes every Monday. Or sign up for MSNBC Premium on Apple Podcasts to get early access on Fridays. Signing up for Premium also includes ad-free listening and bonus content.

2025-06-02•4mins
#3

Introducing “The Best People with Nicolle Wallace”

On her new podcast, “The Best People,” Nicolle Wallace sits down with the smartest, funniest, wisest people she knows. These are the people who are the best at what they do and use their success to help others. Hear from some of the biggest names in politics, sports, and entertainment; people such as Jason Bateman, Rachel Maddow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Doc Rivers, and Kara Swisher. New episodes drop on Mondays, beginning June 2nd. And you can sign up for MSNBC Premium on Apple Podcasts to get early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content.

2025-05-29•2mins
#4

'Our superpower': Trump confronted by diverse, robust pushback on 'a million' different fronts

Rachel Maddow considers how the history of the Trump era will be written and how the defense of democracy and resistance to Trump authoritarianism will be seen as having a wide range of motivations, reflecting the breadth of Trump's catastrophe but also the consistency of America's defenders across demographics and interests.

2025-05-20•43mins
#5

Why Donald Trump's medical records say more than he realizes

Dr. David Kessler had previously described for Rachel Maddow how Donald Trump benefitted from the federal medical establishment in surviving a sever case of Covid, only to make drastic cuts to that institution, including firing the doctor responsible for Trump being able to receive his Covid treatment. Now Dr. Kessler returns to point out that Trump's medical records show another benefit of the federal medical system, and again he is cutting the very thing that has helped improve his health.

2025-05-13•44mins
#6

Massive 'No Kings' protest expected to rain on Donald Trump's (military) parade

Donald Trump is eager to fill out his autocratic profile with a display of military might in the form of a military parade. Anti-Trump activists are planning mass protests across the United States to make sure Trump Ezra Levin, co-executive director of Indivisible, talks with Rachel Maddow about the effects protests are having on the Trump administration and the importance of local activism.

2025-05-06•42mins
#7

'Historic debacle': Trump sets new standard for poor presidential performance; Americans displeased

Rachel Maddow reviews the many ways in which Donald Trump has made history with the first 100 days of his second term, though none of these achievements are anything to be proud of, and Americans are growing increasingly vocal about their displeasure.

2025-05-01•41mins
#8

Victims of Trump's irresponsible anti-immigrant crusade include American citizens

Rachel Maddow reports on examples of American citizens caught up in Donald Trump's attacks on immigrants in the U.S., some by accident, some by malicious negligence, and some apparently targeted on purpose.

2025-04-30•43mins

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#9

Trump 100 day faceplant: more devastating polling for Trump show Americans reject his policies

Rachel Maddow shares another collection of polls of Americans about the first 100 days of Donald Trump's second term, with results showing a shocking gap between people who approve versus disapprove. By wide margins, Americans do not like what Donald Trump is doing.

2025-04-29•43mins
#10

Trump gets reckless as his agenda tanks with the American public

Rachel Maddow reports on the ongoing parade of terrible polling numbers for Donald Trump, and talks with Rep. Jamie Raskin about the Trump administration arresting a judge. Rep. Robert Garcia also joins to discuss deportations, including breaking news that the Trump administration has deported several U.S. citizen children.

2025-04-26•43mins
#11

Wheels falling off the Trump train before his first 100 days, polls show

Donald Trump's second term is not even 100 days old and already his standing with Americans has soured, with polls showing opposition on major themes as well as specific issues, and the numbers only get worse as time passes. Rachel Maddow reviews the results of several major polls that show Donald Trump's second term is already falling apart.

2025-04-25•42mins
#12

Oops!: Trump's first 100 days marked by incompetent screw-ups and frantic walk backs

Rachel Maddow reviews the main lesson of the first 100 Days of the second Trump administration and highlights how the administration's overall incompetence has made screw-ups and reversals the hallmark of their governing. "Just because they're trying to do really, really bad things doesn't change the fact that they're also just really bad at everything they try to do."

2025-04-24•42mins
#13

Musk tries to blame paid protesters for his wild unpopularity, collapse of Tesla

After Tesla showed a steep drop in profits and a sliding stock price, Elon Musk was quick to blame fake protesters for manipulating public opinion against him. Rachel Maddow takes a look at the very real protesters and polls of public opinion that suggest that Musk should reconsider the public appetite for destroying the U.S. government and firing public workers.

2025-04-23•42mins
#14

Anti-Trump protests sweep the nation, crossing the threshold of mainstream media attention

Rachel Maddow surveys some of the many "No Kings" protests that took place in cities large and small across the United States against Donald Trump's push toward autocracy, and notes that unlike previous remarkable protest days, this one was given prominent attention by major news outlets.

2025-04-22•43mins
#15

Lost in the sauce: Stories Trump probably hoped you wouldn't notice while he 'flooded the zone'

Did you know Donald Trump plans to eliminate Head Start the preschool program? Did you know he gutted Americorps? Have you heard what he did to the National Weather Service? Rachel Maddow rounds up stories that would be huge news in normal times but may have slipped by unnoticed by many Americans in the shadow of Trump's daily wrecking ball spectacle.

2025-04-19•42mins
#16

'This should be shocking': Judge torches Trump admin. for neglecting due process for deportees

Rachel Maddow reads from the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling against the Trump administration as it tries to avoid accountability for mistakenly deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia without the due process that is foundational to American values.

2025-04-18•43mins
#17

'Criminal contempt' looms over Trump's showdown with courts over deportation fiat

The judge hearing the case against Donald Trump's deportation flights is losing patience with the administration's excuses and stall tactics, and today raised the specter of holding members of the administration in contempt of court. Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, discusses with Rachel Maddow.

2025-04-17•42mins
#18

'They can't hide the ball': Judge cracks the whip on Trump lawyers in deportation case

Trump administration lawyers are running out of excuses to avoid being accountable for the rights and whereabouts of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland immigrant father who was improperly deported and sentenced without due process to an indeterminate amount of time in a prison in El Salvador. Rina Gandhi, and attorney for Mr. Abrego Garcia, talks with Rachel Maddow about how the judge is pinning down the Trump lawyers for answers and accountability.

2025-04-16•47mins
#19

Making a mockery of Musk: Backlash against dismantling U.S. government focuses on hatchet man

Rachel Maddow looks at creative new ways activists are mocking and protesting Donald Trump's top campaign donor, Elon Musk, for his central role in butchering the staff and services of the U.S. government.

2025-04-15•43mins
#20

'How is it possible that you have this job?': RFK Jr.'s incompetence becomes too glaring to overlook

From his cluelessness about critical cuts made to his agency, to his celebration of dangerous quackery, Robert. F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump's HHS secretary, is distinguishing himself as not only incompetent but dangerously so, leading a department with lives at stake. Rachel Maddow reports.

2025-04-12•43mins
#21

'The time is now to stand up!': Eric Holder sounds alarm on Trump's war on the rule of law

Former Attorney General Eric Holder talks with Rachel Maddow about Donald Trump's efforts to intimidate the legal system in the United States and bend it to his will, and emphasizes the importance of the American legal community standing together and pushing back in defense of the rule of law. "The time is now to stand up and do all that we can to fight this administration."

2025-04-11•44mins
#22

Trump caves on tariffs: One economic indicator made even Trump realize he'd gone too far

Even with new polling showing significant disapproval among Americans of Donald Trump's handling of the economy, Trump's indifference to tanking the stock market did not waver. But when his ill-considered tariff scheme began to affect the bond market, even Trump knew it was time to dial back his one-man global trade war.

2025-04-10•42mins
#23

Trump in search of waste need look no further than his own staff

Rachel Maddow looks at the bizarre, frivolous demands of members of Donald Trump's staff even as vital public services are being cut in the name of waste.

2025-04-09•43mins

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#24

Fierce backlash against Trump's agenda seen in sweeping, nation-wide protests

From small towns to the largest cities, Rachel Maddow reports on the wide diversity of issues being protested in demonstrations across the United States on Saturday, as hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets to make their objections to Donald Trump's agenda heard.

2025-04-08•42mins
#25

The ridiculous real story behind the tariff plan that turned Donald Trump into a global disaster

Rachel Maddow looks at ways to understand the scope of the damage Donald Trump has done to the entire world economy, and reminds viewers where the tariff idea came from that has turned Donald Trump into a one-man global disaster.

2025-04-05•43mins
#26

Needless economic pain from Trump not even worth it if his tariff gambit works: economist

Betsey Stevenson, former chief economist for the U.S. Department of Labor, discusses the likely consequences for average American consumers of Donald Trumps ill-considered tariffs, and explains why, even in Trump's best case scenario, his tariff gambit is not worth the pain he is imposing on the U.S. economy.

2025-04-04•42mins
#27

Donald Trump fired the man who likely saved his life; U.S. may never fully recover from Trump's cuts

Dr. David Kessler, former FDA commissioner and chief science officer of the White House Covid-19 Task Force, talks with Rachel Maddow about the devastating effects of Donald Trump's cuts to HHS, not only in dismantling important services, but compromising U.S. medical and scientific leadership to a degree that may not be recoverable for decades.

2025-04-03•43mins
#28

Exclusive: Exclusive: Senator Cory Booker reflects on his historic, record-setting speech

Senator Cory Booker talks with Rachel Maddow about holding the Senate floor for a record-breaking 25 hours and 4 minutes to raise attention to the perils of Donald Trump's agenda and inspire American activism against that agenda as many of his constituents have taken to regular public protests on their own.

2025-04-02•46mins
#29

Fresh from scandal over group chat attack plans, Hegseth's conduct opens him to ridicule

Rachel Maddow looks at a string of bizarre headlines about Donald Trump's secretary of defense, Fox News personality Pete Hegseth, whose insistence on surrounding himself with close family while acting in his official capacity speaks poorly of his professionalism.

2025-04-01•42mins
#30

'This is shameful': Trump sows animosity and mistrust abroad, degrading Americans in the process

Rufus Gifford, former U.S. ambassador to Denmark, talks with Rachel Maddow about the animosity and mistrust Donald Trump is sowing among even allied nations, and the shock of betrayal people around the world are feeling about Americans they'd previously held in high regard but who they do not see pushing back against Trump and standing up for long-term international friendships.

2025-03-29•43mins
#31

Allies wary of Trump admin's incompetence after scandal over military plan group chat

Not only has the scandal over Trump officials discussing military plans in a group chat on an insecure commercial platform made the Trump administration look like fools to Americans paying attention, but overseas allies are drawing conclusions about the risk of sharing intelligence with America when its top officials are so careless with sensitive data. Alexander Ward, national security reporter for the Wall Street Journal, talks with Rachel Maddow about his reporting that it was actually an Israeli intelligence asset that was exposed by the sloppiness of the Trump officials' group chat.

2025-03-28•42mins
#32

'Two perfect months?!': Trump's rationalization of insecure group chat scandal backfires

Donald Trump says the scandal over his top officials discussing secret military plans in an unsecured group chat is just a "glitch" in an otherwise perfect first two months in office. Rachel Maddow looks back to help Trump jog his memory and realize that "perfect" is probably not the best word for what has happened so far in Trump's second term.

2025-03-27•43mins
#33

War plans group chat scandal fits pattern of Trump's embarrassing weakness on information security

Rachel Maddow looks at Donald Trump's ridiculously poor track record of mishandling sensitive information, with the scandal of several of his top officials thoughtlessly discussing military plans in an insecure group text raising questions of criminality on top of the widespread outrage over the sheer sloppiness of their actions.

2025-03-26•44mins
#34

'Holy crap on steroids!': Top Trump officials exposed in shocking, sloppy military security blunder

Top officials in the Trump administration discussed a military operation in a group chat on a commercially available messaging platform with a random member of the media added to the chat without anyone bothering to look at who else was in the chat. Senator Mark Warner, top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, shares his reaction to the news with Rachel Maddow.

2025-03-25•43mins
#35

Media reports prompt Trump to end plan to brief Musk on secret potential war plans for China

Rachel Maddow follows up on last night's breaking news that the Pentagon planned to brief Donald Trump's top campaign donor, Elon Musk, on top-secret U.S. plans for a potential war with China, with new reports that Trump says he only learned of the plan from the media and ordered that the briefing not take place. Trump's explanation is not especially reassuring as it raises new, unsettling questions.

2025-03-22•45mins
#36

Maddow: Trump admin shows folly of blind obedience to someone who doesn't know what they're doing

Rachel Maddow reports on the ridiculous, bungled spectacle of the Trump administration's release of unredacted documents related to the JFK assassination. Donald Trump appears to have thoughtlessly announced the release of the documents, and the sycophants who serve him followed his order to the letter, apparently without thinking about what they were doing. The result was the unredacted publishing of the social security numbers of people who were involved in the investigation, including many people who are still alive, like Trump's own lawyer, Joe diGenova.

2025-03-21•48mins
#37

U.S. under Trump backs off countering Russian sabotage campaign in Europe

Rachel Maddow looks at recent acts of sabotage by Russia in countries that support Ukraine, including what is believed to be the planning stages of detonating a bomb in a cargo plane over the United States. Erin Banco, national security correspondent for Reuters, joins to discuss her new reporting that the U.S. is now taking steps to back away from its role in helping to counter Russian acts of sabotage.

2025-03-20•43mins
#38

Trump is a repeat loser as his slash-and-burn rampage collides with U.S. law

Rachel Maddow reports on yet another bad day in the courts for Donald Trump as he was made to restore jobs his top campaign donor, Elon Musk, had slashed, and was similarly made to restore USAID, another victim of Musk's DOGE, and lastly, had his anti-trans military policy rejected and was given a lesson in the language of the Declaration of Independence for good measure.

2025-03-19•42mins
#39

Independent Agency CEO: 'DOGE has broken into our building.'

The U.S. Institute for Peace announced Monday that despite being independent of the executive branch and controlling its own building and the land it sits on, their objections to members of Elon Musk's DOGE team trespassing in their building were overridden by D.C. police. That came after an earlier confrontation in which DOGE was accompanied by the FBI. Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, who is suing the U.S. Marshals for information on DOGE after a similar raid, joins to discuss the unprecedented nature of DOGE leveraging the threat of armed law enforcement against another part of the government.

2025-03-18•43mins
#40

Trump reportedly keen on law at root of disgraceful chapter in American history

Rachel Maddow shares the amazing, historic story of how former Senator Alan Simpson and former Representative Norm Mineta partnered on hearings into the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, and why Donald Trump's reported plan to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which was used to justify Japanese internment, is raising alarm.

2025-03-15•42mins
#41

'A sham': Federal judge blasts Trump admin on improper firings of federal workers; orders rehiring

Rachel Maddow reads from the court transcript in which a federal judge blasts the Trump administration's defense of its firing of thousands of federal workers and orders that the jobs be restored, with some harsh words for Trump's lawyers to boot.

2025-03-14•42mins
#42

Outrage and exposure halts Trump's plans for Social Security service cuts

Rachel Maddow shares video of Rep. John Larson channeling the outrage of his constituents at the anticipation that Donald Trump's top donor, Elon Musk, is intending to destroy Social Security in order to privatize it. The Washington Post reported early Wednesday that Musk was planning cuts to Social Security's telephone customer service, but by the end of the day those plans had been cancelled. Between the public outcry and the exposure in the media, the pushback on Social Security cuts appears to have worked.

2025-03-13•44mins
#43

Trump fires 1,300 at Department of Education; programs expected to suffer with staff gutted

Plus, House Republicans literally alter time to avoid responsibility for Trump wrecking the economy

2025-03-12•41mins
#44

Trump puts U.S. at risk with increasing reliance on Musk

Rachel Maddow shows how the United States under Donald Trump is growing increasingly reliant on Elon Musk, and his Starlink program in particular. But Musk's words and deeds suggest he is not acting for the good of the United States.

2025-03-11•43mins
#45

American scientists take to the streets to protest Trump's cuts

As Donald Trump guts the programs and agencies behind some of America's greatest scientific achievements and fires the people responsible for those achievements and working on new ones, scientists across the country from every discipline took to the streets in protest to "stand up for science."

2025-03-08•43mins
#46

How one man took on Trump's improper firings and saved the jobs of thousands of people

Rachel Maddow talks with Hampton Dellinger, former chief of the Office of Special Counsel, about the importance of political independence for his watchdog agency, and his fight against Trump to restore the jobs of improperly fired federal workers.

2025-03-07•43mins
#47

Trump power grab tripped up by distinctly American resistance

Rachel Maddow reports on the number of Trump cuts, firings and other initiatives that have been reversed, blocked, walked back or reconsidered, and the variety of American institutions, from the courts to the streets, that have contributed to restraining Trump from asserting the full force of his will.

2025-03-06•42mins
#48

Special coverage of Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress

Rachel Maddow and a panel of her MSNBC colleagues react to Donald Trump's first address to a joint session of Congress of his second term.

2025-03-05•43mins
#49

Trump accidentally builds broad coalition of opponents energized by his unpopular agenda

Rachel Maddow surveys the varied and widespread protests in opposition to Donald Trump's wanton destruction of the federal government. From weather scientists to immigrants to LGBTQ+ and its allies to consumer advocates to park rangers, each round of firings or extremist executive orders brings a new collection of anti-Trump activists under an ever-widening tent.

2025-03-04•43mins
#50

'Who's that good for?': Maddow connects the dots on Donald Trump's behavior toward Russia

Rachel Maddow looks at a string of peculiar behavior by Donald Trump and Trump administration policies that don't seem to have the welfare of the United States as their goal, and wonders who those policies are good for if they aren't good for the U.S.

2025-03-01•42mins

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