Left, Right & Center
Left Right & Center is for listeners who feel like people on the other side of the political divide are on Mars.
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Episoden
19.12.2025
51 Minuten
2025 is set to end without the passage of a new health care
bill.
Congress had been working to hammer out new legislation before
the holiday break. Democrats were pushing for an extension of
Affordable Care Act subsidies that lowered the cost of health
care premiums for millions of Americans. Those subsidies are set
to expire at the end of 2025.
House Democrats were joined in the fight by moderate Republicans
who worried that skyrocketing healthcare costs would leave them
vulnerable in next year’s midterms. GOP leadership pushed for
alternatives that would increase the possibility of coverage
without the extensions.
Lawmakers will resume the fight in January, with votes set for
the extensions desired by Democrats after a Republican proposal
passed earlier this week. Will the pressure of the midterms lead
to larger cracks between GOP members and leadership?
Midterms also have the potential to bring a new look to the
Republican base. New polling from NBC News shows that the share
of Republicans who identify as MAGA compared to traditional
Republicans dipped from 57/43 in the spring to 50/50 as the year
ends. Is this identity shift among voters a red flag for a party
looking to increase turnout next November? And has the president
lost some of his charm with Republican voters?
Plus, does either party really care about the national debt
anymore? Our KCRW panel answers one listener’s question about a
political argument that seems to have gone by the wayside.
Mehr
12.12.2025
51 Minuten
As peace talks between Russia and Ukraine continue, last week the
White House released its National Security Strategy. The
strategy, viewed favorably by Moscow, was
critical of the European Union and views the suppression of
far-right politicians as a threat to peace and democracy in the
region, especially in resolving the war in Ukraine. A US-brokered
peace plan would see Ukraine cede the Donbass region to Russia, a
non-starter for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
President Trump sees it as the best way to end the bloodshed, but
the plans have also concerned European leaders. What’s the
president’s motivation for peace?
The National Security Strategy also outlined immigration as a
threat to European democracy. There were warnings that Europe
risked “civilizational erasure" if it failed to curb mass
migration. What is the tie between peace and President Trump’s
skepticism on migration?
Also, our panel answers your questions.
Can you still be a fiscal conservative and a social progressive
without contradicting yourself? What happened to virtue in
politics?
Mehr
05.12.2025
51 Minuten
At the end of a cabinet meeting this week, President Trump
unleashed controversial comments about Minnesota’s Somali
community. The president said he “[didn’t] want them in our
country” and referred to Minnesota’s Somali-American
congresswoman Ilhan Omar as “garbage”. His diatribe came as
reports surfaced of ICE raids in the Minneapolis/St. Paul region
targeting Somalis in the area. The Department of Homeland
Security said that there would be increased focus on immigrant
communities in the wake of the November 26th shooting of two
National Guard members in Washington, D.C., which had no
connection to Somali-Americans. Is the administration clouding
legitimate questions about immigrant vetting with its actions?
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth continued to deny reports he
ordered an illegal strike on a boat suspected of trafficking
drugs in the Caribbean. Congressional Armed Services Committees
have opened investigations into the attack. What could
accountability look like legally and politically?
A new feature on X reveals where accounts on the app originated
from . A number of popular accounts posting about American
politics were exposed as foreign users. Is there any way to push
back on the influence of foreign actors on social media?
Mehr
28.11.2025
51 Minuten
President Trump has been a vocal supporter of capital punishment,
even before his foray into politics. Now in his second term, he’s
instructed the Department of Justice to help states facilitate
more executions, and death row executions have reached the
highest number in over a decade. Does Trump see political
value in capital punishment? What can we glean about our own
values from the push for more executions?
America’s youngest voters are going through hard times, facing an
uncertain job market and high costs of living.
Throw in a lack of faith in democracy and you’ve got a generation
of voters who are less engaged than any other age group. We’ll
discuss the political trends defining Gen Z, and ask how
political leaders can ignite their political spark.
Presidential pardon power has often been scrutinized - on the
Left, Right & Center. One listener has an idea about how to
fix it.
Mehr
24.11.2025
54 Minuten
This week we bring you an episode from Question
Everything, another KCRW podcast. Host Brian Reed brings
together the reporters who know the Jeffrey Epstein case best –
along with one of their Trump-supporting producers – for drinks
and a candid, no-holds-barred conversation. They compare notes,
challenge each other’s assumptions, and reveal what it really
takes to separate fact from rumor in a story that has tested the
limits of journalism.
It’s one of the most provocative and confronting discussions
Brian’s ever hosted about power, accountability and what’s at
stake when the media goes up against billionaires and their
networks.
Check out the Question Everything Substack, by
the way, where we get into juicy behind the scenes details and
other good stuff from our episodes.
“Question Everything” is a production of KCRW
and Placement Theory.
Drinking and fact-checking don’t always go hand in hand, so
clarifying and correcting a few statements from the conversation
here – which honestly in themselves give a sense of just how many
crannies of global power the tendrils of the Epstein story reach
into.
We reached out to Anouska De Georgiou to see if she wanted to
comment, but we didn’t hear back.
Leslie Wexner is not the founder of Victoria’s Secret – he bought
the company in 1982, and he said Jeffrey Epstein had stolen $46
million from him, not $60 million. Meanwhile investor Leon Black
paid Epstein $170 million for supposed tax advice – not $160
million.
Virginia Giuffre sued Prince Andrew as an individual, not the
Crown itself. Tara Palmeri’s reporting that Elon Musk dm’d
Virgina Giuffre saying Trump would release the files is based on
Virginia telling her this – Tara didn’t see the DM.
At one point, Eric says that in 2015, Roger Stone called
Epstein’s island a “democrat orgy island.” Really, Stone wrote a
book excoriating the Clintons called The Clinton’s War on Women,
and there’s a chapter in there called Orgy Island, which
highlights Bill Clinton’s friendship with Epstein. So Roger Stone
didn’t call Epstein’s island a democrat orgy island. Just “orgy
island.”
And last, but not least: the pope who was in a picture with
Jeffrey Epstein, which was displayed on Epstein’s credenza, was
John Paul II.
Mehr
Über diesen Podcast
Left Right & Center is for listeners who feel like people on
the other side of the political divide are on Mars. David Greene
pieces together the big picture by inviting people from the left
and the right to unpack their ideological differences, not to
smooth them over, and look at what’s truly at stake. The show
offers a rare kind of clarity. It doesn’t ask you to agree. It
asks you to look more closely at what’s happening and to
challenge your assumptions.
You might not always agree – you might even get angry – but
you’ll know why you feel the way you do. No knee-jerk reactions
or name calling. This show doesn’t promise easy answers or warm
fuzzies; it promises more clarity for the chaotic political era
we’re all living through.
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