In Which We Discuss:

1. Extremism, according to Joe Manchin, is you voting.

2. As you bemoan Biden’s bad week last week, the one thing that should give you solace is that this is the 52nd bad week of his term.

3. Note to Kamala Harris and all future Vice Presidents: Veep is a parody.

4. 2024 is shaping up to have…the same primary as 2020?

5. Eric Adams is not even good at nepotism.

Brain Trust Live is (still) Lila Nordstrom and Brent Thornburg's look at the week in electoral and political news. Join the millions of quarantiners, sirens, helicopters, barking dogs, and computer beeps who love our podcast and tell your friends about BTL!  Then rate us on iTunes or find us Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Stitcher, or Instagram!

In Which We Discuss:

1. Carissa Byrne Hessick joins us to talk about her book Punishment Without Trial: Why Plea Bargaining is a Bad Deal.

2. COVID is everywhere thanks to…teachers?

3. Jobs: You can now even do them with COVID!

4. Voting: What if we could protect your ability to do it

5. Chris Matthews and Hillary Clinton chime in with a message from the bunker.

6. Madison Cawthorn ends his marriage to a Crossfit Influencer who may or may not be a Russian spy.

* Follow Carissa on Twitter: @CBHessick

* Buy Carissa's Book: Punishment Without Trial: Why Plea Bargaining is a Bad Deal

* Buy Lila's Book: Some Kids Left Behind

Brain Trust Live is Lila Nordstrom and Brent Thornburg's look at the week in electoral and political news. Join the millions of quarantiners, sirens, helicopters, barking dogs, and computer beeps who love our podcast and tell your friends about BTL!  Then rate us on iTunes or find us Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Stitcher, or Instagram!

It’s a Thanksgiving conspiracy spectacular!! (Aaaaaaand…we were too lazy to write the rest of the rundown.) So buckle up, because we’ll have that and so much more!

Get a booster so you too can record a podcast in the same room as your co-host!

Brain Trust Live is (still) Lila Nordstrom and Brent Thornburg's look at the week in electoral and political news. Join the millions of quarantiners, sirens, helicopters, barking dogs, and computer beeps who love our podcast and tell your friends about BTL!  Then rate us on iTunes or find us Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Stitcher, or Instagram!

In Which We Discuss:

1. Amanda Litman from Run For Something tells us why YOU should run for office!

2. Call in the brass band: We signed a bill! Turns out it is still physically possible to sign those. 

3. A sprawling bill that will help all americans is now headed to the senate where it will die because of…the price of milk?

4. World War II swim meets, Jimmy Carter’s sweaters, and other missives from Kevin McCarthy’s 9 hour speech.

5. The legal system is broken beyond repair. That’s it. That’s what we have to say about that. 

6. Kamala Harris becomes the first female president due to a colonoscopy...in her defense, that’s just as legitimate as the electoral college.

Follow Amanda on Twitter: @amandalitman

Learn more about Run for Something: runforsomething.net

Run for Office: runforwhat.org

Brain Trust Live is Lila Nordstrom and Brent Thornburg's look at the week in electoral and political news. Join the millions of quarantiners, sirens, helicopters, barking dogs, and computer beeps who love our podcast and tell your friends about BTL!  Then rate us on iTunes or find us Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Stitcher, or Instagram!

In Which We Discuss:

1. Laura Packard is here to talk healthcare and Build Back Better!

2. To the surprise of zero hosts of this podcast, Terry McAuliffe was not the best candidate for Virginia governor

3. The BIF passed, the BBB needs the CBO. Is it DOA?

4. Nobody saw Australia emerging as the supervillan of this week’s climate summit

5. Last month's jobs numbers are great or terrible, depending on whether you’re Brent or Lila

6. Nothing has ever made more sense than Krysten Sinema’s ties to MLM

Learn More About Laura:

Follow Laura on Twitter: @lpackard

Follow Laura on Instagram: @laurapackardactivist

Follow Healthcare Voter on Twitter: @HealthCareVoter

Check Out Laura's Recent Op-Ed in Business Insider

Brain Trust Live is Lila Nordstrom and Brent Thornburg's look at the week in electoral and political news. Join the millions of quarantiners, sirens, helicopters, barking dogs, and computer beeps who love our podcast and tell your friends about BTL!  Then rate us on iTunes or find us Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Stitcher, or Instagram!

In Which We Discuss:

1. Your kids can finally get microchipped

2. Biden’s plan to brag to Europeans about his fifth rate social safety net proposals are dashed

3. What’s left in BBB? We’ll go over the very short list

4. Terry McAuliffe is not using his prodigious fundraising skills to buy good ideas in Virginia

5. Redistricting is upon us, so expect a bunch of Congresspeople to suddenly leave office for “principled” reasons

6. In the year of our lord 2021, “dad bod” has finally made it into the dictionary

Get a vaccine so you too can record a podcast in the same room as your co-host!

Brain Trust Live is (still) Lila Nordstrom and Brent Thornburg's look at the week in electoral and political news. Join the millions of quarantiners, sirens, helicopters, barking dogs, and computer beeps who love our podcast and tell your friends about BTL!  Then rate us on iTunes or find us Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Stitcher, or Instagram!

In Which We Discuss:

1. Tatenda Musapatike talks voting, Real Housewives, and Dem strategy

2. Infrastructure Update: Just…what?

3. Voting rights is filibuster reform. Everything is filibuster reform.

4. Joe Biden wants you to want to pay your student loans

5. A sentence we never thought would be necessary to say: India Walton is not David Duke

6. Apparently the solution to zebras on the loose is…more zebras on the loose

Follow Tatenda on Twitter and Instagram: @TatendaCheryl

Follow Voter Formation Project: @VoterFormation

Brain Trust Live is Lila Nordstrom and Brent Thornburg's look at the week in electoral and political news. Join the millions of quarantiners, sirens, helicopters, barking dogs, and computer beeps who love our podcast and tell your friends about BTL!  Then rate us on iTunes or find us Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Stitcher, or Instagram!

In Which We Discuss:

1. Having COVID has given Allen West too much free time. Let’s get that man out of the hospital ASAP.

2. The Debt Ceiling: A problem we invented just so we could solve it.

3. Infrastructure: It never ends. It also never starts.

4. It’s fake panic time for the fake jobs numbers!

5. With schools finally open, it’s time to get back to the business of studying duck and cover techniques, the only true way to prepare kids for the American workplace.

6. It’s the return of Sinkhole Radio!

Get a vaccine so you too can record a podcast in the same room as your co-host!

Brain Trust Live is (still) Lila Nordstrom and Brent Thornburg's look at the week in electoral and political news. Join the millions of quarantiners, sirens, helicopters, barking dogs, and computer beeps who love our podcast and tell your friends about BTL!  Then rate us on iTunes or find us Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Stitcher, or Instagram!

In Which We Discuss:

1. For the first time in 5 years we almost had a real infrastructure week.  Almost.

2. A review of all the dumb ways moderates waste money.

3. Are we talking about the fucking debt ceiling??? Again???

4. I do not have enough closet space for a repeat of the toilet paper shortages.

5. Who fixes an oil pipeline when nobody knows who owns it? 

6. We freed Britney! But who’s in charge of worrying about her now?

Get a vaccine so you too can record a podcast in the same room as your co-host!

Brain Trust Live is (still) Lila Nordstrom and Brent Thornburg's look at the week in electoral and political news. Join the millions of quarantiners, sirens, helicopters, barking dogs, and computer beeps who love our podcast and tell your friends about BTL!  Then rate us on iTunes or find us Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Stitcher, or Instagram!

In Which We Discuss:

1. The Olympics: A time for TikTok videos of athletes jumping on cardboard beds

2. Infrastructure: A time for...disagreement with Krysten Sinema

3. Joe Biden sides with Brett Kavanaugh on whether you should have a roof over your head

4. The CA recall election is so close they had to call Liz Warren in to do commercials

5. The Nina Turner / Shontel Brown election is so close they had to call everybody else to do commercials

6. Sarah Palin and God are threatening a run for senate in Alaska

Get a vaccine so you too can record a podcast in the same room as your co-host!

Brain Trust Live is (still) Lila Nordstrom and Brent Thornburg's look at the week in electoral and political news. Join the millions of quarantiners, sirens, helicopters, barking dogs, and computer beeps who love our podcast and tell your friends about BTL!  Then rate us on iTunes or find us Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Stitcher, or Instagram!