On The Record (4-21-26).
How Trump Is Making Us Dumber.
This week we talked about how Trump’s chaos machine is doing exactly what it’s designed to do: flood the zone, kill our attention spans, and bury the stories that actually matter while we’re all busy staring at the wreckage. And then we got into private credit, which may sound boring (until you realize it’s basically the circulatory system of the small business economy). Right now the money is drying up, which means the real economy might already be in worse shape than anyone wants to admit.
Show Notes
Clips
Episode Timestamp + Link | Clip Link
- 00:00:44 | TIME: President Trump Calls Apple CEO Tim Cook ’Tim Apple’ In Meeting
- 00:11:32 | Brittany Page: Jeff & Lauren Bezos Make ‘Gratitude Lists’ as AMAZON WORKERS DIE AT WORK
Resources
- New York Times: What Trump Is Doing to the English Language
- Bolch Judicial Institute: The U.S. Presidency: Looking Forward
- NPR: Education Secretary Miguel Cardona reflects on FAFSA rollout, debt forgiveness
- USA Today: Education Secretary Linda McMahon confuses AI with A1, sauce brand capitalizes on blunder
- New York Times: Maduro Is Gone, and the Purge Has Begun
- KFF: Deaths and Health Care Issues in ICE Detention Centers Under the Second Trump Administration
- The Ink: After Epsteingate, the ball is in our court
- KFF: Key Facts about the Uninsured Population
- Obama Archive: Let’s Move
- USA Today: Kid Rock drinks milk in a hot tub with RFK Jr. in wild workout video
- Bloomberg: Direct Lending Fundraising Hits Three-Year Low in First Quarter
- American Prospect: The Deal That Could Destroy Hollywood
- The Lever: The Helium Crisis That Won’t Go Away
- Current Affairs: Steven Pinker Doesn’t Know Anything About Marxism
Book Love
- Nancy MacLean: Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America
- Anderson M Bean: Venezuela in Crisis: Socialist Perspectives
Pod Love
- Outrage + Optimism: It’s In Our Blood: Communities vs Forever Chemicals
UNFTR Resources
UNFTR Quick Links