News from a Nobody

Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour is in chaos after Macklemore was dropped from the remaining US dates following his repeated onstage “Free Palestine” statements, including calling out the genocide in Gaza and referencing his 2024 song “Hind’s Hall.” Billionaire Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who owns Gillette Stadium and has a history of pulling funding from Columbia over its Gaza protest response, is accused by Macklemore of pressuring venue owners into an ultimatum: drop him or lose the tour stops. Kraft says the call was about Macklemore’s “broader history of antisemitic rhetoric,” while Sheeran insists the decision was the promoters’ alone. Pink also publicly criticized Macklemore, adding fuel to a firestorm that’s pulled in everyone from Ilhan Omar to Ms. Rachel. Then the dominoes started falling: Finneas (Billie Eilish’s brother and collaborator), Irish band Beoga, Irish singer Aaron Rowe, and Danish band Lukas Graham all walked off the tour in solidarity, most citing their own countries’ histories or a belief that artists shouldn’t be silenced for standing up for the oppressed. Today on the pod, I’m breaking down the full timeline — who said what, who’s really pulling the strings, and why this blew up into one of the biggest culture-war moments the music industry has seen in a while.

Episode 1 traces Project 2025 back to its true origin: Ronald Reagan. Long before Trump, the Heritage Foundation wrote Reagan’s 1981 “Mandate for Leadership” — the blueprint Project 2025 is the modern, more extreme sequel to. This episode breaks down the deep parallels between Reagan and Trump, from Reaganomics and trickle-down economics (the tax cuts for the wealthy that fueled today’s wealth inequality and income inequality gap) to the PATCO air traffic controllers’ strike, the racially coded Mulford Act, and the 100-to-1 crack-versus-powder cocaine sentencing disparity behind mass incarceration. We connect it to Trump’s own history — the 1973 DOJ housing discrimination lawsuit, the Central Park Five ad, and Project 2025’s push to expand mandatory minimums — plus the stranger overlaps: matching assassination attempts, Iran-Contra, and its reported ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Reagan didn’t just shape modern conservatism — he’s a big part of why we’re poor. Project 2025, Ronald Reagan, Heritage Foundation, Mandate for Leadership, Donald Trump, trickle-down economics, Reaganomics, wealth inequality, income inequality, PATCO strike, Mulford Act, crack cocaine sentencing disparity, mass incarceration, Iran-Contra, Jeffrey Epstein, JD Vance.

As of 8/30: Trump’s mail-voting order, a Texas voter purge, and the case for ignoring Trump’s Supreme Court “win” — this week on News from a Nobody, Faith breaks down why Republicans crying “election fraud” while controlling the House, Senate, White House, and Supreme Court makes exactly zero sense (thanks for the assist, Thomas Massie). She digs into the Supreme Court’s mail-in ballot ruling, Texas’s 1.2 million-voter “suspense list,” Tarrant County’s polling site cuts, and why Steve Bannon and Trump allies are already talking about ICE agents at polling locations this November. From there: wild horses, beef, and why “Are we eating horse meat?” briefly trended online — the real story is a BLM loophole quietly sending mustangs to slaughterhouses in Canada, and why the country-of-origin label on your steak disappeared back in 2015. Then it’s on to Yosemite, where a quiet Trump-era land deal with a private developer is testing just how far “privatize the national parks” can go — alongside a full breakdown of the eye-watering $2.24 billion Trump has personally profited off crypto, golf resorts, and lawsuit settlements since returning to office, plus Flock surveillance cameras now watching visitors at Yosemite’s gates. Immigration hits a new record this episode: ICE logged its highest monthly arrest total ever in July 2026, DHS has gone quiet under new leadership, and Faith tells the story of a U.S. Navy sailor’s father — a 19-year U.S. resident with a pending green card — detained despite serving his country. Plus: the U.S. is now deporting people to Liberia under a controversial third-country removal deal, and one Army unit found an unexpectedly effective reenlistment bonus (hint: it involves Grand Theft Auto). Then, a tribute: Dolly Parton passed away this week at 80, and Faith reflects on why the Deep South icon was one of the rare public figures beloved across the political aisle — her faith, her generosity, her Imagination Library, and her unmatched girl’s-girl energy. From there it’s straight into South Carolina politics, where Lindsey Graham’s sister Darline Graham just won the GOP Senate nomination — and stumbled badly on a basic national security question — setting up a race against Charleston pediatrician and Democratic nominee Annie Andrews. Good news, sort of: Meta just agreed to a historic $17 billion settlement over Instagram and Facebook’s harm to teens, with real usage limits finally on the table. But it’s followed by a genuinely unsettling one — a federal appeals court just ruled that AI-generated child sexual abuse material may be constitutionally protected under the First Amendment. And in accountability news, former Congressman Eric Swalwell had his devices seized by the FBI amid a sexual assault investigation. On the world stage: the CIA director made a rare, unannounced trip to Moscow amid fears Russia could test NATO’s resolve in the Baltics this fall — a callback to the exact playbook Russia ran before invading Ukraine in 2021. Meanwhile, the U.S. and Canada are in a full-blown trade war, with Trump and Ontario Premier Doug Ford trading real insults over tariffs. And overseas, Faith connects the dots between an Israeli-government-funded AI “think tank” secretly shaping chatbot answers about Gaza, a church-targeting propaganda campaign, the one-year anniversary of the Nasser Hospital strike that killed five journalists, and Israel’s new policy treating children’s kites as military threats. Finally: catastrophic floods in Nepal triggered by a Himalayan glacier collapse, and a deep dive into Gary, Indiana — where a historic Black city was left without power for two weeks after a derecho, and what that says about who gets prioritized in a disaster.

The true crime trials everyone’s talking about: thirty years later, someone is finally on trial for Tupac Shakur’s murder, as Duane “Keffe D” Davis’s trial gets underway in Las Vegas. We also cover Luigi Mangione’s guilty plea, the emotionally devastating Lindsay Clancy trial and what it means for how we understand postpartum psychosis, and an eerily similar case out of Colorado.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s disturbing comments about Gaza, a West Bank home raid where detainees were marked with numbers written on their skin, and bombshell reporting from The Intercept — sourced from emails obtained via a National Iranian American Council FOIA request — showing ICE quietly coordinated with Iranian and Qatari officials to deport more than 100 Iranian nationals back to Tehran in the months surrounding the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.

Why is Trump scaling back military exercises with South Korea while cozying up to Kim Jong Un? And what’s up with Israel’s strike on a Syrian airbase that hasn’t been active in over a decade?

Talking through the good news of the week — protesters who paused bulldozing at Big Bend National Park, USS Abraham Lincoln sailors and their families speaking out about conditions at sea, Disney pushing back against FCC pressure over Jimmy Kimmel, Harry and Meghan reportedly moving back to the UK, and a tribute to Hayden Panettiere.

We dive into the growing controversy around Trump’s most beloved aide, Natalie Harp — the personal letters she’s reportedly written the president, and why she was one of the only people allowed on Air Force One during a mid-air plane switch — plus the Heritage Foundation’s new “Saving America by Saving the Family” report and what it means for women, marriage, and reproductive autonomy going forward.

The DOJ is pushing to reinstate criminal charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia that a federal judge already called vindictive prosecution. We dig into “Operation Puppet Master” — a newly revealed DHS investigation that used subpoenas, undercover agents, and surveillance to monitor progressive organizations and unions like the Sunrise Movement, CWA, SEIU, and the AFL-CIO under a “domestic terrorism” label. And we break down why the DOJ is sending a record 1,000 election monitors to polling stations this November.

This week, we’re covering everything from AI surveillance to celebrity trials to what’s really happening behind closed doors in Washington. WIRED obtained the leaked code behind Flock Safety’s new AI surveillance tool, OS Investigate — and it does exactly what the company has spent years denying it can do, tracking license plates, names, addresses, and relatives across a network of 6,000+ communities. We also debunk the viral claim that HAARP, the U.S. research facility in Alaska, caused the deadly 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Colombia. On the accountability front: the DOJ is pushing to reinstate criminal charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia that a federal judge already called vindictive prosecution. We dig into “Operation Puppet Master” — a newly revealed DHS investigation that used subpoenas, undercover agents, and surveillance to monitor progressive organizations and unions like the Sunrise Movement, CWA, SEIU, and the AFL-CIO under a “domestic terrorism” label. And we break down why the DOJ is sending a record 1,000 election monitors to polling stations this November. We also dive into the growing controversy around Trump’s most beloved aide, Natalie Harp — the personal letters she’s reportedly written the president, and why she was one of the only people allowed on Air Force One during a mid-air plane switch — plus the Heritage Foundation’s new “Saving America by Saving the Family” report and what it means for women, marriage, and reproductive autonomy going forward. There’s good news too: protesters who paused bulldozing at Big Bend National Park, USS Abraham Lincoln sailors and their families speaking out about conditions at sea, Disney pushing back against FCC pressure over Jimmy Kimmel, Harry and Meghan reportedly moving back to the UK, and a tribute to Hayden Panettiere. On the international side: Trump scaling back military exercises with South Korea while cozying up to Kim Jong Un, Israel’s strike on a Syrian airbase that hasn’t been active in over a decade, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s disturbing comments about Gaza, a West Bank home raid where detainees were marked with numbers written on their skin, and bombshell reporting from The Intercept — sourced from emails obtained via a National Iranian American Council FOIA request — showing ICE quietly coordinated with Iranian and Qatari officials to deport more than 100 Iranian nationals back to Tehran in the months surrounding the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. And of course, the true crime trials everyone’s talking about: thirty years later, someone is finally on trial for Tupac Shakur’s murder, as Duane “Keffe D” Davis’s trial gets underway in Las Vegas. We also cover Luigi Mangione’s guilty plea, the emotionally devastating Lindsay Clancy trial and what it means for how we understand postpartum psychosis, and an eerily similar case out of Colorado. Topics covered: Flock AI surveillance, license plate tracking, HAARP conspiracy theories, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Operation Puppet Master, DHS surveillance of unions, DOJ election monitors, Natalie Harp, Trump administration, Heritage Foundation, Big Bend National Park, USS Abraham Lincoln, Hayden Panettiere, Jimmy Kimmel, Disney, Harry and Meghan, North Korea, South Korea, Israel, Syria, Itamar Ben-Gvir, Gaza, West Bank, ICE, Iran deportations, Tupac Shakur trial, Duane Keffe D Davis, Luigi Mangione, Lindsay Clancy trial, postpartum psychosis.

Mondays are for debunking misinformation. Today, we’re chatting through Flock’s new AI tool’s capabilities and the conspiracy theory that the HAARP research facility in Alaska caused the Colombian earthquake.

Does 80-year-old Donald Trump have a 35-year-old girlfriend? That’s the question Americans are asking following Georgia Senator John Ossoff’s rally speech. A deep dive into Trump’s closest White House Aide, Natalie Harp: why she deplaned Air Force One in Turkey, why she slept in a locker room one summer to be near him, and the intimate letters she wrote him.

Think Tyranny sounds dramatic? Listen to this episode first. Today: ICE body cams, deportation protections lost for active military family members, and attempts to jump overboard the USS Lincoln.

Don’t believe everything you see on social media. Today: anti-vax MAGA (MAHA) claiming Fauci’s texts prove the Covid-19 vaccine causes infertility, the MMR vaccine split due to unverified claims linking vaccines to autism, and RFK Jr’s real motive behind his anti-vax beliefs.

Surveillance is scary. Today: flock cameras and an even more disturbing company with a shared investor, Toka.

Sharing stories from independent journalists and stories that aren’t covered by major news outlets due to biases. Today: Israel’s rejection of the Gaza peace plan, what’s actually happening in Gaza, the former Mossad Director leading a US Weapons company, the NDAA FY27, and Brad Pascale (Trump’s former campaign manager)’s AI bot operation as a registered foreign agent for Israel.

Foreign Affairs Friday. Every Friday, I break down what the heck is going on between the United States and the rest of the world. This week, we’re talking about: the alleged Iran plot to assassinate Trump, the war in Iran, and the situation in Venezuela.

Thank You Thursday — Your weekly palate cleanser from the news cycle. Each Thursday, News from a Nobody sets the heavier headlines aside to highlight the good news, wins, and bright spots happening around the world. This week: promising new healthcare studies and Karoline Leavitt’s resignation as White House press secretary. A moment to breathe before we dive back in.

Womanhood Wednesday — Your weekly deep dive into women’s rights, reproductive healthcare, and the policies shaping women’s lives across America. Each Wednesday, News from a Nobody breaks down the latest on abortion access, reproductive rights, women’s healthcare policy, and the political decisions directly impacting women today. This week: everything from trad wives to the healthcare system that failed Lindsay Clancy.

This first episode covers the biggest news stories from the week and gives you a feel for the topics I’ll keep coming back to. New full episode every week, plus quick daily drops per topic.