The fight for democracy is happening on streets, in courtrooms, at kitchen tables — and increasingly, in your earbuds. A growing wave of independent, pro-democracy media creators are doing the work that much of corporate news has abandoned: naming what’s happening, following the money, tracking the corruption, and refusing to pretend that what we’re witnessing is normal.
Most of us who are paying attention are finding our content on YouTube, where these voices have built enormous and fiercely loyal followings. These shows aren’t just news commentary — they are community. They are sanity checks. They are proof that you are not the crazy one.
The list below is far from exhaustive. There are many more commentators, journalists, and creators doing vital work who aren’t included here. But these are some of the podcasts and YouTube channels that have consistently brought clarity, fire, and facts to the resistance. Find them wherever you get your podcasts, or search them on YouTube.
Pro Democracy Podcasts
🎙️The Enemies List
Host: Rick Wilson
Rick Wilson spent decades as a Republican political strategist before becoming one of the loudest and most unapologetic voices against MAGA. On The Enemies List, he systematically names and exposes those he holds responsible for threatening American democracy — calling out their treachery in his signature blistering style. As his tagline puts it: “sunlight is the best disinfectant.” Episodes are sharp, funny, and merciless. Now part of the Lincoln Square Media network. Available weekly on all podcast platforms and YouTube.
🎙️The Bulwark Podcast
Host: Tim Miller
Tim Miller is a former Republican communications director who has become one of the sharpest and most self-aware voices in the never-Trump media landscape. As host of The Bulwark‘s flagship daily podcast, he leads a team offering insightful political analysis, no-holds-barred takes, and long-form interviews that cut through the noise. The Bulwark has grown explosively — 1.5 million YouTube subscribers and nearly 900,000 Substack followers — and is doing some of the most sustained, serious anti-authoritarian journalism in independent media. Updated daily.
🎙️ I’ve Had It
Hosts: Jennifer Welch & Angie “Pumps” Sullivan
Two best friends from Oklahoma City who were once Bravo reality TV stars, Welch and Sullivan have become improbable icons of the resistance. I’ve Had It started as a podcast about trivial complaints and evolved — under the weight of the second Trump era — into one of the most popular political comedy podcasts in the country. The show is profane, funny, ferociously progressive, and completely allergic to both MAGA Republicans and milquetoast Democrats. They have interviewed Barack Obama, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Kamala Harris, and dozens of other political leaders — and they will not let any of them off the hook. Updated weekly.
🎙️ Pod Save America
Hosts: Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Tommy Vietor & Dan Pfeiffer
Pod Save America launched in 2017 after the first Trump election and helped define the modern era of political podcasting. Hosted by four former Obama White House staffers, the show blends insider knowledge, sharp political analysis, and genuine passion for democracy. The show has continued to grow in influence during Trump’s second term, bringing in major political figures and covering the most consequential stories of the moment. The flagship of the Crooked Media network. Updated several times weekly.
🎙️ The David Feldman Show / The Mop Up
Host: David Feldman
David Feldman is a comedian, writer, and television veteran who has been getting radicalized on air for years — and he brings his comedy background to bear on political commentary with irreverent, earnest, and deeply felt results. The Mop Up is the political news segment of his broader show, pulling no punches on corruption, ICE, and the daily outrages of the Trump era. A podcast for people who believe that strong political convictions and a sense of humor do not have to be mutually exclusive. Updated frequently on all platforms and YouTube.
🎙️ Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Host: Keith Olbermann
The man who redefined cable news commentary is back — and he is angrier than ever. Countdown with Keith Olbermann revives his legendary MSNBC format as a daily podcast on iHeart, complete with his trademark Special Comment political analysis, the tongue-in-cheek Worst Persons in the World segment, and his beloved readings from the works of James Thurber. A three-time Edward R. Murrow Award winner, Olbermann does not do neutral. He does not do polite. And right now, he may be the most important daily voice in the resistance. Updated daily, available on iHeart and all major platforms.
🎙️ No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen
Host: Brian Tyler Cohen
Brian Tyler Cohen has built one of the largest independent progressive media empires in the country — over 5 million YouTube subscribers and 4.7 billion views — and his flagship podcast No Lie is the beating heart of it. Week after week, Cohen sits down with major political figures pressing them on the issues that matter most and exposing Republican dysfunction and corruption. He’s also an MSNBC contributor and author of the bestselling book Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy. No bad faith talking points. No disinformation. No lies. Updated weekly.
🎙️ To The Contrary with Charlie Sykes
Host: Charlie Sykes
After years as one of the founding voices of The Bulwark, Charlie Sykes launched his own independent podcast and Substack. To The Contrary is a weekly deep-dive hosted by one of the most respected conservative-turned-resistance voices in the country. The show’s tagline sums it up: “You are not the crazy ones.” Sykes brings in top journalists, authors, and political thinkers — including David Frum, Tom Nichols, Susan Glasser, and Adam Kinzinger — for substantive conversations about democracy, authoritarianism, and what comes next. Updated weekly.
🎙️ The Dangerous Ones
Hosts: Jim & Tiffany Drastic and Nick Knudsen
Part news breakdown, part organizing hub, part movement. Jim and Tiffany Drastic and Nick Knudsen have built one of the most community-driven shows in the resistance media ecosystem. They break down viral memes and MAGA propaganda for what it actually is, decode the culture war tactics being used against ordinary Americans, and point people toward concrete action. What makes The Dangerous Ones stand out is their live phone hotline — a direct line where listeners can call in and connect with real organizing resources. This is activism media in the truest sense. Updated regularly on all platforms and YouTube.
🎙️ Parkrose Permaculture
Host: Angela Baker
Angela Baker is a Portland-based urban farmer, permaculture educator, and social media powerhouse with 7 million TikTok likes and 187,000 followers — and she is one of the most refreshingly grounded voices in the resistance. Rooted in permaculture’s guiding ethics of Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share, Baker weaves together food sovereignty, anti-ICE activism, and pro-democracy content in a way that connects the soil to the struggle. If you believe that caring for the land and caring for each other are the same fight, Parkrose Permaculture will feel like home. Updated regularly on YouTube and social platforms.
🎙️ The MeidasTouch Podcast
Hosts: Ben, Brett & Jordy Meiselas
The Meiselas brothers built one of the most extraordinary success stories in the history of independent political media. Three brothers from Long Island — a lawyer, an Emmy-winning video editor, and an advertising executive — launched MeidasTouch as a political PAC in 2020 and have since built a full-scale media empire. The MeidasTouch Podcast was named Podcast of the Year at the 2025 Webby Awards and has repeatedly topped YouTube’s weekly podcast rankings, at times beating out Joe Rogan. Their loyal following calls themselves the MeidasMighty — and right now, they are one of the most powerful audiences in progressive media. Updated multiple times weekly.
🎙️ Defending Democracy with Marc Elias
Host: Marc Elias (Democracy Docket)
If there is one battlefield where democracy can still be saved or lost before the next election, it is the courtroom — and nobody is fighting harder in that arena than Marc Elias. The nation’s foremost election and voting rights attorney, Elias is the founder of Democracy Docket and has won over 60 lawsuits protecting voting rights. His podcast Defending Democracy brings in lawmakers, policy leaders, and advocates every week to explain what’s happening in voting rights law, redistricting, and election security. If you want to understand how Republican efforts to rig elections actually work — and what’s being done to stop them — this is essential listening. Updated weekly.
🎙️ Letters from an American
Host: Heather Cox Richardson
Heather Cox Richardson is a history professor at Boston College and the author of the most-read Substack newsletter in the world. Her daily Letters from an American — now available as a narrated podcast — places today’s political events in their full historical context with clarity, calm, and expertise. If you find the news overwhelming and need historical grounding, Heather Cox Richardson is the voice you’re looking for. She has been doing this every single day, without fail, connecting what’s happening now to where we have been before — and reminding us that democracy has survived dark chapters like this one. Updated daily on Substack and all major podcast platforms.
🎙️ Pivot
Hosts: Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway
“With great power comes great scrutiny.” Twice a week — Tuesdays and Fridays — veteran tech journalist Kara Swisher and NYU marketing professor Scott Galloway dissect the intersection of tech, business, and politics with no-holds-barred candor and genuine chemistry. Pivot has become essential listening for anyone trying to understand how Silicon Valley’s capitulation to Trump, the monopoly power of Big Tech, and the collapse of media accountability all connect to the broader crisis of democracy. Galloway even launched resistandunsubscribe.com as a consumer-led protest tool against the tech companies propping up the administration. Their live tour in late 2025 sold out theaters across the country. From New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. Updated Tuesdays and Fridays.
🎙️ On with Kara Swisher
Host: Kara Swisher
When she’s not sparring with Scott Galloway on Pivot, Kara Swisher hosts her own twice-weekly interview show — and it may be the sharpest political and tech interview podcast going. A legendary journalist who has covered Silicon Valley since its infancy, Swisher goes deep with power players across business, tech, media, and politics, asking the difficult questions that most interviewers won’t. As she puts it: “Smart people like difficult questions.” Mondays and Thursdays from Vox Media. Updated twice weekly.
🎙️ Flipping Tables
Host: Monte Mader
One of the most uniquely credentialed voices in the resistance: Monte Mader grew up on a Wyoming cattle ranch inside a Christian Nationalist family, pursued theological studies in Israel, and was a true believer in the alt-right evangelical world — before deconstructing everything. Now based in Nashville, she’s a culture critic, metal vocalist, and podcaster with over a million Instagram followers who uses her insider knowledge to expose the dangerous machinery of Christian Nationalism, Project 2025, and the radicalization of young men. Flipping Tables features deep-dive discussions on evangelical deconstruction, American history, current events, and what the Bible actually says — versus how it’s weaponized. A former alt-right true believer dismantling the movement from the inside is about as powerful as it gets. Updated weekly.
🎙️ Raging Moderates
Hosts: Scott Galloway & Jessica Tarlov
If Pivot is Galloway in full attack-dog mode, Raging Moderates is where he and Fox News’ The Five co-host Jessica Tarlov model what political disagreement actually looks like when both sides are arguing in good faith. Tarlov — a Democratic strategist and one of the few progressive voices on Fox News — teams up with Galloway to work through the toughest political questions from a centrist lens, Wednesdays and Fridays on the Vox Media Podcast Network. They’ve hosted Hillary Clinton, covered Project 2025’s implementation in real time, and discussed the No Kings protests without the tribal point-scoring that dominates cable. Their central thesis: elections are won in the middle, so why won’t politicians give the people what they want? Updated Wednesdays and Fridays.
🎙️ The Don Lemon Show
Host: Don Lemon
Don Lemon left CNN in 2023 and reinvented himself as one of independent media’s most fearless voices — and his commitment to that mission has now been tested in the most dramatic way possible. In January 2026, Lemon was arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles after covering an ICE protest at a Minneapolis church, charged under an 1871 law originally designed to combat the Ku Klux Klan. He pleaded not guilty. Video footage reviewed by the Washington Post appears to contradict the government’s account. His lawyer called it “an unprecedented attack on the First Amendment.” Lemon’s response: “I will not be silenced.” Streaming twice daily and distributed as a podcast on all major platforms, The Don Lemon Show covers everything from race and social justice to the erosion of press freedom — with the urgency of someone who is living the story. Updated daily.
🎙️ The Jim Acosta Show
Host: Jim Acosta
Jim Acosta left CNN on January 28, 2025 — the same day Trump was inaugurated for the second time — and immediately launched The Jim Acosta Show on Substack, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts. The former CNN Chief White House Correspondent and author of the NYT bestseller The Enemy of the People has amassed over 300,000 Substack followers and 10,000+ paid subscribers, with individual episodes pulling 500,000+ views. His tagline says it all: “Don’t give into the lies. Don’t give into the fear. Hold onto the truth. And hope.” Acosta brings three decades of White House journalism and a Cuban-American immigrant’s understanding of what authoritarian creep really looks like — and he is not pulling punches. Updated multiple times weekly.
🎙️ The Warning with Steve Schmidt
Host: Steve Schmidt
Steve Schmidt managed John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign and spent decades as one of the Republican Party’s top political strategists — which means he knows exactly how the machinery of authoritarianism works, and he is sounding every alarm he has. The Warning — available on iHeart, Substack, YouTube, and all major podcast platforms — delivers daily written and broadcast commentary six days a week, with Schmidt’s signature long-form rhetorical style dissecting the collapse of democratic norms, the cowardice of Republican enablers, and the historical parallels that should terrify anyone paying attention. His central thesis: “Fascism did not rise in the 1930s because it was strong, but because democracy was weak.” With 600+ episodes and hundreds of thousands of subscribers, The Warning has become essential reading and listening for anyone trying to understand the full scope of what we’re up against. Updated 6 days a week.
🎙️ Unf*cking the Republic (UNFTR)
Host: Max
If you’ve ever felt like mainstream political podcasts skim the surface of what’s actually wrong with America — the economic machinery, the historical roots, the structural rot — then UNFTR is the show you’ve been looking for. Hosted by the pseudonymous Max (produced by 99, engineered by Manny Faces), Unfcking the Republic* goes deep. Not cable-news deep — genuinely, academically, historically deep — into progressive politics, leftist economic theory, labor rights, climate justice, and the fight against inequality. Every episode is thoroughly sourced and grounded in the historical context that mainstream media won’t provide. Topics have ranged from the collapse of the financial markets and the petrodollar, to Medicare for All, Housing First, Project 2025, and the controlled demolition of the U.S. economy. The show has built a fiercely devoted community — called “Unf*ckers” — who gather on Discord, follow Max’s detailed written essays at unftr.com, and sip *Unfcking Coffee from the UNFTR shop. This is the podcast for people who don’t just want to resist — they want to understand. Updated weekly on all major platforms.
This list represents just a fraction of the independent pro-democracy voices working hard every day to inform, galvanize, and sustain the resistance. Tune in. Share widely. Support independent media.
— The Resistance Club