Ambassador Emanuel argues that America has spent 25 years sleepwalking — through the Iraq war, the Great Recession, and the pandemic — and that the people responsible were never held accountable. His solution starts somewhere you might not expect: a Mississippi classroom.

Sarah McCammon spoke with him in Chicago about his diagnosis of the country, the education plan he'd run from elementary school to free community college, how we confront AI anxiety, and why he says it's the crisis neither party takes seriously enough.

Part 2 drops next week.

00:00 — Cold open

01:27 — Why New Hampshire, and what a bike trip tells you

05:51 — "America has lost its nerve"

08:23 — The pattern: elites walk off clean

10:43 — How business put the China market over national security

14:33 — The Chicago school record

15:34 — Phonics, Mississippi, and a generation lost

16:06 — A plan for every graduate, and free community college

17:31 — Trades and "build baby build"

19:54 — Ban social media under 16

20:20 — AI anxiety and why the trades are the hedge

23:56 — How a president leads without commanding the states

27:12 — The three doors and the 80 percent

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The granddaughter of a Mexican immigrant who served in the Army, Sen. Cortez Masto grew up the daughter of a Las Vegas parking attendant — who went on to become lowkey Vegas famous. She became a prosecutor, then Nevada's attorney general, and she's married to a former Secret Service agent. And she's the first Latina ever elected to the U.S. Senate.

Sarah McCammon spoke with Sen. Cortez Masto in Washington about why she refuses to join the calls to abolish ICE even as she condemns agents’  behavior under Trump and is leading the push for accountability, what it actually takes to win swing voters, and the fights she says she'll never give up.

00:00 — Cold open

01:06 — Why Nevada wants to be first

04:05 — A message about costs

07:17 — What went wrong in 2024

08:18 — An immigrant family in Vegas

13:47 — A prosecutor's case against ICE

16:46 — Why not abolish ICE

17:56 — On "soft on crime"

20:01 — The case for moderates

24:36 — Showing up where you lose

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Higgins left a corporate career to run the Peace Corps in Belize, served as a diplomat, then won a county commission seat representing Little Havana. Now she's mayor of one of America's most immigrant-shaped cities.

Sarah McCammon sat down with Mayor Higgins in Miami to talk about building affordable housing, what it actually takes to win Latino voters, and why she's not afraid of the word "capitalist."

00:00 — Cold open

00:02:24 — Engineer in a blue jumpsuit

00:04:00 — Writing her own obituary

00:04:57 — Peace Corps to politics

00:08:29 — 100 days as mayor

00:15:05 — Winning Little Havana

00:21:19 — Leading through deportations

00:28:07 — Affordable housing in an unaffordable city

00:42:40 — "We can be Democrats differently"

00:45:16 — The Latino vote isn't monolithic

00:46:33 — Knocking on doors

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Sherrill is a former Navy pilot and the first female veteran ever elected governor. Sarah McCammon talks to Gov. Sherrill in Trenton about how she actually flipped Trump voters, why she declared a state of emergency for energy prices on day one, and what she would say to Democrats who keep losing.

0:00 — Cold open

1:50 — Deciding to fly

3:57 — Life on the carrier

7:00 — On Pete Hegseth

07:32 — Tailhook and women in combat

11:06 — Getting government to yes

14:19 — The day-one energy emergency

22:37 — Flipping five Trump counties

25:40 — Thinking long-term

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