Podcasts Archives - Ted Rall's Rallblog

Deadly Plague Escapes Russian Lab | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

October 6, 2026•

LIVE: MWF 9-11 am Eastern time & 9-10 am Tues-Thurs & Streaming Anytime

Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM ET.

Today we discuss:

• Trump said the U.S. is willing to help Russia after the State Department announced it was monitoring a reportedly fatal case of “pneumonia of an unknown etiology”—pneumonic plague—linked to a Russian plague research laboratory in Irkutsk Oblast.

• 1,800 high schools and 90% of universities in France are currently blockaded or closed. The wave of protests started with 15 to 18-year-old lycéens and has now spread to their parents, university students and the biggest union, the CGT. The Interior Ministry estimates about 86,000 protesters have taken to the streets across France, not including the Paris region.

• Leaders in California have denounced Donald Trump as “reckless” and “deranged” after the US president suggested Iran could “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Trump’s approval rating at a record-low 32%. That polling included the president losing support among independent voters and Latinos, who had backed him in 2024.

• China has opened its first overseas air force base in its home continent of Asia—in Laos—where the US already maintains several military bases and access arrangements, marking a new phase in Beijing’s military expansion nearly a decade after establishing its first overseas military base in Djibouti, Africa, in 2017.

• The German federal prosecutor’s office announced it had detained the former spy chief, August Hanning, 80 — who led Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, from 1998 to 2005 — but did not say which foreign countries he was accused of spying for. Adding to the drama was the revelation that the investigation had origins in an alleged attempt by a German steakhouse heiress to kidnap her children from her estranged husband.

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Trump in Denial About Looming Catastrophe | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

October 5, 2026•

Ted Rall

Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM ET.

Today we discuss:

• Polls predict a major defeat for Republicans as voters angry about the economy prepare to hand the House and Senate back to Democrats. Yet Trump continues rallying for Republican candidates while visiting Ohio, proposing a defiant outlook on his party’s chances in the November 3 midterm elections. Trump told a rally in Vandalia, Ohio, that he believes there will be a “big surprise” in the upcoming elections, claiming his Democratic opponents do not know what is happening.

• Wanying “Heather” Zhang, an Irvine, California, realtor, was arrested by the FBI yesterday before she boarded a flight to Shanghai from LAX, on a charge of acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. Zhang and an accomplice stand accused of traveling to Seattle, Washington, in September 2025 and taking pictures at the suburban home of Ting-Yu Lai, the son of Taiwanese President Ching-Te Lai.

• The Supreme Court considers whether the case of Boulder, Colo., which is suing two big energy companies, Suncor Energy and Exxon Mobil, arguing they deceived people about the harms of fossil fuels and contributed to disasters that cost Boulder a lot of time and money, may move forward.

• Authorities in the United Arab Emirates shared with Israel a list of passengers and crew ahead of the FlyDubai flight on which a pilot attempted to seize control of the Israel-bound aircraft and crash it, regional officials said Sunday, raising new questions over how the attacker evaded detection.

• As programmers make more and more use of generative AI in the workplace, their responsibilities are quickly transitioning from creating new products from scratch to babysitting a large language model that cobbles together code. It’s gotten to the point where some engineers are no longer able to make sense of the code being spat out by an AI.

• NASA asked contractors to prepare to build a nuclear reactor that could survive a space voyage and run without maintenance near the moon’s south pole. That may sound like science fiction, but the agency wants it ready to be launched by December 2030. Russia aims to have a lunar reactor running by 2036 as part of a secretive partnership with China. The United States and China want to be first to establish a moon base, to search for resources like frozen water and to launch missions deeper into the solar system. Both superpowers believe a nuclear reactor is the centerpiece of this ambition.

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Behind the Minab Massacre (interview with Murtaza Hussein) | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

October 3, 2026•

Ted Rall

LIVE: MWF 9-11 am Eastern time & 9-10 am Tues-Thurs & Streaming Anytime

Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM ET.

Today we discuss:

• Murtaza Hussain, senior national security and foreign affairs journalist at Drop Site News, joins “Deprogram” to discuss the latest reporting on the US massacre of schoolchildren and educators at Minab during the opening days of the Israeli/US war against Iran.

• Tennessee’s prison chief, Frank Strada, presided over the fifth “botched” execution under his leadership across two states since 2022. Krista Pike, 50, was heard choking and struggling an hour after receiving the first injection of pentobarbital, a sedative, and after a second dose failed to kill her, she was hospitalized in critical condition.

• Riot police clashed with high school students across France on Friday and unions called for teachers to strike as President Emmanuel Macron’s government battled to contain increasingly violent protests over classroom conditions and education funding. Tear gas choked the streets in the eastern city of Strasbourg, fireworks were aimed at ‌police lines in Marseille in the south and rubbish bins set ablaze in Rennes in the west. Rights groups have accused the police of using heavy-handed tactics against minors, including the use of batons, tear gas and non-lethal flash-ball guns.

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French Students Wild in the Streets | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

October 2, 2026•

Ted Rall

IVE: MWF 9-11 am Eastern time & 9-10 am Tues-Thurs & Streaming Anytime

Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM ET.

Today we discuss:

• Christa Pike is in critical condition and receiving “lifesaving care” at a hospital, after two failed attempts to execute her using the drug Tennessee (tries to) use to kill prisoners.

• National protests by French high-school students over long hours (8am-6pm), teacher shortages and decaying facilities has escalated into “urban violence”, the French government warns, as many schools switch to online classes.

• A new AP-NORC poll is the latest ugly data point for Trump. It showed Americans disapprove of the president on cost-of-living by a stunning margin: 82% to 17%. That’s more than disapproved of presidents for wars gone wrong, botched crisis responses and even major scandals like Watergate. Trump faces a map where “the fires are everywhere,” and Democrats are competitive in states such as Alaska, Iowa and Kansas, all of which voted for Trump by double-digit margins in 2024.

• The Supreme Court will consider whether immigrants subject to deportation can be held in detention indefinitely while their cases are adjudicated. The focus is whether such immigrants should have a chance to be released while the deportation process moves forward, which was standard practice under previous presidents.

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Will Romania Join the Far Right? | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

October 1, 2026•

Ted Rall

LIVE: MWF 9-11 am Eastern time & 9-10 am Tues-Thurs & Streaming Anytime

Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM ET.

Today we discuss:

• Crisis in Romania: After the PSD Socialists joined with the right-wing AUR to bring down Liberal Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan’s coalition, in protest at austerity, Bucharest parliamentarians turned down independent moderate President Nicușor Dan’s candidate MEP Mureșan and now PM Siegfried Mureșan’s attempt to form a government. A snap election would likely benefit the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) party.

• Tortured by Tennessee: A woman convicted of murder survived two doses of lethal injection last night before state officials gave up and had her taken to a hospital. It was the second botched execution in the state this year. The horrifying fiasco came after dueling court rulings delayed the execution of the woman, Christa Pike, by nine hours.

• SkyNet: The Pentagon is creating a new Autonomous Warfare Command to oversee the military’s push into autonomous warfare.

• Resistance: The FBI is charging a Michigan nurse, Chloe Renae Freeman, 33, accused of illegally helping an undocumented immigrant, who was being treated in a hospital, escape from immigration officials. She faces 1 year in prison and $100,000 fine.

MERCHANDISE: DeProgram.MySpreadShop.com

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NYC Mayor Targets Fictional Anti-Semitism | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

September 30, 2026•

Ted Rall

LIVE: MWF 9-11 am Eastern time & 9-10 am Tues-Thurs & Streaming Anytime

Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM ET.

Today we discuss:

• Caving to right-wing Zionists, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani releases a report claiming that American Jews have reported a marked rise in antisemitism in the past decade. It also states that antisemitism, and acts of antisemitic violence, have grown in recent years. It makes no mention of acts motivated by anti-Israel sentiment since the war in Gaza began. In fact, there is no data supporting these claims, which conflate criticism of Israel with ant-Semitism.

• Excerpts of text messages reportedly exchanged by a defendant in the Cornell University gang-rape case and the woman who claims she was assaulted were reportedly sent within days of the alleged October 2024 assault at a campus fraternity house in which a female student said she was drugged and repeatedly raped over the course of seven hours by multiple men who were alerted to her presence on the social media platform Snapchat. The texts highlight the complications that have often presented themselves in investigations centering on rape on college campuses in the US.

• Trump sought to loot Venezuelan gold to the United States to be refined. As a consequence of the administration’s hasty approach, all that gold — hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth — sits untouched in warehouses. Refiners would need to guarantee, under international rules, that the gold has not funded gangs, environmental destruction or corruption.

• The Supreme Court allows Trump to resume rapidly deporting immigrants to countries other than their own. Meanwhile, ICE is preparing for another hiring surge to support President Trump’s deportation campaign, with a goal of bringing on 5,000 new employees by the end of the year.

• The Trump administration is preparing to add a question on next year’s tax returns asking people whether they are a citizen or legally authorized to work in the US, expanding an attempt to cut tax refunds for legal immigrants or push them out of the tax system entirely—trapping them as tax evaders.

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I Die (for the FBI) | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

September 29, 2026•

Ted Rall

LIVE: MWF 9-11 am Eastern time & 9-10 am Tues-Thurs & Streaming Anytime

Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM ET.

Today we discuss:

• A theft by the criminal hacking group ShinyHunters of reams of sensitive personal data involving potentially tens of thousands of former and current F.B.I. employees is emerging as one of the worst breaches of sensitive government information, leaving the bureau scrambling as an uncertain deadline loomed.

• Counterterrorism police in Britain say that 5 men arrested Sunday near an air base were being released on bail, in what officials originally said was a major incident involving a possible terrorist act. “Deprogram” called it yesterday.

• A person who said they had spoken with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed and another person who said they had been briefed by someone on the call between the two leaders told The New York Times that the Emirati leader had reported to Netanyahu that Hamas was preparing a major attack. The warning from the Emirati leader, however, never reached the leaders of Israel’s security establishment.

• Soon after returning to office, Trump signed an executive order directing that imprisoned trans women be housed in men’s facilities. It also barred transgender inmates from receiving gender transition medical treatments for gender dysphoria. Lower courts blocked the policy. Now Trump is asking the Supreme Court to let it move forward.

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GOP Running Scared of Trump’s War | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

September 28, 2026•

Ted Rall

LIVE: MWF 9-11 am Eastern time & 9-10 am Tues-Thurs & Streaming Anytime

Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM ET.

Today we discuss:

• A growing number of Republicans scramble to disown the costly Iran war. Trump’s conflict has sent the prices of gasoline, diesel and heating oil upward, and cost increases have spilled across the economy. Mortgage rates have also climbed to 7%, squeezing the struggling housing market.

• Trump rejects Iran’s recent proposal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz because the president thinks Washington has more to gain by waiting than by accepting Tehran’s terms at this moment. Tehran, meanwhile, also is no rush to cut a deal.

• British police arrests 5 men on suspicion of preparing acts of terrorism after receiving a call about 3 suspicious vehicles headed toward an air force base used by the American military, R.A.F. Fairford, to deploy some of its largest bombers.

• Protesters outraged by the eviction of an 87-year-old woman camped overnight in Madrid’s historic Puerta del Sol plaza, where more demonstrators — including multigenerational families — joined them for a second day of protests over Spain’s housing crisis. Abascal issued a video recorded from her hospital bed after the eviction. Images of the eviction spread widely across Spain, fueling outrage and criticism of public authorities and real estate investment companies accused of pricing residents out of their homes. Critics often refer to such companies as “vulture funds.”

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I’m Not the War Criminal, You Are! | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

September 25, 2026•

Ted Rall

Live at 9 AM Eastern & Streaming 24-7 Thereafter:

Editorial cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM Eastern time.

Today we discuss:

• In an epic display of nerve, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insulted New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani—head of the host city of the UN—in a wild address to the United Nations General Assembly that saw many delegates walk out before it even began. Netanyahu is the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

• Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state oil company, is responsible for more of the carbon emissions driving the escalating climate crisis than any other company in history, and the kingdom has long been a major blocker of climate action. Yet at least a dozen of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) lead authors are employed by or linked to Saudi Aramco, Saudi institutions and other oil and gas interests. One IPCC vice-chair, part of the body’s leadership group, also represents the kingdom at global climate negotiations as a government employee.

• Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi proposes reopening the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz and resuming nuclear talks with the U.S. within seven days if the Trump administration abides by the Memorandum of Understanding.

• ICE and other agencies have wasted tens of millions of dollars pursuing ill-conceived plans to rapidly increase detention capacity, and the total will likely rise due to ongoing mismanagement, congressional investigators warn. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) documented costly problems, including nearly $3 million to erect tents at Guantanamo Bay that were never used, $20 million to maintain purchased warehouses that are now being sold without having housed a single detainee, and excessive rates paid to hold detainees at a deficient and now-shuttered Alligator Alcatraz.

• The Danish Defence Intelligence Service (DDIS) says that there is a “low but growing risk” Russia could launch a “limited” military attack against a NATO member in the coming months, saying the Kremlin appears more willing to take risks after more than four-and-a-half years of war against Ukraine.

• In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s cabinet adopts a decree-law, rendering the wearing of burqas and niqabs in schools illegal and introducing a 30% cap on non-Italian speakers in classrooms starting next year.

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OMG Canada! | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

September 24, 2026•

Ted Rall

Live at 9 AM Eastern & Streaming 24-7 Thereafter:

Editorial cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM Eastern time.

Today we discuss:

• In an indication of how radicalized international relations have become, Prime Minister Mark Carney says that Canada is preparing for the “extreme tail risk” that US President Trump might order military action against Canada.

• ICE left a U.S. citizen from Evanston, Ill., injured on the ground with broken teeth after he was brutalized and detained in another incident of mistaken identity. Meanwhile, Trump is reconsidering his deal to import Argentine beef.

• The New York Times reports that Mary Peltola, an Alaska Native running for Senate, runs a chaotic political operation marked by tumult—angry and profane outbursts at aides, and shoving an aide. Legit criticism or a sexist double standard?

• Campaign finance records cited by ProPublica show that a shell company established by fraudster Martin Kao made a pay-to-play donation to a super PAC supporting Maine Senator Susan Collins’ 2020 re-election campaign. Emails show Scott Reed, head of the super PAC backing Collins, knew Kao had used a shell company to mask his illegal donation.

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Deadly Plague Escapes Russian Lab | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

Trump in Denial About Looming Catastrophe | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

Behind the Minab Massacre (interview with Murtaza Hussein) | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

French Students Wild in the Streets | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

Will Romania Join the Far Right? | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

NYC Mayor Targets Fictional Anti-Semitism | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

I Die (for the FBI) | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

GOP Running Scared of Trump’s War | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

I’m Not the War Criminal, You Are! | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

OMG Canada! | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

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