147 episodes

Dirty Moderate showcases the people who cut through the nails-on-a-chalkboard din of the modern-day American political scene. We promote rigorous analysis and lively debate with individuals on both sides of the aisle and beyond. Our host, Adam Epstein, is a 12 time, Tony Award-winning former Broadway powerhouse producer turned political provocateur. Adam can go toe-to-toe with anyone on politics as he did on Trish Regan Primetime every Thursday night in 2019 as the lone non-conservative panelist, delivering his centrist perspective with grit, intellectual prowess, and undeniable charm. Guests of the podcast range in perspective by design, and no two conversations are alike, but the one vitally important thing all of our guests have in common is they fight like hell for Democracy. Do you? 
Executive Producer Dawn Sorokin, End House Media • Theme Song by @brettgarrisonepstein • Subscribe to the Dirty Moderate Nation Substack at www.dirtymoderate.com • Tweet the Show: @dirty_moderate 

Dirty Moderate with Adam Epstein Steve Schmidt

    • News
    • 4.8 • 22 Ratings

Dirty Moderate showcases the people who cut through the nails-on-a-chalkboard din of the modern-day American political scene. We promote rigorous analysis and lively debate with individuals on both sides of the aisle and beyond. Our host, Adam Epstein, is a 12 time, Tony Award-winning former Broadway powerhouse producer turned political provocateur. Adam can go toe-to-toe with anyone on politics as he did on Trish Regan Primetime every Thursday night in 2019 as the lone non-conservative panelist, delivering his centrist perspective with grit, intellectual prowess, and undeniable charm. Guests of the podcast range in perspective by design, and no two conversations are alike, but the one vitally important thing all of our guests have in common is they fight like hell for Democracy. Do you? 
Executive Producer Dawn Sorokin, End House Media • Theme Song by @brettgarrisonepstein • Subscribe to the Dirty Moderate Nation Substack at www.dirtymoderate.com • Tweet the Show: @dirty_moderate 

    David French

    David French

    New York Times columnist David French joins Adam to discuss the role of religion in public life, and he offers up a unique portal into the pro-life movement, and its perils in the aftermath of Roe. David discusses the important role of the courts, and especially the critical role of the Supreme Court, in securing( or not securing) the guardrails against a Trump/MAGA led assault on our institutions and norms. 
    David is an expert on the law, faith and politics, Prior to his being at the Times, David was at Dispatch, which he helped launch, and The Atlantic, where he was a contributing writer. Prior to those posts, he wrote for National Review from 2015 to 2019. But David spent the bulk of his career as a practicing lawyer, with an emphasis on the First Amendment. He also took time off from that career to join the U.S. Army in his thirties and serve, in Iraq, as a Judge Advocate General (JAG).
    Don’t miss this captivating conversation between Adam and David, who is unquestionably one of America’s more eagle-eyed and incisive voices writing today .

    Read David here
    Sign up for his weekly newsletter here
    Follow and enjoy David on Threads here
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    • 1 hr 7 min
    Steve Schmidt

    Steve Schmidt

    As arguably the pre-eminent voice warning about the dangers of Donald Trump, longtime political operative Steve Schmidt needs no introduction.
    But in case you have been abducted by aliens, Steve is the founder, author and host of The Warning, a digital media company comprised of a daily newsletter, podcast and video analysis on his YouTube channel.
     
    Through The Warning, Schmidt discusses the events that are shaping our times and the unseen forces shaping American culture and politics that are rarely discussed on cable news.Schmidt is recognized for his part in the 2008 U.S. election cycle, serving as Senator John McCain’s campaign manager. He also successfully led California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s re-election campaign in 2006.  Schmidt was a top strategist in the 2004 campaign to re-elect President George W. Bush and served in the Bush administration, during which time he led the successful confirmations of two U.S. Supreme Court justices. He spent 10 years as an analyst with MSNBC. Schmidt co-founded the well-known super PAC, the Lincoln Project, in 2019. He left the group in 2021.

    Adam is excited to share his conversation with Steve about the Biden/Trump rematch, the moral and philosophical collapse of Steve’s former party into a Trump led authoritarian cult, the Democrats’ notoriously bad communication skills , the rampant mistrust of our institutions and all things relating to this nearly two and a half century old self governing miracle also called America. 

    Thanks for helping us save democracy one episode at a time!
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    • 1 hr 11 min
    It's America or Trump; you can't have both

    It's America or Trump; you can't have both

    It’s not playtime in America. It’s high time in America that we all stand up for democracy. It’s gonna take all of us, especially independents like myself who will back Biden in November because that’s putting America first.  It’s America or Trump; you can’t have both.… 



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    • 18 min
    Noah Rothman

    Noah Rothman

    Noah Rothman is an author and conservative thinker who is a Senior Writer for National Review, and whose recent bestseller, “The Rise of the New Puritans: Fighting Back Against Progressives’ War on Fun,” is the chief subject of the second episode of our new series Dirty Moderate After Dark.
    Adam and Noah do a deep dive into the origins of Puritan thought, and they detail the odd, and very uniquely American way in which Puritanical thinking is embedded into our cultural and political tapestry. What’s more, Noah explains how his book examines the deeply religious and dogmatic English Puritans who settled on the Eastern Seaboard in the 17th century and how their spiritual, if not religious, successors have found a cozy home within the extreme wing of today’s woke left.
    Adam and Noah also discuss the collapse of the Republican Party into an incoherent, ideologically barren cult of personality party led by Trump, and they lament the abandonment of the robust internationalism which the Reagan era GOP once typified and the dangers of today’s MAGA GOP and the shortsighted, isolationist thinking that they promulgate.
    Though neither of them were boozed, Adam and Noah waxed eloquently After Dark about all things philosophical and political, and their conversation was nevertheless wide-ranging, absorbing, and unlike today’s Puritans, fun.

    Find Noah's amazing book here
    Read Noah at National Review
    Noah on X @NoahCRothman


    Thanks for helping us save democracy one episode at a time!
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    • 1 hr 21 min
    Tina Nguyen-The MAGA Diaries

    Tina Nguyen-The MAGA Diaries

    Tina Nguyen is a national correspondent for Puck covering the world of Donald Trump and the American right for their The Best & The Brightest newsletter. Previously, Nguyen was a White House reporter for Politico, a staff reporter for Vanity Fair Hive, and an editor at Mediaite.
    Her new book, The MAGA Diaries: My Surreal Adventures Inside the Right-Wing (And How I Got Out) is a dazzling memoir of Tina’s fast, furious, stressful and altogether bonkers time in the world of the Conservative movement long before it was destroyed and devoured by Trumpworld. 
    Tina talks to Adam about her growing up in Boston as the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, how she ended up at the prestigious but right-wing Xanadu known as Claremont McKenna College, and her short but not insignificant stint at The Daily Caller working for its then founder, Tucker Carlson. They explore her front row seat to the rise of what is now the MAGA movement, and how she ended up on the other side of this dystopia, mostly unscathed, but nonetheless loaded with insight as how to best cover Trumpism with all the scrutiny it most definitely deserves.
    Tina also gives Adam the tea on some of the more sobering realizations which came to her in her post-Conservative days about some of her previous colleagues and their not so nice agendas. Tina’s story, which is indeed essential reading , is also a must listen for Dirty Moderates everywhere. 



    Thanks for helping us save democracy one episode at a time!
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    • 1 hr 3 min
    Philip K. Howard

    Philip K. Howard

    Philip K. Howard is a lawyer, author and chair of Common Good (www.commongood.org), a nonpartisan organization aimed at replacing red tape with human responsibility and agency. 
    In his discussion with Adam, Philip discusses his latest book “Everyday Freedom: Designing the Framework for a Flourishing Society,” which argues that the post 1960’s legal framework which has guided government policy for 60 years has been a failure. Philip persuasively argues that humans have been disempowered and common sense has been thrown out the window. Inertia and powerlessness have overtaken our politics because so called ‘good government’ has come to be synonymous with red tape and inefficiency. Philip calls this stasis a “disease consuming the American spirit,” and that “Modern law fails because it is dehumanizing, and, however hard this may prove to be, it must be replaced by a framework that empowers everyday freedom.”
    As engaging and incisive a discussion as we’ve had on this podcast, Adam and Philip’s dialogue is essential food for thought. Have a listen!
    Thanks for helping us save democracy one episode at a time!
    Join the Dirty Moderate Nation on Substack! Tell us what you think on Twitter! Are you registered to VOTE?

    • 51 min

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5
22 Ratings

22 Ratings

RebeccaNYC ,

Wonderful perspective and terrific guests

So happy to have found Dirty Moderate. Adam brings a much needed fresh, sane, and thoughtful perspective on our deeply broken political system and frightening world. He has excellent guests and the conversation is always intelligent and enlightening. His podcasts have introduced me to many important voices to follow as I try to stay informed and engaged in the fight to save our democracy.

Sgruss21 ,

Long time Dem, now Moderate

The host is brilliant and so are his guests. There’s so much polarization in politics! We’re more alike than not!

jldclardy ,

The Best Politically Homeless Show Ever

Saving democracy one episode at a time.

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