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Vibes Only

Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher

The polls are broken, the stakes are unprecedented, and vibes drive the future of American politics.

Every Thursday, political strategist Brian Derrick (founder of Oath) and new media strategist Glennis Meagher (co-founder of Generator Collective) break down the biggest stories in American politics, elections, and culture.

This isn't your standard cable news commentary. Get an insider's look at the US political machine, current news of the week, and the digital strategy shaping our world - delivered with the honesty, insight, and humor of two people who've actually worked in the trenches of US politics.

Hit follow and stay ahead of the news cycle every Thursday.

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S3 · E20
Thursday · 41 min
"Heavens, No": The Lawmakers Regulating AI Without Using It
Maxine Waters can't remember if she uses AI, and The Democracy Draft wants your midterm bracket. 47 days out, the vibes are bullish. Primary season is officially over. Brian is bullish on the House and more bearish on the Senate than most forecasters, and Glennis is spending the final 47 days touring Senate battlegrounds. They get into Speaker Mike Johnson's promised plan for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid next year. They also cover the ProPublica report that a Russian oligarch close to Putin paid for Donald Trump Jr.'s Bahamas wedding celebrations, and the Supreme Court keeping the Postal Service out of mail ballots for November. Then AI. An Anthropic researcher quit with a warning, AI CEOs started asking for a slowdown, and Trump called AI regulation a hoax. Meanwhile, Axios asked Congress whether they actually use AI. Sen. Roger Wicker said "Heavens, no," Rep. Frank Pallone reached for a heroin analogy, and Rep. Maxine Waters couldn't remember. Brian makes the case for generational change on the issues that will define the next decade. Also: Clickbait or Double-Click tackles four headlines: Mitch McConnell back in the Senate after three months Kash Patel refusing to rule out FBI agents at polling sites The $9.5 billion DOGE-era paid leave bill Republicans branding Democrats as communists, where Brian's verdict might surprise you The Oath Candidate of the Week is you. The Democracy Draft is March Madness for the midterms. Pick the winners of the cycle's top races, from Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan to Troy Jackson in Maine, and the closest bracket wins $4,000. It's free to enter at thedemocracydraft.com, and you can start side leagues. Then a Good Vibe Goodbye from Wisconsin, where the state Supreme Court heard challenges to a congressional map that gives Republicans six of eight seats. That fight could mean fair districts by 2028. New episodes of Vibes Only are available for download first thing every Thursday morning - hit FOLLOW and we'll keep you informed for the midterms. EPISODE RESOURCES/LINKS Oath Candidate of the Week: Oath’s Democracy Draft Reporting Referenced: Don Jr’s Wedding Was Paid For By Russians - ProPublica Clickbait or Double-Click 1: Mitch McConnell Returns to Senate After Three Month Absence - The New York Times Clickbait or Double-Click 2: Kash Patel Suggests FBI Agents Could Go to Election Polling Sites - The New York Times Clickbait or Double-Click 3: Thanks to DOGE, Federal Employees Got Paid Billions to Not Work - TIME Clickbait or Double-Click 4: Republicans, Facing Midterm Peril, Try to Brand Democrats as Communists - The New York Times Good Vibe Goodbye: WI State Supreme Court to take up challenge to congressional maps this week Send us a text! Watch us on Youtube Follow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok too Follow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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S3 · E19
September 10 · 20 min
Rockbridge in Dallas: Inside JD Vance's 2028 Donor Network
Why are Republicans holding a convention in a midterm year? Because it costs $250,000 to sit at a table with Donald Trump. Brian Derrick reads the Dallas price list out loud and explains what the first GOP midterm convention is actually for. The Republican National Committee gathered at the American Airlines Center in Dallas on September 9 and 10 for the first midterm convention in modern American history. Trump speaks both nights. A roundtable with him runs $250,000 per person and a photo is another $88,600. JD Vance's roundtable is $75,000 with a $35,000 photo. Brian explains why holding it in Texas is the entire point, and why Republicans in competitive districts are quietly staying home. Then Rockbridge. AXIOS reported this week that the secretive donor network Vance co-founded in 2019 threw the pre-convention party in Dallas, drawing HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., HUD Secretary Scott Turner, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Senator Eric Schmitt and Dallas donor Ray Washburne. Brian reads it as a preview of the 2028 campaign Vance is already building. On the legal side, two courts split on Missouri's congressional map within an hour of each other. Justice Brett Kavanaugh denied the state's emergency application, leaving the 2022 map in place for November, and then a federal judge in Missouri ruled the gerrymandered map must be used. Brian explains why Oath has been anchoring on flipping 11 House seats instead of five, and why the slow churn of the courts is still working in our favor with ballots already moving. North Carolina became the first state in the country to mail them on September 4. Also: New Hampshire picked its nominees. Chris Pappas won the Democratic Senate primary and will face former Senator John E. Sununu in November. Stefany Shaheen edged Maura Sullivan in the First Congressional District. Your Oath Candidate of the Week is Will Lawrence, the Sunrise Movement co-founder running against Representative Tom Barrett in Michigan's Seventh, a Trump-leaning district that just nominated a real progressive. Then a Good Vibe Goodbye from New York City, which is on pace for the fewest murders and shootings in recorded history. Brian has a name for it. New episodes of Vibes Only are available for download first thing every Thursday morning and Glennis is back next week! Hit FOLLOW and we'll keep you informed for the midterms. EPISODE RESOURCES/LINKS Oath Candidate of the Week: Will Lawrence Reporting Referenced: AXIOS on Rockbridge and Vance Good Vibe Goodbye: Violent Crime in NYC Hits Historic Low Send us a text! Watch us on Youtube Follow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok too Follow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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S3 · E18
September 3 · 33 min
Ed Markey Wins and a USPS Whistleblower Complaint
Your ballot is not cancelled. Sen. Richard Blumenthal released a 20-page complaint describing a rushed September 1 launch, a federal court order standing in the way, and one move that takes you off the list entirely: vote early. An anonymous federal official, represented by Whistleblower Aid, told Congress the Postal Service built its mail ballot verification system in weeks rather than the nine months to a year a project like this normally takes, with internal staff reportedly describing the process in language we cannot print here. Brian Derrick walks through what the system would actually do, why one bad barcode could reject an entire batch, and why the courts have already frozen it. Glennis Meagher makes the case that the panic is fair and the fix is boring: make a voting plan, vote early, and get your name off the turnout lists so campaigns can spend their time on someone who needs the reminder. Then the machinery. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigned after months of friction with Pete Hegseth, six months into the Iran war, leaving the Army without Senate-confirmed leadership in uniform or out of it. The White House confirmed the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital will take a 35 percent stake in North American Blue Energy Partners, the Venezuelan firm owned by Alejandro Betancourt, in a deal signed by Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth that Sen. Jack Reed called a blatant abuse of power and taxpayer dollars. New CDC Director Erica Schwartz pulled two Pennsylvania measles deaths out of the federal tally, the first measles deaths in that state in 35 years. And Speaker Mike Johnson (good Christian man, he is - lol jk) told CNN's Manu Raju he still supports Max Miller's re-election and we have the receipts. Ed Markey held off Seth Moulton, which sets up Brian and Glennis on the actual argument underneath the age fight: what a 51-seat Senate majority means when any single absence gives it away. Your Oath Candidate of the Week is Matt Dunlap, running against Paul LePage for Jared Golden's open seat in Maine's 2nd. Also for Clickbait or Double-Click we cover Kalshi suspending Laurie Buckhout for betting on her own race (and George Santos being back in the news whyyy), the RNC scheduling its first-ever midterm convention against the NFL opener, and the NTSB tracing a Marine One close call back to White House ballroom construction. Your Good Vibe Goodbye is Olivia Rodrigo's Daisy Chain Fields, which raised 20 million dollars for ten women's and girls' organizations after Melinda French Gates matched the total. CORRECTION: We describe the recalled Argentine beef as 300,000 tons of spoiled beef. The August recall was issued because roughly 30,000 pounds entered US commerce without required federal re-inspection, not because spoilage was confirmed. UPDATE: This episode was recorded the morning of Tuesday, September 1, 2026. Later that evening the House voted 413 to 2 to formally censure Chuck Edwards. Edwards denies the allegations and is not seeking re-election. New episodes of Vibes Only are available for download first thing every Thursday morning! Hit that FOLLOW and we'll keep you informed for the midterms. EPISODE RESOURCES/LINKS Oath Candidate of the Week: Matt Dunlap Clickbait or Double-Click 1: Kalshi Suspends Republican House Candidate for Betting on Her Own Race - The New York Times Clickbait or Double-Click 2: Influencers Have a Lot to Say About Politics. Many Are Quietly Paid for It. - The New York Times Clickbait or Double-Click 3: GOP convention will battle NFL openers for attention - AXIOS Clickbait or Double-Click 4: White House Construction May Have Contributed to Close Call With Trump’s Helicopter - The New York Times Good Vibe Goodbye: Olivia Rodrigo Raises $20 Million With Daisy Chain Fields Festival Thanks to Matching Commitment From Melinda French Gates - Variety Send us a text! Watch us on Youtube Follow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok too Follow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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S3 · E17
August 27 · 39 min
Mail-In Voting Panic, Ticketmaster, and Rob Sand's Iowa
Your feed said the midterms are over. Brian Derrick says take a breath. Plus Rob Sand is the favorite to be Iowa's next governor. The Supreme Court's shadow docket order on Donald Trump's mail-in voting executive order launched a thousand dramatic headlines this week. Brian Derrick walks through what the 6-3 order actually did, which was lift one of two injunctions on standing grounds, and why the slow churn of the courts may be working in our favor before November 3. Glennis Meagher explains why the panic is still a fair feeling with ballots going out in a matter of weeks across 24 jurisdictions, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin among them. Also, Glennis looked up who cast a mail ballot in Florida's August 18 primary. It was Donald Trump. Then the numbers. Second quarter GDP growth came in at 1.5 percent, down from 2.1. New 50 percent tariffs on Canadian goods took effect over the weekend and Mark Carney's government answered within days. Brian explains the death of deference, which is how a president keeps doing the exact thing the Supreme Court told him he cannot do, by citing a new law every single time. Glennis opens a new weekly corruption beat with the Wall Street Journal's reporting on Live Nation. Michael Rapino sat down with Trump in the Oval Office on February 27 to talk Kennedy Center bookings, and Trump asked why the antitrust case had not settled. Two words to a senior DOJ official, settle it, and a case built over years was resolved days into trial. Brian lays out how far the pattern now runs: four airlines controlling 70 percent of the market, three carriers controlling 98 percent of wireless, two companies controlling every pair of sunglasses you have ever owned. Plus the Joint Economic Committee report on Trump's oil and gas holdings during a war he started. Also this week for Clickbait or Double Click: the Hakeem Jeffries and Jared Kushner meeting that content creator land could not stop talking about, CIA Director John Ratcliffe's unannounced trip to Moscow, and DHS quietly conceding that its 16,000 noncitizen voters in Nevada figure was preliminary, with only 185 confirmed so far. Then your Oath Candidate of the Week doubles as your Good Vibe Goodbye. Rob Sand is running for governor of Iowa, multiple prognosticators now have him as the favorite, and his coattails could put three Iowa House seats in play. We also take a minute for Dolly Parton. UPDATE: This episode was recorded Wednesday morning, August 26, 2026. Later that day the Kremlin confirmed Ratcliffe met with Russian intelligence counterparts in Moscow and said Vladimir Putin was briefed but did not attend. Trump called the trip "semi-routine." New episodes of Vibes Only are available for download first thing every Thursday morning! Hit that FOLLOW and we'll keep you informed for the midterms. EPISODE RESOURCES/LINKS The Oath Candidate of the Week: Rob Sands Clickbait or Double-Click 1: Jeffries Defends Kushner Meeting, Vowing Tough Oversight of Trump - The New York Times Clickbait or Double-Click 2: White House Crops Natalie Harp Out of Grand Prix Content - Rolling Stone Clickbait or Double-Click 3: DHS acknowledges the noncitizen numbers it touted on voter rolls were inflated - NPR Send us a text! Watch us on Youtube Follow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok too Follow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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S3 · E16
August 20 · 38 min
Angie Nixon Won. Now What?
Angie Nixon was outspent 16 to 1 and won Florida anyway. Brian Derrick breaks down what the establishment missed, and Alaska's Parent Trap problem with two Dan Sullivans on the ballot. Angie Nixon beat Alexander Vindman with 56 percent in the Democratic primary for Florida's Senate special election, the race to finish Marco Rubio's term through 2028. Brian's read is that the prognosticators missed a state legislator who physically showed up for every fight in Florida while a creator ecosystem amplified her all year. Sabato's Crystal Ball moved the race to safe Republican the next morning. Oath has not. She faces Ashley Moody in November. In Alaska, Mary Peltola finished as the top vote-getter ahead of incumbent Dan Sullivan, and there is a second Dan Sullivan on that ballot, a former fifth grade teacher running as a Republican who pulled about 2.5 percent. Republicans tried to strike his name. The courts said no. Then Brian gives the full midterm TLDR. The four Senate seats Democrats need and the order they are likeliest to come in. Why the House is the must-win. The 36 governor's races, from David Crowley in Wisconsin to Amy Acton in Ohio. And the part of the ballot almost nobody talks about: attorneys general, secretaries of state, and state supreme courts. Kris Mayes won Arizona by 280 votes out of 2.5 million. That is the whole point. Also: Comment Crossfire debuts, where Glennis Meagher answers the DSA members who said that criticizing Megan Romer's New Yorker Radio Hour interview was doing Republicans' work for them. Plus Clickbait or Double-Click this week gets into Zohran Mamdani promoting free Broadway tickets in four languages and the MAGA meltdown it created, Nancy Mace showing off her new tats and YouTube show on her way out of Congress, and the $900MIL White House construction bill. Last but not least, of course, we haveg a Good Vibe Goodbye starring the disgusting Cory Mills losing his primary. And The Oath Candidate of the Week is choose your own adventure. Go to oath.vote/states, find a competitive race in your state, and get behind somebody. New episodes of Vibes Only are available for download first thing every Thursday morning! Hit that FOLLOW and we'll keep you informed for the midterms. EPISODE RESOURCES/LINKS The Oath Candidate of the Week Primary Results - The New York Times Clickbait or Double-Click 1: Psaki questions Ossoff on White House aide remark - The Hill Clickbait or Double-Click 2: Zohran Mamdani’s viral new campaigns in Mandarin, Bengali and Spanish wins hearts: ‘Bro’s collecting languages like Pokémon’ - The Independent Clickbait or Double-Click 3: Trump administration set to spend at least $900 million on White House construction - The Washington Post Good Vibe Goodbye: Embattled incumbent Cory Mills ousted in Florida primary - POLITICO Send us a text! Watch us on Youtube Follow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok too Follow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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S3 · E15
August 13 · 38 min
Steve Kornacki, Five USB Drives, and the Wisconsin Upset
David Crowley beat Francesca Hong by half a point. Peggy Flanagan won Minnesota by 20. Same night, opposite answers about where the party is going. Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley took the Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial primary over democratic socialist state Rep. Francesca Hong in a nail biter that broke past 2 a.m. Brian had been telling anyone who would listen that Crowley was winning while prediction markets had Hong at 96 percent, and he takes the victory lap. His read on why: no AOC, no Bernie, no Warren, no signature policy that broke through, and a cancel Thanksgiving clip nobody could unsee. Glennis brings in the other variable, Megan Romer, one of the DSA's two national chairs, whose New Yorker Radio Hour sit down with David Remnick got clipped into oblivion days before Wisconsin voted. Also: five of nine Milwaukee flash drives showed up at central count carrying audit logs instead of results, and Steve Kornacki had to fill 90 minutes of live NBC air with nothing. Then the rest of the board. Peggy Flanagan beat Angie Craig by roughly 20 points in Minnesota, and Brian argues that race teaches 2028 more than Wisconsin does. Luke Bronin ended John Larson's 28 year run in Connecticut's 1st, the seventh House incumbent to lose after actually running, five of them over 70. South Carolina's special Senate primary heads to an August 25 runoff between Rep. Ralph Norman and appointed Sen. Darline Graham. Mike Lindell lost Minnesota's Republican gubernatorial primary to House Speaker Lisa Demuth and would not concede. David Crowley is your Oath Candidate of the Week, and he is starting from zero with a general election against Rep. Tom Tiffany in November. Plus AOC telling Jonathan Karl on ABC's This Week that "Woke 1 was crazy," and the real question underneath it: can somebody who was loud during Woke 1 be the 2028 nominee? Brian says the jury is out. Glennis says yes and names her candidate. Then the economy, where July CPI landed at 3.4 percent, the July jobs report came in at negative 23,000 against expectations near 85,000 with another 103,000 knocked off May and June, and workers' share of national income sits at its lowest point since tracking began in 1947. Also this week for Clickbait or Double-Click: Trump slipping off Air Force One into an airport catering truck in Ankara while the press flew the decoy, Mamdani backing Tiffany Cabán's Delivery Protection Act to force Amazon to directly employ its delivery drivers, and the New York Times piece on Flock cameras that has liberals and conservatives mad at the same thing. Then a Good Vibe Goodbye where a guy on the Brooklyn Museum steps asks Mamdani to find him a date and the mayor's office answers with a borough by borough summer guide for anyone looking for cheap and cheerful dates in NYC. UPDATE: This episode was recorded Wednesday morning, August 12, 2026, while Wisconsin votes were still being counted. Since recording, the Associated Press and Decision Desk HQ officially called the race for David Crowley, who secured the nomination with 39.8% of the vote compared to Francesca Hong's 39.4%. New episodes of Vibes Only are available for download first thing every Thursday morning! Hit that FOLLOW and we'll keep you informed for the midterms. EPISODE RESOURCES/LINKS The Oath Candidate of the Week: David Crowley for WI Primary Results - The New York Times How Socialist Is the D.S.A.? Megan Romer Explains | The New Yorker Radio Hour Anything is Possible: AOC on Political Future Iran Insists Strait Will Stay Closed Until U.S. Agrees to Demands - The New York Times Labor Market Shifts Into Reverse as Employers Balk at Hiring - The New York Times Trump Said to Have Secretly Used Military Jet to Leave Turkey Amid Threats From Iran - The New York Times Fight Brews Between Mamdani and Amazon Over Delivery Workers - The New York Times Flock Cameras Can Track Every Car in America. Police Love Them. Citizens Don’t. - The New York Times Fix This Mamdani - Instagram Send us a text! Watch us on Youtube Follow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok too Follow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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August 12 · 1 min
Vibes Only is Your Weekly Guide to the 2026 Midterms
Vibes Only is a weekly political podcast hosted by Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher, two strategists who have spent their careers inside the machine. Brian is a political strategist and the founder of Oath, a platform that has raised millions for candidates in state and local elections. Glennis is a political and new media strategist and the co-founder of Generator Collective. Election day is November 3. Between now and then you are going to hear a lot of noise engineered to make you feel helpless. Vibes Only with Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher is the antidote... The news, the races, and the culture, explained the way two people who actually work in this business talk when the cameras and microphones are off. No panic. No jargon. No consultant speak. Just the vibes with receipts attached. New episodes every Thursday. Start here, then follow the show and pick any episode. If you like what you hear, a rating and a review is the single biggest thing you can do to help other people find us. Send us a text! Watch us on Youtube Follow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok too Follow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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S3 · E14
August 6 · 35 min
Abdul El-Sayed on Hasan Piker and His Narrow Win
Abdul El-Sayed narrowly won his Michigan primary against Haley Stevens. Brian breaks down what that proves, and the much harder thing progressives have to prove next in the generals. Abdul El-Sayed beat Haley Stevens in the Michigan Senate primary and now faces Republican Mike Rogers for a seat Democrats almost certainly need. Brian had it at two to three points in his pre election briefing while the loud polling said ten plus, and he explains why the margin matters less than what comes next. Michigan is a must win. It is also the first real test of whether the progressive surge that started with Mamdani actually converts in a general. The rest of the map was messier. William Lawrence, who helped found Sunrise Movement, took Michigan's 7th with 43 percent against two moderates who together got more. Donavan McKinney took the 13th. In Missouri, Wesley Bell beat Cori Bush in a race that drew 8.4 million dollars, 7.2 million of it behind Bell. Virginia moderates swept. Brian's read: progressives just bought themselves a put up or shut up November. Glennis makes the case that what moves a general is relational organizing and message discipline, not plane tickets. Then the money. Nike booked a 986 million dollar tariff refund. Ford expects 1.3 billion. Businesses can claim roughly 166 billion total after the Supreme Court threw out the IEEPA tariffs in February, S&P 500 profits are running near 50 percent year over year, and your grocery bill has not moved. Brian's question is the one nobody is asking: the tariffs are gone, so where is the price drop? Also: Oath's new Dirtbag Slate, Chuck Edwards dropping his reelection bid hours after the House Ethics Committee recommended censure, Todd Blanche clearing committee 12 to 10, and Brian teaching Glennis what vibe coding is. Clickbait or Double Click takes on Gen Z and the cost of a first date, California's billionaire tax, and Jeanine Pirro walking back the reflecting pool cases. Then a Good Vibe Goodbye out of Missouri and Kansas, where voters buried two Republican amendments to their state constitutions. UPDATE: This episode was recorded Wednesday morning, August 5, 2026. At time of recording, The Associated Press called Michigan for El-Sayed at 9:56 a.m. that morning and Haley Stevens conceded shortly after and Todd Blanche has cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee but has not received a full floor vote. New episodes drop every Thursday morning! Hit that FOLLOW and we’ll help you stay informed for the midterms. EPISODE RESOURCES/LINKS Defeat the Dirtbags with Oath Clickbait or Double-click 1: Gen Z Can’t Afford a First Date - The New York Times Clickbait or Double-click 2: California Democrats Support Billionaire Tax, Infighting Lingers - The New York Times Clickbait or Double-click 3: Prosecutor in D.C. Moves to Dismiss More Reflecting Pool Cases - The New York Times Send us a text! Watch us on Youtube Follow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok too Follow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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S3 · E13
July 30 · 39 min
Jon Ossoff's Guide to Winning Georgia?
Jon Ossoff's 2020 interview is going viral again. Brian Derrick says Ossoff could win over median voters and that the internet's response right now is bananas, while Glennis Meagher is watching for a different problem entirely. The clip is from a November 2020 Axios on HBO interview and features a rapid round of yes or no questions: Green New Deal, Medicare for All, defunding the police, abolishing ICE, expanding the Supreme Court. Ossoff answered no to a lot of it. Nearly six years later it is circulating as a gotcha, and Brian's read is the opposite: this is how you win Georgia. Georgia is where the median voter lives, and Brian says Jon's clarity matters more than his answers. Glennis takes on the part of this convo few in the mainstream seem to be talking about, which is what happens to a candidate when a video from six years ago resurfaces mid campaign and they lose control of their own virality. This week we also get into the recently announced voting calendar for 2028. The DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee signed off on the 2028 primary order: South Carolina January 22, Nevada February 1, New Hampshire February 8, New Mexico February 15, Michigan February 22, Virginia February 29, Super Tuesday March 7. Iowa is out. The full DNC votes on it in Austin next month. Brian explains why one national primary day would be a disaster for anyone who is not already rich, why going first is really about proving viability to donors before you spend down to zero, and what putting South Carolina at the front tells you about which voters the party is betting on. Plus what the Senate is actually trying to move in the two weeks before August recess: the NDAA and Trump's $1.5 trillion military ask, Reconciliation 3.0 and the attempt to bolt the SAVE Act onto it, and Jay Clayton's confirmation as Director of National Intelligence, replacing Trump's temporary pick Bill Pulte. Meanwhile John Cornyn and Thom Tillis have Todd Blanche's attorney general nomination stuck in committee until the Justice Department kills off Trump's $1.776 billion anti weaponization slush fund in writing. Brian Poindexter, the union ironworker and Brook Park councilman running in Ohio's 7th, is your Oath Candidate of the Week, and we explain how you can help him flip a seat that got a lot more competitive the day Max Miller's divorce filings went public. Also this week for Clickbait or Double-Click: the New York Times story about Ken Martin, the DNC's finances and a whole lot of phone throwing, the Campus Guardian Angel drones that spray pepper gel now heading into nine schools this fall, and Trump's Correspondents' Dinner bit about Kaitlan Collins that landed about as well as the plane in LOST. Then we send you off with a Good Vibe Goodbye involving Kathy Hochul, your kid's phone, and the end of the algorithmic feed that has been pumping AI slop into their brains. UPDATE: This episode was recorded Wednesday morning, July 29, 2026. Late that night the Senate Judiciary Committee postponed its vote on Todd Blanche, with Cornyn and Tillis still holding out for written assurances from the Justice Department. New episodes drop every Thursday morning! Hit FOLLOW and we’ll help you stay informed for the midterms. EPISODE LINKS Oath Candidate of the Week: Brian Poindexter Send us a text! Watch us on Youtube Follow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok too Follow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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S3 · E12
July 23 · 38 min
Arizona, Maine and Michigan's $50 Million Brawl
Troy Jackson has the delegates in Maine, Amish Shah beat the DCCC in Arizona, and Michigan votes August 4. The party endorsement is now a liability. Arizona was the only state holding a primary this month, and it delivered the story of the summer. Amish Shah won the Democratic nomination in Arizona's 1st Congressional District over the candidate the DCCC spent real money to boost. Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher walk through why this might be happening, from Randy Villegas in California to Matt Dunlap in Maine, and what it means when the national party's blessing starts reading as a potential scarlet letter. Up in Maine, Troy Jackson has locked up the delegates to replace Graham Platner on the ballot against Susan Collins, and he is this week's Oath Candidate of the Week. A fifth generation logger who got into politics organizing his fellow loggers against a Canadian labor swap, Jackson starts from zero with a nominating convention set for July 25. Brian explains why this is one of the rare Senate races where an early contribution actually moves something. Then it's Michigan, where Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed are twelve days from an August 4 primary that has pulled in roughly $50 million in outside spending, including the largest single race investment AIPAC has ever made. Plus Pete Hegseth on the Hill pricing the Iran war at $37.5 billion while asking for tens of billions more, Kirsten Gillibrand pressing him on why a supposedly decimated Iran is still killing American service members, and the drone company investments Joe Rogan Googled live on his own show. Also this week: a rapid fire Clickbait or Double Click on the Cyclospora outbreak and your Crunchwrap Supreme, the Tate brothers' arrest in Miami, and Zohran Mamdani's viral Netanyahu video. Plus why Kamala Harris keeps getting handed the 2028 frontrunner label, and a Good Vibe Goodbye courtesy of John Cornyn, two ambassador nominations and PEPFAR. New episodes every Thursday morning! Follow so you never miss a check in! EPISODE LINKS Support Oath Candidate of the Week: Troy Jackson Send us a text! Watch us on Youtube Follow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok too Follow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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S3 · E11
July 16 · 39 min
Graham's Senate Shuffle and Blanche's AG Fight
Lindsey Graham's sister just got picked by Trump via Fake Social to take his Senate seat, Trump's pet Todd Blanche wants to run DOJ, and we still managed to celebrate the good vibes this week. We get into the recent ICE killings that have people marching from Maine to Texas. Joan Sebastian Guerrero was shot by an ICE agent in Biddeford on his way to work, days after Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was killed at a traffic stop in Texas, and the pressure is already forcing reversals out of DHS. As always, we're here to make the case for real accountability and in this week's episode of Vibes Only the podcast, we get into where the abolish versus reform fight actually stands for the party. Then the Senate gets weird. Lindsey Graham died, and his sister, Darline Graham Nordone, was sworn into his seat within days, reopening the South Carolina race and handing Dr. Annie Andrews a real shot at an open seat. We break it all down for you. As well as Todd Blanche, Trump's former personal lawyer now up for attorney general, and why an independent DOJ is the thing to watch. Plus a plain English take on Reconciliation 3.0 and the SAVE Act, including the Elizabeth Warren provision that would block defense contractors like Amazon and Google from stock buybacks. Also this week: a rapid fire Clickbait or Double Click on your paycheck versus inflation, a supposed uptick in threats against the Supreme Court, and the Strait of Hormuz is back in the news. This week's Oath Candidate of the Week is Ben Gruber, the conservation warden trying to flip the tipping point seat in the Wisconsin Assembly, and we've got a double Good Vibe Goodbye straight out of New York with Kathy Hochul's data center moratorium and a horse carriage ban for Manhattan inching closer. New episodes of Vibes Only the Podcast drop every Thursday morning! Follow so you never miss a vibe check. EPISODE LINKS OATH CANDIDATE OF THE WEEK Send us a text! Watch us on Youtube Follow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok too Follow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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S3 · E10
July 9 · 41 min
Platner Is Out: Who Replaces Him and the Fight Over Maine
Graham Platner's Senate campaign just imploded, and it might be the best news Maine Democrats got all year. Here's who replaces him. Graham Platner is out, and the Maine Democratic Party has until July 27th to name a replacement. Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher get into who actually deserves blame for the whole mess in Maine and SPOILER it’s the consultants who recruited him, the party that let it get this far, and - of course - Platner himself. Then it's Weekend at Bernie's in the Senate as Mitch McConnell goes three weeks without a public sighting, and we walk through what happens in Kentucky if Governor Andy Beshear gets to make a move (Thomas Massie, anyone?). Donald Trump is still holding a genuinely good housing bill hostage over the SAVE Act, so we explain why that should shake anyone's trust in Donald Trump, the world’s worst businessman, on the economy. Plus we get into (not literally) the former Pfizer HQ on 42nd Street that's now leaning like a melted ice cream cone and forced nine buildings to evacuate, and yes, Brian needs a new apartment (Upper West Side leads welcome - DM us on instagram @vibesonlythepodcast). Also this week: a rapid fire round of Clickbait or Double Click on Iran, election funding, and Florida's Stop Woke law, this week's Oath Candidate of the Week is a real looker named Manny Rutinel in Colorado's 8th, and a Good Vibe Goodbye courtesy of the federal courts. Just the vibes. And the receipts. Every Thursday. Follow the show so you never miss a check in! EPISODE LINKS OATH CANDIDATE OF THE WEEK Send us a text! Watch us on Youtube Follow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok too Follow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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S3 · E9
July 2 · 42 min
SCOTUS Rewrote Campaign Finance and DSA Sweeps Colorado
Melat Kiros toppled a longtime incumbent and Phil Weiser beat a sitting senator: Colorado's progressive wave is real and we brought the receipts. This week Colorado handed progressives a statement night. Attorney General Phil Weiser defeated sitting US Senator Michael Bennet for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, 29-year-old democratic socialist Melat Kiros unseated 15-term Denver incumbent Diana DeGette in the 1st District, and state Rep. Manny Rutinel won the Democratic primary in the battleground 8th. Brian and Glennis dig into what's actually driving these wins: not a DSA litmus test, but voters hungry for candidates who fight and communicate. Then it's the Supreme Court's final day of the term. In National Republican Senatorial Committee v. FEC, the Court struck down limits on how much party committees can spend in coordination with their own candidates, a 6-3 ruling that reshapes money in the 2026 midterms. The justices also upheld state bans on transgender girls in girls' and women's school sports (West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox) and, a day earlier, let states count mail ballots that arrive after Election Day. In this episode of Vibes Only, we break down what each ruling means for real for real. Also: Trump's new financial disclosure showing more than $2 billion in 2025 income (roughly $1.4 billion tied to crypto and meme coins), the leaked 911 audio around Mitch McConnell being a breath from death, this week's Oath Candidate of the Week Keisha Lance Bottoms running for Georgia governor, and a rapid-fire round of Clickbait or Double Click. New episodes drop every Thursday morning! Tap follow now and stay ahead of the news cycle with us. EPISODE LINKS OATH CANDIDATE OF THE WEEK Send us a text! Watch us on Youtube Follow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok too Follow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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S3 · E8
June 25 · 33 min
Is Mamdani a Kingmaker? How DSA Swept New York's Primaries
Zohran Mamdani is being called a kingmaker, and after this week's New York primaries it's easy to see why. Is the Democratic Party fundamentally shifting left, or are voters simply desperate for an alternative to the 70-year-old status quo? This week on Vibes Only, we break down the massive shockwaves from the New York primary elections. From Mayor Mamdani’s new proported kingmaker status to the DSA's historic triple-crown victories upending powerful establishment machines, we look at how young, energetic hustlers are changing the face of campaigning in 2026. Plus, we dive into the heartbreaking $27 million super PAC blitz that took down AI-reform candidate Alex Bores, why Trump is blocking his own bipartisan housing bill over the SAVE Act, and the terrifying reality of national security flying blind after the expiration of FISA. Pull up a chair cause the vibes are chaotic this week, but the analysis we are bringing - it is sharp. Vibes Only is a weekly political podcast hosted by Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher, two political operatives turned creators breaking down the news of the week in politics, elections, and culture with new episodes EVERY Thursday morning! EPISODE LINKS Today, Explained Episode with Alex Bores Tulsi Gabbard Expose by The Washington Post OATH CANDIDATE OF THE WEEK Send us a text! Watch us on Youtube Follow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok too Follow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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June 19 · 24 min
BONUS: A Story DC Tried to Kill (Mrs. Frazzled Full Interview)
Mrs. Frazzled (Arielle Fodor) did not set out to end a congressman's career. In this full bonus interview, the TikTok creator sits down with Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher to walk through exactly how she and a coalition of independent creators surfaced the sexual misconduct allegations that ended Eric Swalwell's run for California governor and his time in Congress. In this bonus episode of Vibes Only, Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher chat with Arielle about the parts of the scandal nobody posts, like… buying an umbrella insurance policy on her house as protection for her family testing the Swalwell story on Threads before she ever made a video calling CNN herself because she could not carry the reporting alone And what it feels like to have an OPPO research binder written on you Also: why she is done with investigative content for good, how broken disclosure laws turn every creator into a suspected paid operative, and her advice for anyone trying to build real trust in political media right now. This is the full conversation behind Thursday's episode. If Vibes Only makes your week make sense, follow the show and leave a rating and review. It genuinely moves us up the charts and helps more people find the vibes. And the receipts. EPISODE LINKS Arielle Fodor aka Mrs. Frazzled on TikTok Cheyenne Hunt's Org "Reckoning Action" Meg Klink's Org "Pretty Informed Girls" OATH CANDIDATE OF THE WEEK Send us a text! Watch us on Youtube Follow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok too Follow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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S3 · E7
June 18 · 34 min
Can Creators Take Down Politicians? (feat. Mrs. Frazzled)
A powerhouse coalition of independent creators just bypassed traditional newsrooms to end a sitting congressman's career. This week, Arielle Fodor (TikTok Star - Mrs. Frazzled) joins Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher to get into the takedown of sex pest, Eric Swalwell - from taking out umbrella insurance to testing the waters on Threads. Plus, the team breaks down Elon Musk hitting trillionaire status and Trump’s trashy UFC match on the White House lawn. This week on Vibes Only, Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher chat from across the pond to break down the sheer scale of infinite wealth, a pointless war that left us $100 Billion poorer, and the massive Supreme Court decisions dropping by the end of this month. Then, we are joined by the incredible Arielle Fodor (AKA Mrs. Frazzled) to pull back the curtain on how she, Cheyenne Hunt at Reckoning Action, and Meg Klink at Pretty Informed Girls bypassed traditional newsrooms to expose the open secret of former Congressman Eric Swalwell and Arielle shares what accountability can look like in the age of independent media. Tell your friends - Vibes Only is a weekly political podcast hosted by Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher, two political operatives turned creators breaking down the news of the week in politics, elections, and culture. New episodes every Thursday morning and a BONUS EPISODE (our full interview with Arielle Fodor aka Mrs. Frazzled) DROPPING TOMORROW! EPISODE LINKS Arielle Fodor aka Mrs. Frazzled on TikTok Cheyenne Hunt's Org "Reckoning Action" Meg Klink's Org "Pretty Informed Girls" OATH CANDIDATE OF THE WEEK Send us a text! Watch us on Youtube Follow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok too Follow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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S3 · E6
June 11 · 43 min
Trump's 75% Inflation Spike and Bernie's Radical AI Plan
Hunter Biden went viral, Graham Platner won Maine, and the AI bubble started to wobble, all in one week. Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher break down the new inflation numbers and what they actually mean for your rent and your retirement, why Hunter Biden's chaotic run on X and his Candace Owens interview might be the best thing to happen to the Biden family in years, and how Graham Platner survived a brutal week of headlines to win Maine's Democratic Senate primary and line up a fight with Susan Collins. Then it's billionaire season. Bernie Sanders wants the public to own half of every major AI company just as SpaceX races toward a record-setting IPO, three big bills are jammed in Congress deciding exactly where your tax dollars go (ICE funding, FISA, and a 1.5 trillion dollar military budget), and FIFA is on track to make a fortune off a World Cup that New York taxpayers are helping foot the bill for, the same week the tournament kicks off. Also: the Knicks have had all of New York in a happy unifying chokehold, Spencer Pratt loses in LA, and Josh Turek is our Oath Candidate of the Week. If this podcast makes your week a little less unhinged, be sure to hit follow, leave us a rating and a review wherever you're listening. It takes a minute, and is 100% the single biggest thing that helps new listeners find a small podcast like our’s. Thank you for your support! OATH CANDIDATE OF THE WEEK: Donate to Josh Turek's Campaign HERE! Send us a text! Watch us on Youtube Follow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok too Follow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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June 5 · 24 min
BONUS: Pattie Gonia vs Patagonia (Keith Edwards Full Interview)
Keith Edwards joins Vibes Only for the full interview on the Pattie Gonia vs Patagonia trademark fight, Trump's health, and the gerrymandering battle splitting the left. Our most frequent guest is back! Political strategist, commentator, and one of the fastest growing voices in the space, Keith Edwards sat down with Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher for the complete, unedited conversation. A slice of this aired in yesterday's episode. This is the whole thing. Keith opens on the question hanging over everything: is authoritarianism actually happening, or is the Democratic position quietly the strongest it has been in a decade? Then he gets into his running watch on the president's health, the bruises, the theories, and the stretch where Trump went six days without being seen in public. From there, everyone wades into the fight that took over Threads. Pattie Gonia versus Patagonia. Keith walks through why this is really a trademark case and not the simple corporate villain story the internet wants it to be, how a legal dispute ended up getting argued through Instagram posts, and whether Pattie Gonia took a genuinely good cause a step too far. That is where the real disagreement starts. Brian and Keith do not see gerrymandering the same way. Keith's whole thing is that you become what you are fighting, and Brian makes the case for caring about the outcome over the method and getting to a federal ban by 2029. Along the way they hit the podcast grift economy, why the parties keep getting more extreme, why Keith thinks most voters do not actually care about AI, the Graham Platner situation and the Maine Senate race against Susan Collins, and a closing round on knowing when it is time to step aside. Consider this your weekly pause from doomscrolling and consultant speak. Just solid vibes and receipts. Also: Keith is bringing red hats back - his makes an appearance, the girls are fighting (lovingly), and Keith reminds everyone he is still waiting on a billionaire to come buy his channel. Stick around for the goodbyes. Send us a text! Watch us on Youtube Follow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok too Follow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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S3 · E5
June 4 · 40 min
What's Up with Trump's Health? (feat. Keith Edwards)
It is Pride Month, it is primary season, and the Democratic Party is having a moment. Brian and Glennis are back with our third-time guest, political strategist and one of the fastest growing podcasters in the game right now, Keith Edwards, for a wide-ranging conversation about Trump's health, the gerrymandering debate splitting the left, and the Patagonia versus Pattie Gonia trademark war that took over every progressive's Threads feed this week. But first, we have to talk about Maine. Graham Platner, the oyster farmer and Marine veteran running to unseat Susan Collins, is now facing reports that he sexted multiple women early in his marriage, the latest in a string of controversies that includes a covered Nazi tattoo and a pattern of bad online judgment. Brian and Glennis land in very different places on whether any of it matters, and the conversation ends up being less about Platner specifically and more about what Democrats are actually looking for in a candidate right now, and what they are willing to overlook to get there. Then Brian lifts the mood with the Oath candidate of the week: Bobby Pulido, a Latin Grammy winning musician running to flip a gerrymandered seat in Texas by performing at quinceañeras and meeting voters where they actually are. Glennis, reporting from Washington DC, takes us to the White House lawn, where a UFC cage is going up for Trump's 80th birthday. After that, Jared Polis, the Democratic governor of Colorado - who under pressure from Trump - commuted the sentence of Tina Peters. Miss Peters, if you’re nasty, was the election denier convicted of tampering with voting equipment. She walked out of prison and went straight to Steve Bannon's podcast to call herself a political prisoner and accuse Democrats of cheating in the midterms. Polis was censured by the Colorado legislature and responded by showing up to a public event with his mouth duct-taped shut. Brian and Glennis are speechless, and then they are not. We also check in on the AI IPO wave, with SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI all signaling public offerings at a combined valuation approaching three trillion dollars, and what that level of speculative concentration in the market actually means for the rest of us. Then Keith Edwards joins the pod. He makes the case that authoritarianism, while real, has not fully landed the way some feared, and that Democrats are in a stronger political position than they have been in a decade. He tracks Trump's health with his signature forensic attention, flags six days without a public presidential appearance, and wonders out loud why the mainstream media is not pressing harder on the story. He and Glennis dig into the Patagonia versus Pattie Gonia lawsuit, the online mob dynamics that made it impossible to read clearly at first, and why trademark law exists to protect small businesses too, not just outdoor apparel giants. And he and Brian go back and forth on gerrymandering, with Brian now firmly in the outcomes camp and Keith holding the line on means. Also, Keith did not respond to Pattie Gonia’s DMs. Glennis is wearing what may or may not be a Proud Boys jacket. Brian does his Rick Devens impression. And the gang has some things to say about Susan Collins' continued presence in the United States Senate. If you are enjoying the show, leaving a review wherever you listen goes a long way and helps more people find us. We read them and we appreciate every single one. A full bonus episode with the complete Keith Edwards interview drops this Friday, everywhere you get Vibes Only. KEEP UP W/KEITH Keith's Debate Club Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/keithedwards.bsky.social Newsletter: keithedwards.substack.com Instagram: instagram.com/keithedwards Threads: threads.net/@keithedwards Twitter: twitter.com/keithedwards TikTok: tiktok.com/@keithedwards FOLLOW VIBES ONLY Instagram: instagram.com/vibesonlythepodcast TikTok: tiktok.com/vibesonlythepodcast Brian: instagram.com/brianderrick_ Glennis: instagram.com/glennismeagher Send us a text! Watch us on Youtube Follow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok too Follow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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May 29 · 21 min
BONUS: How CBS Torched Its Reputation (Eliza Orlins Full Interview)
This is the one we promised. Our full, unedited conversation with our first guest of Season 3; with public defender, creator, and iconic Survivor player Eliza Orlins. A slice of it ran in Thursday's episode. Here's the whole thing. Eliza anchored "Cover to Cover-Up," 24 straight hours live streaming a reading of the Epstein files, Cory Booker filibuster style, after Steve Schmidt and the Save America movement connected her with the redacted reading room in Tribeca. She takes us inside how it actually came together, the overnight scramble to fill the midnight to 7:30 AM hours, and what it felt like to read victim testimony out loud for a full day. She has been on the Epstein beat since 2018, when she watched the Manhattan DA's office quietly request a downward departure on his sex offender registration level, something she says she had never once seen in 15 years of public defending. She walks through what is actually in the files, the two million plus pages still hidden, the improper redactions in the pages we do have, and the Treasury documents that implicate Jamie Dimon and the banks. Then she makes the point that lands hardest: in every horrific case she ever read as a public defender, there was at least the promise of accountability. With Epstein, the richest and most powerful men in the world (Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Leon Black) have faced none. The reading room is now going on the road and opening two blocks from the White House, just in time for Trump's birthday. There is more here than made the Thursday cut. Eliza gets into the Democratic "autopsy," Rob Flaherty's much more honest version of it, and why she thinks the left is decades late on building real creator infrastructure because no one is watching cable news anymore. It is the clearest case we have heard for why shows like this one exist. Then things get a bit more personal as Eliza explains why she believes she will never be invited back to Survivor after she publicly torched CBS over its hard right turn, the $16 million settlement, Bari Weiss taking over CBS News, and a returning contestant's on air antisemitic rant. There are Survivor 50 hot takes, a MAGA alliance theory, and a Roy Moore connection you will not see coming. A programming note: this episode includes discussion of child sexual abuse and trafficking. Listener discretion advised. Send us a text! Watch us on Youtube Follow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok too Follow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG
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