After Party with Emily Jashinsky - “Happy Hour”: Lawfare, Education, Faith, and "Real Housewives" Mount Rushmore: Emily Answers YOUR Questions

Episode Date: October 17, 2025

Fresh off a day working at The White House, Emily Jashinsky takes listeners inside what it’s like covering President Trump. Then Emily dives into your questions including what her workday is like and tips for aspiring journalists. She also touches on education, why schools should be teaching finance, and what would have happened to student loan cancellation if Kamala Harris was elected President. She discusses ICE’s recent actions and what will stop politicians from engaging in lawfare. Emily also answers several faith-based questions including her thoughts on Christian Nationalism, and why she’s holding firm to classical liberalism, and has fun discussing who would be on her own Housewives Mount Rushmore, she details her own interactions with Wendy Osefo, talks favorite documentary of all time, dream festival lineup, her hopes for a Brewers World Series, and more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, hello, after-party listeners, and welcome to a new installment of After Party that, of course, we now call Happy Hour. It's an even more casual version of an already casual show where I get to chat with all of you through the great questions and comments you send in via social media and email. So let's get to it. Remember, I'm actually doing this live. I'm reading as I tape right now your questions as I go. I found that that's just a more fun way to do it. I don't even screen ahead or anything like that. So let's go ahead and get right into it today. I have to say I just got back from the White House. I had new media pool duty today and I am beat. It was a long day. Trump had a wonderful long press conference in the Oval Office. I say wonderful because it's always good

to get those questions in. And man, I can't imagine. I really cannot imagine. I don't think anybody can truly imagine Joe Biden doing what Trump does where he just takes questions from everyone and anyone for an hour. So I got to be in there today. I asked him what his messages to pro-life people who are a bit upset about his IVF announcement. So he gave an answer. He said, I don't know what's more pro-life than IVF. And that will all be hashed out in the days to come for sure. All right. So here's a question from Denise, what's something you look forward to at the beginning of your work week? You know, I feel like I don't have a beginning of my work week. It's a little bit different in journalism jobs.

You just kind of roll through. I mean, Mondays are definitely busier than Saturdays and Sundays. But I work from home. A lot of the days are similar. I actually look forward to doing this. I'm not even, like, I really look forward to doing Happy Hour because I love, I've mentioned this a couple of times, but I really love just closing the door in my office and taking your questions just with the microphone.

This is one of the highlights of my week. That sounds like kind of cheesy, but it's actually true. So I just appreciate you guys sending in questions. But yeah, this actually really is one of the highlights of my week, to be honest. What are my favorite kinds of comfort and or junk foods? That's a question from Culpeper Kevin. I like all junk food. I'm not a huge fan of Chinese food for whatever reason, but like any other.

types of junk food. I'm also not a huge like chocolate buff. But otherwise, I love, love pizza, love barbecue. But, you know, that's, there's like any of it. Mostly pizza. I guess pizza is probably my biggest. I love Papa John's, but if you do the thin crust Papa John's, which took me a while to discover that you can get thin crust, I mean, Papa John's crust is good better than most. But if you do the thin crust, Papa John's. Oh my gosh, that stuff is fantastic. FVR. O seven, what is your promise of a Brewers World Series? I wish I could promise a Brewer's World Series. Love the Brewers. I'm hopeful, but very cautious. Very cautious. Pull in for them, though.

Views by Quinn asks, what or who inspired you towards journalism and any tips for those interested in that path? Lots of tips. I just really love media. I like growing up. loved TV and magazines and newspapers and radio and just have this, for whatever reason, attraction to kind of the romance of especially TV. Never necessarily was like obsessed with the idea of being in front of it. I never thought that would ever be possible, but just the mechanics of publishing. For whatever reason, whether it's video or audio or writing, that has just always fascinated me. I've been attracted to it like a moth to a flame. And maybe it's because I never

thought that I would be able to do it. But I'm just obsessed with, particularly with TV. So that's what was interesting to me. And combining that with politics and writing, writing is my very favorite thing to do. It just all kind of made sense. I have lots and lots of tips. I used to, some people don't know this. I spent the last, I guess until last year, for about five years, I was the director. it was a part-time job of what's called the National Journalism Center. It's part of Young America's Foundation. And it's been around since the late 70s. So my job was to lead this nonprofit effort to train up conservative journalists.

Mostly college students, some recent graduates, but place them at different conservative media outlets, teach them to write, teach them to report. So I have like tons and tons of tips. But my best tip is come to, like, well, first of all, read, read, read, read everything. You know, you have to read to be able to write well. You can't write well unless you're a voracious reader. And you also just need to read everything to have the perspective needed to report, read lots and lots of history, read lots and lots of other journalism. And whatever you care about the most, read every book that comes out on that topic. You just go in great depth and just really be prepared to sort of have this obsession with what's true and what's

not like figuring out what the fact is what might not be true you know sorting the kind of wheat from the chaff that type of thing it's that's a ton of the job and just being comfortable with getting to the bottom of those sorts of things it's one of the reason I love it's one of the reasons a lot of people love it but it's daunting because it's often there's so much competing information and you're hearing different things from different people. But I think if you're one of those people that's really interested, I always say there are two types of journalists and a rare third type. But the two types are people who go into it because they love writing and then they put up with the reporting. That's me. I fall into that bucket. The other type of person is people who love

reporting and put up with the writing. And the rare third type is someone who both loves writing and reporting and is good at both. Those are the best journalists. But yeah, for me, I'm one of those people that loves writing and puts up with the reporting. I'm more introverted and don't like to. I'm not like a great cold caller. I'll put it that way. Kleinstein 9 asks, dream festival lineup and how long do you think the Senate will hold out on a CR? There's no such thing as a dream festival lineup for me because I don't like festivals. Let's see, how long would the Senate hold out on the CR? That's a great question. I think. They are, I'm very curious to see what that happens with the No Kings rally on Saturday. So over the weekend, as some of you were listening to this, it's possible for my perspective. Dems kind of are hoping to get this shot in the arm from the base, look like they're holding firm, Chuck Schumer in front of the show, Hakeem Jeffries, could go to their little, no Kings rallies or maybe big No Kings rallies and make speeches, put those on their social media, look like they're standing strong. And then they'll be able to come to the table and say, we always believed that, you know, health care should only go to citizens.

Republicans will have to come up. Maybe they do an extension of the Biden credits. Maybe they extend it by a year. Maybe it's two years. Or maybe they have other free market sort of deregulatory or regulatory ideas that they can add in and force Democrats hand. Because Republicans obviously talked about this on the show don't want people's premiums to start double. in a midterm. And there's Republicans have zero incentive to cooperate with them as long as they're insisting that non-citizens should have access to health insurance subsidies. So so long as that

remains the case, and that is very much the case, by the way, some of the media fact checks, there is nuance between what Republicans are saying, what the truth is, but the media fact checks are actually just, you won't be surprised to learn in many cases glossing right over that nuance. Basically, what's happening is that the, I know because I did my own little fact check of this. You get federal reimbursements for emergency treatment of non-citizens. So that means you could be asylum or you could be an illegal alien. And if you get emergency treatment at a hospital, that hospital gets federal reimbursements or state gets federal reimbursements and disperses them. So Republicans want to lower the amount of federal reimbursements,

actually not eliminate it because obviously there's emergency treatment happening, but they want to lower the amount of it. On the other hand, can't. Can you enroll in Obamacare if you are illegal? No. You can do it if you're a non-citizen. So if you're on asylum, for example, which exploded during the Biden administration, then yes, you are getting access to the exchange. So that might have been one thing in 2014, but in 2025 after the Biden era explosion, which dwarfed any other recent explosion, as New York Times put it, the biggest surge, since the L-Asy, era, since the Ellis Island era, you have to start looking at these types of programs. So

Dems just don't have a leg to stand on. My prediction is that they're going to act like all along. They believed it was non-citizen, like they believed that these subsidies should be reserved for citizens and it'll be their way to, you know, sort of score moderate points and look like they're coming for citizens, coming to the table for citizens on health care. That's my prediction, who knows, I might be overestimating them. Ken asked, I was going to ask your thoughts on public education, not focusing on teaching kids how to manage their money. Oh my gosh, yes. I had one consumer math class in high school, but I think it should be taught every year in high school. Students should go broke 10 times with fake money in school before having real money, teaching kids

that there are no shortcuts and how to use credit cards properly. I don't know how many conversations I've had with people over the years where we all look at each other and say this. Like, why aren't schools teaching personal finance more and more and more. My goodness, they should even be teaching like small business finance because your household in some cases is run like a small business or in all cases basically is run like a small business. But maybe you also want to be an entrepreneur or small business owner, which is the like beating heart of the American economy. So yeah, it's amazing to me how many people have this exact same, this exact same belief about what the school system should be doing. We waste just an incredible amount.

of time in middle school and high school on so many, so many non-even, and I'm talking outside of the realm of liberal arts, so much instruction that just never gets applied in the real world. So I couldn't agree with you more, Ken. It's amazing that doesn't happen. A.U.4U. Um, says, where would we be on student loan cancellation if Harris would have gotten in? You know, the courts just, I just don't think the courts were going to let that happen. she probably would keep trying different ways. It's actually funny, right, because this is one of the points of the media's kind of moral panic about how Donald Trump has expanded the executive branch. I'm not 100% on board with every single thing that he's done. But the media didn't extend to that

panic when Biden was trying to expand executive authority on the student loans, which is a great example. So I assume actually Harris would have been trying to continue expanding executive power and getting those student loan cancellations through, because it wasn't going to happen through Congress. Let's see. Rachel P.O.129 asks, do you ever hang out with Crystal's husband? Kyle Kalinsky, referring to Kyle Kalinsky. Well, so Crystal and Kyle live outside D.C. I'm based in D.C. And Crystal got a bunch of kids. So don't, like, as a crew, we don't get to hang out too much.

but Kyle and Crystal film in the same studio as us. So that's always fun when Kyle comes in. And sometimes we do, sometimes he's on our coverage. But mostly I'll see Kyle when he comes in to tape with Crystal after we film on, I forget which days he comes in on. So I'll see him then. Jacqueline asks, writing with a two-part question for Happy Hour, what are your thoughts on Dr. Wendy Acefo and her husband Eddie getting booked with fraud charges

and two, who's on your real housewives Mount Rushmore? Okay, so the Wendy Ocefo thing is completely wild because back in the day, I used to do Fox News with Wendy Ocepho. If you don't know who she is, she is a Real Housewives of Potomac cast member who is seemingly one of the more normal people across all of the franchises, like kind of has it together. Seems like she has a good marriage, good kids. And she was, I think, a professor at Johns Hopkins. And she used to do Fox News panels as kind of a left-of-center dem panelist, dem se. seeming panelist. She was always really nice. And I didn't know her that well, but, you know, we'd be on panels together in the elevator, a green room, whatever. And it's one of those examples

of how quickly fame changes people. I was going to say fame and money, but I actually just think it really is this like reality television fame, that when you become an influencer, you're just constantly under pressure. I think these like these housewives reality stars are just under constant pressure and influencers are just under so much pressure to um, live these glamorous lifestyles and to continue one-upping themselves because there's always going to be someone richer. There's always going to be someone more living more luxuriously with a better house, a better vacation, better clothes. You can never be the person with the best. There's always someone that's going to outdo you. And they get caught in this rat race, this spiral. And I feel like maybe that's what

happened. The allegations are really, really serious. We'll see. We'll see. Who's on my real housewives Mount Rushmore? Honestly, it would be a lot of the old school New York girls. I haven't thought about this. I've seen this meme going around a little bit. Probably Sonia Morgan. Sonia Morgan. Shout out to Sonia Morgan. Let's see. Here, let me think about this. I'll come back to it. Jesse says, I'm a huge fan of the show in much of your other work. What I want to ask about is your opinion on the theological battles occurring in the open in American podcast land.

It seems very apparent to me that there's a major effort by Catholic and high church Protestants to attack evangelical Christianity and its adherence. Good observation, Jesse, I agree with it. This is primarily focused on the issue of dispensationalism versus supersessionism. the through line seems to be attacking support of Israel or phylo-Semitism from a theological perspective as un-American and or non-Christian. All my friends who are evangelical and plugged in talk about it, have you noticed this? If so do you, like many of my friends and family, view this as a major issue moving forward. I feel it may have the ability to split the cultural right irreparably. Thanks for taking the question. I think this is a pretty, I think it's a pretty sharp

observation, Jesse, I don't know that it splits the cultural right irreparably because as soon as the war in Gaza, assuming Trump's peace, what the relative state of peace is in Gaza as much as there can be peace in Gaza, assuming it's somewhat stable, durable, lasts a year or more into the future, I just, I think Israel will fade a bit into the background of some of these debates. especially with a midterm cycle coming up, it'll still be big on the left because they're not using APEC as kind of a litmus test, but I do think it's going to fade a bit for the right. It'll still be there, but I don't think it'll be at the front and center of our discourse as often as it is right now. That said, I have noticed this sort of, it's the best way to put it. You describe it as high church Protestants attacking, yeah, Catholic and High Church Protestants attacking dispensations. um that's true and i'm not a dispensationalist i'm pretty opposed um to dispensationalism but i do pick up on this real condescension and what's the the word is almost snobbery right because evangelicals um you know don't have these august institutions um um um you know don't have these august institutions um

of like, you know, the Catholic Church has where you have, you know, this is a huge debate, by the way, whether or not evangelicals have the same intellectual tradition as Catholics. I'm not trying to get into that. I'm just saying, you know, I live here in D.C., Catholic University of America has people who have studied these conversations their entire life and russar jobs to write about them and teach about them. And obviously places like liberty exist and all of that. So I'm not trying to compare that to them. I'm just saying that's what the sort of, that's with a snobbery, I think, comes from. And I do agree that it has this air of condescension, as frustrating as I find dispensationalism, because I just could not agree less with its political prescriptions in the Middle East. I don't even, I don't, again, don't have to get into that, but it's still, even as somebody who deeply opposes it. And this, by the way, is, roughly the view that dispensationalism I would describe is roughly the view that when the New Testament refers to Israel, it is referring to modern political Israel. And with that comes a very different reading of, for example, the book of revelation or, you know, the prophecies in the Old

Testament and combining those with revelations or thessalonian, Second Thessalonians, which we talked about on the show this week. So it's frustrating to see that, again, the snobbery because, yeah, evangelicals get looked down upon as, you know, sort of lowbrow. And it's, yeah, it's, that's one of the things that I think just growing up, I grew up in a pretty low church, Missouri-Sid Lutheran congregation, which I've learned since is kind of unusual, since I've, you know, going to different Lutheran churches and met out of the people who grew up L-C-MS. But, you know, we had rock bands and all that fun stuff. And it was just, like, infuriating, not to the snobbery particularly towards evangelicals. It's definitely annoying when it's from other Christians, but

evangelicals get it from everyone. So yeah, that one's that one is just tough all around. All right, now I'm going to go back to this housewives question and they're all going to be New York housewives. Such a transition. Only on after-party do you get a transition from dispensationalism to the Mount Rushmore of real housewives. So I'm going to say Sonia Morgan, Ramona Singer, Luanne de la Ceps, and maybe actually, maybe, maybe I would have to throw in Nini or Candy from Atlanta, possibly Nini or Candy from Atlanta. I also really like Teresa Judice, obviously. I like Vicki Gumbelson.

I think she's incredibly funny. We might have somebody from that franchise, by the way. used to be on that franchise in the works as a guest at some point. You may be able to guess who that is. But I like Beverly Hills. I've watched a lot of Beverly Hills. Like Kyle. Lisa Vandapump was a great housewife.

Obviously, I shouldn't say, obviously. I should say, oddly, I thought Eileen Davidson, I always said she was one of the best housewives. And I feel like that's coming back, one of the best Beverly Hills housewives. She was a great part of the ecosystem. I feel like people are starting to pick up on that and respect Eileen. Okay, I should move on. Now I'm going into the emails that you all have sent.

Let's see, let's see. This one is from Nicholas, who says, this is a good comment. It says, I find your takes interesting, given how it's, by my observation, rare to have Christians. more independent media spaces. Yeah, I think that's generally true. It's one of the reasons, one of the reasons that I make a point to be in more independent media spaces, because I think that's

just sort of where I'm better, where I can be sort of a value add. So Nicholas goes on to say, I want to know your thoughts on the moment Christian nationalism, and by extension, Christianity America is having right now in light of recent events. If I recall correctly, you briefly mentioned Doug Wilson on a breaking points episode, which led me to believe you are aware of the fights over how Christian should operate in a post-liboreal or post-Christian age. Is the boogeyman as much as Normies think it is? Goes on to talk about Ross Douth's interview with Wilson, CNN. Charlie Kirk's death is sparking science of revival.

Nick writes, I also appreciate you showing some inside baseball with the catacomb recently. All in all, it seems like people are thinking about Christianity again with curiosity. Let's see. And again, I'm reading these. I was like, I can imagine a person like Crystal and many others like her having first exposure to something like end times prophecy and wondering what the hell are they talking about and why do they believe this so i appreciate you going on the show breaking it down uh given how in my opinion christians and media rarely come out of the ecosystem and talk about explicitly christian things underscoring how

rare a person like charlie kirk was that's true charlie was was definitely rare in that respect and i think it's one of the things that drew people to him towards the end of his life is that he was opening up and kind of addressing these things in plain terms and not being cagey about what he believed or any of that so christian nationalism is uh I think it's Orrin McIntyre who says, you know, his objection as a Christian and nationalist is to the term being used as a trap by the left. I think I heard Orrin say that at some point. And I generally agree with that because I think the definition can just get kicked around like a football. It doesn't really mean anything. There are a whole lot of people who are Christians and nationalists. But when the left uses the term, they are trying to describe something much more specific. either along the lines of what Doug Wilson thinks or along the lines. So this sort of Doug Wilson's religious vision for what America, as he says, would look like in 200 years or something like that when you have the household vote again, which might mean taking the vote away from women. Go listen to his interview with Ross Douthit if you're interested in this.

Obviously, Wilson founded CREC. I've been to CREC services, lovely, lovely people. It's not where I find myself. I'm sort of a classical liberal and in the sense that you need the sort of foundation, like Christianity is the foundation of small L liberalism. But that goes into different directions. If you're like in Adrian Vermeel, you, you know, or others. I don't want to put words in Adrian Vermeel's mouth. But there are people who want to see that turned into sort of a Catholic monarchy or other. other people who want to see that as a, in America where non-Christians have, let's say,

have to live in a much more overtly legal system, Christian legal system. And that's vague. It's not the perfect definition of Christian nationalism, partially because a lot of people don't agree on what that really means. But I, as someone who's a nationalist and a Christian, just mean that I'm a Christian who wants to put this country first, loves this country, loves this country over any global order, prioritizes this country over any global order, meaning the United Nations or NATO or anything like that, or like being people of the world, citizens of the world, anything like that, unless we're talking about like the Christians of the world or something along those. respects. I'm probably not explaining this super well just because, again, it's, it's poorly defined. But all that is to say, it's like both of those things together are, I think, entirely unobjectionable. I think most Americans would have described themselves that way, not very long ago. But no, I'm not, you know, thinking about a society 200 years from now where there would be a household

vote and the 19th Amendment would be repealed, for example. I've had debates with my close friend. on these types of things. So it's that it's, it's, I'm pretty firmly in the classical liberal camp, and I'm one of the few remaining, especially like people on the, the new right, who've, who've been at NatCon and those sorts of things. I'm holding, I'm holding firm to classical liberalism. And I could get into it. Like, that's a really long conversation, but I just think it's the best system and, uh, the most moral system. And it's an, it's just an incredible, incredible gift. Now, what's the Churchill quote? It's the worst except for all the others.

I'm paraphrasing. That was a terrible paraphrase too. But anyway, that's kind of where I come from on that one. Let's see here. Some great questions. Oh, my gosh, some more religious ones here. This is from Lena, who grew up in an evangelical in an evangelical tradition

and is looking for Bible study resources for modern millennial woman. I tend to just, Bible studies tend to be based around books. The best Bible study I've done in years was, I think I just Googled like screw tape letters Bible study and did it with my cousin. And we're both millennial women.

It was amazing. That was a life-changing one. And it was just like one of the ones that came up on Google. Yeah. So I don't have a ton of like really great. I have like a lot of books that I can recommend. Bible studies, I tend to just do them around books, like screw tape letters. I did a really good one on the book of Romans, which I think is a great place because of the, the, it reads to me as like the most modern.

Not modern in a bad sense, but modern is like it's so applicable to our conversations. Political conversations are cultural conversations now. All right. Ryan says, go Brewers. If the brewers can make it to the World Series with the bottom third in salary, the owners will likely push for a salary cap in baseball. Man, is that a good point? Man, very, very good point, Ryan. Let's see.

Carl says, as a reporter and anchorman, you're sober and realistic, put with a drink at hand, your playful, creative, and curious on display. Thank you. I have the most minimal familiarity with the Bible, but your discussion tonight on point at religious questions was both entertaining and enlightening. Oh, well, this is a very nice email, Carl. Thank you. Thank you for sending it in. All right, here's one. This is a nice one from Joanna, a long one, from Joanna, but an interesting one. Um, Joanna asks, my question is regarding the cost of ice and the cost and effort of rounding up illegals and then deporting them. Well, I completely understand the need for law enforcement to go after the worst to the worst and booting them out because they're dangerous criminals. The news stories of regular people being deported or what troubles me. And I'm sure you know it troubles many people in the U.S. and around the world goes on to talk a bit about, um, the costs and says the Trump administration has to consistently always go above and beyond every pass. administration when it comes to transparency and informing the public about their policies and how they're implementing or enforcing them. So why not set up an electronic version of an old-fashioned wanted poster or an America's most wanted type of website link with a picture of criminals and what's

on their rap sheet goes on and on. It says, heck, they could even set up an IG and TikTok account and post one each hour or the illegal criminal of the day. They might already do some version of that. I haven't seen it, but they, I mean, this Homeland Security, this DHS is putting so, much out in media, social media, and, well, particularly social media, but then also just like lots of, lots of videos, all that kind of stuff. So they may be doing a version of that that it's just not very high profile or I haven't even come across it. But yeah, I mean, I'm sure it's, it's costing a lot of money. That's why they just in the big beautiful bill passed. Actually, this is a cash infusion into ice that has.

even taken into effect yet. So they haven't even gotten all the money that they're going to have. And this is where I always am on immigration. I don't know if I talked about it on the show this week. I think I did. But basically, in the UK, if you've been following their digital ID push, one of the reasons that Prime Minister Kier Starrmer cites for wanting digital ID in the UK is he's kind of exploiting people's frustrations with the illegal immigration into the UK. not all of it's illegal, of course, but he says, people are frustrated with illegal immigration. Here's digital ideas. One benefit of digital ideas is it helps people deal with this very important issue acting as though he suddenly cares.

And so those types of, you know, Biden just let conservatively like 8 million, 8 million people into the country in a few years. I mean, think about the multiple states you can put together and just say we added those in three years. Like, it's so crazy to then act as though. we aren't going to have enormous chaos that the law enforcement agency tasked with deportations of criminals is not going to make some mistakes. Of course they are. And that it's all going to be super smooth sailing, et cetera. And it's going to be cheap. It's not going to break the bank. And ICE doesn't need an increase in their budget. Like that is a delusion. On the other hand, I don't like seeing the growth of an agent. that is amassing surveillance capacities and could easily just have a flip switched by

Democrat or someone else who then wants to turn those on, you know, in ways that are harmful to our rights as American citizens. And so I'm sure lots of U.S. citizens are being caught in the surveillance dragnet. ProPublica, just as I'm reporting this, has a story out today that says, we found that more than 170 U.S. citizens have been held by immigration agents. They've been kicked, dragged, and detained for days. Now, I don't know how many of them were actually interfering with ICE procedures. I'm sure that's the case in some of them. I have seen cases where that's obviously not true. And ProPublica does report that agents have arrested about 130 Americans, including a dozen elected officials for allegedly interfering

with our assaulting officers, yet those cases were often dropped. We've seen some of those cases, obviously. And in some of those cases, I think the arrests were absolutely justified. Others probably not. So this is going to be inevitable when the Biden administration, I mean, if you're the Trump administration, what are you supposed to do? Right. Like, you're going to get attacked for your immigration enforcement no matter what. And you have to do immigration enforcement no matter what. Because the previous administration brought in a massive new population, massive, living in precarious conditions, and in some cases outright illegal. The Biden administration, the last year the Biden administration, arrested 81,000 criminals, criminal non-citizens, 81,000. That is not including immigration

charges, meaning you were deported and then entered the country again, which is where it becomes a criminal offense. So I say all of that to just express that my discomfort with seeing Black Hawk helicopters in Elgin, Illinois, or in Chicago, I think it might not have been a Black Hawk in Elgin, but Black Hawk helicopters and these fights and American citizens and New Palantir contracts, I do have frustrations with those things. And that's what's difficult for me is balancing those two realities. is on the one hand, the Biden administration's lawlessness and recklessness has put so many Americans in danger and has left the Trump administration in a nearly impossible position. And on the other hand, Trump administration seems to be pushing the envelope too far in different cases. So that's kind of where I fall on this is that, like, they of course need more money and it's going to cost a ton of money no matter what just because of where Biden left the country. But it's just, yeah, it's been crazy. Casey asks, you mentioned you prefer to watch documentaries and to read nonfiction. Can you give

us some recommendations for your favorites in both categories? Oh my gosh, can I? This is why sometimes maybe I should read the questions beforehand, so I have the perfect real housewife Mount Rushmore ready to go, and I can have the recommendations ready to go. I think maybe the best documentary of all time. Well, my favorite documentary of all time is Grey Gardens. If you haven't seen Great Gardens, It is proto-Bravo. It is proto-reality television. And it's really incredible. Documentary now did a great parody of it,

but it's just a perfect sort of glimpse into American culture. It was utterly, utterly fascinating. So, Grey Gardens, if you haven't watched it, you should. The movie with Drew Barremor is fine, but the documentary itself is just unreal. Probably the best done docu-series of all times. time is the jinks. And if you haven't watched it yet, I can't explain why it's the best documentary series of all times. But if you haven't watched the jinks, you've got to watch the jinks.

Let's see. I mean, I watch them all. I really watch them all. So it's hard for me to even give one recommendation or another. For non-fiction books, chaos, if you haven't read it yet by Tom O'Neill, is mind-blowing. Devil's Chessboard. mind-blowing. Rod Dreher's recent book Living in Wonder is excellent. That's a great read. John Daniel Davidson has a book called Pagan America. That's also a really great read. Devil's Best Trick. It's by Randallivan. That one, Dreher recommended. Rod recommended that on his diary, and that one is, you know, that's a tough read. That's a really tough read. These are some of the things that are just coming to mind immediately. I'll probably think of more documentaries.

Great questions, Daisy. Thank you for asking. Nick says, I'm an aspiring Christian, raised Catholic, woke up and broke away with all the standard secular complaints about Catholicism and religion in general, but Jordan Peterson really inspired me to at least learn more about Christianity. I learned more about the Bible from him than I did going to church for 18 years, and I'd like to solidify myself as a Christian, but I'm held back by the stubborn but hard to ignore questions that largely boiled onto it, but did it actually happen? Or how can this be real? How do you as a young intellectual reconcile your faith with those kinds of understanding? Sorry, I just giggled. Yeah, then Nick explains. I say intellectual nuts that Christians are not.

or cannot be intellectuals or intelligent as they clearly understand something I don't. But I think you might understand my point. Totally understand your point, Nick. And I just giggled because the idea that I've been intellectual is funny to me. I was just talking about the Mount Rushmore of Real Housewives. But, yes, the book Case for Christ that was written by the Great Lee Strobel is one of best places to start. And I'm sure it is looked down on by the snobbish types that we were talking about earlier in the episode who see evangelical Christians as an intellectual or whatever. But

that book is incredible. And Lee Strobel was recently on Tucker Carlson's podcast a couple of times just in this last year, I believe, talking about it. He's done documentaries talking about it. He's very good on NDEs near-death experiences. That's a, I think, that's a pretty powerful topic. He explores it very well. And Dominion by Tom Holland. And just reading Tom Holland's body of work since he published Dominion as he has become a Christian is incredible.

Learning just even details about the historiosity of the gospel. account of Jesus Christ. I mean, Lee Strollwell goes into this in great detail, and there are a lot of people who are very, very good on this. But it's actually just astounding how much we have recorded about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ compared to what we know about a lot of the ancient world, things that we take as fact about the ancient world that have less evidence for them than the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. So the historical evidence is enormously compelling, and Lee does a really, really good job putting it together, as do other people. But Lee Trouble is a fantastic place to start on that one, Nick. Dan says, very happy to hear

that you play guitar. If I read a worthy song, we're singing in a Trump voice and accompany yourself on the guitar, that would be awesome. I'm sorry, Dan. I can't do that. I'm so sorry. I can't do it. I'm sure you're a very good songwriter. I'm not good enough. David says, how can the DOJ keep from being directed to pursue political enemies after each new administration? I do not know. I really do not know. My MAGA friends, like hardcore MAGIFriends, say that the way to stop this is to go after,

like John Bolton, just before I sat down here, John Bolton news is he's indicted. Like I was saying, my hardcore MAGIFRens would say that's the way to do it, is to make it so that you know, you're locking up John Bolton or James Comey for doing things wrong. And that's what will stop the next Democratic president from going after Republicans, because they know as soon as they're out of office, then the risk is they get prosecuted. I am a bit worried we can't put this toothpaste back into the tube. And I'm not blaming Trump for squeezing it out. I think it was pretty obviously not Trump who took this toothpaste out of the tube.

I don't even know how to keep torturing this metaphor. But I think it was pretty obviously Obama administration Comey. First, really starting with declining to prosecute Hillary Clinton and then trying to make up for it by overzealously surveilling Trump or leaking about Trump and investigating Trump, all of that. So Trump then has hit with all this lawfare. I mean, it's hard to point the finger at. Trump himself because he wasn't in power when the Russia collusion investigation and leak campaign started to undermine his potential presidency. So that said, I don't know if the answer is for Republicans to unilaterally disarm or to go after Comey. I don't have a clear answer to that question.

I think people who did wrong just by the virtue that they're powerful. famous people should not be shielded from prosecution. I do think that the doom spiral is a bad thing because you can prosecute a ham sandwich, right? There are things you can do to any politician. We saw this with Trump in some cases. The Fonnie Willis RICO case, the Leticia James case, you can find a way to prosecute a ham sandwich. We all know that. So it's, yeah, I mean, I think people who did wrong, I'm not crying crocodile dialed tears for them and I'm not blaming Donald Trump for ratcheting up these tensions. I do worry that, you know, my instinct is that clinging to the norm of not prosecuting your political enemies over like the quote ham sandwich charges

is something that's worth fighting for just because it's such a obvious door to banana But I don't know that I'm right about that because I don't know that I can't say definitively that creating these disincentives is wrong because these people did wrong. They were corrupt. And it doesn't mean there isn't Republican corruption. I think I'm one of those people that sees it everywhere and just blames, you know, people with power are bad, they're corrupt. That's what happens. So I don't know, David. That is a great question. Great, great question. Okay. Let's see. And then lastly, I'll end on this question. Dunn asks, can you walk us through a typical Emily Tchensky Workday viewers are likely only seeing the tip of the iceberg?

What is the extent of reading and prepping? Viewers do not see. What is the hours of effort per week? I'll bet it is a big number. There's no way I could tell you hours. It's just sort of constant. And if you know any other people who work in media or journalism or even PR, they'll probably tell you something similar.

When you live in D.C., it's kind of nice because you're, personal and your professional are all blended. You know, most of my friends work in media and politics. And, you know, in my personal life, I love reading about medium politics and culture and watching shows about media and politics and culture, all of which are really connected to my work and helping my work and all of that. So it's just sort of constant. Preping for a show is similar. Like, it's just something that I do all day. I wake up and just start reading the news. answering emails, talking of sources, and basically don't stop doing that all day. Now, it's most intense during the hours of like 9 to 5, but basically that's what I, and most people I know in

media do all day. There's a lot of separation. If you're in D.C. or New York, or if you cover Hollywood and L.A., all of this stuff just kind of, it all just kind of blends together. All right, I'll leave it there. I could keep going. You guys know I could keep going. I'm starting to go longer every week. You can send questions over to Emily at Devil Make Hair Media.com. I do my best to answer them, and you can send questions over at the After Party, Emily, Instagram. Make sure that you subscribe on Apple or Spotify or wherever you're getting your podcast. That helps us so much. Subscribe on YouTube. We're closing 100,000 followers. And I will see you at the After Party Monday, Monday, 10 p.m. Eastern Live. Wednesday, 10 p.m. Eastern Live. And then, of course, on Friday, Megan Kelly is allowing Glenn Greenwald and I to tag along on her turn.

in San Antonio, Texas. I'm Megan Kelly Live, so you can go ahead and grab tickets at megankelly.com. I'll see you there.