Shows / Runaway Country with Alex Wagner
Runaway Country with Alex Wagner
Being an American right now is a wild ride. Every day brings a new controversy, with breathless media narratives and the same loud voices rushing in to score political points. Then another Truth Social post drops and the circus moves on. But all that noise is drowning out the actual story. On her new podcast Runaway Country, veteran journalist Alex Wagner talks to the voices at the center of the headlines: from the fringes of the resistance, to the marrow of MAGA, to the many people who’ve…
Episodes
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerWhat to Expect When You're Expecting Election Interference
As ballots start coming in, an increasingly desperate president is already meddling in the vote count. Alex sits down with Chris Hayes, host of MS NOW’s “All…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerAre the Polls Too Good to Be True?
With the midterm elections only two weeks away, a lot of Democrats are feeling giddy about the prospects of flipping both houses of Congress. This week, Alex…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerHegseth's Bloodthirsty Pentagon
Just when you thought he could sink no lower, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is now planning to livestream a public execution, carried out by American soldiers…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerWill the Midterms Be a Red Riptide?
Polls show Democratic candidates are leading or tied in several deep red states—places the left never thought they could win. So how optimistic should…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerTrump's Crisis of Dignity
As the electoral landscape is turning blue, Donald Trump is seeing red. To sooth his wounded ego, the White House is running pro-Trump ads during NFL games…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerThe Press Strikes Back
President Trump’s acrimonious relationship with the press reached new heights after he banned MS NOW, Politico, and CNN from the White House — and other media…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerSCOTUS Foils Trump’s Midterm Steal…For Now
Less than two months before the midterms, the Supreme Court made a shockingly good decision and rejected a Trump rule that would have restricted mail-in…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerStill Counting: Trump vs. The BLUE WAVE: A Midterm Extravaganza
Nate Silver, Clare Malone, and Galen Druke discuss the most competitive Senate races heading into the midterms in this excerpt from their new podcast, Still…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerMeasles Outbreak: The RFK Effect
Usually parents breathe a sigh of relief when kids go back to school, but with over 3,000 confirmed cases of Measles spreading across the US, the consequences…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerTrump’s Red State Sabotage
Has Trump created Farmageddon? Rising fuel and fertilizer costs due to the war with Iran, tariffs on goods because of the trade war with Canada, and a Farm…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerWill Data Centers Cost Republicans the Midterms?
President Trump has embarked on a pro-AI data center kick, causing a world of hurt for his own party. The gigantic, energy-guzzling factories are literally and…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerNorth Carolina: "Tar Heel Flip"
North Carolina is one of the most closely divided states in the country. But when it comes to political power, the story is much more complicated. Jen, Mitch…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerChaos in the Big Tent: Is America Third Party Curious?
Democratic Socialists are racking up wins in primaries across the country, Tucker Carlson is conspiring with other exiled MAGA stars to form a third party, and…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerTrump Tries to Bleach the Country
Up to 350,000 Haitians have now lost their Temporary Protected Status in the United States, and they are only one ethnic group among the more than 1.3 million…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerStopping the Steal (Again)
Donald Trump just got one step closer to stealing the next election. The Senate confirms a new head of National Intelligence: former US Attorney for the…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerTrump's Black Box Presidency
Pete Hegseth wants a $1.5 trillion bump in Pentagon spending, and won’t say what it’s for. War in Iran reignites, and the Trump administration hides the number…
Runaway Country with Alex Wagner“They’re Hunting Latino Men”
ICE agents have killed two men in the last 10 days. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was fatally shot in Houston, Texas on July 7th, as was Joan Sebastian Guerrero on…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerWhere Do Democrats Go After Graham Platner?
The Maine Senate race has been thrown into complete disarray after serious allegations of sexual assault emerged against Graham Platner. This week Alex speaks…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerWhat’s Next for Voting Rights, and Why Activism Matters (w/ Jane Fonda)
This week we bring you an episode from Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams. Stacey Abrams has committed her career to bold political advocacy and voting…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerTrump Loses His Base
Take one poll with a grain of salt, but what about a TON of polls? From white middle class voters, to rural Americans, and even Evangelicals, the numbers show…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerShady JD (Vance)
Is there anything that Vice President JD Vance hasn’t messed up? From political messaging, to lecturing the Pope about theology, Vance’s public appearances are…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerGrifter in Chief
The levels of corruption Americans are witnessing are both historic and astounding. This week, Alex speaks to ProPublica reporter Robert Faturechi, who broke…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerWhat Actually Happens in ICE Detention
A new chapter of ICE terror has begun, but instead of taking place on the street—where agents are held accountable by protesters and their phones—mistreatment…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerElection Chaos: Texas Republicans vs California Dems
Could reality TV star Spencer Pratt become Mayor of Los Angeles? And could Trump’s endorsement of Ken Paxton cause Texas to go blue? This week, Alex dives into…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerThe Emperor’s New Slush Fund
This week, Alex digs into the nearly unfathomable corruption of President Trump’s settlement with the Department of Justice, including the $1.776 billion…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerGOP Gerrymanders Are Burning Down the House
Redistricting battles are spreading like wildfire in both red and blue states, and increasingly the fate of America’s electoral system is at the mercy of the…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerTrump’s Perverted Justice
Has Trump corrupted our justice system beyond repair? The latest indictment of former FBI Director James Comey is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerThe President and The Press
This week, the President AND the press came under attack. After an attempted shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner, the Trump administration was…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerThe Gas Prices Are Too Damn High
Instead of pumping the brakes on the Iran war, President Trump is breaking the pumps. This week Alex looks at how high gas prices are impacting Americans, and…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerTrump’s Unholy War Against the Church
President Trump has a God problem. After criticizing the Pope and posting an image of himself as Jesus online, Trump has caused an uproar among his Christian…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerMAGA Turns on The Mad King
The President of the United States has officially gone mad. That can be the only conclusion after Trump’s genocidal threats this week to destroy the entire…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerWill Trump Profit from War with Iran?
How can we make sense of America’s senseless war with Iran? This week, Alex asks if President Trump’s web of corruption extends to his foreign policy. First…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerICE Goons at the Airport and DACA Detentions (w/ Jonathan V. Last)
Leave it to travel delays during Spring Break to turn America’s focus to immigration again. This week, as Congress debates over funding and reforms to ICE, and…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerTrump's Plan for Iran....Is No Plan
With the war against Iran now in its third week, it has become devastatingly clear that President Trump and his administration have no strategy for the…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerTrump’s War of Choice Against Iran (w/ Rachel Maddow)
Over a week into the war with Iran, the casualties, global economic fallout, and incoherence of the Trump administration are all growing. This week Alex speaks…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerThe Other MAGA War….At Home
While the Trump administration wages war against Iran and broadens their military scope in the northern hemisphere, there are more subtle campaigns being…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerTrump, Tucker, and the Death of Legacy News
Rightwing billionaire takeovers, journalists getting arrested, and endless misinformation. Welcome to the current state of American journalism. This week, Alex…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerTrump Gives DC Architecture A MAGA Facelift (with Heather Cox Richardson)
President Trump has torn down the East Wing of the White House, re-named the Kennedy Center, and proposed an “Independence Arch”. This week, Alex speaks to…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerThe Epstein Administration
The latest release of more than three million Epstein files has exposed the vast network of powerful and ultra-rich elites who were part of Jeffrey Epstein’s…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerTrump Is Getting Scared About the Midterms
From a raid on an election office in Fulton County, Georgia, to a call to nationalize federal elections…President Trump is making it clear that his next target…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerOn the Ground in Minnesota
This week Alex travels to Minneapolis to see first hand how the community is responding to the terrorizing presence of ICE and the killing of ICU nurse Alex…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerICE Arrests Are Only the Beginning
Even police chiefs in Minnesota are calling out ICE tactics as race-based and out of line. This week, Alex focuses on what comes next — from conditions at ICE…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerTrump and MAGA Justify Renee Good’s Death
Since an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis, President Trump and MAGA have labeled her a “domestic terrorist” and come up with one reason…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerTrump’s Terrifying Imperial Fantasies
2026 has started off with strikes on Venezuela, the kidnapping of President Nicolas Maduro, and a brazen slew of threats from President Trump against…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerWill the Supreme Court Finally Stand Up to Trump in 2026? (with Melissa Murray)
Are President Trump’s tariffs illegal? Will the independence of federal agencies be a thing of the past? Is birthright citizenship about to be taken away?…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerWhat the Hell is Happening at the Pentagon? (with Sen. Elissa Slotkin & Ben Rhodes)
Under the leadership of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon is in disarray. From a lack of transparency on extrajudicial strikes in the Caribbean, to…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerMaking America White Again (with Joy Reid)
The Trump administration is using the tragic shooting of two National Guard members by an Afghan national as justification to close the door on immigration…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerTrump Cracks on Epstein Files
This week, the House and Senate voted nearly unanimously to release all of the files related to the investigation into sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, after…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerHasan Piker on the Democrats' Bullies and Republican Nazis
Democrats and Republicans may seem worlds apart politically, but both parties are running into a similar problem – getting pushed into uncomfortable positions…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerA Wipeout and a Showdown (with Chris Hayes)
Tuesday’s elections ushered in big wins for Democrats in the NYC mayoral race, Virginia and New Jersey’s Governors’ races, California’s redistricting measure…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerDems Take the Gloves Off (with David Plouffe)
Alex talks about the hottest issue leading up to next week’s election….the 2026 election. California’s Proposition 50 is a power play by Governor Newsom and…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerJustice Has Left the Building
Alex digs into the destruction of due process and rule of law under the Trump administration. First, she hears from Judge Anam Petit, a recently fired…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerIntroducing Runaway Country with Alex Wagner (Coming October 23rd)
Being an American right now is a wild ride. Every day brings a new controversy, breathless media narratives, and the same loud voices rushing in to score…
- Runaway Country with Alex Wagner
Updates from The Wilderness
Hey everyone, Jon Favreau here with a special announcement. From now on, new episodes of The Wilderness will appear on the Pod Save America feed, and we’ll…
Runaway Country with Alex WagnerThe Wilderness: How Kamala Beats Trump (S4E8)
On the final episode of this season of The Wilderness, Jon is joined by UCLA political scientist Lynn Vavreck and senior Harris campaign advisor David Plouffe…
- Runaway Country with Alex Wagner
The Wilderness: Kamala Harris’s Winning Message (S4E7)
Jon is joined Democratic message guru Anat Shenker-Osorio and longtime political strategist Michael Podhorzer to talk about how swing voters are reacting to a…
- Runaway Country with Alex Wagner
The Wilderness: What Undecided Voters Think of Kamala Harris (S4E6)
Jon is joined by longtime pollster Sarah Longwell to discuss how swing voters are reacting to Kamala Harris’ unexpected campaign for president. How did they…
- Runaway Country with Alex Wagner
The Wilderness: Why No One’s Winning Young Voters (S4E5)
Jon is joined by youth polling experts John Della Volpe and Kristen Soltis Anderson to talk about apathy among young voters this election cycle. Why are they…
- Runaway Country with Alex Wagner
The Wilderness: How Democrats Can Win Latinos Back (S4E4)
Jon is joined by Carlos Odio and Stephanie Valencia, founders of Equis Research, the nation’s leading polling and research firm focused on the Latino…
- Runaway Country with Alex Wagner
The Wilderness: Could Trump-Curious Black Voters Swing the Election? (S4E3)
Jon is joined by pollster Terrance Woodbury and Lavora Barnes, Chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, to talk about the black voters who may cast their…