This time I brought Jay Jurden.

If you don’t know Jay yet, you will. He’s a stand-up, writer, and actor out of New York by way of Jackson, Mississippi — a Black, queer kid from the South who turned all of it into some of the funniest material out there. He’s done Fallon three times, hit Colbert, wrote for Jon Stewart’s show, and put out a special, Yes Ma’am, that you can go watch after this. Variety named him one of their comics to watch, and they were right.

Here’s why I wanted him at the table. Jay says true things and makes you laugh while he does it — which, if you think about it, is the same job I’m trying to do, just from the other side of the room. Comedy and accountability aren’t that far apart. Both of them work by refusing to look away from the thing everybody else is too polite to name.

So grab whatever’s in your fridge, hit play, and hang out with us. It’s loose, it’s honest, and it’s a hell of a lot more fun than another headline about somebody getting indicted.

We’ll be back to the fights soon enough. For an hour, let’s just enjoy each other’s company.

Watch the full BYOB with Jay Jurden below. And if he made you laugh, go give the man a follow and see his special — comics like Jay are worth showing up for.

Thank you John H, Jeanne Elbe, MzNicky in East Jesus, TN, Judith Evans, Jersey Jean, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Thank you Noble Blend, Skutt Hope, MzNicky in East Jesus, TN, Jill B., James T Duffield, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Thanks to everyone who showed up live, asked questions, and keeps this community moving. Catch the replay here.

Thank you Cash Flow Collective, LeftieProf, John H, MzNicky in East Jesus, TN, Cris Palomino, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

If you missed it live, the full Q&A with my brother Peter is up now. We talked through the week’s chaos, what matters, what doesn’t, and why so many people feel like they’re getting played by the same broken system over and over.

We also hit your questions in the comments — no scripts, no panels, just a real conversation.

If you want more of these (and the paid-subscriber lives every Thursday), become a paid subscriber. That’s how we keep this thing independent, keep traveling to the stories, and keep building a community that actually shows up.

Thank you Judith Evans, tracey farmer, igor isa🤘⚧️, Lisa Unger, Postcards From Home, and many others for tuning into my live video with Peter Fanone! Join me for my next live video in the app.

This live was two conversations back-to-back, but they’re connected by the same reality: we’re living through a moment where the people with the loudest megaphones are trying to normalize corruption, intimidation, and political violence—and then act shocked when the country starts to fracture.

First, Ben Freedland (The Human Intelligence Ledger) joined me to talk about the relationships between informants and authorities, how narratives get built, and how information gets weaponized.

Then I brought on Jordan Korgood, who’s running for office and actually doing the work of showing up where it’s hard, talking to people who don’t already agree, and making the case for accountability candidates who don’t treat public service like a branding exercise. If you’re tired of performative politics and want to hear what real organizing sounds like, start here.

Watch the full recording. And if you want more conversations like this—candidates, organizers, independent voices—subscribe and share the video. The only way we beat coordinated b******t is with coordinated attention.

Honestly, part of what Jordan and I talked about is why it’s so hard for voters to make informed decisions in the first place.

Because depending on where you get your news, you can see two completely different versions of the same candidate, the same race, or the same issue. Some stories get amplified. Others get buried. And by the time most people realize it, the narrative has already been written for them.

That’s one reason I use Ground News.

Ground News is an app and website that lets you compare how outlets across the political spectrum are covering the same story. You can compare headlines side by side, see political bias at the publication level, and use features like the Blindspot Feed to spot stories that one side of the media landscape is heavily covering while the other barely mentions.

When you’re evaluating candidates and deciding who deserves your vote, that kind of context matters.

If you want to see the full picture instead of just one version of it, go to groundnews.com/mfs and get 40% off the Vantage plan.

Thank you 💯 PRO-DEMOCRACY STRATEGY!, Sissyrivergirl, Lori Modafferi, Judith Evans, Agent#99, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

I joined Dean to talk about the latest insult to every cop who stood that line on January 6: pardons for the people who tried to kill us, and now a taxpayer-funded payout pipeline dressed up as “patriotism.” They didn’t pick “1776” by accident. That’s branding. It’s the same playbook every authoritarian movement uses: rewrite history, reward the loyal, …

A lot is happening fast — Iran, elections, the courts, federal law enforcement getting warped into political theater — and I’m tired of watching people get spun up by clips and hot takes while the actual story gets buried.

So every Thursday, we’re doing an “Ask Mike Anything” live.

Become a paid subscriber for full access and to join the live Q&A chat.

Her…

I went live with Chuck Park because I’m tired of watching local races get treated like they don’t matter until the damage is already done.

NY-6 isn’t just another “safe seat.” It’s a test of whether Democrats are going to keep recycling the same political machine — candidates who talk tough, take corporate money, and disappear once the cameras move on — or whether voters are finally ready to back people who are actually accountable to their communities.

Chuck’s story matters.

He’s from Flushing. Son of Korean immigrant storeowners. Served as a U.S. diplomat under Obama. Came home and did the work the hard way — organizing, coalition-building, serving in city government, and showing up locally instead of parachuting in when it became politically convenient.

Now he’s running for Congress to push back against Trump’s agenda, reject corporate PAC influence, and fight for working people who feel like the system stopped listening to them a long time ago.

That’s why this conversation mattered.

Not because politics is entertainment. Because politics has consequences.

We talked about what it actually takes to compete in places the establishment writes off. How you reach voters who’ve stopped trusting institutions. How you build accountability in a political culture built around branding and outrage instead of results.

And honestly, part of that fight is informational too.

Because depending on where you get your news, you can walk away with completely different understandings of the same candidate or the same race.

That’s one reason I use Ground News.

Ground News is an app and website that lets you compare how different outlets cover the same story across the political spectrum. You can compare headlines side by side, see political bias at the publication level, and spot when important stories are getting minimized — or ignored altogether.

One feature I use a lot is the Blindspot Feed, which shows you stories heavily covered on one side of the political spectrum and barely covered on the other. During an election cycle, that matters.

If you want to cut through the noise and actually see the full picture, go to groundnews.com/mfs and get 40% off the Vantage plan.

Here is how to help:

* Support Chuck Park — volunteer, donate, share his campaign, whatever you can do.

* Support this work by becoming a paid subscriber. That’s what allows us to keep doing conversations like this without answering to corporate sponsors or political operatives.

* And if you want to help keep the Defend Democracy Tour moving, use the links below.

I’ll keep showing up. I need you with me.

Thank you Blanca, Skip Day, JustTanNotOrange, Charlene Bigelow, Kimberly Ruiz, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

I just wrapped a subscriber Q&A, and I wanted to put a quick recap here because we hit three stories that are connected in a way most coverage refuses to say out loud.

We talked about Iran, and why the biggest danger right now isn’t just “what happens next” overseas — it’s what happens when leadership treats escalation like a performance. When the rhetor…

I’m posting this conversation with Noah Taylor because Kansas is about to matter a lot more than the national media wants to admit — and because too many people still treat the Senate like it’s some abstract DC chess match.

It’s not.

The Senate is where accountability either happens… or dies. It’s where judges get confirmed, agencies get funded — or hollowed out — investigations get blocked or buried, and where extremists get empowered when decent people decide politics is “too exhausting.”

And here’s the truth: if Kansas doesn’t have accountability candidates — candidates who answer to voters instead of party bosses, donors, and the MAGA machine — then the same people who lied about January 6, excused political violence, and normalized corruption are going to keep writing the rules for the rest of us.

That’s what Noah and I get into here.

Not consultant fluff.

Not safe soundbites.

The real questions:

How do you build a campaign that can actually compete in a place the establishment loves to write off?

How do you reach voters who’ve tuned out?

How do you fight propaganda with receipts?

How do you make accountability feel real again?

Because “accountability” isn’t a vibe.

It’s a choice.

It’s whether elected officials fear the voters — or whether voters are trained to fear the officials.

One thing I’ve learned over the last few years is that what you hear about candidates — who they are, what they stand for, whether they’re “viable” — depends a lot on where you’re getting your information.

That’s why I use Ground News.

Ground News is an app and website that lets you compare how different outlets are covering the same story. You can see political bias at the publication level, compare headlines, and spot when certain candidates or issues are being emphasized — or ignored — depending on the audience.

During an election cycle, that matters.

If you want the full picture instead of just one version of it, you can subscribe to Ground News’ Vantage plan for 40% off here:

Here’s the Ask

Two parts.

First: support Noah Taylor.

If you want accountability candidates, you don’t just like a post and move on. You help them build the infrastructure — donations, volunteers, doors knocked, calls made, and enough resources to break through the noise.

Back Noah. Share his name. Help grow this into something Kansas can rally around.

Second: support the Defend Democracy Tour.

This is why we’re on the road — Kansas, Pennsylvania, Boston, and more to come. Because democracy doesn’t live on TV. It lives in communities.

If you want more of these conversations, more town halls, more real reporting from the ground — help keep the tour moving.

Watch the full conversation. Share it with one Kansan who still gives a damn.

Then do one real thing to help — for Noah, for the tour, for what comes next.

The Michael Fanone Show is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I jumped on a live conversation with Raw America and we talked about what’s happening right now — the real-world consequences of Trump’s agenda: ICE tactics on the ground, what’s breaking inside the system, and why the midterms are going to be a fight over power, not policy.

Here’s the thing: people keep treating these stories like separate lanes. Immigr…

Join us for an exclusive BYOB Substack Q & A with Mike and Peter Fanone. Become a paid subscriber to help support the show.

I sat down with Carol Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis about their new book, Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America’s Justice Department. This isn’t a victory lap. It’s an autopsy. How the place that’s supposed to be the country’s spine — the U.S. Department of Justice — let politics and fear bend it, and what it’ll take to make it stand up again.

I spent almost twenty years wearing a badge. There were rules that weren’t optional: the Constitution first, human dignity always, and power only when you have to use it.

What I watched this week wasn’t policing. It was the costume of authority used to humiliate people in their own homes.

I’ve used strong language for a reason. When agents kick in a door …

I went live not long ago to cut through the noise with Sen. Ruben Gallego. We talked about power, impunity, and what accountability looks like when the stakes are real.

* Trump’s playbook right now — what’s theater vs. what actually moves power

* The Epstein “sweetheart deal” era and what real accountability should’ve looked like

* How to spot the next disinform…

Today the takes will drift away from that day. Their whitewashing will pivot to new stories.

Five years to the day, we went live with people who’ve carried the facts and the scars: Jim Acosta, Heather Cox Richardson, Glenn Kirschner, Adam Kinzinger, Miles Taylor, Olivia Troye, and more. We talked about what it looked like, what it cost, and why “move on”…

This live is about why the anger still matters.

I’m not here to relive trauma for clicks. I’m here because truth without memory dies fast. If you’ve felt the pressure to shut up and get over it, this one’s for you.

Hear the full conversation, and add your story in the comments — where you were, what you saw, what changed for you. If it lands, pass it to someone who still gives a damn. And if you want these lives the minute they drop, get on the list and stick with me.

I went live with Bryan Andrews, the musician who’s been blowing up feeds by saying out loud what a lot of people are feeling: the country’s not fine, and the folks catching the pain aren’t the ones on TV. We talked about why his songs hit and why his social media videos have been blowing up — working people getting squeezed, towns getting written off, t…

I went live with Glenn Kirschner to talk through something that should’ve shaken this entire country: two National Guardsmen were shot in Washington, D.C.

These men weren’t in a war zone.

They weren’t deployed overseas.

They were standing on an American street.

What happened here isn’t just another crime story. It’s a snapshot of where we are as a nation — …

Last week we went live with the women behind The Moment podcast to talk about what 2026 is really going to take. Here’s what stuck with me.

Women are already doing the work — organizing clinics and court support, flipping school boards that got hijacked by culture-war cosplay, keeping survivors safe while the state looks the other way, and turning kitch…

Cliff and I sat down and pulled the lens back on MAGA as a system—not just the loudest guy in the room, but the donor networks, media pipes, and hustle that keep it moving even when the headlines shift.

We talked about what it will actually take for Democrats to fight like they mean it in 2026—message discipline, ground game, and stopping the habit of b…

I jumped on with Jim Acosta Tuesday as returns came in, and the story in my backyard wasn’t subtle. In the DMV—Northern Virginia, the close-in suburbs, the I-95/I-66 corridors—voters slammed the brakes on the circus and picked competence.

You could see it precinct by precinct: the school-board scare tactics didn’t land, abortion bans got punished, and t…

On Halloween we set up in one of my favorite tattoo shops, machines buzzing, and talked about who is actually doing the work and where we are today. The first half we talked with Andy Zee (Refuse Fascism) about what’s coming in the streets—dates, actions, how to plug in if you’re new or coming back after a long year.

Then Peter and I opened it up and to…

Don and I go back to the worst day of my life and trace how we ended up here — the aftermath, the threats, the moments that changed our careers, and the first conversation that turned into a friendship. No spin, no scripts, just two people comparing scars and talking about what it costs to keep telling the truth.

We get into:

* What January 6th looked like …

What does “law and order” really mean when the cameras are off? Maya and I sit down with Rosa Brooks to pull apart the tactics behind the slogan — from protest crackdowns and loyalty tests to the quiet policy moves that make bad policing harder to fix and good policing harder to do.

What we get into:

* How “tough on crime” becomes a permission structure for…

House hardliners aren’t “fighting waste.” They’re manufacturing a crisis and sending the bill to vets, workers, and families — then fundraising off the wreckage.David Hogg breaks down the playbook; Sen. Chris Van Hollen tells you what can actually move in the Senate and what’s pure theater.

Jump in, hear the receipts, and tell me where you land. If it h…

Last month’s live, we called out the duck-and-cover routine in legacy news and why the public trust is migrating to people doing the work without a corporate leash. Don Lemon and Jim Acosta pulled the curtain on newsroom fear, access games, and how “neutrality” gets used to dodge the truth.

Hit play, jump in the comments, and tell me when you stopped tru…

Last week we took it into a room full of students at UVA. No filters, no studio safety net — just hard questions about truth, power, and what it costs to tell the story straight. Jim and I went deep on January 6th, media courage, and how you hold the line when careers and clicks push the other way. The Q&A got real fast: accountability, threats, and wha…

Three days into the government shutdown, the talking points were flying faster than the facts. Republicans call it “fiscal responsibility.” Democrats call it “hostage politics.”

But what we called it tonight — with CNN’s Jim Acosta — is exactly what it is: manufactured chaos.

We broke down how the MAGA movement learned that breaking government is good bus…

The TRUTH Behind Trump’s Shutdown Chaos & Military Power Grab

I went live with two powerful voices — Jolly Good Ginger and USMC Angry Veteran — to cut through the noise and get real about what’s happening in America right now.

We broke down:- Trump’s government shutdown chaos and the communities it hurts most.- His secretive military agenda — and the clow…

This week on The Lemon-Cohen Report, Don Lemon and Michael Cohen were joined by Michael Fanone for a conversation that cut through the noise and went straight to the headlines shaping Washington.

The discussion covered:

* The latest on the Epstein files and the pressure building on Congress.

* Nancy Mace’s reaction and what it reveals about how lawmakers are h…

Adam Kinzinger. Glenn Kirschner. Frank Figliuzzi.

Voices who’ve been inside the fight — in Congress, in the courts, in the FBI, and now on the ballot. Together, we pulled back the curtain on what’s really happening inside American law enforcement right now:

⚖️ The weaponization of policing🕵️ The FBI’s leadership crisis🏛️ Washington, D.C. under federal …

I joined while driving my daughters to soccer practice — real life colliding with the news cycle. And in between the politics, Jim and I took a beat to announce something new: Fanone merch.

That moment said a lot about what this show really is. Yes, it’s about politics, accountability, and truth. But it’s also about real life — the balance between being …

Each of us came at it from a different angle: journalism, activism, lived experience. The through-line was the same — how do you cut through the noise when lies move faster than the truth?

It was a conversation about truth, but also about urgency. And revisiting it now, you can see how much of what we warned about then is still shaping our politics today.

Watch the full conversation here.

Thank you Theresa Lease, Reba, Susan Douglas, Eric, Micheal Scott, and many others for tuning into my live video with Thomas E Beller, Jim Acosta, Lauren Windsor, and Mehdi Hasan! Join me for my next live video in the app.

On this livestream, Don Lemon sat down with a series of voices — Tara Palmeri, Jolly Good Ginger, Mike Nellis, Glenn Kirschner, and me. Each conversation circled the same themes: foreign policy, Trump’s chaos, and the pressure points building at home.

Don and I talked about the “No Kings” protest.

The organizers had planned to go forward, to make their st…

This livestream with Jim Acosta, Ezra, Gabe, and me covered a lot of ground — the politics of the moment, Trump’s chaos, and the state of democracy.

On one level, it’s laughable. On another, it’s deadly serious. Because that kind of anti-science garbage has become part of the political bloodstream. Politicians and public figures don’t just question scien…

Don Lemon and I took a step back to talk about the state of the country — not just the politics, but the culture that keeps shaping it.

Because when you look at Donald Trump, you don’t just see a politician. You see a man whose misogyny has always been out in the open. The language. The insults. The bragging. The way he talks about women — not as equals,…

This week, I sat down with Michael Cohen to talk about something that isn’t getting enough attention: how Trump is quietly reshaping American policing — not through local reform, but federal control.

In D.C., it started at Union Station. A supposed “crime crackdown” turned into a federal occupation. Local police sidelined, the mayor stripped of authority…

This livestream with Jim Acosta and Sarah Matthews came at a moment when Trump still dominated the headlines and the January 6th hearings were forcing America to confront the truth.

But it was at the end of the episode, when Jim and I took a step back, that the conversation cut deepest. We talked about what Republicans were already trying to do: rewrite …

On Jim Acosta’s live show, Michael Cohen went first, laying out his perspective on Trump’s chaos and DOGE. Then I joined Jim to talk about what that chaos looks like on the ground.

And I shared something, a bomb threat I’d received.

That’s what standing up to Trump and his movement brings. It’s not just arguments on cable news. It’s not just noise online.…

That’s the difference between watching events unfold on TV and standing in the middle of them.

For me, January 6th isn’t just history. It’s memory. It’s scars. And when I talk about it, I’m not speaking in hypotheticals. I’m telling you what it felt like to be there, fighting to hold a line while democracy itself was under attack.

That’s where this conve…

When Don Lemon and I went live for this conversation, the headlines were dominated by Trump’s foreign policy stumbles and the chaos his inner circle was fueling at home.

We talked about Netanyahu testing Trump on the world stage — and how obvious it was that Trump was afraid to stand up to strongmen leaders. That weakness wasn’t just embarrassing. It was…

Glenn spent decades as a federal prosecutor. I spent nearly 20 years as a cop. Both of us have seen this country at its best and at its worst.

We talked about where we are right now — the Trump trials, the rot in our political system, and the reality that the threats we faced on January 6th haven’t gone away. If anything, they’ve grown.

Glenn brings the p…

Sometimes you’ve just gotta grab a couple of chairs, crack open a beer, and let the conversation wander. That’s exactly what Peter and I did in this episode of BYOB with the Fanone Bros. — no scripts, no filters, just two brothers talking politics, life, and everything in between from the front porch.

It’s equal parts serious, casual, and ridiculous — ju…

Beer in hand, needle buzzing — probably not the smartest setup for talking politics. But sometimes the best conversations happen in the least polished places.

This one’s about passion, culture, and the kind of truth you don’t get in a studio.

Become a paid subscribe to watch the full episode here. Subscribe Now to keep these raw conversations alive.

Thank …

Back in April, Jim Acosta and I sat down with Congressman Robert Garcia and Julian Zelizer for a wide-ranging conversation on Trump, power, and the future of our democracy.

It’s Throwback Thursday now — but this episode proves some conversations never really get old.

👉 Watch the full discussion here and see why.

Thank you Ramona Grigg, Kimberly Anne, Caro Henry, Demian Elaine' Yumei, ann schneider, and many others for tuning into my live video with Julian Zelizer, Jim Acosta, Congressman Suhas Subramanyam, and Dan Toomey! Join me for my next live video in the app.

The Jim Acosta Show with Olivia Troye and Michael Fanone

This one’s unforgettable, a throwback to Olivia Troye showing up in a taco hat, and Jim and I couldn’t resist diving into Trump’s so-called “tariff” threats — and how, true to form, he always chickens out when it’s time to follow through.

It was funny in the moment, but also telling: Trump’s bluster…

I sat down with Don Lemon to talk about something every American should be paying attention to: Donald Trump’s quiet but dangerous use of federal forces to take over blue cities.

These aren’t community policing efforts. They’re paramilitary-style deployments — unidentified officers in unmarked vans, operating with little oversight and no accountability. …

Today, we launched something new: the very first Michael Fanone Show Live, streaming across YouTube, Instagram, and Substack. Hosted in partnership with our friends at Occupy Democrats, this show is about telling the truth, giving people a platform to fight back, and building the kind of outrage and courage this moment in America demands.

I opened the sh…

I sat down with Jim Acosta not long ago for a conversation that went deeper than politics. We talked about the history of policing in America, and the racist uses of police power that I learned about during my own career.

I shared how, during trainings, I’d hear about situations in history I never thought I’d face in my own lifetime — until I did. Jim an…

Back in March, Jim Acosta and I went live to talk about one of the biggest issues in American politics — immigration — and to cut through the garbage being shoveled after Donald Trump’s March 20th speech.

Here’s the reality: Trump loves to frame himself as the defender against crime, but when you look at his record, he’s been one of the largest importers…

This week’s live conversation brought together three sharp, fearless voices — Jim Acosta, Olivia Troye, and Colin Allred — to dig into the biggest political flashpoints happening right now.

Thank you Ellie Leonard, Cash Flow Collective, Caro Henry, Theresa Lease, Pamela, and many others for tuning into my live video with Jim Acosta, Olivia of Troye, and Colin Allred! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Watch the replay and join me for the next l…

When the word tyranny gets thrown around in America, too many people treat it like political theater. In this conversation, Don Lemon and I dig into what tyranny actually looks like — and why it’s not just a relic of history or something that happens “somewhere else.”

Watch the full conversation to hear unfiltered takes from two people who’ve been on the…

This week, Mike and Jim start off with a less-than-glamorous, reality — someone left dog sh*t on Mike’s truck. From there, they dive into the darker side of life in the public eye: letters they have received, the death threats both of them have endured over the years, endangering loved ones, and what it says about the state of journalism in America toda…

What the hell is happening — and what comes next?

Check out this throwback to Michael Fanone sitting down with Don Lemon and Michael Cohen to unpack the first 100 days of Trump’s political chaos, media spin, and the rising temperature across the country. From Trump’s legal mess to institutional failures to where the resistance goes next — nothing’s off t…

What happens when three people who lived through the worst of American political violence sit down without a script?

In this exclusive livestream, Michael Fanone is joined by journalist Jim Acosta and former Capitol officer Harry Dunn to talk honestly about January 6th — not just what happened, but how the system responded after the cameras stopped rolli…

Michael Fanone sits down with Jonathan Larsen for an unfiltered conversation about where we are — and how we got here. From headlines to Michael’s history, the two unpack the political moment through lived experience, hard questions, and shared frustration with the noise.

Watch the free preview!

Want full access?Become a paid subscriber to unlock the comp…