Make It Make Sense with Grant Hermes
Politics has never been more chaotic, and most podcasts just add to the noise. Make It Make Sense with Grant Hermes cuts through it.
Grant is an AP Award-winning journalist with over a decade of on-the-ground reporting on the biggest political stories, scandals, and elections in America. Twice a week, he takes the stories dominating the headlines and breaks them down in plain English — no jargon, no spin, no shouting.
If you care about what’s happening in this country but you’re exhausted by how it’s being covered, this is the show for you. Real reporting. Clear explanations. Actual context.
Make It Make Sense drops three times a week. Subscribe so you never miss it.
Episodes
290 episodes
She Locked Up Detroit's Corrupt Mayor. She Says Trump Is Doing the Same Things. She Has a Fix.
Barb McQuade spent her career as a US Attorney prosecuting organized crime, including the conviction of former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick on extortion, bribery, and fraud charges. Trump later pardoned Kilpatrick. In her new book, The Fix, s...
Trump Announced a Ground Invasion of Iran. Then Called It Off, Six Hours Later.
103 days into a war Donald Trump promised would never happen, the United States is striking targets inside Iran and along the Iranian coast for the third straight day. The Secretary of Defense announced the US would target bridges and power pla...
Trump Got Debunked in California, Booed In New York, and Then Iran Shot Down a Helicopter
California held its primary last week. Six days later, votes were still being counted. That's normal. But Trump, Elon Musk, and Mike Johnson decided it was evidence of massive fraud, with zero evidence, which they have admitted publicly. Grant ...
Trump Has Made $1.8 Billion From Crypto While President. A Corruption Researcher Explains How.
Zach Everson is the research director at Public Citizen and the head of their Trump Accountability Project. He is a former Forbes reporter who has spent a decade tracking how Donald Trump uses the presidency to make money. This term, he says, t...
Trump Hadn't Been Seen in a Week And Then Showed Up Like This?
Trump went seven full days without a public appearance. When he resurfaced, it was first in a pre-taped podcast interview with a friendly outlet where he didn't look well, and then in an unscheduled Oval Office press conference where he struggl...
Trump's $1.8 Billion Slush Fund Is Collapsing. His Own Party Is Turning on Him.
Two federal judges have now stepped in to freeze Trump's $1.8 billion anti-weaponization slush fund. One judge in Virginia halted all payouts. A judge in Miami reopened the entire IRS lawsuit after 35 former federal judges called the settlement...
A CIA Veteran Says Trump Is Using "National Security" the Way Dictators Do. He's Seen It Before.
Steve Cash from The Steady State is back on the show this week. He spent his career as a prosecutor, CIA counterterrorism officer, and DHS intelligence official. He also lived and worked in countries run by authoritarian leaders. What he's watc...
Iran Violated The Ceasefire While Making A Deal, Troops Ready To Invade Cuba & Trump's Face On Money
It's a grab bag episode, because everything is happening at once.Iran launched missiles at Kuwait AND drones near the Strait of Hormuz while reportedly agreeing to a 60-day ceasefire extension. Troops are massing in the Caribbean ready ...
Trump said the Iran deal was 'DONE.' Now we're back at war.
Trump spent the weekend claiming an Iran deal was basically done, just some last-minute details to iron out. Except that those "details" were Iran's entire nuclear program and the Strait of Hormuz. Then Qatar had to take over the negotiations. ...
The DOJ Is Being Dismantled From the Inside, A Former Insider Explains What We're Losing
The Department of Justice has lost over 10,000 employees. The acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche, appears to be auditioning for the permanent job by doing whatever the President wants. The FBI Director, Kash Patel, has faced serious miscondu...
The DNC's 2024 Autopsy Is a Mess, Here's Everything Wrong With It
The Democratic Party just released its long-awaited autopsy of the 2024 Harris campaign, and it's not what voters were promised.The 192-page report has no executive summary, no conclusion, no sourcing, and is riddled with basic factual ...
How Trump Just Shielded Himself from the IRS — And Made You Pay for It
The ceasefire in the Iran War officially expires TODAY and the White House is searching for a loophole to restart military strikes without Congressional approval. Meanwhile, Trump's DOJ just created a $1.776 billion fund that shield...
Harvard Psychiatrist to Congress: Trump Is Too Dangerous to Have the Nuclear Codes
36 doctors, psychiatrists, and Nobel laureates just signed an open letter, now part of the official Congressional Record, saying Donald Trump's mental and physical decline makes him too dangerous to hold the nuclear codes. Grant sit...
Your Money Is Worth Less Today Than It Was Last Month
Inflation just hit 3.8%, the highest in three years, and wages can't keep up. Gas is nearly $4.50 a gallon, groceries cost more than ever, and the war in Iran is in its 11th week with no end in sight. Today, Grant breaks down what t...
The Democratic Party Is Lost. A Former Presidential Campaign Manager Explains Why
Why is the Democratic Party so lost right now, and is there actually a path forward?Former presidential campaign manager and Democratic strategist Maya Rupert joins Grant Hermes to break down the real state of the Dem...
The Iran Peace Deal Is Just Obama's Deal (But Worse?)
The White House is claiming a peace deal with Iran is close, but The deal on the table looks almost identical to the Obama-era agreement Trump tore up in 2018. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio openly told the press that the...
Is the Iran War Actually Over? The White House Can't Get Its Story Straight
The president told Congress the Iran war was "terminated." The Secretary of Defense says there's still a ceasefire. Then Trump called it a "mini-war" on camera. So... which is it?Today, Grant breaks down the War Powers Act deadline that...
Forget Gerrymandering, The Supreme Court Legalized Gerrymaxxing w/ Dave Daley
It's like Looksmaxxing but for gerrymandering. GERRYMAXXINGThe Supreme Court just finished what John Roberts started 45 years ago, gutting the Voting Rights Act. And the political earthquake it's about to cause will be felt in eve...
The Supreme Court Just Killed the Voting Rights Act
The Supreme Court just gutted the Voting Rights Act. Grant explains what that means for your vote, your district, and the next election. Plus: four massive government deadlines expire TONIGHT, Congress goes on recess, and we learn the truth abo...
The Shooting, The Ballroom, and The Fallout
Someone tried to assassinate the President at the White House Correspondents' Dinner — and the political fallout may be almost as dangerous than the attack itself.On Saturday night, 31-year-old Cole Thomas Allen traveled from California ...
They Can Take Your Citizenship Away — And the Trump Administration Is Trying
Can the U.S. government take away your citizenship? Increasingly, the answer is: they're trying.This week, Grant sits down with Irina Manta, professor of immigration and national security law at Hofstra University, author, podcaster, and...
Trump Blinked Again and Gas Prices Won't Drop Until 2027
Trump extended the Iran ceasefire indefinitely, which is another way of saying he blinked. Again. Meanwhile, a new Pentagon assessment says the Strait of Hormuz won't reopen for six months AFTER the war ends, meaning high gas prices...
Trump Lied About Iran, The US Broke the Ceasefire & The FBI Director Is Allegedly Wasted
Trump got caught lying about Iran agreeing to US demands. The Wall Street Journal published a bombshell account of his erratic behavior behind closed doors. The US broke the ceasefire in the Strait of Hormuz days before peace talks. The Secreta...
America Already Crossed the Line in Iran. What Happens Now? w/ Oona Hathaway
The war in Iran may be ending, maybe, but the legal and moral reckoning is just beginning. Grant sits down with Oona Hathaway, Yale Law School professor and one of the country's foremost international law experts, to confront the qu...
4 Scandals, 2 Resignations, 1 Week. Welcome Back, Congress
Congress came back from spring break, and in under 6 hours, two members resigned, two more could be next, and the balance of power in the House just got a lot less certain. In this episode, Eric Swalwell resigns amid sexual assault ...