Podcasts about ringmaster vince mcmahon

In January, World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) Monday night show, Raw, moved to Netflix. The move comes around the time that a known WWE fan and Hall of Famer, President Donald Trump, entered the White House. Josephine Riesman, author of Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America, argues that understanding WWE can help us understand Trump and his politics. This hour, we learn about WWE and its impact on Trump, and discuss the experience and appeal of watching wrestling. GUESTS: Josephine Riesman: Author of Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America Tim Kail: Creator of “The Work of Wrestling” website and podcast. He is also the host and producer of “The Sarah Lawrence College Podcast” Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

President Trump is calling for the end of the U.S. Department of Education, but so have other Republicans since the day it was formed in 1979. So why do Republicans hate it enough to lambast it, but love it enough to keep it around?Brittany is joined by NPR's education correspondent Cory Turner and author Josephine Riesman to talk about Trump's pick for education secretary, former WWE CEO Linda McMahon. And how Trump and McMahon are using the WWE playbook to reshape the American public education system.For more on this topic check out Cory's latest piece for NPR, Republicans' love/hate relationship with the Education Department, and Josie's investigation into the WWE, Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America.Support public media and receive ad-free listening & bonus content. Join NPR+ today.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

As 2024 draws to a close, David Ahrens reflects on his bountiful year of reading. He's joined by Chali Pittman, Andrew Thomas, and callers throughout the hour to share their recommendations. New York Times bestseller James by Percival Everett is a clear favorite. It's a re-imagining of Huckleberry Finn from a distinctly different point of view. That's not the only retelling worth reading — Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver reimagines David Copperfield as well. Also recommended by David: The Lucky Ones, a memoir by Madison's own Sara Chowdhary, recounts a personal experience of anti-Muslim violence in India (Chowdhary was just interviewed by Madison BookBeat). Meanwhile, caller Gil recommends Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century by Joya Chatterji, recently interviewed on World View. David recommends a slate of books by Irish authors, including Prophet Song by Paul Lynch, The Bee Sting by Paul Murray, and Long Island by Colm Tóibín. Plus, the beautifully-written Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe —which has now been turned into a TV series. As for nonfiction, Chali recommends Sing Like Fish: How Sound Rules Life Under Water by Amorina Kingdon. In the political sphere, Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America by Josephine Riesman gives insight into the rise of Donald Trump. And Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein begs not to be confused with Naomi Wolf. David recommends Reds: The Tragedy of American Communism by Maurice Isserman and Andrew recommends At the Vanguard of Vinyl by Darren MillerIn more fiction, Gil recommends Northwoods by Daniel Mason, Jade recommends Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange, and David recommends Intermezzo by Sally Rooney.  

01:00 Europeans & Democrats resigned to working with Trump, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYdhN85KS88 28:00 Death of DEI 34:00 Who can influence Donald Trump? Not many people, perhaps Susie Wiles, Elon Musk, Melania Trump, Ivanka Trump in certain spheres 38:00 Israel has run the table the past four months 47:00 Yoav Gallant is an American sock puppet 54:00 Reason magazine fancies itself as a bunch of free thinkers but it is conformist on race, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIOJ0z1gbWI 56:00 Martin Gurri voted for Trump, https://www.thefp.com/p/martin-gurri-voting-for-trump-not-kamala 57:00 Sam Harris is not a blank slatist 58:00 Trump's counter-cultural revolution, https://www.thefp.com/p/martin-gurri-our-countercultural-revolution 1:02:00 I don't claim to be an expert on anything 1:06:50 Trump's new coalition 1:10:00 Hezbollah suffers ‘most significant' setback in its history, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ-I5ue0tnA 1:15:00 Kamala Harris' Video Remarks to Supporters, the Nomination of Jay Bhattacharya to Head the Nation..., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_BmRay8o60 1:39:00 Getting Over the Election with Adam Grant, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5TEOG--4-c 1:57:00 Ricardo notes that he can't type into YT that it is the high status thing to support WWIII 2:08:00 Elon Musk biography by Walter Isaacson, https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1982181281 2:11:00 Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America, https://www.amazon.com/Ringmaster-Vince-McMahon-Unmaking-America/dp/1982169443 2:21:30 Donald Trump is acting like Elon Musk and doing big bold things, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmC-GVMSPU0 2:47:30 How Donald Trump can make the federal government more efficient, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT4lxJKj0I0 2:51:30 Kip joins - ever feel like another high school hot shot? 3:07:00 The Tyranny of Distance: How Distance Shaped Australia's History, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tyranny_of_Distance:_How_Distance_Shaped_Australia%27s_History 3:12:00 Madness is contagious 3:13:00 2nd Edition: Predisposed: Liberals, Conservatives, and the Biology of Political Differences, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=154845 3:23:00 On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Origin_of_Species 3:40:00 My bookmarks on X

01:00 The Democrats coalition of the fringe has nothing in common but hatred of white men 04:00 Yoram Hazony decodes Biden foreign policy, https://x.com/yhazony/status/1840401343149682972 27:00 Oct. 9, 2023, Mike Benz on Iran's natural resources 30:00 Dooovid joins 38:00 Dooovid has shifted from non-Zionist to anti-Zionist 1:09:30 Dooovid thinking of getting a joint for Rosh Hashanah 1:14:00 Triggers, https://campushealth.unc.edu/health-topic/understanding-mental-health-triggers/ 1:17:00 Euphoric recall, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphoric_recall 1:26:00 What's the best strategy for American and Israeli interests? https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/09/27/is-confronting-hezbollah-or-de-escalating-likelier-to-bring-peace/ 1:30:00 Howard Kurtz Media Buzz 1:33:00 NYT: Why the World's Biggest Powers Can't Stop a Middle East War, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/29/world/middleeast/middle-east-war-peace-nasrallah.html 1:47:00 How well can the Democrats control their anti-Israel activists? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-utPIR3vMg 1:52:00 Why Trump might win, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/25/opinion/trump-maga-sources-support.html 1:55:00 Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=157551 1:58:00 Sam Harris on Darryl Cooper, Tucker Carlson, Jocko Willink, https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm/episode/darryl-cooper-nazi-apologetics-disturbances-in-the-discourse 2:32:00 Charles Murray, Sam Harris and The Bell Curve 2:59:30 Mickey Kaus on Kamala's annoying head bobs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qothv1YsMRQ 3:07:40 Why Mickey Kaus does not like Kamala Harris 3:09:00 What are Kamala's most impressive accomplishments? 3:11:50 Kamala Harris was never thoroughly vetted 3:13:10 The best thing going for Kamala Harris is her affair with Willie Brown 3:20:30 Olivia Nuzzi and Ryan Lizza were engaged

Let's get ready to RUMBBBLLLEEEEE! Hang on to your seats, friends, as we dive into Abraham Josephine Riesman's fantastic book, Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America, all about the world of professional wrestling and the man who formed WWE into what it is today.Pop culture pairings: The Wrestler (Amazon Prime), The Iron Claw (Hulu, Max)

Calling all wrestling fans! This week, we are joined by playwright, Chicano history and theater professor, and self-professed smark Beto O'Byrne to talk MASKulinity in wrestling. Not your Olympics wrestling—it's WWE, baby!Is wrestling fake? How dare you ask that?! Beto sets the record straight.Wrestling is simultaneously sport and theater. This scripted performance produces an over-the-top MASKulinity for its audience of mostly men to thoroughly enjoy. What are the implications for MASKulinity? We discuss.Beto walks us through what that has looked like in the ring over time.Beto and Remoy share their mutual love of wrestling as youngsters and nerd out on their favorite moves.Moonsault anyone? What's a hangman? Get your Google out—lots of terms in this one.Beto walks us through wrestling history and its connections to theater performances.Many sports often have that flavor of homoerotism in many ways, and wrestling is no different.How did wrestling evolve from its carnival roots to the WWE we know and love?Wrestlers meld their in-ring persona with their real-world persona.Colorful characters Stone Cold Steve Austins and The Rocks bled into American pop culture with their larger-than-life personas informing MASKulinity in their own ways.Listen for the best quote on professional wrestling you've ever heard in your life from Vince McMahon's unauthorized biography.Beto highlights the different “characters” in wrestling storytelling:You've got your heel, your monster heel, your babyface—all different facets of MASKulinity in the ring.We've gotta know! Which archetype do you love?Samantha gets to guess who The Man is, and if your wrestling knowledge is as limited as hers, you may be surprised to find out who it is…Women wrestle too, but it wasn't always that way…Models used to be recruited to get in the ring?! How did we go from hyperfemininity in this MASKuline world to Chyna and Jade Cargill?Beto gives us a portrait of the evolution of women wrestlers in the McMahon machine.In our UnMASKed Interview segment, we get a snapshot of luchador culture and performance and its impact on American wrestling.We reflect on the ways that wrestling lets men watch other men be close…something they're way less allowed to do in real life.Is it cathartic?Beto reflects on his Southern culture around MASKulinity and the vicarious experience that the WWE offers.We go further in the theatricality of the WWE and what that looks like when performing for tens of thousands of people.Referenced in this episode:Beto O'Byrne guest references Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America by Abraham Josephine ReismanMasculinity, explained by WWESamantha reacted to this videoFor deeper dives on wrestling and its history, check out wrestling observer Dave Metzler or former wrestling manager turned podcaster Jim CornetteSamantha developed a new crush in this episodeCOMPANION PIECES:When we talked with with Kirstin Cronn-Mills about women's sports in Don't Let Them Play ⚽️⚾ Lest the MASK Fall AwayWomen's impact in wrestingThe impact of lucha culture

On this edition of Parallax Views, Vince McMahon, the former chairman and CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), was the most powerful man in all of professional wrestling (or, as he likes to call it, "sports entertainment"). Now though McMahon is completely out of WWE after horrific allegations of sex trafficking and abuse of a former employee, Janel Grant. It's not the first time controversy has follow McMahon or WWE. There's also the case of Rita Chatterton, a former WWE referee who accused McMahon of rape, and the ring boys scandal, in which WWE employees Mel Phillips and Terry Garvin (as well as Pat Patterson) were accused of being involved in a pedophile sex ring within the company. In lieu of the latest accusations, I reached out to Josie Riesman, author of the book Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America, to discuss McMahon and the wrestling empire he built over the years as well as how it relates to issues like robber baron-style capitalism and labor exploitation. We'll also, of course, discuss the sex scandals mentioned above as well as diving into the early history of Vince McMahon, who initially grew up in poverty with an abusive stepfather. Moreover, we'll delve into the relationship between Vince and his biological father Vince McMahon Sr. and how the book is also about father/son relationships. Other issues discussed include: - Vince McMahon Sr. (Vince's father) and the FBI tapes in which he threatens pro wrestler Dr. Jerry Graham - The issue of "independent contractor" status in pro wrestling and how it could be seen as labor exploitation - The wrestling term "kayfabe" and why Josie believe the concept needs to be studied outside of a pro wrestling cotnext; Josie's concept of neokayfabe, omerta in pro wrestling, and the "protect the business" dictum - Tom Cole and the ring boys scandal - Vince McMahon's wife, Linda McMahon - And much, much more!

Josie Riesman joins us to talk about her book on Vince McMahon, the head of the WWE and arguably the creator of modern wrestling, who is now undergoing a long-overdue downfall after certain allegations came to light. Music by Darkspace: https://darkspace.bandcamp.com/ I'm sure you'd like a tasty beer to go with this episode - give the cooperatively run, community-owened Lacada Brewery from Portrush, Northern Ireland a go: https://www.lacadabrewery.com/

Former WWE Owner Vince McMahon is facing a federal investigation on top of a lawsuit filed against McMahon that alleges sexual abuse, financial abuse, and an attempt by McMahon to Traffick a female employee, Janel Grant to his friends, associates, and at least one professional wrestler with whom McMahon was negotiating a new contract. Author Josie Reisman, who has written the book on Vince McMahon, "Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America," joined Wake Up Tri-Counties to talk about the Vince McMahon allegations and how McMahon's past on TV reflects on his alleged private behavior. 

- SKOR North's Judd Zulgad talks about his time in catholic school growing up, talks about his mom and hears about Tom's ad discusses the Wolves' win over the Dallas Mavericks last night and if it was an inspiring win or not because of the stars that were out of Dallas' lineup.- KSTP's Chris Egert shares about Ilhan Omar's comments that are being misinterpreted, or maybe they aren't, we're not quite sure. Plus info on an incident on a child struck by a metro transit bus and other top headlines from the day's news stories.- Author Josie Riesman joins the show to talk about her definitive (unauthorized) biography "Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America". Which is an in-depth look at the former WWE chairman, CEO, and Ringmaster that charts McMahon's rise from rural poverty to the throne of one of the world's most influential media empires.- Kristyn Burtt talks about Netflix's release of their roadmap for 2024 with new teasers for Squid Game 2, the new live adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Cameron Diaz's return to acting with Jamie Foxx back in Action, and a new Poptarts movie that stars Jerry Seinfeld.Stream the show LIVE on the Tom Barnard Show app M-F from 8-9:30AM or get the show on-demand on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

- SKOR North's Judd Zulgad talks about his time in catholic school growing up, talks about his mom and hears about Tom's ad discusses the Wolves' win over the Dallas Mavericks last night and if it was an inspiring win or not because of the stars that were out of Dallas' lineup. - KSTP's Chris Egert shares about Ilhan Omar's comments that are being misinterpreted, or maybe they aren't, we're not quite sure. Plus info on an incident on a child struck by a metro transit bus and other top headlines from the day's news stories. - Author Josie Riesman joins the show to talk about her definitive (unauthorized) biography "Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America". Which is an in-depth look at the former WWE chairman, CEO, and Ringmaster that charts McMahon's rise from rural poverty to the throne of one of the world's most influential media empires. - Kristyn Burtt talks about Netflix's release of their roadmap for 2024 with new teasers for Squid Game 2, the new live adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Cameron Diaz's return to acting with Jamie Foxx back in Action, and a new Poptarts movie that stars Jerry Seinfeld. Stream the show LIVE on the Tom Barnard Show app M-F from 8-9:30AM or get the show on-demand on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CONTENT WARNING: This segment contains mentions of sexual assault and sexual violence. If you or a loved one has experienced sexual assault, you are not alone. Call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. Dan speaks with Abraham Josephine Riesman, the author of "Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America," about the awful details in the new lawsuit brought against Vince McMahon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, wrestling fans! It's time for Episode #71 of Shut Up and Wrestle, with Brian R. Solomon! This week, my guest is Abraham Josephine Riesman, author of the brand-new book, Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America. It's a fascinating look into the history and psyche of the most important and polarizing figure in … Continue reading Episode 72: Abraham Josephine Riesman → The post Episode 72: Abraham Josephine Riesman appeared first on Shut Up And Wrestle with Brian Solomon.

Dana Kaye, a Chicago-based book publicist, loves the creative outlet of stand-up comedy. She also loves a good memoir, so first we compare notes on audio memoirs we've been listening to before diving into how she uses open mics and stand-up comedy as a creative writing outlet. Follow Dana Kaye online https://kayepublicity.com/ Instagram @danakaye23 Show Notes You could make this place beautiful by Maggie Smith Educated: A Memoir The Wreckage of My Presence by Casey Wilson I'm Glad My Mom Died https://www.chirpbooks.com/ Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the unmaking of America Mike Nichols: A Life Not my father's son by Alan Cumming Ali Wong: Dear Girls The Greatest Love Story Ever Told The Last Black Unicorn Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan I'm judging you: the do better manual by Luvvie Ajayi Not Funny by Jena Friedman Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert Take a Shot Open Mic Second City Brunch Instagram @chicago.openmics Please rate and review five stars on Apple Podcasts or Goodpods today to help more people join in the Finding Favorites fun.

You've heard us talk all about Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America; now it's time to talk to the author! Abraham Josephine "Josie" Riesman joins us to discuss writing a book that aims to be the definitive Vince biography, as well as how it feels to be an outsider reporting on pro wrestling.

Jeff is joined by Abraham Josephine Riesman to talk about her new book Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America.    Buy the book Follow Josie on Twitter   Subscribe on Youtube  Follow Jeff on Twitter Email us! goodmorningcomrade.com Twitter Facebook Leave a review! 5 stars and say something nice to spread the word about the show!

The story of Vince McMahon is a difficult one to tell, especially in the wake of the retirement and resurgence that has kept the WWE chairman in the limelight despite numerous financial and sexual accusations being leveled against him. Vince is one of the most complex and problematic corporate overlords in modern American history, and Ringmaster is an attempt to distill him down to 464 pages and assess his impact on not only pro wrestling but all of society. Does it succeed? Join us as we dissect this long-awaited effort to tell the full McMahon tale.

This week on The Treatment, Elvis welcomes writer Abraham Josephine Riesman, author of “True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee” and her latest, “Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America.” Next, director Benjamin Millepied joins to talk about his feature film debut, an adaptation of “Carmen.” And for The Treat, songwriting power couple Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez talk about their inspirations on the page and in song.

We have shirts available! Buy our original Tights and Fights logo shirt on Topatoco for the sale price of $14. And buy our brand new WrestleMania shirt to celebrate Ice Cream Christmas all year long. This week we're joined by Abraham Josephine Riesman. She's researched the life of Vince McMahon as much as anyone ever has.In preparation for latest project, she rekindled a love of wrestling that has been dorman for years.She joins Hal, Danielle and Lindsey to discuss her fandom, neo Kayfabe and the upcoming coronation of a new World Heavyweight Champion.The Main Event: The Life of Vince McMahonJosie's new book is RingMaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America. It is a massive biography on Vince and a look at how WWF/E expanded and influenced American politics and culture.The Three Count:Julian put over “Mrs. Davis” which features a certain famous wrestling figure.Danielle put over Trinity's return to wrestling.Lindsey put over Kieren Culkin on Hot ones.Hal put over the the evil of Hot Ones.Hosted by Hal Lublin, Danielle Radford, and Lindsey KelkProduced by Julian Burrell for Maximum Fun.The music for our new promo is provided by Incompetech.comIf you want to talk about more wrestling throughout the week be sure to join us on Facebook and @TightsFights on Twitter and Instagram. PLUS! Check out our Tights and Fights Discord!If you liked the show, please share it with your friends and be sure to leave us a quick review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get podcasts.Plus our Original T-Shirt and Ice Cream Christmas shirt are available now!

“Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America” examines the impact of wrestling CEO Vince McMahon on American culture and politics.

“Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America” examines the impact of wrestling CEO Vince McMahon on American culture and politics.

This time around, Eden is joined by Abraham Josephine “Josie” Riesman, NYT-bestselling authoress of True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee, Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America, and much else besides. The two dive into Philip K. Dick's legacy, investigating his positions on Judaism, his religious exegesis, what we can learn from his writings about the current (and sorry) state of American culture, our perceptions of our world around us, transness, and more! Seriously, more.

Abraham Josephine Riesman, the author of “Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America,” recounts how the WWE went through an aggressive expansion in the 1980s, including in St. Louis.

Abraham Josephine “Josie” Riesman, author of the New York Times bestseller “Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America” joins us today for a great discussion on how kayfabe, the art of presenting staged acts as authentic, has evolved and spread beyond the world of wrestling and into our politics. Josie explains the concept of neokayfabe and how the WWE has slyly blurred the lines between performance and reality in ways that have crept in broader society. We also learn about the long friendship between WWE chairman McMahon and Donald Trump, and the consequences that friendship has had for the country.You can follow Josie here: https://twitter.com/abrahamjosephYou can pick up a copy of the book here: https://www.ringmasterthebook.com/To become a subscriber (paid intern!) to the Insurgents and gain access to an additional episode every week, you can subscribe here:Our most recent premium episode with Alex Pearlman on Congress trying to ban TikTok and the free speech, censorship and foreign policy implications the bill would have is available here:You can find The Insurgents elsewhere on…YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheInsurgents/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theinsurgentspod/Twitter: https://twitter.com/insurgentspod This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theinsurgents.substack.com/subscribe

SLANDERTOWN is a podcast that dives into First Amendment slugfests. No beef too small, no lawsuit too petty. EPISODE 6: Dan and Tanvi discuss how recent developments in the Dominion v Fox News lawsuit reveal the fakery at the heart of Fox News. The closest analogue: pro wrestling! Joining the crew is Abraham Josephine Riesman, bestselling author of Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America, who explains the concept of "kayfabe" and how it applies to Donald Trump and Fox News.

Families of the victims prepare for release of final report into Nova Scotia mass shooting. Michael Scott,(partner, Patterson Law and lawyer representing several families of the victims of the Nova Scotia mass shooting) joins us to talk about it. Abraham Josephine Riesman (author of Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America) joins us to discuss their new book on Vince McMahon. This week on Journo Corner, Tristin Hopper (columnist and reporter at National Post) joins us to talk all about random attacks and safety concerns, Danielle Smith under fire again and Crocs: love or loathe? We talk all things Crocs, starting with what's behind the enduring popularity of Crocs with Matt Powell (founder, Spurwink River (a retail consulting firm) and Are Crocs bad for your feet with Dr. Jenny Ling (Vancouver podiatrist). Rebeka Breder (animal rights lawyer) joins us to chat about BC looking to change laws for pet custody disputes, and Myra van Otterloo (Nanaimo-based helicopter pilot) speaks about her 15-day Moroccan rally across the Sahara Desert.

Our first ever guest Abraham Josephine Riesman makes her triumphant return to Comics and Chronic to talk about her new book Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America. What would Abraham's gimmick and finisher be called? What was Jake's bar mitzvah theme? When did Abraham start watching wrestling? Were there any fears or risks in writing a biography on Vince McMahon? Who were her favorite wrestlers? How do we feel about The Rock? Why were old wrestling PPVs so hard to find on VHS? What was so intriguing about the Greater Power storyline? How was Stephanie McMahon introduced in the WWE? Is Vince McMahon the dark side of Taylor Swift? Why did Vince see himself more as the Stone Cold character than he did Mr. McMahon? What does Jake think of AEW? Does Vince McMahon take responsibility for wrestlers deaths? Does Vince McMahon care if you hate him? How do Donald Trump and Vince McMahon intersect? How/Why is Vince a father figure to so many wrestlers? How does Bret Hart feel about Vince McMahon and The Montreal Screwjob today? Why do so many people from working class backgrounds gravitate towards wrestling? Does Abraham use her nepo baby powers for good? Was Vince McMahon interviewed for this book? What was it like for Anthony working at WWE? Who go to ride in Vince's limo and private jet? What compliment did Vince McMahon give Anthony? What weird rules do you have to follow around Vince? Will there be a sequel to Ringmaster? Who is the prime McMahon? What happens when WWE crosses paths with Howard Stern? What is kayfabe and neo-kayfabe? Are The Dudley Boyz actually brothers? Was The Montreal Screwjob the biggest moment in wrestling history? Was it the end of the world? What was the moment superheroes died? What Monday Night RAW moment with Val Venis confused the hell out of Anthony as a kid? How is wrestling like The Illusionist? Did we believe Kane was actually burned? How is wrestling like comic books? What famous musician is the subject of Abraham's next book? https://www.ringmasterthebook.com/ Check out our first interview with Abraham: https://www.comicsandchronic.com/ep-4-abraham-riesman-and-true/ https://abrahamriesman.com/ Check out our website: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.comicsandchronic.com/⁠⁠⁠ New episodes every THURSDAY Follow us on social media! Instagram // Twitter // TikTok : @comicsnchronic YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC45vP6pBHZk9rZi_2X3VkzQ E-mail: comicsnchronicpodcast@gmail.com Cody Twitter: @Cody_Cannon Instagram: @walaka_cannon TikTok: @codywalakacannon Jake Instagram: @jakefhaha Anthony Instagram // Twitter // TikTok : @mrtonynacho YouTube: youtube.com/nachocomedy

Abraham Josephine Riesman is a journalist and essayist, and author of the new book, Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America.  Brought to you as always by Kayfabe News Find us here: BONN PARK MEDIA

The world of pro wrestling used to be sold as real. Viewers were told that the fights, the rivalries, and the storylines were all real-life, otherwise known as a phenomenon called kayfabe. Then, former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Vince McMahon turned that on its head. In this episode, author Abraham Josephine Riesman, who recently wrote a biography on McMahon titled Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America, tells The New Abnormal co-host Andy Levy how a manipulation strategy McMahon used made WWE what it is today (and help to deregulate it) and how Trump came to use that same technique to keep his fanbase coming back. Also in this episode: Riesman goes deeper into how McMahon's strategy was able to leak into the world of politics, the history of McMahon and Trump's friendship, and if there's truth behind one of the biggest quote from her book: “Vince McMahon is the closest thing to a friend Trump has.” Plus! Andy and co-host Danielle Moodie talk about the Republican war on oat and almond milk and make the case that if TikTok goes down, Meta and Twitter should go with it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

By Walt HickeyWelcome to the Numlock Sunday edition.This week, I spoke to Abraham Josephine Riesman who wrote the explosive new book out this week Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America. I have been looking to this one for a while, I was a massive fan of her 2021 book True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee.The subject matter of this one will be of interest not just to wrestling fans but among anyone who has felt the reverberations across pop culture, sports and politics of one extremely complicated family and their very influential “sports entertainment” business.The book is out this week and can be found wherever books are sold. Riesman can be found at her website and on Twitter. This interview has been condensed and edited.Josie, thank you so much for coming on.Hey, I'm so glad to be back. Fire away.You are out with the new book Ringmaster this week. I have been looking forward to this all year, honestly, since I heard you announced it. Folks might know you from your Stan Lee biography. Both of these stories are about complicated men who worked in the entertainment industry and how it kind of destroyed them, I guess. What drew you to Vince McMahon?I was a teenage wrestling fan from the ages of about 13 to 16. I was very obsessively involved in Vince McMahon's product, the World Wrestling Federation, as it was known then. And three years isn't all that long a period of time in adult human years, but in teenager years, those are a century each. It was a time when I was very impressionable, and wrestling made a big impression on me. And after I gave up on it around 2001, I stopped watching for like 20 years. And then when I was done with my biography of Stan Lee, True Believer, I had to come up with something else to write. And I was having a conversation with my wonderful spouse, who ended up being my frontline editor on this, but was not at the time, S.I. Rosenbaum, and we were just chatting about what could the next book be.And one of us said, what about a biography of Vince McMahon? Now, she'd reported on wrestling in the past as a local news reporter. Not on the WWF, but on the wrestling world, so she was familiar with him. And I obviously was familiar with him, had a lot of distinctive memories of him, had some knowledge of his real life. But it was, as is true of most people's knowledge of Vince McMahon's real life, ill-informed, because he's very good at deliberately altering your perception of him. So it just seemed like a natural idea. He is this amazing individual whose story had not really been told in the particular way that I wanted to tell it.It's a fascinating business story, it's a fascinating cultural story, and we'll kind of touch on each of those elements in a bit. I guess to give folks a little perspective who might not be totally familiar with wrestling, what role does Vince McMahon play in the evolution of it, and what it's become today versus what it was maybe 50 years ago?Sure, yeah. Vince is the singular man of professional wrestling right now. There's no one more powerful or influential than him, both in the present and also in the recent past. Of the living people in wrestling, no one has had more of an influence than Vince McMahon. He took over the company from his father, who was a wrestling promoter, like his father before him, in 1982 and 1983. He, over the course of that year, purchased the company from his father and some minority shareholders.And after that, Vince sort of went on a war of conquest. Up until then, wrestling had been this largely regional phenomenon. You had regional territories where local bosses, who operated not unlike mob bosses, would dictate what pro wrestling was in that geographic territory. And it was an oligarchy. It wasn't a democracy, but it was an oligarchy. It was not unlike the English nobility circa Magna Carta, where it's like it could have been the beginnings of democracy, but democracy it wasn't. But the fact was that power was more diffuse than it is now. Because Vince went on this little mission to take over wrestling in America and Canada, and he did entirely.It's not exactly a monopoly because there are small other promotions, there have been. Now there's a pretty big rival promotion AEW, but for about 20 years there, from 2001 until 2020 or so, Vince was essentially unopposed in the world of professional wrestling. And the whole art form has been changed by that fact, by the fact that this one person has so much outsized influence on how it has evolved in the past for decades.And it really was a conquest. Again, he cajoled and destroyed and won over and allied with—And bought, don't forget bought. The big thing was he would flood the zone with money and tell the top talent at any given territory, come over to my shop and you'll get paid more. And it's a very punishing industry financially, so unsurprisingly, a lot of people said yes. And similarly, he would just buy TV slots in rival territories and start broadcasting his show in syndication. One of the WWF's employees spoke to a reporter in the early ‘80s or mid-‘80s and said that Vince was executing manifest destiny. Used that actual phrase. It was an apt comparison, let's say that.Yeah, and I think that I would love to hear your view on how he changed wrestling to reflect him, because we're going to get in a second to how wrestling kind of changed a lot of the world around it; but whether it was the body building league that he backed for a bit, or whether it was the distinct styles in wrestling, I suppose I'd love your view on, what does the Vince McMahon wrestling world look like that's different than perhaps what came before?The Vince McMahon world of wrestling for one thing, this is perhaps the most important thing, it no longer claims to be a real sport. This was perhaps, I mean, there's a lot that Vince reshaped, but a lot of it's sort of technical. It'll be like, oh, well he started doing this kind of camera thing. It's a vast accumulation of little things that result in an altered tapestry. But the big historic, world historic break, was Vince in the mid-‘80s started pushing to get his business deregulated so he didn't have to have state athletic committees overlooking health and safety and levying taxes. And his big strategy for that was not in public, but behind the scenes in legislation sessions and in lawsuits. He and Linda, his wife, and their underlings would say, ‘Don't worry, this is all fake. You don't need to regulate this like a sport, because it ain't a sport. It's just like the Harlem Globe Trotters or the circus.' That was the comparison they always made.And it's unclear whether Vince ever intended to make that all that public. Perhaps it was inevitable that it would've been, but he was kind of caught off guard in 1989 when, after four or five years of this deregulation effort and after some lawsuits that he or Linda had testified in in which they'd said all that, it finally got reported.The New York Times ran a big story called, "Now It Can Be Told, All These Wrestlers Are All Just Having Fun." And it was about how the WWF's deregulation campaign, especially in New Jersey, had resulted in them going on the record and saying in legislation and in legal proceedings that wrestling was fake. And Vince was kind of caught off guard, because he was not intending that to be a big public New York Times story, but he'd already laid the groundwork, whether or not it was his intention. That effort also combined with something that was very public, which is that he started referring to his product in the mid-‘80s as sports entertainment, not wrestling. It was sports entertainment. And that change, that shift toward acknowledging wrestling's fakeness in a grand way, was just a sea change. It resulted in a lot of enormous upheaval.Yeah. I suppose I'm interested in, then, how that deregulation and that upheaval affected not just folks who worked for him, but the product as well as the human beings who worked for him. So much of your book is about the relationships between Vince and various different wrestlers. If he's the only game in town and if the state's not paying attention, that lead to some significant negative impacts for a lot of people, and a couple significant positive impacts for another group. Do you want to talk a little bit about that?Yeah. In the absence of anybody telling Vince what to do in a meaningful way, he was able to execute a lot of very abusive business tactics towards his workers. Wrestlers are not employees, they are independent contractors, they don't have health insurance provided by WWE, as it's known now, and they are in this very low-paying profession compared to other athletic events of similar spectacle and notability.Like, you have these people who are every bit the athletes that a basketball player or a football player might be, but they get paid vastly less, and have so few job protections and no voice, because again, there's no collective bargaining. And so that has manifested itself in a lot of death and destruction. Not to put it too bluntly, but I could go on all day about all the people who've been affected in that way.Just a few off the top of my head, Owen Hart, a wrestler himself, but also the younger brother of the very famous wrestler, Bret Hart, Owen Hart died in the ring. He was doing a zip line stunt — well, technically it was called a descender stunt, but that's getting technical. He was doing this stunt where he was flying in from the rafters at a pay-per-view event, and Vince had changed up who was managing that stunt, and the person who did it was allegedly somewhat incompetent, and the botched stunt led to him falling 70 feet and hitting the ropes and then falling into the ring, and he died mere minutes later, and the show went on. That was the thing about Vince, was it any other athletic event, if one of the players died, I can't imagine that the game would've continued. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe there's some sports example that I'm not aware of, but it would be completely obscene and impossible to imagine a sporting event continuing after one of the players died.But that's exactly what happened with Owen Hart. Vince told them to keep the show going, and the arena crowd — it was 1999, so we don't have as much internet penetration in a remote location — but you had all these people in the arena who therefore didn't know whether Owen was dead or not, thought maybe it was all part of the act, because they weren't told. And they cheered their heads off for the rest of the show thinking maybe that was all part of the show. That's just one example. There are countless people who've died young because of injuries or head trauma or steroid use, drug use, any number of things that just go completely unchecked or largely unchecked in wrestling, because it's just not a regulated or unionized industry.The steroid component was a huge part of it as well, too.Yeah, back in the ‘90s, it's actually kind of interesting. The steroid scandal that the WWF found itself in was arguably held up as a bigger deal than the concurrent scandals about rape. Vince was accused in that same period in the early ‘90s, and then especially in 1992 of raping a female employee in 1986. He was accused of actively knowing and looking the other way about child rape in the WWF among the so-called ring boys, these sort of underage boys who were hired to do odd jobs. And the steroid thing, and there were a bunch of other sexual misconduct allegations, but those were two of the big ones.The steroid thing was always held up as a bigger deal than any of the other stuff. It was the steroid allegations, and those were specifically about distributing and pushing steroids on the wrestlers, which was a bit of an abstraction because Vince didn't have to actively come tell any wrestlers to do steroids, they knew that that's what the boss expected of them.So trying to pin it on a specific like, oh, Vince said to this one wrestler, ‘You need to do steroids today, and here they are,' that was going to be very hard to do. So it's very odd to look back on the steroid trial — well, the steroid scandal is what led to the federal trial that Vince faced in 1994 — and yet you look back on it and the steroid allegations are easily the least interesting, or at least scandalous or least harmful in many ways; even though steroids are very harmful, they're nothing compared to rape.And it was, I wonder why the media attention went so much to the steroids. I think a lot of it just had to do with the war on drugs. There was just a general moral panic about about chemical substances, especially their use among young people. And I'm not saying young people should be doing anabolic steroids to bulk up, that's not what I'm saying at all. But I think it maybe got held up as a bigger deal than some of the allegations that may now seem more serious. Because it was part of this larger American phenomenon.It was also likely more obvious on its face, as well as more easy to report on?Yeah, you're absolutely right, but that doesn't necessarily preclude media from making hay out of something just because it's harder to prove, especially when it's something salacious and tabloidy like sexual misconduct. But I'm sure that was part of it, yes. With the steroid thing, you just have to turn on your TV and you see all the evidence you need by looking at the Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan, as opposed to some of the other stuff.I want to talk about some of the really cool reporting and new information that you broke in this, and just kind of things that I got out of your book that I have never seen or really kind of felt before.And I got to say, one theme that I think you keep coming back to is just that how Vince is able to do this is that he appears to be preternaturally charismatic. And you have a couple scenes in the book, I recall one where I think he's talking to Bret Hart, where he's just able to win somebody who is technically in conflict with him, fundamentally over to his position. There was also the excerpt this week that ran about a negotiation between him and one of those ring boys.Could you talk a little bit about, I guess, his character and his skills, and what his talents are?Vince is an enormously charismatic individual, which is interesting because he wasn't as a child, this was not necessarily a phenomenon for his entire life. I spoke to many people who knew him when he was young before he got involved in the wrestling industry, and they all said he was kind of unremarkable. They liked him, but he was not president of the class, and oftentimes he wasn't even doing any extracurriculars.So at some point, either it flowers or he learns it, and by the time he meets Bret Hart, Vince McMahon walks into a room and everybody looks at him. I've never been in a room other than an arena with Vince McMahon. I've never interviewed him. But everyone I know who has said they've been in the same room as him, they all say it's like gravity, you just can't escape the pole of wanting to be around this sort of uncanny dude.It's not just that he's charismatic, he's also just physically odd to look at, and that's appropriate because Vince and his father both really understood that the human mind is easily hackable in one very particular way, which is that humans don't know what to do with uncanny-looking other humans. If you see somebody who's really big, just enormous, you're going to pay attention to them.And if you can win them over after they started paying attention to that person, then you've got it made. And Vince is an enormous guy, not as much, he's older, but in his prime, and his prime lasted well into his 60s, he was just a bulked out dude. It's something that everyone remarked on, even before he started wrestling or doing anything as a real character, when he was just an announcer. I was talking to people who watched him in the ‘70s when he was an announcer starting out, and everyone was like, ‘Yeah, we would watch and we'd be like, “Why is the announcer so jacked? Is he going to wrestle at some point? What? Why is that happening?”'Whether that's intentional or not, it's effective. People are weirded out by Vince McMahon, and that leads them to pay more attention to Vince McMahon, and that's something he used to his advantage a lot.That's fascinating. I think that wrestling has lended itself rather well to memes; a lot of Vince's actual strategy with recruiting and retaining wrestlers was to find folks who had a very distinctive look. If you look at who has gone mainstream in Hollywood from wrestling, they're gents with a very specific aesthetic. Do you want to speak to some of that?Yeah, I mean the people who have broken out of wrestling and become people that your mom might recognize are John Cena, Hulk Hogan, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, these extremely charismatic, extremely large, chiseled, slightly odd-looking men, and very few of wrestlers have actually achieved that level of mainstream prominence.But the ones who have have been very successful. I mean, John Cena is probably the most popular wrestler who's still sort of on the roster. He occasionally wrestles for them still, but all these past stars who are still in Vince's fold, they all know where their bread is buttered, and they don't piss off Vince, they have had a lot of influence.Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson's star is falling at this moment thanks to Black Adam, but that doesn't mean he's not one of the more recognizable humans on the planet. He could still run for president, he keeps teasing that he might.Jesse Ventura, Jesse “The Body” Ventura, was not created by Vince initially, but he became a megastar thanks to Vince, and Jesse was the governor of Minnesota, and now is an influential conspiracy theorist. It's like these people come at the world from odd angles, and end up taking it in even odder angles.Yes. Can you think of any recent examples, perhaps from recent American politics, that could potentially back that point up as well?Yeah, right. Well, I don't know why I didn't talk about that, but yeah, there's a particular member of the WWE Hall of Fame who happens to have been the 45th president of the United States: Donald Trump. Vince and Trump are very close, they've known each other since the ‘80s.Trump was the host of two WrestleManias in the ‘80s, and then would appear at wrestling events and class the joint up. And then eventually, most notably, he had this whole storyline where he was a character as himself, and he was in a rivalry with Vince McMahon, and they had the Battle of the Billionaires at WrestleMania in 2007. And it was a real interesting spectacle, in retrospect. I mean at the time people ate it up just because it was a reality star and another reality star essentially being goofy on television, but it ended up having a lot of significance.I really think that experience of doing that storyline was transformative for Donald Trump, because Trump wasn't a guy who worked rallies as of 2007, really, that was not his milieu. And he's not somebody who likes watching politician speeches, it's not like he's learning how to work a rally from watching George H.W. Bush deliver the State of the Union or something; he learned from wrestling.I say he has known Vince since the ‘80s. He's been watching McMahon Family Wrestling since he was a child. We have people on the record talking about him watching. We have people on the record talking about watching Vince Sr.'s wrestling show, that's Vince's dad, in the ‘50s, in the ‘60s, and he was really influenced by that.Donald Trump loves wrestling, he has watched it for a very long time, and I think the experience of doing that storyline and watching all that wrestling, but especially doing the storyline, really taught him how to work a crowd into a fervor by tossing them little bits of unspeakable truth, and big chunks of completely outrageous lies, and delivering them all with the exact same level of commitment. And the crowd ate it up, and I think that was a taste of something that he then craved more of.Fascinating. So again, the book is called Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and The Unmaking of America.Josie, I want to kind of back out a little bit and talk about not only this book, but your previous book, because again, I mentioned in the beginning how there's a lot of connective tissue there, and how these are folks who have a chip on their shoulder, they're not in the mainstream, and they really lust for the mainstream, and then that fundamentally changes the way that they view the world, the people around them, and the folks who work for them.Just kind of take a step back, what kind of connective tissue do you see between Vince McMahon and Stan Lee, two men who are fundamentally instrumental for the current state of pop culture?For a huge cog of what happens in culture now and politics, as well.They were both men who created a character based on themselves but not themselves, and then lost themselves in that character. That's the most obvious comparison.Stan Lee, Stan Lee was born Stanley Martin Lieber and became this character named Stan Lee. And eventually that was all that was left, was the Stan Lee character, at least in most of his interactions with people outside of his inner circle. And it was a prison for him in many ways. It was, by the end, very different from how he acted with his intimates. And with Vince as well, Vince, when he became a character in the wrestling as a supreme super villain, he became Mr. McMahon, that was the official branded name for his character. And Mr. McMahon was seemingly at least an extrapolation of Vince, and I think in a lot of ways it was an extrapolation of Vince, but Vince has always maintained, ‘Oh, Mr. McMahon isn't me. Mr. McMahon is based on all the people I hated when I was growing up.'And we didn't really have time to get into it in this interview, but my whole big fat theory about that is, he's talking about his father, Vince Sr., who he never says anything mean about, but I can't imagine he doesn't have deeply conflicted feelings, even if he's not really in touch with them, about this man who abandoned him for the first 12 years of his life, and then was cold to him for the entire rest of the time they knew each other.We can go there. I mean again, he did kind of run off and join the circus, so to speak, when his father reentered his life.Yes. When he met his father at 12, he threw himself into wrestling. He became a huge wrestling mark. He was not into wrestling as a child up until then, but when he found out that his father had this whole other life doing that, he wanted it, and he threw himself into it. He became his own wrestling promoter in high school.Vince had never talked about this, but I uncovered it. In high school when he was at military school in Virginia for two years, he would stage wrestling shows in the school gymnasium. This was his beginning, and he's never talked about that because it interferes with the story he's tried to foster of himself as a juvenile delinquent, rather than somebody who was doing fights only for show.I guess to kind of add on to that, you had a hell of a time reporting this out. It was a lot of records; covering a guy as slippery as somebody who has a wrestling character can be difficult in its own right. What went into some of the reporting?A lot. I mean, it was a lot of going through documents and a lot of cold calling, not a lot of travel, because this was a pandemic book for the most part. I did go to North Carolina. That was my one priority: All the other travel was optional, but I had to go to North Carolina as soon as there was a vaccine. And lo and behold, once there, I went down there and I found a lot of stuff.It was very interesting. You found this total counternarrative to what Vince had told everybody about his youth. And yeah, it was a wide array of things, lots of interviews, I talked to more than 150 people, building off of other secondary sources. You know, how does anybody write a book?Well, so the book is called Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America. Josie, do you want to tell folks where they can find it?Look for me at abrahamriesman.com, or you can look just at the book, at ringmasterthebook.com. Get full access to Numlock News at www.numlock.com/subscribe

What can professional wrestling and its largest figurehead tell us about our social and political moment? Turns out - a lot! Author Abraham Josephine Riesman returns to Serious Fun for an in-depth discussion about her new book "Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America". Riesman breaks down McMahon, his empire, his connections to politics and business, and how his contributions to pro wrestling have created a new weighted form of synthetic reality she calls "neokayfabe" that permeates our social, political, journalistic, and media lives. SHOW NOTES: Learn more about the book at: https://www.ringmasterthebook.com Riesman's article on the Book of Job for Slate is here: https://slate.com/human-interest/2022/03/job-torah-story-despair-alternative-war-democracy-climate-apocalypse.html

If you hate Vince McMahon, then maybe you'll buy a tee-shirt for his rival. And that's a great outcome for the WWE. Abraham Josephine Riesman is the author of “Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America.” Ricky Mulvey caught up with Riesman to discuss:  - Vince McMahon's early life as a “pretty nice kid”, and the parts of his story he doesn't want wrestling fans to know. - WWE's potential deal with the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund. - The Montreal Screwjob, and the groundwork for the modern WWE. - A story about Saddam Hussein's side job as a wrestling promoter, Andre the Giant, and a golden gun.  Company discussed: WWE Host: Ricky Mulvey Guest: Abraham Josephine Riesman Engineer: Dan Boyd

John Pollock of POST Wrestling & Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics are joined by Abraham Riesman, author of the upcoming book Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America.They discuss the complexities of reporting on professional wrestling and Vince McMahon, the many scandals from the past year, contextualizing McMahon, media coverage of pro wrestling on a mainstream level, McMahon's departure and subsequent return & more.Subscribe: https://postwrestling.com/subscribePatreon: http://postwrestlingcafe.comForum: https://forum.postwrestling.comDiscord: https://discord.com/invite/Q795HhRMerch: https://store.postwrestling.comTwitter/Facebook/Instagram/YouTube: @POSTwrestlingAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

John Pollock of POST Wrestling & Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics are joined by Abraham Riesman, author of the upcoming book Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America.They discuss the complexities of reporting on professional wrestling and Vince McMahon, the many scandals from the past year, contextualizing McMahon, media coverage of pro wrestling on a mainstream level, McMahon's departure and subsequent return & more.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/wrestlenomics-radio2532/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Abraham Riesman, author of Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America, finds it totally bonkers that reinstated WWE board member Vince McMahon is so well connected that his business was arguably a national security risk, yet here we are. In this bonus episode of The New Abnormal, Riesman walks show co-host, and wrestling newbie, Andy Levy, through some historical context for WWE and McMahon, along with a look back at his relationship with Trump, his own daughter Stephanie, and what can be said regarding a potential deal to sell the business to Saudi Arabia. Plus! Andy and co-host Danielle Moodie listen to clips of more Republicans and right-wingers talking themselves in circles, including Tucker Carlson on his favorite topic: sexy M&Ms. And this time, one might be a (*whispers*) lesbian. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.