The Best People with Nicolle Wallace

Kara Swisher is always one of the smartest people in the room. A long-revered voice in tech and media, her trademark, B.S. free ability to pinpoint coming trends and predict fading technologies has earned her trailblazer status for her podcasts, “On with Kara Swisher” and “Pivot” with co-host Scott Galloway. In her upcoming TV series, “Kara Swisher Wants to Live Forever,” she applies that perceptive curiosity to the world of wellness, tech and longevity. She joined Nicolle on one of the very first episodes of “The Best People,” and she’s back this week to dish on where Elon Musk has been since blowing up DOGE, why we're in the end stages of Trumpism (“JD Vance has all the charm of a cyber truck,”) and how to live your best life. If not forever, then at least for right now.

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Last weekend the legendary actor spoke at a protest in New York City. “The concept of No Kings is a great rallying cry, and hugely successful, as millions of us have answered the call. I support this movement 150%” he said. “Afraid of Trump?! Please. No, they should be more afraid of us.” In the conversation he recorded with Nicolle in February he expounded on the principles in that brief speech, and so this week we’re re-running the episode as a Best of The Best People. 

Robert De Niro commands every room he enters. His decades-long career and Academy Award winning performances have gifted the world some of its most beloved films, from instant classics like "The Godfather II" and "Raging Bull" to countless gems like "Goodfellas," and "Casino." But despite the rough and tumble characters he often portrays, he tells Nicolle, “I’m not a tough guy. I’m a concerned citizen.” He brings that inextricably human sensibility to this episode, having been a consistent and passionate voice in the fight against President Trump’s worst instincts. De Niro and Nicolle drill down on the optics of business leaders turning a blind eye to the administration’s behaviors, the need for mass mobilization to protect midterm election integrity, and the importance of kindness in an era defined by division. And the Hollywood titan has some sage advice for those who oppose Trump: “Everybody has to get out there every way possible... This is it. This is our country.”

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Alex Wagner is journalist to her core, forever on the hunt for the next story “bubbling up on the ground.” From her 2020 reporting for Showtime’s “The Circus” on right-wing militias intent on reacting to a Joe Biden win, to her post-election MS NOW podcast “Trumpland” which found her standing outside a DC jail on a cold January night waiting for pardoned J6’ers to emerge, she believes in talking to people where they are to understand how they feel. Alex now helms Crooked Media’s “Runaway Country” podcast, and she joins Nicolle this week for a conversation about why some of MAGA's most ardent supporters  are “mad at Daddy” and how sanitizing Trump’s crude commentary may have failed as a reporting method. And Alex doesn’t hold back on the White House’s disturbing video-gamification of the Iran War: “The idea that we celebrate and lust for death and bloodshed is some dark business. And this administration keeps telling us over and over again that that's what we want.”

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When Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie K. Brown first started digging into the story behind Jeffrey Epstein’s sweetheart plea deal back in 2018, she did not envision the firestorm that would build around her reporting: breaking open decades of abuse of young girls and young women, and eventually leading to Epstein's arrest on charges of sex trafficking of minors. Brown initially tracked down close to 100 women who were allegedly victimized by Epstein and as they began to share their stories with each other and the world, they became a force that Congress could not ignore. The fierce advocacy of these and other survivors led to passage of the 2025 Epstein Files Transparency Act. Which brings us to our current moment: the Justice Department has now published nearly 3.5 million pages, so citizens can see for themselves the extensive web of Epstein's connections to the prominent and the powerful. Julie joins Nicolle in this episode to reflect on her incredible legacy of investigative reporting, what threads she continues to pull, and the importance of believing these women: “It's real, people. It's real that this happened."

A note to listeners: This episode contains discussions around sexual assault.  Please listen with care. 

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“ We anticipate your unit taking about fifty percent casualties.” This is what Retired Army Lieutenant General Mark Hertling heard in an intelligence briefing at division headquarters before deploying to Iraq in 1991. This would be the first of three combat deployments in a 38-year career in the United States Army, retiring after leading over 40,000 men and women as Commanding General of the U.S. Army Europe. It was this deployment that led Lt. Gen. Hertling to begin keeping a war-time journal, which became the basis for his latest book. ”If I Don’t Return" is a collection of raw and revealing missives written for his sons in the event he didn’t make it home. Drawing from his personal experiences and military expertise, Lt. Gen. Hertling joins Nicolle to explain what drives the less than one percent of our citizens to become service members. He also lays out his vision of leadership and notes that while active-duty generals  serve at the behest of the President that voters choose, the current leadership in the White House and at the Pentagon do not always seem to understand the mission.

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