Inside the Hive

Democrats effectively lost the 2024 presidential race a year earlier by rallying behind a deeply unpopular incumbent, New York Times politics reporter Astead Herndon argues in a frank discussion with host Brian Stelter about Joe Biden’s legacy. Herndon, who also hosts “The Run-Up” podcast, talks about how Democrats (and some in the media) missed major warning signs about how Biden’s age and accomplishments were perceived outside the D.C. bubble—and where the party goes next.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Host Brian Stelter is joined by Ian Bassin, a lawyer who served in the Obama administration and co-founder of Protect Democracy, and Michael Calderone, editor of Vanity Fair’s the Hive, just days after Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough revealed their Mar-a-Lago detente with Donald Trump, to discuss what the meeting suggests about the president-elect’s influence on the media and, more broadly, how news outlets are already reeling from Trump’s potential retaliatory efforts. The group also discusses how the press will respond in courageous ways, telling the truth loudly in the face of a president known to threaten journalists. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

There was a time, not long ago, in which most people might have scoffed at the idea that Elon Musk, an entrepreneur with aspirations to save the world from climate change, would become a right-wing folk hero. And yet, that's precisely the transformation he underwent this year. The billionaire CEO of Tesla—now known for his ardent support of Donald Trump and his endless philippics against the “woke mind virus”—has become a major power player in the MAGAverse, and is set to head up a new initiative in Trump’s second administration, so called the "Department of Government Efficiency." In the latest episode of Inside the Hive, VF special correspondent Nick Bilton and New York Times tech reporter Kate Conger unpack what brought Musk into the MAGAverse, how he plans to gut the regulatory state under Trump, and why the duo’s ego-fueled bromance may be destined to blow up. “I think we are on a collision course of personalities with these two,” Conger predicts. “[Musk is] going to want complete control...and I don't think Trump is going to be willing to give him that." Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On this post-election episode, host Brian Stelter checks in with Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Radhika Jones and contributing editor Jeff Sharlet, getting their gut-level reactions to Donald Trump’s triumph and perspective on the evolving MAGA movement, which now include the likes of Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. They discuss the language of fascism, male identity politics, and the need to cut through the Trumpian noise to uncover what’s really happening in a second term at a national and local level.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices