Episodes
New episodes every Thursday at 5 AM ET — five issues, in roughly thirty minutes.
Episode List
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Episode 004
Blockades, Ballots, and Bald Eagles
Episode four. Trump rejects Iran’s seven-day offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz with four words at a gaggle, “I reject their proposal”; Eli calls it a fork in the road where the president refused both roads, Nora says Tehran’s sequencing pays the closer before he throws a pitch, Sloane finds Article I nowhere in the sequence, and Grant, expecting to be yelled at by his own side, wants a counteroffer with a Senate behind it. Seven House Republicans vote for a war-powers resolution and Trump answers a Miami congresswoman’s ad with a dozen posts demanding her replacement; Grant says you don’t primary the smoke detector, Sloane says the design is working, not failing, and Eli says Federalist 51 is getting fired. The White House moves to let $810 million lapse five days before the fiscal year ends; Nora calls it the Holy Roller, Grant calls it permission asked on a form that self-destructs, and Sloane says a rule nobody enforces is a suggestion with a lapel pin. In the lightning rounds: the fuel-economy rollback to 34.5 miles per gallon, which Sloane says was never law, only mood, and Xi Jinping’s state visit, which buys sixty days of truce and two pandas with the longer contract. Plus The Herald with Simone Hargrove, and four predictions with dates attached. Thirty-four minutes.
On the table
- Trump rejects Iran’s offer. On September 26 the president tells reporters “I reject their proposal”; Tehran’s terms call for lifting the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports, waiving sanctions on oil sales and a ceasefire that includes Lebanon, with the strait reopening on day six and nuclear talks beginning on day seven.
- Republicans break on Iran. The House passes an Iran war-powers resolution 220 to 204 on September 15, with seven Republicans joining Democrats; Senate candidates Ashley Hinson of Iowa and Mike Rogers of Michigan call for the war to end; on September 26 Trump amplifies more than a dozen posts attacking Rep. María Elvira Salazar over her ad, one demanding a “NEW Republican to Replace Salazar.”
- Collins cries lawbreaking. On Friday, September 25, the White House announces it will withhold $810 million Congress appropriated; the fiscal year ends September 30, and the Impoundment Control Act gives Congress 45 legislative days to act; Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins calls it “a clear violation of the law,” citing GAO’s finding that pocket rescissions aren’t permitted.
- Lightning round: the fuel economy rollback. The Trump administration finalizes its rollback of the federal fuel-economy rules: 34.5 miles per gallon fleetwide by model year 2031, down from 50.4 under the Biden-era standard; its own estimate puts a $930 average cut in new-vehicle cost against about 100 billion additional gallons of fuel through 2050, with regular gasoline at a national average of $4.48.
- Lightning round: Xi comes to Washington. Xi Jinping’s three-day state visit runs September 23 to 25, with a White House meeting on September 24; the trade truce is extended two months, from November 10, 2026, to January 10, 2027; two pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, go to Zoo Atlanta.
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Episode 003
Deals, Data Centers, and Due Process
Episode three. Trump tells the General Assembly he is deciding whether to deal with Iran or “annihilate” it, Witkoff and Kushner sit three hours with Iranian officials through mediators, and Pezeshkian answers that Iran will talk “without accepting the language of force”; Grant calls the ultimatum a menu with two items and no prices, Nora says Tehran has published a price list and Washington has answered with a verb, and Sloane names the real bluffer as a Congress that has neither declared the war nor funded it while the Treasury keeps paying. CNN, MS NOW and Politico sue for a restraining order restoring their White House access on the day the White House launches “Trump TV”; the table agrees Sherrill v. Knight forbids a ban for the coverage, then splits on whether a judge restoring the chairs is running an Article II building. Greg Abbott halts every Texas data-center permit until ERCOT finishes a grid audit with no date attached; Nora wants to know when the precaution ends, Eli says the governor read a meter, not a poll, and Sloane notes the directive names three agencies and zero enabling provisions. In the lightning rounds: Paramount settles with twelve attorneys general and the Writers Guild to clear its $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, and Trump and Zohran Mamdani spend an hour at Gracie Mansion over Sunnyside Yard. Plus The Herald with Simone Hargrove, and four predictions with dates attached. Thirty-three minutes.
On the table
- Deal or annihilate. Trump tells the General Assembly he is deciding whether to deal with Iran or “annihilate” it if the seven-month war continues; Witkoff and Kushner sit roughly three hours with Iranian officials on the sidelines, through mediators; Pezeshkian rejects surrender but says Iran is ready for talks “without accepting the language of force.”
- The press corps sues. CNN, MS NOW and Politico file in D.C. federal court on September 21 for a temporary restraining order restoring their access; the same day the White House launches “Trump TV,” a 24-hour livestream; ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and CNN suspend the White House television pool.
- Abbott freezes the data centers. The governor orders the TCEQ to halt all data-center permits until ERCOT finishes its grid audit, which may run through December, with no date for permits to resume; an August UT/Texas Politics Project poll finds 57 percent of Texas voters opposed to a data center in their community, including 43 percent of Republicans.
- Lightning round: Paramount swallows Warner Bros. Paramount Skydance settles with twelve state attorneys general and the Writers Guild on September 21, clearing its roughly $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery; the states do not get the full divestiture of CNN and CBS News they asked for.
- Lightning round: Trump meets Mamdani. Roughly an hour at Gracie Mansion on September 21; the Sunnyside Yard proposal covers about 12,000 homes and 30,000 jobs, and Mamdani says it needs at least $21 billion in federal grants.
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Episode 002
Barricades, Ballistics, and Ballot Boxes
Episode two. The White House bans CNN, MS NOW and Politico and deactivates their reporters’ badges at the gate; the table agrees that Sherrill v. Knight, D.C. Circuit 1977, forbids it, then splits on the remedy — Sloane wants a judge, Nora wants the press pool to make the ban worthless, and Grant wants the imperfect court order first. A Houthi ballistic missile is intercepted over Riyadh and an Aramco fuel tank burns at the airport after Trump twice declines the Crown Prince’s request for American strikes; Eli won’t hand him a medal for a no he could reverse by Tuesday, Grant calls it a separate peace, and Sloane says the targeting help was hostilities without a vote. The NAACP sues DHS, ICE, the FBI and the Justice Department under Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act after Kash Patel tells the Senate he doesn’t know that the Bureau can’t send agents to the polls; Grant, from the center-right, calls that turnout suppression with a badge. In the lightning rounds: Trump recasts his 250-foot arch beside Arlington as a “top grade Military Complex,” and Maria Elvira Salazar scolds the president on camera, then calls him “very receptive.” Plus The Herald with Simone Hargrove, and four predictions with dates attached. Thirty-two minutes.
On the table
- The White House press ban. CNN, MS NOW and Politico banned “effective immediately”; three reporters turned away at the gate with credentials confiscated or deactivated; Sherrill v. Knight (D.C. Cir. 1977) says a press pass cannot be denied arbitrarily or without a compelling reason.
- Saudi vessels excluded. The Crown Prince asks twice for American strikes and gets intelligence and targeting help instead; an Omani-brokered Houthi pledge spares American, Israeli and commercial ships but not Saudi ones; a ballistic missile is intercepted over Riyadh and an Aramco fuel tank burns at the airport.
- The NAACP sues over ICE at the polls. A Section 11(b) suit against DHS, ICE, the Justice Department and the FBI, three days after Kash Patel told Senate Judiciary “I don’t know that we can’t legally do it”; a UC San Diego poll finds 40 percent of voters expect immigration agents at their polls.
- Lightning round: the triumphal arch goes tactical. The 250-foot arch near Arlington becomes a “top grade Military Complex/Triumphal Arch” with drones and snipers, citing a military request; the veterans who sued in February say the new justification doesn’t cure its “fundamental illegality.”
- Lightning round: Salazar scolds Trump on camera. A thirty-second bilingual ad outside the White House says some enforcement has gone too far and that roughly 50,000 people detained in July had no criminal record; three days later she calls the phone call “very good” and the president “very receptive.”
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Episode 001
Ballots, Basis Points, and Bipartisan Bedfellows
The premiere. The Supreme Court blocks, seven to two, the administration’s plan to have the Postal Service police mail ballots, and the panel splits over whether Kavanaugh’s timing opinion is a rebuke or a road map. The Fed raises rates a quarter point — the first hike since 2023 — over the president’s demand for cuts, and Nora and Eli disagree about whether interest rates can fight a war-driven diesel price. Thomas Massie files eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Hegseth and the Speaker sends the House home; Sloane and Eli argue Article I against Article II. In the lightning rounds: the Kennedy Center’s board closes the main building for up to two years, and Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon share a stage against artificial superintelligence. Plus The Herald with Simone Hargrove, and four predictions with dates attached. Thirty-two minutes.
On the table
- The Court spurns the Postal Service. A 7–2 vote against the mail-ballot rule, Thomas and Alito dissenting; Kavanaugh writes that election officials were out of time.
- The Fed defies Trump. A quarter-point hike to 3.75–4 percent on a 12–0 vote, the first increase since July 2023.
- Massie moves to impeach Hegseth. Eight articles, a 220–204 war powers resolution with seven Republicans in favor, and a House sent home early.
- Lightning round: the Kennedy Center goes dark. The board votes to close the main building for up to two years; the chief financial officer resigns the same day.
- Lightning round: Sanders and Bannon versus the machines. The first Pro-Human Assembly, and a pledge to ban artificial superintelligence.
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Trailer
Five voices. Five issues. One republic.
Ninety seconds at the table. Arthur Kline introduces the show, then Eli Navarro, Grant Mercer, Nora Kessler, and Sloane Barrett take one lightning-round question and disagree about it. The Agora premiered Thursday, September 17, 2026; new episodes arrive Mondays and Thursdays at 5 AM ET.
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