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Left Out Loud is a progressive political podcast breaking down the biggest stories shaping our democracy. From up-to-the-minute political news and midterm election coverage to in-depth interviews with grassroots Democratic candidates, the show spotlights the voices and movements fighting for real change. Smart, informed, and unapologetically loud, Left Out Loud pairs sharp analysis with humor and plain-spoken commentary, cutting through the noise to focus on what actually matters. If you care about elections, organizing, and the future of the Democratic Party—and you like your politics with a little personality—this is the podcast for you.
Ally: All right.
Hey Seth.
Seth: Hey Allie.
Ally: So.
As we're kind of finding our voice and
workshopping ideas, I thought we could,
we could try something new for a news
segment, and we're gonna call it Seth
and Allie take a shot at the news.
So it's like, um, a triple entendre,
which is, I mean, what's better than a
double entendre than a triple entendre?
So take a shot at the news first
implies that we're going to try and
find new stories that are interesting
to us and hopefully interesting to
our audience and stories that won't
time out since there's a delay between
recording and when we actually go to air.
Uh, take a shot at the news is also.
Poking fun at the news, at the
absurdity of our news cycle
because you know, everyone is
constantly reporting breaking news.
We're always talking about
breaking news, and it is stressful.
And so I think it feels good to
kind of try and find levity in
some of these stories when we can.
And then the third take a shot
at the news is we're gonna take
an actual shot at the news.
Because this news sucks y'all.
So hopefully, you know, one shot a week,
we can get through these news stories
with some of our sanity still in check.
So cheers, Seth.
Seth: Cheers, Allie.
Ally: Let's take a shot at the news.
Woo.
Seth: Let's go baby.
Ally: Ooh, once a week.
Okay.
First story, and this is
actually breaking, breaking news.
So President Trump has appointed Erica
Kirk to serve on the US Air Force Academy
Board of Visitors taking the position.
Her late husband, Charlie,
was slated to hold before he
was assassinated in September.
So Erica is joining this panel that
oversees morale, discipline, curriculum,
and fiscal affairs at the academy.
I, I cannot, I
Seth: mean,
Ally: first of all, I
Seth: just
Ally: go ahead.
Seth: Just another, uh, appointee by
Trump, who is unqualified to do their job.
Just another DEI holler from, you
know, an just from another loyalist.
And, uh, I mean, what a, what a joke.
But it, it is just a, a
running joke at this point.
A series of unfortunate events.
Ally: I, and I'm looking at
like the, the description of the
role, so overseeing the morale.
I seem to recall that when
this woman lost her husband.
She was immediately out there doing
tours and remember that leaked call
with the turning point members?
Yep.
Where she was like, she was
like, Hey, Charlie's dead.
And like, I know that's really a dark,
but let's talk about all of that merch.
We sold the numbers and.
The numbers are so good.
You guys.
We got,
Seth: we got 150,000 views.
Like
Ally: I feel, I feel like she is
a morale killer, a buzz killer.
I mean, it seemed like the people at
Turning Point USA were more bereft
than Erica Kirk could seem to muster
when she took over that company.
Seth: Yeah, and I mean, we just
saw Christie Nome, somebody who
was also unqualified to do her job.
Ally: That's next.
That's number
Seth: two.
And after you got yanked off the stage
like saying man, so, um, what do you
think is gonna happen with Erica?
Just more of the same from Donald Trump.
Ally: More of the same.
Another vanity project.
Alright.
Second story that caught my eye this week.
So number two.
Okay.
This is hilarious to me.
So first of all, this was put
up by headquarters Newsroom.
Are you familiar with them, Seth?
Seth: Yeah.
Uh, that they, uh, they converted
Kamala HQ into headquarters.
Ally: Nice.
Seth: So that is the new
iteration of Kamala hq.
So, yeah, I love, we can forward this.
Ally: Love, love, love it.
They put out news stories all day long.
They make them interesting and funny.
Great graphics.
So she had all these geniuses, um, that
worked on her social media strategy
when she was running for president,
and now they are committing that time
to delivering headlines in a funny and
unique way, and this is one of theirs.
Here's a list of Hollywood
blockbusters that cost less to make
than Christie no's ad campaign.
Now Christie has been fired, right?
Yeah.
In real time.
Christie has been fired, but it's
still hilarious to me the amount
of money that WA was wasted on
her riding around on a horse.
So let's go through some of
the movies that cost less, less
to make than that ad campaign.
Seth: Alright,
Ally: uh, Barbie, the Barbie movie.
Seth: Shut up.
Ally: Yes.
The Barb.
Wow.
Not just Barbie.
Oppenheimer, the two, the two black.
So Bar Inheimer Barer Heimer.
Yes.
Cost less to make No way
than Kristy Nom riding around
Seth: the No, that's a, that's
a Christopher Nolan film.
Ally: Mm-hmm.
Seth: On top of Barbie, who, you know,
not a cheap movie to make either.
I mean,
Ally: neither, neither of them.
Seth: But this is a great example of
like just how much money was wasted.
Incredible.
She's out on her ass.
So great.
Jeff,
Ally: Mary Potter,
deathly, deathly Hollows.
Part two, cost Less.
Top Gun Maverick.
Come on now, Seth.
I, I mean, yo, think about these films.
Think about the production.
Mm-hmm.
Cost of making these films, all
of the special effects, the Hunger
Games, Seth, the Hunger Games.
Seth: I'm going away by the
Ally: ironic name,
Seth: by the way, you, you're
telling me the final Harry Potter.
After that franchise produced
untold billions of dollars, the
final movie had a lower budget
than Christie No's DHS commercials.
Unbelievable.
Ally: Mm-hmm.
Um, how about Iron Man?
Iron Man, Seth?
Seth: Yo, you got a
bigger budget than Disney.
Ally: The Matrix, Seth,
the literal matrix.
Seth: Oh my God.
Ally: The Lord of the Rings,
the return of the King.
It, it is absolutely insane, but
it's not surprising because this
administration seems to be spending
money like water, and that brings us.
To story number three.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
Ally: Again, a breaking story from
today, but I think we're gonna be
talking about this a long time.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
Ally: Pentagon has been caught
spending $93 billion in a single month.
That would've been the
month of September, 2025.
And among just a couple of
things were Alaskan King Crab
legs, a $98,000 Steinway piano.
I think I saw some kind of a.
One of a kind Japanese violin.
Who, who's taking this stuff?
Is it real?
Seth: Yeah.
I mean,
Ally: we, we, who ate the crab legs?
Who's playing the piano?
Seth: I mean, it is a, it
is a cartoonish number.
I mean, we're talking about $93
billion and they spent hundreds of
millions of dollars on king crab alone.
Like how in the world is Pete Hegseth
to supposed to do all these pull-ups
when he is eating so much king crab?
Ally: It's insane.
I also saw that they
spent a shit ton on, um.
A fruit basket stands.
Seth: Yeah.
Ally: What even is that?
I mean, I've been in corporate
America for a long time, certainly
seen my share of fruit baskets.
I have never seen them presented
to the world on a stand.
Do you even know what that I have no
idea what a fruit basket stand is.
Seth: I've, I've never been
running in rich enough circles,
I guess, to have seen a fruit
Ally: standard.
Me neither.
Clearly
Seth: this is, that's a new one on me.
But, uh, you gotta spend
the 93 billion somehow.
Ally: Uh, and they found a way.
And I also wonder like,
are these code names?
Could this be like money laundering?
Like I bought Alaskan King Crab, but
that actually stands for something else.
Seth: It, it's actually
stands for Bentley's.
Ally: Could you imagine?
Seth: Yeah.
I, I can't,
Ally: I actually, I can too.
It's just, it's absolutely.
Especially right now we
are in war with Iran.
It is $1 billion a day.
It's costing us.
We have just not formally announced,
but basically alluded to the
fact that there are going to be
troops on the ground any day now.
Um, we're struggling financially.
Gas is up.
Cost of oil is.
You know, healthcare costs have
gone, I mean, just economically as
a country, we are really hanging
on by the skin of our teeth.
And when I see a number like this and
I see a Pentagon using the budget, the,
the, the military budget, our taxpayer
dollars as basically their own personal
piggy bank, it's really depressing.
Seth: Yeah.
I mean, when, when you, when you
think about our military budget.
Where it is at $900 billion.
And so you're telling me you
had to spend a 10th of that in a
use it or lose it kind of deal.
So you're telling me that you've
been asking for all this money all
this time and you haven't even, and
you ran out of ways to spend it.
Ally: Exactly.
Seth: Sounds like we never
needed that in the first place.
Sounds like the budget is bloated.
Sounds like it's almost as if.
The Pentagon failing their audit year
after year, after year, after year,
was trying to tell us something.
I don't know.
Ally: And you know, the thing is they
didn't have to just spend all that money.
They could have reallocated it to
a program that was running short.
Might need another one, right?
I mean, it's, it's just, it's
really, um, it's just perverse to
see this kind of spending happening,
especially right now in America.
But we have a couple of good news
stories to end this segment on.
So let's go to our fourth
news story of today.
You are gonna love this story.
So they have done some studies and
deep dive research and discovered
that Costco is officially 21%
cheaper than Walmart and Aldi.
Seth: Hell yeah.
Ally: Now, even though they,
they are big box store, right?
The, the savings that they
have packed in per unit.
The same way you would break
down prices at the grocery store.
Um, they are finding that Costco
is actually 21% cheaper than those
two well-known discount stores.
And we love Costco.
Seth: We do,
Ally: we do.
I mean, they pay a living
wage to their employees.
Um, they provide health
benefits and paid time off.
And not only that, they are suing
the government for their tariff money
back and they have already pledged.
They're gonna give that money back to
their customers, whether it be through
discounts or maybe discounted memberships.
They're gonna find a way to
get that money back to us, but.
I know how much you love Costco.
We talk about this all the time, Seth,
give the audience what they want.
Give them your love letter to Costco.
Seth: Like, look, y'all.
It is not that difficult to make
money in the United States of America,
and people like Costco prove it.
Allie just told you about the living wage.
Uh, did I mention.
The stock price that's over
a thousand dollars right now.
They're hurdling towards a stock split.
They have great numbers, they
have great, uh, profit margins.
And so now to hear that they are
20% cheaper than Walmart and other
competing brands, and we're talking
about, you know, all these things that
they're gonna do for their customers.
And while continuing, like I said,
to make a bunch of money, you don't
have to be greedy in the United
States of America to make money.
I mean, just 50, 60 years ago, we had
a massive corporate, uh, tax bracket.
Why do you think that is?
Because we wanted to keep
people's profits down.
No.
People were making money back then.
It's about the greed.
It's about the, the, the CEOs and the CFOs
and the C class making outrageous sums
of money at the top levels while giving
their, their, their employees nothing.
Ally: And, and to compare, right?
So the Costco, CEO, I believe makes
$950,000 a year, while the Walmart, CEO
in contrast makes I believe 15 million
plus stock options and, and bonuses.
So.
There is a way to be ethical and be, you
know, abundant in a capitalist society.
We just, Costco is the template.
They are the gold standard.
I love Costco.
Can't say enough and they're cheaper.
Please go get a Costco membership.
Let's get Walmart outta here.
Seth: Yeah, seriously.
I mean, if you're taking, if you,
especially if you've got a family, I mean,
this makes all the sense in the world.
You don't have to question
yourself eth ethically.
And you're gonna make, and you're
gonna save 20% as a family.
I think we can all agree right now
that that's gonna come in clutch
in the next six months to a year as
we go through this crisis in Iran.
Ally: Alright, so our final news
story of the week, um, as you know,
I'm still getting over the fact
that Jasmine Crockett lost her
bid for the primary, the Senate
primary in Texas took that one hard.
Um, but James Haller Rico is the lead,
is is the winner of that primary Jasmine.
So on brand, immediately conceded
immediately called for Unity in the party.
She's such a class act.
Um, it's why we love her.
It's why we rooted for her, right, Seth?
I mean, we know Jasmine by this point.
Seth: Exactly.
And I mean, in our last episode, we,
we, we were leaning tall Rico, uh,
in our predictions to win, uh, not
necessarily who we wanted to win.
Uh, Jasmine is somebody who
is uncompromising, who is
progressive, who is a young leader.
Uh, James is, is really all of
those things except for we're
not sure about the compromise.
There are ties to Miriam Madison.
There are, uh, weird rumors swirling
around him in terms of how he spoke
about Colin Allred and his race.
He addressed some of those in the
Stephen Colbert interview, which
was heavily suppressed by the FCC,
which you could blame right there.
That sent him skyrocketing.
You know, into the, into the public
sphere and maybe won him that.
Ally: Right?
You said something right there, Seth.
You said something right there.
Seth: Yeah,
Ally: I, and I, and I don't, I,
you know, I love Stephen Colbert.
I believe he is as
uncompromised as you can get.
However, it wouldn't, I wouldn't put
it past CBS to pull this shit, which
they have never done before to create a
scandal where James Tyler Rico overnight
is a household name across America.
So the timing on that whole
situation was very interesting to me.
But here we are.
Um, you know, we're gonna
embrace James, Tyler Rico.
We're gonna hope the best for him
and, and hope that he does not
end up being a wild card like John
Federman or a cinema or mansion.
But in good news, it looks like he.
Leading both GOP candidates
in the Senate race so far?
Seth: Yeah, the the, the
Ally: wild.
Seth: Even though we, we have to
side eye James at this moment as a
party, certainly as progressives,
we have to side eye him the bo the,
the, the, uh, advantages, right?
Are that he is a guy that
can reach across the aisle.
He is a guy who looks like a lot.
Of centrist Republicans.
He is a guy who looks
like a lot of Texans.
He also has the tall Rico name
that obviously is a Latino name,
so he has that in his blood, so he
is able to reach across the aisle,
and not that Jasmine isn't, but we
know that America was and still is
largely not ready for women of color.
Women, period to lead this
country in any major capacity.
And so that's a damn shame.
But at least we know that James
can reach across the aisle and
lead in polls, guys like Cornin.
Uh, and, and we need that.
We desperately need that
now because we need wins.
I still believe Jasmine would've won.
The polls were pointing in that direction.
She had the momentum, but you know.
If we have to look at a bright spot, we
need, we understand that James Tallarico
because of what he looks like and the
way that he presents, uh, Christianity,
uh, the way that he is progressive with
Christianity and talks about Jesus and a
lot of his progressive views for back in
the day, um, it certainly is not a bad.
Choice, a bad choice to throw up
against somebody like a John Cornyn.
Uh, and, and Trump is already
doing his damage there, right?
He's calling for the runoff to
be canceled and for his chosen
candidate to be propped up there.
And Ken Paxton is not
gonna deal with that.
Yeah, Ken Paxton is not
dropping out, so, right.
You know, while James, while James Alico
is able to load up for May, and the, and
the rest of the, of the midterm, John
Cornyn and Ken Paxton are gonna have
to go through a swirl of mud slinging
and fighting for Donald Trump's maga.
You know, uh, you know,
his, his, his co-sign.
So I think all of that,
uh, you know, despite.
Jasmine not winning is a,
is a win for us overall.
Ally: Yeah, I know.
I know.
And, and like I said, we will embrace him.
Um, he is, he is our guy, right?
He is our candidate.
Um,
Seth: we need wins
Ally: and of course we want, we just
Seth: need wins Ally.
Like we need, we
Ally: need, of course we wanna see Texas.
Seth: We need to flip the Senate,
Ally: but
Seth: we gotta put
Ally: the
Seth: Senate.
Y'all like, I
Ally: get
Seth: it.
Like, let's understand.
Ally: I get it.
Seth: Yeah.
Like what's our goal?
Our goal is to flip the Senate.
We gotta do that.
Ally: Our goal is to flip the Senate.
And, um, I do think that he
is a refreshing candidate
from a Democrat perspective.
He's not the typical, right?
So I, I can see him really.
Using his seminary experience and
all of his biblical knowledge to push
back against some of these Christian
nationalist people that have been Yes.
Entrenched into our government.
I think that would be
really interesting to see.
Um, and PO and really effective
in, in pushing back against that.
So we're gonna see how
this race plays out.
I'd love to see that he's
up in the polls already.
Um, yeah.
More to come on that one.
So that's it for the news this week.
And speaking of, you know, we need to win.
Don't forget to check out our last
interview, uh, with Tim Suski.
We just wrapped another interview with
somebody we're really excited about.
I'm not gonna tell you who it is.
You're gonna have to stay tuned for that,
but it's somebody out in New York and
he's challenging somebody we all know.
So stay tuned for episode
three and left out loud.
This has been fun.
Um, you know, cheers.
We'll be doing this again, for sure.
Seth: Oh, I'm, I'm down.
I'm, I'm feel, I'm feeling,
I'm feeling frisky.
Ally: Let's go.
Let feeling loose, loosey goosey.
Alright, Seth.
I'll see you soon.
Seth: All right.
See you.