Welcome to the Democracy Disaster Diner

This podcast is Episode 32, and we are celebrating our anniversary at SANDI AULT—Reporting from the WILD. Our first publication was right around one year ago today, and we are grateful to all our listeners, followers, and subscribers. And watch this space for an anniversary sale on subscriptions.

About the podcast versions of our essays: I really love doing these podcasts because I get to wear a lot of hats: writer, storyteller, producer, musician, and composer. I’m always delighted to include my own original music as well as voices from the community. We usually curate the script for the podcast from the essay, and try to make it entertaining and hopefully thought provoking.

I was blessed with a prodigious amount of voiceover talent for this complex podcast script, beginning with the talented actor Kevin Mayr, who was kind enough to interpret the lines from the film NUREMBERG as well as be the voice of Aristotle; and the fabulous podcaster, Channie Peters; the great voiceover artist Michael Clarkson, and three talented voices from our team: our Purple Weather Lady, Rock Castle, and Sheila Allred.

I want to thank Theresa Daus-Weber for her steadfast assistance in the development of this script, and—along with our cohort Eric Brody, many thanks for the great editing these two always provide.

We have been in such a long night these past months...such a dark, cold, cruel, devastating, unholy night.

Here comes the sun.

Sleepless in the Rockies, I worry...and I hope. You up?

Notes:

Big kudos to the members of my community who provided voiceovers for this pod: Purple Weather Lady, John Miller, George Jackson, Jr., Ron Schukar, T Kerns, and Tim Courington, and to two members from my team who always make my work better with their edits—Theresa Daus Weber and Eric Brody.

All the original music in this podcast is ©Sandi Ault 2025, except for: I hummed around with a couple of bars from the song that this podcast title comes from:

Curt Smith & Roland Orzabal, Everybody Wants To Rule the World, song by Tears for Fears ©1985

Heather Cox Richardson: Notes From An American, Substack 2025-11-30

Anand Giridharadas, How the Elite Behave When No One Is Watching: Inside the Epstein Emails, (New York Times, 11-23-2025) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/opinion/meaning-epstein-emails.html

Peter Coyote, Missing the Forest For the Trees, (https://substack.com/@petercoyote1/note/c-185310495)

Jet Heer, The Powell Memo Helped Create Project 2025, (The Nation 09-06-2024), https://www.thenation.com/article/society/powell-memo-project-2025-plutocracy/

https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/democracy/the-lewis-powell-memo-a-corporate-blueprint-to-dominate-democracy/

Robert Reich, Today Is the Anniversary of the Worst Memo In History, (Substack: Robert Reich Aug 23, 2025) https://robertreich.substack.com/p/today-is-the-anniversary-of-the-worst

Rachel Maddow, The Rachel Maddow Show, MS NOW, 12-08-2025

This audio podcast was created and produced by me, Sandi Ault. I really hope you liked it.

Women have a thing or two to say about waiting for the Epstein files. We’re not waiting for Godot. Women are waiting on the world to change.

Sandi Ault - Reporting from the WILD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

We will build democracy back better than ever without the likes of you.—With added comments following the SenateDemsCave.

Sandi Ault - Reporting from the WILD is a reader-supported publication. If you value the work I do, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

The moment the demolition retribution images appeared on media and online, one could almost hear a stunned, heart-arresting gasp reverberate across the country, an effect on the people much like seeing the shock waves from Trinity mushrooming in the high desert. All at once, we Americans knew: everything has changed.

I am by no means an optimist. And yet, I have a hundred reasons to have hope this week.

Like Jimmy, I have no illusions about changing anyone’s mind. But the power of the truth is undeniable.

Sandi Ault - Reporting from the WILD is a reader-supported publication. To celebrate this 25th Episode of BOTH the blog and the podcast, please show your support by subscribing! And if you already subscribe, let me say how WILDly thankful I am! Won’t you share this with a friend and/or give them a gift subscription so we can continue to do this work?