Clock It with Symone & Eugene

There’s a lot going on this week: the Supreme Court took the Voting Rights Act off of life support, James Comey was indicted again, this time for a picture of seashells, and tit for tat gerrymandering is kicking into high gear. All this while gas is up, diesel is up, and fertilizer is up. And we have to talk about the White House Correspondents Association dinner that ended early on Saturday night. Symone and Eugene unpack the chaotic moments with their MS NOW colleagues Jen Psaki and Ali Vitali, who were all in attendance. The quartet talks about what was going through their minds, how quickly conspiracies popped up, Trump’s immediate pivot to justify his ballroom, and the heartening things you learn about your colleagues when things go sideways. Sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to listen to this and other MS podcasts without ads. As a subscriber, you'll also get exclusive bonus content. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

As the U.S. tries to strike a deal in the Middle East, Symone and Eugene wonder why in the WORLD Jared Kushner and JD Vance are leading negotiations. Kushner’s private equity deals in the Middle East – and the chaos around Vance’s aborted trip to Islamabad this week – have Symone and Eugene asking who’s really running the White House. We know who’s running The Baltimore Sun, though: the chairman of right-wing media behemoth Sinclair Broadcast Group, currently “investigating” Maryland governor Wes Moore. But there are bright spots on the horizon. Eugene’s former boss, Politico co-founder Robert Allbritton, is now reviving the Washington Star and snatching up journalists and beats recently shed by the Washington Post. Then cultural and fashion icon Michaela angela Davis joins the chat to reminisce about the heyday of Black media when magazines like Vibe, Honey, and Essence felt like home base for Black journalists. “ We miss the place,” says Ms. Davis, “where everything is political, but also everything is stylish and funny.” Sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to listen to this and other MS podcasts without ads. As a subscriber, you'll also get exclusive bonus content. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Trump is a lot of things: the 45th and 47th President of the United States, the former host of “The Apprentice,” a man whose businesses have filed for bankruptcy six times, the owner of more than a dozen golf courses. But he is most definitely not Jesus. For one, while Trump may want to be known as a peacebringer, he keeps starting fights. This week the ceasefire in Iran is holding, but on Sunday Trump turned his gaze to the Vatican and started beefing with America's first pope. The leaders of Archdioceses in Newark, Washington D.C., and Chicago told “60 Minutes” the war in Iran is “not a just war,” and about 90 minutes later the President posted a giant paragraph on Truth Social labeling the Pope “weak on crime.” Pope Leo XIV has been calling for peace for months – which has put him at odds with Trump’s Cabinet. “Jesus,” said the Pope on Palm Sunday, “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.’” Symone and Eugene unpack the conflict between the two leaders, the potential Democrats have to investigate the administration if they win the midterm elections, and this year’s edition of Coachella, or as Eugene likes to call it, “the Capitol in the Hunger Games.” And then Symone and Eugene are joined by New York Times bestselling author and poet Cleo Wade, who reminds them we are all worth hope, and we are all worth a better world. Sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to listen to this and other MS podcasts without ads. As a subscriber, you'll also get exclusive bonus content. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week gas prices were dramatic, brand new Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin took to Fox News to walk back promises he made during his confirmation hearings just last month, and Trump (among other things) threatened journalists with jail time for protecting leakers. So Symone and Eugene ask Geoff Bennett, PBS anchor and author of “Black Out Loud: The Revolutionary History of Black Comedy from Vaudeville to '90s Sitcoms” to join the groupchat. Together they compile a list of ideas for distracting yourself – i.e. preserving your sanity – while the President of the United States is posting “a whole civilization will die tonight”: Victor Glover putting lotion on in space, Christina Koch fixing the space toilet, dinosaurs, rewatch “A Different World,” rewatch “Living Single,” dinosaurs again, make bracelets for your friends and family, make phone cases for your friends and family. “You gotta find some whimsy every day,” says Symone. “Cause the world is hard.” Sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to listen to this and other MS podcasts without ads. As a subscriber, you'll also get exclusive bonus content. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

As the war in the Middle East continues and Americans take to the streets to protest, Symone and Eugene turn to a familiar figure to make sense of these strange times: "Auntie" Rachel Maddow. The trio ask if President Trump can distinguish reality from fantasy. Does he have a comprehension problem? Or is he emotionally lazy? But the thing is, Rachel Maddow doesn’t actually care what’s going on in his brain. “I am very disinterested in him as a person,” she says. “I know that Donald Trump wants to dismantle us as a constitutional republic. The most important thing is what the country is going to do in trying to stop him. What is everybody else going to do?” And Eugene tears up talking about how important it is for the American people to realize they have agency. "They don’t have to accept the idea that their neighbors are gonna be snatched up and taken away. They don't have to accept the idea that, you know, gay marriage may go away. They don't have to accept that sh*t.” Plus Druski gets millions talking about Erika Kirk again, while Nick Cannon, Amber Rose, and TLC’s Chilli display their own comprehension problems. Sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to listen to this and other MS podcasts without ads. As a subscriber, you'll also get exclusive bonus content. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Trump says he was the first person to think ICE agents would help with the interminable lines around the country. “That was like the paperclip,” he said, standing on a tarmac in West Palm Beach on Monday. “You know the story of the paperclip? 182 years ago, a man discovered the paperclip. It was so simple and everybody that looked at it [would] say, why didn't I think of that?” And Eugene points out that no one else thought of it because it’s a terrible idea. He and Symone also call the war in Iran “a choice,” and look at the small percentage of Americans (it’s 1%) that stands to benefit from that choice. “This is a wealth transfer that is hiding in a gas price,” says Symone, referring to a study of the 2022 oil shock – caused by Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine – that showed the net income of publicly listed oil and gas companies tripled the last time oil cost as much as it does now. Then social media star Harry Sisson joins to talk the difference in standards between traditional media and creators, cynicism, and faith in the American people. Sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to listen to this and other MS podcasts without ads. As a subscriber, you'll also get exclusive bonus content. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Symone and Eugene observe the fallout of war in the Middle East, which has widened to include Iran’s soccer team, the price of gas all over the world, and the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Then Sam Sanders joins to talk about Oscars wins and merger losses. He argues that we’ll remember last weekend’s Academy Awards – when interesting movies like “Sinners” and “One Battle After Another” won big – as the end of an era. “The version of Hollywood that we are walking into will be much less likely to actually green light those kind of films,” says Sam. And he places the blame for our more boring future at the feet of … the billionaires. “The question,” asks Sam, “is are we going to have people in charge of this stuff who choose to spend money on folks who aren't from central casting?” Sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to listen to this and other MS podcasts without ads. As a subscriber, you'll also get exclusive bonus content. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

As the war in Iran extends into week two, the White House is turning the deadly fighting into a meme, while the president and Marco Rubio eye their next target: Cuba. And after being arrested for covering an ICE protest in Minnesota, Don Lemon comes on the show and gets real about his legal battle with the Department of Justice. The independent journalist and former CNN anchor has been called a “sleazebag” by the President of the United States. But he remains undeterred. He reminds us that the First Amendment is the “bedrock of our constitution,” and at the end of the day he believes he will have the last word. Sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to listen to this and other MS podcasts without ads. As a subscriber, you'll also get exclusive bonus content. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

"You don't talk to me for hope," she says. But we found a little bit. First, Ayman Mohyeldin stops by to break down how he’s watching the news out of Iran, and what he sees in the chaotic conclusion to the Democratic primary for a Senate seat in Texas. In our guest segment – the groupchat – Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and creator of “The 1619 Project” Nikole Hannah-Jones warns us that we have entered a second Nadir, a period when progress toward democracy is being rolled back. And returning to an era of Civil Rights enforcement is not a short-term struggle. But, she says, in the words of Coretta Scott King: “Freedom is never really won. You earn it and win it in every generation.” And now, Nikole says, it’s our turn to earn it. Sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to listen to this and other MS podcasts without ads. As a subscriber, you'll also get exclusive bonus content. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Trump’s 2026 State of the Union was … one for the record books. Literally. In the longest State of the Union address in history – something the president is no doubt proud of – Trump continued to declare that America is bigger, better, richer, hotter, and stronger than ever before. Marc Lamont Hill joins Symone and Eugene to discuss how that could be possible when the price of beef, orange juice, and rent is up, and when Americans are looking down the barrel at losing their voting rights. Symone and Eugene also apologize to Vini Jr. – on others’ behalf – ask how FBI Director Kash Patel rationalizes taking a government Gulfstream to the Olympics after he repeatedly criticized his predecessor for similar behavior, and call out the BAFTAs for shoving Delroy Lindo, Michael B. Jordan, and a Tourette’s activist into a spotlight not a single soul asked for. Sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to listen to this and other MS podcasts without ads. As a subscriber, you'll also get exclusive bonus content. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Why is Donald Trump so angry? Because former President Barack Obama is cool and he’s not – at least according to journalist Jemele Hill. Jemele joins Symone and Eugene to chat about Obama’s reception at the NBA All-Star Game, why Stephen A. Smith is proof that the age of the celebrity president isn’t going anywhere, and why the Olympics are turning out to be an embarrassing moment for America. And they pay their respects to Civil Rights icon Reverend Jesse Jackson, whose call-and-response adaptation of the poem “I Am Somebody” can serve as a reminder for all of us. Sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to listen to this and other MS podcasts without ads. As a subscriber, you'll also get exclusive bonus content. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In the inaugural episode of “MS NOW Presents: Clock It,” Symone Sanders Townsend and Eugene Daniels share the latest gossip coming out of the Texas Senate race, chat about how Jeff Bezos had enough pocket change for the “Melania” documentary but not enough for the journalists and readers of The Washington Post, and they kiki about how the Benito Bowl was a love letter to ALL of the Americas. Plus, President Fitzgerald Grant III (aka Tony Goldwyn) stops by, along with Tony-winning actor Myles Frost. They talk about their new play “Chez Joey,” why artists need community (just like the rest of us), and using their work to make people uncomfortable. Sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to listen to this and other MS podcasts without ads. As a subscriber, you'll also get exclusive bonus content. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Symone Sanders Townsend and Eugene Daniels were once at odds as White House staffer and White House reporter. Now they’re friends and colleagues–each co-hosting their own shows at MS NOW. But their off-air conversations are where the real action is. Their new show, “MS NOW Presents: Clock It” is an invitation to their groupchat, the liveliest—and most informative—out there. Whether it’s ICE getting dispatched to the Super Bowl because Bad Bunny’s doing the halftime show, or Nicolás Maduro’s Nike Tech fit, or Michael B. Jordan’s sole Oscar nomination despite playing three roles in Sinners, there is no collision between culture and politics that this show won’t document and decipher. Symone and Eugene see exactly what’s going on—and they want you to clock it, too. New episodes drop every Thursday, starting February 12th. Sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to listen to this and other MS podcasts without ads. As a subscriber, you'll also get exclusive bonus content. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.