Make It Make Sense with Grant Hermes

With the government still shut down and the Speaker of the House indicating they're willing to wait it out for the long haul, the Nov. 1 expiration date on affordable healthcare through tax credits for millions is coming quickly. 

Grant is joined by University of Michigan Assistant Professor Michael Shepherd, who studies rural health care and how it meets politics and race. They explore what it means for rural hospitals that ar...

Grant breaks down the complicated case being heard by the US Supreme Court that could fundamentally change how we run our elections, especially in the South. 

The court could potentially make it legal to draw districts based on race, which could bring back Jim Crow-era elections and put people of color out of power for decades. 

Ending this part of the landmark Voting Rights Act has been the goal of Chief Justice John Roberts, and he...

Members of Congress are still deadlocked over how to reopen the government as the shutdown hits the two-week mark. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson says we're "barreling" toward the longest shutdown in history, but has his own motives for not coming to the table including carrying out Project 2025 and helping Trump keep the Epstein files hidden. 

As that's happening, Democrats continue to push for restoring Medi...

It seems like American politics right now is filled with conspiracies. Deep state plots to undermine Trump. Vaccines cause autism. Joe Biden's Autopen or The Epstein Files. 

But University of Miami political science professor Joe Uscinski tells Grant, it's not the conspiracies that are the problem, or even how many people believe them, but that so many people in power right now believe them. 

It's a conversation that j...

The White House is in serious talks to invoke the Insurrection Act over nonexistent out of out-of-control crime and invented and self-incited scenarios of violence against ICE agents in Chicago and Portland. 

As Texas troops stand ready to invade Illinois on the President's orders, Grant breaks down what it would mean for Trump to use the Insurrection Act, how it works and answers the question, just how close are we to civil wa...

National Guard troops from Texas are now staging at a base an hour outside Chicago, preparing to be deployed to the streets of America's largest city. 

Grant breaks down whether Trump can really just send troops into cities wherever and whenever he wants, how that's gone in other states and what the law says about it. 

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Grant is joined again by Dr. Scott Greer from the University of Michigan to get a check-up on the Make America Healthy Again movement. They talk about how people like RFK Jr, Dr. Mehmet Oz and others have turned what were some of our most trusted government agencies inside out and upside down. 

Plus, what not to do when it comes to trying to "do your own research" and why Scott thinks that MAHA may turn out to be a sore sp...

The government officially shut down this week as Democrats refused to vote with Republicans, saying they want certain access to Medicaid and ACA insurance restored. 

Republicans and Donald Trump are going scorched earth. First, they've been spreading the lie that Democrats want to give healthcare to undocumented immigrants. Grant does a little debunking. Second, the administration is planning to fire tens of thousands of worker...

President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth address hundreds of military generals and admirals at an extraordinary assembly to talk about the future of the US Military. Almost all of it from Pete Hegseth was about waging a culture war on members of the military, dragging it back to the end of the Cold War. 

In his speech, Trump talked about using the military against his political enemies and American citizens, in a stunning ...

American education is in crisis. Test scores are dropping. Whole classrooms are falling through the cracks. The federal Department of Education is being dismantled. 

But what does that mean for our local schools, and where should they go next? 

Grant talks with Jorge Elorza, former Providence, RI mayor and current CEO of Democrats for Education Reform. Elorza wants to embrace an idea that normally comes from Republicans: School Choic...

The federal government shuts down in less than a week, and it seems like neither side wants the blame but might stand to gain from it. Democrats want a chance to stand up to Trump while promising to fight for healthcare. 

Republicans want to keep things the way they are, while also maybe hoping they can fire thousands of federal workers and keep the Epstein Files from seeing the light of day for a little while longer. 

Grant breaks i...

After the death of Charlie Kirk, the Trump administration is trying to amp up the pressure on political opponents. The FCC made explicit threats and gave explicit instructions to media companies to suspend Jimmy Kimmel. Trump got caught publishing a private message to AG Pam Bondi to go after his political enemies. He's trying to establish a new catchall domestic terror organization. All of it is happening as his poll numbers ...

There are clearer and clearer signs that the Trump Administration is pulling the US into what scholars call "competative authoritarianism." 

Grant it joined by Colorado State Professor of political communication Karrin Anderson to talk about who these governments work, how journalists should be approaching our current administration, and how we can all work together to pull ourselves out of the anti-democracy nose dive. 

LI...

Vocal leaders on the right, members of the Trump Administration and even the President himself are calling for the government to target not just violent political opponents, but people who share their views without acting on them. 

Grant breaks down how the admin is using Charlie Kirk's death to go after people they don't like, starting with trying to go after free speech. 

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With the next Supreme Court term just around the corner, it's time to talk about the Court's "shadow docket" of emergency rulings that have been happening over the summer. 

Grant is joined again by Liz Dye from Law and Chaos and Legal Eagle (links below) to talk about how the administration has been using the shadow docket to go around the law and normal legal process, what lower courts have been doing to hold th...

The right-wing commentator, youth leader, and political power broker Charlie Kirk was shot and killed during an event in Utah on Wednesday. It's an event that is going to rock the political world and by extension, the country.

In the hours after he was shot, far-right voices, Republican leaders, and the President have been blaming "the left" and Democrats with some calling to make just being a Democrat illegal. 

Grant ...

House Oversight Democrats release THAT birthday book with Trump's message to Jeffrey Epstein, and it sends the White House scrambling to try and tamp down the story that Trump hasn't been able to shake. 

Grant breaks down what's in the book, what we expect more of, how Trump and the GOP are reacting, and what it could mean for what Trump's administration does next to divert attention away from the Epstein files. 

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Today's episode is something different. Grant is the one being interviewed on the Let's Pod This podcast, discussing how Make It Make Sense is created, his news-reading process, and which stories he thinks are overhyped or underreported in today's news. 

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Dozens of survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, their families, lawyers, and a bipartisan trio of lawmakers came to the Capitol to demand that leaders sign off on just voting to release the Epstein Files. While that's been happening, House Republicans tried to pull a bait and switch with the files, Trump called the women a hoax and "irrelevant," and has started attacking people who think about releasing the files. 

Grant brea...