Episode Details

Chuck Todd delivers an analysis of the Virginia Supreme Court's decision tossing out the Democratic redistricting map — arguing Democrats pissed away enormous political capital for absolutely nothing and that the reaction on the left has been wildly out of proportion, treating the ruling like an election loss when it was actually a predictable consequence of trying to fight fire with fire. He notes that Democrats passed the Virginia map without ever bothering to figure out how the courts would rule, and that both Obama and Governor Spanberger spent serious political capital pushing a referendum that was always legally vulnerable. He pushes back hard on left-wing commentary framing the ruling as partisan: the Virginia Supreme Court isn't full of partisans — they're technocrats, and Democrats just spent years arguing for norms and process and then ignored norms and process. His central argument is that Democrats will never win a race to the bottom with Trump's GOP, that the "fight fire with fire" mentality is a huge strategic mistake, and that Democrats can absolutely win in newly created swing districts with the right candidates if they go back to persuading voters and building coalitions rather than treating voters as the problem. He argues that Democrats are still likely to win both the House and Senate in the midterms — proof that Trump has done nothing to improve the GOP's image and that the path back to a winning Democratic coalition is still wide open if the party chooses to take it. 

Then, acclaimed music biographer Bob Spitz — author of definitive biographies of The Beatles and Led Zeppelin and now The Rolling Stones: The Biography, his five-year deep dive into the world's greatest rock and roll band — joins the Chuck Toddcast for a deeply enjoyable conversation about why the Stones have endured for over six decades and what their longevity says about the state of music itself. Spitz argues that the Stones gave us the foundation of the rock and roll sound and that, in many ways, there is no rock and roll today — modern musicians are producers more than performers, and now in their 80s the Stones are essentially one of the last bands keeping the form alive. He explains why their decision to flirt with politics in the 60s and then back off actually helped them endure, traces their close friendship with The Beatles , and describes Mick and Keith's strange but enduring marriage as the central engine of the band — held together by their shared love of playing live.

The conversation digs into the surprising musical and cultural backstory of how the Stones became the Stones — including the fascinating history of how white British kids embraced the blues more than American kids did. Spitz pays beautiful tribute to drummer Charlie Watts as the heart and soul of the group — a jazz lover who only played rock because it paid the bills and who, along with Ian Stewart, kept the band in line for decades — and discusses the profound effect of losing him on the band's chemistry. He explains why the Stones keep playing well into their 80s, why great guitarists are now a rare commodity with no real innovators emerging, and why Mick has stayed in such great shape. Spitz offers his verdict on the Stones' place in music history — they've come to understand themselves as the greatest rock band, and he agrees — and reveals what's next for him: a book about John Lennon's second act. He closes with a fascinating thought experiment posed by Chuck: if Mick Jagger had been killed and John Lennon had lived, would the trajectories of the two bands have completely switched?

Finally, Chuck hops into the ToddCast Time Machine to revisit the Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board of Education decision and explains that the courts have been forced to rule on major structural changes to American society when congress refuses to legislate. He also answers listeners’ questions in the “Ask Chuck” segment.

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