Shake It Off with Mert & Lucas Live

Episode 114 begins with Mert, Ryan Pagano, and Alex discussing the 25 year commemoration of the September 11th attacks, and NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration releasing new documents about the air quality in Lower Manhattan post-9/11 being covered up. Then from the 21st century to the 18th century, Professor Frank Cogliano, Professor of American History at the University of Edinburgh, joins the show to discuss his new book T...

Our second hour begins with a look at yet incident in the unfriendly skies. The show wraps with Anne Fundner, the “Angel Mom” whose 15-year-old son Weston was poisoned by fentanyl-laced pills in 2022; a 2024 RNC speaker and founder of the Forever Weston Foundation, she discusses the fentanyl crisis, peer pressure, and her fight for stronger borders and awareness.

Website for the podcast: https://www.nfllp.com/

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Episode 113 begins with Mert, Matt Sambolin and Alex dive into facts and figures of Labor Day.  The show then shifts to an interview with Brendan Mahan, ADHD expert and host of the ADHD Essentials Podcast, who joins to discuss his new book Overcoming the Wall of Awful: Why It’s Hard to Get Things Done with ADHD, Autism, and Anxiety (and How to Do Them Anyway).

Website for the podcast: https://www.nfllp.com/

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Our second hour opens with a discussion of President Trump’s order to substantially reduce annual joint military exercises with South Korea, citing his relationship with Kim Jong Un, the high U.S. costs, and Seoul’s refusal to join efforts against Iran. The move sparked sharp bipartisan criticism, raised questions about alliance reliability amid strong public support for the partnership on both sides, and fueled debate ...

Episode 112 examines the viral debate over $20 burritos that began when a college student told Turning Point USA a burrito shouldn’t cost that much, turning a simple complaint into a symbol of inflation and everyday costs. Using real prices, inflation data, and surveys, it shows how delivery and extras can push a burrito to $20 while homemade or basic options stay far cheaper—and what that reveals about wages and afford...

In our second hour, the hosts dig into Francesca Hong’s narrow loss in Wisconsin’s August 11 Democratic primary for governor. The democratic socialist led the polls, but Bernie Sanders and AOC stayed out, old statements on Thanksgiving, policing, and prisons came roaring back, and David Crowley pulled the upset. We track the progressive fractures, the establishment’s relief, and the bigger fight over candidate qua...

Episode 111 examines how two former NBA players’ declarations for the 2027 WNBA Draft have forced the league to confront its undefined eligibility rules and the broader clash between inclusion and sex-based competition. It also tracks the escalating responses—from Sophie Cunningham’s comments to the WNBPA’s refusal to be “political pawns”—as the WNBA faces a defining question about wha...

In our second hour we examine the record-breaking success of Spider-Man: Brand New Day and how its story of a forgotten, isolated hero illuminates loneliness in modern life. Drawing on insights from Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and psychologist Pauline Boss, we explore why this emotionally resonant superhero tale has connected so powerfully with audiences worldwide. The show closes with an interview featuring Dr. Mark Evans, a...

Episode 110 opens with the absurd political circus around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. A rushed no-bid renovation for America 250 peeled and failed from botched contractor work—yet the administration invented sophisticated midnight vandals, charged a former Olympian with a felony, then watched the DOJ quietly drop the case while Trump kept pushing the vandalism story. It’s a perfect, embarrassing metaphor for a...

During our second hour, the hosts frame the 2026 midterms as more than a left-right contest, asking whether voters are being moved more by economic pain, cultural identity, institutional distrust, or partisan loyalty. From affordability, health care, immigration, crime, Trump, and competing media narratives, the segment probes which party can best reach Americans who feel squeezed, suspicious, and unseen by those in power. The show...

Episode 109 begins with a look at how Fauci’s newly released 2019–2022 diary exposes a pattern of private admissions that directly contradict the confident public claims he used to justify lockdowns, school closures, fatality projections, and the dismissal of lab‑leak concerns. The hosts lay out how those entries paint a portrait of a public‑health leader who told the nation one story while writing another — a gap...

In the second hour, the hosts examine how Smithsonian curators have shifted from evidence toward ideology—most sharply illustrated by an exhibit that cast Benjamin Franklin as a speculative villain (including unsupported claims about electroshock on enslaved people) and by the museum director’s public “no regrets” stance. The controversy is framed as part of a larger pattern in which a national museum increa...

Episode 108 opens with a look at Hasan Piker as a magnetic yet deeply polarizing force in progressive politics—a streamer whose large influence among young men collides with a record of incendiary rhetoric frequently criticized as anti-American and antisemitic. The hosts examine how his moralized, all-or-nothing style energizes some candidates while injecting heightened contempt and division into the broader political culture...

Our second hour begins with a sharp, fact‑driven examination of election integrity — from Trump’s declassified claims and Secretary Mullin’s warnings to polling that shows polarized national trust but consistently strong confidence in local election officials. The hosts break down expert reactions, documented fraud rates, and shifting GOP voter loyalty, revealing a republic grappling with vulnerabilities, percepti...

Episode 107 opens with a hard look at the Democratic Party’s accelerating shift toward socialism — driven by Zohran Mamdani’s New York City victory and a platform built on wealth taxes, expanded government control, and deep structural overhaul — despite blunt warnings from Trump, Vance, Manchin, and other national figures. The hosts trace the causes behind this surge and argue that the movement threatens the...

In our second hour the hosts examine the decision by Turkey and Egypt to bar the LGBTQ+ chartered cruise ship Scarlet Lady from their ports, tracing the incident across four fault lines: the cynical use of religious doctrine as political cover, the deafening silence of a U.S. government that funds Egypt and arms Turkey through NATO, the civil rights dimensions of identity-based exclusion of eleven hundred American citizens, and the...

Episode 106 opens with a critical look at a Texas hospital’s discounted “birth packages” for foreign nationals — a move that ignited a political firestorm, triggered a state investigation, and thrust birthright citizenship back into the national spotlight. The issue now sits squarely inside a larger constitutional and immigration clash as leaders battle over the 14th Amendment, birth tourism, and what reform...

Our second hour opens with Pete Najarian, co‑founder of Market Rebellion. Najarian delivers the kind of clarity Wall Street rarely offers: direct, unvarnished, and grounded in real‑world experience. He cuts through volatility, opportunity, and the psychological traps driving today’s markets. No jargon. No mystique. Just a straight look at what’s moving, why it’s moving, and what everyday investors keep g...

Episode 105 opens with a stark truth: America is living through a loneliness epidemic so widespread that the Surgeon General warns it harms both individual and societal health. From collapsing social infrastructure to the rise of AI companions, the hour traces how isolation became a national crisis — and why millions now turn to machines for the connection they can’t find in each other.  The show then shifts to&nbs...