Former Republican strategist Stuart Stevens helped elect George W. Bush twice. Now he says the party he built has surrendered, and he's done pulling punches. In this conversation, Stevens argues Trump didn't change the Republican Party, he revealed it. Why Republican senators are despicable in their own children's eyes. Why Marco Rubio is a broken man. Why JD Vance will run in 2028 with a Trump son as VP. And why Democrats have one simple message to deliver in 2026, if they don't screw it up.

Veteran White House journalist and Salon columnist Brian Karem joins Star Price on Hit Pause to break down the Trump crisis — what it means for American democracy, the global order, and whether the 25th Amendment or impeachment are realistic paths forward. Then: the state of journalism in America, the collapse of mainstream media, and what it's going to take to save the free press.🎙️ Hit Pause with Star Price — your sanity check in an insane world.🔔 Subscribe for weekly conversations with journalists, experts, and insiders who know what's really going on.🌐 hitpausepod.com

Are we losing the moon? That's not a hypothetical. China's robotic missions have already landed on the far side of the moon — a place no country had ever reached before — scooping up lunar soil containing deposits of Helium-3, considered by many scientists to be the holy grail of clean fusion energy. Their next mission targets the lunar south pole, where water ice could fuel every future mission into deep space. Whoever controls that resource doesn't just own the moon. They control the future of space exploration itself.My guest is Brendan Byrne, host of NPR's "Are We There Yet?" — the go-to podcast for what's actually happening in space. We get into the real state of the race between the US and China, the role of SpaceX and Blue Origin, and whether Space Force signals that the battle for the moon's resources could turn into something far more serious.But this episode isn't just about geopolitics. We also talk about why Artemis II was a genuine American triumph — including the stunning iPhone footage shot by Commander Reid Wiseman from the window of the spacecraft, and the moment that stopped the crew cold above the lunar surface. And Brendan makes a deeply human case for why we need to be out there — not robots, not AI, but us.

When ChatGPT 2 dropped, Connor Leahy had one reaction: "Oh shit." He wasn't being dramatic. He was being honest. Connor Leahy is the US Director of ControlAI, one of the few organizations actively working to regulate artificial intelligence before it outpaces our ability to control it. We get into what artificial intelligence is actually capable of right now, why the tech industry won't regulate itself, and whether governments have any real shot at stopping AI before it's too late. Is artificial intelligence dangerous? Can AI be regulated? Is AGI actually possible? These aren't hypothetical questions anymore. This isn't doom scrolling. This is the conversation we should all be having. No spin. No talking points.

Connor Leahy returns. We went deep in "AI: Will it End the World?" and still had too much good material to leave behind. This is the rest of that conversation. On the fascinating origins of AI, its existential risk, and where we go from here. Subscribe to Hit Pause with Star Price on YouTube, and on Substack at starprice.substack.com for extended content and bonus material. It's free. #HitPause #AI #ConnorLeahy #airisk

What does a forensic psychologist see when he looks at Donald Trump? Dr. Kris Mohandie has spent decades studying dangerous and extreme behavior for the LAPD and the FBI. In this conversation we examine Trump's psychology, what drives him, what that means for the country, and what's coming next.Watch the full video version at https://youtube.com/@hitpausepodFind us on Substack at https://starprice.substack.com