Tangle

Tuesday marks 35 days until federal elections will be held for all 435 U.S. House seats and 35 of the 100 U.S. Senate seats. Additionally, 36 states will elect governors and 46 states will vote on a total of 6,139 state legislators. Currently, most election models heavily favor Democrats to take back the House and give the party a slight edge to flip the Senate.

We're launching something new.
In today’s edition of Press Pass, I wrote about going back to my roots (more writing, more brevity, more personality). As part of that goal, I’m thrilled to announce that we’re launching a dedicated YouTube channel for some video essays about the current happenings in politics. This will be a place for me to get into some stuff we don’t cover in Tangle, and deliver “My take” essays in video form. The channel launched today with a deep dive on the plans for a border wall in the Big Bend region of West Texas, with some personal stories about my connections to the area and why I think it’s a historically bad policy idea. You can watch it here.

Ad-free podcasts are here!
Get 20% off your first year of ad-free episodes, exclusive interviews, and deep dives with Tangle’s podcast membership!

You can read today's podcast⁠ ⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠ and today’s “Under the radar” story ⁠here⁠ and today’s “Have a nice day” story ⁠here⁠.

You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here.

Take the survey: What’s your midterms prediction? Let us know.

Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.

This podcast written by: Isaac Saul and audio engineered and edited by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.

Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Bailey Saul, Audrey Moorehead, and Carina Pacheco.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When I started Tangle seven years ago, it was just me and the blinking cursor on a blank Google document.

As I look back on the newsletter editions I wrote during the early years of Tangle, a few things stand out: 1) The writing is more raw and less polished. 2) The newsletters are shorter and more digestible (some just a six- or seven-minute read). 3) My personality shines through in unvarnished ways that feel different from how it does now.
There are downsides to each of these. Raw, less polished writing is also writing begging for an editor. Mistakes and typos and outright errors went undiscovered. The newsletters were shorter, yes, but also sometimes lacked nuance — and typically didn’t go any deeper than our short-form competitors. I had to do all the research and writing and editing by myself, and it showed. And sure, my personality shined through, but at times it needed to be reined in; what was left was often too much Isaac and not enough viewpoint diversity or professional polish.

I never expected we’d be where we are today: hundreds of thousands of daily readers, tens of thousands of paying members, and recognition from all across the country (and world) for what we’re building. I certainly never expected to have over a dozen full-time employees and an entire staff of writers and editors.
As the Tangle brand has grown, my personal brand has taken a back seat, for good reason. I’ve wanted to introduce the distinct viewpoints from our team: Ari Weitzman, Will Kaback, Audrey Moorehead, Kmele Foster, Carina Pacheco, Russell Nystrom, Isaac Wood, and more. I’ve wanted to bring in outside writers to contribute to our publication. I’ve wanted to let Jon Lall, Aidan Gorman, and Michele Teodori create new content for YouTube — pursuing stories well suited for a visual medium and putting their own spin and perspective on them. We have done all that, and I’m supremely proud of what my colleagues and I have built.

Concurrently, I also take up less space in Tangle’s editorial process and have fewer opportunities to share what’s on my mind. I’m both happy and fulfilled by this development, and glad for a semblance of work-life balance. Yet I’m also eager to share more of my ideas that never make it to print. I have so many opinion essays outlined and just sitting in my drafts folder, so many thoughts I just flush down the toilet of X rather than turn into a YouTube video or fleshed-out piece. I have a lot of ideas I want to stress test with the public, yet somehow fewer and fewer spaces to share them despite running a growing news organization. It’s an odd and paradoxical downside of building a team.

I’ve been thinking about how to recapture some of what made those early editions so popular while also preserving the professional excellence we’ve developed today. We have some stuff in the works that I’m excited to roll out in the coming weeks: I’m planning to launch a separate newsletter under my name to share occasional opinion essays on stories we don’t get to in the typical week of Tangle. We’re also thinking about how to make the daily Tangle newsletters more digestible — reducing the word count a bit and cutting some sections people don’t tend to read. We also hope to keep featuring new voices, both from inside Tangle and out.

But in the immediate term, we have one big offering we’re excited to announce:

We’re launching the Isaac Saul YouTube channel.

Ad-free podcasts are here!
Get 20% off your first year of ad-free episodes, exclusive interviews, and deep dives with Tangle’s podcast membership!

You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here.

Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.

This podcast written by: Isaac Saul and audio engineered and edited by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.

Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Bailey Saul, Audrey Moorehead, and Carina Pacheco.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week, world leaders gathered in New York City for the 81st United Nations (UN) General Assembly, with conflicts in Iran and Ukraine taking center stage. In a speech before world leaders, President Donald Trump said he is weighing whether to seek a deal to end the war with Iran or “annihilate” the country, while also touting a security agreement reached with Greenland and Denmark. Later in the week, President Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping for a state visit, during which the leaders discussed trade disputes and AI development.

Ad-free podcasts are here!
Get 20% off your first year of ad-free episodes, exclusive interviews, and deep dives with Tangle’s podcast membership!

Asking the hard question.
On Friday, Executive Editor Isaac Saul asked, “Is President Trump okay?” It was the same question he posed about President Biden in 2021, and Isaac’s essay similarly explored how the president’s words and behavior have changed in recent years, and whether concerns about his fitness for office are valid. You can read the edition and join hundreds of Tangle commenters discussing the piece here.

You can read today's podcast⁠ ⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠ and today’s “Under the radar” story ⁠here⁠ and today’s “Have a nice day” story ⁠here⁠.

You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here.

Take the survey: What kind of relationship with China should the U.S. pursue? Let us know.

Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.

This podcast written by: Isaac Saul and audio engineered and edited by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.

Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Bailey Saul, Audrey Moorehead, and Carina Pacheco.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In June of 2021, I published a newsletter headlined “Is Joe Biden okay?”

The president, I wrote, didn’t “seem quite right.” I preemptively shot down critics who thought it was taboo to say what was obvious: Biden was in decline, that decline seemed to be accelerating, and imagining nearly four more years with him governing was worrisome. He was a totally different man than he had been at the end of his vice presidency just five years prior, and it was infuriating that so many people were pretending otherwise.

I published the piece before that opinion was popular among pundits. A full three years passed, almost exactly to the day, before the infamous debate with Trump that squashed Biden’s pursuit of a second term — the debate that made even Democrats start saying what I argued three years earlier: The president didn’t look quite right. In the aftermath of my 2021 piece, droves of Biden supporters canceled their Tangle subscriptions, accused me of ageism, and insisted I was a secret Republican who wanted to help the party by undermining Biden’s presidency.

Today, I feel compelled to deliver a similar message about Biden’s successor: President Donald Trump doesn’t seem quite right.

Ad-free podcasts are here!
Get 20% off your first year of ad-free episodes, exclusive interviews, and deep dives with Tangle’s podcast membership!

Suspension of the Rules.
It’s a Big Apple episode for apple season. On the most recent Suspension of the Rules, Isaac, Ari, and Kmele talk about the ongoing UN assembly in New York. Then, a discussion of a New York Times Magazine article about public schooling and race. Plus, guess who has a complaint about leaves? (hint: Kmele. It’s Kmele.) Check it out here.

You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here.

Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.

This podcast written by: Isaac Saul and audio engineered and edited by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75 and Jon Lall.

Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Bailey Saul, Audrey Moorehead, and Carina Pacheco.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In recent years, use of new weight-loss medications has risen in the United States. A 2026 Gallup poll found that a record 11% of U.S. adults are taking GLP-1 medications for weight loss, up from 3% in 2024. Furthermore, high-profile figures like Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) and decorated tennis player Serena Williams have extolled their experiences taking the drug. The rising prevalence of GLP-1 use for weight management has sparked a debate over their potential impact on health and wellness in the U.S.

Ad-free podcasts are here!
Get 20% off your first year of ad-free episodes, exclusive interviews, and deep dives with Tangle’s podcast membership!

Suspension of the Rules.
It’s a Big Apple episode for apple season. On the most recent Suspension of the Rules, Isaac, Ari, and Kmele talk about the ongoing UN assembly in New York. Then, a discussion of a New York Times Magazine article about public schooling and race. Plus, guess who has a complaint about leaves? (hint: Kmele. It’s Kmele.) Check it out here.

You can read today's podcast⁠ ⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠ and today’s “Have a nice day” story ⁠here⁠.

You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here.

Take the survey: What is your relationship to GLP-1s? Let us know.

Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.

This podcast written by: Audrey Moorehead and audio engineered and edited by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.

Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Bailey Saul, Audrey Moorehead, and Carina Pacheco.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.