In this episode, Alex starts by talking about how the looming government shut down was averted at the 11th hour once again. In an interesting turn of events, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy chose compromising/working with Democrats over letting his far-right party members shut down the government. Alex argues that this is good news for the country but may be bad news for McCarthy if he wants to remain the Speaker of the House. Next, Alex quickly goes over a new series of interviews conducted by Sarah Longwell in her focus groups with two-time Trump voters. Many of the people in the focus groups either do not want a woman president or do not think the country is ready for one. Later, Alex talks about a troubling election in Slovakia that happened in late-September. In the election, Robert Fico, the country’s corrupt, former prime minister, has won the plurality and is likely going to be prime minister once again. He has allied himself with pro-Russian leaders in the region and Alex worries that there will be a democratic backslide in Slovakia. Finally, Alex dives into the right’s new culture war against Taylor Swift.