{"podcast":{"title":"What A Day","slug":"what-a-day-96811","podcast_index_feed_id":96811,"rss_url":"https://audioboom.com/channels/5166630.rss","website_url":"https://audioboom.com/channels/5166630","image_url":"https://audioboom.com/i/43408283.jpg","author":"What A Day","episode_count":1600,"summary":"If you’re looking for hype, fake outrage, and groupthink, kindly keep moving. Our mission at What a Day is simple: to be your guide to what truly matters each morning (and the fun stuff you might have missed) in just 20 minutes. Host Jane Coaston brings you in-depth reporting and substantive analysis on the big stories shaping today and the creeping trends shaping tomorrow—and when she doesn’t know the answers, she asks someone even smarter to fill us all in. Radical, right? New episodes at 5:00 a.m. EST, Monday–Friday in your favorite podcast app and on YouTube. Being informed was never this easy.","last_synced_at":"2026-08-01T18:19:00.313487+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-a-day-96811"},"episode":{"title":"Mitch McConnell and Our Very Old Congress","slug":"mitch-mcconnell-and-our-very-old-congress","published_at":"2026-07-09T21:44:54+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-a-day-96811/mitch-mcconnell-and-our-very-old-congress","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-a-day-96811","url":"https://audioboom.com/posts/8926032","audio_url":"https://clrtpod.com/m/pscrb.fm/rss/p/prfx.byspotify.com/e/arttrk.com/p/CRMDA/mgln.ai/e/284/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/audioboom.com/posts/8926032.mp3?modified=1783633604&sid=5166630&source=rss","summary":"Since 84-year-old Senator Mitch McConnell was hospitalized on June 14th after being found unconscious at his home, not one person — not even President Donald Trump — seems to know what is going on. McConnell is one of the most powerful Republican figures in political history. But over the last few years, he’s had a number of health issues, including freezing episodes during press conferences. And while he’s not running for reelection, his murky health status is not that uncommon for our very old Congress. To find out what that does for our politics and country, we spoke with Idrees Kahloon. He’s a staff writer at The Atlantic who wrote about the incredible power of elder Americans. And in headlines: Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner announced he will withdraw from his race — but he's reportedly waiting until the last possible second to make it official, the U.S. launched new airstrikes against Iran, and FBI Director Kash Patel is facing new criticism for his taxpayer-funded lifestyle. Show Notes: Idrees Kahloon’s “An Oligarchy of Old People” – https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/05/gerontocracy-wealth-power/686585/ Call Congress – 202-224-3121 Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/ For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com","meta_description":"Since 84-year-old Senator Mitch McConnell was hospitalized on June 14th after being found unconscious at his home, not one person — not even President Don…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1342,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/what-a-day-96811/episodes/mitch-mcconnell-and-our-very-old-congress/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-a-day-96811/mitch-mcconnell-and-our-very-old-congress.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}