How America Got Brainwashed: Matt's New Book, The 7 Mirages

Matt Towery's new book is out: The Honoring of Ignorance: The 7 Mirages Destroying America. Matt tells John Hall he first wrote it as a student at Cambridge 40 years ago, when publishers said he was too young to offer the opinion, and walks through what's inside: the "Mirage Machine" of legacy media, pollsters and fact-checkers, the Trump labels it took apart one by one, why the country was never meant to be a democracy, and why the words "Electoral College" never appear in the Constitution. Matt also reports a trend from his polling: seniors are the most enthusiastic voters this year, 70 to 77 percent for those 65 and over against the 30s for young voters. He calls it the silver wave. They also get into Nick Saban's new ESPN docuseries, the ICE shooting in New York and the detainers New York won't honor, Abdul El-Sayed getting grilled about the Muslim Brotherhood and James Talarico's days off the trail, why Matt is canceling his Wall Street Journal, Rick Jackson in the Georgia governor's race and why people vote their self-image, John's "death of the expert," the Selma Blair Delta flight, Taylor Sheridan's Lioness on Russia and China, and red states and blue states. Plus John's new song with his band L.A.W. (Love and Water), "Hello Old Friend," which plays out the episode. 🏌️ The Leaderboard — Leaders & Laggards in politics, every week. mattsleaderboard.com · @LeaderMatt\_John TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 – Welcome from St. Petersburg: the Falcons stories 3:05 – Leader: Nick Saban's new docuseries 4:38 – Loser: the ICE shooting in New York 6:06 – Matt's new book is out: The Honoring of Ignorance 9:38 – Why campaigns wait too long to spend 10:22 – The silver wave: seniors fired up to vote 11:38 – El-Sayed, and Talarico's missing days 13:24 – "Sharp as a tack," and canceling the Wall Street Journal 14:55 – Georgia: Rick Jackson, Mike Collins and voting your self-image 17:03 – John: the death of the expert 19:01 – Everybody's a political expert 20:25 – Loser: Selma Blair on the plane 22:02 – Why Matt skipped the publisher and the book tour 23:45 – Written at Cambridge 40 years ago 26:10 – "This country is not a democracy": electors, not an Electoral College 27:16 – The Mirage Machine: media, pollsters and fact-checkers 29:33 – Red states, blue states and compacts 31:28 – Lioness: Russia, China and TikTok 33:09 – Leave New York to New York 34:24 – John's new song with L.A.W.: "Hello Old Friend" 35:29 – Hall Booth Smith then and now 37:01 – "Hello Old Friend" by L.A.W. #TheLeaderboard #MattTowery #JohnHall #TheHonoringOfIgnorance #2026Midterms #Polling