The Tony Michaels Podcast
The Tony Michaels Podcast is no longer publishing new episodes. Regular publication ended in July 2026, and this feed remains online as an archive of more than 1,100 episodes about American politics, constitutional accountability, concentrated power, democracy and working people.
Tony Michaels now creates Five Minutes in America, a weekday radio and podcast storytelling series, and Along the Way, a weekly program about personal growth, citizenship and building a meaningful life. Both are published by The Coffman Chronicle.
Follow Tony’s current work and listen to Five Minutes in America:
https://www.thecoffmanchronicle.com/s/five-minutes-in-america
Along the Way is also published by The Coffman Chronicle.
Episodes
1160 episodes
Introducing Five Minutes in America | Follow the New Show
Five Minutes in America is a new weekday audio series written and told by Tony Michaels.Each five-minute episode tells a complete American story about ordinary people, shared responsibility, and the constitutional principles that bind us...
The Busyness of It All
Perfectionism does not always look like fear.Sometimes it shows up early, carries a clipboard, and points toward one more little thing a responsible person ought to fix.In this episode of Along the Way, I look at the diff...
It Is Impossible to Fail
Success isn’t a spotless notebook. Success is refusing to surrender authorship.Help put Five Minutes in America on the radio—and hear the stories first as a paid member of The Coffman Chronicle:https://www.thecoffmanchronicle.co...
The Chicken Story That Sold Bathrooms
I loved butchering chickens.My mother hated it.And believe it or not, that story helped me sell more than one bathroom.During my years in bathroom-remodeling sales, I learned that the best way to stop being strangers was...
Find Your If: The Greatest Advice My Art Teacher Ever Gave Me
My high school art teacher gave me one of the greatest pieces of advice I’ve ever received.The funny thing is—she first gave it to me twenty-five years ago.This week on Along the Way, an old art portfolio, a new sketchbook, and ...
The Story That Made Me a Storyteller
Some stories entertain us.Some stories stay with us.This is the story that stayed with me.When I was a teenager on a family vacation to Colorado, I heard a storyteller named Scotty Vaughn perform "Rindercella," a classic...
This Isn’t Goodbye. It’s Day One. | A Letter from Tony
For years, I thought I was building a podcast.I was wrong.I was building a body of work. A community. A place where we could tell the truth, challenge power, laugh together, and try to make sense of this country.The Tony...
The Republic Doesn’t Need Fans
What if the biggest lesson a boy learned at a Little League game had nothing to do with baseball?In today's Opening Argument, Tony Michaels tells the story of one father, one umpire, and one unforgettable evening that reveals the differe...
The Fence
The American Front Porch – Episode 1: The FenceSomewhere in your memory... there's a fence.Maybe it was painted white. Maybe it was barbed wire. Maybe it stood behind a Little League ball field or along a gravel road that l...
The Foreman Looked Away
When the rules apply to some people but not others, trust begins to break.Today’s Opening Argument starts on a factory floor, where one worker watches a simple safety rule become optional for someone with the right connection. But the le...
When Congress Goes Silent, Soldiers Carry the Risk | TMP #1085
Today’s Opening Argument goes back to Newburgh, New York, in 1783 — when unpaid Continental soldiers were pushed to the edge by a Congress that would not keep its promises.The lesson still matters:When Congress refuses to carry ...
Before Theodore Roosevelt Became Courage
Before America knew Theodore Roosevelt as a symbol of courage, he was a little boy struggling to breathe.In this episode of This American Character, Tony Michaels tells the story of young Teddy Roosevelt — a sickly child with severe ast...
Before America Knew His Name
Before America knew him as George Washington... he was just a young man hoping someone would tell him he belonged.Long before he crossed the Delaware...Long before he became the first President...Long before he refused a crown.....
Birthright Citizenship Is Not a Presidential Permission Slip | TMP #1084
Birthright citizenship is not a presidential permission slip.In today’s Opening Argument, Tony Michaels tells the story of a barbershop just outside Atlanta, Georgia, where three American stories collide: one family from Ireland, one fa...
Why America Keeps Looking for a King | TMP #1083
America didn’t wake up in a ditch overnight.Like a washed-out country road, the damage to our republic has been building beneath the surface for years.Today’s Opening Argument begins in a small American town where a road has was...
A Letter From 1914 Saw AI Coming | TMP #1082
A Letter From 1914 Saw AI ComingA woman sat at her kitchen table in Detroit in 1914 and wrote a letter to Henry Ford.She wasn't asking for more money.She wasn't demanding that the assembly line be shut down.She w...
Trump's War Just Hit Your Wallet | TMP #1081
Every war has a cost.Most Americans assume that cost is measured on a battlefield.But long before most of us ever see the headlines, working families begin paying in another way—at the gas pump.Today's Opening Argument t...
The Government Is Turning Speech Into Evidence | TMP #1080
When the government cannot prove the crime, it often reaches for the label.In today’s Opening Argument, Tony Michaels tells the story of Lucy Parsons sitting in a Chicago courtroom, watching her husband Albert Parsons face trial after t...
Why Are You Paying for Trump's War? | TMP #1079
A family trucking business in a small Midwestern town is doing everything right—but every trip to the diesel pump gets more expensive.Most people blame the president.But what if we're blaming the wrong branch of government?<...
Congress Let This War Burn for 40 Years | TMP #1078
The war with Iran did not begin with the latest bombs.It did not begin with one president, one missile strike, or one nuclear dispute.It grew out of decades of foreign interference, authoritarian rule, sanctions, hostage crises,...
America Was Supposed to Hate These Strangers | TMP #1077
There’s a story America keeps telling itself.That we’re angry.That we’re divided.That we’ve forgotten how to welcome people who come from somewhere else.Then a soccer team from Algeria arrived in Lawrence, Kansas.
Who's Really Raising Your Grocery Bill? | TMP #1076
A retired electrician and a 24-year-old grocery clerk have something in common.Neither one of them started a war.Yet both of them are paying for one.In today's Opening Argument, Tony Michaels tells the story of two Ameri...
Trump DOJ Just Crossed a Constitutional Line | TMP #1075
Trump’s DOJ Just Tested the First AmendmentDonald Trump says this is about law and order.History says we've heard that before.In today's Opening Argument, I tell the story of a 25-year-old man named John Lewis walking ac...
Trump's Team Wants This Dangerous Power | TMP #1074
Stephen Miller said it out loud.The Trump administration openly discussed suspending habeas corpus—the constitutional protection that forces the government to explain why it is detaining someone.Most Americans have never heard t...
Mike Johnson's MOST PATHETIC Trump Favor Yet | TMP #1073
Donald Trump wants Congress to do something the Constitution never assigned it to do: clean up his mess.House Speaker Mike Johnson is reportedly under pressure to support an effort to "expunge" Trump's impeachments from the House record...