John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting joins Susan Crabtree and Eric Eggers to talk about performing on the USS Nimitz for America's 250th, bringing a freed hostage on stage to play piano, and why patriotism became a political flashpoint.

He explains how a song written after October 7th connected him to hostage families, why he thinks the arts decide the culture war, and what a California flag ban says about the country right now. Susan and Eric dig into the drop in national pride, the media's role, and whether the divide is as deep as the headlines claim.

On Background is a production of the Government Accountability Institute.

Susan Crabtree and Jed McFatter return to walk through ten figures in Gavin Newsom's political orbit who later faced charges, convictions, or prison. They trace verified election coercion in his first run for San Francisco mayor, the bribery cases reaching into his former staff, and the federal scrutiny now aimed at Jennifer Siebel Newsom's nonprofit and the millions flowing between it and her for-profit film company. The conversation closes on the socialist wave in New York and what it signals for Los Angeles and California.

Read the reporting referenced in this episode in the California Globe and City Journal. Get the full investigation in the book Fool's Gold.

Newsom says Trump invented an investigation to stop his 2028 run.

The truth: prosecutors in Sacramento opened it before Trump took office. A whistleblower came forward last year. His chief of staff already pleaded guilty.

Susan Crabtree and Jed McFatter lay out the rest alongside Eric Eggers.