Grid launches new podcast “Bad Takes,” but is it off to a bad (as in biased) start?

Grid has launched a new podcast “Bad Takes,” which will examine some of the “worst takes on important and complex topics.” The podcast will be hosted by political commentator and Grid editor at large Matthew Yglesias and executive editor Laura McGann.

Yet how the duo define “worst” is at best debatable. Though Yglesias and McGann have pledged to take on bad ideas “on the left and the right,” their first episodes betray a right-leaning bias — intentional or unconscious — that takes aim at the recent Inflation Reduction Act — the biggest government action on climate change in history — and the activities of pro-choice advocates in Arizona (labeled by the pair as “pro-abortion”) to defund police. It’s hardly a fair tack, given how MAGA Republicans have made death threats against FBI members and have celebrated the activities of insurgents responsible for the deaths of Capitol Police on Jan. 6.

Joe Rogan, an anti-vax podcast host the subject of much controversy in light of racial slurs, also gets marquee time for an episode on weight loss.

“Bad Takes” will air weekly and can be found on all major podcast platforms. Future episodes will bear out whether the podcast lives up to its promise to be, as one network puts it, fair and balanced.