Listen Up Girl — Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Segment 1 — Kennedy Center pays out $252,480: A DC judge ruled there was no valid contract, ending Richard Grenell's retaliatory lawsuit against jazz musician Chuck Redd over a canceled New Year's Eve performance.

Segment 2 — Jadon MacCormack's landslide loss: The Connecticut candidate who called for executing LGBTQ+ people and declared June "Straight Month" lost his primary with under 20% of the vote. He declared himself "the true winner" anyway.

Segment 3 — Darren Bailey's predator ties: The Illinois GOP gubernatorial candidate shared a stage with a registered child sex offender turned "ex-gay" minister, and separately accepted campaign donations from — and attended church with — another convicted sex offender.

Segment 4 — Shevrin Jones primary-day smear: A homophobic text blast falsely claimed the Florida state senator — who could become the state's first openly gay member of Congress — is HIV positive, falsely attributing the message to Equality Florida. The attack landed on primary day itself.

Segment 5 — DeSantis administration hypocrisy: A Florida newspaper called out officials for letting religious schools discriminate against LGBTQ+ students while denying religious-freedom protections to schools requiring vaccines.

Segment 6 — Fresno church rebuild: After vandals crushed a church's rainbow "God's doors are open to all" Pride display, neighbors rebuilt it before Sunday service had even ended.

Hosted by Zach Randles-Friedman

https://www.listenupgirl.com/

Follow me at https://www.instagram.com/therealzachre/

Podcast music: https://dillonderosa.com/ Thank you Dillion!!!

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