"Serious Trouble": A Podcast For Those Who Care About The Rule Of Law

In 2018, a spin-off of KCRW’s Left Right & Center – which is billed as a civilized yet provocative debate about politics, policy and pop culture – launched, called All The President's Lawyers, and the podcast never went hungry for courtroom dramas in the Trump and post-Trump years.

On that legal show, host Josh Barro and legal expert and co-host Ken White probed the legal tea leaves for inspiration of the current week’s investigations, grand juries and legal rulings.

From Stormy Daniels, Michael Cohen, the Mueller Investigation and, of course, the crown prince of legal buffoonery, Rudy Giuliani, Barro and White analyzed the legal maneuvers of Trump allies or government entities like federal judges, Inspectors General and Congressional Committees. The show continued into the Biden administration until Barro, who was the long-time host of KCRW's Left, Right & Center, quit in December 2021 to start his own podcast and Substack newsletter called Very Serious with Josh Barro.

Serious Trouble is Barro's second podcast since leaving Left Right & Center and is, in essence, "getting the band back together." The podcast’s format is the definition of simplicity. Barro and White discuss the latest news on the numerous legal tornadoes swirling constantly around Trump, our polarized national dialogue, and the legal duels that are generated by culture wars. 

If, as anticipated, the Republicans take control of the House and Senate, the legal thumbscrews will be wound tightly on Hunter Biden, every word uttered by President Joe Biden, and numerous Congressional investigations will ensue into Italian computer servers controlling voting machines, socialist conspiracies, and abortion / lifestyle legislation.

In effect, Barro and White will be hard-pressed to keep up with all the legal tornadoes swirling in the news cycle.

Barro is not a lawyer but has great instincts for legal issues and his probing questions to legal expert White make for immersive listening and could qualify as receiving three credits for taking a class in Law.

White, who is an attorney at Brown White & Osborn LLP in Los Angeles, has the benefit of being on both sides of the legal fence. He was a federal prosecutor, and now his practice includes both criminal defense and free speech issues.

The co-hosts explain in detail how the law works and often point out its inherent weaknesses and strengths. White is forever explaining that federal prosecutors move at a snail’s pace to build a case, often frustrating Trump opponents who hope for a legal rather than an electoral decision.

Barro and White often explain the difference between a courtroom legal strategy with pleadings and motions and a public relations legal strategy with social media posts, inflammatory interviews on Fox News and posturing to the press. White always warns that a client’s public relations strategy, no matter how successful, should not hurt the client's actual legal strategy.

Barro and White are constantly amazed at people under indictment or the subject of an investigation shooting off their mouths in the media. White explains how damaging that can be when prosecutors use some of these freewheeling and loose-lipped comments in court. The number one target of their disdain is former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who now seems to more like a pissed-off motorist at municipal court fighting his road rage and DUI violations rather than the former federal prosecutor he once was.

What makes Serious Trouble so enticing is that -- like its predecessor, All The President's Lawyers -- it eschews picking sides in any political battle. Instead, the show addresses the legal issues surrounding these political battles.

It's a good sign that Barro and White can infuriate Republicans and Democrats during their legal analysis. This podcast will not appeal to either the "Trump is God" or the "Trump is the Devil" crowds. It will appeal to those who are concerned about the rule of law in our nation and for those rational people left who understand that laws are not subservient to the political ideology.

"Serious Trouble" co-host and lawyer Ken White.