The California Attorney General sued Exxon Mobil this week for misleading the public on the sustainability of single use plastics. How did plastics recycling go from an exciting promise to a scam perpetuated by Big Oil? Max and Erin tear into Exxon’s decades-long campaign to unwrap the truth—with help from journalist Oliver Franklin-Wallis and the AG himself, Rob Bonta. Why is it so hard to recycle plastic? Who actually processes our waste? Will the lawsuit work? Listen to this week’s How We Got Here to find out.

Federal officials on Thursday unsealed an inducement charging New York City Mayor Eric Adams with a litany of corruption and illegal campaign finance crimes, making him the city's first sitting mayor to charged with a crime. But in good news, New York's WNBA team has made it to the league’s semifinals! While 2024 has been a banner year for the WNBA, players have also had to deal with a torrent of racist invective and general culture war nonsense all season long. Crooked’s own Erin Ryan, host of ‘Hysteria’ and the weekend edition of ‘What A Day,’ joins Jane to talk about it.

And in headlines: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Israeli officials defiantly rejected international calls for a ceasefire with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, and Hurricane Helene made landfall along Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Show Notes:

• Check out Hysteria – https://crooked.com/podcast-series/hysteria/
• Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8
• What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast
• Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/
• For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

Vice President Kamala Harris laid out what she called her “pragmatic” approach to growing the economy during a speech in Pittsburgh Wednesday. While Harris has been closing the gap with former President Donald Trump, when it comes to which candidate voters trust more to handle the economy, most polls show he still has the edge on one of the top issues in the race. But it’s not like Trump has particularly good ideas for voters who want the economy to work better for them. Among his more hare-brained plans is to appoint Elon Musk to find ways to cut government spending. Long-time tech journalist Kara Swisher explains how Trump and Musk became so close.

And in headlines: The House and Senate passed a temporary spending bill to avert a government shutdown…for now, a new report from a bipartisan Senate committee detailed multiple Secret Service failures around the first assassination attempt against Trump, and a Missouri man was put to death despite state prosecutors' attempts to appeal his sentence.

Show Notes:

• Check out Kara's pod – https://tinyurl.com/5kknr253
• Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8
• What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast
• Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/
• For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday