A Gentlemen’s Disagreement

Episode 68 - SCOTUS term overview with Professor Barry McDonald

We are joined this week by Caruso School of Law (Pepperdine) professor and constitutional law expert Barry McDonald to analyze the Supreme Court's fall docket. The Court is poised to hear a series of major cases this term, and Professor McDonald takes us through five of them: a free speech case (303 Creative LLC v. Elenis), a social media case (Gonzalez v. Google/Twitter v. Taamneh), an affirmative action case (Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard), a voting rights case (Moore v. Harper), and the independent state legislature case (Merrill v. Milligan).  

Episode 67 - Midterm trends & more with Joan Vennochi

We are joined this week by longtime Globe columnist Joan Vennochi to discuss some of the trends we are seeing heading into the midterms with a focus on where the balance between the key issues of abortion and inflation currently stands. We also get Joan's views on a variety of other subjects, including Ukraine, crime, and the T.

Episode 66 - Analyzing the Massachusetts Ballot with Samantha Gross

We are joined this week by Samantha Gross of the Boston Globe to delve into the Massachusetts ballot. Sam gives us an overview of the statewide races in Massachusetts before giving us great insight into the four consequential ballot questions dealing with a "millionaires' tax", dental insurance, liquor licenses, and drivers' licenses for undocumented immigrants (4:42-34:30). We then discuss our opinions on those questions and explain which way we're currently leaning on each (34:38-1:04:13).

Episode 65 - Previewing the midterms with Steve Kornacki

An episode for political junkies, as we are joined by NBC News political correspondent Steve Kornacki to preview the midterm elections. Steve talks about the larger trends he is seeing, analyzes a number of the Senate races, and even makes a couple of predictions.

Episode 64 - The through lines connecting the crises in Puerto Rico, Jackson, and Martha’s Vineyard

We talked about three crises this week that may seem disparate on the surface but that we actually feel have several themes connecting them. We start by analyzing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's move to transport migrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard (4:23-24:39). We then break down the water crisis that has devasted Jackson, Mississippi over the past weeks and months (24:47-43:24) before finishing up by discussing the latest natural disaster to befall Puerto Rico (43:32-54:09).

Episode 63 - In Memoriam: Queen Elizabeth II & Mikhail Gorbachev

The world lost two seminal figures in the past two weeks, and so we spent some time discussing the life and legacy of each. We began by discussing Queen Elizabeth II (4:59-28:52) before considering Mikhail Gorbachev (29:00-50:23). We conclude by remembering the heroes and victims of September 11th (50:31-57:55).

Episode 62 - Your Government Has Forgiven (Some of) You

In this week's episode, we talk about President Biden's decision to issue his long-debated executive order to cancel portions of federal student loans (3:33-39:29) before discussing next week's Massachusetts' primaries (39:37-58:19).

Episode 61 - A variety pack: al-Zawahiri, Taiwan, Griner, Trump, Dems, Kansas

In this week's episode, we run through a bunch of topics that have been in the news recently in ten minute segments. We talk about the U.S. killing of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri (4:56-13:46), Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan (13:55-24:01), the arrest and incarceration of Brittney Griner (24:10-33:32), the FBI's search of former president Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence (33:41-44:29), Democrats boosting far-right MAGA candidates in Republican primaries (44:38-52:52), and Kansas voters rejecting a proposed state constitutional amendment to roll back abortion rights (53:00-1:03:04).

Episode 60 - Dan Fishman on the liberty movement and third parties in a two-party system

We are joined this week by the Executive Director of People for Liberty, Dan Fishman. Dan tells us about his personal journey to libertarianism, his experience as the Executive Director of the Libertarian Party during Jo Jorgenson's presidential campaign, and his current role as a leader of the liberty movement. We discuss the principles of the liberty movement and what role third parties can play in our current two-party system. 

Episode 59 - It’s Getting Hot In Here

Coming off of a heat wave that swept across the northern hemisphere, we decided it would be a good time to talk about climate change. We discussed how the conversation around climate change has evolved over the past two decades, even if action has not followed. We debated whose job it is to take steps to address climate change, considered why it hasn't happened, and analyzed the latest hope for action: the "Inflation Reduction Act."