A Gentlemen’s Disagreement

Episode 58 - Jamie Kirchick on the Hidden History of D.C., the End of Europe and the News Media

We are joined this week by Jamie Kirchick to talk about his latest book, Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington. We also reflect on his first book, The End of Europe, which he wrote in 2017, and much of which he predicted in it, unfortunately, has come to pass in the past five years. We also talk about the state of the media today compared to the past and how media affects a democracy. 

Episode 57 - Egregiously Wrong (pt. 2)

In part 2 of our SCOTUS-centric episode, we discuss the legitimacy of the Court given everything that has happened this term and over the past decade (2:15-31:10) before breaking down some of the other opinions the Court released this term (31:20-52:30).

Episode 56 - Egregiously Wrong (pt. 1) with Mikaela Louie & Jessica Vandervort

We're back this week with a mega episode focused solely on SCOTUS's decision in Dobbs to overturn Roe. We begin by giving our own thoughts on the issue (5:20-50:11) before being joined by two law-school trained friends Mikaela Louie (50:13-1:30:53) and Jessica Vandervort (1:32:14-2:06:18).

Episode 55 - On guns (and violence) in the U.S.

Given the events of the past several weeks, Ricky felt it was high time to talk about guns, so we do that for the bulk of this episode (27:43-1:07:02). We bookend that talk with discussions on the House January 6th Committee public hearings (0:30-27:36) and the assassination attempt on Justice Kavanaugh (1:07:11-1:21:33).

Episode 54 - The Rise of Ron with Austin Jackson

We are joined by Austin Jackson this week to discuss the rise of Ron DeSantis, first as Governor of Florida and then as a national figure. We talk about his legislative record in Florida, how that record has been received both in Florida and nationally, and about the potential for a future run for President.

Episode 53 - Problems That Persist

In a rather somber episode, we discuss the mass shooting in Buffalo (5:58-42:30), the U.S.'s role in the continuing war in Ukraine (42:39-1:16:25), and the U.S. hitting a grim COVID milestone (1:16:34-1:32:34).

Episode 52 - Elon’s Twitter Takeover; Election Season in the U.S. & Europe

We're back to talk about Elon taking over Twitter and what it means for the platform, for free speech, and for Elon himself (11:20-34:02). We then spend some time on one of our favorite recurring topics: examining the current state of the Republican party as we head into primary season here in the United States. We pair that discussion with the results of recent elections in Europe, including those in France and Hungary to see if there are any common transatlantic trends we can see (34:10-1:13:11).

Episode 51 - Unionization, Immigration, and Ukraine

We're back to talk about a bunch of things that have been in the news over the past couple of weeks including the first unionization of an Amazon facility (14:12-31:05), immigration being back in the headlines (31:06-52:39), and the latest developments in Ukraine (52:48-1:06:40).

Episode 50 - Sports, Money, & Global Politics

This week we use the Roman Abramovich/Chelsea/Russia/UK saga as a jumping off point to delve a little more deeply into how global politics have increasingly become intertwined with sports in our increasingly interconnected world. How do we, as fans and global citizens, reckon with the influx of money into our teams and leagues from sources who the West generally doesn't think are good? And, do we, as the West, really have the moral authority to judge who is and isn't good? And, even if we do have that authority, how should we want to handle cases in which those sources want to get involved in our sports? It's all very complicated. (0:30-46:58)

We then conclude by talking about Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination and confirmation hearings. (47:07-58:44).

Episode 49 - The Ukraine Is Not Weak

This week we finally discuss the situation in Ukraine. We look at what is currently happening on the ground, wonder about Putin's endgame, and talk about how the situation is playing out here in the United States. In a bit of a role-reversal, Ricky forces us to think about the current prevailing narrative in the United States and how this conflict might be benefitting the Biden Administration, while Brendan defends the prevailing narrative and how the Biden Administration has handled the conflict thus far.