A Gentlemen’s Disagreement

Episode 104 - On Capitalism

Ricky wanted to zoom out a little bit for this episode and engage in a discussion on how we currently think about capitalism and how capitalism does--or does not--meet the current moment in our economics and in our politics. 

Episode 103 - The immigration crisis with Carine Hajjar

We are joined this week by current Boston Globe and former Wall Street Journal writer and reporter Carine Hajjar to discuss the many angles of the current immigration crisis (4:18-33:04). Carine has been writing about this mounting crisis for years now from Texas, New York City, and now Boston, and she provides us with some excellent knowledge and perspective to ground this tremendously tricky topic.

Episode 102 - Six in Sixty: UAW strike, impeachment, abortion, North Korea, Iran, Morocco & Libya

A big news week, so we return to our model of covering six of the major topics in (about) an hour. We start domestically by discussing the UAW Strike (7:38-21:35), the road to another presidential impeachment (21:36-31:31), and President Trump's recent comments on abortion (31:32-39-24). We then move abroad to break down the implications of the Russia-North Korea meeting (39:28-50:00) and the U.S.-Iran prisoner swap (50:01-59:09), and we conclude by looking at the terrible natural disasters in Morocco and Libya (59:10-1:05:25).

Episode 101 - Equal justice under the law

We are back after a brief hiatus to talk about what the phrase "equal justice under the law" means in our society today. We examine this idea by looking at the impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the four indictments of President Trump, and the legal saga of Hunter Biden.

Episode 100 - Reactions to the first Republican debate

A milestone episode for us, and we spend it diving into the first Republican primary debate. We discussed President Trump's physical absence yet looming presence, the winners and losers of the night, and what the entire debate says about the current state of the Republican Party (11:51-1:01:51). We then spend a little time reflecting on our first one hundred episodes (1:01:57-1:09:57).

Episode 99 - Parental rights, safe schools, & more hot button issues in education with Kiera Butler

We are joined this week by Mother Jones reporter and senior editor Kiera Butler to discuss some of the current major issues in education and politics (4:03-46:58). Kiera talks about her two trips to Moms4Liberty's National Conference and what she learned about the parental rights movement at those conferences. She also explores the politicization of reading instruction, the debates on how to make schools safer, school choice, and a potential future Secretary of Education. 

 

Episode 98 - A legal analysis of SCOTUS’s ’22-’23 term with Professor Barry McDonald

We were joined once again this week by Pepperdine Law professor and constitutional law expert Barry McDonald to break down some of the major cases from the Supreme Court's term (12:08-1:03:03). We dive into the legal reasoning behind the affirmative action, voting rights, independent state legislature, free speech, and student loan forgiveness cases, and then Professor McDonald shares some of his overall thoughts on the current state of the Court and offers some potential reforms of it. Great episode for lawyers, law students, and anyone with an interest in the legal world.

Episode 97 - Debating term & age limits

We touch on the touchy subject of how old is too old, following the recent health episodes of two prominent and long-serving senators, Mitch McConnell and Diane Fienstein (6:58-33:14). We switch gears to another story that's made headline news recently out of North Carolina State House of Representatives. A pro-reproductive rights Democrat shocked her party and crossed the aisle, delivering Republicans super-majorities in both the State House and Senate. She cast a decisive vote, overriding the Governor's veto of a bill limiting access to abortion. We debate the savoriness of her actions and pose the question: Do voters go to the polls to elect people or the ideas those people represent? 

Episode 96 - Six in Sixty: NATO, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Greece, & Sudan

We've got an international version of "six in sixty" this week, as we discuss the takeaways from last week's NATO summit (5:15-17:02), the fallout from the Russian coup (17:02-24:14), the Biden Administration's decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine (24:24-35:57), Israel's military operations in the West Bank (36:03-46:34), the migrant boat that sank off the coast of Greece (46:39-56:41), and the conflicts ravaging Sudan (56:42-1:07:33).

Episode 95 - Reflections on the Supreme Court’s ’22-’23 Term

With the Supreme Court's latest term in the books, we spent this week discussing how some of their major decisions will affect American society and politics moving forward. We began by looking at the Court's term from a high level perspective, and then dug into their decision in the Harvard and UNC affirmative action cases (5:52-32:58). We then discussed the fallout from the Court's decision on President Biden's student debt relief plan (33:03-46:54), and concluded by looking at the decisions involving Freedom of Speech and LGBTQ+ rights and voting rights (46:59-1:04:45).