Heard Tell

Historically when West Virginians and Kentuckians get together, bad stuff happens, but our friend Jeffrey Tyler Syck digitally reached across the metaphorical Tug Fork in friendship, so we kept it peaceful and informative. Tyler’s a professor and civics director down at the University of Pikeville and previously taught at the University of Virgnia. We talk about the actual “kids these days”; not t...

A horrible jobs report, angst over gas and consumer prices, conflicts around the world, and a bitter midterm election cycle here at home means one thing: we need to turn down the noise on what is going on with economic headlines with our friend and economist Dr. Stephen Popick on this episode of Heard Tell. How economic models are and aren’t working when it comes to everything from jobs data to th...

The death of a researcher in Siberia has lit a worldwide fire back under the public health debate. With so many layers to this story from internet panic, Russian government secrecy, scientists not being great communicators, distrust in both science and government post-COVID being low, we turn to our friend Dr Michael Siegel to hash out what we should and shouldn’t be worried about. ______ Heard T...

Ace reporter and congressional insider Eric Garcia returns to talk doing journalism in the era of streamers and content creators, what’s really going on in the House of Representatives and US Senate, previewing the midterms, changes in media, and more! The Independent’s Inside Washington newsletter can be found here: ______ Heard Tell SubStack Free to subscribe, comes right to your inbox https://w...

We are thrilled to have our friend and long-time Heard Tell contributor Dr. Michael Siegel back to talk about all the recent headlines on space. Dr. Siegel is a Research Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University and is the lead scientist for the Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) instrument aboard NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. But more importantly, he’s ou...

What an omnishambles, to take a term from our UK friend. Host Andrew talks the death penalty, the botched execution, and what it says about the judicial system, our government, and use. ______ Heard Tell SubStack Free to subscribe, comes right to your inbox https://www.heardtellmedia.com Questions, comments, concerns, ideas, or epistles? Email us HeardTellShow@gmail.com Please follow @HeardTellSho...

Let’s talk about teachers on this episode of Heard Tell, specifically how a program covered by Amelia Knisely in WV Watch reminds me of the programs that allowed my parents to not only go to college, but make educating West Virginians an entire lifetime that had far-reaching effects on who I became. Amelia Knisely’s piece can be read here: https://westvirginiawatch.com/2026/09/15/state-funded-coll...

Some brief thoughts on why the privilege of platform demands that we who have it must be willing to adapt and change, because the audience doesn’t care about the same things we do. Being protective of the quality of work, not precious about what the audience wants to call it or how they want to intake it, on this Heard Tell. ______ Heard Tell SubStack Free to subscribe, comes right to your inbox h...

My personal habit of not really talking about 9/11 on 9/11 ends today. And going forward. I talk about why, my experience that day, dealing with memory, generational shift, and more. Tom Jurod’s The Falling Man, free to read on 9/11 but otherwised paywalled, can be read here: ______ Heard Tell SubStack Free to subscribe, comes right to your inbox https://www.heardtellmedia.com Questions, comments,...

All heck is breaking loose in West Virginia’s gubernatorial politics. After weeks if not months of speculation US Senator and former WV Governor Jim Justice openly admitted he is considering another run his old job. The current governor, Patrick Morrisey, was already on a string of bad press before that, and over the weekend found himself at the center of another controversy. Center being the key...

While American and Canadian officials crank up the rhetoric, threats, and retaliations, we try to turn down the noise on the US-Canada trade hot mess as our old friend and certified Canadian David Clement joins American Andrew Donaldson on how we got here, can either President Trump or PM Carney get out of this mess, the politics and structures that make the situation worse, and what happens next...

Instead of yelling at others as part of the “affordability”, for this Heard Tell we take the roiling online debate and bring it back to the personal. Having a diverse educational and work background is a good place to start, and being the parent of young adult kids who are navigating these issues in real time means some helpful context. Then we can run the concept through a filter of perspective,...

The old saying goes being listened to is better than being heard because the latter is passive and automatic whereas listening is active and requires focus. But I suspect what sounds like a good idea isn’t going to go well for Gov Patrick Morrisey because the folks on his “listening tour” wanted to be heard the first time and don’t want just attention they want it fixed. But there is no easy fix....

Some thoughts on charging parents for enabling the violence of their mass shooting children, why “fell through the cracks” is a lie, and why accountability for these violent events needs to go even further.  ______ Heard Tell SubStack Free to subscribe, comes right to your inbox https://www.heardtellmedia.com Questions, comments, concerns, ideas, or epistles? Email us HeardTellShow@gmail.com Pleas...

The story of WV House of Delegate member Elliot Pritt being charged with grooming and abusing a student has made me sick. Reviewing my text messages w/him & notes from where I wrote about him in 2023 even more so.  Subscribe and watch the full video here -------------------- Heard Tell SubStack Free to subscribe, comes right to your inbox https://www.heardtellmedia.com Questions, comments, con...

One of our principles on Heard Tell when covering politics & culture is “follow the money” since that’s the closest you usually can get to the truth in a world that is all about image, branding, and marketing. But the same increasingly applies to sports, and with sports media and political media both chasing the content economy the two genres have more in common than not. Our friend Dave Van d...

Talking America 250 (Part 2). The conversation turns stateside as Ben Harris, an Englishman with a serious soft spot for America but experienced working in the UK Parliament, walks through his viral essay on American exceptionalism: freedom, abundance, and the strange magic of a country built on ideals instead of blood and soil. Andrew and Ben talk grocery store abundance vs. European scarcity, wh...

For the 4th of July and reviving an old tradition, Host Andrew sits down with our man in Westminster, Ben Harris, for the 4th of July episode. Ben (soccer jersey and all) breaks down why Britain can't build anything due to a planning system where NIMBYs hold veto power over housing, energy, even supermarkets, and how an entire generation of young Brits is getting crushed by it. They dig into t...

Our friend Gabriella Hoffman of IWF, Outsider on the Inside Substack, District of Conservation Podcast, and a whole bunch of other stuff returns to talk about her policy focus work on data centers. We turn down the noise of the boom prophets and doom merchants to talk what data centers are and aren’t, where the policy needs to go for honest questions and reasonable regulation, historical lessons a...

Live from the UK on a very busy news day Over Yonder Jack Rowlett joins Heard Tell to react to PM Keir Starmer going before the House of Commons for a two hour grilling on the Mandelson/Epstein scandal that has him fighting off calls to resign, the state of the US-UK relationship, economic issues in the UK, energy policy at the heart of what ailes England, what President Trump does and doesn’t aff...

Host Andrew Donaldson is joined by economist Dr. Stephen Popick to talk proper economic terms from the headlines life inflation, The Fed, and more, how to understand the housing crisis, why it is a mistake to think economics runs of the political calendar, how AI is shaping the data behind the economy not just the economy itself, and much more. Watch the  full video here : https://open.substack.co...

Host Andrew Donaldosn brings his unique perspective on AI and higher education as someone who has college-aged children, his own education, and currently being enrolled in community college Watch the full video here : https://heardtell.substack.com/p/some-common-sense-regarding-ai-and?r=17xga  -------------------- Heard Tell SubStack  Free to subscribe, comes right to your inbox https://www.heardt...

President Trump announces a "ceasefire" in the Iran War, so we do instant reaction with The Independent's Washington Bureau Chief Eric Garcia, plus what to expect when congress gets back in town, and more on this Heard Tell Live from the Heard Tell Substack -------------------- Heard Tell SubStack  Free to subscribe, comes right to your inbox https://www.heardtellmedia.com Questions, c...

Andrew Donaldson gives his instant reaction after President Trump's press conference that started with the rescued airmen and ended with a hot mess of contradictory statements and yet more threats and moving deadlines over the Iran War and more. -------------------- Heard Tell SubStack  Free to subscribe, comes right to your inbox https://heardtell.substack.com/ Questions, comments, concerns,...

On trying to do better than the race to the bottom politics, social media, and news media have all decided to not only do, but monetize and make the dominate business model All and more on this Heard Tell Live from the Heard Tell Substack -------------------- Heard Tell SubStack  Free to subscribe, comes right to your inbox https://heardtell.substack.com/ Questions, comments, concerns, ideas, or e...