Mansplaining

Send us Fan Mail Since 2004, more than 1,300 communities in the USA have lost a newspaper,  and when the daily paper is a thing of the past it will be replaced by ... what, exactly, and what might be the implications for our democracy?  Mark and Joe survey the landscape of “news deserts” and speculate about what might lie ahead.

Send us Fan Mail Joe and Mark consider the Congressional resolution that has progressive hearts aflutter, while conservatives are in a tizzy at the prospect of losing access to the hamburger-industrial complex.  Is the Green New Deal a slogan, legislation, or something in-between, and might it someday become the law of the land? (Recorded March 12, 2021.)

Send us Fan Mail Mark and Joe trace the history of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, from its genesis in the 1920s through the ratification wars of the 1970s, and try to guess whether recent efforts to get it across the finish line are likely to  succeed. (Recording date: February 26, 2021.)

Send us Fan Mail Why do some people lose their memories?  When you lose your memory, what is it that you’re losing?   Joe and Mark discuss the umbrella of neurocognitive disorders known familiarly as dementia, as well as the way memory works and why we forget.  Will you remember reading this blurb? ( (Recorded February 12, 2021.)

Send us Fan Mail The recent federal antitrust lawsuits against Facebook and Google mark a rare area of agreement in our polarized political culture.  Seemingly everybody wants to do something about Big Tech, though for very different reasons.  But should these companies be broken up?  Mark and Joe take quick tour through the history of antitrust and examine the pros and cons of breaking up Amazon,...

Send us Fan Mail Without inhaling, Joe and Mark catch a whiff of the best arguments for and against legalizing drugs.  Includes a brief history of drug use in the USA, a chronicle of the ill-advised "War on Drugs," and how the topic of legalization lends itself to strange political bedfellows. (Recorded Jan. 15, 2021.)

Send us Fan Mail Mark and Joe slide into Major League Baseball’s surprising decision to integrate the Negro Leagues with the major leagues.  Is it even feasible to combine the statistical records of different leagues playing at different times under different conditions, and might baseball’s gesture inadvertently diminish the ballplayers of color that it was meant to honor? (Recorded Jan. 1, 2021....

Send us Fan Mail Why is Christmas such a big deal, and how did it become so important?  Joe and Mark trace the history of a religious holiday’s roots in ancient European winter solstice festivals, and its long and winding road to becoming the cultural juggernaut it is today. (Recorded Dec. 18, 2020.)

Send us Fan Mail Mark and Joe review the newest political catchphrase to polarize America, examining its origins, the longstanding debate among advocates of abolishment versus reform, and a careful redirection of police resources might look like, before concluding with their proposals for a better slogan.  (Recorded December 5, 2020) Like our Facebook page to vote on your favorite slogan, comment...

Send us Fan Mail Joe and Mark ponder “the Hispanic vote,” its influence on the 2020 presidential election, and the sneaking possibility that it’s not the monolith many Democrats assume. (Hint: it’s not. Taping date: November 20, 2020.)

Send us Fan Mail The demise of movie theaters has been predicted for decades, but COVID-19 might be the thing that finally does them in.  Mark and Joe examine the history of the cinema-industrial complex, its prospects for survival, and what “going to the movies” might look like a generation from now. (Taping date: November 6, 2020.)

Send us Fan Mail Joe and Mark explore the origins of the electoral college, why it made sense at our nation’s founding, and whether there are any good reasons for retaining it today. (Recorded October 23, 2020.)

Send us Fan Mail Mark and Joe place Kanye West’s strange presidential campaign in the context of recent third-party candidacies and examine whether it’s likely to play a spoiler role in the race between Trump and Biden. (Recorded October 9, 2020)

Send us Fan Mail Joe and Mark consider the epic wildfires currently ravaging the western United States and try to parse the role that climate change plays in these intensifying conflagrations. (Taped September 25, 2020.)

Send us Fan Mail Mark and Joe review the surprisingly long and checkered history of American sports boycotts that started with racists boycotting athletes of color and led, most recently, to athletes of color protesting racist cops. Taped September 11, 2020.

Send us Fan Mail Joe and Mark discuss the standoff between BLM demonstrators and Federal agents in Portland, OR and examine whether the same rules and restrictions apply for the Feds as for local police. Taped July 31, 2020.

Send us Fan Mail Mark and Joe review America’s reaction to the “Spanish flu” pandemic of 1918-1919 and how it was similar to, and different from, the way we’re currently responding to COVID-19. Taped August 15, 2020.

Send us Fan Mail No, folks, it’s not a death metal band.  Joe and Mark “follow the white rabbit” down the dark hole of QAnon conspiracy theories, why they’ve become so popular, and what that says about all of us. Taped August 29, 2020.