A Gentlemen’s Disagreement

We discuss what the story of the United States is, what it means, what we're celebrating, and how we're celebrating with Robert Allison, the president of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts and the chair of Revolution 250. 

The U.S. welfare system appears broken, both to those inside and outside of it. After three decades serving across local, state, and federal welfare systems, Clarence Carter has a vision for how to make it better.

We talk soccer with Groundwork Collaborative's Nia Law & Emily DiVito, specifically looking at how FIFA's choices & policies are affecting individuals & communities ahead of the World Cup.

The former Executive Director of the Libertarian Party, Dan Fishman, joins us to discuss what Thomas Massie's primary defeat means for the Republican Party, the liberty movement, and American politics. 

Marine Corps veteran Will Thompson joins us to provide his perspective on our military policy questions, including about U.S. military bases abroad, deploying during peacetimes and wartimes, serving under different administrations, and the military budget.

Amidst all the talk of gerrymandering, a more seismic shift in our democracy looms on a horizon that is growing ever closer. WaPo's Jason Willick helps us unpack where the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact stands and what its passage might portend for the way we elect our president.

We recap a big personal week for the gentlemen before diving into some of the topics (Iran, Trump, the Pope, tax day) that have been dominating the news lately. 

WaPo's climate zeitgeist reporter Shannon Osaka takes us behind the stories of an older issue, a constant issue, and a newer issue, all of which seem to be getting worse at once these days.

We have questions about where on the timeline we are in this AI revolution, what it means for our economy and our society, and what the future might look like; Dave Friedman of the "Buy the Rumor; Sell the News" substack has answers...or at least a recommended approach. 

Three weeks into this conflict with Iran, polls show that most liberals and independents are against the conflict yet overwhelming majorities of conservatives are in favor of it. How could this be? Why haven't traditional conservative arguments against this type of war soured this generation of conservatives on it? We try to parse these arguments in a buy-or-sell format.

We try to make some sense of the conflicting feelings we have about the latest U.S. strikes. How are we supposed to reconcile not feeling badly about the result but also not feeling good about the process?

Dalia al-Aqidi, a Republican candidate for Congress for Minneapolis, Minnesota joins us to discuss her views from the ground of the city that has been at the center of so much of U.S. culture and conflict over the past few months and years (3:30-38:00). We then reflect on lessons we've learned, favorite episodes and guests, and what we're grateful for through 200 episodes.

In honor of the The United States Semiquincentennial, we select the most significant of the 250 years of the United States in our annual Presidents Day draft.

A year into Manhattan's first-of-its-kind-in-the-U.S. congestion pricing policy, Boston Globe writer (and New York city resident) Abdallah Fayyad dives into the data to tell us how the program has worked and what other cities in the country can learn from it.

Is the U.S. Constitution working? If so, could we make it work better? If not, can we fix it? Tom Teicher makes the case for a 28th Amendment that would mandate Constitutional Conventions every 40 years.

President Trump promised a "new Golden Age" for the U.S., but is his administration just another step further into a second Gilded Age here in the States? Historian, author, and Holy Cross Professor Edward O'Donnell joins us to make the case that we are in, and have been in, a new Gilded Age for years if not decades.

We discuss the tricky balance between regulation, free speech, innovation, safety and more in the era of social media and artificial intelligence with John P. Wihbey, Director of the AI-Media Strategies Lab at Northeastern University and author of "Governing Babel: The Debate over Social Media Platforms and Free Speech – and What Comes Next."

We discuss the stunning--and yet utterly predictable--US invasion of Venezuela and capture of Nicolas Maduro and his wife.

Affordability has been one of the top stories of the past several years; The Washington Post's Julie Weil analyzes the many factors that contribute to this umbrella term, including inflation, housing costs, interest rates, tariffs, and child and healthcare.

Our fifth(!) annual rundown of the stories that captured our attention this calendar year--we break down the domestic and global policies, developments, and ideas that we found ourselves reading, thinking, and talking about the most in 2025.

What is going on with Venezuela? We examine the U.S. strikes on the alleged drug boats over the past few months, the buildup of force in the Caribbean, where this might be headed, and what it means in the context of U.S. foreign policy both under this administration and in the history of U.S. interventionism. 

This is a meandering episode on the importance of conversation, from talks we had on our recent golf trip, to upcoming discussions people often have at Thanksgiving, to recent interactions at the national level involving Tucker, Trump, and Mamdani.

Jackson Lahmeyer, the founder of Pastors for Trump and a member of the White House Faith Council, discusses anti-Christian bias under previous administrations and how President Trump's administration is bringing faith back to the forefront.

Live reactions from election night here in the U.S. We talked Zohran Mamdani's remarkable campaign and what we'll be looking for under his administration, what the Democratic victories in New Jersey and Virginia mean, and what the success of the gerrymandering proposition in California portends for our democracy. We then welcomed Boston political legend Larry DiCara on to discuss all things Boston...

Professor, scholar, and author Matthew Boedy discusses his new book "The Seven Mountains Mandate," in which he details the decades-long movement to remake the pillars of American society into the pillars of a Christian theocracy and how that movement is currently implementing its goals under the Trump administration.