A Gentlemen’s Disagreement

On the heels of President Biden's "Democracy Summit," we discussed the state of democracy globally, specifically in India, Israel, and in the U.S.

Ricky spent the last two weeks serving on a jury for a murder trial. He had a lot of thoughts on the process, so we talked about it. A bit of a different episode, but one we think is both interesting and valuable.

We are joined this week by legendary tv reporter and radio host Dan Rea (3:00-53:10). We talked to Dan about how media has evolved over the course of his half-century in the business, his reflections on the time he spent with President Carter, his thoughts on President Trump's tenure, his current candidacy, and possible indictment, and many other stories, including an incredible story about Dan fi...

A fairly momentous week, as we discussed the 20 year anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq (9:59-44:09), the historic impending arrest of former President Trump (44:17-55:03), and Xi Jinping's visit to Russia (55:04-1:04:00).

This episode is all about the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank--the second largest bank collapse in U.S. history--and the federal government's response to it. We begin by talking about what we know about the collapse, and then spend much of the episode talking about what we want to know: namely, whether this is an isolated incident brought on by a specific set of circumstances or the sign of someth...

With Russia's invasion of Ukraine reaching the one year mark this week, we decided to take stock of where that conflict stands. We discussed the U.S. involvement thus far, the current domestic and global opinions of that involvement, and how the conflict might conclude. We are joined for that discussion by Dan Fishman, the former executive director of the Libertarian Party, the former executive di...

We are back with our third annual Presidents Day Mount Rushmore-style snake draft. We are joined for the draft, once again, by our friends Dan Gonzalez and Joe Webster, and this year we are drafting the most significant dates in U.S. history. A really fun episode for any lovers of U.S. history.

We begin by discussing the big story of the week: the U.S. shooting down the alleged Chinese spy balloon, as well as three other unidentified objects (2:57-25:39). We then share our thoughts on Biden's State of the Union address (25:44-44:11), and reflect on the terribly tragic earthquake in Turkey and Syria (44:19-51:27).

We are joined this week by former Massachusetts Governor Jane Swift (3:03-1:22:03) for a wide-ranging conversation about education, her time in the Massachusetts Senate, as Lieutenant Governor, and, ultimately, as an historic Governor, and what she has been up to since leaving office. 

Ricky is back from India, and we have a lot to talk about. We begin by discussing George Santos (9:40-21:50) and then move into the drama surrounding the election of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House (21:50-34:35). We next talk about the latest in recurring tragedies including gun violence, police brutality, and antisemitism (34:40-51:55) before wrapping up by considering the U.S. reaching it...

We are joined this week by Jacquetta Van Zandt (5:50-55:11) to discuss all things Massachusetts politics. Jacquetta is a veteran of many campaigns at the local, state, and federal levels, and currently comments on Massachusetts politics on both her own podcast and on television. We reflect on the past eight years in Massachusetts under the outgoing Baker administration, preview the next four years...

We kick off 2023 by trying to get a handle on the current state of the economy and trying to figure out where it might head this year. We are joined for that discussion by Matthew Knych (3:44-1:00:53) who provides his knowledge of and experience in the business and housing spaces to our analysis. 

In our final episode of the year, we each give our top five stories that defined 2022.

We are joined this week by Rand Wilson, who has spent forty years working in the labor movement. We discuss how unions and the labor movement have evolved during his time in them and what recent developments in those areas mean. We also discuss how the long fall and recent rise in working class power has affected political dynamics in the United States over the past forty years. Finally, we look a...

With so many subjects worth discussing this week, we went back to our six topics in sixty minutes format where we hit each topic in a (roughly) ten minute segment. Those topics were Senator Warnock's victory in the Georgia runoff election (5:30-15:48), Senator Sinema's change in party affiliation (15:53-23:32), the proposed shakeup in the Democratic Presidential Primary calendar (23:37-35:01), Con...

We begin this week by talking about the World Cup: our favorite storylines of the tournament and the multiple controversies that have surrounded it (5:36-42:26). We then discuss the protests that have roiled Iran (42:33-1:10:25) and China (1:10:34-1:24:50) over the past few weeks and months.  

We are joined this week by lawyer and Boston Herald columnist Jeffrey Robbins to talk about the dual rises in antisemitism and political violence that we have seen in the United States over the past few years. We begin our conversation with Jeff by talking about the causes and effects of the increasing antisemitism that we've seen (5:06-36:05), then transition into discussing the rise of political...

We're back to analyze the midterms, where the projected red wave failed to materialize. But is it too early to bury Trumpism? We talk overall takeaways (4:36-22:05), individual winners & losers (22:14-59:46), and then engage in some Massachusetts-centric discussion (59:54:1:11:08).

We are joined this week by Caruso School of Law (Pepperdine) professor and constitutional law expert Barry McDonald to analyze the Supreme Court's fall docket. The Court is poised to hear a series of major cases this term, and Professor McDonald takes us through five of them: a free speech case (303 Creative LLC v. Elenis), a social media case (Gonzalez v. Google/Twitter v. Taamneh), an affirmativ...

We are joined this week by longtime Globe columnist Joan Vennochi to discuss some of the trends we are seeing heading into the midterms with a focus on where the balance between the key issues of abortion and inflation currently stands. We also get Joan's views on a variety of other subjects, including Ukraine, crime, and the T.

We are joined this week by Samantha Gross of the Boston Globe to delve into the Massachusetts ballot. Sam gives us an overview of the statewide races in Massachusetts before giving us great insight into the four consequential ballot questions dealing with a "millionaires' tax", dental insurance, liquor licenses, and drivers' licenses for undocumented immigrants (4:42-34:30). We then discuss our op...

An episode for political junkies, as we are joined by NBC News political correspondent Steve Kornacki to preview the midterm elections. Steve talks about the larger trends he is seeing, analyzes a number of the Senate races, and even makes a couple of predictions.

We talked about three crises this week that may seem disparate on the surface but that we actually feel have several themes connecting them. We start by analyzing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's move to transport migrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard (4:23-24:39). We then break down the water crisis that has devasted Jackson, Mississippi over the past weeks and months (24:47-43:24) before finis...

The world lost two seminal figures in the past two weeks, and so we spent some time discussing the life and legacy of each. We began by discussing Queen Elizabeth II (4:59-28:52) before considering Mikhail Gorbachev (29:00-50:23). We conclude by remembering the heroes and victims of September 11th (50:31-57:55).

In this week's episode, we talk about President Biden's decision to issue his long-debated executive order to cancel portions of federal student loans (3:33-39:29) before discussing next week's Massachusetts' primaries (39:37-58:19).