A Gentlemen’s Disagreement

After a month off, we are back to discuss the debt ceiling and all the machinations surrounding it (0:30-29:51), before touching on the fallouts from the Varsity Blues college admissions scandal and the January 6th House Investigation Committee (30:09-50:48).

We, rather reluctantly, wade back into the Covid conversation in this week's episode where we are joined by musician Brian Scully. Scully shares with us how Covid and all of the accompanying restrictions over the past eighteen months have affected his family and his career. We also debate the responses from our leaders at the local, state, and national levels from March of 2020 through today.

20 years, $2 trillion dollars, and countless lives. The toll of America's longest war is difficult to quantify, and perhaps even harder to swallow given its inglorious ending. On this week's episode, we get a Marine's perspective on the war in Afghanistan as Marine Corps veteran Captain Colin Murphy joins us for a discussion on what we gained, what we lost, and, hopefully, what we learned over the...

We begin this week by recapping some of the major storylines from the first week of the Olympics (0:30-25:23) before having a discussion specifically about neoliberalism, more generally about how the economic policy pendulum has swung back and forth in the U.S. over the past century, and more generally, still, about what we think government should be doing for its citizens (25:47-1:09:33).

With the 2020 Summer Olympics finally starting this week, we spent this episode discussing all things Olympics, including whether the Games should be taking place at all (0:30-22:25), our favorite events, and some U.S. athletes to keep an eye on in these Games (22:41-40:32). We conclude by reminiscing about some of our favorite all-time Olympic memories and debating U.S. participation in the 2022...

We spend the first segment of this episode diving into the NYC Mayoral Race and discuss everything that was on the ballot in that race, including the candidates themselves, crime and the police, and ranked choice voting (0:30-26:34). We then hit on a variety of different topics including the revival of bipartisanship with the infrastructure agreement, the conclusion of the Supreme Court's term, an...

This week we discuss Juneteenth (0:30-19:28), the Tulsa Massacre and Critical Race Theory (19:46-44:50), and then we close by profiling two, perhaps lesser known, Black Americans (45:44-1:03-:39).

We begin this week's episode by considering some listener feedback we received about last week's Israel-Palestine discussion (0:30-27:12). We then spend some time discussing the state of bipartisanship in D.C. through the lenses of the filibuster, infrastructure, and voting rights (27:30-51:26). We wrap up by analyzing Naomi Osaka's withdrawal from the French Open, what it says about the mental he...

We (try to) tackle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict this week. We begin by discussing the history of the region (0:30-24:02) before analyzing the conflict that has engulfed the region over the past couple of weeks (24:14-49:05). We then spend some time looking at the role the United States plays in the region and the reaction to the current conflict here in the U.S. (49:49-1:21:06), before wrappin...

We start this episode by analyzing the initial census data recently released by the government (0:30-34:44), then we spend some time examining Liz Cheney's last stand in the GOP leadership (34:57-53:41), before considering the latest CDC guidelines and reflecting on the NBA's Hall of Fame class that was inducted this past weekend (53:54-1:08:46).

With policing still making headlines over the past couple of weeks, we spend this episode thinking about policing in the United States from a couple of different perspectives. We are joined first by Salome Kassini (3:11-33:31) and then by Ratko Aleksis (34:05-1:45:03) who give us their unique perspectives on the big picture role of policing in this country and on several particular incidents, incl...

We start this week's episode by reacting and responding to some listener thoughts on the Georgia election laws before going deep into the U.S. dealings with Afghanistan and Iran. We stay overseas to finish up by discussing the rapid rise and fall of the Super League this week.   0:30-28:43 Georgia Election Law Mailbag 29:09-1:12:51 U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East 1:13:16-1:30:05 European Su...

In this Boston/Massachusetts-centric episode, we discuss the current and future states of the T and give an overview of Boston's burgeoning mayoral race before talking to the newest elected member of the Republican State Committee, Nicaela Chinnaswamy, about her decision to enter politics and the wild story of her race for the RSC.   0:30-21:55 - The T 22:21-47:02 - Boston Mayoral Race 47:23-1:25:...

In this week's episode we try to separate the wheat from the chaff with what's going on in Georgia. We bookend that discussion with a preliminary analysis of the proposed infrastructure bill and a look at where we stand in our collective fight against the coronavirus.    0:30-26:01 - Infrastructure 26:13-1:01:01 - Georgia Voting Law & MLB All Star 1:01:20-1:18:41 - Vaccinations & Variants

In a week where President Biden thought he was going to be able to take a victory lap touting the passage of the latest COVID relief bill, he, instead, was confronted with two mass shootings and a rising crisis on our southern border.   3:42-33:05 Immigration 33:20-1:28:32 Gun Control, anti-Asian discrimination, and U.S. exceptionalism

Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!   This week we discuss the latest Covid Relief Bill, before we are joined by Jeff Kirchick, friend and author, to discuss his new book, Authentic Selling, and get his thoughts on cancel culture.   0:30-17:34 Covid Relief Bill 17:46-59:17 Interview with Jeff 59:26-1:06:30 Evolution of cancel culture

In this week's episode we dive into the voting rights battles that are being fought in both the national and state legislatures across the country. We are then joined by Vincent Cortellessa to talk about Trump's return to national politics at CPAC and where the future of the Republican Party lies.    0:30-23:10 H.R. 1 & voting rights 23:21-1:06:35 Interview with Vince 1:06:48-1:11:27 Economic popu...

We're back to current events in this episode, as we touch on our takeaways from the second impeachment trial of President Trump, the behavior of Governor Cuomo and Senator Cruz, and the confirmation hearing of Neera Tanden. We finish the episode by taking a deep dive into the situation in Texas.   0:21-41:56 -- Trump, Cuomo, Cruz, Tanden   42:10-1:16:06 -- Texas Disaster    

We do something a little different in this episode, as we are joined by two of our best friends to engage in a Presidential "draft" in honor of Presidents Day. In the draft, we each select four Presidents to make up our respective Mount Rushmores.    *This version has Ricky's first overall pick in it, which was accidentally omitted from the previously uploaded version.*

We do something a little different in this episode, as we are joined by two of our best friends to engage in a Presidential "draft" in honor of Presidents Day. In the draft, we each select four Presidents to make up our respective Mount Rushmores. 

This week we saw Republicans gamble on keeping the tent as big as possible and Democrats gamble their version of unity doesn't need Republican support.   0:23-31:33 Marjorie Taylor Greene & Liz Cheney    31:50-48:24 Fox News Defamation Lawsuit    42:42-1:10:40 Covid Relief Package   

In this week's episode Brendan goes after the Biden Administration while Ricky goes in on Wall Street. And both of us go in on the media.   0:21-31:31 The first weeks of the Biden Administration 31:53-1:21:57 The Robinhood/Gamestop Fiasco

We kick off Season Two by reflecting upon how the podcast has gone thus far before we welcome our first guest, Oliver Starnes, to the program. We conclude by looking ahead to our hopes for the Biden Administration.   0:51-8:55 State of the podcast 9:11-49:47 Interview with Ollie 50:05-1:06:25 Hopes for the Biden Administration

In this time of transition, we do our best to try to gain some perspective on the four years of the Trump Presidency. We discuss our feelings watching his rise in 2016, analyze his successes and failures in the first three years of his term, before grappling with where he has left the country over the course of this last year.

In this episode, we recap and react to all of the events that transpired on 1.6.21. This is America, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.