Deep Dive with Shawn

Send us Fan Mail **This episode was recorded September 29th - four days before the Court began it's 2022-23 term. The United States Supreme Court began its new term on October 3rd, and judging on the cases that the Court has accepted for review, this term looks to be every bit as controversial and consequential, if not more so, than last term. On the docket this term includes cases that could...

Send us Fan Mail Today I’m talking to Dr. Frank Mugisha . He is the Executive Director of SMUG – which stands for Sexual Minorities Uganda, a support and advocacy organization for queer Ugandans that was recently shut down by the Uganda government. For his work, Frank was awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award and the Rafto Prize in 2011. In 2014, he was a nominee for the Nobel Peace Pri...

Send us Fan Mail On Sunday, Oct 2nd, Brazilians will cast their first-round vote in the presidential election. While there are a number of candidates, their primary choices will be between first-term incumbent conservative, right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro and former left-wing president Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva – known affectionately as Lula. Unlike the trend we’ve been seeing the world over,...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the second season of Deep Dive! Today I’m talking to Italian journalist, and 2019 Nieman Fellow at Harvard, Mattia Ferraresi . Mattia is the managing editor of the Italian newspaper Domani and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including New York Times , Wall Street Journal , Washington Post , Boston Globe , and Foreign Policy Magazine .   Italy is having e...

Send us Fan Mail While Deep Dive is on break between seasons, here's a Greatest Hit from Season One to enjoy! This episode of Deep Dive with Shawn C. Fettig was originally released on June 24, 2002. ----- Today's episode concludes my two-part focus on the rise of political violence and right-wing extremism in America. I'm talking to Jason Van Tatenhove, a former employee of the Oath...

Send us Fan Mail While Deep Dive is on break between seasons, here's a Greatest Hit from Season One to enjoy! This is the premiere episode of Deep Dive with Shawn C. Fettig and was originally released on May 29, 2002. ----- Welcome to the premiere of Deep Dive with Shawn C. Fettig. For this week only, two episodes will release - one today and one Friday, June 3. After this week, a new episode...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the Season One Finale of Deep Dive with Shawn C. Fettig! In this episode, I’m talking to three friends of mine  (Shannon Ahrndt, Heidi Stiemsma, Tony Dovi) that I’ve known for the better part of my life and who all share a common obsession – travel. We have all structured our lives to ensure that we get, probably more than typical, travel in our lives – especially as Am...

Send us Fan Mail In February of 2014, Russia’s military, under direction of President Vladimir Putin, invaded and, subsequently annexed Crimea – a peninsula off the eastern side of Ukraine. Russia quickly installed a subservient government to its own, presided over a referendum in the region under the watchful eye of Russian soldiers to legitimize the action as driven by the will of the people, an...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s episode is the final part of my three-part miniseries – my pursuit of understanding the far right nationalist movement that motivates Trump supporters, contemporary Republican voters. But, this phenomenon is not limited to the United States. There are companion movements, arguably more deeply rooted and historical, gaining traction in other countries – like Australia, Sout...

Send us Fan Mail Today's episode is the second of a three-part series that seeks to understand what underpins the Trumpism movement in the United States – who these voters are and what motivates them, and then how that fits into a broader global shift we’re seeing - away from liberal democracy. Last week I spoke to Dr. Arlie Hochschild about her book Strangers in Their Own Land   to understan...

Send us Fan Mail Today marks the beginning of a new Deep Dive adventure - a miniseries! In pursuit of understanding conservative voters, especially nationalists - nationally and globally - over the next three episodes, I am talking to three researchers who have dove deep into this world, each contributing something unique and fascinating to the literature. In this first episode in the series, I&ap...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode I'm talking to Dr. Nicholas Davis - Assistant Professor and the principal investigator of the Democracy and Open Science Lab at the University of Alabama . He co-wrote the book Democracy's Meanings: How the Public Understands Democracy and Why it Matters, which informs our discussion today about how we define democracy, how those definitions differ, and h...

Send us Fan Mail **This episode was recorded before the Supreme Court's final week of the 2022 term in which they overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs opinion, hobbled the ability of states to regulate guns in Bruen and severely limited the EPA's ability to tackle climate change in WV v. EPA ** Apologies for some audio issues on my side. In this episode I'm talking to Dr. Paul Brewer...

Send us Fan Mail  **This episode was recorded before the Supreme Court's final week of the 2022 term in which they overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs opinion, hobbled the ability of states to regulate guns in Bruen and severely limited the EPA's ability to tackle climate change in WV v. EPA ** In this episode I talk to Dr. Peter La Chapelle , professor of political and social history at...

Send us Fan Mail **This episode was recorded before the Supreme Court's final week of the 2022 term in which they overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs opinion, hobbled the ability of states to regulate guns in Bruen and severely limited the EPA's ability to tackle climate change in WV v. EPA ** In this episode, I talk to Dr. David Faris , the author of the book It's Time to Fight Dir...

Send us Fan Mail **Note - I apologize for some audio quality issues at certain spots in this recording. But, it's surviveable!** Welcome to a bonus episode of Deep Dive! Dr. Sara Benesh ( University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee ) returns to do a post-mortem on constitutional law following the end of the Supreme Court's 2021 term. We discuss the overturning of Roe v. Wade , the limiting of stat...

Send us Fan Mail **This episode was recorded prior to 1) the Texas Republican Party releasing its policy platform embracing homosexuality as an "abnormal lifestyle choice," 2) the terror attack in Norway targeting queer folks, and 3) the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade ." Pride Month Week at Deep Dive continues (and concludes). Today, I'm talking to my buddy Mardi Moore,...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Pride Month Week here at Deep Dive with Shawn C. Fettig! In recognition, you're getting two queer-themed espidoes this week. Today, I'm talking to my buddy Duncan Tucker, the writer and director of the 2005 film Transamerica - the story of a trans woman who, on the cusp of vaginoplasty surgery, finds out that she has a son from a previous relationship, and the...

Send us Fan Mail Today's episode concludes my two-part focus on the rise of political violence and right-wing extremism in America. I'm talking to Jason Van Tatenhove, a former employee of the Oath Keepers , an organization that was present and active in the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Jason and I talk about his history with the Oath Keepers, the organization's o...

Send us Fan Mail Rather than an episode, this is a memorial. Clela Rorex who, in 1975, became the first County Clerk in the country to knowingly issue same-sex marriage licenses, has died. I have been working on a couple of projects with her, including a special episode of this podcast that was scheduled to release later in the season. This is a tremendous loss for the queer community, and her lif...

Send us Fan Mail This episode is the first of another two-parter focusing on the rise of political violence and right-wing extremism in America. In this episode I'm talking to Dr. James Hawdon , director of the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention at Virginia Tech . Dr. Hawdon's research  "investigates the role of communities in promoting, deterring, or reacting to crime...

Send us Fan Mail Last week, I talked to Dr. Susan Schulten about the history of secession in the United States, the Civil War, and lessons we may, or may not, have learned. Today, I’m focusing on contemporary secession movements. My first guest, Dr. Timothy Waters (Maurer School of Law at Indiana University) is the author of Boxing Pandora: Rethinking Borders, States, and Secession in a Democratic...

Send us Fan Mail This episode is the first of two (one today and one next week) focusing on secession – the separation of a state or region from another. This week, I'm talking to Dr. Susan Schulten , a professor, author, and historian at the University of Denver . She is an expert on the Civil War and the precipitating events, including the secession of eleven southern states from the Union....

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the premiere of Deep Dive with Shawn C. Fettig. For this week only, two episodes will release - one today and one Friday, June 3. After this week, a new episode will release each Friday morning. In this premiere episode, I'm talking to my friend, Dr. Sara Benesh , a judicial scholar and professor at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee , about the United States...

Send us Fan Mail I’m Shawn Fettig. I’m a political scientist – with a particular interest in how things like trust influence how we interact with each other and with our governments and our politicians. What increases trust and what erodes it? I’m hosting a new podcast called Deep Dive, which is all about – as the name suggests - diving deep into particularly interesting issues in our political wo...