Geeky Stoics

"I love democracy, I love the Republic." Little did the Senate know but Chancellor Palpatine had his fingers crossed. How do democracies descend into tyranny is the primary question of our new episode. Star Wars is riddled with history from ancient Rome, France, Germany and ties to contemporary American politics. Beltway Banthas welcomes to the show David Barnes, Policy Director at Generation Oppo...

Thank you for tuning in for another installment of Beltway Banthas, a Star Wars podcast at the intersection of Coruscant & Washington DC. On this weeks episode, Stephen breaks down his time at AwesomeCon 2016 that brought Kevin Smith and a million Kylo Rens to the nations capital. Stephen assembled a special assembly of the DC Jedi Council for a round table chat about Star Wars fandom. He was join...

Welcome back to another episode of Beltway Banthas! On today's episode we discuss the newest edition to Star Wars canon, Star Wars: Bloodline by Claudia Gray. This is a book in between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens that gives us a view of Leia's political career in this time. SPOILERS will be discussed. If you are going to read the book and don't want it spoiled, tune in another time. W...

For the first interview episode of Beltway Banthas, Stephen talks to co-host of The Pollsters podcast, Kristen Soltis Anderson. Kristen is co-founder of Echelon Insights, the author of The Selfie Vote, a contributor on Fox, CNN and MSNBC and has made appearances on The Bill Maher Show as well! Did she go toe to toe with the Bernie Sanders' finger wag? Duh! Stephen and Kristen discuss her fandoms b...

On episode IV of Beltway Banthas, Stephen and Tirso talk death & Star Wars. Stephen's grandfather passed away a few backs ago, and we felt this was a good time to talk about it. No better place to do so than on this podcast. If there is one thing the Star Wars saga can guarantee you, it is systematic and cyclical heartbreak, starting with Qui-Gon and ending most recently with Han Solo. "Death is a...

Thanks for tuning in to episode III of Beltway Banthas! It's been a crazy week and this is coming to you on STAR WARS DAY 2016. No better time to release this podcast. On this episode, we discuss some of the latest Star Wars news and chatter about Rogue One. Then, as promised, we get around to some politics. Stephen leads the show on an exploration of the Galactic Senate. How does it work? Why is...

On Episode II of Beltway Banthas, we take some time to discuss news of the day. By time you hear this the news will be a few weeks old, but we wanted to share with you our reactions and thoughts on Rogue One. As quick as it came it went. The first trailer for Rogue One debuted on Good Morning America and we at Beltway Banthas had some things to say about it. We discuss the content of the trailer,...

Beltway Banthas is a Star Wars podcast about the intersection of fandom and the things that drive daily life. For hosts Stephen Kent & Tirso Perez, one of those things is politics. Star Wars draws from our worlds politics just as much as it contributes to it by influencing policy makers, journalists and thought leaders. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers...