Parenting Porcupines

Sometimes Kasie Whitener sits in for Fran Halloran on The Afternoon Drive with Keven Cohen on 100.7 The Point, local talk radio in Columbia, S.C. In this episode, she interviews Nicole Sanchez, South Carolina Chair for the Better Ballot SC initiative which promotes ranked choice voting. Learn more about Better Ballot SC here. Learn more about the South Carolina Libertarian Party here. Thanks to Pa...

Sometimes Kasie Whitener sits in for Fran Halloran on The Afternoon Drive with Keven Cohen on 100.7 The Point, local talk radio in Columbia, S.C. In this episode, she interviews Nicole Sanchez, South Carolina Chair for the Better Ballot SC initiative which promotes ranked choice voting.  Learn more about Better Ballot SC here . Learn more about the South Carolina Libertarian Party here . Thanks to...

In Season 2, episode 2 , way back in January 2021 – holy cow! – we talked about the Crisis Cycle and the way the media has trained us (like monkeys) to get hysterical about specific things for specific reasons. The latest crisis to obsess some digital parts of the USA is the imminent takeover of Twitter by the billionaire Elon Musk. Musk has said he will remove the restrictive censorship policies...

South Carolina is one of the States that has been in the news in recent months. With the overturning of Roe v. Wade there were several states who decided that they should legislatively place controls on the providing of abortion services. Many implemented bans after certain gestational benchmarks, but some states (ahem, South Carolina) took it to the extreme with attempts to completely ban abortio...

COVID is still a thing and yet I’m always a little startled when someone says they’ve tested positive or that they’ve been exposed. Sometime back in 2021 someone said we would learn to live with it and I guess we have. But I don’t want to forget and it feels like I am, and like people have. We’ve forgotten the powerful lessons we learned during COVID. And while there is some lingering momentum for...

Earned media is more valuable than paid media. But both are hard to get. Branding matters for consistency and professionalism. BUT great branding can’t cover up bad positions. And no by needs that many palm cards, handouts, banners, and other suchness. We need metrics for realistic purchases of these kinds of materials. What are the relevant milestones? Do we now know what to expect in engagement...

Most districts have been back at school for nearly two months now.  Are your kids in-person or virtual, and what has the experience been like so far? How are your schools handling contact? Are we better at it than we were last year? We are hearing so many tales of unruly parents like this story of parents yelling at school board members. But also hearing stories like this one from 2020’s election...

Over the last couple of months we have seen an unprecedented shortage in baby formula. It is devastating to see it first hand as I (Jessica) have a cousin whose daughter has Rett Syndrome. She is completely disabled and cannot chew, and  there is a very specific brand of formula that she is able to tolerate and upon which she relies for all of her nutrition. As of this evening she has only 12 days...

Photo by Tara Winstead on Pexels.com So it’s been a while since we did a live show and that’s because some crazy shit has gone down in the last few weeks. We went to the Libertarian Party national convention in Reno (Kasie and Jess and Melissa’s husband) which was kind of a shit show and then we all had covid. Well, again, Kasie and Jess. Then, fresh off covid, we had our South Carolina state conv...

Unless you have been living under a rock you have likely heard the name Alex Murdaugh and/or Paul Murdaugh. On this day three years ago, a group of friends took to the water of the SC LowCountry in the Murdaugh family boat, headed to an oyster roast with friends. Little did they know that night would set off a series of events that would leave multiple families devastated, numerous people betrayed...

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com Occupational licensing is the process which one must go through to be permitted to perform specific services. The idea behind occupational licensing is to have a mechanism by which the State can “protect the public” by regulating certain types of business and certain industries. If you are interested, SC Code of Laws Section 40 is the section of the SC Code...

Tonight we take on all those insecurities in modern parenthood. Namely: How do you know that you are doing a decent job? Well adjusted, kind, respectful, positive feedback from others.  Do you find yourself trying to model your children’s childhood experiences after your own? We are not our children’s tour guide through life. Are we using our parents’ strategies/styles?  Do you consider your paren...

The purpose and scope of the episode- How do we teach our kids their actions have consequences when it seems everyone wants to blame someone else for everything? Today’s topic: Do your kids know what cancel culture is?: When they don’t want to play with someone who is being a jerk, they should walk away; when others won’t play with them, they should stop being jerks. Don’t be an asshole. Just beca...

Growing up many of us were taught that there are three things you don’t discuss in mixed company: 1. Politics, 2. Religion, and 3. Football. Living in the Social Media age, those are no longer taboo topics and are regularly discussed/debated on digital forums. What is also interesting is that those first two are beginning to find themselves colliding within churches as our division widens. We have...

Photo by NEOSiAM 2021 on Pexels.com In Season 4, Ep 3 , we talked about the death of Mallory Beach, and how we use the story as a cautionary tale to talk to our kids about being careful of the company one keeps. For those unfamiliar with the story you can go back and watch that episode, or better yet go check out Mandy Matney’s “ Murdaugh Murders Podcast ”. Mandy has done an incredible job of cove...

People are protesting in France and we have a different take on this. Let’s talk about the Supreme Court decisions and checks and balances and where we stand in terms of the need for revolution. If our branches of government were checking each other, would we even need revolution?  Are we the beneficiaries of our ancestors’ disdain for authoritarianism, or are we just looking for authority of a di...

(Jess) If you read my campaign interviews or met me on the campaign trail you most likely heard mention of my father. From a very early age (probably 5 or 6 years old) he began including me in discussions about all things politics. It wasn’t indoctrinating, but rather done in a way that challenged me to consider all factual information, and that encouraged critical thinking.  I grew up in, what wa...

Photo by Sachin Bharti on Pexels.com The Libertarian Party is a big tent. Someone told me last week he thinks everyone’s a libertarian, they just don’t know it. The Party appealed to me (Kasie) because it’s a place to be socially liberal (marry who you want, wear what you want, etc) and government-conservative (we don’t need laws for every damn thing, ya’ll). But here’s the thing: all big tents go...

The story begins with all the buzz around Sound of Freedom, a film released by a small(er) studio called Angel Studios , that made use of social media in a uniquely dishonest way. There were two narratives around Sound of Freedom: The film the left doesn’t want you to see; blows the lid off what’s really happening in the child sex trafficking (Hollywood customers, Democratic Party donors and opera...

During our time off Jessica made an appearance on “Mr. ‘Murica, The Bearded Truth” with Jason Lyon over on Muddied Waters Media to have a discussion about empowering women . It was a pretty lively conversation, touching on several different pieces of the conversation around inequality.  It is a big conversation, and one that cannot be condensed into an hour long podcast episode. While we don’t pla...

Every mom who’s sent kids to government-run schools has had the valentine’s day card exchange challenge. Buy a box, get the class list, fill them all out, attach a candy, and send them on the school bus hoping it’s a fun day and not an anxiety-ridden fair-fest where kids are intentionally mean to the smelly and the ugly among them while heaping praise on the pretty ones. Sigh. As parents we can al...

This link (and a google search) and you’ll get the gender-neutral definition of the phrase: what is okay for one person to do, should be good for another. But the “goose” is the female and the “gander” is the male, so the real meaning here is that whatever benefits the woman, also benefits the man. Or, in southern terms, “If Mama ain’t happy, nobody’s happy.” Thing is, gender roles are inherited v...

As we were planning our episodes to celebrate Women’s History Month we wanted to devote one episode to our “Founding Mothers”. We hear a lot about the Founding Fathers, but we usually do not hear about the women who worked alongside them in their fight for liberty, and their efforts to establish and build our Nation.  Of course we all know the names like Martha Washington, Harriet Tubman and Betsy...

However rewarding, being a mom can at times feel overwhelming. Kids don’t come with instructions, but they do each come with their own unique and individual personalities. Navigating parenting challenges can at times seem nearly impossible and even more lonely, but as the Turkish Proverb goes- “No road is long with good company.” With that in mind, the idea behind tonight’s episode was born. Suppo...

Benjamin Franklin once said “There are only two things certain in life: death and taxes”. With the 2021 tax deadline just behind us in our rearview mirrors it seems fitting to talk about the other certainty, death. Or, more specifically the death penalty.  This has been a topic of conversation in South Carolina for several months now. Last year, 2021, our legislature passed, and our governor signe...