Personality Crisis

Steve Vladek is a professor at Georgetown University Law Center.  He’s been thinking and writing about the Supreme Court for over 20 years, both as a law professor and as a Supreme Court analyst for CNN. In this episode, Dylan Ris and Steve discuss Supreme Court reform.  Steve starts with an historical overview of Congressional oversight of the court, how that’s changed in relatively recent times,...

Steve Vladek is a professor at Georgetown University Law Center.  He’s been thinking and writing about the Supreme Court for over 20 years, both as a law professor and as a Supreme Court analyst for CNN. In this episode, Dylan Ris and Steve discuss yesterday’s ruling from the Court on birthright citizenship, as well as other decisions that the court has handed down this term.   Steve’s blog, One F...

Etan Nechin is the New York correspondent for Haaretz.  Born in Israel, he was previously a freelancer whose writing has appeared in The New York Times, Haaretz, Vice, Jacobin, Huffington Post, The Independent, Jewish Currents, Medium, Columbia Journal, and more.  In this episode, Etan talks about US/Israeli politics, starting with Netanyahu’s long personal and political relationship with the US. ...

Etan Nechin is the New York correspondent for Haaretz.  Born in Israel, he was previously a freelancer whose writing has appeared in The New York Times, Haaretz, Vice, Jacobin, Huffington Post, The Independent, Jewish Currents, Medium, Columbia Journal, and more.  In this episode, Etan talks about the last 30 years in Israeli politics. If you want to know why the assassinaton of Yitzak Rabin had a...

Eric Benson began contributing to Texas Monthly in 2014, covering politics, crime, business, and the U.S.-Mexico border and writing cover stories on everything from the supersized gas station chain Buc-ee’s to the Nobel Prize–winning immunologist James P. Allison . His articles and podcasts have won awards from New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and the City and Regio...

Alex González Ormerod is the editor/creator of the Mexico Political Economist site.  Listeners will note that he’s got an English accent, but he’s born and raised in Mexico with an English mom and a Mexican dad.  He’s written for, edited, and worked at some of the best outlets covering Mexico both in the US and locally, including Whitepaper , Americas Quarterly , Time Magazine , Rest of World , an...

Alex González Ormerod is the editor/creator of the Mexico Political Economist site.  Listeners will note that he’s got an English accent, but he’s born and raised in Mexico with an English mom and a Mexican dad.  He’s written for, edited, and worked at some of the best outlets covering Mexico both in the US and locally, including Whitepaper , Americas Quarterly , Time Magazine , Rest of World , an...

Jay Watts is a photojournalist and editor of the English-language Mexican news site Mexico Solidarity, which also hosts the podcast Soberanía. The site is part of the Mexico Solidary Project, which aims to promote “people-to-people understanding across borders and to concentrate efforts to oppose the US dominance that undermines México’s national sovereignty.” In the second of two episodes, Jay ta...

Jay Watts is a photojournalist and editor of the English-language Mexican news site Mexico Solidarity, which also hosts the podcast Soberanía. The site is part of the Mexico Solidary Project, which aims to promote “people-to-people understanding across borders and to concentrate efforts to oppose the US dominance that undermines México’s national sovereignty.” In the first of two episodes, Jay tal...

Gary Trauner, three-time Democratic candidate for federal office in Wyoming, joins us again to discuss current politics. Today’s topics include Janet Mills dropping out of the Maine Senate race, Gary’s take on Jon Ossoff, who he thinks gets the message right, SCOTUS’ repeal of the Voting Rights Act, and Gary’s belief that parsing Trump’s nonsense is a fools’ game. Because John Cole was under the w...

Episode 11 of Personality Crisis is a little different than our usual political fare.  This one has John Cole interviewing Dylan Ris, who is a creative writer and composer living in LA.  Dylan and John have a wide-ranging discussion about what’s keeping Hollywood from green-lighting anything but derivative copies of already successful franchises.  John also expresses his opinions about who should...

Mark Jacob is the former metro editor at the Chicago Tribune, and former Sunday editor at the Chicago Sun-Times. He’s the co-author of 11 books, mostly on history. In our second episode with Mark, he and John Cole talk about the future of journalism.  Topics include Mark’s advice to someone just starting out, the disparity in financing between left and right “influencers” and Mark’s current projec...

Mark Jacob is the former metro editor at the Chicago Tribune, and former Sunday editor at the Chicago Sun-Times. He’s the co-author of 11 books, mostly on history. In this episode, the first of two with Mark, he and John Cole talk about the history of the New York Times and why it has consistently missed the moment, going back to the turn of the last century.   If you’re interested in this topic,...

Mark Histed is a neuroscientist by day, but in his personal capacity, he has a deep interest in how to re-build and sustain local media.  Today’s audio-only podcast with Mark, DougJ (NYT Pitchbot) and mistermix focuses on Mark's interests that he pursues in his personal capacity, including the concept of media as a public good, how that media could be financed, why wealthy donors probably are...

Gary Trauner ran for Congress in Wyoming twice, and for Senate once.  In 2006, he lost the closest race in the nation to incumbent Barbara Cubin.  Gary talks about his history as a candidate, what it takes to run as a Democrat in a red state, and what it was like to interact with the national Democratic infrastructure. He’s dealt with both the DCCC and DSCC, as well as the consultants they wanted...

In this episode, John Cole interviews Dr. Genevieve Guenther.  Dr Guenther is a former Renaissance scholar who turned to climate research and activism after having a child and becoming increasingly alarmed about the world her son could inherit after she died. She is now an expert in climate communication. Using her training in rhetoric and cultural politics, as well as social-science research, she...

Steve M of No More Mister Nice Blog has been blogging since 2002.  Steve’s posts are always smart and often prescient.  On this episode of Personality Crisis, NYT Pitchbot a.k.a. Doug J interviews Steve to discuss topics including why Steve got the anti-vaxx trend right years before everyone else, and how Steve views the history of the Democratic Party. John Cole couldn’t make the taping of this p...

Oliver Willis is an OG blogger, and in this episode of Personality Crisis, another OG blogger, John Cole of Balloon-Juice  talks with Oliver about the past, future and timidity of the Democratic Party.  Oliver and John are joined by Kal El, Oliver’s dog. Oliver is one of the first political bloggers in the world, launching his site in 2000.  Oliver spent 13 years working for Media Matters, reporti...

In the second episode featuring Brooke Harrington, Professor of Economic Sociology at Dartmouth, John Cole and Harrington discuss her harrowing experiences with the Danish immigration authorities.  She was arrested for testifying before the Danish parliament about her academic work.  The episode delves into the reasons and tactics for the Danes’ limiting immigration and prosecuting immigrants. Har...

In the first episode of two, John Cole interviews Brooke Harrington, Professor of Economic Sociology at Dartmouth.  The discussion begins Harrington’s experiences as a young woman working in Silicon Valley and transitions into a discussion about the mentality and obsessions of the broligarchs who come from that place, and ends with her insights into what can be done about these guys.  Harrington i...

Important note:  This episode includes a frank discussion of suicide.   In this episode, Nick Carmody and John Cole have a wide-ranging discussion about the psychology of politics.  He and John discuss dopamine hits and conspiracy theories and cult-like behavior, narcissistic personality traits in Trump and others, and how Nick’s personal history brought him to his realizations about the role of n...