Plain Talk

After more than two decades in the North Dakota legislature, having served in some consequential ways, as an influential appropriator and eventually leader the majority Republican caucus, Rep. Chet Pollert is calling it a career. On this episode of Plain Talk, he talked about that decision, as well as what changed during his tenure in office, and what challenges North Dakota might face in the futu...

I make a living writing and talking about politics, and I divide the topics I cover up into two categories. First, there's the sexy stuff. The hot-button stuff. Topics that immediately stir up interest from the audience. It's the stuff we spend most of our time talking about. How big should the government be, and how much should it cost us? Stuff like that. Then there's the unsexy stuff. Like bloc...

We all know how divided we are as a country. Politics has always been an ugly business, but it's perhaps uglier right now than any time in recent memory. Given that, who would want to run for public office, and expose themselves to the brutal acrimony of an increasingly uncivil process? On this episode of Plain Talk, I spoke with two candidates for the North Dakota legislature about that very topi...

Between the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic malaise, America's employers have been in a crunch. Not only are their costs rising due to supply line snaggles, but many of them are having trouble finding and keeping workers. Jonathan Holth is one a North Dakota employer. He is a co-founder of the Toasted Frog restaurant in downtown Grand Forks, and has since opened additional locations i...

One thing I think about, as our kids return to school from a long holiday break, is how hard it can be to get them back into the education groove. That challenge is perhaps on the minds of parents more so now than before, given the way COVID-19 has turned our lives upside down. In October Kirsten Baesler, the Superintendent of North Dakota's public school system, released data from testing showing...

Wayne Stenehjem, North Dakota's long-time Attorney General, announced recently that he'll end a more than four-decades-long career in elected office once his term is up next year. Who will replace him? The name you'll hear most often in those conversations is Drew Wrigley, who served two stints as North Dakota's U.S. Attorney, one under former President George W. Bush, and another under former Pre...

It's been a wild year in North Dakota politics, from a lawmaker getting expelled from the Legislature for the first time in state history to a small group of NDGOP leaders walking out of their own party's meeting just last week. On this episode of Plain Talk I was joined by Chad Oban and Jamie Selzler, both former executive directors of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL, to talk about the year that...

Wayne Stenehjem has served the State of North Dakota in elected office for more than 40 years, from his stint in the Legislature starting in the mid-1970s to two decades serving as Attorney General. Now, he's calling it a career, announcing that he'll step down once his current four-year term is up. Stenehjem joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss it. To say that his career was consequential...

North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer joined this episode of Plain Talk and discussed all sorts of stuff. The January 6 committee, and what it's revealed about the way former President Donald Trump handled the riot at the U.S. capitol. The Build Back Better plan. The state of inflation. The retrenchment going on in the Republican party. Carbon capture. Also, the divides in the national Republican part...

Politics in North Dakota are about as divisive these days as they are anywhere else. In our state, the divide in the Republican party is between traditional Republicans and a faction of conservatives, in-step with former President Donald Trump, who feel the state's Republicans haven't been conservative enough. I've been writing and talking about this divide a lot, and recently state Rep. Jeff Hove...

Religion has always been at the center of American life, but in recent years many Americans are turning away from faith. The polling firm Gallup has been tracking trends in religion since the 1930s when church membership among Americans hovered in the 70 percent region. It stayed that high through the late 1990s, but in the last couple of decades, it has plunged. In 2020, the percentage of America...

North Dakota has industries that produce a lot of carbon. Oil. Natural gas. Coal. Agriculture. But North Dakota's newest industry could be taking that carbon and putting it someplace where it can't harm the environment. Wade Boeschans, a vice president with a company called Summit Carbon Solutions, joined this episode of Plain Talk to answer questions about one of the first, and biggest, projects...

Misinformation. Fake news. These are terms we hear a lot in America in 2021, but what do they mean? How do they happen? Dr. Dan Pemstein is an associate professor of political science at North Dakota State University. He joined this episode of Plain Talk to talk about his research into online misinformation both here in America and across the globe. Also, state Rep. Rick Becker, a Republican from...

Earlier this year Governor Doug Burgum raised a lot of eyebrows in the political world by announcing a goal for North Dakota's carbon-based industries, including oil and coal, to become carbon neutral. Can we do it? There are no magic bullets to achieving that goal, but there are some promising endeavors. On this episode of Plain Talk I discussed one of those with Kevin Black, CEO of Creedence Ene...

Sen. Erin Oban is the only member of the Democratic-NPL to be elected in western North Dakota. To the extent that you can consider her Bismarck-area district to be "western North Dakota," anyway. Oban announced recently that she will not be running for another term in that office. Hot on the heels of that announcement, Republican Sean Clearly made one of his own, saying he'd like to take over the...

Vaccine mandate policies are a fluid situation right now. They're being challenged in the courts. The federal government is tweaking its policies. In North Dakota, during the recent special session of the Legislature, a bill passed that doesn't ban businesses from implementing vaccine mandates, but did implement a lot of policies dictating what those mandates should look like. The Greater North Da...

Rob and Jay talk about the North Dakota Democratic-NPL and their relationship to a man who attacked Sen. John Hoeven's office with an ax. They also discuss political extremism in America.

Kelby Krabbenhoft, the long-time CEO of South Dakota-based health care giant Sanford abruptly left his job last year after making some controversial comments about masking during the COVID-19 pandemic. More recently, news broke that Krabbenhoft left with a big, fat golden parachute strapped to his back. He got a $49.5 million payout, and that prompted North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Jon Godfre...

North Dakota's coal industry is promoting electric cars. The Lignite Energy Council owns a Tesla, emblazoned it with pro-coal messaging, and has been driving it around. It's an image so incongruous to some that the Washington Post recently featured the marketing effort in a national news article. Jason Bohrer, president of the LEC, joined this episode of Plain Talk with co-host Chad Oban to discus...

On this episode of the Jay Thomas Show, a state lawmaker upset with Rob calls into the show and yells at him.

Sen. Nicole Poolman has served in the North Dakota Senate since 2012. During last week's special session, she announced her retirement, saying she won't be running for another term. Some of her reasons were personal, she wants to spend more time with family, and some were professional, she wants to focus on her job as a teacher, but part of the reason is what she cited as a "toxic" political envir...

North Dakota snack food startup Dot's Pretzels has been acquired for $1.2 billion. The special session of the legislature continues with fights over redistricting and culture war bills dominate. Rob Port and Chad Oban talk about these issues and more.

A return for the Plain Talk Podcast. On this episode, Rob talks to fellow columnist Tony Bender about the divides in the North Dakota Republican Party, the tribalism of American politics in 2021, redistricting, and the special session of the legislature in Bismarck.

Rob and Jay talk about the special session in Bismarck, as well as vaccine mandates.

Simone Biles has had some trouble competing at the Tokyo Olympics, and that has certain political commentators steaming. Charlie Kirk called Biles a "sociopath," as one example, and you've probably seen worse on social media. But why do people care so much? Does everything have to be culture war? Also, a federal moratorium on evictions is set to expire soon, and many are upset about it, but at wha...