The Founders Show

Hy and Christopher attempt to forecast the upcoming election’s result with two special guests, GOP congressional candidate Elbert Guillory and famed political consultant James Farwell. Guillory joins Hy and Christopher to kick off the show, outlining how he has a chance of victory in a district which should not be friendly for Republicans. Early voting may provide a clue to why he is so upbeat. In...

Early voting for the Nov 5 election began on Oct 18, so Hy and Christopher start the show with the message Go Vote! They interview Connie Payton, whose mother memorized and flawlessly recited the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution to earn her right to vote before the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1964, which eliminated barriers preventing millions of non-white Americans from voting. In light...

Do Government Deficits Elect Harris? Or Has Trump Gained with Poorer Voters Who Benefited From The Biden Spending Spree? Hy & Christopher welcome Graham McFarlane, an economic forecaster with a Harvard MBA, who has a particular theory on who is going to win the presidential election. Despite his personal sympathies, he thinks that the level of government spending has widened to encompass almos...

Hy and Christopher begin by recounting the lonely bipartisan struggle that has been carried by Congressman Troy Carter (D-New Orleans). While his Louisiana Republican colleagues have been firmly behind him in his fight to convince DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas not to approve the new FEMA maps that would drastically increase flood insurance costs, few Democrats or Republicans on the national level ha...

Could enacting a flat tax forestall a larger tax cut and avoid a fiscal cliff for Louisiana? That is the apparent behind-the-scenes logic in the recent proposal put forward by the Landry administration last month, which Hy & Christopher explore on this week’s radio show. We also talk to Gary Mason of the Monumental Task Committee of the recent attempts to clean the Martin Luther King and Rev....

The General and Artistic Director of the New Orleans Opera Lila Palmer joins Hy and Christopher to talk Tosca — and how the Crescent City stands as the 1st City of Opera in the US - American opera got its start in New Orleans in 1796. Tosca is premiering at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts on Friday, September 27 at 7:30 with a matinee performance on Sunday, September 29 at 2:30...

Hy and Christopher both sigh in relief on behalf of the City of New Orleans that Hurricane Francine was not worse. That does not mean that the thousands of homeowners without power or damaged by flooding do not deserve our help and prayers. However, this city could have had a much worse hurricane event, and that’s the subject of today’s show.  We are not prepared. Hy and Christopher point out that...

Hy and Christopher tackle the upcoming presidential debate and an election that is, as Karl Rove calls it, “tight as a tick.” We talk about the fact that neither of the major presidential candidates even remotely care about looming deficits, and the Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver seems to be the only one talking about how government spending triggers inflation. We also ask whether pro-life con...

On this Labor Day weekend, Christopher tells our audience of a secret…sale. For listeners of the Founders Show, New Orleans Opera is offering single or season tickets at 50% OFF! ONLY 50% off of best available seats for a single show, or 50% off a season ticket at any tier! Just go to  Events and Tickets - New Orleans Opera. Then when you check out, enter promo code PIANO50. Our guest on today’s s...

Author Nicholas Meyer joins Hy and Christopher to talk about his new book Sherlock Holmes and the Telegraph from Hell . Meyer is also a famed Hollywood director. For sci-fi fans, he is best known as the director of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , often considered the greatest Star Trek movie ever made. He tells us the story of the iconic movie’s creation later in the program. We begin by talking...

Hy and Christopher kick off talking about President Biden‘s visit to Tulane as part of the $150 million cancer "moonshot" initiative that aims to cut the cancer death rate in half by 2047. Of course, we mention that it helps that the Bidens' daughter, Ashley, graduated from Tulane in 2004 with a Bachelor's in anthropology. (Joe and Jill Biden timed their visit to coincide with the university’s mov...

Hy and Christopher take on the question Does Likeability Matter Most ? Will the choice of “Minnesota Nice” Gov. Tim Walz double down on Kamala Harris’ pro-positivity strategy against Donald Trump? Christopher leveled a challenge to Hy last week; sincerely say something nice about Kamala Harris! Unexpectedly, Hy’s response may explain why the Democratic and Republican Presidential candidates are ti...

This week, Christopher broadcasts live from Canada - from the border of Alberta and British Columbia. He and Hy talk Rocky Mountain wildfires, heat, and how the local libertarian-leaning Tory Premier has embraced nuclear power to create both energy independence as well as lower carbon for her province. The discussion progresses to Louisiana and this autumn’s 6th Congressional District race. State...

Hy and Christopher take on the state of the Vice Presidential estate in today’s show, examining in depth both the man seeking the number two job under Trump and the current number two seeking the top job— in the wake of President Biden’s exit from the race. Christopher challenges Hy to say something critical about JD Vance and something nice about Kamala Harris. It’s a struggle for Hy, but he pull...

Hy and Christopher host Louisiana State Treasurer Dr. John Fleming and Jefferson Parish Clerk of Court Jon Gegenheimer live from Milwaukee and the floor of the Republican National Convention. Both men are delegates from Louisiana to the RNC, and they explain how emotions have changed amongst their fellow delegates after the assassination attempt over the course of the subsequent week. They talk ab...

This week, Hy & Christopher are joined by Roger Villere, who is in Milwaukee from the Republican National Convention! Villere serves as national committeeman for the Louisiana Republican Party, and he played an integral role in coming up with the new party platform. He'll give insight on the change - or lack of - in its pro-life plank, as well as the dilemma facing Republican strategists - wil...

Louisiana is ranked 50th in fighting crime, the lowest of the low. Much of that has been driven by homicides in New Orleans, which reached an all-time high in 2022 (though murders have fallen in the last two years). Hy and Christopher speak to Irv Magri, President of Crimefighters of Louisiana as well as the founding president of the PANO, about the rising incidents of crime and what can be done t...

One of Joe Biden’s few effective moments in the June 27th Presidential debate was his answer on abortion rights, when he made the comparison that repealing Roe v. Wade was like “turn[ing] civil rights back to the states.” This is a key policy difference that the Biden campaign is banking on to animate Democrats and Independents alike.  Unlike the rest of the media, Hy and Christopher deconstruct t...

With the impending presidential debate, Hy and Christopher talk about how the polls have narrowed nationally but give Donald Trump a statistical lead and almost every swinging state. We talk tax policy, including Trump’s proposals to eliminate taxes on tips and to replace the income tax with an 85% foreign tariff. What are the economic consequences?  And we propose an idea from Christopher's Louis...

Hy and Christopher gaze across the pond to the snap United Kingdom Parliamentary elections and wonder if the divide on the Right could prove a cautionary tale for US conservatives. Currently Nigel Farage’s UK Reform party is poised to pass the ruling Conservatives in the polls—and as a result could deny almost 200 Tories reelection, while only electing five Reform MPs. It provides an interesting “...

Hy and Christopher are joined by consummate D.C. insider Curtis Robinson, to explore "How Louisiana took over Washington!" With Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise in charge, everyone looks to the Pelican State for the latest power moves on Capitol Hill. Curtis is also the co-host (with Christopher) of Hunter Gatherers, The Podcast of Hunter S. Thompson stories . We discuss what the author of “Fear &am...

Hy and Christopher kick off the show wondering if Donald Trump‘s conviction on 34 counts will boost RFK Jr enough to make the debates. He’s already qualified at 15% in three out of four national polls, and he is about to be listed on enough state ballots to add up to 270 electoral votes. By the old rules, he would be close to qualifying for debate between Trump and Biden.  Examining the Trump verd...

Hy and Christopher first welcome Republican National Committee Member and former LAGOP Chair Roger Villere, who discusses the party’s endorsement of all of the current Louisiana GOP Congressmen in their  current districts. This includes Garrett Graves, who would have to run in a newly redesigned African-American majority seat which voted for Biden with 56% of the vote Graves boasts of over $4 mill...

Hy and Christopher take on the possible unintended consequences of a constitutional convention this coming August. For example: there is a move afoot to get rid of the state income tax. Foster Campbell has a tax-swap idea that the powerful Louisiana Chemical Association would hate! However, an alternative is higher property taxes—which the voters would hate! (More on this below.) Big political don...

Hy and Christopher examine how Gov. Jeff Landry’s potential constitutional convention faces a roadblock in the State Senate. And even if it does pass, in time for an August meeting, what about spending reform?  We have a report from Colorado about their TABOR which is allowing a major property tax cut. So why isn’t the upcoming convention including some form of constitutional restriction on spendi...