The Politics Lab

On this week’s episode, Bill and Phil are joined by constitutional law expert, Professor Tom Cavenagh, to get an update on the Supreme Court and to discuss the legal implications of voting rights legislation, the death penalty, and what former President Trump’s legal future looks like.

On this week’s episode, Bill and Phil break down the US intel report on the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Equality Act passing in the House, George Kennan’s Long Telegram turning 75, the Senate parliamentarian nixing the $15 minimum wage, and Biden overturning Trump’s architecture order.

Bill and Phil break down Biden’s speech on democracy, the significance of Mario Draghi becoming Prime Minister of Italy, what Joe Biden’s stimulus plan tells us about his approach moving forward, and Ted Cruz’s infamous trip to Cancun.

On this week’s episode, Bill and Phil reflect on the Senate’s acquittal of Donald Trump, the intersection of politics and sports at the Olympics and the NBA, and what the widespread power outages in Texas teach us about the future of climate change.

We examine the impeachment hearing as part of a broader conversation about accountability for the former president, and we take a look at the foreign policy agenda that Joe Biden outlined this week

The threat of mass violence is on the rise in the United States, as demonstrated by the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Dr. James Waller, noted expert on mass violence and genocide, joins us this week to talk about the risk factors that contribute to widespread political and ethnic violence and to wrestle with the warning signs present in the United States today.

Bill and Phil are joined by Dr. Suzanne Chod to break down the results of the Georgia Senate races, whether Biden has a chance to get his agenda through a split Senate, the upcoming 2nd impeachment of Donald Trump, and what the future may hold for the Republican Party.

On this week’s episode, Bill and Phil devote the entire episode to the presidential inauguration and what the future may hold for President Joe Biden.

On this week’s episode, Bill and Phil discuss the historic second impeachment of Donald Trump, how the last 4 years of Trump led to the attack on the U.S. Capital, and we end the episode with an interview of Michael Blight, Assistant Professor of Communication, to discuss Trump’s social media ban and the practice of deplatforming.

On this week’s episode, Bill and Phil devote the entire episode to an extended conversation focused on breaking down and reacting to the pro-Trump extremists who attacked the Capital building yesterday. 

Bill and Phil reflect on the wild and awful political year that was 2020; including what COVID revealed about our common humanity, competing conceptions of social justice, attacks on law and order, the shaky state of US democracy, and we close with things that happened in 2020 that you already forgot about.

Happy Holidays! Bill and Phil are taking the week off. But we want to thank all of our listeners for your support this year. We’ll be back next week with a full episode. For now, please enjoy a brief message from The Politics Lab, plus some bonus content from this week’s YouTube session. Thank you!

On this week’s episode, Bill and Phil reflect on the departure and legacy of Attorney General Bill Barr, ponder the significance of the election case brought to the Supreme Court by Texas, and look at recent international developments in Russia and Morocco.

Bill and Phil explore whether Trump and Trumpism will simply fade away or whether its here to stay. We also examine if Joe Biden is further undermining the balance between civil and military authority by appointing Retired General Lloyd Austin to serve as secretary of defense and what to make of the fact that only 27 congressional Republicans have acknowledged Biden’s win.

Bill and Phil discuss the flurry of news surrounding presidential pardons, explore the often uncomfortable relationship between Covid and sports, think through a recent critique of the infamous Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention by Thomas Friedman, and ponder the tactic of Taiwanese politicians who threw pig guts in parliament last week.

This week, Bill and Phil share the political developments they’re most thankful for and debate who wins the inaugural “Biggest Turkey of the Year” award.

Bill and Phil discuss former president Barack Obama’s return to the political scene and Obama’s thoughts on the state of the US democracy. We also examine why white people love Donald Trump so much, whether we should expect an attack on Iran in the final months of the Trump administration, and whether it was appropriate for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to share his political views on COVID a...

On this week’s episode Bill and Phil reflect on Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election and offer thoughts on what looks to be a chaotic transition period. Will Trump eventually accept defeat, what are the implications of his allegations of electoral fraud, and are we witnessing an attempted political coup in plain sight? We’ll break it all down for you in this episode.

Dr. Suzanne Chod joins Bill and Phil to break down the state of the 2020 election. What do we know? What don’t we know? And what comes next?

This week we offer a special pre-election episode where Bill & Phil make their predictions for the 2020 election. Who will win the presidency, the House, and the Senate? Will we see violence or any other voting shenanigans? And what are we expecting out of President Trump? You won’t want to miss this episode!

Bill and Phil take a deep dive on Trump’s closing electoral argument, specifically his strategy of calling opponents and journalists criminals, attacking Tony Fauci, threatening to leave the country and spreading a conspiracy theory about Hunter Biden’s laptop. Additionally, we explore the core characteristics of Trump’s foreign policy and a recent article suggesting the real divide in America is...

Bill and Phil reflect on what the presidential election is revealing about the state of the U.S. democracy, what has changed in the practice of polling since 2016 and how much faith we should put in the current polls, how China has outsmarted the US in rewriting the rules of the global order, and what a recent study revealed about the relationship between Trump’s bedtime and his presidential perfo...

Bill and Phil are joined by constitutional law expert Professor Tom Cavenagh to reflect on the dramatic recent developments at the Supreme Court, specifically the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett and upcoming cases on voting rights and the Affordable Care Act.

This week, we’re bringing you two episodes - because that’s how crazy its gotten. In this special episode, Bill and Phil reflect on the President’s COVID diagnosis, his mental and physical condition, the fact that a Supreme Court nomination announcement was also a super-spreader event, and the potential political implications of this historic news.

Bill and Phil reflect on the first presidential debate, the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, Wilbur Ross saying the census will end early on October 5th no matter what a federal judge says, and the fallout from the New York Times disclosure of Trump’s tax returns.