Baylor University historian Robert Elder joins us to talk about Vice President John C. Calhoun, a man who argued that slavery was a “positive good” and set the stage for the South to secede from the Union.
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For Democracy To Work, We Have To Participate
James Fishkin is a political scientist and director of the Center for Deliberative Democracy at Stanford, and he joins us to explain the process of deliberative democracy – and demonstrate successes it’s already produced around the world.
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Rights Shouldn’t Be A Zero-Sum Game
Columbia Law professor Jamal Greene joins us to talk about why courts have an outsized role in determining what Americans fight for and against, a method he says is out of line with what the framers of the Constitution envisioned.
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Texas Cities Can’t Keep Frackers Out
Elizabeth Shogren, climate change reporter, joins us to discuss the tens of thousands of school-age children who are within half a mile of active wells and why city officials are pushing back against laws that prioritize drilling permits.
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A Plan For Piecing America Back Together
George Packer, staff writer at The Atlantic, joins us to discuss what he sees as four separate narratives dividing the country, and what each story says about the health of our nation as a whole.
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Where The Proud Boys Go From Here
Rolling Stone staff writer EJ Dickson joins us to discuss the far-right organization’s influence, growth, and future plans to run for local government offices.
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New To America? Here’s Where To Start
Roya Hakakian joins us to talk about her instruction manual for newcomers to this country, acting as tour operator for all the wonder of American sights and sounds.
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How More Policing Leads To Greater Unrest
Elizabeth Hinton joins us to discuss why the word “riot” is a racist trope and masks a long arm of history of over policing and neighborhood crackdowns.
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Yes, Immigration Courts Are Political
Alison Peck, a law professor at the University of West Virginia, joins us to talk about how we might remove politics from the immigration court system so that they can better serve both Americans and people looking to live here.
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What Does The Alamo Really Represent?
Author Bryan Burrough joins us to talk about arguably the state’s most famous story – The Alamo – and why its role in preserving slavery is often written out of Texas lore.
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How Oversight Committees Lost Their Way
David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect, joins us to discuss the original intent of oversight investigations, how they’ve evolved over half a century, and whether the fact-finding efforts behind the grandstanding move the needle.
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The ATF Inspects Gun Dealers But Rarely Punishes Violators
Alain Stephens of The Trace joins us to talk about his investigation of more than 2,000 inspections of gun deals by the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which reveals a system falling behind when it comes to violation enforcement.
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