Category: Politics

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Episode 64: Come for the Christmas Shopping, Stay for the Polio

On this week’s episode, we talk about Christmas coming up fast, Black Friday, and transitioning from shopping in malls to shopping online.

And then we turn to America’s recurring nightmare, because we can’t help ourselves.

First up: The incoming president nominating Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to be Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. We used to point and laugh and crazy anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists. Now one is about to run the department that basically oversees healthcare in America.

We then have a very frank conversation about the threat RFK, Jr. poses to mental health treatment in America, which could, like his opposition to vaccines, have deadly consequences.

Finally, we talk at length about this week’s oral arguments before the US Supreme Court in United States v. Skrmetti, a case in which the federal government and a number of private plaintiffs are challenging Tennessee’s outright ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth. While the outcome of the case is far from certain, the lawyers for the US and the private plaintiffs — US Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar and ACLU attorney Chase Strangio (the first transgender lawyer to argue before the Supreme Court) — were just fantastic. Please listen to this extended discussion of a very important topic, and check out this excellent piece by Chris Geidner on the Skrmetti arguments. 

You can also listen to a recording or download a transcript of the oral arguments on the Supreme Court’s website.

We hope you enjoy the show, please feel free to follow us on Instagram (@jenn_and_dave), and we’ll talk again soon.

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Episode 61: The Election, Part 1

So we tried a kind of a thought experiment this week. We recorded this show on election night without knowing the outcome of the election. We’re going to record Part 2 now that we know the outcome, as a … contrast, we suppose.

But despite the fact that this episode is somewhat untimely, it’s still a good one. We talk about Joe Biden dropping out, Kamala Harris becoming the nominee, Tim Walz becoming the vice presidential nominee, and what’s happened since. We also talk about our hopes — now dashed — for the outcome of the election and why, no matter what happened, we have to keep fighting. And along the way, we share some words of wisdom from Tom Morello and an artist you may not be familiar with: Ian Robinson, who goes by the stage name Black Guy Fawkes.

There’s a lot more, of course — media failures, exit polling, early voting — but you’ll have to tune in to find out!

So, we hope you enjoy the show, please feel free to follow us on Instagram (@jenn_and_dave), and we’ll talk again soon.

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