#1176 The Gun Debate Is Less of a Debate Than We Think (Throwback)
Publish Date: 10-22-2026
Original Air Date: 4-6-2018
Today we look back to the spring of 2018, when a conservative listener called in looking for common ground on guns and we answered her point by point: the research on defensive gun use, who gets to be the good guy with a gun, what the Second Amendment was written to do, and the policies most Americans, gun owners included, already support. After the shooting at Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Oregon, every one of those questions is back.
Read more#1829 Poverty Is Hard on Purpose in America and We All Pay the Time Tax
Air Date: 10-17-2026
Today we look at how being poor in America is made harder on purpose. The hours of paperwork it takes to keep food assistance or Medicaid are there to shrink the programs quietly by attrition and make failure feel like a personal problem. The same design runs through a healthcare system that profits when care is denied and the patient doesn't have the time to fight back. The alternative is the kind of program you'd design if you thought everyone living in a wealthy society was worthy of a dignified life.
Read more#1828 The Cornell 7 and How Rape Culture Runs on the Men Who Don't Rape
Air Date: 10-13-2026
Today we look at rape culture as a system that contains far more than the crimes. This topic was prompted by the Cornell 7 story but it starts with little boys annoying girls and having it excused as affection, runs through the “nice guy” who treats kindness as a down payment, and ends with the false claim that men can’t be expected to control their sexual urges. We're organizing the episode a little differently than normal, with the material everyone should hear in the first hour and the deeper dives being reserved for that which men particularly need to face but that assault victims may want to skip.
Read more#861 More Reasons Than You Should Need to Oppose the Death Penalty (Throwback)
Publish Date: 10-11-2026
Original Air Date: 9-16-2014
Today we dig through the archives to give context to the news that the Pentagon plans to execute the Fort Hood shooter by firing squad, the first U.S. military execution in more than 60 years.
Read more#1827 Deep Cuts: Exxon Knew - The History Behind the Case to Make Polluters Pay
Air Date: 10-7-2026
Today we trace the "Exxon Knew" story through a decade of our own archive, because that history is what the Supreme Court is weighing in Suncor v. Boulder in their first case this term. Exxon's scientists confirmed the climate science in the early eighties and the company chose to manufacture doubt. Communities like Boulder County have paid ever since and the question before the Supreme Court is whether any lawsuit like this will be allowed to go to trial.
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