Beyond Politics

Is there an explanation for the Navy UFO videos, as seen on 60 Minutes? We take a serious, respectful, rational approach in this discussion among former Congressman Paul Hodes, former congressional staffer Matt Robison, and top expert in UFO video analysis, Mick West -- featuring a careful breakdown of the videos and Hodes' own experience.   If you like this kind of lively discussion of current events, subscribe to the Beyond Politics podcast with Paul Hodes and Matt Robison on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/2foIjClIUWCFdJl9ogdMtA or wherever you get your podcasts.

A fascinating discussion with Cliff Schecter - one of President Biden's key campaign consultants and host of the UnPresidented Podcast - about his interviews with Paul Begala and James Carville and the fundamental question confronting the Democratic Party: given all of Donald Trump's insanity, why aren't Democrats winning more? And is there anything they can do about it?

In the days after the violent, seditious attack on Congress on January 6, the American people were briefly aghast and outraged. But barely a week later, Republican voter identification with Trump had “rebounded to pre-election levels." Nowadays, even the most searing national events get sucked down a partisan rabbit hole…and last week, Republican leadership came out against any commission on looking into January 6. Our guest is an expert in political behavior and psychology and how we form political opinions.  We talk about how much the age of hyper-partisanship has changed our understanding of events and reality itself. Alexander G. Theodoridis is an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, he helps to direct the UMass poll, and his work has been featured by the New York Times, Washington Post, Scientific American, Time, CNN, The Hindu, The Economist and many other media outlets.

The big AT&T/Discovery deal is creating a behemoth (CNN, HBO, TLC, Food Network, TNT, TBS, etc.) streaming service. But will it work?  And why don't these combinations work more often?

There's a perception that Congress is totally gridlocked, and that the parties do nothing but bicker. But our expert guest says that maybe we're all being a little too negative, because actually, Congress gets more done while you're not looking than you'd think. And despite the historic problems we've seen recently (think insurrection), the system is kind of holding together. Frances Lee is a Professor of Politics and Public Affairs, and the Associate Chair of the Department of Politics at Princeton University.  Photo by Syed F Hashemi on Unsplash

Matt was a guest on West Virginia radio legend Howard Monroe's morning show, talking about how we got into such a divided place in American politics and what some solutions would look like

Last week's news that the economy added just 266,000 jobs when many economists were expecting closer to 1 million made for a lot of head-scratching. Republicans say that excessive Covid relief benefits are creating a disincentive for people to come back to work. Democrats say that recovery is a long road and that if anything, the anemic jobs numbers show that the economy needs an additional boost. So, what’s really going on? To find out, you have to look at who has gone back to work, who hasn’t, and why they haven’t. Our guest Diane Lim is an economist who over the course of a distinguished 30 year career has worked in the federal government, nonprofit and academic sectors. She writes the EconomistMom blog and has served as an advisory board member of the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia.

In 2020, one thing was clear: as goes African American voters, so goes the Democratic Party.  And as goes the Democratic Party, so goes the balance of power in America.  Understanding the evolving views and priorities of Black Americans -- and what drives their enthusiasm to vote -- will be critical if Democrats are to have any chance in the 2022 midterms (and beyond).  The authors of a new report on African American voter priorities in 2021 -- Promises Made Must Be Promises Kept -- join the show to explain their findings. 

We’ve got something a little different for you: a conversation between Beyond Politics host Matt Robison and PoliticusUSA Editor-in-Chief Sarah Jones, available as a podcast, a video, and an excerpt on PoliticusUSA. Matt and Sarah are both fascinated by the same question: how did we get to this pretty awful place in American politics and society…and how do we get out of it? In other words, what is way back from Trump’s America?

Apple's decision this week to clamp down on how apps to track your behavior and movements online has reignited a debate about privacy and the information we share, both willingly and unwittingly, in the digital age.  What is often overlooked is just how much we make decisions, sometimes without even realizing it, about how much information we share about our kids. This is a deep, fraught, and complicated topic that too many of us have not really thought about. One of the world leading experts on it is Leah Plunkett, the author of "Sharenthood: why we should think before we talk about our kids online," and an very accomplished legal scholar with positions at the University of New Hampshire School of Law and the Berkman Klein center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. She makes the case that there are many consequences to every piece of information we share--some we know about, and some that go in unknown and disturbing directions