Plain Talk

"Turn off the TV and talk radio," Chris Berg said in this February 6, 2024 interview, which we're re-publishing during our holiday break. Berg worked in those media for over a decade, earning the most notoriety (and, depending on your perspective, infamy) as a television host in the Fargo market. But Berg says he now has some regrets. I invited him to talk on this episode of Plain Talk after he responded to an article I posted on Twitter saying that leaving talk radio and television behind was the best decision he could make for his mental health. "I felt like I was dragging myself to the microphone," he told me. He ultimately decided to step back from that line of work, and decamp to the west coast. He said that shortly after he moved to California, news broke of a school shooting in Tennessee, and despite the awful news, he felt a sense of relief that he wouldn't have to spend hours having the same old shout-fest about it without anything meaningful getting done. "The sad thing about the media business is the more anger and hate you sow, the more money you make," he said. "Take off the red or blue glasses and challenge yourself," he added. If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It's super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you're from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Pocket Casts | Episode Archive

We're in holiday mode here at Plain Talk, so we thought we'd bring you some reruns of a few of our best interviews from 2024. This interview with Rebecca Binstock, the executive director of the North Dakota Ethics Commission, was originally published on July 26, 2024. "Ethics commissions alone do not create ethical government," Binstock told us, adding that it also requires a robust news media and an engaged electorate. Binstock also noted that, while complaints filed with the commission tend to get the most attention, her goal is to reduce the number of complaints filed by holding seminars and information sessions to prevent them from happening in the first place. The voters created the ethics commission on the ballot, and since then it's become a larger part of North Dakota government. And, unfortunately, politics. This election cycle we saw multiple incidents of politicians and activists announcing that they had filed ethics complaints against individuals on the ballot, with a clear intent to manipulate voters, even though the complaints are officially confidential, and those they're filed against are prohibited by law from speaking about them. We hope you enjoy this rerun, and enjoy your holidays. If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It's super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you're from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Pocket Casts | Episode Archive

This festive discussion reflects on a transformative year in North Dakota politics, highlighting the shift from Doug Burgum to Kelly Armstrong's leadership. The hosts dive into the evolving dynamics within the Republican Party and the changing voter behavior. They also candidly discuss the decline of political accountability and its implications. Mixed with personal anecdotes, the conversation encompasses the struggles in budgeting and federal dependence, while looking ahead to potential reforms and the political landscape of 2025. Happy holidays!

McLean County State's Attorney Ladd Erickson has not been mincing words in his reaction to some of President Joe Biden's pardons that impact our region. He's called them "ridiculous" and "despicable," though he wants to be clear that this didn't have anything to do with politics. "Some of the stuff that President Trump said he's going to pardon is despicable," he said on this episode of Plain Talk. But at least one of Biden's pardons is very, very personal to him. Erickson was involved in bringing Hunter Hanson to justice. Hanson defrauded dozens of people to the tune of about $11 million, but as Erickson explained to us on the show, his victim pool is larger than that. Whole businesses, some of which were the pillars of their small, rural communities, collapsed as a result of Hanson's actions. And President Biden commuted his sentence. Why? "I have no idea," Erickson told us, "and that's one of the frustrations." Also on this episode, Sen. Dale Patten, a Republican from Watford City, weighs in on the controversy over the proposed Maah Daah Hey National Monument. A group of activists are pushing hard to get President Biden to create this monument with an executive order on his way out of office, but Patten says it's far too big a decision to be made unilaterally in Washington D.C. "This is 140,000 acres," he said. "This is twice the size of Theodore Roosevelt National Park." He also said that Biden using the authority of the Antiquities Act would be in appropriate. "It's a circumvention of congressional intent when wilderness is declared a national monument." Patten said his criticism of the project isn't political. "As the proposal sits, I don't care who the president is, there would be opposition." He would prefer that local stakeholders in North Dakota -- from agricultural interests to industrial interests to tribes and all levels of state and local government -- work together on a plan to address whatever protections these lands need. "Do we need to include the federal to do that? No we don't," he said. If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It's super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you're from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Pocket Casts | Episode Archive

A national survey reports that a shocking number of Americans under the age of 30 condone the murder of health industry CEO Brian Thompson, an act allegedly committed by Luigi Mangione. Me and Chad Oban discuss that survey on this episode of Plain Talk. Do the people justifying the murder of Thompson understand that people they don't like so much might decide to play by the same rules? What happens when other sorts of political extremists begin justifying violence this way? Also on this episode, a coalition calling itself Together for School Meals has formed to begin advocacy for legislation that would pay for school lunches for all North Dakota students. Tony Burke, a government affairs director for the American Heart Association, which is one of the groups in this coalition, joined us to make the case for the initiative. "It's broader than just school lunches," he told us, arguing that it's "about healthy students." How much will the initiative cost? How will it be implemented? What impacts will it have on existing federal funding for North Dakota's school lunch program? We asked, and Burke answered. If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It's super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you're from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Pocket Casts | Episode Archive

Austen Schauer, a Fargo Republican and member of the Legislative Audit and Fiscal Review Committee, critiques the North Dakota Insurance Reserve Fund's handling of claims. He describes a recent report as "damning" and highlights the unfair treatment of victims, urging for a new governance structure. Schauer believes claimants shouldn't have to prove victimization and calls for accountability in the system. Additionally, he and Chad Oban discuss Governor Doug Burgum's regrets about property tax issues during his tenure, shedding light on state and local financial dynamics.

Artificial intelligence. Whether you love it, hate it, or are indifferent, it's here, and there are important questions about how it will be used, and what sort of opportunities it presents for our region, which policymakers need to discuss. Rep. Josh Christy is a first-term Republican lawmaker from Fargo who is heading into his second legislative session. He's also what you could call an AI professional. He's an entrepreneur, a software development executive, and a consultant who works with AI and AI policies on a regular basis. "Two years ago, generative AI was not something anyone was talking about," he said, referring to his first session in Bismarck. But now it's here. Teachers are using it. Students are using it. The business community is using it. On this episode of Plain Talk, Christy argued that it's time for North Dakota's laws to catch up. "With any type of technology, there's the good, the bad, the ugly," Christy said, and he's got legislative proposals for each of those. One bill he has developed in conjunction with Attorney General Drew Wrigley's office would address abusive uses of AI. Say, to develop images or videos of public figures for nefarious purposes or of children for sexual gratification. "People are using this to generate images of children in compromising positions," Christy said, and current law doesn't necessarily address that. But other initiatives Christy proposes would seek to welcome the AI industry into North Dakota as a partner. Christy proposes leveraging North Dakota's oil, gas, and coal resources to help power data centers. He wants to develop "computing credits" that could help facilitate the data industry's move into the state. He'll be pushing this bills during the upcoming legislative session, which begins in January. Also on this episode, Chad Oban and I discuss the on-going controversies around Burleigh County auditor Mark Spolonskowski, the efforts to recall Dickinson city commissioner Jason Fridrich, the arrest of Luigi Mangione, who is accused of gunning down an insurance industry executive in Manhattan, and what all those stories mean for our society's notions about right and wrong. If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It's super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you're from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Pocket Casts | Episode Archive

When state Rep. Eric Murphy decided to introduced an abortion bill that, while perhaps representing where most of the public is on the issue, is likely to incite blowback from activists on both sides, he decided he wasn't going to ask any of his fellow lawmakers to co-sponsor it. "This is going to be a charged bill," he said of the draft legislation, which he'll introduce next month during North Dakota's legislative session. He said he felt "no need to expose anyone" to the threats and vitriol the bill could inspire. Murphy joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss the proposal, which would make abortion legal as an elective for the first 15 weeks of of a pregnancy, illegal after 26 weeks, and allowable between 16 and 26 weeks only with approval from a panel of medical professionals who deem it medically necessary. Is Murphy's bill a pro-life bill? That side of the argument would probably say no, because abortion would be completely legal for the first 15 weeks. Is it a pro-choice bill? That side of the debate would likely say no, because abortion is restricted after 15 weeks, and completely banned after 26. But that middle ground between the two extremes on the issue is precisely where Murphy wants to be, and where he thinks most Americans, and most North Dakotans are. He told co-host Chad Oban and I that "we have to move away from the morality play" that the abortion issue is typically cast as. "Nobody is getting what they want," on this contentious issue, Murphy argued. He says it's time to start creating laws we can live with. Also on this episode, columnist Gary Emineth joined us to discuss property taxes. In a recent column, Emineth, who supported the constitutional amendment to abolish all taxes on property values which failed on the November ballot, argued for the Legislature to pass a somewhat narrower ban on property taxes, specifically removing them from only residential properties. If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It's super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you're from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Pocket Casts | Episode Archive

I don't make a habit of referencing things Plain Talk podcast guests say off the air, but Deb McDaniel, the director of the gaming division in Attorney General Drew Wrigley's office, casually mentioned this jaw-dropping statistic on co-host Chad Oban and I after our interview on today's episode. In October 2024, electronic pull-tab machines in North Dakota saw over 200 million button pushes. The machines saw $80 million in cash run through them that month. That's one month, a state with just over 783,000 citizens. That works out to roughly $100 for every beating heart in the state. It's an astounding figure, and it illustrates how acute the issue of charitable gaming has become in North Dakota. Both Wrigley and McDaniel joined this episode of Plain Talk to talk about their efforts to regulate this exploding industry, as well as a looming push in the upcoming legislative session to take gaming regulation authority away from Wrigley's office. Also on this episode, we react to Gov. Doug Burgum's last budget address as a lame-duck governor, and the tightrope Sen. Kevin Cramer is walking around some of President-elect Donald Trump's nominees. If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It's super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you're from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Pocket Casts | Episode Archive

Chad Oban and I are off for the holiday, so today's podcast is a rerun. This is an interview I recorded with columnist Tony Bender three years ago this month, in November of 2021. In it, we discuss divides in the North Dakota Republican Party that were apparent at the time, and still are today. We also discussed the tribalism of American politics in 2021, redistricting, and the special session of the Legislature in Bismarck. Tony was a good friend of mine, and passed away recently. Missing him, I went back and listened to this old interview, and thought you, the audience, might enjoy it, too, as a holiday rerun. Especially since so many in my audience were part of Tony's audience, too. Regular episodes of Plain Talk will resume next week If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It's super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you're from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Pocket Casts | Episode Archive