Alabama Liberal

In our first post-election episode (in which Hillary was supposed to be the 45th President) we go through the five stages of grief regarding Trump’s “win” and America’s loss. It’s our longest episode yet, and perhaps a bit scattered but I’m hoping an emotional listener will relate as we ask: who are the five types of Trump voters? How did Trump get authoritarian voters and anti-establishment voters? Who will run against Trump in 2020? What role did Bernie play in this loss? Could he or Joe Biden have beaten Trump? And just what the fuck happened really…

In the last episode before we finally know who the 45th President will be (hint, starts with an H and ends with an illary Clinton), we rally the troops by talking about why we’re Democrats. Burning questions include: seriously, how did two guys from Alabama wind up as Democrats? How will each swing state vote and will Floridians feed Democratic ballots to gators? What are the top three issues each of us care about? What’s the core difference between Democrats and Republicans? Why do Democrats now treat Bill Clinton like he’s Strom Thurmond? Will Trump give the bigglyest, classiest, most huuuge concession speech or a paranoid, armed-revolution-inciting rant or announcing for a new casino where “everyone is a winner that can be treated like a President?”

We dive deep into all things men, women, and everyone in-between in a stand-out episode. Big questions are explored like: Are men and women really different in 2016? Is Trump the epitome of what women like Hillary have always had to fight against? Have women already surpassed men and how will that affect dating, marriage, and relationships in the future? What are the expectations for young boys in a world that isn’t really sure what to do with them? With male unemployment rising, how do you get around the “Angry Young Men” problem? What is Miley Cyrus attracted to this week? And then a personal end note from Alabama Liberal about being a stay-at-home dad and how the pay gap is actually bad for men too. [I know how that sounds, but trust me, it’ll be interesting.]

Hot on the heels of the 3rd and (mercifully) final debate, we take you inside “the Election Industrial Complex.” We find that Trump is right about our elections being rigged, but—of course—not in the way he means. Why are incumbents more likely to die in office than be defeated? Why does the candidate who spends the most money win more than 90% of the time? Is Trump the worst role model possible for our nation’s youth? Will Republicans find a way to gerrymander districts even further? Why are blue states more competitive for the opposition than red states? And, of course, we’re once again forced to talk about the enduring madness of King Trump…

We spend the first half of the episode making sense of Big Don’s implosion, tallying the numerous scandals and recapping his second debate performance. Then we ask “What is Corruption?” in 2016, and notice that a lot of American corruption seems to be how corruption is prosecuted and investigated in the first place–i.e. along party lines–before launching an impassioned plea to Free Don Siegelman. Questions asked (and mostly answered): why is Paul Ryan having an existential crisis? Did Billy Bush bring down Trump on behalf of his uncles? Is a desperate Trump actually good for Democrats? Have Super-PACs led to a system of such open bribery that it’s now hard to say what corruption really is? Why won’t Obama pardon Siegelman? And is Don Siegelman an American political prisoner? [The answer to the last one is “yes.”]

Can the Democrats take back the white working class? And how did they lose them in the first place? Tricky questions that we attempt to answer by looking deep into the history of the Democratic Party–which contained MLK and George Wallace at the same time–and how the Southern Strategy cost them the white working class decades ago, but how “The Northern Strategy” may be keeping voter turn-out low. All this, plus offering solutions and diving deep into the white-hot sex appeal of this year’s Vice Presidential candidates and their riveting debate…

Our big things trilogy might be finished, but we still found another big topic to tackle: food and various other addictions. Americans eat too much of it, and we dive deep into: why is there a political divide in food? Why do red states associate freedom with things that kill them? Is sex addiction real? Did people who take bath salts lose a bet? Why are Americans overweight, drunk, and on drugs? Plus our thoughts on debates past (Trump/Clinton) and future (the sure-to-be-riveting Pence/Kaine showdown)…

Really and truly folks, how many podcasts could give you everything you wanted to know about the media in just one episode? I’m talking Brody’s adventures trying to make movies in Alabama, getting cast in things in Los Angeles, trying to publish books in New York, and striving to crack that ever-elusive club of bloggers who actually get paid. Alllll that plus “American Journalism: An Autopsy” that explains exactly why journalism seems dead, internet journalists have let the comments section become the full article, and the media’s strange preoccupation with Anthony Weiner’s penis. An episode that caps our “Big Things” trilogy and might be worth a listen to anyone who’s ever wanted to work in the media…