American Ground Radio

You're listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for August 31, 2026. 

We open by digging into the Trump administration's crackdown on fraudulent commercial driving schools, walking through why English proficiency and real CDL training aren't bureaucratic red tape but a matter of public safety, and how the Biden-era rollback of licensing standards left blue states like New York, California, and Illinois with hundreds of noncompliant schools, thousands of unsafe drivers, and a real national security exposure tied to unaccountable 18-wheelers.

From there we run through the Top 3 things you need to know: a new U.S.-Venezuela oil deal aimed at cutting China out of the picture, U.S. military strikes on Iranian targets in the Persian Gulf tied to sea-mine activity, and the federal shutdown of over a hundred more commercial trucking schools tied to unlicensed, non-English-speaking drivers.

We touch on sports activism, from NFL end-zone messaging to Tennessee honoring Dolly Parton with a helmet sticker, before turning it over to our American Mamas, Teri Netterville and Kimberly Burleson, who take on a listener question about whether they'd write a child out of the will over socialism, plus a detour into trade schools, Mike Rowe, and the value of a good vocation.

Digging Deep, we cover a New York assistant attorney general's viral internal email accusing AG Letitia James's office of manufacturing a case against Trump, and what happened to him within an hour of hitting send. We also look at President Trump's push to lure Canadian businesses south of the border, the "Best and Brightest" push to recruit sharp, fast-processing minds — including gamers — into air traffic control now that DEI mandates are gone, and a Texas Senate candidate's blunt new campaign pitch: vote for me, I'll raise your taxes.

For our Bright Spot, we look at a year of data out of Texas A&M on school cell phone bans, and the real gains in grades, anxiety, and old-fashioned face-to-face friendship they're producing. And we close on a heartwarming story out of the Bronx, where a pizza shop owner's simple act of kindness for a woman digging through his trash turned into a nationwide movement of paying it forward, one slice at a time.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for August 28, 2026. 

We open with Florida's move to ban welfare cash assistance from covering tattoos, video games, theme park tickets, vaping products, and even psychic services, and we dig into why Governor DeSantis's crackdown on TANF spending should spread nationwide. We run through our Top 3, covering a Boston judge blocking Trump's mail-in ballot security measures again, the clearing of Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz, and a military judge tossing out Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's 9/11 confession over coercion claims. We also can't resist poking fun at CNN's embarrassing mix-up using a Dolly Parton impersonator's photo to announce the real Dolly Parton's death.

Our American Mamas, Teri Netterville and Kimberly Burleson, join us to talk about Brian Guan, the atheist whose 30-day experiment cosplaying as a Christian led him to tears and a genuine conversion by day 20, and we draw the parallel to C.S. Lewis and Lee Strobel's own journeys from skepticism to faith. Digging Deep, we tackle Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass halting citations for unlicensed street vendors, the sinking marshlands of South Louisiana, and how SpaceX's new $100 billion spaceport might do more to protect the coastline than decades of lawsuits, plus a detour into why capitalism protects what people can profit from. We talk through President Trump's self-ranking as the greatest president in history and whether confidence like that is healthy or just bluster, before diving into Fake News Friday with our usual mix of real, fake, and really fake headlines. We close out with an update on birthright citizenship litigation and a story about Millie, the 31-year-old cat who may hold a world record.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for August 27, 2026.

We open by tearing into Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner's comments about wanting a "paperweight" from the wreckage of Trump's planned White House ballroom, walking through why that rhetoric crosses the line from political disagreement into celebrating the destruction of federal property, and how the broader culture of "blow it up, burn it down" language is fueling real threats against the president.

We get to our Top 3 things you need to know: President Trump's executive order renaming Lake Ontario "Lake America" amid the trade standoff with Canada, the Third Circuit's ruling that the assault case against Congresswoman LaMonica McIver can proceed, and the release of ICE agent Christian Castro from a Texas jail after Minnesota's extradition lawsuit was tossed as premature.

Our American Mama Teri Netterville joining us to reflect to reflect on the life and legend of Dolly Parton including a moving story about her music showing up at a family funeral and a look at how she became one of the few truly unifying figures in American life, right down to turning down the Presidential Medal of Freedom three times so it wouldn't look political.

We dig deep on two fronts: the Trump administration's new requirement that states conduct random manual audits of paper ballots to keep their Homeland Security election funding, which we frame as basic quality control rather than an attack on election integrity, and a close read of Texas Senate candidate James Tallarico's campaign theology, where we lay out chapter and verse why his claims about a non-binary God, abortion, and religious pluralism don't square with scripture.

We also weigh in on New York Mayor Mamdani mourning a Rikers Island inmate's death without a word for the man he's accused of murdering, before landing on a Bright Spot: General Mills announcing its U.S. cereal lineup is now free of certified synthetic dyes, a shift we credit to RFK Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again push merging with MAGA consumer pressure.

We close things out with a Say What on a Georgia teacher's classroom "gas station" for second graders, and a Moment of Whoa honoring Mandy Patinkin's new gig as honorary team captain for the U.S. fencing team heading into the 2028 LA Olympics.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for August 26, 2026.

We start by digging into the tangled state of the 2028 Democratic presidential field: Kamala Harris leads the national polling average, but red-state Democrats running in Iowa and Alaska are keeping her at arm's length, and her New Hampshire numbers tell a very different story than the national headline does. From there we hit the Top 3: President Trump's mail-in ballot executive order gets the green light after the Supreme Court forces a Boston judge to lift her injunction, Senator Darline Graham wins her primary to keep her late brother Lindsey Graham's Senate seat in South Carolina, and three Secret Service officers lose their clearances amid leak allegations.

We're joined by American Mamas Teri Netterville and Kimberly Burleson to weigh in on whether a private text-message conversation caught on video in public is fair game, sparking a broader conversation about selective outrage and privacy double standards. We also try to put to rest the viral rumor about a government "kill switch" in 2027 vehicles, walking through what the 2021 infrastructure law actually requires versus what's circulating on social media.

In Digging Deep, we look at a new HHS-backed study out of Rutgers and the Manhattan Institute examining a possible link between gender ideology and support for political violence, tying it back to Charlie Kirk's final on-air remarks. Our Bright Spot honors Dolly Parton, spotlighting King Charles and Camilla's tribute alongside tributes from Bill Clinton and President Trump, and celebrating her rise from an East Tennessee cabin to global icon. We close with a Moment of Whoa over Colin Kaepernick receiving the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award, plus a remembrance of actor Tim Curry, who passed away this week at 80.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for August 25, 2026.

We open with a hard look at a troubling poll: 62% of young Americans now say they view socialism favorably, and we dig into why that number keeps climbing, what young people are actually being sold versus the historical reality of socialist regimes, and why billionaire wealth isn't the piggy bank the left makes it out to be.

In our Top 3, we cover the Trump administration's fraud task force uncovering $13 billion in fraud among federal contractors, Canada slapping retaliatory tariffs of up to 50% on U.S. goods amid stalled trade talks, and a coalition of small businesses suing New York City over Mayor Mamdani's plan for government-run grocery stores.

We also can't let it go unmentioned: Los Angeles is considering taxpayer-funded "sexual relief clinics" for the homeless, and we ask just how far city government should go in the name of comfort.

Our American Mamas, Teri Netterville and Kimberly Burleson, join us to talk about the disturbing social media contagion surrounding the Lindsay Clancy murder trial, the performative videos flooding the internet, and the difference between a genuine cry for help and a cry for attention.

In Digging Deep, we tackle Charles Barkley's blunt comments on keeping the WNBA for women, the controversy stirred by Enos Cantor-Freedom's WNBA draft plans, and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu's push to publicly expose private businesses that cooperate with ICE.

Our Bright Spot celebrates Buc-ee's, the Texas-born gas station chain whose CEO says he's done building in blue states that don't appreciate the business he brings.

In our Moment of Whoa, the State Department moves to revoke tourist and business visas from up to 200,000 asylum applicants, reinforcing that America's visa rules mean something. We close by remembering country music icon Dolly Parton, who passed away this week at 80.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for August 24, 2026. 

Today's episode kicks off with the Supreme Court giving President Trump a win on mail-in ballots, putting the brakes on that Boston judge's nationwide injunction just ahead of the midterms. We dig into why ballot verification shouldn't be a partisan issue and take a swing at those states — Colorado, California, Utah — that seem to drift left every time they go all-mail. Then it's on to the Top 3: Canada gets slapped with 50% tariffs as trade talks collapse, Al Green files yet another doomed impeachment bill against Trump (after losing his own primary, no less), and Kyle Kirkwood takes the checkered flag in the wild Freedom 250 F1 race right through the streets of D.C.

From there, we get into a new survey showing conservatives are having more children than liberals, and circle back to our favorite soapbox: America needs more babies. American Mamas Teri Netterville and Kimberly Burleson share their weirdest random shower thoughts, from baseball cups to the bubonic plague death toll, plus a real conversation about whether ChatGPT and Grok are making us smarter or just better googlers.

We Dig Deep into two press-freedom stories: Florida's new mandate requiring public schools to teach the history of communism starting this year, which we strongly endorse, and California's new law shielding immigration and Medicaid-fraud-adjacent workers' identities, which we argue is designed to shut down investigative journalists like Nick Shirley. We tie that into James O'Keefe's recent appellate victory overturning a $130,000 judgment tied to his undercover 2016 election reporting.

We cover Justice Clarence Thomas's rare interview with Senator Ted Cruz, where Thomas pushed back on the idea that his conservative views betray his race, and we use it to argue that calls for "diversity" often mean diversity of complexion rather than diversity of thought. Our Bright Spot highlights the El Paso Independent School District requiring central office administrators, including the superintendent, to substitute teach several days a year, both to build empathy for classroom teachers and to save the district roughly $4 million annually. We close with a look at Haitian nationals self-deporting to Canada following the end of their Temporary Protected Status, and a Moment of Whoa about Columbia High School in Alabama snapping a 101-game losing streak.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for Aguust 21, 2026. 

We open with a pointed examination of antisemitism and New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani, arguing that his rhetoric and his choices—including naming zero Jewish lawyers to the judicial screening board despite roughly half of New York's lawyers being Jewish—amount to complicity rather than leadership, and we tie the discussion back to the unique historical and religious bond between the Jewish people and Israel. From there we hit the top three things you need to know: the Supreme Court allowing the Trump administration to continue East Wing ballroom and bunker construction, Aisha Wahab winning the special election to finish Eric Swalwell's term and becoming the first Afghan immigrant elected to Congress, and a Chinese national convicted of stealing his landlord's identity to illegally vote in Massachusetts during the 2024 election.

We poke fun at Chicago's approach to violent crime, ridiculing the city's rollout of thousands of signs declaring that violence "will not be tolerated" as a substitute for real enforcement. Our American Mamas segment welcomes Teri Netterville to weigh in on sorority rush videos on TikTok, debating which style of content—natural, fun montages versus overly sexualized choreography—actually reflects well on the sisterhoods posting them.

We Dig Deep into Bernie Sanders campaigning for Democratic Socialist Senate candidate Angie Nixon in Florida, arguing that a state built by anti-communist refugees from Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua is uniquely hostile territory for that message. We also cover Seattle Times sports reporter Matt Calkins' resignation after his editors spiked his column defending the separation of women's sports from transgender athletes, using it as a case study in media cowardice. We touch on an Amherst College professor's book arguing Asian American success is tied to white supremacy, then run our Fake News Friday quiz covering stories on Natalie Harp, Alina Habba, Conor Kennedy's placement on a Russian most-wanted list, and more. We close discussing New York City's planned government-run grocery stores undercutting private businesses by 30% while simultaneously funding grants to keep those same businesses afloat, and a Moment of Whoa about Middleton, Idaho naming its new elementary school "Freedom Elementary."

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for August 20, 2026.

We open with a chilling case out of Albany, New York, where 35-year-old Jessica Bowie stands accused of pledging allegiance to ISIS and plotting to bomb the New York State Capitol while also expressing a desire to harm President Trump. We use the case to dig into the theological roots of Islamist violence, the constitutional line between religious liberty and criminal conduct, and the possibility that mental illness predates her radicalization. From there we hit our Top 3 stories: ActBlue co-founder Matt DeBergolais taking the Fifth before three House committees, New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani suing his own City Council over a $10,000 teacher's aide stipend he says bypasses collective bargaining, and former Congressman Eric Swalwell getting his devices seized by the FBI amid his long-running entanglement with suspected Chinese spy Fang Fang. We then turn to the backlash over fashion designer Marc Jacobs saying he'd have styled Luigi Mangione for his murder trial, and we push back hard on the idea that a defendant's right to counsel translates into a right to admiration.

Our American Mamas segment welcomes Teri Netterville to unpack the emotionally fraught trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother charged with strangling her three children, weighing the medical system's failures, the online conspiracy theories swirling around her ex-husband, and the difficulty of holding both empathy and accountability at once.

We Dig Deep on the stalled SAVE Act and the citizenship-verification fight in the Senate, debating whether Majority Leader John Thune is protecting the filibuster or just protecting himself, before breaking down the historic wave of congressional primary losses this cycle, from scandal-driven defeats like Cory Mills and Andy Ogles to Trump-related casualties like Thomas Massie and Dan Crenshaw, DSA insurgents unseating longtime incumbents, and redistricting fights that pitted sitting members against each other. We also examine California's Proposition 40 wealth tax, walking through why taxing paper net worth instead of cash could drive founders and investment straight out of the state.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for August 19, 2026. 

We open with President Trump's decision to pause a threatened 50% tariff on Canada as the two countries close in on a new trade deal, and we dig into what's really at stake beneath the headlines: the possible revival of the Keystone XL pipeline, Alberta's push for a independence referendum, and why NAFTA never delivered true free trade for the United States. From there we run through the top three things you need to know: Congressman Byron Donalds' commanding win in Florida's Republican gubernatorial primary, the national debt crossing $40 trillion, and a former top Fauci advisor pleading guilty to evading public records laws tied to COVID's origins.

In American Mamas, Teri Netterville joins us to react to Senator John Ossoff's insinuation that President Trump is having an affair with a young White House staffer, and why that accusation may backfire on him with his own base. We go Digging Deep on two fronts: new research showing tariffs actually spurred productivity gains rather than the inflation doom-and-gloom predicted, and the escalating legal standoff between Minnesota and Texas over an ICE agent's extradition, set against the backdrop of blue states already refusing to extradite abortion pill providers to Texas. We also weigh in on Maine's Democratic Senate nominee and her vote to decriminalize prostitution, and what that says about the direction of American culture.

Our Bright Spot looks at several encouraging takeaways from Florida's primary night, from same-night results to the defeat of extremist and corruption-tainted candidates in both parties. We close with the patriotic energy surrounding the nation's 250th anniversary in Washington, D.C., and a remarkable discovery: a seminary intern in Virginia stumbling upon the original, handwritten copy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full episode for August 18, 2026. 

We open by taking a hard look at the polling industry ahead of the 2026 midterms, breaking down Republican pollster Patrick Ruffini's analysis of 3,000 Senate polls over four election cycles, which found an average Democratic-leaning error of 3.7 points and Democrats overstated in 73% of surveys. We debate whether that means blanket-adjusting every poll number, or whether turnout, candidate quality, and a summer electorate that isn't paying attention yet make historical error rates a poor guide to any single race, using the Texas Senate matchup between Ken Paxton and James Tallarico as our test case.

From there we run through our Top 3 stories you need to know: an indictment of 17 Iranian nationals tied to the Mabna Institute for a sweeping hacking campaign against U.S. universities, private companies, and government agencies; an arrest warrant issued for former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein after she skipped a court hearing tied to an alleged assault on a police officer; and a guilty plea from a Massachusetts man who identifies as transgender after bringing Molotov cocktails to the Capitol during Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's confirmation hearing. We also dig into the National Association of Black Journalists giving ESPN's Stephen A. Smith a thumbs-down rating for refusing to stay in his ideological lane, and a former Senator John Cornyn staffer's jump to the Tallarico campaign, which we read as a sign of where the polls and the money are pointing rather than any real change in conviction.

In American Mamas, Teri Netterville reflects on the death of actress Hayden Panettiere, tracing her rise as a child star through a mother who treated her as a meal ticket, an abusive relationship, drug struggles, and the broader pattern of young Hollywood stars who are chewed up by the industry around them.

We Dig Deep into a resurgence of flea-borne typhus in Los Angeles, connecting record case numbers to the city's homelessness policies and a 2020 California law that restricted the most effective rat poisons to protect wildlife. We also cover a new Census Bureau review comparing 2020 voter rolls to citizenship data, which found more than 24,000 confirmed non-citizen votes out of an initial 128 million reviewed, with 32 million more ballots still to be checked, and what President Trump's reaction to that number could mean going forward.

For our Bright Spot, we look at a new report showing New York City's congestion pricing hasn't actually improved air quality, then turn to a Washington, D.C. experiment coating streets in light-reflective paint to cool down urban heat islands. We say, "what" to a Minneapolis public school district reportedly handing out free backpacks and school supplies exclusively to American Indian students. And we close with a Moment of Whoa as Jason Burns secretly trains for two weeks to surprise his girlfriend Emma Kessler at the starting line of her first half marathon, running all 13.1 miles by her side.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.