Estate Sale: the selling out of American democracy

Brad and Laurie are looking for a cure to the dumb fuckery that remains Republican lawmakers and their voters. The GOP continues to fight mask mandates and COVID vaccines all while pretending it was against pulling out of Afghanistan despite being big fans when Trump and the Taliban negotiated the exit last year.

White evangelicals, dominated by Southern Baptists, are a primary demographic within the Republican party. And an unhealthy majority of Southern Baptists are Republican. Brad and Laurie discuss just why both continue to be detrimental to racial justice, gender equality, truth, democracy, faith...pretty much anything good.

More than 150 years ago, on June 19, 1865, the last group of enslaved people in Texas learned of their freedom due to the Emancipation Proclamation issued two-and-a-half years earlier. That date has always been celebrated by Black Americans, but only recently has white America really become aware of its true significance. And that schism between white and Black Americans in the understanding of Black history as it impacts American history is at the heart of today's discussion.

It has been months since Laurie and Brad hosted a show together, so enjoy this somewhat disjointed but highly entertaining podcast catching you up on the latest cheers and jeers from Washington.

And don't worry, "Being Black in America, part 2" will be posted next week!

In this first of a multi-part series, Laurie talks with two former students about what it is really like to grow up Black in today's America. While the Black Lives Matter movement gained momentum and support last year beyond communities of color, the enthusiasm for justice has already waned. And it's not helping Black Americans feel confident in true change.

Laurie sits down with David Quick, a former journalist-turned-candidate-turned-climate-activist, to talk about everything from Trump's Capitol Insurrection to President Biden's climate agenda (thanks to Bernie and fellow progressives) to voting rights to supporting journalism to having hope for the future. It's a wonderfully organic conversation that will leave you optimistic about change ahead.

In honor of Presidents Day, we recite 250 reasons why Donald J. Trump is undoubtedly the worst U.S. president this country has ever seen, beginning with the teeny tiny fact that he encouraged the insurrection of his own government.

Brad back solo, this time talking philosophy, logic and critical race theory with Scott Coley. Scott has a master's in theology from Notre Dame, a PhD in philosophy from Purdue University, and teaches ethics, political philosophy and epistemology at Mount St. Mary’s University. This was a wide ranging conversation on concepts of justice, politics, objective truth, and critical race theory in the context of the conservative church. Along the way, we get some introduction to concepts in philosophy and logic. We recorded this in late December, and I have been mulling over Scott’s analysis ever since. After the Estate Sale end, be sure to listen to me try to test my logic knowledge with Scott. He was very generous and probably gave me a pass fail. 

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have taken the oath, and now America can get back to being a democracy while Trump goes to jail (we hope).

Brad and Laurie note that the contrast between the old and new Administrations could not be more stark.

Hi. Welcome to Estate Sale. Brad here, trying to process last week’s insurrection, or what some people are calling a “self coup.” Whatever the name, it continues to take a toll on all of us as we await the Biden administration and some semblance of sanity. To make some sense of what happened, I decided to talk to another historian friend. Dr. Lance Janda is the chair of the Social Science department at Cameron University, and someone I met on my first day as a Phd Student at the university of Oklahoma. In this episode, we attempt to place last week’s riots in some kind of historical context and take a stab at the major forces at work.