Fireside Breakdowns

This week, we’re going unscripted with a potpourri of election-adjacent topics centered around one theme: What’s really on the line this Election Day? We’re talking about:

How political messaging is making Americans feel like they have to choose between putting food on the table and saving democracy.

The difference in the pre-election narratives we’re seeing from the Republicans and the Democrats.

The differences in red and blue economic policies.

The rise of stochastic terrorism after the 2020 election, especially against political figures.

The number of election deniers on midterm ballots, and how that might undermine the integrity of elections in the future.

If you’d like to get in touch…

You can leave us a review at: https://ratethispodcast.com/fireside

Or you can drop us a note from our Contact page!

You can find all of our sources in our Show Notes.

And, check out our Patreon Page! Patrons get access to early episode drops, bonus content, priority topic requests, quarterly happy hours, and more!

Governors Abbot (TX), Ducey (AZ), and DeSantis (FL) have made news recently for bussing - and now flying - migrants from their states to other (democrat-led) states. But these stories have left us with so many questions… Why are they doing this? Who are the people they are transporting; do they understand what's happening? And who is paying for all this?

If you’d like to get in touch…

You can leave us a review at: https://ratethispodcast.com/fireside

Or you can drop us a note from our Contact page!

You can find all of our sources in our Show Notes.

And, check out our Patreon Page! Patrons get access to early episode drops, bonus content, priority topic requests, quarterly happy hours, and more!

It’s our 100th episode, y’all! Join us as we reminisce about the old days when our episodes were 300% longer, interview each other about the best and hardest parts of this podcast gig, share our favorite bloopers, and more.

If you’d like to get in touch…

You can leave us a review at: https://ratethispodcast.com/fireside

Or you can drop us a note from our Contact page!

You can find all of our sources in our Show Notes.

And, check out our Patreon Page! Patrons get access to early episode drops, bonus content, priority topic requests, quarterly happy hours, and more!

If America is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, why are 38 million of us food insecure? On August 29, President Biden announced the official date of his planned Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health to kick off an initiative that would end food insecurity and hunger in the United States by 2030. While on the surface that sounds like a simple concept, execution of that plan may end up being pretty complicated. This isn’t the first time we’ve tried to solve this problem. Today, we want to take a look at how many Americans are going without the food they need, what it really means to end food insecurity in the U.S., what kinds of programs might have a shot at it, and how a plan like this could work better than the ones we came up with 50 years ago. 

If you’d like to get in touch…

You can leave us a review at: https://ratethispodcast.com/fireside

Or you can drop us a note from our Contact page!

You can find all of our sources in our Show Notes.

And, check out our Patreon Page! Patrons get access to early episode drops, bonus content, priority topic requests, quarterly happy hours, and more!

Did Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation really crash a whole generation of laptop computers? Is paddling the future of school discipline? Synthetic mouse embryos, rabies ravioli... We're talking about the weirdest things we learned this week in this episode of Fireside Unscripted.

If you’d like to get in touch…

You can leave us a review at: https://ratethispodcast.com/fireside

Or you can drop us a note from our Contact page!

You can find all of our sources in our Show Notes.

And, check out our Patreon Page! Patrons get access to early episode drops, bonus content, priority topic requests, quarterly happy hours, and more!

It’s been a little while since we did a true From The Headlines episode, and this one is gonna be a doozy. This week, we’re looking at the Espionage Act up-close and personal. We’ll talk about the history of the law, and why it was created in the first place. We’ll highlight some landmark cases. And then we’ll talk about how it might apply to former President Trump.  Bonus content this week is a real hoot, too, as we look at some of the absurd reactions that Trumpist politicians and pundits are having to this investigation. 

If you’d like to get in touch…

You can leave us a review at: https://ratethispodcast.com/fireside

Or you can drop us a note from our Contact page!

You can find all of our sources in our Show Notes.

And, check out our Patreon Page! Patrons get access to early episode drops, bonus content, priority topic requests, quarterly happy hours, and more!

The Fireside team tackles our first ever book report! We read Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, and in this episode we’re going to share what we learned about how women (and data about women) is ignored or excluded in areas of life we interact with every day. We’ll talk about what surprised us, what didn’t, what made us angry, and how we can all work to recognize this kind of data bias in the world around us.

If you’d like to get in touch…

You can leave us a review at: https://ratethispodcast.com/fireside

Or you can drop us a note from our Contact page!

You can find all of our sources in our Show Notes.

And, check out our Patreon Page! Patrons get access to early episode drops, bonus content, priority topic requests, quarterly happy hours, and more!

In many places, fall primary elections have ended and the final slate of candidates for your November ballot is set. In just a couple of months, you’ll (hopefully) be headed to your local polling place - or filling out an absentee or mail-in ballot - to choose the folks who will represent you for the next several years. You don’t want to wing it. 

BUT, trying to research even one candidate can be time consuming and intimidating - and you’re facing a whole ballot of them, some with obscure responsibilities! So, how can you vet these candidates to be sure they really represent your positions on important issues, and that they’ll stay true to their word once they’re in office? Here’s our practical guide. 

If you’d like to get in touch…

You can leave us a review at: https://ratethispodcast.com/fireside

Or you can drop us a note from our Contact page!

You can find all of our sources in our Show Notes.

And, check out our Patreon Page! Patrons get access to early episode drops, bonus content, priority topic requests, quarterly happy hours, and more!

In this Fireside Unscripted, we (Jon, Robin, and Savannah) talk through three articles with clickbait headlines that reeled us in recently... and one that really confused Savannah for a minute. 

We take some time to talk about the headline and first impressions, and then explain why these particular articles caught our attention and why exactly they count as clickbait.  We discuss the articles in order of angry-making-magnitude, and have some good rants about scope creep and the nature of clickbait.

Articles discussed:

Robin's: https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/03/us/farmington-hills-police-department-black-target/index.html 

Savannah's: https://www.foxnews.com/media/twitter-disgusted-new-york-times-piece-suggesting-theres-time-place-cannibalism 

Jon's: https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2022/july-web-only/russell-moore-steve-bannon-atlantic-jan-6-america-avatars.html 

The Special Bonus Fiber Article: https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/why-fiber-is-the-key-to-getting-faster-5g-everywhere/ 

If you’d like to get in touch…

You can leave us a review at: https://ratethispodcast.com/fireside

Or you can drop us a note from our Contact page!

You can find all of our sources in our Show Notes.

And, check out our Patreon Page! Patrons get access to early episode drops, bonus content, priority topic requests, quarterly happy hours, and more!

There has been a long-standing effort to create a conservative majority Supreme Court that is willing to reconsider substantive due process rights, reduce the authority of the Federal government, and return the U.S. to an “originalist” state. The final episode in our series, “The Road We’re On,” examines the ideological imbalance on the current Court, discusses the long-term coordinated effort to install conservative justices, examines why “originalism” is so valuable to Conservatives, and asks what can be done to stop the momentum. 

Bonus discussion, Samuel Alito: Poster Boy for Originalism + Fireside Unscripted: The Problem With Clickbait, are live on Patreon NOW!

What’s in this episode?

The ideological imbalance on the current Supreme Court, and why it’s dangerous

Why Conservatives started their 50 year campaign for The Court

How they’ve managed to pull that campaign off (spoiler: The Federalist Society)

Balls, strikes, Kavanaugh, Coney-Barrett, Brown-Jackson, and Roberts

What “originalism” is and why Conservatives dig it so much

Judicial restraint, judicial review, and judicial activism

How to stop a moving train - not really. But how to change this judicial course

Good News: Bipartisan…? Legislation to protect marriage, contraception, and abortion care.

If you’d like to get in touch…

You can leave us a review at: https://ratethispodcast.com/fireside

Or you can drop us a note from our Contact page!

You can find all of our sources in our Show Notes.

And, check out our Patreon Page! Patrons get access to early episode drops, bonus content, priority topic requests, quarterly happy hours, and more!