Pantsuit Politics

Beth is out this week, but we're sharing a conversation we both had with John and Cindy Mulligan of Owensboro, Kentucky. After years of feeling like all they had were opinions, the Mulligans helped start Yellow Banks PAC, a nonpartisan, small-donor political action committee working at the local level in a deep red corner of the state. They talk about why they chose a PAC, how they brought in lawyers and consultants to build their "shark cage," the billboard that got their community talking, and what it's felt like to trade despair for agency.

Then, outside of politics, Sarah shares what life looks like two and a half months into running Meander Bookshop inside Piper's Tea and Coffee in Paducah: turning the table, what sells when she's not there, the lessons of rearranging everything on a Sunday, and why fall releases are about to be bananas.

Episode resources:

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Beth is still on vacation, so Sarah drafted a guest co-host she's been married to for 23 years. Sarah and Nicholas run through the headlines — Iran's "low-key" chess game, the cost of absolutely everything, and the Flock cameras multiplying across the country — before digging into the state of the Democratic Party: the DSA's rise, AOC, purity tests, and why Barack Obama is somehow still the party's leader. Then, Outside of Politics, the full report on the Hollands' 3,000-mile RV trip from hell — eight states, four national parks, one brutal adenovirus, and a PSA about the rental company.

Join us in Minneapolis on August 29 — or grab a virtual ticket to watch the live show from home: https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/2026-events

Support the show and get access to News Briefs, Spicy Live bonus episodes, and community: https://pantsuitpolitics.substack.com

Iran

The Economy

Surveillance & Flock Cameras

The Democratic Party

Outside of Politics: The RV Trip

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The breaking news in Sarah's hometown is the breaking news everywhere:

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Beth is out for two more weeks, so I've got a guest host: Laura Tremaine, my co-host over at Slow Read. We start in California, where Laura has lived for 25 years, and get honest about Gavin Newsom — the trolling, Prop 50, the podcast with Charlie Kirk, and why even the people rolling their eyes at him keep talking themselves into him for 2028. That opens up a bigger question we can't stop circling: what does the Democratic Party actually stand for right now, with no leader and no message? Then we get into that viral Atlantic piece, "The End of Reading Is Here." We talk about slow reading as an antidote to algorithmic media, what our civic life loses when people stop reading books, and why neither of us is ready to call it over just yet. We also announce our next Slow Read book. Outside of Politics: the summer the movies came back. The Odyssey, Spider-Man, Toy Story 5, and whether Christopher Nolan is our new Spielberg.

Two weeks left to grab tickets to our live show in Minneapolis on August 29: https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/join-us-in-minneapolis-94f

Topics discussed:

• Gavin Newsom, California Politics, and the 2028 Democratic Primary

• The Democrats' Search for a Fighter (and a Message)

• Slow Reading as an Antidote to Algorithmic Media

• The Atlantic's "The End of Reading" and What It Means for Civic Life

• Slow Read's Next Book: Outlander

• Outside of Politics: The Summer the Movies Came Back

Mentioned in this episode:

The End of Reading Is Here (The Atlantic) — https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/08/reading-crisis-postliterate-age/687618/

Slow Read — https://slowread.substack.com

Laura Tremaine's Secret Stuff — https://secretstuff.substack.com

Our show is listener-supported. Join our community of paid subscribers at https://pantsuitpolitics.substack.com

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Teen driving is the leading cause of death among adolescents — and most of us are completely winging it when we hand over the keys. Dr. Charlie Klauer is a Research Scientist and Associate Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech. She's spent fifteen years doing naturalistic driving research: cameras and sensors in teenagers' cars, watching what they actually do. We took notes and hope you'll find her learnings helpful, too.
Topics discussed:
Why teen driving is more dangerous than most parents realize
How to structure the learner's permit period for maximum practice
Night driving, interstate driving, and other milestone moments to sequence carefully
How parents' own driving habits shape teens behind the wheel
Apps and tools for monitoring teen drivers without being in the car
Why giving a teen "their own" car may increase risky driving
At what age teens should start learning — and why waiting until 18 isn't the answer
Dr. Klauer's survey for parents (link in show notes)
Join us live in Minneapolis on August 29 — virtual tickets available at pantsuitpoliticsshow.com.

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It's easy to check the organ donor box on your driver's license without thinking too much about how organs are treated and routed to people who need them. NYT investigative reporter Brian Rosenthal thoroughly examined the system. His complicated findings have led to congressional inquiry and meaningful progress. This is a conversation about where the system fell short, what his reporting changed, and what still needs work.
Topics discussed:
How the organ transplant system actually works (it's not really a list)
Why doctors can refuse organs offered to their patients — and patients are never told
What federal pressure on organ procurement organizations produced in Kentucky
How the priority list was being bypassed 20% of the time — and why time pressure wasn't actually the reason
Wealthy foreign nationals getting faster organ access at certain U.S. hospitals
What's changed since Brian's reporting and what reforms are now in place
The future of organ donation: animal organs, AI matching, printed organs

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Kids who are anxious about the news might not need to hear less — they might need to know more. Tracy Kaplan, creator of The 10 News (a podcast for kids and families ages 8-12), has spent six years helping kids make sense of everything from the Russia-Ukraine war to gun violence to banned books. What she's learned about talking to kids about hard news is useful for parents too.
Topics discussed:
Why kids' anxiety about the news is often rooted in a knowledge gap, not the news itself
How The 10 News covers scary topics like school shootings — and why vagueness can be worse than directness
What kids actually want to know more about (spoiler: more politics, not less)
How to cover hard stories without being condescending
The shift toward more international coverage over six years
What it looks like to watch a generation of kids grow up through the news

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One of the hardest parts of paying attention to international news is wondering: what can I, one person, do about this? Today's guest, Gwyn Ridenhour, asked herself that question and answered in an extraordinary way. She moved to Lviv, Ukraine, to put books in the hands of children living through the war. Her project, Vinok Libraries, is small and specific and a quiet wonder. Today, she tells us about the work she's doing and how we can help.
Topics discussed:
What drew Gwyn to Ukraine — and why she moved there during the war
How Vinok Libraries works: sourcing books, shipping them to Ukraine, distributing to schools
The language politics of children's books in Ukraine (Ukrainian, English, and the gap)
Delivering books near the front line and what that looked like in person
What $500 means to a school that's been bombed
The bookmobile dream and how to support it

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While Sarah's on summer break, Beth talks with writer and urban planner Angie Schmitt about giving yourself permission to feel lighter about the news this summer, then digs into what's gone wrong with how American cities and neighborhoods are built for kids — from car-dependent suburbs to vanishing teen hangouts.

Topics discussed:

Join us in Minneapolis on August 29th for a live show and after party — details and tickets at pantsuitpoliticsshow.com

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Beth is joined by guest host Alex McCoy, a progressive organizer focused on holding Big Tech accountable, for a conversation about what breaks trust and how to rebuild it. They start with what the collapse of the Graham Platner campaign reveals about the progressive movement's relationship with imperfect candidates, then turn to the accountability vacuum around AI — who's making decisions about our jobs, our data, and our lives, and why almost nobody is calling their member of Congress about it.

Topics discussed:

Beth talked with Alex about the kind of in-person community his medieval weekends create — that's exactly what's waiting in Minneapolis on August 29. Grab tickets here.

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