Research the News

This week, we talked with Gonzalo Veloz about what it was like to grow up in Venezuela, and what he thinks about the state of affairs in the country. Gonzalo came to the US in 2015 as a political asylum seeker, and since there have been many differing opinions on Venezuela’s economic rise and fall, we wanted to talk with someone who has first hand knowledge.

In this Episode Ray and Caitlin talked with Michael Gungor - a Grammy nominated Christian musician and founder of The Liturgists podcast who left the Christian church a few years ago. Recently, U.S. church membership fell below the majority for the first time ever so we figured this would be a great time for us to talk about why this is. Caitlin is a pastor in the Presbyterian Church who grew up in a Christian household, and Ray didn't go to church as a child but became involved as an adult so we have a few perspectives covered.

This week, Ray gives a monologue on why journalism is broken and how we're witnessing the fall of the fourth estate. Then, Gretchen joins in to talk about what it means to 'research the news' and why everyone should be digging deep into the headlines.

This week we talked with Jessica Scott about transgender athletes. Jessica is Associate Professor of Gender Studies at West Virginia Wesleyan College. Dr. Scott holds degrees from the University of Illinois and from the University of Cape Town (South Africa). She is widely published in peer reviewed journals dealing with issues of sexuality and gender, and she is working on the publication of her first monograph.

This week, Ray and Gretchen will talk with Hannah Broadway (Licensed Professional Counselor) about how people can disagree without hating each other. This seems like a lost art sometimes, but we hope to give some perspective on how we can interact in a healthy way.

This week we'll be talking with Andrew about some of the issues he's faced as an Asian American, and how he feels about the media coverage regarding the issues.

In this episode, we will be talking with Caitlin Werth about prison reform. Caitlin was the director of the HOPE Pre-Release Program at Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh, PA. HOPE is an inter-faith, rehabilitative, re-entry program for incarcerated men and women. We'll be looking at the issues from both liberal and conservative viewpoints, with the goal of understanding ways that we can improve the prison system.

This week, we're talking about how we judge political candidates and public figures. We'll also take a look at how much weight apologies hold, and what forgiveness looks like.

This week, we talked with Peace Ike about cancel culture and virtue signaling. (And yes, we do talk very briefly about Mr. Potato Head and Dr. Seuss)

Welcome to the relaunch of Research the News! We recorded a discussion with Sidni Standard about what's been happening with Critical Race Theory in colleges, and a few other topics. Ray Abel is hosting, and Gretchen Hurd has come aboard as co-host for the show. Thanks for listening!