General Summary: Doctor Ryan Skinnell shares his opinions about the rhetoric of Donald Trump and the political environment we live in since his 2016 election. He talks about how Donald Trump lies and how the Republican and Democratic parties construct their interpretation of Trump’s strategies of persuasion. He also answers questions about how emotion is being used in politics today and what challenges this poses for Trump.

Detailed Summary: Introduction (0.00-01.10); How Professor Skinnell got into political and public rhetoric through Donald Trump (01.11-03.10); Yasemin asks Professor Skinnell, “What makes Trump’s lies different from other politicians and why are they so convincing?” (03.11-05.15); How Trump deals with his lies being countered during interviews (05.16-08.39); How Parrhēsia is used by Trump and Trump’s rhetoric, compared to the rhetoric of Hillary Clinton (08.40-14.28); Is there a way to draw a line between Parrhēsia and demagoguery with Trump? How Trump becomes “trustworthy” by being dependably untrustworthy (14.29-17.35); Can we understand Trump’s rhetoric more by analyzing it from his followers' point of view? How are Trump’s policies affecting the political climate of our country? (17.36-21.20); How the left is going further left and right is going further right, how emotional rhetoric is challenged by American politics, how can we solve these issues? (21.21-27.10); Conclusion (27.11-27.50).

Scholarly Article Informing this Production: Skinnell, Ryan. “What Passes for Truth in the Trump Era: Telling It Like It Isn’t. “ Faking the News: What Rhetoric Can Teach Us About Donald J. Trump (2018): 76-94. Researchgate. Web. 16 Aug. 2020.

Credits: This podcast was produced by Benjamin Pomerantz, with resources and assistance provided by the Digital Writing and Research Lab at the University of Texas at Austin. It features the voices of Ryan Skinnell, Benjamin Pomerantz, Brett Glasscock, and Yasemin Elrabaa. Music featured in this podcast, titled “commonGround,” was created by airtone and has been repurposed here under Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial license 3.0 . Additionally, conversation.wav was adapted and incorporated under Creative Commons 1.0 license .