This week on the Common Good Podcast, Doug Pagitt and Robb Ryerse break down what can only be described as dangerously inept leadership — and why it’s no longer just embarrassing, but genuinely dangerous.

What role should faith play in a pluralistic democracy? 

Featuring Texas State Representative and U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico, the event invites clergy and faith leaders to consider how faith can inform public life without being weaponized or imposed—and how spiritual leadership matters in this moment.

The Common Good Podcast — Doug Pagitt and Robb Ryerse sit down for a sobering, urgent conversation about power, fear, and what it means to protect democracy in dangerous times.

They discuss the Trump administration’s decision to send masked federal agents into American cities like Minneapolis—actions that blur the line between law enforcement and intimidation, and that have already resulted in the killing of American citizens. Doug and Robb wrestle with the moral, legal, and spiritual implications of a government willing to deploy force against its own people.

The conversation also turns global, examining the escalating conflict in Venezuela and how Trump’s approach reveals a broader pattern of abuse of power—at home and abroad. Through it all, they ask the question at the heart of the Common Good: How do people of faith respond when authority is used to dominate rather than serve?

A challenging conversation about courage, accountability, and choosing love over fear when it matters most.

Doug and Robb make their 2026 political predictions.  Including a bonus about Trump and Venezuela. 

2025 A Nightmare Year in Review & The Brave Responses

On this episode of The Common Good Podcast, Doug Pagitt and Robb Ryerse reflect on what this year reveals, what it has cost the country, and why people committed to democracy, faith, and the common good cannot look away.

This year unfolded as a steady reminder of how damaging the Trump administration has been to democracy, human dignity, and the moral fabric of the country. Month after month brought new controversies—each one reinforcing a pattern of chaos, cruelty, and abuse of power.

January began with sweeping tariff announcements that rattled global markets and raised costs for American families, paired with renewed threats against immigrants and asylum seekers.

Taken together, this was not a series of isolated incidents—it was a sustained pattern. A year defined by grievance over governance, loyalty over law, and power over people.

A Year of Courage: Month by Month

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

In this episode, with Doug Pagitt and Robb Ryerse, we dive into the shocking and disturbing details surrounding the latest Epstein file release.

Newly surfaced documents include a deeply troubling letter from Jeffrey Epstein to Larry Nassar, raising urgent questions about power, protection, and the systems that allowed abuse to persist for so long.

Doug and Robb unpack what’s actually known, what’s still unclear, and why this moment matters—not just as a headline, but as a window into how institutional silence, influence, and moral failure intersect. This is an honest, sober conversation about accountability, truth-telling, and why confronting uncomfortable facts is essential if we hope to prevent future harm.

In moments of national crisis, leadership is revealed—not by strength of ego, but by depth of empathy.

In this week’s episode, Doug and Robb dig into one of the most alarming stretches of the Trump presidency so far. From Trump’s dehumanizing attacks on Somali immigrants to a pair of lethal boat strikes in the Caribbean now raising war-crime concerns, the administration is leaning hard on fear and force while dodging accountability. We unpack Trump’s attempt to seize more control over immigration judges, America’s downgrade in global civic-freedom rankings, and a federal judge’s smackdown of Trump’s unlawful freeze on wind-energy permits.

What happens when a presidential administration treats law as optional and accountability as a threat? In this episode, we take a clear-eyed, fact-based look at the cascading legal, moral, and political crises emerging from the Trump Administration in 2025.