In this week's episode, Drew and Alex touch on the recent events in Irish news in which the dual party system was turned upside down on February 8th. The two major center right parties - Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael - lost to Sinn Fein, who received the largest share of first-preference votes. This event was controversial, because Sinn Fein has ties to the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which bombed and shot its way through the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's. However, Sinn Fein's campaign manifesto stated that their " core political objective is to achieve Irish Unity and the referendum on Unity which is the means to secure this.” Drew and Alex discuss the potential feasibility of unification between Ireland and Northern Ireland, they also discuss the global cooperation that would be required, and the potential ramifications. 

The World Bank has loosely defined the Belt and Road Initiative project as "a China-led effort to improve connectivity and regional co-operation on a trans-continental scale through large-scale investments.” In this episode, Drew and Alex talk about China’s attempt at a modern “Silk Road" that is looking to invest in foreign infrastructure, trade routes, and more. They discuss the positives of this initiative, such as its ability to build infrastructure in poorer, less connected countries.They also discuss the growing issues that are related to this project. Many of their concerns come from the idea that China’s intentions are murky at best. The initiative may put many developing countries into "debt traps," as they will eventually be forced to pay back China in some way for these expensive projects. Others worry that China may be peddling political support from these large investment schemes, hoping to get voting power inside the U.N. Are China’s intentions mostly for the betterment of the world’s global system? Or does China have a nefarious goal of growing their economic soft power in places that aren’t happy with the status quo? 

In this episode of the Tonic Accord, Drew and Alex sit down to discuss a set of issues that affect all three branches of the U.S. government. First, they discuss whether there should be an age cap on someone who runs for the President of the United States. They also discuss the pros of cons of term limits for the Legislative and Judicial branches of the U.S. government. These are all complicated issues that have no black and white answers, yet they try their best to highlight the pros and cons of each. 

In this episode of the Tonic Accord, Drew and Alex discuss the ever complicated and convoluted issues between Israel and Palestine. They talked about the flawed approach that the west has taken for the last five decades (Oslo, Balfour, etc), and how the Palestinians need more than just cash from the United States in order to change. They also discuss the flaws of Trump's "Peace Plan" as it looks to continue the status quo and strongly favors Israel. Both believe that a two state solution could be almost impossible and instead maybe both sides need to establish one state with a representative democracy that can allow all voices (and ethnicities) to the table. 

In this special episode of the Tonic Accord, Drew and Alex bring on Grayson Forsberg, their reoccurring guest, to talk about the plethora of events that have rocked the news cycle in the U.S. over the last week. They discuss the inevitability of the acquittal of Donald Trump in the senate and the brave, yet pointless rebuttal from Mitt Romney. Then they also talk about the President Trump’s entertaining State of the Union. They finish by talking about the Iowa Caucus chaos, the struggles democrats are going to face, and how an app shouldn’t have collapsed the entire process. 

In this week’s episode of the Tonic Accord, Drew and Alex discuss the global scare surrounding the Coronavirus that originated in December out of Wuhan, China. They discuss its origins, its potential source, and how China and the world have been handling the issue. They talk about the need for global cooperation and transparency. They also discuss how factors like climate change have made the spread of these viruses more common and dangerous. On a (semi) positive note, they also discuss how the virus is no more lethal than the flu and shouldn’t cause panic. 

In this episode, Drew and Alex have a comparative discussion about the difference between Social Democracy and Democratic Socialism. In the light of democratic candidates like Bernie Sanders, they decide it is good to talk about the fact that some call him a communist and others call him an important change to a broken system. First they discuss how a Social Democracy still operates within a capitalist system, but favors more social welfare programs and state spending. Then they discuss how Democratic Socialism may be harder to gauge within a country because it pushes for a systematic change from capitalism to socialism, but wants to do so through the means of fair and democratic elections. They also discuss whether the United States is ready for either model and how many Americans don’t understand these two systems and claim that anything outside of “Left” or “Right” is seen as communism or fascism. 

In this episode, Drew and Alex discuss the recent changes in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. They debate the need for the senate to bring in witnesses such as John Bolton and Hunter Biden. They also discuss how Americans are getting impeachment fatigue because everyone knows this impeachment started at the end and won’t get Donald Trump removed from office.

In this episode of the Tonic Accord, Drew and Alex have a general discussion about some of the twentieth century’s worst wars and conflicts and how they may have heavily impacted social and societal change around the world. The two focus mainly on the World War 1 and how it dramatically changed the world forever, World War 2 and how it increased public participation, and the growing distrust that came from the Vietnam War. They also discuss the movie 1917 and how it did an accurate job of portraying the human side of the “war to end all wars.” 

Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in his state-of-the-union speech a dramatic overhaul of the Russian constitution and a referendum on its proposed term limits. Many people have called Putin’s actions this week a constitutional coup. In this episode, Drew and Alex break down the complicated, convoluted, and confusing role that Putin has played in Russia for over two decades. They also discuss what they think Russia’s future may look like, why Putin needs to eventually step down, and the pros and cons to this referendum on the president’s term limits.