Utterly Moderate Podcast

Another massacre in America.

It feels like we are living in a nightmare—and we should refuse to become numb to it. Instead, we should use our anger and sorrow and demand that our leaders do the things that most Americans support to stop the carnage.

I include links to some *extremely* graphic images of Emmett Till’s corpse as well as the corpses of the recent mass shooting victims in Allen, Texas below. If you believe that you will not be able to handle seeing these images, I strongly urge you not to click on them.

These images are not included to sensationalize the topic or to disrespect the deceased. They are included here because I do not believe that America can grapple with the problem of gun violence without viewing and truly confronting the devastation that it causes.

In 1955, Emmett Till—an African American teen—was kidnapped and brutally murdered by White racists.

His mother, Mamie, insisted on an open casket funeral, forcing the world to see the consequences of racism in America.

Photographs of Till’s mutilated corpse were circulated around the country by Jet Magazine and The Chicago Defender and generated intense public reaction, contributing to progress in the Civil Rights Movement.

You can click here to see them.

I have no idea whether being confronted with the very graphic images of mass shootings in America will rouse the kind of reaction that might lead to meaningful change in the same way that Till’s helped further the Civil Rights Movement.

But I believe we owe it to our children to try: You can click here to see them.

It is not radical to say that, nationwide, we should:

Ban assault rifles and high-capacity magazines

Enact a 30-day waiting period for all gun sales

Enact red flag laws

Enact better and uniform background checks

Raise the legal age at which people can purchase firearms

Improve our mental health system

I know this is not radical because a majority of Americans support everything on that list. You can read the Gallup surveys yourself.

There is consensus in America on what needs to be done. The problem is not with the citizens, but our leaders.

There is no excuse to wait any longer. Contact your elected representatives and demand a better world for our children.

The best research suggests we can make a serious dent in this problem if our leaders would only implement the reasonable preferences of a majority of Americans.

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On this episode of the Utterly Moderate Podcast we are joined by Michael Shermer from Skeptic Magazine to discuss the rise of conspiracy theories in America. 

Make sure to check out Shermer's new book on the subject, Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational. 

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On this episode of the Utterly Moderate Podcast we discuss the difficult tasks of reducing extremism and radicalization in the U.S. as well as improving our political discourse.

In segment one we are joined by Pasha Dashtgard, Director of Research for American University’s Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL).

In segment two we are joined by friend of the show Jay Jackson to discuss his book, Decent Discourse, as well as his website of the same name.

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Longtime Connors Newsletter subscribers and Utterly Moderate Podcast listeners know how concerned we are about post-truth America—that is, the fact that we now live in a time where objective facts are becoming less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about how American conservatives are regularly lied to by Fox News, Newsmax, and OAN about a variety of issues, whether it is supposedly stolen elections or climate change or immigration, among other topics.

But on this podcast episode we want to turn a critical eye toward those who feed American liberals misleading information.

Many in the leftwing bubble tell “virtuous lies,” a concept created by this episode’s guest, Jacob Mackey. These are empirically-flawed claims—espoused as empirically-sound and authoritative by those who propagate them—that further a social justice agenda made by some academics, activists, and partisan media outlets on the left. People make these claims without realizing or acknowledging the weak, unsettled, or even sometimes nonexistent empirical support behind their assertions.

Liberal audiences believe these claims because they fit their worldview, make them feel good, and come from credentialed people who they trust.

Additionally, for a liberal to oppose a virtuous lie would be to align oneself with “bad” people on the other side (supposed bigots, know-nothings, etc.). Jacob Mackey argues that to correct a virtuous lie is to oppose the noble goals of one’s tribe and/or to signal that one does not take the problem seriously.

The left tells a number of virtuous lies, particularly about issues related to race and gender, including claims regarding the gender pay gap, gender identity, racial inequality, microaggressions, and implicit bias, to name a few (here is a great discussion of the very unsettled research regarding microaggressions).

This of course doesn’t mean that these are not real issues, or that everything the left says about them is false. But many claims made by academics and partisan media outlets on the left about social justice issues present biased analyses of topics as if they are the settled, authoritative consensus.

The misleading information being fed to liberals and conservatives within their ideological bubbles is contributing to feelings and beliefs becoming more important than facts for many Americans on empirical matters, people becoming increasingly comfortable bending reality to their beliefs (instead of adjusting their beliefs to match the preponderance of the evidence), and millions of people losing faith in notions of facts and expertise.

As post-truth scholar and friend of the podcast Lee McIntyre argues, “[W]hat seems new in the post-truth era is a challenge not just to the idea of knowing reality but to the existence of reality itself.”

We need to work together as a country fix this! We hope you enjoy our conversation exploring this issue in this episode.  

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On this episode of the Utterly Moderate Podcast we are joined by friend of the show, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory astrophysicist Varoujan Gorjian, to discuss NASA’s plans for taking humans back to the Moon, setting up a Moon base, and then going to Mars. We also discuss other exciting developments in the world of science, including breakthroughs in nuclear fusion and artificial intelligence.

And of course, as always, there is the obligatory discussion of ALIENS.

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On this episode of the Utterly Moderate Podcast, we answer your mailbag questions!

Our podcast listeners and newsletter subscribers (subscribe for free instantly!) have been sending their questions to our website and today is the day that we answer them on the air!

Visit us any time at ConnorsForum.org and subscribe to our FREE email newsletter in one click while you are there!

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On this episode of the Utterly Moderate Podcast we are discussing women in fields related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in the U.S.

According to the AAUW:

"Women make up only 28% of the workforce in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and men vastly outnumber women majoring in most STEM fields in college. The gender gaps are particularly high in some of the fastest-growing and highest-paid jobs of the future, like computer science and engineering."

There has been a push for some time to increase these numbers, so we thought we might spotlight a very promising female college student majoring in STEM, Brighid Cantwell, a student of Lawrence Eppard's (podcast host) at Shippensburg University.

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In the fall of 2022 the Connors Forum invited our newsletter subscribers to a free live taping of this show where we talked to conservative heavyweight Bill Kristol about a variety of topics, including the meaning of conservatism today, the state of the Republican Party and its future, the health of American democracy, and more. 

Because it was a live show, listeners were able to pose questions to Kristol during the show. Subscribe for free in just one click to make sure you don’t miss these opportunities in the future!

On today’s show we are going to hear highlights from that conversation for anybody who may have missed it.

If you are unfamiliar with Bill Kristol, he has long been considered a major voice in the world of conservative politics. He is currently editor-at-large of The Bulwark. Before that he was a founder of The Weekly Standard, served as chief of staff to Education Secretary William Bennett in the Reagan Administration, served as chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle in the George H. W. Bush administration, and taught politics at both the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University.

If you want to listen to the unedited Trump/Raffensperger phone call referenced in this episode, click here.

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The Connors Forum would like to extend both Christmas and holiday greetings to all our podcast listeners and newsletter subscribers. We hope you have a very meaningful celebration with family and friends!

On this episode of the Utterly Moderate Podcast, host Lawrence Eppard is joined by David Beckemeyer, host of the brand new Connors Forum podcast Outrage Overload.

David joins the show to talk about all of the media commentators and politicians who make up the outrage industry, an industry which thrives by gaining attention through stoking their audience’s fear, anger, and indignation.

As stated in the show’s description, “The baseline of constant and chronic outrage, a persistent background level, weighs on us, creating constant stress and anxiety individually and on society as a whole.”

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays again to you and yours!

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We're back with another episode of the Utterly Moderate Podcast! But first things first—if you missed it, on November 29th our Connors Newsletter subscribers got to take part in an exclusive live podcast taping with heavyweight political commentator Bill Kristol from The Bulwark. Our subscribers were able to pose their questions to Mr. Kristol live and be a part of the show!

Don't miss out in the future—subscribe for free in one click to join our community!

On this podcast episode we are exploring the work of editorial cartoonists who draw cartoons that provide political or social commentary on the important news of the day.

Joining us to discuss this are editorial cartoonists Adam Zyglis (The Buffalo News) and Phil Hands (Wisconsin State Journal).

The Connors Forum is an independent entity from the institutions that we partner with. The views expressed in our newsletters and podcasts are those of the individual contributors alone and not of our partner institutions.

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