You Might Be Right

Presidential historian Lindsay Chervinsky, New America Foundation senior fellow Lee Drutman, and fmr. WSJ Washington Editor Jerry Seib join Governors Bredesen and Haslam live at George Washington's Mount Vernon to explore the merits and drawbacks of term limits for public officials.

Robert Pondiscio, American Enterprise Institute sr. fellow, and Dr. Carol Johnson-Dean, fmr. school superintendent in Memphis, Boston, and Minneapolis, join Governors Bredesen and Haslam live at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis to assess the evidence on education reform and explore solutions to persistent achievement gaps.

Economist and Arnold Ventures' incoming Exec. Vice President of Criminal Justice Policy, Jennifer Doleac, and Ja'Ron Smith, Partner with Dentons Global Advisors and fmr. Deputy Asst. to the President for Domestic Policy, join Governors Bredesen and Haslam to explore strategies to reduce and deter crime.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Jon Meacham and Robert Woodson, civil rights activist and Founder and President of the Woodson Center, join Governors Bredesen and Haslam to discuss the controversy over teaching United States history.

In Season 2, hosts and former Tennessee Governors Bill Haslam and Phil Bredesen hit the road, recording live episodes from the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, and from Mount Vernon outside of Washington D.C. Taking on topics including term limits, teaching history, crime, the media, and education disparities, the Governors and their guests demonstrate that thoughtful civil discourse is possible.

Dr. Arthur Brooks joins Governors Bredesen and Haslam to offer practical strategies for navigating disagreements in everyday life. Recorded live at the Baker Center, Brooks, a renowned author, Harvard professor, and happiness expert, notes that no one is ever insulted into agreement and discusses how we can disagree better.

FedEx Founder/Executive Chairman Frederick Smith and Texas Tech economics professor Tim Fitzgerald join Governors Bredesen and Haslam for a conversation about how the US can balance global trade and competing national priorities. Smith contends that automation has had a greater impact on US manufacturing than offshoring personnel. Fitzgerald suggests that while it is valuable to have sufficient production capacity at home for national defense, geographic diversification of production is also a benefit.

Former Tennessee Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker join Governors Bredesen and Haslam to discuss the filibuster for a special episode, recorded live at the Baker Center in Knoxville in September 2022. Use of the filibuster, a rule that prevents key nominations and legislation from advancing without the support of 60 senators, is a long-standing practice of the United States Senate and Senators Corker and Alexander discuss how the filibuster works in practice, what they would change, and why it matters.

Senior Obama official Nancy-Ann DeParle and Vanderbilt professor Larry Van Horn join Governors Bredesen and Haslam for a lookback on the decade after the passage of the Affordable Care Act and offer perspectives on lowering costs and improving outcomes. DeParle, one of the primary architects of the ACA, recounts how the law came together and regrets that the legislation did not receive bipartisan support. Van Horn, a longtime critic of the measure, laments passage of the ACA as a "lost opportunity" and says it did little to address healthcare costs.

Erskine Bowles, former White House Chief of Staff, and Laurie Goodman, an Institute fellow and founder of the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute, join Governors Bredesen and Haslam to discuss the affordable housing crisis. Goodman walks the Governors through a range of zoning and financing policy considerations, while Bowles discusses his work to develop naturally occurring affordable housing – known as NOAHs – in his hometown of Charlotte and how their unique model could be replicated in other cities.