Half the Answer #20: Rage Against the ICE Machine

Trent and Caitlin check in with journalist Steven Monacelli, a special investigative correspondent for the Texas Observer, about the evolution and current-day doings of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, the dangers they pose to citizens and noncitizens alike, and the experience of being a journalist observing resistance to

Mass Deportation Is Happening

The Republican Congress has signaled they will do whatever it takes to support the largest population expulsion in history.

Adoption, Belonging, and the Question of Citizenship

Adoptees are proof of the cruelty and carelessness at the heart of Trump’s assault on birthright citizenship.

The Opposition Report #3

A summary of June 2025 in the second Trump term.

The Fixed Theme of American History

The history of America is a long struggle between the drive for domination and the dream of freedom.

Neon Liberalism #32: A New Nuclear Age

Since the end of the Cold War, it's been easy to see nuclear competition as a thing of the past. As the dust settles over Iran—as Russia rattles the nuclear saber in Ukraine—it's increasingly clear that the question of nuclear weapons has been re-opened.

Birthright Citizenship and Nationwide Injunctions

The Court has suddenly decided to place limitations on injunctions when they were preventing a brazenly unconstitutional executive order.

Half the Answer #19: Authoritarian Overreach in Texas Libraries

Caitlin and Trent reconnect with librarian and intellectual freedom advocate Katie Talhelm for an update about the legislative attacks on public and school libraries since they last spoke. She provides a window into the procedure libraries follow to decide which books to acquire. Half the Answer can be heard on

The Editors Chat #3

We discuss Mamdani, trade-offs, empathy, internationalism, and the post-Nazi transition.

We Have No Supreme Court

The philosophical incoherence of originalism prevents the Court from performing its core functions as a supreme court.

Half the Answer #18: Execution in America

Trent and Caitlin talk to their old friend Clay Jackson, a former litigator and current licensed attorney in Texas. They discuss his plans to embrace a life in his new home on the range, recent developments in immigration rights, and the death penalty in the US. They discuss the history

Neon Liberalism #31: The Inner Philosophy of the Far Right

The reactionary right is in ascendance in the Trump administration. It's easy to dismiss them as a cabal of incoherent fools scrambling for Trump's ear. But there is a deeper philosophy animating their political project: one based on a longing for an imagined aristocratic past, a