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Caitlin and Trent talk to Clay Jackson, a litigator from Dallas, Texas. Clay describes the disconcerting experience of having secret police show up to his door the same day he gave boilerplate know-your-rights information to some neighbors who were concerned about being targeted by ICE. They discuss the rapidly escalating
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Trent and Caitlin speak with cognitive scientist, linguist, and AI researcher Hagen Blix about his book, co-authored with Ingeborg Glimmer, called Why We Fear AI: On the Interpretation of Nightmares. What do those selling AI-branded products have to gain from telling everybody that AI could take over the world? What
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Trent and Caitlin talk with journalist Evan Urquhart about the ways trans rights get discussed in mainstream media, including the notion that supporting trans people’s full participation in society and protecting their right to bodily autonomy represents a viewpoint that is out of touch, too extreme, or endangers the
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Trent and Caitlin talk with Dr. Aris Clemons, an Assistant Professor in Linguistics, about the various slanders and misapprehensions that plague her field of study. We discuss language ideologies, the illusion of objectivity, the futility of being “apolitical” in a political institution, ethnography and lived experience, “other ways of knowing,
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Trent and Caitlin talk with Adam Gurri, founder and editor-in-chief of Liberal Currents, about his take that the most accurate way to view the Trump presidency is as an example of “personalism.” What is personalism? What are other examples of personalist systems? What can a nation do once a personalist
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Caitlin and Trent ask Alan Elrod, President and CEO of the Pulaski Institution, about what nationalism is and what kinds of nationalism are at play today. We discuss how white nationalist and Christian nationalist proponents justify it, and how U.S. progressives can participate in a national identity that celebrates
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Trent and Caitlin ask podcaster and philosopher Toby Buckle about the claim that heroic masculinity will save us. Do all men want to be heroes? Is someone stopping them? Does asking boys and men to be considerate squash their inherent manly essence? The hosts and their expert guest dig into
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Caitlin and Trent spoke with Polite Conversations host Eiynah about the ways Islamophobia disguises itself as rational, genuine liberal-minded concern, and the hateful roots that hide beneath. The Rationalists and IslamophobiaPodcast Episode · Half the Answer · 04/02/2025 · 58mApple Podcasts Half the Answer can be heard on Spotify, on Apple,
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Trent and Caitlin ask Clinical Psychologist Dr. Melissa Fisher Paoni about problem technology use among children and teens, how to help them stay safe without crossing the line into over-surveillance or excessive restriction, and why one-size-fits-all policies are often insufficient. Youths and TechnologyPodcast Episode · Half the Answer · 03/26/2025
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Centrist pundits, conservative think-tank guys, and far-right propagandists say the movement to target libraries with new laws and book challenges is about making sure patrons have access to all viewpoints and kids aren't exposed to obscene materials. But what does the situation really look like on the ground?
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Caitlin and Trent speak with Bradford Vivian, a Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at Pennsylvania State University, about campus misinformation. How do op-eds and other polemics use hyperbole, metaphor and innuendo to create a false impression that college campuses are overrun with radical left wing revolutionaries, communist professors, mentally
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Caitlin and Trent, a linguist and an historian, introduce Half the Answer, a new podcast from Liberal Currents. The headlines and pundits ask their questions and present their framing of the topics of the day, but are there better questions we could be asking? Caitlin and Trent will interview experts