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This week is all about Trump making waves as he first nominates his pick to replace Justice Kennedy on the Supreme Court. Will Cavenaugh be confirmed? Almost certainly. What will that mean for the Court? Probably everything you expect, but we talk about it in the most MXMW way possible. Then Trump took to Europe where he continued his harsh rhetoric against NATO, possibly to Putin's delight prior to their upcoming meeting. We dissect the merits and madness with more sure to come as his trip continues. Following that, Tom finished strong with a sound round-up victory.

On this episode of the Mid by Midwest Podcast, Tom and Jeff discuss how best to spend your fourth of July. A broad news roundup covers Tesla's production successes, the moral implications of drug distribution in the opioid epidemic, the American government's record breaking surplus of cheese, and a decline in reading for fun across America. Jeff takes it home with the round up with stories on single use plastics and Donald Trump shaped ecstacy pills.   

On this episode of the Mid by Midwest Podcast, Jeff and Tom discuss some of the recent and important news from and about the Supreme Court: Janus vs. American Federation, Trump vs. Hawaii, and the impending retirement of Justice Kennedy. The roundup covers similar ground from Elon Musk's secretive laboratory school to the first Space Kingdom.

This week Chris and Jeff are left alone to deal with the most contentious and difficult topic of family separation at the border. We help each other deconstruct the most polarized views on the question of how to handle undocumented migrant families. We also take on the much less polarized question of how well Trump handled his trip abroad. The answer is not well if you believe in liberal democracy. For the roundup, we enjoy imagining our dream government one-on-one basketball pickup games.

This week we take on the clash of church and state. But we begin with the clash of church and church as Liberty University threatens to arrest liberal evangelical leader Shane Claiborne if he should set foot on campus to protest the administration's support of Trump. Following that, we discuss the supreme court's timid half-decision regarding whether or not a baker can legally refuse to make a cake for a same-sex wedding. 

This week on the Mid by Midwest Podcast, Chris takes a break so Tom and Jeff can discuss the impact of a pending EU coffee stirrer ban. Also on the docket is the ongoing lawsuit between Kaepernick and the NFL, and a surprisingly lengthy conversation about the NBA. This week's roundup features some of our favorite Elizabethan playwrights and emojis in iambic pentameter. Join us for a meandering exploration of culture with the usual Midwestern perspective. If we could summarize this podcast in two emojis, they would be corn and corn.    

This week we follow Donald Trump in his quest to discredit the FBI and their investigation into his campaign. Or is it the Republicans' quest to expose partisan bias in the FBI? We're fairly certain it's the former, but we take the opportunity to discuss the purpose and procedure of congressional oversight before heading into the second big FBI story of the week in which they admitted to overstating the obstacles presented by phone encryption. And, as a content warning for our viewers, our roundup segment this week talks about some of nature's most terrifying nightmares.

This week was perhaps one of the most mercifully uneventful on the home front, so we take the opportunity to indulge in some cutting edge and bizarre tech news. First, we kick off the theme of techno-ethics with some Google employees' decision to leave their jobs over Google's work with the good ol' DOD. Second, we question the Washington Post's position on the the effects of Whatsapp on the integrity of India's democracy. And we finish with the terrifying question of how machines decide who lives and dies when it turned out that the self-driving Uber car that killed a cyclist saw her, but simply decided to not stop.

This week Jeff and Chris hold the fort all by themselves as they analyze the two biggest decisions this week in both domestic and international politics. This week, President Trump announced that the United States will be scrapping the Iran deal and reimposing sanctions in the next phase of his aggressively unilateral foreign policy strategy. And on the home front, Iowa passed a law effectively banning abortion. You've come to the right place if you want some level-headed opinions from Middle America on where all this is headed.

A lot of crazy happened this week, and it's all Mid by Midwest can do to wade into the fever swamp with the strangest headlines. First we find ourselves somewhat seriously considering the question of whether or not Donald Trump should get the Nobel Peace Prize, of all things. After recovering from that, we review Michelle Wolf's monologue for the White House Correspondents' dinner, and decide we decide how we feel about a routine stand-up bit being used to possibly besmirch the good name of the Correspondents' dinner.

This week Mid by Midwest digs deep into the student loan debt forgiveness program that is hemorrhaging far more cash than anticipated. We give our two-cents about how to take care of that problem with more calibrated incentives and assessment of the ridiculous amounts of money some people will make with their degrees, or were able to spend to get them. Following that, we (mostly Chris) have a chat about James Comey's new autobiography, it's purpose, and its appropriateness. And, as hinted by the episode title's terrible pun attempt, it's animal week in the roundup.

This week, the Mid by Midwest Podcast takes a perhaps poorly timed break from the homeland as we chew on some especially interesting stories from abroad. First, Emanuel Macron wants to fix Islam in France, and we're here to give him an American perspective on how that's a terrible idea. Then we reel at the surprise news-bomb that the Koreas are entering talks intended to reach an official peace treaty for the first time since the Korean War itself. We lend the large amount of opinion and small amounts of optimism we can muster. 

This week the Mid by Midwest Podcast covers two new controversial topics stirred up by President Trump. First, the administration plans to reinstate the citizenship question on the upcoming census, which has been absent for 70 years. We discuss what this means in the political landscape of Trump's America. Following that, we go abroad to talk about the beginning of a trade war with China sparked by Trump's implementation of steel and aluminum tariffs. 

This week on the Mid by Midwest Podcast, Tom and Jeff guide you, the listener, through a plethora of surprisingly dark roundup of topics. From Microsoft to deadly water slides, Russian spies to ransomware hackers. The mood is lightened with a discussion about robot bees, the disturbing case of a kidnapped alpaca, and a story about how the Supreme Court feels about hot dogs.

This week Tom returns to the Mid by Midwest Podcast, and we tackle a couple of front-page tech-related headlines. British research firm Cambridge Analytica has been steeped in scandal for dubiously gathering of data to micro-targeting voters for the benefit of the Trump campaign. Along with some hidden camera footage featuring executives talking like actual spy thriller villains. After that, MXMW gets uncomfortably ambiguous while discussing the killing of a pedestrian by a self-driving Uber car. We talk technology and liability as Uber scrambles to do damage control. 

The next to fall from grace in the Trump administration is Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. We bid the most appropriately named Texan oil tycoon  farewell with a conversation about Trump's foreign policy and the fraught relationship between the two men that undermined it. After examining the intricacies of policy via twitter we try to move our gun conversation from ideology to actual policy by examining Florida gun laws in the wake of the Parkland shooting. Finally, Jeff leads the roundup with a rousing discussion on the movie Tombstone and banker DJs. 

This week, Tom heads off while Chris returns to keep Jeff company. We take on the apparent cognitive dissonance of Trump and the Republicans fighting over steel tariffs and Democrats fighting over financial regulation. And then we indulge in some schadenfreude at the expense of Cupertino-based Apple employees walking into the glass walls of their fancy new headquarters.

On this episode of the Mid by Midwest Podcast, Chris takes a week off while Jeff and Tom discuss the news of the week with a roundup of current events. SCOTUS, Microsoft, Archeology, Art, and Scotch Whiskey?! The Mid by Midwest crew always focuses on the news that matters to you!

This week we tackle three news stories floating around our heads from this week, including the new surge of coverage around the survivors of last week's school shooting in Florida, a novel question of property rights for graffiti artists and landlords, and a new comprehensive ranking of US presidents. We're all about providing a healthy variety for your news diet at Mid by Midwest. 

On this episode of the Mid by Midwest Podcast Will returns for a discussion of the book Misbehaving by Richard Thaler. The gang discusses behavioral economics, mental accounting, and the oxymoronic concept of "Libertarian Paternalism." Naturally, the "book review" goes off the rails quickly, but the conversation takes off just as fast. Whether you have read it or not, join us for a discussion of why people do what they shouldn't.