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Rick Shenkman is a historian, producer, journalist and author of 7 different books. In addition, he has also been a guest on The Daily Show, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC among others.  On the podcast we discuss his most recent book, Political Animals, as well as get his perspective on the current political climate. He provides an array of examples that show how our evolution impacts the way we participate in politics. We hope you enjoy the conversation!

This week has been one of the craziest in politics in recent memory. A riot broke out inside the U.S. Capitol killing a total of 5 people. The people who entered the building wished to keep Trump in office and potentially cause harm to congress people in the building. The riot and the objection of electoral votes has caused a faction in the Republican party that may have lasting damage. On this podcast, John and Nick discuss the riot, the electoral college objections and where we see the Republican party headed. We hope you enjoy!

The debate over the correct holiday greeting is still raging. Do you say Merry Christmas? Do you say Happy Holidays? On this episode of the podcast, John and Nick tackle this question. We discuss the origins of Christmas, the current way we celebrate and which greeting makes the most sense. 

Student loan forgiveness has been in the news recently and in policy proposals. Joe Biden has even committed to forgiving student loan debt in some capacity. On this podcast, John and Nick discuss the recent plans proposed, what they would mean and if they are a good solution for the current problem.

This episode of the podcast is a little bit different. John, Jack and Nick talk about some of the political figures that exist right now and that have existed throughout history. Each person explains a current politician that they like and dislike, a political commentator that they like and dislike as well as a historical political figure that they like and dislike. For each person, we discuss who they are and why they matter today.

From past to present, people have tried to censor materials from across the political isle. On this podcast, Jack, John and Nick discuss times throughout history and recent examples of attempted censorship. We talk about Gone With The Wind, Supreme Court cases, Jordan Peterson and much more.

Ranked Choice Voting is a new form of voting that has started to make waves throughout the U.S. Maine is currently the only states to use RCV in a statewide capacity as many other states use it for local elections and primaries. In this podcast, John and Nick discuss ranked choice voting, the various ways it can be used, the pros and cons and much more. We go in depth into different scenarios that expanded our thinking on the issue and hopefully expands yours as well. 

The U.S. Government is the only advanced government in the world that does not guarantee paid vacation days to its citizens. Is the U.S. right for sticking to laissez-faire principles here, or is it time to get on the same page with the rest of the world? In this podcast, Nick and John discuss vacation days, sick leave, the role of the government in our labor contracts and more. 

Joe Biden has officially won the presidency and will be elected the 46th President of the United States.  Nick and John were recording throughout Tuesday night to give a timeline of how we were feeling and what was happening.  After the election was called, Jack joined us to recap the whole experience. Come along with us on a journey through election night until Saturday when the race was officially called.If you want to skip the Tuesday night recap, you can go right to 31:55 to hear our final thoughts on the election and what is to come.

The way the president is elected in America has become a highly debated topic.  Hillary Clinton winning the popular vote, but losing the election has people wondering if we actually have a democratic system. Twice in 16 years, a candidate has lost the popular vote and won the election due to the electoral college. In this episode, John and Nick discuss the history of the electoral college, its modern day application and what it could look like moving forward. 

The final presidential debate is behind us. With new rules muting microphones, this debate featured a much more civil conservation. Each candidate made their final plea to voters as election day is only 12 days away. Listen in as Jack, John and Nick discuss the debate, the topics, the funny quotes and the winner.

With only 22 days left until the election, the presidential race is coming to a close and the candidates are making their final pitches to voters on why they should vote for them. Much has happened in the last couple of weeks with the debates as well as Trump contracting Covid-19. The boys give their thoughts on who wins the race, what the polls are looking like and what the candidates should do from here on out. 

Wednesday night featured a much more civilized debate between Senator Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence. John and Nick talk about the debate, the topics, the moderator, the strategies, and of course, THE FLY. At the end, John and Nick grade each candidate and talk about who won the debate.

We have ranked every senator from 100-1 based on their productivity. To do the analysis, we took four different categories into consideration: total cosponsored legislation, total sponsored legislation, total cosponsored legislation into law and total sponsored legislation into law. Once we had that information for each senator, we divided by the total number of years the senator was in office. For example, if a senator cosponsored 1000 pieces of legislation and had been in office for 10 years, their cosponsored legislation per year would be 100. Then, we standardized each variables by finding the average in each category and dividing each score for each senators by the average. Therefore, how productive a senator is, is based on those around them. Then we used a multiplier for each of the 4 variables to find our final number. The best senator had a score of 50.14, and the worst had a score of 2.54.Listen in as John and Nick go down the list from 100-41 and highlight a few of the members along the way.

The first Presidential debate of the 2020 election has come to a close. It was like no other debate in recent history. Listen in as John and Nick give a recap of the debate, the topics at hand, the best quotes and the overall winner. 

Whether it was Billie Jean King fighting for women in Tennis, Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising a fist at the 1968 Olympics or Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in the MLB, sports has always had a way of mixing with politics. In recent years, politics has found its way back into the sports world. When Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the 2016 NFL season to highlight the need for racial justice in America, it began a conversation as well as a controversy. Now, the NBA has Black Lives Matter written on their courts and players were allowed to put racial justice sayings on the back of their jerseys. The question that we looked at this week is whether the movement is right for the times or if it has gone too far.

Socialism is a hot topic these days with the modified version known as Democratic Socialism. Bernie Sanders popularized this term during his presidential run in 2016 and many others have adopted it. In this podcast, we discuss what socialism is, what American's think it is and how each party views it. 

Our country has changed drastically since the 2nd Amendment was written in the late 18th century. Weaponry now is drastically different and an increase in gun violence has people questioning whether we need to get rid of some or all of our guns. On this podcast, we discuss the positives and negatives of having a society and a culture that values guns so heavily. In addition, we discuss what the potential root problem of gun violence is and how we may be able to solve it. Oh, and Jack tells quite the tragic personal story that you won't want to miss.

On this episode of the podcast Jack, John and Nick talk about voting and democracy in America. We talk about mail-in voting, how people vote by age, voter suppression and much more. We pack a lot into this one episode and hope you learn (and maybe laugh) along with us.

Another week went by which means we have another weekly recap for you. Jack and Nick share their top 5 stories of the week. See what comes in at #1.