Shows / CivilDiscourse101
CivilDiscourse101
Welcome to Civil Discourse! Both left and right sides of the political spectrum don't know how to talk to each other anymore. We're on a mission to fix that, to bring back civility in our discourse. Come with us as we explore politics, science, and religion. We're a couple of dudes who know that by finding common ground we can move the conversation forward. Both scientists by trade, we are seekers of truth, understanding, and education. Put on those thinking caps, and get ready to have a good…
Episodes
CivilDiscourse101S2E44: Cheesecake Factory of Mordor
Our final episode before Election Day. Obama says Trump has the White House looking like a Cheesecake Factory, and we dig into the Ramaswamy attack ad that…
CivilDiscourse101S2E43: The Password Was on a Sticky Note
With the midterms days away and Trump’s approval in the low 30s, is a blue wave coming or another blue puddle? Joe and Jesse dig into the FCC chair’s warning…
CivilDiscourse101S2E42: S2E42: Ballots, Bots & Billionaires
A protester in a 'Release the Epstein Files' shirt is punched at Trump's Youngstown rally while the president mocks her from the stage. Joe and Jesse ask what…
CivilDiscourse101S2E41b: Fumble on the One-Yard Line so Bring Your Umbrella
Part two. Four weeks from the midterms, Joe and Jesse ask who's watching the vote: the U.S. turned away international OSCE observers for the first time since…
CivilDiscourse101S2E41: The $90 Question and How Captain Planet Radicalized Us
Part one of a two-part week. Trump tells a Nebraska rally to "let them take out Los Angeles" and the crowd cheers. Joe and Jesse unpack why a commander in…
CivilDiscourse101S2E40: Gas, Gotchas, Greenland and The American Estate Sale
Two weeks of news, one very large number. Joe and Jesserace through the Iran war and where we currently stand, Jack Smith has been dragged back in front of the…
CivilDiscourse101S2E39: Building Equity One Trolly At a Time
This week, Thousand Oaks City Council District 2 candidate Kyle Rohrbach joins Joe and Jesse for a full conversation about the city's future - the contested…
CivilDiscourse101S2E38: Go Check Your Mailbox and Beware Mitch, the Android
Twenty-five years after 9/11, New York finallyreleases 170,000 pages showing officials knew about toxic Ground Zero air and stayed quiet. We dig into the GOP's…
CivilDiscourse101S2E37: Vote Like Somebody’s Trying to Stop You
The Trump administration makes its third bid to the Supreme Court to restrict mail-in voting — even as ballots are already going out. Meanwhile, DOJ and DHS…
CivilDiscourse101S2E36: Crude Awakening: Oil's Well That Ends Well
Venezuela's oil, an Oklahoma data center drained mid-drought, and tariff-free beef with no country-of-origin label. Joe and Jesse cover a news week that had a…
CivilDiscourse101S2E35: Nixon Twice and Tricky Dick's Revenge
Hakeem Jeffries' secret meet with Jared Kushner sets off a Democratic Party firestorm and we aren't buying the "real talk" video. The DSA backed insurgent…
CivilDiscourse101S2E34: The Government's Monopoly
Joe’s school couldn't afford paper for homework, but his classroom got a brand-new computer it didn't need. Twenty years later, he found out why — and it…
CivilDiscourse101S2E33: Legal Doesn't Mean Just in the Lemon Market
Just as we promised , a deep dive where Jesse explores the gap between legal and just — tracing Milton Friedman's shareholder-profit doctrine and Akerlof's…
CivilDiscourse101S2E32: Trojan Horse Diplomacy
Tech gremlins struck mid-recording, so this week it's a fast, punchy news-only episode — Joe and Jesse tear through McConnell's suspicious 53-day…
CivilDiscourse101S2E31: Election Night, Measles Numbers, and a Missing Senator
It's election night, and Joe and Jesse are watching the returns come in live from Michigan's open Senate primary and Missouri's high-stakes Bell-Bush rematch —…
CivilDiscourse101S2E30: Citizens United, Part 2: The Money Trail, Borderless Wealth, and Bordered Voters
Part Two of our Citizens United deep dive. Jesse walks Joe through how Mitch McConnell engineered the post-2010 dark money architecture: the PAC network, the…
CivilDiscourse101S2E29: Murrow Warned Us: Dissent Is Not Disloyalty
Three U.S. service members killed in as manydays — and the Pentagon's injury numbers don't add up. Lindsey Graham's Senate seat stays in the family as his…
CivilDiscourse101S2E28: $4.5 Billion, Everyone's Looking But No One Can See
Sixteen years after Citizens United, is anyone still pretending disclosure and self-restraint are enough to keep corporate money out of politics? Joe and Jesse…
CivilDiscourse101S2E27: Fix the Floor, Not the Ceiling
Trump heads to NATO in Ankara the same week the U.S. strikes Iran again after tanker attacks in the Strait of Hormuz — and we can't decide if it's retaliation…
CivilDiscourse101S2E26: The Floor is Lava, An Unsurvivable Financial Horror Story
Part 2 of our unemployment insurance deep dive picks up where the trust fund bomb left off. We model what survival actually looks like at - minimum wage…
CivilDiscourse101S2E25: Bench Pressed, Five Rulings and Zero Chill
The Supreme Court closes its term with five major rulings in 48 hours — birthright citizenship survives, trans athletesdon't, and campaign finance law just…
CivilDiscourse101S2E24: Living on $7,000 and a Prayer Part 1
Congress passed a war powers resolution 110 days into a war that was supposed to end in 60 — and somehow that’s the optimistic part of the news. We break down…
CivilDiscourse101S2E23: The Original Sin of American Healthcare Part 2
It's been a week. The US and Iran signed a peace deal — the same one Trump tore up six years ago — and Jesse has thoughts. Congress let a critical surveillance…
CivilDiscourse101S2E22 Bonus: Service, Ballots, and a Broken System
California just put a Republican on the November governor's ballot for the first time in twenty years — and that's just where we start. We get into why mail-in…
CivilDiscourse101S2E22: The Original Sin of American Healthcare
It wasn't designed. It wasn't debated. It was a wartime accident that got written into the tax code and never came out. Joe takes us back to 1847 to trace…
CivilDiscourse101S2E21: You're F**king Crazy (A Civil Conversation)
It's election night in California and we're watching results roll in live as Hilton, Becerra, and Steyer battle for two spots in November - with Spencer Pratt…
CivilDiscourse101Start Here: A Best of from Civil Discourse 101
New to the show? This is where you start. Joe and Jesse pull the best moments from two seasons and 40+ episodes - the funny ones, the heavy ones, and the ones…
CivilDiscourse101S2E20: Spirit Halloween Politics
The DNC commissioned an autopsy of its 2024 loss, buried it for a year, then released it and disowned it — no executive summary, whole sections missing…
CivilDiscourse101S2E19: Rose Seeds for a Paved Garden
No rundown, no rules — just two friends chasing the thread wherever it went. This week, Joe and Jesse unpack Xi's quiet power moves on Trump in Beijing, the…
CivilDiscourse101S2E18: Maps, Metals, and Mayhem: The Democracy Dilemma
This week Joe is flying solo as tackles voting maps that are being redrawn by courts—not voters—while Trump's court-stacking strategy pays off. Democrats are…
CivilDiscourse101S2E17: The Illusion of Control: Guns, Courts, and Chaos
This week two Supreme Court decisions reshape American democracy. The Iran ceasefire is breaking. Your health agencies are losing credibility. Gas prices are…
CivilDiscourse101S2E16: "Who Cross-Contaminates Every Culture? We Do, We Do!
This week we're tackling the third assassination attempt on Trump in less than two years—and asking why it barely moved the needle. Plus: Tucker Carlson…
CivilDiscourse101S2E15: Put the Fire Out, Then Find the Arsonist
Five stories, one uncomfortable thread running through all of them. We open with CNN's investigation into an online rape academy and why men, husbands, and…
CivilDiscourse101S2E14: "So You're Saying He's a Politician"
California's political world just imploded — the LA mayor's race is a five-way knife fight, and the governor's frontrunner dropped out overnight under criminal…
CivilDiscourse101S2E13: Two Weeks Till Midnight
Tonight, we're back after two weeks off — and the world absolutely did not wait for us. We dig into the firing of Attorney General Pam Bondi, who somehow…
CivilDiscourse101S2E12: Shock, Strike, Stalemate
This week, we break down the rapidly escalating Iran conflict and what it means globally and at home—from leadership strikes and oil disruption to rising costs…
CivilDiscourse101S2E11: Buy buy war! The cost of oil and everything else
Tonight, we break down a week where “military action” is starting to look a lot more like war, with billions already spent and oil once again at the center of…
CivilDiscourse101S2E10: MiShUn Acomplisht, duN in 2 weikz
Tonight, we take a hard look at the escalating US-Iran conflict and whether these military actions are a calculated strategy over oil or a massive distraction…
CivilDiscourse101S2E9: War Plans And Whiskey, Don't Wake The Empire
This week, we explore the history of U.S. foreign policy in relation to Iran, how and why that may be met with hostility. Importantly we cover US strategic…
CivilDiscourse101S2E8: Strategy and Vision, Number 1 or Number 2? Por que no los dos?
Tonight, we talk about talking about the State of the Union address, and the very likely challenges facing the Democratic party, and the cultural…
CivilDiscourse101S2E7: 1 Year Later, We're Still 50 Years Ago
Tonight, we take a hard look at how quickly “conspiracy” becomes policy. We revisit concerns raised last year—government surveillance, ICE expansion, and…
CivilDiscourse101S2E6: When Facts Lose the Mic, The War on Expertise
Join us as we delve into the current political climate, discussing the ongoing implications of the 2020 election, the rise of fascism in America, and the…
CivilDiscourse101S2E5: When Science Becomes Political, Clinical Research in a Polarized World
In this episode, hosts Joe and Jesse are joined by Yinka, aclinical research professional, to discuss the intersection of politics and clinical research. They…
CivilDiscourse101S2E4: A Pretti/Good Reason To Protest
This week Joe and Jesse discuss the recent tragic murder of Alex Pretti at the hands of ICE agents, the community's response, and the implications of police…
CivilDiscourse101S2E3: Institutions Aren't Destroyed, They Are Buried
In this week's episode, Joe and Jesse dive into the zone that has been flooded by headlines. These institutions are being buried beneath headlines designed to…
CivilDiscourse101S2E2 Bonus: The Disproportionate Response to The Good
Behind the scenes, listen as Joe and Jesse edit episode 2 season 2 and discuss the advertisements that they find funny and infuriating!
CivilDiscourse101S2E2: The Disproportionate Response to The Good
Tonight, Joe and Jesse discuss the tragic death of Rene Good and the response from the nation and the government. They review the events leading up to her…
CivilDiscourse101S2E1: Extra Extra: At Home and Abroad - The Strain on Democracy
Welcome to Season 2! Tonight Joe and Jesse reflect on January 6th insurrection, as well as the events of the last 2 weeks of 2025. They cover Jack Smith's…
CivilDiscourse101S1E43: Justice Redacted: Immunity, Force, and the Cost of Power
Join us and reflect back on the events of the last year. Joe and Jesse discuss Trump's demand for immunity from the ICC, how that influences foreign policy…
CivilDiscourse101S1E42: Rhetoric, Resources, Regime or Rumor, Rally, Retaliate
Tonight we discuss the implications of a recent Supreme Court case on campaign finance, and how even they see the challenge as dangerous as well as the…
CivilDiscourse101S1E41: Patriot Act to Pop Culture: PsyOps, Privacy & Pete’s Placard
Tonight we discuss a range of pressing topics, including the recent National Guard shooting, the implications of CIA operations, and the political fallout…
CivilDiscourse101S1E40: Bonus Episode, Laughs and Editing
Sharing just a bit of shenanigans with our listeners; as Joe and Jesse work to edit and produce the episode, hear them discuss the editing needs, the decisions…
CivilDiscourse101S1E40: Pensions, Power Plays, and Political Panic
In this week's episode Joe and Jesse explore the challenges of unity within political groups, particularly focusingon the Democrats. They discuss the issues of…
CivilDiscourse101Episode 39: Epstein, Empires, and the Erosion of the Elephant Or Declassification, Deception, and a Deeply Divided Discourse
This week's conversation explores the challenges of unity within political groups, particularly focusing on the Democrats and why we can't stop hating…
CivilDiscourse101S1E38: The Dems Deliver Nothing, or A Shutdown That Got Us Nowhere
This week, we focus on our frustrations with traditional media and how a particular op-ed piece focused on conservative feminism draws logical fallacies and…
CivilDiscourse101S1E37: Election Night and The Generational Shift
Welcome to election night! We're talking about the most recent election results and discuss what these wins will mean for a potential shift in party…
CivilDiscourse101S1E36: Everything is Reagan's Fault, or How Privatization Got Us Here
In this episode of Civil Discourse 101, Joe, Jesse, are joined by Calvin to discuss the ongoing government shutdown, its impact on citizens, and the broader…
CivilDiscourse101S1E35: When the Crown Cracks the Power Will Fall and Down Will Come Thrones, Courts, and All
In this week's episode, Joe and Jesse discuss the most recent protests and No King's day reflecting on their shared experience and the importance of the civil…
CivilDiscourse101S1E34: The Fragile Force: A New Hope for Peace
In this episode, we delve into the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, the implications of the government shutdown, the rise of extremism…
CivilDiscourse101S1E33: The Eternal Spotless Mind, Logical Fallacies and Mental Gymnastics
This week we take a turn from our usual deep dives into the muddled weekly politics and instead turn focus on thecognitive dissonance employed by the…