Shows / I Believe
Episodes
I BelieveTen Years Gone | We Have Six Years to Fix Social Security. We Don't Have Time to Waste
A time change, hungry dogs, and an early trip to the polls lead Joel K. Douglas to a more consequential clock: the projected 2032 depletion of Social…
I BelieveIsland on Fire | AI and the Limits of Human Judgment
The boys in Lord of the Flies were rescued by the fire they set to hunt another boy. A good outcome did not make it a good decision. Starting with that irony…
I BelievePacifica | A Tale of Data Centers, Clean Water, and the Purpose of Government
A Tale of Data Centers, Clean Water, and the Purpose of Government How should government measure success? In Pacifica, a fictional dispute over data centers…
- I Believe
The Geld | Would You Volunteer to Pay Higher Property Taxes?
Would You Volunteer to Pay Higher Property Taxes? Our property-tax statement came with instructions for applying for a homeowner exemption. Should I claim it…
I BelieveSo Help Me | A Christian Case Supporting Abortion Rights
Abortion, bodily autonomy, and the oath of office: a believer’s argument for a woman’s liberty and the responsibility of leaders who swear in God’s name. What…
I BelievePrivate Jets and Ranch Towns
Affordability, inflation, and tariffs in a Wyoming ranch town: what elected leaders owe working families, and why tax cuts alone cannot settle that obligation…
I BelieveFirst Dates and Fifty Years
Who should pay on the first date—and what are two people trying to build together? As my wife and I approach twenty-five years of marriage, I consider shared…
I BelieveThe Pickup Didn’t Fill Itself
Where does responsibility for climate change begin, and where does it end? Boulder’s lawsuit against ExxonMobil and Suncor leads me to consider the choices of…
I BelieveThe Party That Forgot the People
What would it mean for Democrats to become the party of the people again? Ahead of the 2026 midterms, I examine political accountability, wages, housing…
I BelievePoverty, Work, and Dependency
Can public assistance respect both compassion and independence? A walk in the park leads me to questions about Christian giving, taxes, poverty, and work. I…
I BelieveEqual Access, Equal Obligation?
Does equal access to a military role imply equal obligation? I recall an Air Force lieutenant whose breastfeeding needs conflicted with a thirty-six-hour alert…
I BelieveThe Forethought of Grief
How do we prepare for artificial intelligence without spending our lives fearing tomorrow? From Halley’s Comet to nuclear war and climate change, I consider…
I BelieveFour Things This Week, From a Bucket of Hops
Picking hops in the yard gives me time to think through four questions: why ranchers sell the heifers needed to rebuild the cattle herd, what Persian history…
I BelieveThe Flying Officer
A Gallet Flying Officer watch brings back memories of Zulu time and twenty-one years as a nuclear weapons officer. Paige and I discuss deterrence, restraint…
I BelieveHeifers, Water, and Grass
Why can’t cheaper beef arrive as quickly as a promise from Washington? A commuter at the meat counter and a rancher weighing whether to keep his heifers reveal…
I BelieveThe Shortcut Looks Like the Way Home
As a child leaves for college, I return to the winter nights when we read the story of Odysseus through the eyes of his dog, Argos. The journey home becomes a…
I BelieveThe Night Shift | The Bottom 50% Own 2.5% of the Wealth of the Country
At nineteen, I worked the Walmart night shift in Columbia, Missouri, alongside people whose choices were narrower than mine. I remember Lou, employee stock…
I BelieveDogwoods and Two Grand Lies
A tool-and-die shop owner and a children’s surgeon take different paths through work, sacrifice, and retirement. Their fictional story asks what Social…
I BelieveA Yoke Built for Two | A Dead Hog, a Shovel, and a Fifteen-Year-Old
At fifteen, I spent a summer caring for my great-grandfather’s Missouri ranch. A dead hog, marked railroad ties, and the wrong shed taught me the limits of…
I BelieveReturn Tomorrow | A Warehouse, a Granddaughter, and a Great Society
A warehouse worker saves for a home while her grandmother remembers a different working life. This fable, grounded in real warehouse experience and the history…
I BelieveWhat Counts | A Rancher, a Charging Station, and a Twelve-Million-Dollar Letter
A Wyoming rancher weighs a replacement bearing, water for his cattle, and an offer to sell the land. Nearby, a family charges its car on the way to…
I BelieveThe Art of the Deal
Who decides when Americans go to war, and what happens when Congress leaves that responsibility unused? This June 2026 essay on presidential power sets Donald…
I BelieveMan Eaters
New World screwworm prevention raises a question about independence: how much do we owe the people whose work keeps a threat out of sight? In this literary…
I BelieveThe Drought Sale
Drought and concentrated cattle markets test whether a working rancher gets a fair chance. This June 2026 essay builds a literary narrative around a Wyoming…
I BelieveWe Are All Republicans, We Are All Federalists
What would it take to build healthcare Americans can live with? Denied insurance claims, a Medicaid paperwork failure, and the loss of rural hospital services…
I BelieveThe Social Responsibility of Government is Sovereignty
If the social responsibility of business is to increase profits, what is the social responsibility of government? A rancher on the road to Torrington frames a…
I BelievePursuit, not Happiness
Benjamin Franklin arrived in Philadelphia with little money, gave away two rolls, and found an open door where he could sleep. That beginning raises a question…
I BelieveThe Price Is the Price
A rancher can choose which sale barn to drive to, but he cannot simply charge more when his costs rise. That limited room to move anchors a response to Scott…
I BelieveStart With Why
What happens when a country remembers every rule but forgets what the rules are for? Barbie Izquierdo’s experience of hunger and benefits cliffs opens an…
I BelieveThe Long Walls
Alcibiades offered Athens a dazzling promise. Nicias urged restraint. The expedition to Sicily became a story about a democracy that mistook appetite for…
I BelieveThe Neighbor
Immigration reform starts with a question we have postponed for decades: what do we owe the people who already live and work beside us? Remembering a roofer…
I BelieveThe Sand Trap
Why can a war in the Persian Gulf change the price of fuel in oil-producing Wyoming? This March 2026 essay follows the connections among oil, the dollar…
I BelieveRaven Rock. A House Divided
Can a government payment repair an economy in which work no longer supports a family? This fictional policy allegory follows Danny, an electrician working…
I BelieveDear Democrats. You're Close to Something Real. Don't Waste It.
Can Democrats turn a politics of loving your neighbor into wages and homes that make people less dependent on assistance? Responding to James Talarico in March…
I BelieveThe Last Petrov
Artificial intelligence can help a commander protect troops. What happens when the speed of its targeting decisions outruns the people responsible for…
I BelieveThe Social Responsibility of the NFL is to Make Money
Is the NFL supposed to maximize its business or satisfy the cultural preferences of its critics? This February 2026 satire uses Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime…
I BelieveThe Indomitable Maggie Chase Smith and the Tyranny of Reasonable Men
Margaret Chase Smith’s stand against McCarthyism raises a question about congressional courage: what is an oath worth when keeping it threatens a career? Her…
I BelieveThe Watchman
Greenland, NATO, and the obligations of American power take the form of a fictional allegory about a watchman, a woman, and an emerald. Across an imagined…
I BelieveWho Can Subdue the Leviathan?
Who can bind a creature that has grown too powerful to keep its promises? This short poem draws on the biblical Leviathan to ask what happens when strength…
I BelieveThe Emerald
What holds an alliance together when its strongest member wants something that belongs to a partner? This fictional political allegory follows an American…
I BelieveBlood & Fruit
What does a forty-seven-cent banana have to do with war, citizenship, and a mother's next meal? In this fictional audio drama, two community-college classmates…
I BelieveTWENTY-TWO
If sailors are bound by their service, shouldn't the presidents who send them be bound too? In this fictional drama, Daniel dismisses his younger brother's…
I BelieveShould Old Acquaintance Be Forgot?
What are we remembering when we sing Auld Lang Syne? This historical narrative follows Ulysses S. Grant from his arrival in Washington to the Overland Campaign…
I BelieveA Christmas Carol for King George
What could make a king understand men who would rather freeze than submit? This Christmas retelling sends three imagined ghosts to visit George III in December…
I BelieveWho Can the President Fire?
Who can the president fire, and who gets to decide? Written in December 2025, this essay follows the dispute over presidential removal power from the First…
I BelieveWho Gave You Permission to Touch Our Sky?
Who gets to decide whether someone changes the weather? Operation Popeye's secret cloud-seeding missions and Charles Hatfield's disputed rainmaking bargain…
I BelieveShould Every Generation be Richer than their Parents?
If our children have more comforts but less control over their lives, have they really become richer? Henry Ford's five-dollar day begins this essay about the…
I BelieveThe House You'll Never Own
Does a smaller mortgage payment help a family become an owner if the debt lasts beyond its working life? Written in November 2025, this essay examines the…
I BelieveCan a Nation Survive on Charity?
Can charity carry a nation when government stops working? Andrew Carnegie's philanthropy and the New Deal offer two different answers to the obligations we owe…
I BelieveAre Food Stamps Theft?
Are food stamps theft, or evidence of something already taken from working people? This November 2025 essay begins with the first Food Stamp Program in 1939…
I BelieveShould American Cattle Ranchers Sacrifice for China?
Should American cattle ranchers bear the cost of a foreign-policy strategy aimed at China? Written in October 2025, this essay examines the proposed expansion…
I BelieveThe Packs Don’t Get Lighter
Military opportunity is only real if recruits are prepared to meet the mission's demands. From a Wyoming elk camp, I consider service, poverty, and combat…
I BelieveRebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God
Who has the authority to tax Americans: Congress or the president? The Chicken Tax begins this October 2025 argument about tariffs, executive power, and…
I BelieveDo We Trust Every Future President?
Would we give a president this power if we distrusted the next person to hold the office? Written during the October 2025 government shutdown, this essay…
I BelieveWhy Do We Still Need Temporary Workers After 35 Years?
Why has reliance on H-1B workers persisted without a clear account of how America will develop more of its own technical talent? Written in September 2025…