In episode two of this five-part miniseries on the Iowa caucuses hosted by Tommy Vietor and produced by Pineapple Street Studios, we’ll learn how violence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention led to Iowa becoming the first contest of the campaign season. We’ll take you to a house party with undecided voters and to an actual caucus location from 2016 to explain how the process works. And we’ll watch field organizers in action and learn how they hustle to get Iowans to commit to caucus.
At age 19, Kathy Grace Duncan decided she was ready to live as a man. "Before I went to kindergarten, probably ages 3 to 4, I would ride my tricycle over to get my girlfriend, pick her up. We were going to get married," she recounts. "So I knew that I wanted to be a boy and I would play like a boy."
But eleven years after her gender transition, Duncan decided she was now going to live as a woman again. She joins the podcast to share what happened.
We also cover the following stories:
President Trump celebrated Conan, the dog instrumental in taking down a terrorist.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., isn't backing down on his calls for a look at the Bidens and Burisma.
A Massachusetts town wants to let 16 and 17-year-olds vote.
Today's episode takes a deep dive into Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax. Is it constitutional? How will the arguments shape up? Listen and find out!
We begin, however, with an interesting proposal for a "Congressional Review Act" for the Supreme Court by law professor -- and professional Supreme-Court-fixer -- Ganesh Sitaraman. Will this proposal meet with more approval than Sitaraman's previous "lottery" idea?
Then we do a deep dive into the history of taxes in this country, looking at two very old cases -- one from 1895 (Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co., 157 U.S. 429), and one from way back in 1796 (Hylton v. U.S.). We also cover the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act of 1894, as well as check in on the most recent Supreme Court tax ruling from Chief Justice John Roberts, the NFIB v. Sebelius 2012 Obamacare decision.
What do we learn from all that? Well, you'll just have to give it a listen!
After all that, it's time for the answer to what some are calling the easiest #T3BE question ever about falling off a ladder. Are they right? Was Thomas? There's only one way to know for sure!
Appearances
None! If you’d like to have either of us as a guest on your show, drop us an email at openarguments@gmail.com.
Show Notes & Links
Please do participate in our favorite charity event of the year, Vulgarity for Charity! To participate, just donate $50 or more to Modest Needs, and then send a copy of the receipt to vulgarityforcharity@gmail.com along with your request for a roast. You can even request that Thomas & Andrew roast the victim of your choice.
Is anything real? How many universes are there? Do we know what dark matter is all about? Is everything a simulation being run by a quantum computer through a wormhole from a future era? Is the answer to everything really ... 42? The affable and charming astrophysicist, author and philosopher of tiny particles Dr. Adam Becker pulls up a seat. And Alie has an existential crisis or two as they discuss the drama, intellectual battles and drunken debates of science past, and the hope that a new era of thinkers will figure out what exactly is going on in the world. Either way: cut bangs and text your crush.
In the interview, Mike talks to Senator Sherrod Brown about his new book Desk 88: Eight Progressive Senators Who Changed America. They talk about these forgotten figures, what people can learn from them, and the power and limits of bi-partisanship.
In the Spiel, South Carolina.
Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.
Watchmen, the new superhero drama from HBO, contains some of the sharpest and most deliberate commentary on race currently on television. This week, Eric sits down with Watchmen writer Cord Jefferson (The Good Place, Succession) to talk about how Jefferson approached crafting Watchmen's explosive sixth episode, and what makes the show so singular in its unflinching look at race in America.
The impeachment inquiry moves to a new phase, Republican Congressman Devin Nunes may be implicated in the scandal he’s supposed to be investigating, and Michael Bloomberg officially enters the Democratic primary. Then Democratic digital strategist Tara McGowan talks to Dan about why Democrats need to focus more on digital advertising.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx has announced she’s running for reelection. She’s raising plenty of money and has the endorsement of a number of high-profile politicians. But can she get past the missteps associated with the Jussie Smollett case? We hear from Foxx, and WBEZ criminal justice reporter Patrick Smith
Brian shares a delightful tale of the time one of his co-workers accidentally deleted the company's database, and how they recovered it through binary transaction logs. No better way to learn than a trial by fire.
Juan explains why typing is taking over frontend development. First off, we discovered unit tests, and learned types can take care of it.
Paul dreams of a day when object-oriented PHP runs in the browsers. Sara has had nightmares about similar scenarios.
Splice has lots of interesting products for musicians and technologists and they're hiring.
Brian helped to build the amazing Brooklyn JS, so if you're in the NYC area, be sure to check it out.