Bill and Phil explore whether Trump and Trumpism will simply fade away or whether its here to stay. We also examine if Joe Biden is further undermining the balance between civil and military authority by appointing Retired General Lloyd Austin to serve as secretary of defense and what to make of the fact that only 27 congressional Republicans have acknowledged Biden’s win.

Bill and Phil discuss the flurry of news surrounding presidential pardons, explore the often uncomfortable relationship between Covid and sports, think through a recent critique of the infamous Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention by Thomas Friedman, and ponder the tactic of Taiwanese politicians who threw pig guts in parliament last week.

This week, Bill and Phil share the political developments they’re most thankful for and debate who wins the inaugural “Biggest Turkey of the Year” award.

Bill and Phil discuss former president Barack Obama’s return to the political scene and Obama’s thoughts on the state of the US democracy. We also examine why white people love Donald Trump so much, whether we should expect an attack on Iran in the final months of the Trump administration, and whether it was appropriate for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to share his political views on COVID and religious liberty.

On this week’s episode Bill and Phil reflect on Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election and offer thoughts on what looks to be a chaotic transition period. Will Trump eventually accept defeat, what are the implications of his allegations of electoral fraud, and are we witnessing an attempted political coup in plain sight? We’ll break it all down for you in this episode.

Dr. Suzanne Chod joins Bill and Phil to break down the state of the 2020 election. What do we know? What don’t we know? And what comes next?

This week we offer a special pre-election episode where Bill & Phil make their predictions for the 2020 election. Who will win the presidency, the House, and the Senate? Will we see violence or any other voting shenanigans? And what are we expecting out of President Trump? You won’t want to miss this episode!

Bill and Phil take a deep dive on Trump’s closing electoral argument, specifically his strategy of calling opponents and journalists criminals, attacking Tony Fauci, threatening to leave the country and spreading a conspiracy theory about Hunter Biden’s laptop. Additionally, we explore the core characteristics of Trump’s foreign policy and a recent article suggesting the real divide in America is between political junkies and everyone else.

Bill and Phil reflect on what the presidential election is revealing about the state of the U.S. democracy, what has changed in the practice of polling since 2016 and how much faith we should put in the current polls, how China has outsmarted the US in rewriting the rules of the global order, and what a recent study revealed about the relationship between Trump’s bedtime and his presidential performance.

Bill and Phil are joined by constitutional law expert Professor Tom Cavenagh to reflect on the dramatic recent developments at the Supreme Court, specifically the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett and upcoming cases on voting rights and the Affordable Care Act. 

This week, we’re bringing you two episodes - because that’s how crazy its gotten.  In this special episode, Bill and Phil reflect on the President’s COVID diagnosis, his mental and physical condition, the fact that a Supreme Court nomination announcement was also a super-spreader event, and the potential political implications of this historic news.

Bill and Phil reflect on the first presidential debate, the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, Wilbur Ross saying the census will end early on October 5th no matter what a federal judge says, and the fallout from the New York Times disclosure of Trump’s tax returns.

This week, Bill and Phil break down the political fallout from the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, recent allegations that the Trump campaign is discussing contingency plans for bypassing election results, and President Trump’s call for ‘Patriotic Education.’

Bill and Phil break down recent developments in international politics, including the United Nations turning 75; Trump calling for the assassination of the Syrian president; protests in Belarus & more Putin poisonings; the agreements between Israel, the U.A.E and Bahrain; and why the United States has put sanctions on the top prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

Bill and Phil reflect on on the fallout from Trump’s comments on the military, discuss the impact of COVID on international politics, and contemplate what we might see on the ground if the presidential election is decided by just a couple votes in the electoral college.

Bill and Phil devote the entire episode to dissecting Trump’s efforts this week to escalate tensions and even violence across America; focusing on how Trump’s behavior fits within the scholarly research on authoritarianism, the role of trust and social capital in a democracy, the politicization of the police and Trump’s attack on truth and objectivity.

Bill and Phil take a deep dive into this week’s Republican National Convention, the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and the arrest of Steve Bannon on a 35 million dollar yacht.

Bill and Phil are joined by Jake Lahut, a politics reporter for Business Insider, to break down all aspects of the Democratic National Convention, the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, and President Trump’s inevitable embrace of the QAnon conspiracy theory.

Bill and Phil are joined by Dr. Suzanne Chod to discuss the selection of Kamala Harris as Joe Biden’s VP, how Trump has successfully bent US governmental institutions to his will, and our thoughts on adding Donald Trump to Mount Rushmore.

Bill and Phil discuss America’s seemingly unique inability to address COVID, President Trump’s threat to delay the election over concerns with voting by mail, and which is likely to be more damaging to Trump’s re-election chances—alienating suburban women by calling them “housewives” or upsetting young people by threatening to ban TikTok?