Pantsuit Politics

Beth is joined by guest host Alex McCoy, a progressive organizer focused on holding Big Tech accountable, for a conversation about what breaks trust and how to rebuild it. They start with what the collapse of the Graham Platner campaign reveals about the progressive movement's relationship with imperfect candidates, then turn to the accountability vacuum around AI — who's making decisions about our jobs, our data, and our lives, and why almost nobody is calling their member of Congress about it.

Topics discussed:

Graham Platner's Senate campaign collapse and what it means for progressive candidate recruitment

Trust, accountability, and the "the groups are the problem" debate in Democratic politics

What voters actually want from elected officials

AI's growing role in hiring, firing, workplace surveillance, and government decisions

The AI industry's political spending and lobbying power

How to actually get your member of Congress to pay attention to AI

Alex McCoy's immersive medieval battle reenactment hobby

Beth talked with Alex about the kind of in-person community his medieval weekends create — that's exactly what's waiting in Minneapolis on August 29. Grab tickets here.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Beth sits down with Lauren Pinkston, an independent candidate for governor of Tennessee, on the same day Governor Beshear sent Senator Mitch McConnell a letter asking about his month-long hospitalization. They use that story, plus Graham Platner's exit from the Maine Senate race, to get at something bigger: what "honor" means in public life when authenticity and elitism both fall short. Then they turn to what that looks like in practice — data centers, classrooms, and a possible return of family dinners to the governor's residence.

Topics discussed:

Transparency and elected officials' health, from Mitch McConnell to Tom Kean Jr.

Graham Platner's exit from the Maine Senate race and what it says about party incentives

Elitism, authenticity, and what "honor" means in public service

Money in politics and running a campaign without party infrastructure

A proposed moratorium on data centers in Tennessee

Rebuilding public education: vouchers, Montessori models, screen time, and special education

Parenting lessons Lauren brings to how she'd govern

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sarah's on summer break this week, so Beth sits down with chef, culinary historian, and seventh-grade history teacher Mica Chavez to trace how food actually built the world we live in — from the Columbian Exchange and the science behind corn, to slavery, immigration, and the industrial food system we're stuck with today.

Topics discussed:

The Columbian Exchange: how corn, chili, potatoes, and tomatoes reshaped diets on both sides of the Atlantic

The science of nixtamalization — why New World corn didn't wreck teeth the way Old World wheat did

How chili peppers spread across the globe via birds

The Irish potato famine's surprising link to New Mexico settlement history

Indigenous and Spanish foodways merging in the Southwest: acequias, sheep, and companion planting

How mechanization and post-WWII food policy created the mass-produced, processed food system

Precision farming, AI, and the tension between efficiency and sustainability

What to cook this summer (hint: it's pie)

Speaking of good food and good company — the Minneapolis live show after party has both! Get your tickets here.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For America's 250th, we asked Ezra Klein what freedom actually requires
of us — and he took us somewhere we didn't expect: attention. We get
into why the older idea of freedom was about self-mastery, not just
endless choice, and what that means for how we live, parent, and govern
right now. It's a Fourth of July conversation about virtue,
institutions, and whether we can still build something new.Topics discussed:• The vision of abundance and why the future is so hard to imagine• Attention as a collective resource — and why ours is deranged• Freedom as choice vs. freedom as self-mastery• Virtue, vice, and the illiberal moment• Institutional trust, corruption, and the education debate• Natalism, AI, and whether we're living through an aberration• Outside of Politics: which founder would make the best podcast guestResources mentioned:• Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson https://bookshop.org/a/124929/9781668023488• Why We're Polarized by Ezra Kleinhttps://bookshop.org/a/124929/9781476700366• The Lost History of Liberalism by Helena Rosenblatt https://bookshop.org/a/124929/9780691203966• The Pursuit of Happiness by Jeffrey Rosen https://bookshop.org/a/124929/9781668002483• The British Are Coming by Rick Atkinson https://bookshop.org/a/124929/9781250231321• "Now Is a Time of Monsters" by Ezra Klein, The New York Timeshttps://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/12/opinion/ai-climate-change-low-birth-rates.html?eafs_enabled=false
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're celebrating America 250 with three-time Pulitzer winner Rick Atkinson, whose Revolution Trilogy strips the reverence off the founding to show what was actually there: the first American civil war, a continent of human loss, and a republic that has weathered worse than this. Outside of Politics, the most important question of the summer: what's your favorite fair food? Topics discussed:The Revolution as America's first civil warWhy Britain lost a war it was expected to win — and the role of alliesThe human cost: Valley Forge and the letters of Sergeant Oliver ReedThe women of the Revolution and "remember the ladies"Reliable and unreliable narrators in historyAmerican exceptionalism, reconsideredOutside of Politics: the glory of fair foodWant the full America 250 series, including our premium Good Morning and More to Say episodes? Join our community at pantsuitpoliticsshow.com.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices