PODCAST · society
A Couple Thinks Podcast
by Lisa & Aaron try to make sense of a messy world
Think along with Lisa and Aaron, as we try to make sense of a messy world—with clarity, compassion, and a dash of humor. acouplethinks.substack.com
Episodes
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Vote Early. Stay Ready. Protect Democracy.
We’re back for a special episode! With Election Day approaching, we’re talking about No Kings|Vote Early, protecting our votes, and turning people power into voter power. After a couple of months away from the microphones, we’re back for a special episode of A Couple Thinks. We’ve been busy doing...
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Less Podcasting; More Doing
In this episode of A Couple Thinks, we have a little news of our own: we’re taking a break from our weekly podcast schedule for the next few months. After a lovely birthday getaway — complete with Bodega Bay, a Point Reyes cheese tasting, Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! and, surprisingly, a birthday...
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Ground Truth
Most political campaigns wait until the last few months before Election Day to remind only their most likely supporters to vote for them. It’s an efficient strategy, but it also means millions of people never get a knock on the door or a meaningful conversation. In this week’s episode, we explore...
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We Got This
From protest season to election season. We’re now just over 100 days from the midterm elections, and we’ve got work to do, but we believe if we do the work, ‘we got this!’ For months we’ve talked about calling elected officials, showing up at protests, building local community, and protecting...
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The Maine Story
In this episode of A Couple Thinks, we take a closer look at the unfolding Maine Senate race—not just because Susan Collins’ seat could determine control of the U.S. Senate, but because the story raises much bigger questions about how political parties recruit, vet, and elevate candidates. We…
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America Is Not a Finished Product
After a Fourth of July weekend that felt more reflective than celebratory, we found ourselves still struggling with the state of our country in this moment. In this week’s episode, we step back from the daily headlines and take a much longer view of American history. At 250 years old, the United...
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America at 250
America turns 250 this week. That milestone feels complicated. Like many people, we’ve been wrestling with what it means to celebrate our country at a moment when so many of us are concerned about its direction. Is it still possible to feel patriotic while we criticize our country and ask it to...
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Hope v. Grievance
In this episode, we explore two very different visions for America: one rooted in hope, community, and shared purpose, and another fueled by chaos, division, and blame. The contrast felt especially sharp this week, from the uplifting celebrations in New York and the opening of the Obama Center to...
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Reprise: Where It All Began
In this episode from May of 2025, we take a step back from the chaos of current events and trace our personal paths through politics and activism, from childhood memories to adulthood engagement. If you didn’t catch it the first time around and want to get to know a little bit about each of us…
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Experience Counts
In this week’s episode, we start by answering “Why does California take so long to count ballots?” It’s a question that comes up after nearly every election, and with several closely watched races still too close to call, we decided to dig into the answer. As it turns out, the delay isn’t a sign…
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Don't take the bait
As the midterm campaigns move into high gear, one thing is already clear: the culture wars are back. This week, we explore why so much political rhetoric focuses on topics designed to provoke outrage, fear, or endless debate—and why that often pulls attention away from the issues that affect...
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How we voted.
This week’s episode is a shorter one for Memorial Day weekend. We start with a reflection on Memorial Day itself — not just the sales and barbecues many of us grew up with, but the original purpose of honoring those who lost their lives in military service, and what it means to think about...
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Coping Mechanisms
We’re coping with a strange balancing act right now. On one hand, the news cycle continues to deliver a steady stream of anxiety, frustration, and outrage. On the other hand, life keeps happening. Summer arrives. Festivals pop up. Families gather. Dessert appears. The sun finally comes out in...
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The Gerrymander Games
Another week, another reminder that democracy is not a “set it and forget it” system. This week on the podcast, we talk about the escalating redistricting battles happening across the country, the continued weakening of the Voting Rights Act, and what we can do to help Democrats take back the…
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Reprise: Be a Helper, Find the Good
Aaron was out of town for most of the past week so we didn’t record a new episode. So, this is a reprise our most downloaded episode; it is from June 2025 called “Be A Helper; Find the Good”. We hope you enjoy it. We will have a new episode in your feed next week so you can hear about Aaron’s...
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May Day, May Day, May Day!
This week’s episode is a quick one. We touch on two things that are very much on our minds right now: the recent California gubernatorial debate and the upcoming May Day actions. On the debate front, our big takeaway is… cautiously reassuring. If any of the Democratic candidates on that stage...
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Men Behaving Badly
It’s been one of those weeks where the headlines feel less like isolated incidents and more like a pattern you can’t ignore. In this episode, we sit with that discomfort—talking through the latest examples of powerful men facing consequences (finally), and the deeper systems that allowed their...
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Welcome to the Jungle... Primary
This week, we’re circling back to something we talked about in early March: the California governor’s race — and specifically, the very unique (and slightly chaotic) jungle primary system we use here. A lot has changed since our last conversation. And with ballots hitting mailboxes in early May,...
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Bad News and Good News
This week’s episode is a bit of a mixed bag. It’s been a few weeks since we last recorded, and a lot has happened—some frustrating, some deeply concerning, and some… actually encouraging. And honestly? That mix feels like the moment we’re in. We start with a conversation about what Aaron calls...
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Reprise: How We Frame the World
Happy week after No Kings Day #3! Travel, family visits, protests, and holiday prep held our focus this week- plus Lisa is fighting a rough cold. So, we’re bringing back a previous episode in which we discuss framing and frameworks through which folks see the world and how that impacts our...
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Be Loud. Be Seen. Be There.
We recorded this as a kind of pep talk for this coming Saturday’s No Kings Day (on March 28). It’s your reminder that showing up always matters. Momentum is building. Not just from one event to the next, but from everything happening around us. The courts, the protests, the pushback—it all adds…
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Let's Get Local
In this week’s episode of A Couple Thinks, we talk about something that’s been surprisingly energizing for us lately: hyperlocal organizing. Not giant movements.Not national organizations. Just neighbors — getting together. Recently, Lisa helped organize the first meeting of a new local “pod”…
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War and (Keeping Your) Peace
The escalation of the U.S.–Israel war against Iran has made for a heavy and chaotic news cycle. Between breaking updates, speculation, and viral social media posts, it can be hard to know what’s real—and even harder to keep your sanity while trying to stay informed. In this week’s episode of A...
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California’s Primary Conundrum
Before we dove into California politics this week, we acknowledged something much bigger: the beginning of the U.S.–Israel war against the Iranian regime. It’s possible to hold more than one truth at the same time. You can oppose war and still be glad that the Iranian people are one tyrant…
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Last Week Was A Lot
Some weeks feel like one big headline. This one felt like ten. In this episode of A Couple Thinks, we unpack a week that revealed multiple fissures inside the MAGA coalition. The Supreme Court delivered a 6–3 ruling limiting Trump’s use of emergency powers for tariffs—an unusually clear moment of...
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Let’s Talk About Voting
This week we’re talking about elections and voting rights because a lot is swirling right now. We focused mainly on the proposed SAVE Act (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act), which would require proof of citizenship at registration and when voting, including for mail-in ballots. It would...
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Washington Post Mortem
This week on A Couple Thinks, we found ourselves talking about something that feels both personal and civic: the unraveling of one of America’s most important newspapers. Lisa was in her last two years of high school in the DC suburbs in the late ’70s, when the Washington Post was the local paper...
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Let’s Respect the Constitution
This week on A Couple Thinks, we did something both sobering and clarifying: we went through our Constitution’s amendments. And then we asked a simple but unsettling question: Which of these constitutional protections are being violated right now? As it turns out… more than you might want to sit...
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Processing the Unspeakable
This week’s episode is different. Usually, we come to the microphone with an outline and some scripting to help us make sense of the moment we’re living in. But on Saturday, January 24th, that didn’t feel possible or honest. We were still processing the news out of Minneapolis: another protester...
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Thinking About a Post-Trump America
This week on A Couple Thinks, we spent some time sitting with a question that’s been hovering in the background for a while now: what is going to happen between now and the post-Trump era? Our conversation was sparked by a New York Times opinion piece by conservative column by Ross Douthat titled...
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The Ups and the Downs
It’s been a heavy start to the year. Between the destabilization of Venezuela and the murder of Renee Nicole Goode in Minneapolis, the cruelty and chaos of this moment feels sharper, more frightening, and more relentless than many of us expected. In this week’s episode, we talk honestly about…
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What To Do Next
Happy New Year.In our first episode of the year, we decided to do something a little different: we zoomed out and asked the question, “What’s our political action plan for the whole year?” Because let’s be honest: this moment isn’t about one phone call, one protest, or one election. It’s about...
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Is it time to say f*ck it?
This episode is not safe for work—or for young ears—because sometimes polite language just doesn’t cut it. In this week’s episode of A Couple Thinks, we unpack an essay, posted in August, by John Pavlovitz, that caught our attention: the idea of a F*ck It List! It’s a rethinking of the classic...
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Where It Started
We’ve been producing this podcast for a year now, and we wanted to take a moment to reflect back on our first episode that we recorded on Sunday, December 8, 2024. It was released on January 7 of this year, 2025. The episode was titled “Keeping Your Peace”, and we were reminding listeners – and...
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50 Weeks in Your Ears
Woo woo! 🎉 This week marks Episode 50 of A Couple Thinks—50 straight Tuesdays in your ears. For our “golden episode,” we wanted to share 50 good things from 2025… and while we didn’t quite get to 50, we do have a clear reminder that momentum is real, people are showing up, and good news...
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When a Loss is a Win
Last week brought one of those quietly important election nights that doesn’t change who controls Congress, but does change how we read the map. In this week’s episode of A Couple Thinks, we dig into the Tennessee Congressional District 7 special election and why we’re calling it “when a loss is…
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Staying Grounded and Keeping the Faith
As we approach the one-year mark of A Couple Thinks, this week’s episode is a reflective one. We recorded our very first conversation on December 8th last year, before we even knew exactly what this project would become, and now here we are, 48 episodes later, talking more honestly (and more...
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Gratitude
It’s Thanksgiving week, so we decided to dedicate this episode of A Couple Thinks to gratitude, the kind you hold onto while we’re living through Trump’s second term. We organized our gratitude into four buckets: politics, family, lifestyle, and community. (Yes, we categorized our gratitude. No...
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The Times They Are a-Changin'
We recorded this episode on Wednesday, November 12th, just before the big tranche of Epstein documents were released. Our focus was on the end of the shutdown and the way that happened even if this week that seems long, long ago. We don’t usually do episodes that sit close to the political news...
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Election Night in Brief(s)
Last week’s off-year elections were fast, loud, and clear. Races were called early because the margins were that big. Democrats swept 13 of 13 statewide contests on the ballot, including Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey and Abigail Spanberger in Virginia, with double-digit wins in most of those…
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We Are the Cavalry
On Tuesday night, we slipped into San Francisco for a quintessential “grown-up” date: dinner and a talk at the Commonwealth Club with former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, who’s on tour for her new book, Giving Up Is Unforgivable. We’ve followed Joyce since her collaborations with Preet Bharara, and...
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How We Frame the World —
We’ve been thinking a lot about mindsets — the frameworks that shape how we interpret the world, often without realizing it. Aaron started us off by talking about the “bootstrap” stories we grew up with — those tidy promises that hard work automatically leads to success. It’s an appealing…
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No Kings Day, October edition
We showed up. So did a whole lot of other people. Oakland’s No Kings Day ( Indivisible ) felt bigger than June: packed BART cars (yes, we were sardined, and yes, it was the good kind), sun-splashed streets, inflatable costumes everywhere, and that brassy mini-marching band that turned walking…
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Together, We’re the Big Fish
We recorded this pep talk on September 30—right before our road trip—so if the news has swerved since then, consider that even more reason to show up this Saturday, October 18, for the second No Kings Day. June’s turnout was huge and electric; it reminded us that we’re part of something bigger,...
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Get Ready for No Kings Day on 10/18
It’s just 11 days until the next No Kings Day protests. We want to remind folks of how joyful these events can be as we revisit the episode we posted immediately after the June 2025 No Kings Day event. The events were joyful and safe, and we look forward to similar events on October 18th! Take a...
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Why the Disney Boycott Worked
This week we are talking about boycotts—when they work, when they don’t, and why the recent Disney boycott was so effective. We wanted to start with a moment of celebration: Jimmy Kimmel is back on ABC, and Sinclair and Nexstar have resumed airing his show. For once, a boycott delivered fast,...
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Beyond Left and Right:
This week we’re talking about something that sits above our usual political lanes: free speech. We’ve seen this past week that many across the political spectrum do agree that the First Amendment is a guardrail we can’t afford to lose. The spark was the sudden suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live!…
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Turbulent Times: Balancing news and personal peace
This week was a heavy one. The murder of Charlie Kirk shook us, not because we shared his politics—we didn’t—but because we both believe that violence is never the answer. Taking a life is always wrong, and violence only breeds more violence. Lisa found herself struck by how quickly…
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Reprise: From Bystander to Upstander
We’ll be in your ears with a fresh episode next week, but for this week, we're sharing an episode we recorded back in March. Wow, March seems so so long ago! The episode was originally titled “From Bystander to Upstander,” and we’ve added a short intro tying in some recent events. Here’s the link...
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Patience and Politics
This week, we circled back to a question that’s been woven through our show since the beginning: where should we spend our energy—activating people who agree with us but haven’t taken action yet, or engaging people on the “other side”? Lisa leans toward inviting the not-yet-active folks onto the...
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does A Couple Thinks Podcast have?
A Couple Thinks Podcast currently has 84 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is A Couple Thinks Podcast about?
Think along with Lisa and Aaron, as we try to make sense of a messy world—with clarity, compassion, and a dash of humor. acouplethinks.substack.com
How often does A Couple Thinks Podcast release new episodes?
A Couple Thinks Podcast has 84 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to A Couple Thinks Podcast?
You can listen to A Couple Thinks Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts A Couple Thinks Podcast?
A Couple Thinks Podcast is created and hosted by Lisa & Aaron try to make sense of a messy world.
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