PODCAST · society
What We Were
by Dan
We examine stories and issues from around the globe to reveal important nuance, expand empathy, and break the binary.
Episodes
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#39 - Douglas Gillette on 'King, Warrior, Magician, Lover'
In this episode, I speak with Douglas Gillette, co-author of King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine. Published in 1990, the book reads today as an early warning sign of what has since become an existential crisis of masculinity in the West. What's…
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#38 - James Howard Kunstler on The Geography of Nowhere
In this episode, I speak with James Howard Kunstler, author of The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise And Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape, about the decline of America’s built environment and the profound effects it has had on our communities, culture, and quality of life. We discuss how...
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#37 - Jacob Siegel on The Information State
Jacob Siegel is a writer and editor at Tablet and author of The Information State: Politics in the Age of Total Control. A U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, he is also a co-host of the Manifesto! podcast. We discuss his book and what it means for the present and future of the...
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#36 - The Forgotten Amendment
The first proposed amendment to the Constitution was not about speech, religion, or guns. It was about the size of the House of Representatives—and if it had passed, Congress today might have nearly 7,000 members, not 435. In this episode, we explore the forgotten apportionment amendment, why it...
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#35 - Braver Angels With Co-Founder Bill Doherty
Can "Braver Angels" save America? Bill Doherty and I discuss the causes of America's political divide and how Braver Angels is working to bridge it. Bill Doherty is an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota where he taught marriage and family...
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#34 - Joseph Ellis on 'Founding Brothers'
Joseph Ellis is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Founding Brothers, about the collaboration of America's greatest political generation, which is the focus of this conversation. In his latest book The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding, Ellis confronts what he calls...
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#33 - Mustafa Akyol on The Islamic Jesus
Mustafa Akyol is a Turkish writer, journalist, and senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, where he explores the intersection of public policy, Islam, and modernity. He is the author of several books on religion and freedom, including The Islamic Jesus, The...
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#32 - Jeff Gibbs on 'Planet of the Humans'
Environmentalist and documentary filmmaker Jeff Gibbs joins us to discuss his film Planet of the Humans, which pulls back the curtain on the "green energy" movement to reveal a for-profit industry that has tricked us into believing its technological solutions will save us from climate change, and...
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#31 - A Conversation With Arizona Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick
Justice Clint Bolick sits on the Arizona Supreme Court, originally appointed by Governor Doug Ducey in 2016. In this episode, Justice Bolick and I discuss the legal system, his experiences on the Court, and the state of American politics. Braver Angels is the national nonprofit I mention, and an...
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#30 - A Molotov Cocktail for Professional Sports
Happy Independence Day, American listeners! Professional sports in America has become a racket. Taking advantage of patriotic sentiment and our civic duty to be sports fans, corporations have seized the commanding heights of the sports economy to squeeze Americans when they're at their most...
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#29 - Gambling and Other Vices
Sports betting and marijuana have been broadly and rapidly legalized in much of the United States. What have been the consequences thus far and what does the future portend for America's growing population of gambling and marijuana addicts? Is America still mature enough to handle dramatic...
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#28 - Zaid Jilani on Journalism and the War in Gaza
Zaid Jilani is an American journalist and author of the popular Substack The American Saga. Follow him on X: @ZaidJilani In this episode we discuss the state of journalism and the War in Gaza. I encourage everyone to pray for the people of Gaza and for peace in the wider region including Israel,...
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#27 - On the American Civil War: A Conversation With Jeff Shaara
Jeff Shaara is the author of the American Civil War epics Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure. His father, the late Michael Shaara, is the author of The Killer Angels, a historical fiction novel about the Battle of Gettysburg and winner of The Pulitzer Prize. The Killer Angels and Gods…
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#26 - A Conversation With Dr. Iain McGilchrist
Dr. Iain McGilchrist is the author of The Master and His Emissary and The Matter With Things. A psychiatrist by training, Dr. McGilchrist is a leading expert on the brain and hemispheric differences. He is, I believe, the most important thinker of our time. In this episode we discuss hubris, the...
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#25 - Iain McGilchrist Has a Warning for Our World
In his book The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, Dr. Iain McGilchrist paints a picture of our brains and the world in crisis. This episode is meant to be a primer on "McGilchristian thought" in advance of an upcoming conversation with Dr. McGilchrist...
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#24 - Fentanyl
The Fentanyl Project's Brock Bevell and I cruise the streets of Mesa, Arizona to talk with the growing number of fentanyl addicts who have been relegated to the streets. America is now losing 100,000 citizens in their prime to drugs every year,. Why is this happening? Why is it not being talked...
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#23 - David O. Stewart on the Summer of 1787
We sit down with author and historian David O. Stewart about his book The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution. How did America get the Constitution it has? What timeless or transient issues informed their decision-making? And who were these men who painstakingly deliberated for...
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#22 - Angel Oakley and the Perils of Running for Congress as an Independent
Angel Oakley is a consummate independent if ever there was one, so why did a political party marshal its resources to intimidate her supporters and ultimately block her from getting on the ballot in Illinois? We talk about her run, the cancer of partisanship in America, and everything We the…
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#21 - The Post-Assassination Speech That Wasn't
By surviving an assassination attempt, former President Trump had a golden opportunity to have a reset with undecided voters in the 2024 Election. Instead, he delivered another partisan stemwinder to his base. We discuss what would happen if an American politician, equal parts hated and loved…
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#20 - Adolf Hitler and the New Totalitarians
With help from William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, we examine the ominous parallels between the early days of Nazi Germany and America's own creeping totalitarianism.
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#19 - A Conversation With Former Arizona State Senator Nancy Barto
In this conversation I talk to Senator Nancy Barto, a longtime state legislator in Arizona. We discuss what the job of a state legislator is, why so few people are even aware of our democratic institutions, and the state of politics in the Grand Canyon State.
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#18 - A Conversation With Jeff Taylor on Prison Reform
I sat down with Jeff Taylor to discuss prison reform efforts in Arizona as well as his own harrowing experience in "the system".
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#17 - A Conversation With Rusty Bowers
While serving as Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, Rusty Bowers found himself at the center of a high-stakes political drama for his decision to hold firm against President Trump and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's pressure to decertify Joe Biden's election victory in Arizona...
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#16 - People of the Book: Why Muslims, Jews, and Christians Should Unite
Islam, Judaism, and Christianity all trace their lineage to the same prophet, Abraham, and share many of the same beliefs and practices. Why, then, has Islam been left out of what should be a tripartite alliance on many of the issues facing the world? I make the case for a renewed effort to unite...
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#15 - A Conversation With Dr. Richard Harris on the State of American Politics and Freedom of Speech
In this conversation with Dr. Richard Harris, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Rutgers University, we discuss the upcoming presidential election, the political realignment we're now witnessing, and freedom of speech in the midst of the war in Israel and Gaza. Arrow's Paradox:...
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#14 - The Devil Democracy Needs
Our political representatives have increasingly lost the courage to make unpopular votes, even when it's the right thing to do. Under pressure from forces seen and unseen, they're in need of a new institution that can help them expose what's wrong and what's right in pending legislation. They…
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#13 - Death by Monoculture
What does the rapid loss of difference and asymmetry in the world portend for us? Does enforced conformity and uniformity clear a path for dangerous contagions to spread unimpeded? We discuss.
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#12 - Oppenheimer and the Death of Nuance
America's military and foreign policy elites destroyed one of the greatest intellectuals and patriots of the 20th century. Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer forces us to reexamine that time period and its implications for freedom of speech in America and our role as the leading superpower....
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#11 - How America’s Hidden Tribes Could Swing the Election
More In Common's Hidden Tribes study reveals that at least 26% of the voting-eligible population in America is completely up for grabs, and that as much as 67% could be persuaded by a compelling candidate on either side of the political aisle. But for the last several decades, few presidential...
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#10 - RFK Jr. and the Coming Political Enlightenment
Could RFK Jr. be this election's next molotov cocktail that American voters hurl at their central government?
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#09 - Lessons from the Iowa Caucuses
What I learned from spending a week at the Iowa Caucuses. Are we in trouble? Do the Iowa Caucuses represent a glimmer of hope for our listless Republic? Maybe. Bari Weiss' Dean Phillips interview:...
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#08 - Blessed Are the Peacemakers
Why has America turned away from its heritage as a peace-loving nation and how can we get it back? From Vietnam to Afghanistan and Iraq, when will we finally learn that we can't remake the world into something it's not through bullets and bombs?
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#07 - Hacked in America
Is widespread hacking of social media accounts, email accounts, and computers turning America into the third world?
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#06 - America's 250th Anniversary
What can we expect for America's 250th birthday? We discuss why there has been so little news about our upcoming Semiquincentennial and the potential danger of attempting to celebrate such an occasion in a nation so divided as ours. American Semiquincentennial Planning Committee:...
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#05 - Wagging the Dog: Advertising Dollars and American Political Discourse
America is more divided than ever, so we're told. But why? In this episode we discuss how corporate advertising is now writing the script of our political discourse and determining what we should be focused on in order to drive profits. Show links: Two in five Americans say a civil war is at…
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#04 - Taking People at Their Word on Anti-Semitism
What do we accomplish by identifying anti-Semitics? What do we lose by misidentifying anti-Semitics. Articles: Don’t be fooled by the march for peace: https://unherd.com/2023/11/dont-be-fooled-by-the-march-for-peace/
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#03 - TSA and the Post-9/11 Tyranny at Our Airports
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 led to the creation of the world's most useless and oppressive security apparatus. Americans first, and eventually the whole world surrendered precious freedom to travel in peace, but also lost one of the few communal ceremonies we had left. United…
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#02 - The Truth About Our Right to Bear Arms
Are we being honest about the purpose of the Second Amendment? Does either side really understand its purpose? There is a vast universe of common ground around preventing gun violence, yet we seem unwilling to even discuss it, let alone act on it.
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#01 - The Killings of Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie
Should we be ashamed of how American citizens and media descended on the family home of a criminal suspect in order to make their lives a living hell? Are we losing our capacity for empathy except in the rare situations where it benefits ourselves? We discuss how, in a rush to find who killed…
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does What We Were have?
What We Were currently has 39 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is What We Were about?
We examine stories and issues from around the globe to reveal important nuance, expand empathy, and break the binary.
How often does What We Were release new episodes?
What We Were has 39 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to What We Were?
You can listen to What We Were 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 What We Were?
What We Were is created and hosted by Dan.
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