The Scouting Lounge cover art

All Episodes

The Scouting Lounge — 75 episodes

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Title
1

DSU shines | Coalescing Sanford, Avera & Monument | Navigating new nurses | Skeletons & treasure | Blame Trump | Hunting elephants

2

The postmortem | Ellis & Lalley decompress | Handwritten notes & more debate rulebreakers | The best questions & answers | Sioux Falls mayoral hopefuls up next

3

(Steel) horses | Badlands dirt biking | Re-hooked on phonics | Classroom renegade | Why run? | War or Defense | A'bullsh*t' story | South Dakota's First Lady | SURFing with DSU

4

The mystery of the bogus candidates | 3 theories | 2020's sus count | What a county party does | Courting Dominion | Ballot drought | K-12 superintendent shoutouts

5

Running while building | From S.D. Trade to the U.N. | Being Brittany Lindberg's husband | The Scout's Iranian subscribers

6

Selling out & selling out | The politics of being A-political | Did $ioux Falls get $nubbed | Four Winds Arts & Music Fest | A wannabe musician's entitlement complex

7

Jon & Joe reunite | Discovering mead | Turning trash into goods | Saving the world & trusting your gut | Hemp & Zahntech disruptions

8

Busy busting bad guys | Happy trees | The 'No' vote | Westward pork & city growth | Cop turned killer

9

Gravy days of newspapering | Field guide for data centers | Building trust | Understanding rural concerns | 50 miles down the road | Pipeline poisoning

10

Making a mayor mad | Crafting contracts | SNAP success | Stressing war | Balancing a budget | Policing in Sioux Falls | Creating a new tax

11

Senate lockdowns | Tonnes the Tie Breaker | Fighting for public education | Reading a room & to a room | Getting it wrong | High growth, high costs

12

'The Dicks' | TIFs, China & the American pork producer | The prison-Smithfield conspiracy theory | A GOP dark horse | Noem '26? | Concourse cash

13

A third penny in a post-penny world? | Hunting for CHICOMS & political posturing | Betting v. predicting | Fighting over scraps | The SNAP dilemma | Weather-driven smiles

14

Lounge carpet laying | Pipelines + prisons + data centers = GOP leadership clash | SLAPPing back frivolous lawsuits | Betting on sports betting | An overdue Medal of Honor | Striking independence

15

A very bad day | Nosey neighbors | Rescued by a former legislator | Data center defeat | The GOP's consigliere | Nibbling on property taxes | Mayoral run lessons

16

Guess who's back? | Recharged with a second chance | Civic engagement: ER edition | Foreigners, 'canucks' & headline wars | In the shadow of 'the seating incident'

17

A five-year itch? | Seat drama | Heading west | Future Fund feud | Winning by winging it | South Dakota's uniquely-shoddy postal system

18

County clash | Data center discourse, flipping birds & Jamie to the rescue | Journalism's AI traps | Rallying for those in harm's way | Make Debates Great Again

19

'Trump Derangement Syndrome is real' | Filibuster fortification | Reclaiming ceded presidential authority | Making 'em work | '26 & beyond

20

Christmas ambush | Data center deluge | No subsidy for you | What's indoor recreation anyway? | Prison seminary | Leaving the barn door open | About that 'primary' debate

21

The Sporting Lounge? | All ball bearings — 'and drones now' | A 10-game Marshall-Vikings win streak | Bullpen rebuild | Future Falls funding

22

Rapid City's showdown | Targeting TIFs | Military matriarch | Speech or deception? | 1984 | Hutterite dresses

23

The magic of Christmas | Robots are coming | Data center dividends & disruptions | Sioux Falls love | Homebuilding workforce

24

Getting passed at 90 mph | First winter snow | Dusty Johnson's junk food gambit | LifeSource & second chances | Trump statue drama | TDS or TDS?

25

A political ghost | Forged in service | Prison push autopsy | Fundraising concession | Reasoning to run | Gov. Larry Rhoden

26

An interim councilor | Lobbyist distrust | Term limits | Candidate Rhoden | Leaving the Democrats | The Grinch, Moulin Rouge | Ellis '26?

27

Cannabis clash 5.0 | Electorate education | Defending public schooling with a homeschool perspective | Dusty's No. 2? | Finding wins amid dysfunction

28

Toilet humor | Dell Rapids' good bones | Tough turbine blades | Regional teamwork | Mapping momentum with math | Parks v. Public Works | Airport funding turbulence

29

Property tax whiff | The young's burden | Holding to the Legislature | Don't Denver South Dakota | Airport 💰 | Hanging or firing squad? | Snarky Sneve | Suspended without pay

30

America first | AI warfare | Data taxing | Pheasants, fields & friends | Congressional courage | Trump's priority

31

Government's COVID bloat | Fat kids | Fee v. tax | Cool 😎 accountants | Unsung hero beds | The $25 million hunt

32

The birth rate crisis | Leading by listening | The independence of SD Dems | Shannon County's final death | Selling South Dakota

33

1A shines again | Marketing mushrooms | Prosecutor politics | Planning in haste - for years | 'Pre-rolls' and prisons

34

Christening a shooters haven | Remolding city government | Late night ego stroking | | An absentee mom's role in Capital chaos

35

Reading a room | Prison (un)popularity | Toby Doeden & $$$ | The awful's 1A shield | Knives out early | Restful sleep for the best of us

36

A governor's interview | Packing for Pierre | In Wasko’s defense | About that op-ed | SDSU beer guy | Terminal needs

37

Capitol condolences | Jousting Joes | Campaigning from the middle | Dispelling the city slicker brand | Well-intended Ponzi scheme?

38

DakotaFest allure | SDPB's reboot & NPR's drag | The importance of redundancy | Newspapers revived | State Fair stories

39

South Dakota storytellers | Cowgirls | Red-blue movies | America 250 | Who and what happened to the Mandan? | 'Let's visit'

40

Sturgis stories | Sioux Falls & ICE | West River v. East River | Running like you're down | Prison promises | A kicker's campaign

41

Creating jobs | immigration politics | pissing off lawmakers | budgeting blues & auditing wastewater

42

Playing the long game | The pain of TANF cuts | Integrity v. winning | About Trump & the Football Team

43

Playing for the Yotes | S.D.'s low taxes | Daugaard's legacy | Introducing Mike | Fargo comedy's Capitol clash

44

'A prison deal, if you can keep it' | Ellis' penitentiary visit | Progress through limited government | Dangerous endorsements | Picture pride

45

The final Scouting Report, romanticizing America’s story, raising the Stars and Stripes in Iraq & a king-killing bloodline

46

Prison passion, lambasting DOC leadership, Rhoden-Press reciprocation, Jackley's U.S. House run & who's a better neighbor: butchers or prisoners?

47

Exporting South Dakota to Mexico, demystifying Mobridge, northern border jumping & the trade turnaround

48

Bad parents, lobotomized leghorns, empty editing threats, cancellation flirtation, prison whiplash & ‘populists’

49

The French Creek news drip, when deportation isn't justice, Doeden's lawnmower & Taffy Howard's place in the governor's race

50

A governor's visit, arm wrestling the boss, wrangling Rasner, taking notes & auditor aspirations

51

Legislative nutcrackers, the validation of abysmal turnout, $2B question(s), South Dakota's jerky reign, readying to run & EV 101

52

A pope and pizza, Sistine beauty, buying a suit in Rome, expanding the wide world of sports, vegan begging, prison sincerity + he's running

53

Springfield's PTSD; crime, punishment, prison services & the joy of being AG; Trump lawfare; & making memories with Jamie Smith

54

Breaking through, a fateful road trip, parking politics & Noem’s timely hires

55

Planning to pivot, restaurant resiliency, dual citizenship & what it takes to win a statewide office as a Democrat

56

A warden's take on Shawshank, prison beauty, when The Scout covers crime & picking up the Democratic gauntlet

57

Crippling Pierre's clothing boutiques, cutting teeth, pissing off a judge, political tit-for-tats & a bad law's Streisand effect

58

The national drag, selling Sioux Falls to the world, convention center history & a steep climb to the Riverline District

59

A forced contract extension, penalizing growth, looming cuts & the over-under on a crowded mayoral field

60

Lt. Govs past and present, a gift to Noem, recent voter turnout disgrace, pee possession, child brides & the return of the Ravnsborg storyline

61

Prisons, pipelines & pragmatism; the good & the bad on ambulances; overhauling property tax codes; & the story behind Kristi Noem's threat

62

Prison upheaval, press corps jockeying, a revolt & the cane that followed, & the Rhoden-Daugaard credit cards

63

Obfuscating public records, when party favors turn bad & the flashpoint fence — is it oppressive?

64

ELECTION NIGHT SPECIAL - FINAL PREDICTIONS

65

SPECIAL EDITION | Redneck doppelgangers, getting lost on a mountain in Maine & how moving to S.D. helped shape a Hollywood movie director

66

The pro-life dilemma, education in India, four generations of lawmaking, Medicaid work requirements & how the OSHA story came to be

67

Navigating potential conflicts, selling beer to foreigners, radio silence & a Thune's hidden talent

68

The public school dilemma, newsroom microaggressions, crow murders & the return of Dan Ahlers

69

The homeschool swing, free speech, college drag & taxes

70

Stepping in taxidermy, the Trump tribe, AI's place in journalism & what do about South Dakota counties

71

The '24 election season is here, a legislative bromance, putting lipstick on a pig & a 30-year payback plan

72

A year of freedom, lawmakers warned & is Sioux Falls ready for a mayor’s mansion?

73

Humanizing the border, Noem enters the pipeline fight & RIP Partridge Amendment

74

Is it a cut or a rebate? + Abortion, grass and 'knuckleheads'

75

Special edition: Election Day predictions