All Episodes
The Scouting Lounge — 92 episodes
Room for improvement | ‘Back to normal ... what we have here is good’ | A big job | The Democrats most winnable race? | Using AI to improve record keeping | Online & early voter registration
Asking hard questions | Connecting dots | Clinging to leadership | Flock camera hype | Surveying Smithfield | Surviving a fire | Hiring the right person
Visiting Wrigley | Winning state | Forging better athletes | New 9-to-5er | Making a majority | Hiding in the bathroom | Abnormally triggered | Building better businesses
(STRONG LANGUAGE) ‘Doors win wars’ | Vanquished & helpful | Mr. Mandate? | Lessons of ‘02, ‘20 & ‘26 | Did it get in the meat? | The Fifth | Fauci's find, fine & failure
South Dakota Republicans will decide | Final days, final attacks | Finding humor in high-stakes politics | Win or lose, what's next? | About those polls... | Audio wars
Twigs & Ernie | A 'nice' $69M surplus | The governor who shall not be named | Legislative-executive cooperation | Fighting over scraps? | Betty's choice
Remembering David | Congratulating Christine | Sneve's correction | Trolling with public info | Running proud | That other runoff | Constitutional communism?
Blacklisted? | Political Covidians, cowards or 'Midwest Nice'? | Ellis & Joe's favorite Declaration signers | Power posturing | 'This level of smoke' | Founders, framers & America250
A recount advantage | Get ready for court | A divided GOP | Tit for tat in the governor's race | Regulators | America250
EPISODE 200: 100 cops short | Lincoln Day dinners | McPherson County mania | Erickson-Smith predictions | Double standards & malicious politics | Prosecutor packing | Consolidated election failure
Zak v. Zach | Sioux Falls Central District civic champions | Two campaigns, two runoffs | Art, walkability, Smithfield, data centers | Lowercase ‘l’ libertarian | Thinking bigger
Doeden's Matt Hurley & Rhoden's Ian Fury collide | Bombing an intro | USD love, Med school move & keeping Verm alive | Good soldiers | Will civility last | Predictions?
Toby's Babe Ruth call | The Doeden entourage | 'Simplifying' Sioux Falls civics | Double runoff? | A bunk tax filing or a false residency — choose one | Killing the messenger
Partying in Parkston | Hanging at Hansen's | In the K-12 trenches | The pipeline fight's spark | Polling, attack ads & a surge | Spending & sales tax
Dusty's got pipes | A long-shot's 'Hail Mary' | Data centers, electricity & taxes | Not shooting straight | A dedicated Yote | Lemmon to USD | The grocer | Bad candidates | Homeless draw
DSU shines | Coalescing Sanford, Avera & Monument | Navigating new nurses | Skeletons & treasure | Blame Trump | Hunting elephants
The postmortem | Ellis & Lalley decompress | Handwritten notes & more debate rulebreakers | The best questions & answers | Sioux Falls mayoral hopefuls up next
(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
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
Running while building | From S.D. Trade to the U.N. | Being Brittany Lindberg's husband | The Scout's Iranian subscribers
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
Jon & Joe reunite | Discovering mead | Turning trash into goods | Saving the world & trusting your gut | Hemp & Zahntech disruptions
Busy busting bad guys | Happy trees | The 'No' vote | Westward pork & city growth | Cop turned killer
Gravy days of newspapering | Field guide for data centers | Building trust | Understanding rural concerns | 50 miles down the road | Pipeline poisoning
Making a mayor mad | Crafting contracts | SNAP success | Stressing war | Balancing a budget | Policing in Sioux Falls | Creating a new tax
Senate lockdowns | Tonnes the Tie Breaker | Fighting for public education | Reading a room & to a room | Getting it wrong | High growth, high costs
'The Dicks' | TIFs, China & the American pork producer | The prison-Smithfield conspiracy theory | A GOP dark horse | Noem '26? | Concourse cash
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
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
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
Guess who's back? | Recharged with a second chance | Civic engagement: ER edition | Foreigners, 'canucks' & headline wars | In the shadow of 'the seating incident'
A five-year itch? | Seat drama | Heading west | Future Fund feud | Winning by winging it | South Dakota's uniquely-shoddy postal system
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
'Trump Derangement Syndrome is real' | Filibuster fortification | Reclaiming ceded presidential authority | Making 'em work | '26 & beyond
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
The Sporting Lounge? | All ball bearings — 'and drones now' | A 10-game Marshall-Vikings win streak | Bullpen rebuild | Future Falls funding
Rapid City's showdown | Targeting TIFs | Military matriarch | Speech or deception? | 1984 | Hutterite dresses
The magic of Christmas | Robots are coming | Data center dividends & disruptions | Sioux Falls love | Homebuilding workforce
Getting passed at 90 mph | First winter snow | Dusty Johnson's junk food gambit | LifeSource & second chances | Trump statue drama | TDS or TDS?
A political ghost | Forged in service | Prison push autopsy | Fundraising concession | Reasoning to run | Gov. Larry Rhoden
An interim councilor | Lobbyist distrust | Term limits | Candidate Rhoden | Leaving the Democrats | The Grinch, Moulin Rouge | Ellis '26?
Cannabis clash 5.0 | Electorate education | Defending public schooling with a homeschool perspective | Dusty's No. 2? | Finding wins amid dysfunction
Toilet humor | Dell Rapids' good bones | Tough turbine blades | Regional teamwork | Mapping momentum with math | Parks v. Public Works | Airport funding turbulence
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
America first | AI warfare | Data taxing | Pheasants, fields & friends | Congressional courage | Trump's priority
Government's COVID bloat | Fat kids | Fee v. tax | Cool 😎 accountants | Unsung hero beds | The $25 million hunt
The birth rate crisis | Leading by listening | The independence of SD Dems | Shannon County's final death | Selling South Dakota
1A shines again | Marketing mushrooms | Prosecutor politics | Planning in haste - for years | 'Pre-rolls' and prisons
Christening a shooters haven | Remolding city government | Late night ego stroking | | An absentee mom's role in Capital chaos
Reading a room | Prison (un)popularity | Toby Doeden & $$$ | The awful's 1A shield | Knives out early | Restful sleep for the best of us
A governor's interview | Packing for Pierre | In Wasko’s defense | About that op-ed | SDSU beer guy | Terminal needs
Capitol condolences | Jousting Joes | Campaigning from the middle | Dispelling the city slicker brand | Well-intended Ponzi scheme?
DakotaFest allure | SDPB's reboot & NPR's drag | The importance of redundancy | Newspapers revived | State Fair stories
South Dakota storytellers | Cowgirls | Red-blue movies | America 250 | Who and what happened to the Mandan? | 'Let's visit'
Sturgis stories | Sioux Falls & ICE | West River v. East River | Running like you're down | Prison promises | A kicker's campaign
Creating jobs | immigration politics | pissing off lawmakers | budgeting blues & auditing wastewater
Playing the long game | The pain of TANF cuts | Integrity v. winning | About Trump & the Football Team
Playing for the Yotes | S.D.'s low taxes | Daugaard's legacy | Introducing Mike | Fargo comedy's Capitol clash
'A prison deal, if you can keep it' | Ellis' penitentiary visit | Progress through limited government | Dangerous endorsements | Picture pride
The final Scouting Report, romanticizing America’s story, raising the Stars and Stripes in Iraq & a king-killing bloodline
Prison passion, lambasting DOC leadership, Rhoden-Press reciprocation, Jackley's U.S. House run & who's a better neighbor: butchers or prisoners?
Exporting South Dakota to Mexico, demystifying Mobridge, northern border jumping & the trade turnaround
Bad parents, lobotomized leghorns, empty editing threats, cancellation flirtation, prison whiplash & ‘populists’
The French Creek news drip, when deportation isn't justice, Doeden's lawnmower & Taffy Howard's place in the governor's race
A governor's visit, arm wrestling the boss, wrangling Rasner, taking notes & auditor aspirations
Legislative nutcrackers, the validation of abysmal turnout, $2B question(s), South Dakota's jerky reign, readying to run & EV 101
A pope and pizza, Sistine beauty, buying a suit in Rome, expanding the wide world of sports, vegan begging, prison sincerity + he's running
Springfield's PTSD; crime, punishment, prison services & the joy of being AG; Trump lawfare; & making memories with Jamie Smith
Breaking through, a fateful road trip, parking politics & Noem’s timely hires
Planning to pivot, restaurant resiliency, dual citizenship & what it takes to win a statewide office as a Democrat
A warden's take on Shawshank, prison beauty, when The Scout covers crime & picking up the Democratic gauntlet
Crippling Pierre's clothing boutiques, cutting teeth, pissing off a judge, political tit-for-tats & a bad law's Streisand effect
The national drag, selling Sioux Falls to the world, convention center history & a steep climb to the Riverline District
A forced contract extension, penalizing growth, looming cuts & the over-under on a crowded mayoral field
Lt. Govs past and present, a gift to Noem, recent voter turnout disgrace, pee possession, child brides & the return of the Ravnsborg storyline
Prisons, pipelines & pragmatism; the good & the bad on ambulances; overhauling property tax codes; & the story behind Kristi Noem's threat
Prison upheaval, press corps jockeying, a revolt & the cane that followed, & the Rhoden-Daugaard credit cards
Obfuscating public records, when party favors turn bad & the flashpoint fence — is it oppressive?
ELECTION NIGHT SPECIAL - FINAL PREDICTIONS
SPECIAL EDITION | Redneck doppelgangers, getting lost on a mountain in Maine & how moving to S.D. helped shape a Hollywood movie director
The pro-life dilemma, education in India, four generations of lawmaking, Medicaid work requirements & how the OSHA story came to be
Navigating potential conflicts, selling beer to foreigners, radio silence & a Thune's hidden talent
The public school dilemma, newsroom microaggressions, crow murders & the return of Dan Ahlers
The homeschool swing, free speech, college drag & taxes
Stepping in taxidermy, the Trump tribe, AI's place in journalism & what do about South Dakota counties
The '24 election season is here, a legislative bromance, putting lipstick on a pig & a 30-year payback plan
A year of freedom, lawmakers warned & is Sioux Falls ready for a mayor’s mansion?
Humanizing the border, Noem enters the pipeline fight & RIP Partridge Amendment
Is it a cut or a rebate? + Abortion, grass and 'knuckleheads'
Special edition: Election Day predictions
Meals for votes? Big Marijuana takes pass & Rick Steves' crusade to legalize grass
What the heck is The Dakota Scout?