All Episodes
The Scouting Lounge — 100 episodes
Passing the badge | Going home | Is the Bengs' ad fair? | Parking meter metrics | Legislator troubles | Oct. 10, 2026- Mike Milstead, Josh Phillips
The Trump drag | Democracy, populism & ruling South Dakota | A viral confrontation | Is he a liberal? | 50%+1's two edges | Caring for neighbors | Oct. 3, 2026 - Brian Bengs, Ned Horstad, Elizabeth Schenkel
Election integrity | About Monea's endorsement | The auditors' admiral? | The political spark | Sept. 26, 2026 Heather Baxter
Heavy reading | Energy ethics | DWIs spike | Asking the right PUC questions | World exploration & getting eaten | Asking for chains? | Sept 19, 2026 Don Haggar
EHorse slaughter & smoking | 13 inches | 25 years since 9/11 | Commissioning public utility politics | Staying dry | Data center outrage & Chi-coms | Sept. 12, 2026 Frank Kloucek
EEnglish origins | Coming to America | Coaching success | Data center lobbying | Defending the Flock | Zoo ask | Turfing a field | Sept. 5, 2026 James Oppenheimer
EBeating a dead pandemic | Banking on journalism's future with The Collegian | Marijuana markets | The Scout's next big step | Aug. 29, 2026 Ben Nesselhuf
ERoom 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?
Defending the One Stops, prison spending peril, stuffed animal votes, those autonomous freshmen & an update on Noem's credit card records
Journalism insights, the Sioux Falls tax bill, South Dakota's One Stop staffing saga & ignorable votes of yesteryear
Immigrants at the county jail, riding with Rhoden, ESAs v. vouchers, replacing Tonnis & a sheriff's call to serve
Pierre's geese mess, a quarter century without The Loop, downtown's evolution, Noem's day on Capitol Hill & confirmation dominoes
Homeschool horror stories, winning over Sen. Paul, chasing school safety, keeping up with Luverne & the more important plight
Thune takes the helm, MAHA and the farm bill, tallow fries, House chaos averted, when the mayor made news, counting ballots
Electric spending, keeping coal, nuclear resurrection, election expertise & when Minnehaha County didn’t trail the pack
Globetrotting with LG, explosive danger-dormant science, state fraud fallout & rubbing Bibi Netanyahu's elbows
Deep cuts & new spending, the irony of that disclaimer, school construction gripes, & settling a 9-beer debt
The next LG, hesitant homeschool foes & friends, a city-state Venn diagram, gov't audacity & property tax relief's dilemma
PODCAST | U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune on his path to top job, working with Trump & what's to come
Recounting for days, holding District 15, investigating an investigation, selling DOE’s abolition & initiation v. hazing
Falling on the sword, giving Noem deserved credit, big trucks-little spaces, what's ahead for GOP leaders & hospital wars
Election prediction recap, Trump's transition, grumpy bargoers, Thune leadership & a tradition of coming in last
ELECTION NIGHT SPECIAL - FINAL PREDICTIONS