Episodes

This year is a bit different on that front. We’re not just putting away a bad year. 2020 wasn’t just kind of gloomy. It wasn’t just a rough patch for me. The whole world had a bad year. America specifically had a really bad year. And we’re hopeful that 2021 will be better, but we are afraid to be certain. Everybody is thrilled to see 2020 go. But nobody knows what to think about 2021. It’s a different kind of New Year. And we can’t even get together to celebrate the end of this god-awful travesty of a year. We just have to watch it end from where we are, far away from each other, and hope 2021 brings brighter days and that in a year we’ll be in a more hopeful spot. [Read More]

It’s a sentimental time of year for some people. I am recording this on Winter Solstice, which holds significant meaning for some people, and is an important night historically, traditionally, and spiritually for people all around the world. Some people have been celebrating the Festival of Lights recently. Kwanzaa is right around the corner. Christmas is this week. Festivus for the rest of us, if you like the pop culture approach. A lot of the world’s culture’s see this time of year as a significant turning point in the calendar and have marked it with a holiday of some variety. And that might not be you. You might not partake in any kind of holiday festivities or beliefs, and that’s okay, too. [Read More]

Elizabeth can’t be with you this week due to illness. But reach out to her at elizabeth@kairoticast.com, comment here, or find her on twitter at @kairoticast! She’ll be with you again, soon. [Read More]

I was Zooming with some friends, and one of them said something about not having an opinion on the electoral college and I said, “Oh, I can help you with that, it’s garbage.” And she laughed and said, “Okay, well, that clears that up.” And then they were like, “no, seriously, how does it work, how can you win the popular vote but lose the election?” And I started explaining a few things and sharing some anecdata and they were like, “No. HOW IS THAT ACCURATE?” And one of them said “You should do a podcast about the electoral college and I said, “well, I talked about it some when I talked about the Southern Strategy,” and they said, “No, it needs a whole episode.” [Read More]

We’re just coming off of the Thanksgiving holiday, and I’m wondering how yours went. I say that because we all know the jokes and the tropes about Thanksgiving. It’s supposed to be this delightful family time but supposedly it devolves into families arguing about politics. Apparently, everybody has a crazy, conspiracy-nut uncle, a racist grandma, or a brother-in-law who thinks we should be using the homeless as unpaid labor. Or, perhaps, some people come at this from a different angle – you have a crazy, hippy-dippy cousin who won’t vaccinate her kids, a socialist uncle who thinks everything should be free, and a niece who won’t eat anything at the table because it wasn’t ethically sourced or it isn’t cruelty free. Regardless, family is complicated and according to the jokes and stories we tell Thanksgiving is just a hotbed of familial tension because we all disagree on the fundamentals of well, everything, and can’t put that aside for a few hours for one day a year. [Read More]