In this special episode, Naomi and Brendan say goodbye to Polilogue. After more than 5 years and 291 episodes, we are bidding farewell to the podcast in this bittersweet episode. Thank you to all of our supporters and listeners over the years. We will miss the show but appreciate so much the privilege to speak with you during these interesting times.

You can still email us at [email protected] or you can send us your feedback @PolilogueCast. You can also follow us at @sotonaomi_ and @bsteidle.

Check out some of our other work: 

Brendan’s website: www.solvingguns.org

In the last episode of our Supreme Court series, we discuss the prospect for reform of the Supreme Court. We review the analysis of reform released by the Presidential Commission, suggest some of our own ideas for reforming the court—and then discuss reform of media coverage.

Resources

You can check out our ongoing research list spreadsheet here

Contact us

Email us at [email protected] or you can send us your feedback @PolilogueCast. You can also follow us at @sotonaomi_ and @bsteidle.

Support the show: We produce Polilogue out of our own pocket. If you’d like to support the show with a one-time or recurring donation, please visit our donate page here. Or leave a review on iTunes, Apple Music, or the Apple Podcast library. Thank you!

Check out some of our other work: 

Brendan’s website: www.solvingguns.org

There’s no job criteria to be a Supreme Court justice. But then how does someone even get to serve on the highest court — for the rest of their life? In this episode of Polilogue, we look at the Supreme Court pipeline and how national media organizations portray and analyze the very few paths to the court.

We also discuss the Federalist Society, an influential outside group that has been extremely successful in developing and mentoring federal judges—shaping the conservative Court we experience today.

Resources

You can check out our ongoing research list spreadsheet here

Contact us

Email us at [email protected] or you can send us your feedback @PolilogueCast. You can also follow us at @sotonaomi_ and @bsteidle.

Support the show: We produce Polilogue out of our own pocket. If you’d like to support the show with a one-time or recurring donation, please visit our donate page here. Or leave a review on iTunes, Apple Music, or the Apple Podcast library. Thank you!

Check out some of our other work: 

Brendan’s website: www.solvingguns.org

In this episode of Polilogue we wonder if a job you can almost never be fired from can have any level of accountability. Congress and the White House have elections to give people the opportunity to “re-hire” their elected officials. But if our top court does not have an election, does that mean they are exempted from any accountability?

What’s the role of the media ecosystem to describe and analyze the quality of work that the Supreme Court does every day? What more can they do during the nomination and confirmation process to ensure that only qualified candidates are serving these lifelong appointments?

Resources

You can check out our ongoing research list spreadsheet here

Contact us

Email us at [email protected] or you can send us your feedback @PolilogueCast. You can also follow us at @sotonaomi_ and @bsteidle.

Support the show: We produce Polilogue out of our own pocket. If you’d like to support the show with a one-time or recurring donation, please visit our donate page here. Or leave a review on iTunes, Apple Music, or the Apple Podcast library. Thank you!

Check out some of our other work: 

Brendan’s website: www.solvingguns.org

Confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justices have been wildly dramatic (Kavanaugh) and surprisingly calm (Jackson). What’s to account for the difference? Is it all just about the nominee—or is there something else behind it? In this episode of Polilogue’s special season on the Supreme Court we dive into how the media covers the confirmation process.

It’s not as simple as it seems—and not as easy to explain. How does the media do in explaining the process and helping the public understand what’s at stake? We also take a look at how the changing nature of the confirmation process has shaped media coverage.

Resources

You can check out our ongoing research list spreadsheet here

Contact us

Email us at [email protected] or you can send us your feedback @PolilogueCast. You can also follow us at @sotonaomi_ and @bsteidle.

Support the show: We produce Polilogue out of our own pocket. If you’d like to support the show with a one-time or recurring donation, please visit our donate page here. Or leave a review on iTunes, Apple Music, or the Apple Podcast library. Thank you!

Check out some of our other work: 

Brendan’s website: www.solvingguns.org

Naomi's website: www.startwithaquestion.org

For episode 4 of our Supreme Court season, we’re focusing on the moment when most Americans learn about a potential Supreme Court justice: when the president nominates them to fill a vacancy.

Too often the immediate coverage is about the president and his political intentions in nominating this person. There is little substantive coverage about who this nominated person is, how they got to the legal position that they are in, and how their legal training could impact their work as a Supreme Court judge.

In this episode, we’ll show how this was true most recently when Justice Stephen Breyer retired. We knew President Biden’s short list of black women that were under consideration, but even still when media organizations had the time to explore these women’s histories, there was little to consume to learn about these women.

Resources

You can check out our ongoing research list spreadsheet here

Contact us

Email us at [email protected] or you can send us your feedback @PolilogueCast. You can also follow us at @sotonaomi_ and @bsteidle.

Support the show: We produce Polilogue out of our own pocket. If you’d like to support the show with a one-time or recurring donation, please visit our donate page here. Or leave a review on iTunes, Apple Music, or the Apple Podcast library. Thank you!

Check out some of our other work: 

Brendan’s website: www.armisticedesigns.com  

Naomi's website: www.startwithaquestion.org

For episode 3 of our Supreme Court season, we acknowledge two unsaid realities:

First, where and why do we have an extensive reverence of the Supreme Court? Is it even justified? We examine the conditions and expectations that perpetuate the reverence. The sanctimony cycle is unending: from the American people, to the press, and back to the Court. Most importantly, we explore the notion that reverence of the Court inhibits the press from holding the institution accountable.

Second, we break down the myth that the Supreme Court is an apolitical institution. This is true in current times and also since the founding. The Court has always had political drama; we’ve just been really good at ignoring them.

Resources

You can check out our ongoing research list spreadsheet here

Contact us

Email us at [email protected] or you can send us your feedback @PolilogueCast. You can also follow us at @sotonaomi_ and @bsteidle.

Support the show: We produce Polilogue out of our own pocket. If you’d like to support the show with a one-time or recurring donation, please visit our donate page here. Or leave a review on iTunes, Apple Music, or the Apple Podcast library. Thank you!

Check out some of our other work: 

Brendan’s website: www.armisticedesigns.com  

Naomi's website: www.startwithaquestion.org

We’re back with the second episode of Polilogue 2.0: The New Conservative Court.

SCOTUS experts are defining the latest term as the most conservative term in almost 100 years. But how did we get there? If people read and watched SCOTUS news stories and alerts in the last decade — would they even have been aware we were on this path to begin with?

Looking ahead: What does it mean now that we have a young conservative Court? And how can the media acknowledge and/or explain the Court’s conservative lean and what it means for all of us.

Resources

You can check out our ongoing research list spreadsheet here

Contact us

Email us at [email protected] or you can send us your feedback @PolilogueCast. You can also follow us at @sotonaomi_ and @bsteidle.

Support the show: We produce Polilogue out of our own pocket. If you’d like to support the show with a one-time or recurring donation, please visit our donate page here. Or leave a review on iTunes, Apple Music, or the Apple Podcast library. Thank you!

Check out some of our other work: 

Brendan’s website: www.armisticedesigns.com  

Naomi's website: www.startwithaquestion.org

It’s time to talk about the United States Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court is one of our three branches of government, but for completely confusing reasons, it is covered by national media organizations in entirely different ways than the legislative and executive branches.

For the first episode of Season 1 of Polilogue 2.0, we’re doing an overview of how the media currently covers the Supreme Court — and more importantly — all the ways it’s not covered. We talk about the go-to moments of SCOTUS coverage, the crazy space that is legal media, and the reclusive and black box nature of the Court itself.

Resources

You can check out our ongoing research list spreadsheet here

Contact us

Email us at [email protected] or you can send us your feedback @PolilogueCast. You can also follow us at @sotonaomi_ and @bsteidle.

Support the show: We produce Polilogue out of our own pocket. If you’d like to support the show with a one-time or recurring donation, please visit our donate page here. Or leave a review on iTunes, Apple Music, or the Apple Podcast library. Thank you!

Check out some of our other work: 

Brendan’s website: www.armisticedesigns.com  

Naomi's website: www.startwithaquestion.org

We’re back!!

For the first time in four months, both Brendan and Naomi are back on the mics!

In today’s teaser episode, we give a sneak peak into the topic for the new season of Polilogue: The United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is one of the three branches of government — and yet — it’s practically impossible to find information about the Court, their processes, or their legacies. This nebulous understanding extends to States or other regional courts.

In true Polilogue fashion, we’re looking at how news organizations cover the SCOTUS and what is desperately being missed. Catch the first episode of the new season Monday, September 5.

Resources

• Public’s Views of Supreme Court Turned More Negative Before News of Breyer’s Retirement (Pew Research)

Contact us

Email us at [email protected] or you can send us your feedback @PolilogueCast. You can also follow us at @sotonaomi_ and @bsteidle.

Support the show: We produce Polilogue out of our own pocket. If you’d like to support the show with a one-time or recurring donation, please visit our donate page here. Or leave a review on iTunes, Apple Music, or the Apple Podcast library. Thank you!

Check out some of our other work: 

Brendan’s website: www.armisticedesigns.com  

Naomi's website: www.startwithaquestion.org

In this final episode of the Solving Guns project, we conclude our discussion of the portrayal of guns in film.

This is Part 15 of a multi-part series that we are sharing first with our polilogue listeners—a project that is years in the making.  The goal is to examine every form of gun violence, to go deep on the reasons why people own guns in the first place, and to find solutions without passing gun restricting laws. Whether you love guns or hate them, my hope is that the solutions here can unite those on the left and the right behind one goal: to save lives. Something we can all agree on. 

You can find this project, with written versions and some videos online at www.SolvingGuns.org.  You can also find access to the 2000-plus pages of facts and statistics that Brendan leaned on for this project.  

Next week, Naomi and Brendan will both be back on their microphones to talk about Polilogue 2.0.

Contact us

Email us at [email protected] or you can send us your feedback @PolilogueCast. You can also follow us at @sotonaomi_ and @bsteidle.

Support the show: We produce Polilogue out of our own pocket. If you’d like to support the show with a one-time or recurring donation, please visit our donate page here. Or leave a review on iTunes, Apple Music, or the Apple Podcast library. Thank you!

Check out some of our other work: 

Brendan’s website: www.armisticedesigns.com  

Naomi's website: www.startwithaquestion.org