Words Matter Podcast

[_honorentheos]

I mentioned this in another thread but thought I'd make one dedicated to it to raise it's profile.

I started listening to a new podcast this last weekend which releases new episodes on Mondays and is barely at episode 2 as of today. It's website is here with links to the many different places one can downloaded it:
https://www.wordsmattermedia.com/subscribe

The hosts include Steve Schmidt and Elise Jordan, and the premise of the podcast is to provide a conservative point of view that also believes facts matter, that being anti-Trump isn't being anti-conservative, and that the GOP has been replaced by a new political party that is not conservative in its values when Republicans refused to take on the worst of Trumpism.

From the introduction:

Hi I'm Elise Jordan. If you haven't noticed things are a little crazy right now in the worlds of government and politics.

It's not an overstatement to say that we're seeing seismic changes that will alter the course of history.

That's why on Monday August 6th, fellow nonpracticing Republican Steve Schmidt and I will be hosting “Words Matter,” a weekly podcast where we will discuss the news of the day and dig deeper to get the real truth behind all the distracting headlines.

Our goal will be to promote objective reality. As a great leader once said: “We believe everyone is entitled to their own opinions, not their own facts.”

Together with journalists, elected officials, policymakers, historians and others we’ll try to answer the questions: What's really happening? How did we get here? Where are we going? And can we survive all the chaos.?

Their first episode was built around an interview with Margret Hoover, great-grand daughter of Herbert Hoover and host of Firing Line in the tradition of William F. Buckley, Jr. It is largely a historical discussion about what was a few decades ago mainstream conservatism. It looks at the values of people like Buckley, Goldwater, Reagan and others and contrasts the direction the current Republican party is going under Donald J. Trump as well as the Republican leadership that seems to have tied itself to him. Despite not considering myself conservative, I generally found it interesting and somewhat wistful for an opposition party that at least made sense to me.

Today's episode focused on Steve Schmidt's open declaration he could no longer call himself a Republican in spite of several decades of service under Republican presidents and as a campaign manager to John McCain. His discussion of the rise of Sarah Palin, his conflict and opinion of her and her place in history, and that she does not represent a direct line to Trump so much as a historically present element of the American electorate was by itself worth the time to listen, in my opinion. It was also interesting to hear him speak of an immediate political future where the Trumpites on the right and the leapfrogging to the left on the Democrat side are almost certain to leave the vast majority of Americans feeling unrepresented in government, almost certainly creating the need for other parties that arise out of this as a consequence.

At about 45 minutes an episode so far they've been time well spent.

[_cwald]

If he can no longer call himself a republican what does he call himself? A Democrat?

[_cwald]

Thanks for the reference. I'm a podcast junkie and I'm going to try this out

[_honorentheos]

If he can no longer call himself a republican what does he call himself? A Democrat?

Apparently he's looking for the what comes next. In today's episode he talks about the blue wave as likely inevitable but given his opinion that Democrats are going to be running to the left of one another, it won't be a party he is interested in. Which is why he seems to think that it's creating conditions likely ripe for a third or fourth party because so many will be left without a party near the center.

[_cwald]

Honor...

My favorite podcast right now is Last Podcast on the Left. Have you ever heard of it? It is phenomenal. It deals with true crime , serial killets, aliens, conspiracy stories, cults... And yes Mormonism comes up in episodes quite often, and not in a favorable way I might add.

[_honorentheos]

I haven't heard it but I'll check it out. Sounds interesting!

[_cwald]

I haven't heard it but I'll check it out. Sounds interesting!

Do so. There's about 400 hours of great entertainment.

These guys are fantastic. I ended up paying five bucks a month to be a patreon subscriber just because they are so good

[_honorentheos]

That's quite the endorsement. I'll definitely add a couple of episodes for work tomorrow. Any recommendations?

[_cwald]

To start...I loved the series on Jim Jones and Ron Hubbard. Fantastic podcast.

They also have a two-part series on JonBenet Ramsey where they talk about Mormonism a lot.

[_cwald]

If you want to start with serial killers, I would go with the Ed Kemper or Albert Fish pods