Episode Archive

This episode featured highlights of the 2012 Republican National Convention which was in its final day. Sean conducted “man in the street” interviews and played audio clips from speeches by New Mexico Governor Suzanna Martinez and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Ross Matthews reported from the convention floor.

This week the show returned to a 2-hour format with continuing conversations on the nature and process of elections. There was much discussion of the “Todd Akin debacle.” Akin, a US Congressman from Missouri running for the Senate said that women who are victims of “legitimate rape” rarely get pregnant. This led to a more general discussion of women’s reproductive rights.

This week’s show was broadcast from the Toadhop Network’s new studio in Hollywood! It featured an interview with former NBA star Adonal Foyle, founder of Democracy Matters, a non-profit, non-partisan grassroots student political organization.

The episode started off briskly with an analysis of the nature of public service, and segued into a discussion of Chick-fil-A and the company’s Chief Operating Officer Dan Cathay’s controversial statements on gay marriage. Several callers contributed to the discussion on LGTB rights.

This episode began a series of discussions about the upcoming elections, focusing first on election law. Sean read a section of the Declaration of Independence, and discussed how it affected the setup of the government, and how it continues to affect events today.

Today’s show was broadcast remotely from Toronto, Canada. Sean played the rest of the interview he recorded earlier with Rosalind Wyman, the youngest person and second woman elected to the LA City Council in 1953.

Mackenzie Astin took over hosting duties on this episode at the request of Sean, who was on location filming. With much love and amazing honesty, Mack discussed the topic of inspiration, and what inspires him: his brother Sean and words.

This first of several one-hour summer episodes focused exclusively on the U.S. Supreme Court’s upholding of the Affordable Care Act, the centerpiece legislation of President Obama’s first term. In a light moment, Sean and cohost Mackenzie Astin assigned the nine Justices to positions on a baseball team.

Today’s show covered austerity measures. The topic was defined, discussed and analyzed via “man on the street” interviews, a clip from the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University featuring Professor Mark Blythe, and a fascinating panel discussion with Sean and three frequent viewers/callers-in: Jason, Michelle and Brett.

"Just the facts, m'am." But what are facts? How do we know they're true? Sean and his guests talked all about facts, opinions, data and truth in this episode, which included an interview with David Boze, a conservative radio talk show host in Seattle, as well as several callers. In addition, Sean’s middle daughter Elizabeth joined as co-host, and shared her experiences in running for student council, and how she and her friends try to change people’s minds.