Swing State

Latest Episodes:

November: Will You Get To Vote This November? How? Are We Ready? Apr 15, 2020

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Voting rights in America have long been fraught but this 2020 Presidential election risks dramatic turns if people cannot vote. We sit down with journalist Ari Berman who is knee-deep in reporting on voting rights and ballot casting and we arrive at some pretty dramatic and plausible scenarios: Half of voters wanting to vote by mail in states where they need a witness, a printer, a legitimate reason where COVID may not count, a mosh pit of states contesting their elections with the Supreme Court? How nuts could it get? Berman lays out the case for why states must get ready NOW.

How Will We Cope? We Bring In the Therapist Apr 12, 2020

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How are we all doing four-weeks in? Tom and Heidi take to the couch with Cambridge psychotherapist Jill Forney to unpack isolation, virtual living, massive uncertainty, job and financial stress and this new normal. How long can this go on? What will tomorrow look like? It's a mental and physical game of survival and Jill Forney shrinks us through it!

The Bottleneck to Cash and Test and Trace: How We Restart The Economy with The Atlantic's Derek Thompson Apr 08, 2020

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Where's the relief money? Derek Thompson of The Atlantic has been writing brilliantly on how Denmark is moving radically at light speed to save its economy - and America is not. He brings ideas on a better way. Plus we dive into his latest reporting on coronavirus "test and trace" solutions from authoritarian China to less invasive versions in Singapore and Germany. But will skeptical Americans buy in? Derek Thompson says we have to mount a real collective effort from states to business to the federal government and launch fast. If we build a Covid-19 surveillance machine, can we dissolve it once we have a vaccine? Listen in.

How Will This Change Us? Is There Room for Optimism? Apr 05, 2020

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Heidi and Tom head into a freewheeling conversation with MIT Futurist and optimist Andy McAfee. As co-founder and co-director of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Andy studies how digital technologies are changing the world. Even Andy, sees the gravity of this moment. Heidi pushes hard on the big tech companies responsibility to step up, give back, and help lead in this crisis. Tom thinks it's going to have to be government – reborn, revitalized, and very differently led than right now if we want a successful recovery. We dive in on how this moment is reshaping us as a society and economy. It's all for the voters to decide, next.

We Are Under Siege In America and the Generals Are Our Doctors Apr 01, 2020

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We turn to doctors on the frontline in two of our nation's top medical cities, San Francisco and Boston. Dr. Anita Demas gives it to us straight on how to deal with it when you are sick and Dr. Anna Cervantes-Arslanian, one of five critical care directors running Covid-19 response for the Boston Medical's ICU team, asks us all to stay in for the sake of the health care workers. These doctors took an oath to save lives and by doing so today risking their own. We hear it in their voices as mothers, doctors, generals on the frontline.

Swing State Has a Whole New Meaning Mar 30, 2020

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Tom Ashbrook and Heidi Legg team up to bring you a new podcast with voices across America in a sudden Swing State of mind. Life and death, a crashing economy, and the way we live has been upended. Our first interview with historian Heather Cox Richardson, whose daily Letters From An American has over 500,000 readers each morning, helps us to understand this moment in time and offers us a deep sweeping historical context. Professor of History at Boston College, where she teaches courses on the American Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, the American West, and the Plains Indians, Richardson has authored five books that each chronicle a major movement like the one we are living. We hope you will follow us on Twitter @PodState and on iTunes as we bring you relevant voices that will help us all grasp this new era.

Heidi Legg and Tom Ashbrook Pivot to Bring You Voices Who May Help at This Extraordinary Moment in Time Mar 24, 2020

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