ICYMI: Divided & Enraged, Christian Nationalists & Contraception, & Can Virginia Save Democracy?

An America-Shaped Power Vacuum Putin Wants to Fill | Anchor Watch with Bobby Jones

The murder of Charlie Kirk exposes how fragile the country already was. Bobby points back to Obama’s election, Trump’s campaign, and the COVID lockdowns as the three jolts that scrambled reality into camps. What followed was “the creation of alternate realities,” where doctors with Harvard degrees got shouted down by people peddling horse dewormer. Once…

Divided & Enraged: How We Break through the Online Noise | Punching Up with Maya May & Evan Fields

The very base layer of all human civilization is storytelling. That sounds like the kind of over-the-top statement that only a writer could make, but if you think about it, it’s true.

The Contraception White Christian Nationalists Endorse | Andra Watkins & Sam Osterhout

Last week, Sam Osterhout and Andra Watkins discussed the move to ban hormonal birth control — basically, pills, patches, injectables, and IUDs. The White Christian Nationalists believe that one of the cures for our cultural ills is to control women. I’m oversimplifying, of course, but not by much.

Virginia’s November Election Could Decide the Fate of our Democracy | First Draft with Susan Demas & Michael O'Connor

Virginia politics is stuck in a strange limbo. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin rode a wave of backlash to COVID policies into the governor’s office in 2021, built his brand on parental grievance, and then watched Democrats in the state Assembly block much of his agenda. “There’s a lot of frustration among Democrats,” Dogwood political correspondent Micha…