The Purple Principle
Nonpartisan podcast for independent-minded Americans exploring the perils of partisanship in U.S. politics, society and daily life. Join & Support us with an Apple Podcast Subscription for bonus content.
Episodes
“The American people want serious people to solve serious challenges,“ declares former Texas Congressman Will B. Hurd in this season finale on the U.S. House of Representatives. “That’s the lesson we should take away from 2022.”
But he’s quick to add, “I don’t think that lesson is going to be implemented in this new congress.”
Hurd then dissects the GOP factionalism at work in the contested house speaker’s election and confirms that...
“It appears to me that the fever has broken,” observes Bob Corker, former two-term GOP Senator from Tennessee. ”And there's gonna be a real serious debate on the Republican side of the aisle as to where the party is gonna go in 2024.”
Fading GOP loyalty to former President Trump is the elephant in the room as we discuss the 2022 election, successes of the current Congress, and prospects for governance going forward.
“Right now y...
Happy Thanksgiving from The Purple Principle team! This week we’re revisiting an episode from November 2021.
In the aftermath of another fractious election season, and heading into the holiday season, it feels appropriate to bring psychologist Tania Israel back into the feed. She explains the active listening methods we need to have genuine conversations across the political divide and across the dinner table, when opposing viewpoi...
The 2022 election will consume us over the coming days, weeks, and months. There will likely be recounts, runoffs and court challenges before a new Congress takes shape.
This Purple Principle episode highlights concerns surrounding this election, with many GOP candidates questioning election integrity, while providing context and perspective from a variety of guests.
For Sarah Longwell of the Republican Accountability Project, the ...
Alaska will soon be the first state in the country to hold a ranked choice voting election for all representatives, state and federal. But can RCV moderate our severely polarized politics?
If the August special election and current congressional campaign are any guide, the answer is a hearty, “Maybe.”
That’s according to Matt Buxton, editor of the Alaskan political blog The Midnight Sun and co-host of the Hello Alaska! podcast. TPP ...
TPP wraps up its series on Hispanic American Swing Voters with three very different yet highly insightful guests. Northwestern University historian Geraldo Cadava tells us that both parties have spun overly-simplistic narratives of the Hispanic voter – a mythical concept in his view.
Carlos Mencia has always been an iconoclast aiming satire in all directions. He reflects on his immigrant childhood, as one of 18 children, and living...
How’d you hear about The Purple Principle? Click here to answer our one question survey: https://fluentknowledge.com/tpp-survey
How large a role will Hispanic voters play in 2022 elections? (Hint: It’s big.)
How are the major parties appealing to this diverse voting bloc? (Not so effectively.)
Can Latino candidates turn down the heat on our political rhetoric? (No sign of that yet.)
How’d you hear about The Purple Principle? Click here to answer our one question survey: https://fluentknowledge.com/tpp-survey
Today, we're re-podcasting the first episode of our 3-part mini-series on Hispanic American swing voters. The series continues into October for National Hispanic Heritage Month.
Is a large and growing segment of Hispanic American voters now leaning independent? That’s the operative question in this first...
How’d you hear about The Purple Principle? Click here for our one question survey: https://fluentknowledge.com/tpp-survey
Massachusetts has long been a bipartisan enigma at the state level, electing moderate GOP governors for 30 of the past 60 years while seating a Democratic legislature. But the governor’s office is expected to revert to Democrats in 2022 and beyond. In our second MA episode, we discuss this unique history and infl...
“There are all kinds of ways in which we, as a community, enable the American story,” says Deval Patrick, implying that our success stories overemphasize the individual.
Patrick’s own American story is a remarkable one, starting in a tough South Chicago neighborhood, journeying to a planet called boarding school, then onto Harvard and a distinguished legal career, before two terms as Governor.
He recounts how then Senator Barack O...
Fluent Knowledge, producers of The Purple Principle (TPP), have a new podcast in the health, wellness and medicine realm, My Body Odyssey (MBO). With TPP staff on summer break, we’re introducing TPP listeners to MBO with our second episode, featuring IronWoman Diane.
Imagine taking on a 2.4 mile swim, followed by a 112 mile cycle, and then a 26.2 mile run. And in a single day, not a week or a month. Now add the additional challenge...
In our continuing state series, TPP visits the state with the highest percentage of non-partisan voters (58%): vast and varied Alaska. On August 16, 2022, for the first time in the US, Alaskans will use the final four voting system, which combines a unified open primary with ranked choice voting in the general election.
Our special guests for this episode, each interviewed by TPP Reporter Dylan Nicholls, offer three perspectives on ...
This week we revisit an episode from 2020, adding some fresh questions and analysis on its lessons in GOP history from a 2022 perspective. Is Donald Trump losing his populist grip on the Republican Party after 6 long years, a failed re-election, a failed campaign to reverse that result, and the January 6 insurrection?
According to recent polls, critical editorials from The New York Post and Wall Street Journal, and an abscess of Tr...
On this second episode featuring great American independents, The Purple Principle sits down with Andrew Heaton, political satirist, author, podcast host and small “l” libertarian.
“I’m a temperamental moderate who wants to help people,” Heaton confides, “but thinks government is not very effective at it.”
Heaton also describes the origins of his dual career track, working as a Capitol Hill Staffer while performing comedy – in his o...
The Purple Principle celebrates July 4th with its first episode in a miniseries on America’s great independent voices. Amy Chua, known for her bestselling Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, is a Yale law professor and author of Political Tribes.
“Every group feels attacked, pitted against other groups not just for jobs and spoils, but for the right to define the nation’s identity. In these conditions, democracy devolves into zero-sum ...
The Purple Principle completes its three-episode tour of the great state of California with three uniquely positioned viewpoints on the Golden State. First, Leon Panetta, former Cabinet Secretary and nine-term US Congress member, who questions the one party mindset of Democratic governance in Sacramento and the rightward populist tilt of the California GOP.
Our second guest, former State Assembly Minority Leader Kristin Olsen, help...
If California progressives were tortillas, they’d be delicious but expensive and inaccessible; establishment Democratic tortillas would be ubiquitous, if not so tasty; and Republican tortillas would be pretty tasteless…
Is this any way to understand California politics? It is when speaking with LA Times columnist, author and frequent tortilla contest judge, Gustavo Arellano.
In discussion with host Rob Pease and guest co-host Barbar...
“I always point out to people that California is still a two-party state,” says Dan Schnur, former independent candidate for Secretary of State. “It just so happens they're both Democratic parties.”
So starts a series of TPP episodes on our largest and bluest of states this primary season. Schnur’s outline of factions within Democratic Party are all the more vital, as are the economic insights of Joel Kotkin, the noted author an...
How’d you hear about The Purple Principle? Click here to answer our one question survey: https://fluentknowledge.com/tpp-survey
All political roads lead to Georgia these days. The Peach State was so pivotal in the 2020 election of Joe Biden and the 2021 runoff election of two Democratic senators.
Georgia’s again on our minds in 2022 as Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger battle primary challenges from the GO...
How’d you hear about The Purple Principle? Click here to answer our one question survey: https://fluentknowledge.com/tpp-survey
Is a large and growing segment of Hispanic American voters now leaning independent? That’s the operative question in this first episode on Hispanic swing voters, featuring three noted experts: former Florida Congressman Carlos Curbelo, UT San Antonio political scientist Dr. Sharon Navarro, and former four-t...
Popular Podcasts
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The most notorious mass murder in Ohio’s history happened on the night of April 21, 2016 in rural Pike County. Four crime scenes, thirty-two gunshot wounds, eight members of the Rhoden family left dead in their homes. Two years later a local family of four, the Wagners, are arrested and charged with the crimes. As the Wagners await four back-to-back capital murder trials, the KT Studios team revisits Pike County to examine: crime-scene forensics, upcoming legal proceedings, and the ties that bind the victims and the accused. As events unfold and new crimes are uncovered, what will it mean for all involved? What will it mean for Pike County?
If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.
It’s a lighthearted nightmare in here, weirdos! Morbid is a true crime, creepy history and all things spooky podcast hosted by an autopsy technician and a hairstylist. Join us for a heavy dose of research with a dash of comedy thrown in for flavor.