Conflict of Interest

Conflict of Interest

Conflict of Interest is a podcast about the world, through a discerning lens of journalism, politics and above all Vermont. Kevin Ellis goes against the grain of today’s politics and celebrity culture to talk about the massive change all around us and how the world actually works. You will hear from Kevin’s Vermont neighbors AND national voices on difficult issues. Vermont is becoming, or always has been, a place, a real place. We are not interested in the Vermont of the tourist guides. We are not going to talk to Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. We will talk to them about what it is like to sell the company and do something new - and the frustrations, fear and uncertainty that comes with changing your life. Part interview, part history lesson about stuff you won’t see or hear on CNN or NPR.

Episodes

Bombing Doesn’t Work

July 10, 2025 • 49 mins
You win wars with armies. Bombs don’t work. And they only piss off the people you bomb for another generation. (Iran) Nuclear weapons scholar Ward Wilson joins me. 
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The Greatest Tennis Match Ever

June 19, 2025 • 38 mins
Who do you talk to when you have just watched the best tennis match in history? Your local tennis pro of course. Breaking down Sinner vs. Alcaraz at the French Open with Daron Forohar.
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The Future of the Liberal Arts College

June 12, 2025 • 37 mins
As Trump attacks Harvard, small liberal arts colleges reassess their purpose. The president of Amherst College says this reckoning has been coming for a long time. The answer is a return to core values of critical thinking and hard truths. Amherst President Michael Elliott is one of the leaders and breaks it down.
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Lacrosse is About America

May 29, 2025 • 47 mins
How does an ancient game with sticks tell us about ourselves? The story of how we stole the game from the native people and then stopped them from playing teaches us a deep and abiding lesson about ourselves and our crimes. Thanks to some champions of a cause, native people might play in the Olympics. The wrong can never be righted. But we can learn our history and move in a better direction. Author S.L. Price from Sports Illustrat...
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The Biden Coverup/Conspiracy/Delusion

May 15, 2025 • 32 mins
Call it what you will. The new book FIGHT - Inside the Wildest battle for the White House - has the first draft of history on why Biden ran again and how his handlers kept the truth about his age from getting out and handing the election to Trump. It is a decision we will be living with for a generation. Co-Author Amie Parnes joins Kevin for the details. ⁠Amie's book, FIGHT, available now.
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Morgan Valley and the Sacrifice

April 24, 2025 • 39 mins
You don’t have to love basketball to appreciate what Morgan Valley has done in her playing and coaching career. But you need to listen closely or you’ll miss it.
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FAIZ SHAKIR…What ails the Democrats and what is the way back?

March 20, 2025 • 41 mins
The top political advisor to Bernie Sanders says Chuck Schumer was wrong on the budget bill and wrong on the way forward. It’s not about Left vs. Right. It's about Top vs. Bottom. Will anyone listen?
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What Really Happened on Jan. 6?

March 13, 2025 • 37 mins
The Jan. 6 effort to overturn an election and KILL the vice president and speaker the House seems so long ago. And Trump has effectively made us forget. But Mark Bowden has not forgotten. The author of Blackhawk Down and many other deeply reported books put Jan. 6 and its aftermath into one comprehensive book. It has all the receipts. To understand what’s happening now when the entire leadership of th government believes the Biden ...
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Alex Gibney has some Optimism

March 7, 2025 • 41 mins
The award-winning documentary filmmaker has faith (some) that the system can withstand Trump and Musk. That’s a lot for a a guy who makes a living examining the abuse of power by powerful people - Trump, Lance Armstrong, ENRON, Elizabeth Holmes and Scientology. Next up? Elon Musk.
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It’s a Coup. So What Now? My Former Professor Has Answers

February 25, 2025 • 39 mins
Trump-Musk is unprecedented, lawless, and dangerous. But we knew that. What exactly constitutes the coup? What steps do citizens take? Constitutional scholar and professor Austin Sarat has some answers - not magic bullets, but a dedication to democracy by speaking out and getting involved. Sarat is less gloomy than most and sympathizes with the college students of today. And discusses how the current situation has changed his teach...
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Solving Homelessness

January 23, 2025 • 44 mins
I get the question every day - Why can’t we solve this? Roseanne Haggerty is solving it. First she bought a hotel in New York and housed people. Then she won a MacArthur “genius’’ fellowship. Now she advises cities all over the country how to solve it. Turns out it’s not that complicated. It takes what tough problems have always required: political courage, collecting data about those in need and a healthy dose of caring about peop...
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The Pentagon Gets Real about Renewable Energy and Climate

January 16, 2025 • 36 mins
When Sherri Goodman arrived at the Pentagon in 1993 for her job as a deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Environmental Security, the Defense Department was one of the biggest polluters on the planet. The legacy of our nuclear weapons program along with pollution from military bases all over the country. Her job? Clean up the mess. And as things went on, start factoring energy and climate change into how the military operates. How...
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Bird Flu is here and it’s in the Milk

January 9, 2025 • 27 mins
The flu is in 16 states and more than 900 dairy herds. That means the milk is threatened. Can it jump to humans? Yes. Will it jump to humans in a big way. I ask NY Times science reporter Apoorva Mandivilli all the questions and she gives the answers. It’s not COVID, she says. Yet.
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Trump Won’t be THAT Bad

December 12, 2024 • 41 mins
Will Trump follow through on his draconian threats to deport millions, go after his enemies and jack up the price of everything? Every liberal Democrat I find say yes. But I found a journalist who doesn’t think so. Michael Powell of The Atlantic says the worst won’t happen. And he has a lot of experience watching politicians who promise bug and can’t deliver. He write sports for the New York Times, been on Pulitzer-winning teams. M...
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Family Meeting

November 19, 2024 • 63 mins
Wherein some of the Ellis family gathers to assess, analyze and argue about the election. How was it lost? How was it won? No holds barred. It’s all men because the women in our lives have serious work to do and refused to be compromised by contact with the men. But there are nuggets. Harris played not to lose. (ME) And so much more.
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BERNIE SANDERS: Why Kamala Harris, Re-election, Vermont Initiatives

November 4, 2024 • 16 mins
The Democratic Party sabotaged his bid for president. He is running for a fourth term. He is the most famous name in politics until Trump came along and changed everything. Bernie Sanders on why Harris needs to win and how the Democrats lost the working class. 
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The Vermont Attorney General and the Most Dangerous Man in America

October 23, 2024 • 50 mins
Charity Clark is the chief law enforcement officer for the state of Vermont and she is suing Meta and Mark Zuckerberg to top them from addicting young people to bad stuff on Instagram, stealing their privacy and identity, selling it to advertisers and lying about what they do. 
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David Maraniss and the Legacy of Vietnam

September 30, 2024 • 38 mins
A conversation with the Pulitzer Prize winning biographer of Clinton, Obama, Lombardi and Jim Thorpe. His book on Vietnam - They Marched Toward Sunlight - weaves together the events of 1967 in his home town of Madison, WI, the Oval Office and the dreaded battlefields of Vietnam. Maraniss keynotes the Leahy Public Policy Forum at the University of Vermont on Oct. 1 looking back at Vietnam 50 years later.
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Debate Breakdown/Trump Breakdown w/ Alex MacLean

September 18, 2024 • 38 mins
It was left to Kamala Harris to do what Biden couldn’t do. Nor could Rubio, Desantis, Bush and all the others. Neither could the media and all the advertising, all the talking heads on cable TV. After eight years of Trump’s TV show, Harris pushed all the buttons, laid the traps and got the result she needed, showing the country she can be president. I break it down with political operative and comms consultant Alex MacLean. She has...
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Pelosi and Power - Molly Ball

September 6, 2024 • 43 mins
On July 3, Nancy Pelosi changed the course of the current presidential campaign and the country. It took about three minutes. How did that happen? How did the former speaker of the House have the power, moxie and leverage to force Biden from the race, elevate Kamala Harris and then deny she had her hand on the controls. It is all about how political power is wielded. And Pelosi biographer Molly Ball tells us how it was done. Her bo...
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