Gadfly

Gadfly

Hosts Dusty Wilson and Oona O'Leary meet up fortnightly to chat about third parties, fringe candidates, and generally weird American electoral history.

Episodes

May 17, 2024 70 mins

Hey, y'all! We are back on the 2024 election beat and this week we are talking about the presidential nominees for the Socialist Workers Party. Join us as we dive into the drama-filled, nonsensical, and outright infuriating history of the SWP & the people most appropriately suited to represent them in 2024.

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Hey, y'all! This week we are doing something a little different. Oona is taking the lead to teach Dusty all about the musical extravaganza that is Eurovision. Stay tuned for random sports analogies that may or may not work, comparisons to the American electoral college, and the crushing realization that Benjamin Netanyahu absolutely played everyone in charge. It's a real douze point of an episode.

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April 19, 2024 87 mins

Hey, y'all! We are finally at the end of our Debs-a-thon and oooh lordy does it kind of sad. Join us as Eugene makes one last valiant attempt to bring Socialism to America only to be met with the most insurmountable odds possible.

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April 5, 2024 58 mins

Hey, y'all! Things sure haven't been easy for Gene Debs, huh? In this episode he is, yet again, forced to run for president, deal with theological splits in his own party, and become a repository for every old timey disease that doesn't kill people immediately. Lookin' at you, lumbago.

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March 22, 2024 52 mins

Hey, y'all! For part four of the Eugene Debs saga, Gene keeps doing the thing he is best at and the thing he desperately never wants to do again: starting a brand new union and running for president. Also, he gets to experience the joy of trying to keep a group of socialists from splitting into their own party. In this episode, Gene is not having a great time.

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March 9, 2024 69 mins

Hey, y'all! We are off onto part 3 of the Eugene Debs adventure. He's tried unionizing. He's tried having faith in the federal government. But what he hasn't done is create his own political party and get guilt tripped into running for president.

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February 18, 2024 82 mins

Hey, y'all! We return to the tale of Eugene Debs, his fight to unite all the rail jobs under one union, and his battle against George Pullman.

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February 2, 2024 54 mins

Hey, yall! After months of teasing, it's finally here. We are kicking off our long series on the most famous of American socialists, Eugene V. Debs. 

In part one we cover Gene's childhood, his Millennial-esque adolescence, and his all encompassing love for his mother. Oh, and also we talk about him leading a union and his first tenure in an elected position.

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January 19, 2024 95 mins

Hey, y'all! We kick off our newest season by diving deep into the philosophy and politics of living forever. Which also means we get to talk about Atlas Shrugged more than we would have liked.

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The Democratic primaries and upon us, but what options are there for people not super excited to vote for Joe Biden, Marianne Williamson, or Dean Phillips? Well, lucky for you, there are four other candidates on quite a few state ballots that might just pique your interest.

Join us as we look at the campaigns of Gabriel Cornejo, Stephen Lyons, Frankie Lozada, and Mando Perez-Serrato.

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December 22, 2023 75 mins

Hey, y'all! We are closing out the year with the most conspiracy laden episode to date, which is...saying something. When we last left Shiva he had lost his race for the Senate & ascended to peak Divorced Guy by suing any news outlet that didn't agree he solely invented email. Of course, this led him to a brand new world on the cutting edge of conspiracy theory stardom.

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December 8, 2023 75 mins

Hey, y'all! We are closing out the near year with a dude we've wanted to talk about since episode one and has recently road a wave of social media semi-fame into sort of relevance. We are talking about the one and only Shiva Ayyadurai.

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October 27, 2023 82 mins

Hey, y'all! This week is a somewhat part two of last week's episode where we cover a teenager that also sort of ran for Governor of Kansas in 2018. Aaron Coleman was one of the youngest state representatives in American history and to talk about him the episode needs a blanket trigger warning.

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October 13, 2023 68 mins

Hey, y'all! This week we return to Kansas to talk about a myriad of stories. We talk about Kansas election law, memes, but ultimately, this is the story of all the teens that entered to mostly run for Governor.

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Hey, y'all! This week we are diving back into the 2024 Presidential election. The Party of Socialism & Liberation (PSL) announced their presidential ticket via a very well produced video that took leftist Twitter by storm. But who are Claudia De La Cruz & Karina Garcia? What does the PSL stand for? What secrets does the party hold?

Partial answer to the last question: this episode does require a trigger warnin...

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Hey, y'all! America is one of around a dozen countries to go all-in on the two-party system. But why? To figure this out, we are going international and looking at a few other nations that have found varying definitions of "success" rolling with only a pair of major parties. 

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September 1, 2023 71 mins

Hey, y'all! It has been a rough month of topics so, this week, we are taking a turn for the adorable. We are going all the way back to 2012 to discuss the Senatorial run of Hank O'Leary-Roberts or, as he is more commonly known, Hank the Cat.

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August 18, 2023 96 mins

Hey, y'all! After the dismal attendance at the Rage Against the War Machine rally, the folks in charge went and did a sequel in Manhattan. Humanity for Peace was an anti-war rally held on the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. It was also an excuse for every (alleged) political cult to get together.. So, of course, we're going to talk about it.

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Hey, y'all! We are back with part two on the 2023 American Solidarity Party National Convention. In this episode, we cover the five people who stepped forward to compete for the presidential nomination.

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Hey, y'all! After a long hiatus, we are back. This week is the first episode of our two-parter on the American Solidarity Party's 2023 National Convention. In this episode, we cover Christian Democracy in general, the history of the ASP, and their official platform going into the election year.

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