Beyond Politics

How do you teach your kids about money, without making it a chore for you? We're once again bringing you an episode from Financial Life Planning with Matt Robison and Financial Advisor Mike Morton. Do you offer an allowance? Is it tied to chores or some other ‘work?’ Do you give your kids the freedom to spend their money with abandon or try to control what they buy? Have you had an honest discussion about college and the immense expense associated with higher education? Plus: Giving freedom to kids to spend their own money - and allowing the ‘failures’ that come with some of those decisions Chores - Do you pay your kids to be a contributing member of your family? When and how to talk to teenagers about college expenses

We've known Trevor Chandler for a long time: as a congressional staffer, LGBT rights activist, and political organizer. So when decided to jump into a local San Francisco race, it didn't surprise us. What did surprise us was the message he decided to run on. Could it be the key to pushing back on the Fox News attacks and unifying the Democratic Party?

Former Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper is out today with Saving Democracy, a how-to guide on how individuals and small groups can actually tilt the balance of power away from right-wing extremists and back to sanity and democracy. David joins us to explain why state governments have become engines of Republican extremism, and how effective it can be for grassroots Democrats to fight back and win by focusing much more heavily on the state and local level and leveraging the advantages they have.

Republican Senator Tim Scott has everything his party should want in a Presidential contender...except a clear path to being the nominee. The panel looks at whether he, Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, Asa Hutichinson, Vivek Ramaswamy, Ron DeSantis or anyone else has any chance of wresting the nomination away from Donald Trump, and whether retail politics-heavy states like New Hampshire can actually help.

Are Black Voters Actually Going…MAGA? In 2020, 12% of Black men voted for Donald Trump. By 2022, headlines were proclaiming an historic shift in Black America to the Republican Party, with CNN declaring “Voters of color are backing the GOP at historic levels” and the NY Post saying “Young, Black Americans are turning to the GOP.” If this is true, it would represent a crisis for Democrats, since Black voters, particularly Black women, have long been the backbone of the Party. So what’s actually happening? We welcome back two friends of the show, Mario Broussard and Alex Ivey, who are Senior Vice President and Vice President of Research respectively at Global Strategy Group, one of the premier polling, research, and public affairs companies in America.

A brief review of the ham-fisted attempted cover operation for Trump that was the Durham special counsel investigation, how it fell apart, and why it still seemed to be a political success for Republicans. Also what is a "nothingburger" anyway? Will President Biden actually agree to put more work requirements on Food Stamps? And should we raise the voting age to 25?

After last week's disaster, can the media prevent Trump from serving us poison again? That was basically the question that was posed to me this morning by Howard Monroe, legendary West Virginia radio broadcaster. It's a question that we're all continuing to grapple with in the wake of the CNN town hall with Donald Trump last week. Is there any way for the media to cover Donald Trump, do their job in our democracy, and yet not allow him to spew lies and undermine that democracy?

Philadelphia Inquirer National Columnist and Pulitzer Prize Winner Will Bunch joins to lay out why everything we saw from Donald Trump in the catastrophic town hall last night was terrible...but unsurprising. The real shock wasn't even the way CNN was complicit in setting up the disaster. Rather, it was another group that really brought a low point to the entire night.

As the debt ceiling standoff begins to dominate political discussion, serious legal scholars are beginning to debate whether the Constitution offers a simple way out. Also, Alicia makes a moving plea to her own Republican Party on immigration. And could the writer's strike be good for America?

On Sundays, we post shows from Financial Life Planning with financial advisor Mike Morton and man-in-need-of-advice Matt Robison. This week: we have interest rates now, so what does that mean, in a nutshell, for our daily lives. And is there anything we need to, you know, DO about it? The answer is: YES! We cover: Mortgage Rates - How the increase affects your payments (not in a good way!) Home Equity / Construction Loans - You might want to think twice about borrowing for renovation projects and why I paid off my HELOC. Savings - You will finally earn some interest on your cash CD’s - Some brokerage products are offering 3%-4% interest, something we haven’t seen in almost 20 years Stocks - It’s like Black Friday: with the 20% market decline now is a (better) time to buy stocks.  Stay invested for the long run.