Episodes

Daniel Lippman, is a reporter for Politico covering The White House and Washington. He was one of the co-authors of Politico’s Playbook "the unofficial guide to official Washington." Prior to Politico, Daniel worked for outlets such as Reuters, McClatchy Newspapers, Huffington Post and the Wall Street Journal. And very much like one of our prior guests, Julie Mason, Daniel is one of today’s staunchest ambassadors for good journalism and champions of good journalists. Hosts Jessica Stone and Core...

Jessica Stone returns to TP&R, but this time as co-host to explore more about Ronnie's upbringing in Brooklyn, NY; his career as a guidance counselor and conflict resolution specialist in inner city schools; and how these experiences and his world views informed each other. We get into some candid conversations about race, education and sex. Jessica, as you’ll remember, is a 20 year veteran of local, national and international newsrooms where she’s covered the intersection of politics and busine...

On a recent trip to New Orleans, I happened upon musicians playing on Royal Street in the Quarter. To say it's worth sharing is an understatement. The experience reminded me of some of the profound thoughts I've heard from the great jazz virtuoso and ambassador Wynton Marsalis and the renowned theologian J. Kameron Carter. Jazz is what democracy and religion sound like when at their best: Faithfulness to the composition, brilliance of the individual players, within the context of playing amongst...

As a continuation of our series "The Folks of Our Town," Mayor Bill Miranda talks to us about growing up in New York City; how a kid from NYC became the Mayor of Santa Clarita; going to military school; his time in the business world; how, as a Latino, he was often the only person of color at school or work; and taking that experience to help Latino owned small businesses. We also talk about plenty of politics, including local politics. With Bill being a moderate Republican and Ronnie being a De...

Ryan Meeks might be best known for being the pastor of a megachurch who became one of the first evangelical churches in the country to support full inclusion of LGBTQ people. Ryan founded and led Eastlake Community Church, a very different, evolutionary, transformative church community for 16 years. Now, one can simply say Ryan’s lifework is to “help people feel alive.” Having endured everything from the scrutiny of the entire Evangelical movement to beating cancer, Ryan now provides spiritual d...

Today’s episode is the 1st installment of our series “The Folks of Our Town.” In this series, we get to hear from the “The Folks of Our Town” that have really interesting stories to tell and whose voices deserve to be heard. One of these folks is Aron Bender. Aron is a recently widowed father of two daughters. He is the host of the Santa Clarita Valley Signal’s first podcast, “The Signal News” and "The Aron Bender Podcast," a news anchor at PasadenaNow.com and a Digital and Broadcast Journalism...

(Originally aired 1/3/21, but that was a weird week as you might recall. Plus, Julie's wicked awesome!) Julie Mason, a White House correspondent with the Houston Chronicle, Washington Examiner and Politico, has been the host of The Press Pool on SiriusXM's POTUS channel since 2011 and will now have a new show called Julie Mason Mornings @MasonMornings. What's it like to be in the WH press corps? How different is it from one administration to another? Are politicians and Press Secretaries differ...

Reed Galen, Co-Founder of The Lincoln Project talks about his background from growing up as the kid of a political strategist to his time as an intern on George W. Bush's Texas gubernatorial re-election campaign. We learn what it's like to be an Advanceman for a presidential campaign, working in an administration and all that led to his role with TLP. We dive in to what they knew about Trump and how they got to him. He also opens up about mistakes that were made, what they're doing to "get their...

It's been one year since the first shelter-in-place orders were implemented. So this episode is dedicated to frontline and essential workers. One group in particular that hasn’t had nearly as much applause but certainly deserves it is truckers: The men and women who move everything from face masks to fresh food, toothpaste to toilet paper. One of those truckers who’s been on the frontlines the entire time is my very own brother, Eddie Nathan. Eddie has an interesting trajectory that brought him...

Danielle Pletka is a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and co-host of What the Hell Is Going On, having served as the SVP for foreign and defense policy studies there, and is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. Prior to joining AEI, Danielle was a senior staff member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations as the point person on Middle East, Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan. Dany discusses how she formed her conservative vi...

Jessica Stone, author of the new book Crossing the Divide, is a veteran of national and international newsrooms where she’s covered the intersection of politics and business around the world. Her work has appeared in Yahoo Finance and USA Today among others, and she’s appeared on FOX and CBS radio & television. Her work’s taken her to 5 continents and has included accompanying President Barack Obama to Brazil and traveling with President Donald Trump to China. She’s interviewed former CA Governo...

Sarah Stewart Holland, creator and cohost of the bipartisan political podcast Pantsuit Politics and author of ​I Think You're Wrong (But I'm Listening): A Guide to Grace-Filled Political Conversations, joins Ronnie and Corey for... a grace-filled conversation. Sarah discusses her background from conversations she had with her Papa Stewart about FDR and JFK to earning her law degree and working in politics; moving back to her hometown to raise her family and serving on the Paducah KY City Commiss...

Michael Gulker is President of The Colossian Forum. Much like us, he has a long-standing interest in the oft-times contentious intersection of faith and culture, in particular you might have read recently in publications like the Wall Street Journal about the program they’ve developed at the Colossian Forum that helps churches facilitate healthier conversations around politics and other challenging issues. A native of West Michigan, he studied philosophy and theology at Calvin College, has a div...

Kurt Bardella was a rising star as a staffer for high profile political leaders such as Republican Senator Olympia Snowe from Maine and Republican Congressman Darrell Issa when he famously chaired the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. During that time, Kurt choreographed the media strategy for investigations related to the 2008 financial crisis, the bailouts of major Wall Street firms and probes into corporate conglomerates such as BP. He later went on to build and lead Endeavor S...

Pete Dominick is a stand up comic, speaker, news commentator, host, journo activist, moderator, professional speaking consultant, husband and proud father of 2 daughters. Pete was the host of a daily 3 hour live radio show on SiriusXM for almost 12 years. The show welcomed 3-4 expert guests on a broad range of issues from parenting to politics, health care, sustainable living and so much more. Pete began his career as a stand up comic making a name for himself in the major leagues of stand up -...

Dr. Southers is a Prof. of the Practice in Nat'l & Homeland Security, Dir. of the Safe Communities Institute (SCI) and Dir. of Homegrown Violent Extremism Studies in the Sol Price School of Public Policy at USC. He was CA Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Deputy Dir. for Critical Infrastructure of the CA Office of Homeland Security and President Obama’s first nominee to head the TSA. Ronnie and Corey discuss Dr. Southers' humble beginnings as a kid from New Jersey who is the son of two educators, wa...

Anna Palmer is the Founder and CEO of Punchbowl News and Co-host of The Daily Punch podcast. Punchbowl, the Secret Service nickname for the Capitol, is "...a content company and news community focused on Power, People and Politics in Washington" that publishes 3 newsletters and a podcast daily. We talk about Anna's journey from growing up on a farm in N. Dakota to contributing at the highest levels of journalism in D.C.; how to deliver great reporting; plus we get some behind-the-scenes insights...

Daniel Darling, SVP at Nat'l. Religious Broadcasters, came in for a healthy exchange about several pertinent issues such as sanctity of life, public heresies in the conservative Christian movement, online rhetorical combat and the "Pharisee fallacy." Daniel Darling is also a bestselling author of several books including A Way With Words, released last summer, and is co-editor of The Church and the Racial Divide, a study for small groups on racial reconciliation. He’s also a regular contributor ...

Senator Scott Wilk of the 21st Senate District of California discusses the inner workings of CA politics, what it's like to be a Republican in a state heavily dominated by Democrats, how he works productively with folks across the aisle yet maintains his own principles and effectively represents his constituents. This was recorded prior to the attack on the Capitol, but it's interesting to hear some prescience in some of what we discuss such as the divisiveness and heated rhetoric around politic...

Kim Yaged has worked for the U.S. Department of State, the United Nations, and is also an award-winning writer having received the Kennedy Center Meritorious Achievement Award for her theater/dance hybrid America which explores ethnicity, race, religion, and culture in the United States as well as many other awards such as for her renowned work Hypocrites & Strippers. What’s even cooler is that Kim and Corey are from the same hometown in New Jersey. And, yeah, we both had the same high school En...

On today's episode, our friend Paige Pendleton, who voted differently than Ronnie and Corey in the presidential election, came in for a great conversation about politics, the state of the media, how we engage and how we raise our kids among other topics. Paige is an author of children and adult fiction (including The Black Ledge series, The Keeper of the Rune Stone, The Keeper of the Alabaster Chalice and Reginald the Railway Rat). Paige also sits on the Maine Animal Science Committee and, with ...

Peter Englert, Adult Ministries Director at Browncroft Community Church in upstate NY, has a very innovative, practical approach to staying connected with his community using social and digital media, such as through his podcast Why God Why and his website peterenglert.com. We explore how he pastors at a church that has members who identify across the political spectrum. Ronnie also asks about the nature and purpose of prayer, the intersection of faith and politics (of course) and about a Christ...

On this bonus episode, our pal Harrison Leonard gets real about his journey from being a conservative (politically and theologically) to having a crisis (or crises) of faith, identifying as a libertarian, veering back towards conservatism and then ultimately to a more progressive political disposition and a "live and let live" theological one, all the while affirming both his Jewish heritage and Christian faith. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at ht...

R.C. Sproul, Jr. is a Christian writer and theologian who’s written over a dozen books on topics ranging from Homeschooling to Economics to Theology, including most recently a tribute to his father, the renowned apologist and pastor of the same name, Growing Up (with) R.C. Ronnie and Corey have a candid conversation with R.C. about dealing with our own failings and scandal. They also do a deep dive on how to interpret Scripture and cover some current politics, each coming from a very different p...