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
April 3, 2024 • 18 mins
“I'm the only candidate that was Head of the DEA, that was in charge of border security in the Bush administration, governor for eight years,” says our featured guest, Asa Hutchinson.
Yet despite possessing perhaps the most impressive resume among GOP presidential candidates, Hutchinson failed to receive substantial media attention or garner significant support from Iowa caucus goers.
There's just so much happening in his world...
Mark as Played
March 20, 2024 • 32 mins
“I had been a conservative critic of mainstream media bias for many years,” says author and MSNBC columnist, Charlie Sykes, a “contrarian conservative” and our featured guest. “It suddenly occurred to me that we had succeeded in not just critiquing the liberal bias, but in destroying the credibility of fact-based media altogether.”
Sykes is the author of the notable 2017 book, How the Right Lost Its Mind. Within our interview, ...
Mark as Played
February 27, 2024 • 25 mins
“My goal in this book isn't just to diagnose the problem,” explains Nick Troiano, Executive Director of Unite America. “But to give people a solution that is viable and can happen right there in their own states.”
That book is “The Primary Solution: Rescuing Our Democracy from the Fringes,” published this week by Simon & Schuster in time for another polarizing primary season. Yet Nick notes in the book, as in our interview, that a...
Mark as Played
February 14, 2024 • 26 mins
“Every time I talk to someone about running for office, the first thing they say is, Eric, you have to pick a team,” confides Navy veteran Eric Bronner, COO of the non-partisan group Veterans for All Voters.
“And something didn't sit right with me. So the pump was primed, as my parents would say, for some kind of awakening.”
That awakening occurred listening to a Freakonomics podcast episode with former Purple Principle guest ...
Mark as Played
January 17, 2024 • 25 mins
“I know that I would not be in this position if we didn't have the Final Four system,” Representative Mary Peltola (D-AK) tells us in this first Purple Principle episode of season four. “Because I would not have made it through a partisan primary.”
A native Alaskan, Representative Peltola gained re-election to the US House on the third ballot of the nation’s first Final Four election in 2022. Final Four Voting combines a unified o...
Mark as Played
December 19, 2022 • 29 mins
“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 ...
Mark as Played
December 7, 2022 • 39 mins
“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...
Mark as Played
November 23, 2022 • 28 mins
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 viewpo...
Mark as Played
November 10, 2022 • 19 mins
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, ...
Mark as Played
October 27, 2022 • 27 mins
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. ...
Mark as Played
October 12, 2022 • 32 mins
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 livi...
Mark as Played
October 5, 2022 • 30 mins
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.)
In the 2nd episode of our Hispanic American Sw...
Mark as Played
September 30, 2022 • 32 mins
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 e...
Mark as Played
September 28, 2022 • 30 mins
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 in...
Mark as Played
September 14, 2022 • 32 mins
“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 Bara...
Mark as Played
August 30, 2022 • 20 mins
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 challen...
Mark as Played
August 16, 2022 • 30 mins
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...
Mark as Played
August 2, 2022 • 38 mins
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 ...
Mark as Played
July 19, 2022 • 26 mins
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 h...
Mark as Played
July 4, 2022 • 30 mins
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...
Mark as Played
Popular Podcasts
Start your day with The Bright Side, a new daily podcast from Hello Sunshine. Co-hosted by journalist, TV host, and podcaster, Danielle Robay and Emmy-nominated journalist, host, and producer, Simone Boyce, The Bright Side brings your daily dose of culture and inspiration – with the latest trends, celebrity interviews, and real conversations with women doing amazing things while navigating life’s transitions, big and small. The Bright Side is a talk show created to inspire, educate, and empower women as they tackle life each day and add joy to their morning routines. Join Danielle and Simone and the Hello Sunshine community every weekday for entertainment, culture, wellness, books, and more.
Winning is an everyday mindset, and the coaches are here to help. Hosts Craig Robinson and John Calipari use their on-court wisdom to solve your off-court problems. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.
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.