The Swing Vote: Recent Episodes
Jason Zhao
Politics is an ... intense affair, rife with conjecture and shouting matches. Yet, it affects each and one of us on a personal level every day. We dive into the questions that need answering every week - covering both sides of the issue without ending up at each other's throats.
In this episode, we discuss the tragic shooting of six Asian women in a massage parlor in Atlanta, its ramifications, and what it says about the status of Asian-Americans and Asian-American women in particular in American society.
From Plato’s Republic to Thomas More’s Utopia, writers, philosophers and thinkers throughout history have attempted to envision the perfect world. In this episode, we toss our hat into the ring with two guests from Ballard High School.
Unions have always been an integral part of American life. Whether a blessing or a curse, they held and continue to hold sway over millions of workers. In the past half-century, however, their influence has continually waned. Now, the Democrats in Congress have introduced legislation to restore them to their former glory. Is this the […]
Abiy Ahmed was supposed to be the man to bring peace to Ethiopia. The nation was tired after decades of war, civil strife, and poverty under the one-party rule of the TPLF, and Ahmed was swept into power as an energetic reformed. Instead of peace and prosperity, however, Ahmed’s government has been tangled in a […]
Recently, a collective of retail investors gathering in the online forum r/WallStreetsBets bought GameStop stock en masse in the hope of driving up the price of the stock. It goes without saying that most were, to some degree, motivated by the financial rewards associated with the buy-sell price difference. Interestingly, however, especially towards the end […]
On February 1, 2021, the Myanmarese military seized control of the nation’s government in a coup and arrested State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and other prominent leaders of her party, the National League for Democracy. Thus ended the tentative, decade-long Burmese Spring, with the country being ruled yet again by a brutal military junta. […]
On January 6, 2021, the U.S Capitol was raided by far-right militiamen at the incitement of President Donald J. Trump. This event was nothing less than an attempted coup, perhaps the inevitable conclusion of America’s four year long national nightmare. In two weeks, Joe Biden will assume the Presidency, we discuss what he can do […]
The coronavirus pandemic is, perhaps, the greatest crisis of our time. Millions have died, tens of millions more are still suffering, and the pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the worldwide economy. Any solution to the crisis, if it can be solved at all, will be incredibly costly and slow-acting. We discuss how we can […]
The brutal murder on October 16 of Samuel Paty, a French schoolteacher who had displayed images of the prophet Muhammad in class as part of a lesson on free speech, has sent shockwaves across France and the world at large. Figures on the right immediately upheld it as an example of the inherent contradiction between […]
Life in America, undeniably, has become significantly more difficult for the average Joe. A scant four decades ago, Americans without a college education or on-the-job experience could easily find stable and relatively well-paying work. Today, those possessing both are frequently turned away. As traditional industries that once provided for the livelihoods of millions either shift […]