Glen and April talk, in this first part of our conversation, with Janie Ginocchio and Scott Perkins, co-founders of Tracking Arkansas, a nonpartisan accountability journalism outlet they launched in 2025. What began as a public resource for tracking legislative bills has grown into a publication that combines policy analysis with investigative reporting. Janie and Scott walk us through that evolution, describe their framework for deciding which stories warrant deeper investigation, and introduce their ongoing series "The Arkansas Machine," which examines how political relationships, lobbying, and money influence public policy in Arkansas — across both parties. They also take us inside a specific case involving campaign finance reports and connections between the Attorney General's office and members of the legislature, explaining how that reporting led them to file formal ethics complaints and what they learned about the ethics complaint process itself — including its strengths, its limitations, and the gaps in current law that the process revealed. Throughout, they reflect on what it means to do this kind of work in a state with concentrated political power, and why they believe an informed public is essential to a functioning democracy. Tracking Arkansas is available at TrackingArkansas.com, on Substack, and on Facebook.

In the second half of our conversation, Janie and Scott describe the practical and legal dimensions of their work, including joining a successful lawsuit over a special election in North Little Rock that was delayed well beyond the 150-day statutory requirement. They offer a straightforward assessment of Arkansas' current political landscape — a Republican supermajority with internal divisions, an opposition party they see as struggling to be effective, and what they observe as a broader pattern of executive branch consolidation. They also make the case that accountability journalism and depolarization work are more compatible than they might seem, pointing to the bipartisan coalition that formed to defend Arkansas' Freedom of Information Act as an example of citizens across the political spectrum uniting around shared values. Looking ahead, Tracking Arkansas has investigations underway into hospitals, rehabilitation facilities, and an insurance industry story now spanning nine states. They close with honest reflections on what success looks like — sustainable independent journalism, a stronger public understanding of how policy gets made, and, only half-jokingly, making their own work unnecessary. Listeners can find Tracking Arkansas at TrackingArkansas.com or on Substack and Facebook, with a GoFundMe in the works to support ongoing accountability litigation.

Note: This special episode of On The Other Hand is a recording of April Chatham-Carpenter and Glen White, co-hosts of their On The Other Hand podcast, being interviewed by Jonathan Seaborn for his KUAR sponsored podcast "Insight" (https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/podcast/insight-with-jonathan-seaborn). Glen and April stepped in front of the mic as guests on Jonathan Seaborn's Insight program on Little Rock Public Radio (KUAR), talking about Braver Angels Arkansas, their On The Other Hand podcast, and how to talk across political divides.

Summary: In this special crossover episode, April and Glen turn the tables and become the guests, joining Jonathan Seaborn on Little Rock Public Radio's Insight to talk about Braver Angels Arkansas and the origins of On The Other Hand. They describe how the podcast began as Glen's idea after his retirement from a career as a psychologist, and how their own differing political outlooks make them a natural team for modeling civil, respectful conversation. April walks through Braver Angels' LAPP framework — Listen, Acknowledge, Pivot, Perspective — and both hosts discuss the research behind it, including how identity and emotion, more than facts, tend to drive political belief, and how contact theory helps explain why real relationships change minds when argument alone does not. April shares how she kept her relationship with her sister intact across a divisive election by choosing to listen rather than argue, and Glen discusses road rage, social media, and the case for treating media literacy as a kind of civic hygiene. They close by describing Braver Angels' new "courageous citizenship" direction under CEO Maury Giles, local Arkansas bridge-building efforts underway in Eureka Springs, Conway, and Hot Springs, and how listeners can get involved with Braver Angels Arkansas at arkansas.braverangels.org.