Everyone's noticed it, but nobody wants to say it out loud: Americans have gotten meaner. Or at least, that’s what David Brooks believes. Today we're discussing an article that David wrote for The Atlantic, “How America Got Mean”. His explanation for our national cruelty crisis left Nicole feeling defeated, and Jolene a little more optimistic.

Regardless of whether the article was perhaps a little over dramatic, both Nicole and Jolene agreed there is something very wrong with the way Americans are treating each other. And it seems to have gotten worse over the last 20 years.

So how did we get here?

In this episode, we take a look at what we’re doing wrong and what might help us get back to a kinder America.

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

How America Got Mean

Ground News

The Progress Network

We Haven’t Given Up On Gen Z

The Music Bar

LINKS:

On Instagram https://www.instagram.com/wevegottotalk/

On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WeveGotToTalk

How to find Nicole https://nicolefonarow.com/

How to find Jolene https://dibledough.com/

When Trump and Putin meet in Alaska, followed by Zelensky and European leaders rushing to D.C. to meet Trump 3 days later, you know something big is happening. But what exactly? The headlines give us locations and handshakes, but the real story is what we're not being told. Today we're diving into the kitchen-table conversations everyone's having but nobody wants to say out loud: What's really going on with this war, and who's actually calling the shots?

I (Jolene) watched this Alaska meeting unfold with fascination. Here's Trump getting two of the world's most complicated leaders to sit down on American soil. That's not accidental. As a conservative, I'm curious about the power dynamics at play and what this could mean for America's position globally.

Nicole's reaction was pure skepticism. She's wondering if this was all performative theater, especially given how the media has painted Putin as the ultimate villain and a war criminal, and we both agree he’s bad news.

But here's what we both agreed on: these aren't casual coffee meetings. When world leaders drop everything to fly to remote locations, something significant is happening.

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Straight Arrow News

https://san.com/

What does it mean to be a woman in 2025?

We talked to women across generations - from 20-somethings navigating career ambitions to 80-year-olds who've watched the Republican party evolve around them. The answers surprised us. Despite decades of progress, some battles feel eerily familiar. We were given the task of interviewing some of the women in our social circles, to get their take on what it means to be a woman, and how they feel things have changed over time.

I (Nicole) interviewed friends who've climbed corporate ladders while dealing with dress codes that still treat women like decoration rather than decision-makers.

Jolene's conversations revealed a different tension: maintaining Christian and Republican values while navigating modern feminism. The assumption that Republican women can't be feminists sparked passionate responses from her circle. Turns out, political identity and gender advocacy don't fit into neat boxes.

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Socialist Video: https://youtu.be/QkO63lMyAhE?si=_bvsA8TtVo06LV39

LINKS:

On Instagram https://www.instagram.com/wevegottotalk/

On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WeveGotToTalk

How to find Nicole https://nicolefonarow.com/

How to find Jolene https://dibledough.com/

Making friends as an adult is hard. While teenagers effortlessly form bonds over shared cafeteria tables, adults need to be more intentional about creating and maintaining connections. Recently, I (Nicole) and my husband Josh traveled to visit Jolene and her husband Jeff in the Ozarks for our very first in-person podcast recording. This was a rare treat that got us thinking about how friendship actually works and why it's worth the extra effort it takes as adults.

Recording by the lake in the Ozarks with Jolene, our husbands Jeff and Josh joining us for parts of the conversation, I realized something beautiful: this friendship has thrived because we've never tried to force it into a perfect box. We've let it be real, sometimes inconsistent, and always genuine. We've accepted that life gets busy, and that's part of the journey.

The friendships that last aren't the ones that never face challenges - they're the ones where both people decide the connection is worth navigating those challenges together. Not because it's always easy, but because the reward of deep, authentic friendship makes the effort worthwhile.

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

https://hudsonandcharles.com/

https://www.harterhouse.com/index.php

LINKS:

On Instagram https://www.instagram.com/wevegottotalk/

On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WeveGotToTalk

How to find Nicole https://nicolefonarow.com/

How to find Jolene https://dibledough.com/

Climate change discussions usually end in shouting matches about melting glaciers and coal jobs. But what happens when a liberal and a conservative actually sit down to talk through the science, the solutions, and the politics without trying to win? Today we're tackling the topic that's supposedly dividing America, and discovering we might have more common ground than cable news wants you to believe.

Climate change doesn't care about your political party. Neither do rising energy costs, extreme weather events or global economic competition in clean technology sectors.

Maybe we need to stop treating climate policy like a zero-sum game between environmentalists and economists. The countries that figure out clean, affordable, reliable energy will have massive advantages in the coming decades. That could be us, if we can get past the political theater.

We don't have to agree on every detail of climate science to agree that America should lead in energy innovation. We don't have to choose between environmental protection and economic growth if we're smart about how we pursue both.

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Climate Feedback: https://climatefeedback.org/evaluation/wall-street-journal-article-repeats-multiple-incorrect-and-misleading-claims-made-in-steven-koonins-new-book-unsettled-steven-koonin/

Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/that-obama-scientist-climate-skeptic-youve-been-hearing-about/

Landman scene: https://youtu.be/fmbZwxEnAFc?si=ULiyV_j9JaPVWLW1

The Climate Deniers Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-climate-deniers-playbook/id1694759084?i=1000706646820

Conservative on Climate Change: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/

Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobeccles/2023/12/31/what-ive-learned-from-conservatives-who-are-addressing-the-challenge-of-climate-change/

NOAA Report March 2025: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/monthly-report/global/202503

Solar South Article: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pmbnpqZK2ucmgqg1vwvnCFC3r8k_dRuXMTCUZuGcHik/edit?pli=1&gid=1975818729#gid=1975818729

Trump post: https://nypost.com/2025/06/01/us-news/trump-shares-wild-conspiracy-theory-that-joe-biden-was-replaced-by-soulless-mindless-clones/

Drama Club NYC:

What happens when a liberal starts watching Fox News and a conservative dives into The New York Times? We decided to find out. For 10 days, we deliberately consumed each other's preferred media sources to see if we'd been living in completely different realities.

I (Nicole) typically get my news from The New York Times, The Daily podcast, and Ezra Klein. Jolene gravitates toward Fox News, America's Newsroom, and The Free Press. For 10 days, we switched sides to see what we'd been missing - or avoiding.

In a time when we're told that Americans have never been more divided, maybe the real problem isn't our differences - it's that we've stopped trying to understand each other.

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Straight Arrow News: https://san.com/

Ezra Klein Show: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-ezra-klein-show/id1548604447

The Daily: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-daily/id1200361736

The Headlines: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-headlines/id1758855019

America’s Newsroom: https://www.foxnews.com/shows/americas-newsroom

World News Tonight: https://abcnews.go.com/world-news-tonight-with-david-muir

The Free Press: https://www.thefp.com/

Tangle: https://www.readtangle.com/

1440: https://join1440.com/

Gavin Newsom/Frank Luntz podcast episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-is-gavin-newsom/id1798358255?i=1000708420132

LINKS:

On Instagram https://www.instagram.com/wevegottotalk/

On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WeveGotToTalk

How to find Nicole https://nicolefonarow.com/

How to find Jolene https://dibledough.com/

Some conversations are too important to avoid just because they're uncomfortable. Toda, Jolene brought questions to the table that she's been wrestling with and wanted my (Nicole's) take on as a liberal Democrat:

Can you love America without being racist?

Should we forgive student loans or is that unfair to people who already paid?

And what's really in those Epstein files?

These are the discussions happening in your head that you're afraid to say out loud - so we're saying them for you.

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

• The Joe Rogan Experience: James Talerico https://youtu.be/_jOGPvMftb8?si=WUkWVuwG0uT9peD9
• Hunter Biden Full Interview: https://youtu.be/XBbkt2vYC4M?si=LkJZdrMmoq1e7lEy
• Lee Greenwood Song Jolene loves: https://youtu.be/-KoXt9pZLGM?si=WE-xwaDreSR81nic
• Ember Coffee Cup: https://ember.com/

LINKS:

On Instagram https://www.instagram.com/wevegottotalk/

On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WeveGotToTalk

How to find Nicole https://nicolefonarow.com/

How to find Jolene https://dibledough.com/

A politician launches a meme coin and makes millions overnight while regular investors lose their shirts. Sound familiar? It should, because it's the same story that's been playing out for decades - just with different players and shinier packaging. Today we're taking a look at Trump's latest money grab and asking the question nobody in Washington wants to answer: Why do the rules seem different for the people making them?

The solution might not be to elect different politicians - it could be changing the rules so that public service means actual service, not personal enrichment. Blind trusts, trading restrictions, real transparency - these aren't radical ideas, they're basic ethics questions.

Many scandals follow a similar pattern: outrage, investigation, strongly worded statements, and then... not much changes. The system might protect itself because the people with the power to change it are often the same people benefiting from it. Trump's meme coin could be just the latest example of a much deeper issue.

Maybe we need to stop thinking about this as left versus right and start recognizing it as up versus down. The wealthy and connected versus everyone else. Until we're willing to have that conversation honestly, we might keep seeing the same patterns repeat.

CHAPTER MARKERS:

00:00 Introduction

00:26 Wealth Inequality and Initial Reactions

00:52 Trump's Financial Maneuvers

01:34 Market Manipulation and Insider Trading

03:46 Comparisons and Broader Implications

10:47 Congressional Trading and Corruption

14:06 Debating Government and Wealth

21:53 Government Systems and Inefficiencies

23:12 Discovering the Government Mine

24:34 Homelessness and Wealth Inequality

26:16 Tax Structures and Corporate Benefits

29:08 Political Influence and Stock Trading

32:19 Social Programs and Their Impact

36:18 The Randolph-Shepherd Act

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Scott Galloway Snippet:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJj57tKPMPm/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Full Episode:

https://youtu.be/b_Uy8W75J8k?si=YvBqIzY6sDxWIJPU

Quiver Quantitative:

https://www.quiverquant.com/

Randolph Shepherd Act:

https://rsa.ed.gov/about/programs/randolph-sheppard-vending-facility-program#:~:text=The%201936%20act%20was%20enacted,vending%20facilities%20in%20federal%20buildings.

LINKS:

On Instagram https://www.instagram.com/wevegottotalk/

On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WeveGotToTalk

How to find Nicole https://nicolefonarow.com/

How to find Jolene https://dibledough.com/