Tatter

Asks, "What would Fox & Friends do?"; tries to always do the opposite

About the show

Hosted by social psychologist Michael Sargent, this podcast has become a place for conversation about policy and politics, where Sargent talks with people who nerd out on the topics, bringing extensive knowledge, including knowledge of the limits of their knowledge. These nerds don't have the pocket protectors and social awkwardness of nerd stereotypes. They have wit, a love of fun, and most importantly, an understanding gained from the tattered pages of journals, books, and printouts of statistical analyses, or they've been tattered by experience. As host, Sargent isn't above asking dumb questions, because he knows we all learn from the answers.

If you're looking for overconfident, ill-informed (or misinformed) bloviation, this isn't the place for you. (But maybe Fox & Friends is.) If that's the opposite of what you want, then stick around.

Tatter on social media

Episodes

  • Episode 19: The Humean Stain, Part 1

    July 2nd, 2018  |  58 mins 27 secs
    iat, implicit association test, implicit bias, race, racism, social cognition, social psychology, social science

    A conversation about implicit racial bias, and about one well-known implicit measure, the Implicit Association Test.

  • Episode 18: The Story Is Not Enough

    June 27th, 2018  |  27 mins 36 secs
    criminal justice, criminal justice reform, prosecutors, punishment

    My conversation with Josie Duffy-Rice, an attorney with the Fair Punishment Project.

  • Episode 17: Unsafe Harbor (A Special Briefing)

    June 23rd, 2018  |  34 mins 41 secs
    asylum, families, immigration, sarah huckabee sanders, trump, unaccompanied minors

    A conversation with Sarah Sherman-Stokes, Associate Director of the Immigrants' Rights and Human Trafficking Program at Boston University Law School. We talk about what's happening on the ground at the southern border of the U.S., and what people who want to help asylum-seekers can do.

  • Episode 16: The Golden Door (A Special Briefing)

    June 19th, 2018  |  20 mins 46 secs
    asylum, families, immigration, nielsen, sarah huckabee sanders, trump, unaccompanied minors

    A conversation about immigration on the southwest U.S. border, and relevant House legislation, with Sarah Pierce, Policy Analyst for the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute

  • Episode 15: Where True Stories Lie

    June 18th, 2018  |  35 mins 35 secs
    inequality, social justice, stories, storytelling

    A conversation about stories, especially the ones we tell about people struggling against injustice, and what good (and harm) those stories might do.

  • Episode 14: Spoiled

    June 7th, 2018  |  27 mins 34 secs
    elections, maine, political science, ranked choice, ranked-choice, voting

    Once upon a time, I was an enthusiastic supporter of ranked-choice voting. But after reading a bit more, and after this conversation with two political scientists, I'm not so sure anymore.

  • Episode 13: Open, Bar None

    June 5th, 2018  |  54 mins 26 secs
    beer, craft beer, diversity, ethnicity, gender, inclusion, race

    A conversation with J. Nikol Jackson-Beckham (the newly appointed Diversity Ambassador of the Brewer's Association) and Carla Jean Lauter (Maine-based beer writer, also known as "The Beer Babe"). We discuss diversity and inclusion in the craft beer industry.

  • Episode 12: Strait and Narrow

    June 1st, 2018  |  51 mins 15 secs
    grammar, language, linguistics, mitch hedberg, psychology, science, verb tense, writing

    My conversation with my friend Conor Quinn, my favorite linguist in the whole world, as we talk about the ways that scientists use language, as well as language communities indigenous to the U.S., and a bit about the overlap between those two topics.

  • Episode 11: Magic Carpet Ride

    May 16th, 2018  |  26 mins 9 secs
    bruce poliquin, elections, jared golden, lucas st. clair, maine, politics, second district

    This is the full interview I did with Lucas St. Clair, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House seat in the Second Congressional District of Maine.

  • Episode 10: I-95 Northernmost

    May 14th, 2018  |  28 mins 35 secs
    bruce poliquin, elections, jared golden, lucas st. clair, maine, politics, second district

    This episode features a discussion of the Second Congressional District of Maine, the status of eight of its counties as "pivot counties," and the upcoming election of its representative to the U.S. House.

  • Episode 9: Just Another Word

    May 4th, 2018  |  49 mins 36 secs
    academic freedom, college, free speech, margaret imber, stanley fish, university

    Legal and literary theorist Stanley Fish engages with classicist, former litigator, and former assistant U.S. attorney Margaret Imber, as they discuss freedom of inquiry and the free exchange of ideas, on college campuses.

  • Episode 8: A Thinking Debater's Guide to the AR-15

    March 28th, 2018  |  49 mins 28 secs
    ar-15, firearms, gun control, gun regulation, guns, shootings, weapons

    For anyone who wants to inform their opinions, this is a deep dive into what the AR-15 is, and what it can do.

  • Episode 7: Rising Tide

    February 26th, 2018  |  28 mins 40 secs
    democratic party, democrats, midterm elections, political science, politics

    An interview with Seth Masket, Professor of Political Science at the University of Denver, and Director of its Center on American Politics. We discussed Democrats' prospects in the upcoming midterm elections.

  • Episode 6: 2012

    February 20th, 2018  |  33 mins 9 secs
    cornel west, obama, political science, politics, populism, progressivism

    Political scientists Julia Azari, Christopher Federico, and Vincent Hutchings discuss populism, presidential politics, President Obama, Cornel West, and even Oprah.

  • Episode 5: Nonstandard

    December 20th, 2017  |  38 mins 33 secs
    incarceration, john pfaff, mass incarceration, prison

    Extended excerpts from my conversation with John Pfaff, Professor of Law at Fordham University, and author of "Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration--and How To Achieve Real Reform."

  • Episode 4: Multifunctional

    November 19th, 2017  |  28 mins 12 secs
    burlesque, maine, objectification, portland, women

    Extended excerpts from my conversation with Hannah Harleen, formerly Vera Velvet of Voulez-Vous Burlesque.