Over the past year and a half, this has been my place to think out loud and explore issues and ideas that shape our lives. My goal has always been to approach those issues with curiosity—providing context, leading with data when it’s available, and recognizing that fully understanding an issue usually requires a measure of balance.
Today, that same idea expands into a new format.
I’m excited to announce In Divided Times with Hancen Sale, a new podcast and streaming talk show in partnership with NBC-affiliate WBIR Channel 10. I’ll sit down with political leaders, business executives, journalists and others for in-depth conversations about the issues and ideas that shape our lives and divide us.
The show will be available on all major podcast platforms and stream on the WBIR+ app, with previews and clips also featured on WBIR broadcasts. The first episode is out tomorrow, featuring longtime WBIR anchor Robin Wilhoit for a conversation about the changing media landscape and how covering politics has evolved over her more than three decades in local journalism.
We are living through a moment in our nation’s history when public discussion and debate about important issues are treated like a form of entertainment. Problems that affect people’s everyday lives—and that have real but often complex solutions—are often reduced to campaign slogans at the expense of actually doing something about them.
There is a great need for more substantive, thoughtful conversations. That is how ideas and policies—and the details that make or break them—are vetted, challenged, and improved. It is how people who disagree can come to understand one another well enough to find common ground.
The goal of In Divided Times is to provide a little more of that, even if only in a small way. I’ll cover local and state politics, elections, growth, housing, education, and really any issue that merits a longer conversation. The goal isn’t viral moments. It is to have the kind of casual but substantive and respectful conversations that were once common in American life but seem to have gone missing.
And don’t worry, I’ll continue to write and produce research, essays, and analysis here. But I’m looking forward to complementing that work in a new way. I hope you’ll join me.
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Congratulations! Looking forward to this Hancen!