Plausibly Live! - The Official Podcast of The Dave Bowman Show

Sometimes you need a break from everything you're supposed to be angry about.For Dave, one of those escapes has always been Two and a Half Men, or more precisely, the Charlie Sheen years. The first eight seasons worked because Charlie Harper was more than the drunken womanizer the jokes made him out to be. Beneath the booze, women and complete absence of responsibility was a man who repeatedly demonstrated that he actually loved the family he complained endlessly about. That contradiction was the heart of the character and, arguably, the heart of the show.Now Charlie Sheen is getting another shot.The new sitcom Happy Jack reunites Sheen with his father, Martin Sheen, in a story about an aging lifelong screwup confronting perhaps his last opportunity to become the father he should have been. It raises an intriguing question: what happens when the charming, irresponsible guy finally gets old?For Dave, there's something more interesting here than another television reboot or celebrity comeback. Sheen's very public collapse cost him Two and a Half Men and hurt plenty of people around him. He doesn't get a pass for that. But should the worst period of someone's life define that person forever?Maybe Happy Jack will work. Maybe it won't. But with Martin Sheen beside him, veterans of Two and a Half Men behind the scenes, and an old-fashioned multicamera sitcom filmed before a live audience, Dave is rooting for Charlie Sheen's second act.Plus, a look at the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower flight-deck accident, the dangers of carrier aviation, and what happens when the machinery aboard an aging warship fails.#PlausiblyLive #DaveBowmanShow #CharlieSheen #HappyJack #TwoAndAHalfMen #MartinSheen #SecondChances #USSEisenhower #USNavy

We remember the American Revolution through its battlefields: Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill, Trenton, Saratoga, and Yorktown. We picture Washington crossing the Delaware, Continental soldiers enduring brutal winters, and British redcoats marching across the colonies.But George Washington was fighting another war at the same time.Smallpox was moving through North America, and the Continental Army was extraordinarily vulnerable. Thousands of men lived together in crowded camps. Recruits arrived from rural communities where exposure to the disease had been limited. One outbreak could incapacitate a regiment without the British firing a shot.Washington understood the danger better than most. He had survived smallpox himself as a young man. At first, his answer was quarantine and strict prohibition of inoculation. Deliberately infecting healthy soldiers with smallpox seemed almost as dangerous as allowing the disease to spread naturally.Then the evidence began to change.The disastrous Canadian campaign demonstrated what smallpox could do to an army. Events in Boston suggested that controlled inoculation might offer another path. Washington now faced an extraordinary military decision: deliberately expose his own soldiers to a deadly disease, knowing that thousands could become sick and contagious at precisely the moment the British might attack.It was a gamble involving medicine, logistics, secrecy, military readiness, and ultimately the survival of the Revolution itself.On Dave Does History, we look beyond the familiar battlefields to Washington's Other War, and the fight against an enemy that wore neither red nor blue.#DaveDoesHistory #GeorgeWashington #AmericanRevolution #Smallpox #ContinentalArmy #RevolutionaryWar #AmericanHistory #HistoryPodcast

What happens when something sounds so absurd that we stop checking whether it's actually true?On today's Plausibly Live, a viral headline claims a Columbia professor won an award for a book arguing that white paint is racist. There really is a book called A Dead White: An Argument Against White Paint, but the headline leaves out some rather important details. That opens a larger question about selective outrage, viral memes, and why bad arguments deserve better arguments rather than distorted ones.Then we turn to football. Trevor Lawrence stops at the one-yard line, jokes about helping fantasy owners, and suddenly the conversation isn't about Jacksonville winning 35–6. It's about fantasy points, prop bets and who made or lost money. Fantasy football changed the way fans root for players; legalized sports gambling has gone further, putting a financial interest on almost every play. When something strange happens on the field, have we reached the point where our first thought is, “How much money was riding on that?”White paint, viral outrage, slow white quarterbacks, fantasy football, gambling and the increasingly complicated business of simply rooting for your team.Plausibly Live – The Dave Bowman Show#PlausiblyLive #DaveBowmanShow #FantasyFootball #SportsBetting #NFL #TrevorLawrence #FreeSpeech #MediaLiteracy

History does not always survive where we expect to find it. Sometimes it is preserved in a journal or an archive. Sometimes it is buried in the dirt. And sometimes it is sitting right in front of us on a professional basketball jersey.On this edition of Plausibly Live – The Dave Bowman Show, Dave begins with his fascination with the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the sheer scale of what the Corps of Discovery attempted. More than two centuries later, despite the extensive journals Lewis and Clark kept, historians still cannot conclusively identify many of the places where the expedition camped.Enter Dr. Benjamin Rush and his wonderfully named Bilious Pills, better known as “Thunderclappers.” The Corps carried hundreds of the powerful laxatives, which contained mercury chloride. That mercury left behind an unexpected archaeological fingerprint in expedition latrines. Two hundred years later, traces in the soil can help archaeologists determine where the Corps actually camped. And yes, there is a song.From there, the story jumps to Charlotte, North Carolina, and an odd connection between the old World Football League and today's NBA: why were both Charlotte teams called the Hornets?The answer takes us back to September 1780, when Lord Cornwallis occupied Charlotte during the American Revolution. Patriot militia under William Richardson Davie could not defeat Cornwallis in a conventional battle, so they made controlling the town and surrounding countryside miserable for the British. dbs_09252026_thunderclappers-tr…The resistance helped give Charlotte its enduring identity as a “nest of hornets.” Long after Cornwallis was gone, the Hornet remained, eventually finding its way into the city's sports culture. Two stories separated by thousands of miles, connected by one of the things that makes history endlessly fascinating: the past leaves tracks. You just have to know where to look for them.#PlausiblyLive #DaveBowmanShow #LewisAndClark #CorpsOfDiscovery #BenjaminRush #Thunderclappers #AmericanHistory #RevolutionaryWar #CharlotteHornets #LordCornwallis #HistoryPodcast

The United States says it has a weapon in orbit, but has revealed little about what it does. Could the announcement deter an adversary, or could uncertainty make a confrontation in space more dangerous?On this episode of Plausibly Live, I look at the possibilities behind that announcement, from disrupted signals to damaged satellites, and at a question Star Trek fans may recognize: what happens when your instruments show you where a target was instead of where it is? Captain Picard's famous maneuver offers a surprisingly useful way into the problem.Then it's back to Earth, where Brooks is selling $150 Mariners sneakers. The tribute to retiring broadcaster Rick Rizzs is a nice touch. After 44 years as a Mariners fan, though, I have some thoughts about what the team is asking us to celebrate.#PlausiblyLive #DaveBowmanShow #SpaceSecurity #StarTrek #PiccardManeuver #SeattleMariners #RickRizzs

What do a fiercely progressive lesbian bar, an angry online mob, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and my wife's desire for a cat have in common?They all demonstrate what happens when you believe you are in control of the situation.In Greenfield, Massachusetts, the Last Ditch Bar built its identity around inclusion, mutual aid, ideological solidarity, and an exceptionally strict masking policy. When financial reality forced the owners to make Saturday nights mask-optional, years of accommodation purchased them precisely no goodwill. The accusations arrived, the apologies followed, and each concession merely produced another offense. It is an old lesson: if you feed the alligator, it does not become grateful. It learns where the food is.Then we turn to a crisis much closer to home. Cami wants a cat.Seeking guidance, I made the questionable decision to study Cats, the musical in which unemployed felines gather in a junkyard, introduce themselves at considerable length, and compete for the privilege of being launched into the upper atmosphere inside a tire. This raises several important questions. What exactly is a Jellicle Cat? Is the Heaviside Layer cat heaven or an elaborate disposal program? Most importantly, what happens when an actual cat discovers the illuminated buttons on my RØDECaster?Join me for an episode about ideological alligators, domestic negotiations, mysterious feline rituals, and the growing suspicion that the cat has already been selected. I simply have not been told its name.#PlausiblyLive #DaveBowmanShow #DontFeedTheAlligator #CatsTheMusical #CatOwnership #Culture #PoliticalCorrectness #FreeSpeech #Commentary #Podcast

On November 16, 1776, the American Revolution suffered one of its worst disasters. Fort Washington fell, and nearly 3,000 American soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured.That same day, almost 1,800 miles away, the Continental Navy brig Andrew Doria entered the harbor at St. Eustatius and fired thirteen guns. From Fort Oranje, eleven guns answered.The exchange became known as the First Salute, the first official acknowledgment of an American flag aboard an American national vessel by a foreign authority.Behind that symbolic moment stood something even more important. St. Eustatius, known as the Golden Rock, connected the struggling United States to the gunpowder, weapons, clothing, naval supplies, credit, and commercial networks it needed to survive.The First Salute: Eleven Cannon Shots That Changed the American Revolution follows the story from the disaster at Fort Washington to a Caribbean harbor where the rebellion first received the courtesies of a nation.#DaveDoesHistory #TheFirstSalute #AmericanRevolution #RevolutionaryWar #StEustatius #ContinentalNavy #NavalHistory #AmericanHistory

Can a president revoke White House press credentials simply because he believes a news organization is dishonest or unfair?The First Amendment protects the freedom to publish, but it does not guarantee any reporter a seat in the White House briefing room. Once the government creates a credentialing system, however, the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of due process enters the picture. Using Sherrill v. Knight and later disputes involving Jim Acosta and Brian Karem, Dave examines why even politically biased journalists cannot be stripped of access through arbitrary presidential action.Then the discussion turns to California, where Governor Gavin Newsom has expanded Hollywood tax incentives in an effort to stop film and television production from leaving the state. The problem is not that lower taxes encourage investment and preserve jobs. The problem is that California reserves that relief for a powerful, politically connected industry while smaller businesses remain trapped under the same taxes, regulations, energy costs, and housing pressures that drove Hollywood away.Constitutional protections matter most when they defend people we dislike. Sound economic principles matter most when they are applied to everyone.#PlausiblyLive #DaveBowmanShow #FirstAmendment #FifthAmendment #FreedomOfThePress #DueProcess #DonaldTrump #GavinNewsom #California #Hollywood #CronyCapitalism

A newspaper headline I didn't write introduced me to Bill Mick in 2006. What began as an awkward invitation onto his radio show became a friendship, a career in broadcasting, and, years later, the history segments we still share.Bill retired today after 25 years in radio. His last day has me thinking about the chances people take on one another, the choices that take us away from the microphone, and the friendships that endure after the show ends. This is my thanks to the man who taught me how to do it.#PlausiblyLive #BillMick #DaveBowmanShow #DaveDoesHistory #TalkRadio

On Constitution Day, Dave asks whether the Senate still works as the Framers intended. The Seventeenth Amendment gave voters the power to elect senators directly, ending a system troubled by deadlocks and corruption. It also removed state legislatures' direct voice in Congress. What did the nation gain, and what did it give up?The question becomes more urgent when a senator's ability to serve is in doubt, but the seat remains valuable to a political party. Dave examines the cases of Mitch McConnell and Dianne Feinstein, the case for term limits, and the difficult question of who should decide when an elected official can no longer do the job.Then September 17 takes the story from Augustus and the fall of the Roman Republic to the signing of the Constitution and the bloodiest single day in American history at Antietam. Together, those events offer a reminder of how a republic can be lost, how one can be built, and what Americans have paid to preserve theirs.

I find Macklemore's rhetoric about Israel repellent. I also defend his right to say it. Those convictions can coexist, even when doing so is uncomfortable.After Macklemore used Ed Sheeran's tour to advocate for Palestinians, venue owners refused to host concerts with him on the bill. His removal raises questions about free speech, private property, and the power of major venues to limit an artist's reach. The First Amendment protects Macklemore from government punishment for his political views. It does not entitle him to someone else's stage, nor does it prevent the rest of us from challenging what he says.We also turn to Congress's latest vote calling for an end to American hostilities with Iran. A resolution may tell voters where members want to stand, but what does it actually change? If Congress wants to direct a war or bring one to an end, it has constitutional responsibilities that demand more than a symbolic vote.Two disputes, one recurring question: Are the people making these declarations prepared to reckon with what their words mean in practice?#PlausiblyLive #DaveBowmanShow #Macklemore #FreeSpeech #FirstAmendment #Israel #Palestine #WarPowers #Congress #Iran

There are moments when diplomacy does not prevent a war. It merely reveals what the war is actually about. On September 11, 1776, three representatives of the Continental Congress crossed under a flag of truce to Staten Island. Benjamin Franklin,John Adams, and Edward Rutledge came to hear what Admiral Lord Richard Howe could offer a people who had declared themselves independent only two months earlier.The setting suggested civility: a fine meal, carefully arranged surroundings, and polite conversation among gentlemen. Beneath it lay an impossible divide. Howe could offer pardons, but only after submission. He could speak with the Americans asprivate gentlemen and British subjects, but could not recognize their Congress or their independence. Adams answered with a line that captured the entire dispute: Howe could regard him in any character he pleased, except that of a British subject.The Staten Island Peace Conference is often treated as a diplomatic footnote because it produced no agreement. Its failure, however, gave the Revolution a new clarity. TheAmericans learned that Britain's peace commissioners possessed no authority to consider their grievances or negotiate with them as political equals. The choice was no longer between war and a meaningful settlement. It was between submission and the dangerous, uncertain pursuit of sovereignty.In this episode of Dave Does History, we return to the uneasy days after the American defeat on Long Island, when Washington's army was retreating and independence remainedfar more declaration than reality. Major General John Sullivan carries Howe's proposal to Philadelphia, Congress debates whether the invitation is an opening or a trap, and three very different Americans make the journey to Staten Island. Their meeting does not stop the fighting. It establishes why thefighting must continue. It also clarifies what Americans now understood victory would demand from them.#DaveDoesHistory #AmericanRevolution #StatenIslandConference #JohnAdams #BenjaminFranklin#EdwardRutledge #JohnSullivan #RichardHowe #ContinentalCongress #DeclarationOfIndependence #RevolutionaryWar #OnThisDayInHistory 

Technology is wonderful right up until it begins decidingwho deserves to be watched, tracked, exposed, transported, or accidentally reduced to a screaming cloud of subatomic regret.In San Jose, a woman's offensive public behavior became thejustification for an extraordinary digital manhunt. Cameras followed her movements, strangers identified her, and the machinery normally associated with finding dangerous criminals was turned loose on someone whose original conductmay have been ugly without necessarily being criminal. The temptation is to dismiss the concern because the target was unsympathetic. That is precisely when the concern matters most. Civil liberties do not require us to admire theperson whose liberties are threatened.The same uneasy relationship with technology appears in arather different setting aboard the refitted USS Enterprise. The transporter accident in Star Trek: The Motion Picture remains one of the darkest moments in the franchise. It is brief, disturbing, and almost entirely disconnected from the central story. Yet it also clears the way for Spock to return, disposes of Commander Sonak before audiences have time to know him, and reminds us that Starfleet's polished future still contains machines capable of killing people in unimaginably horrible ways.Was the scene dramatically necessary, or was it simplycinematic cruelty dressed in futuristic machinery? Could Sonak have remained aboard without damaging Spock's place in the story? And why did a film often criticized for moving at the speed of continental drift suddenly become so efficient when it came time to traumatize the audience?From surveillance cameras on modern streets to malfunctioning transporters in the twenty-third century, the central questionremains remarkably consistent: What happens when technological capability outruns judgment? The machines may change, but the human tendency to trust them, misuse them, and excuse their consequences appears to be developing righton schedule.#PlausiblyLive #DaveBowmanShow #StarTrek#TransporterAccident #SurveillanceState #FacialRecognition #CivilLiberties #PrivacyRights #Technology #FreeSpeech 

Twenty-five years after September 11, remembrance remains important, but it cannot be the end of the conversation. What have we learned about liberty, security, citizenship, and the responsibilities entrusted to us?Today's show considers how we teach 9/11 to a generation with no memory of it, what our conduct inside a jury room reveals about civic understanding, and why the commissioning anniversary of USS Michigan remains deeply personal to me. As Rosh Hashanah begins, one question connects them all: What have we done with the life, freedom, and responsibilities we have been given?#September11 #NeverForget #AmericanLiberty #CivicResponsibility #Citizenship #USSMichigan #SubmarineService #RoshHashanah #PlausiblyLive #DaveBowmanShow

Free speech rarely disappears with a dramatic announcement. More often, it retreats quietly as people calculate the possible cost of saying what they think. They worry about an employer, a university administrator, an online mob, or someone willing to turn disagreement into a threat. Nothing has been formally prohibited, yet the silence is real.The anniversary of Charlie Kirk's assassination provides an uncomfortable setting for considering that problem. Kirk remains a divisive figure, and some of the reactions to his death demonstrate how easily political hatred can overwhelm ordinary human restraint. The principle at stake does not depend upon admiring him, however. A culture committed to free expression must protect objectionable speech, including speech from people we dislike.That protection cannot mean immunity from criticism. Protest, condemnation, and ridicule are also forms of expression. The danger begins when argument gives way to intimidation, doxing, professional retaliation, or physical obstruction. Universities should teach students how to confront bad ideas with evidence and reasoning. They fail when moral certainty becomes permission to prevent anyone else from listening.Seattle offers another example of government moving beyond tolerance. A proposal to extend civil-rights protections to consensual non-monogamous relationships raises questions that have little to do with what adults choose to do privately. The important issue is whether voluntary relationship arrangements should become legally protected classifications governing landlords, employers, businesses, and public agencies.Then there is President Trump's promise of a $5,000 dividend for American adults if Republicans retain Congress. The proposal arrived without legislation or a detailed funding mechanism. It also comes from a government already carrying more than $40 trillion in debt.These controversies share a common question: Where does persuasion end and coercion begin? Constitutional principles matter most when applying them becomes politically inconvenient. If liberty protects only our own speech, relationships, money, or preferred candidates, it is no longer a principle. It is merely another privilege distributed by whoever holds power.#PlausiblyLive #DaveBowmanShow #FreeSpeech #FirstAmendment #CivilLiberties #SeattlePolitics #Constitution #PoliticalDiscourse #ClassicalLiberalism #Podcast

We like to blame algorithms for trapping us inside echo chambers. Facebook feeds us what we already believe. YouTube recommends another video that confirms our suspicions. News organizations learn which stories keep their preferred audiences angry and coming back for more. Yet the machines are only assisting with a project we began ourselves.We choose the voices we trust, the arguments we will entertain, and the people whose opinions we dismiss before they finish speaking. Gradually, the comforting shelter of like-minded company becomes a hermit kingdom of the mind. Our convictions grow stronger while our ability to explain them grows weaker. Disagreement stops being an intellectual challenge and becomes evidence that the other person must be ignorant, corrupt, or dangerous.That habit has consequences beyond social media.When newspapers close their comment sections, they may reduce abuse and incivility, but they also make public disagreement less visible. When a failed prophecy drives doubters from a movement, those who remain may become even more committed. What looks like consensus from the inside may simply be the result of everyone uncomfortable having already left the room.The American jury room is one of the last places where leaving is not an option. Jurors cannot block, mute, unfollow, or filter one another. They must confront the same evidence, apply the same law, and somehow reach a verdict. The mistrial in the Lindsay Clancy case raises difficult questions about criminal responsibility, reasonable doubt, and what happens when eleven people cannot persuade the twelfth.Then there is O.J. Simpson, a childhood sports hero whose later life became inseparable from murder, celebrity, exploitation, and spectacle. A newly released recording invites us to watch once again, even when the entire thing repels us.Why do we keep looking? Perhaps because the strangest hermit kingdoms are not built somewhere outside us. They are the ones we construct within our own minds.#PlausiblyLive #DaveBowmanShow #EchoChambers #IdeologicalSilos #CriticalThinking #MediaBias #LindsayClancy #JurySystem #OJSimpson #AmericanCulture

In September 1776, New York newspapers carried a mocking letter from a supposed eyewitness who claimed that George Washington and his “dirty pack of New England long faces” were losing the war. The author did not exist. The letter was British propaganda, part of an organized effort to ridicule the Continental Army, undermine public confidence, and convince Americans that resistance had become hopeless.The uncomfortable part was that the propaganda did not need to invent the defeats.Washington's army had been driven from Long Island and New York City. Fort Washington would soon fall, taking nearly 3,000 American soldiers with it. Fort Lee would be abandoned so hastily that cooking pots and provisions remained beside the fires. Pursued by Cornwallis, the shrinking Continental Army fled across New Jersey until the Delaware River provided one last barrier between it and destruction.By December, independence no longer resembled the glorious promise proclaimed in Philadelphia five months earlier. It meant cold, hunger, disease, expiring enlistments, and the growing possibility that the entire enterprise might collapse. Congress fled Philadelphia. Loyalists became bolder. Neutrality suddenly appeared prudent. Washington had preserved his army, but he was rapidly running out of army to preserve.Then Thomas Paine, who had marched among these exhausted soldiers and witnessed the retreat himself, picked up his pen.“These are the times that try men's souls,” he wrote. His words were aimed directly at the summer soldier and sunshine patriot who embraced liberty when it was exhilarating but abandoned it when sacrifice became real.In this episode of Dave Does History, we enter the darkest weeks of the Revolution, when survival required Washington to retreat and victory seemed almost unimaginable. Yet somewhere between Fort Washington and the frozen Delaware, the meaning of the struggle changed. If the Revolution was going to survive, Washington would have to stop running.Christmas night was coming.

Over the weekend, I discovered a great-aunt whom nobody in our family knew had ever existed.Her name was Loma M. Bowman. She lived for only two days before being buried in an unmarked potter's field in Missouri. More than a century later, her brief life has emerged from the silence of the family record.This episode is about discovering Loma, unraveling the complicated story of my great-grandparents, and remembering a little girl who never had the chance to become part of our family's living memory.Her name was Loma.#FamilyHistory #Genealogy #Ancestry #HiddenHistory #FamilyStories #RememberingLoma #BowmanFamily

College football has always meant more to me than the final score. It carries memories of Saturdays with my father, Navy playing Air Force in Colorado Springs, regional rivalries, marching bands and traditions inherited across generations. My father once enlivened a college performance of “The Stars and Stripes Forever” by transposing the famous piccolo solo for his sousaphone. Whether that stunt or his grades eventually ended his collegiate band career remains part of the family mythology.That is the college football I still love. Unfortunately, I am no longer certain it is the college football we are watching.Oklahoma opened its season by beating UTEP 51–0. Next comes Michigan at the Big House, a game filled with history, uncertainty and genuine consequence. After that, Oklahoma plays New Mexico. At some point, we should stop pretending these mismatches are serious contests and admit that major programs are purchasing glorified scrimmages from schools that need the money.The problems run much deeper than scheduling. NIL was sold as an opportunity for athletes to profit from autographs, endorsements and their public identities. It has instead transformed recruiting into an auction and the transfer portal into free agency. Major universities now operate professional football teams without the contracts, salary controls or roster stability that govern actual professional leagues.Meanwhile, the institutions supporting college sports are facing their own reckoning. Tuition is soaring, enrollment is declining, public confidence is weakening and some colleges are consuming reserves merely to maintain their existing staffs and facilities. Wealthy football powers such as Oklahoma and Notre Dame will survive. Smaller universities may not. Their football programs depend upon student fees, institutional subsidies, local donors and payments received for playing games they are expected to lose.College football is becoming extraordinarily wealthy at the top while the educational structure beneath it grows increasingly fragile. I will still watch Oklahoma play Michigan, and I will care deeply who wins. But somewhere between the multimillion-dollar rosters and the purchased blowouts, the sport must decide whether the word “college” still means anything.#CollegeFootball #NIL #NCAA #OklahomaFootball #PlausiblyLive #TheDaveBowmanShow

The Thought Police Are Watching the TaproomThere was once a useful boundary between public conduct and private conviction. You could buy bread, order coffee, or enjoy a pint without first demanding a political confession from the person behind the counter. That boundary is rapidly disappearing, particularly when activists can search public records, identify a business owner's political contributions, and organize economic punishment without pausing to consider what the person actually supported.Today's Plausibly Live begins at a Tacoma brewery whose owners contributed to a Washington ballot initiative campaign. Their money was specifically intended to help repeal the state's capital gains tax, but political nuance proved inconvenient once activists discovered that the organization also supported another initiative involving transgender participation in women's sports. The resulting controversy raises a question extending far beyond beer, taxes, or any single ballot measure: Can citizens still petition their government without placing their livelihoods before a self-appointed tribunal?From there, the show heads to Thailand, where two sailors from the USS Abraham Lincoln managed to turn an ordinary night of liberty into an international headline. The official account describes a “drunken brawl.” Anyone who has served aboard ship may recognize something considerably less extraordinary: young sailors, a foreign port, an argument, and shore patrol arriving before matters became genuinely memorable. Dave draws upon his own Navy experience to explain how quickly “us versus them” can change after somebody insults the ship.Finally, a conversation about Dolly Parton, Whitney Houston, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas wanders into dangerous cultural territory: tattoos. One lyric from the film has remained lodged in Dave's memory for decades, and he is prepared to defend its wisdom despite knowing perfectly well what the response will be.Political surveillance, sailors ashore, craft beer, Dolly Parton, and an opinion almost guaranteed to generate angry email. It is exactly the sort of Friday journey one should expect from The Dave Bowman Show.#PlausiblyLive #DaveBowmanShow #FreeSpeech #PoliticalCulture #USNavy #DollyParton #Podcast

Congress has managed to discover socialism. This might seem encouraging until you remember that the national debt has reached $40 trillion, the federal government still lacks a genuine budget, and lawmakers apparently have plenty of time for nonbinding resolutions designed to produce campaign advertisements.House Resolution 1490 was presented as a condemnation of socialism. It could not create a law, reduce spending, reform an agency, or change the life of a single American. What it could do was force members of Congress to cast a politically useful vote. Republicans could declare themselves defenders of capitalism. Democrats could either oppose the resolution and be accused of supporting socialism, or vote for it and advertise their supposed independence from the party.That brings us to Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, the Democratic representative from Washington's closely divided Third Congressional District. Her vote for the resolution has been celebrated as evidence of moderation and independence. Perhaps it was. Then again, principles that emerge shortly before a difficult election deserve closer inspection. Was she exercising the judgment Edmund Burke believed a representative owed the people, or mailing campaign literature through the House voting board?This episode of Plausibly Live examines the difference between representation and pandering. If a congressional vote carries no legal force and produces no policy consequence, what exactly are taxpayers purchasing? While Congress performs ideological theater, the debt climbs, budgets remain unfinished, and the difficult work of governing waits patiently outside the chamber.From there, Dave ventures into the darker corners of public irrationality, online discourse, and the peculiar humor people develop when ordinary language no longer seems adequate. It is an episode about politics as performance, social media as a carnival of certainty, and the increasingly strange ways Americans persuade themselves that uncomfortable realities need not be real.After all, Congress did condemn socialism. Surely that fixes everything.#DownWithSocialism #Congress #PoliticalPandering #NationalDebt #GovernmentSpending #ElectionYearPolitics #PlausiblyLive #DaveBowmanShow

Washington has always been skilled at confusing an announcement with an accomplishment. President Trump's new Venezuelan oil agreement sounds impressive: American control over billions of barrels, lower gasoline prices, and new supplies for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Then reality intrudes. Venezuelan crude resembles tar more than Texas oil, thecountry's infrastructure is collapsing, and its government has a long history of confiscating foreign investments. A press release cannot repair pipelines, restore the electrical grid, or manufacture the rule of law. Government confidence becomes more troubling when it turnsfrom controlling oil to controlling information. Samuel Tunick returned from the Dominican Republic carrying a cellphone that federal agents wanted to search. He gave them a duress code that erased the device. Now he faces a felony charge for destroying property to prevent a lawful seizure. That word, “lawful,” carries nearly the entire case. The federal government possesses broad authority at theborder, and deliberately wiping a phone after agents seize it can look remarkably like shredding documents while investigators stand at the door. Yet a modern cellphone is not ordinary luggage. It can reveal years of correspondence, medical information, financial records, movements, associations, and political beliefs. The constitutional protections attached to that digital life may currently depend upon whether your airplane lands in Atlanta, Boston, or Seattle. Then there is the Lindsey Clancy trial, or more precisely, what the public reaction to it reveals. The arguments spreading across social media have moved far beyond one defendant, one tragedy, or one disputed psychiatric condition. They have become arguments about women, voting, abortion, mental illness, tyranny, and whether American society remains capable of rational judgment. This episode of Plausibly Live considers what happens when complicated realities encounter institutions and citizens desperate for easy certainty. Oil cannot be governed by press release. Privacy cannot depend entirely upon geography. Human tragedy cannot be understood through slogans,hashtags, or the most unhinged opinions offered by strangers at two in the morning.#PlausiblyLive #DaveBowmanShow #FourthAmendment #DigitalPrivacy #BorderSearches #CellphonePrivacy #VenezuelanOil #GovernmentPower #ConstitutionalRights #CivilLiberties 

Government loves a list. It loves categories, identification numbers, demographic boxes, databases and tracking systems, each created with assurances that the information will be used responsibly and only for its stated purpose. Sometimes those systems genuinely improve accountability. Sometimes they reveal that the government has developed a remarkable ability to count things it cannot competently manage.In this episode of Plausibly Live: The Dave Bowman Show, Dave begins with a proposed federal system for tracking mail-ballot envelopes. The barcode would not record how a person voted, but it would connect a named voter with an individually numbered envelope moving through the postal system. That distinction preserves the formal secret ballot, provided election officials permanently separate the identifying envelope from the enclosed vote. It does not settle the larger questions of privacy, presidential authority or what happens when a hurried computer system decides that a lawful ballot does not match its records.California offers another version of the same dilemma. A new bill would allow Jewish residents to identify their ancestry or ethnicity on state demographic forms. Supporters see long-overdue recognition of Jewish peoplehood and a means of documenting discrimination. Many Jews see something else: a government asking who is Jewish and promising that the resulting information will never become a registry. California is not reenacting the Nuremberg Laws, but Jewish history explains why official assurances cannot erase every suspicion.Meanwhile, the Navy can count every submarine in the fleet while maintenance delays have cost more than 15,000 operational days. Utilities can count hundreds of gigawatts requested by proposed data centers, even when many of those projects may never exist.Across elections, ethnicity, national defense and electric power, the central question remains the same: What does the government actually know, what can it competently do, and how much trust should it receive merely because it promises that everything is under control?

Radio has been dying for so long that one might wonder whether anyone has bothered to notify the corpse. The towers still stand. The signals still hum through the air. Millions of people still turn it on every day, often without making a decision to do so. Yet something has changed, and it happened long before the dashboard began filling up with podcasts, satellite channels, and streaming apps.For most of its history, radio possessed an advantage that had little to do with the quality of its programming: scarcity. A listener could choose among whatever stations happened to reach the car, kitchen, or bedside table. Familiarity became habit, habit looked like loyalty, and broadcasters came to believe that the audience belonged to them. Then technology handed that audience the keys to the building.Corporate consolidation is usually cast as the villain in this story, and it certainly deserves a place in the lineup. Local voices disappeared. Playlists and programs were centralized. Experienced personalities became expenses to be trimmed. Dave witnessed that transformation from behind the microphone, where “less Dave, more Sean” passed for strategic wisdom and one of his most popular features was canceled because it was not what corporate radio did.But greed alone did not kill the old order. The deeper change was economic. Listeners gained choices, and those choices became effortless. The station now competes with every podcast, livestream, audiobook, archived program, and specialized voice in the world.This episode asks what is actually dying when we speak of the death of radio. Perhaps it is not the intimate human connection that made the medium powerful. Perhaps it is merely the tower's control over that connection. The radio star did not disappear. He slipped past the gatekeeper, took the audience with him, and found another microphone. #DeathOfRadio #RadioHistory #Podcasting #TalkRadio #Broadcasting #MediaEvolution #DaveBowmanShow

Canada renamed streets, universities, and landmarks while insisting that history was not being erased. Then Trump called Lake Ontario “Lake America,” and suddenly historical names became sacred.Dave examines Canada's curious double standard.#Canada #LakeAmerica #CanadianPolitics #PlausiblyLive

Polls tell us who's ahead. Until they don't.Pollsters sample voters, weight responses, model turnout, account for undecideds, and then confidently tell us what Election Day is going to look like.There's just one problem: Election Day hasn't happened yet.There is only one poll that actually matters. It's the one where people show up, cast their ballots, and we count the votes.Everything before that is a prediction.Here's the Thing.#HeresTheThing #Polling #Elections #Politics #PoliticalPolling

Why are you a fan of the teams you love?It sounds like a simple question, but the answer may reveal more about America than sports. For generations, loyalty to a team was rooted in geography. You cheered for the local club because it represented your city, your neighborhood, and your community. The Dodgers belonged to Brooklyn. The Broncos belonged to Denver. The Mariners belonged to Seattle.But does that still hold true in the twenty-first century?In this episode of Plausibly Live, Dave Bowman explores the changing nature of sports fandom in an era of fantasy leagues, social media, corporate ownership, and constant mobility. Why do we support the teams we support? Is it where we live, where we grew up, the players we admire, or simply the stories that captured our imagination as children?Along the way, Dave dives into the growing controversy over taxpayer-funded stadiums, the ongoing battles involving franchises seeking new facilities, and whether fans should continue subsidizing billionaire owners. He also examines the fascinating ownership models used in Japanese baseball and Korean professional sports, asking whether America could ever adopt a similar approach.From the Brooklyn Dodgers and Ebbets Field to the Denver Broncos, Philadelphia Flyers, and Seattle Mariners, this is a conversation about sports, identity, community, and what happens when the connection between a team and a place begins to fade.It is a thought-provoking look at sports history, stadium politics, Major League Baseball, and the future of fandom itself.

There is something wonderfully old-fashioned about thisepisode. Not old in the sense of worn out, but old in the way a good highway diner is old, or the way a favorite ball cap becomes part of a man's identity.This is not a polished studio production wrapped in synthetic perfection. It is one man, a new recorder, a road stretching westward across the Hood Canal Bridge, and the quiet realization that sometimes the best conversations happenwhen nobody is trying too hard.In this stream-of-consciousness drive along Highway 101toward the Sequim Irrigation Days Parade, Dave wanders through the strange landscape where technology, nostalgia, frustration, and simple beauty all collide. One minute he is wrestling with computer equipment, Adobe Audition, and the financial gymnastics of avoiding a thousand-dollar computer purchase by spending hundreds on “solutions” that may not solve anything at all. The next, he is watching cloud-covered Olympic Mountains drift past the windshield while reflecting on why driving itself feels almost spiritual.Along the way, there are thoughts about Washington State gasprices, climate politics, aging technology, self-driving cars, old software that still works better than modern replacements, and the unsettling possibility that future generations may view driving the way we now view horseback riding.Mostly, though, this episode is about motion. About roads.About memory. About the small moments between destinations that somehow become the parts of life we remember most clearly. The Pacific Northwest rolls byoutside the window, and for a little while, you ride shotgun.

Afternoons Live with Dave and John from December 27, 2011https://davidraybowman.com/2026/03/23/icebergs-are-no-danger/

Our story begins on the island of Pharos, where Menelaus sat stranded with treasure in his hull and no wind in his sails. He discovered the reason for his misery only when the old sea god revealed the truth. Menelaus had been so focused on gathering wealth that he forgot the sacrifice owed to the gods. His neglect trapped him. His arrogance stalled him. His failure of duty held him in place.That ancient lesson fits our moment with uncomfortable precision. While Menelaus wrestled for a way forward, our own leaders seem content to count their gold on the shore. Two modern politicians have enriched themselves while forgetting the tribute owed to the Republic and to the people who sent them to serve. Their actions reveal capriciousness, not duty.Today we will explore why this keeps happening and whether the nation still deserves better leadership.

Today we are heading into the marble halls of the United States Senate to trace the long, tangled story of the filibuster and the rule that was supposed to control it. From a mistake in 1806 to the crisis of 1917, from Strom Thurmond's twenty-four-hour speech to the silent filibusters of today, the Senate has perfected the art of doing nothing at great length.We will look at how cloture was born in wartime, how it was abused in the fight over civil rights, and how it finally became the 60-vote rule that defines modern gridlock. Along the way, we will ask the question that every frustrated citizen already knows the answer to: how did the world's greatest deliberative body forget how to deliberate?

Thomas Paine wasn't what you'd call a religious man, but he couldn't escape the language of faith. In The American Crisis, he wrote of Providence—the hand of God guiding history—and he believed that God favored the cause of liberty over tyranny.He saw divine justice not in miracles, but in moments: a sudden fog that saved the army, a storm that protected Washington's retreat. He called these signs of Providence, the quiet proof that Heaven stands with those who fight for what's right.As a Chassid, I see it a little differently, but I understand him. Paine's Providence is what we call hashgacha pratis, divine supervision—the belief that nothing happens by accident. Every hardship, every victory, every candle burning in the dark has purpose.Faith in divine justice isn't passive. It's trust that God works through those who act with courage and righteousness. Paine believed it, and so do I.

In the darkest winter of the American Revolution, Thomas Paine wrote words that stirred a struggling people back to life. His essays, known as The American Crisis, called for unity and courage at a time when the cause of independence seemed doomed. Paine urged Americans to set aside their differences, stand together, and refuse to be ruled by fear.He warned that division and apathy would only prolong their suffering, and that freedom could only be won through shared sacrifice and steadfast resolve. His words were not lofty speeches, but direct, heartfelt appeals to farmers, soldiers, and citizens alike.In this episode, we explore how Paine's call to unity helped transform a desperate army into a nation bound by purpose. His reminder still rings true today: liberty survives only when people have the courage to stand together, even when the world around them seems ready to fall apart.

In early 1776, Thomas Paine set fire to the old world with his pen. His pamphlet Common Sense didn't just argue for American independence; it attacked the very idea of monarchy itself. Paine called King George III “the royal brute of Britain” and dismissed hereditary rule as absurd, insisting that no man was born to govern another.He wrote in plain, direct language that ordinary people could understand, mocking the pomp and privilege of kings while reminding readers that real power belongs to the people. His words stripped away the illusion of divine right and exposed monarchy as a system built on fear and habit.In this episode, we explore Paine's fearless assault on tyranny, his scathing humor, and how his ideas helped ordinary colonists see themselves as citizens instead of subjects. Paine didn't just challenge a king; he challenged an entire way of thinking—and changed the world forever.

In the winter of 1776, when the American Revolution seemed on the verge of collapse, a voice rose from the darkness. Thomas Paine, armed only with ink and conviction, wrote words that would reignite a nation's spirit: “These are the times that try men's souls.” His pamphlet, The American Crisis, was not written for comfort. It was written to remind a weary people that freedom demands perseverance.Paine believed liberty was not a gift to be enjoyed, but a cause to be earned. His words gave Washington's soldiers the courage to march through snow and hunger toward an uncertain victory.In this episode, we explore how Paine's message of endurance still speaks to us today. The idea that freedom requires sacrifice remains as true now as it was on that freezing night in 1776. Paine's challenge endures: liberty survives only through the strength of those who refuse to quit.

In December of 1776, when the Revolutionary cause seemed all but broken, a pamphlet appeared that lit a spark across the colonies. Thomas Paine's The American Crisis began with a line that still echoes through history: “These are the times that try men's souls.”It was not a statement of despair, but of defiance. Paine challenged Americans to find courage in the midst of defeat, to prove their loyalty not in comfort but in hardship. His words were read aloud to Washington's troops before the daring attack at Trenton, and for many, they rekindled the will to fight.In this episode, we explore the power behind Paine's words, the desperate winter that inspired them, and the moral fire they ignited in a weary army. Paine reminded a struggling nation that true freedom demands endurance, and that the soul of liberty is tested most fiercely when hope runs thin.

It is October 10, 1775, and Norwich can feel the weight of the war pressing closer than ever. Prices rise, faith stretches thin, and the news from Boston and Philadelphia gives as much worry as hope. General Gage has sailed home in disgrace, replaced by the iron-willed General Howe, while Washington clings to his siege lines with more resolve than rations. In Philadelphia, Congress takes a daring step — authorizing the first ships of a Continental Navy, a fleet born more from courage than coin. Across the ocean, King George prepares to brand us as rebels, and Norwich listens for what comes next. Tonight on Revolutionary Talk, we ask what liberty truly costs, what faith it takes to hold a nation together, and whether ordinary people can weather extraordinary times. The Revolution is stirring, and the tide is turning.

Welcome to Revolutionary Talk on WREV 760 AM. It is October 9, 1775, and today the tide quite literally turns. In Philadelphia, the Continental Congress has voted to arm two ships and send them against British supply vessels. Out of quills and parchment, a navy is born.John Adams declared that a nation cannot defend its liberty without command of the sea, and tonight his words begin to take shape in oak and canvas. From small harbors to great rivers, shipwrights and sailors are ready to trade cargo for cannon and turn commerce into courage.While the King in London sharpens his edicts and readies more troops, America quietly builds her first defense. The fleet may be small, but its purpose is vast. Liberty now flies upon the water, and every sail that fills with wind carries the promise that this rebellion has become a revolution.

Welcome to Revolutionary Talk on WREV 760AM. It is October 8, 1775, and General Washington has called a council of war in Cambridge to decide the future of the Continental Army. The debate over numbers and enlistments has turned into a debate over principle. Today, the army ruled that no Black man, free or enslaved, may serve in the ranks.The decision is said to preserve order among the colonies, but it has drawn a line that liberty itself may not cross. From Norwich to Philadelphia, men are asking what freedom truly means if it does not belong to everyone.Tonight, we will look inside that council chamber, where maps and muskets shared the table with fear and compromise. We will hear from those who defend the choice and from those who call it what it is, a betrayal of the very cause we claim to serve.

Welcome back to Revolutionary Talk on WREV 760AM, Norwich's voice of the times. It's October 7, 1775, and the Revolution has just taken a hard blow. In Cambridge, General Washington has uncovered the unthinkable—Dr. Benjamin Church, surgeon general of our own army, has been exposed as a British spy. The man who bound our wounds has been sending our secrets to the enemy. The shock runs deep, and trust runs thin.And while our army reels from betrayal, word reaches us from Boston that General Gage is gone, recalled in disgrace, replaced by the King's new hammer, General William Howe. London calls him the man to finish this rebellion once and for all.Tonight we'll ask: who can we trust, and what comes next when treason and tyranny share the same week? Stay tuned. This is Revolutionary Talk, and the war just got personal.

Welcome back to Revolutionary Talk on WREV 760AM, Norwich's voice for liberty and reason. It's October 6, 1775, and the talk around town isn't just about muskets and marches anymore. It's about money. Prices are climbing, salt is scarce, and paper bills from Congress are multiplying faster than they're worth. Folks here in Norwich are paying more and getting less, and they're starting to wonder whether the promise of liberty comes with an empty purse.In Philadelphia, Congress debates foreign alliances and secret correspondence, hinting at a war that might stretch across oceans. Washington holds the lines at Boston, Benedict Arnold pushes deeper into the wilderness, and in London the King's men polish the words that will soon brand us rebels.The fighting may still be far away, but the struggle is already here—in every coin, every market, and every hungry table.

Welcome back to Powder to Parchment on WREV 760AM, where we bring you Revolutionary Talk straight from the heart of 1775. Today we turn our attention to Benedict Arnold, and not the man remembered for betrayal, but the soldier who was still a hero.On October 3, 1775, Arnold and more than a thousand men began their march north through the wilds of Maine, bound for Quebec. They carried bateaux that leaked, maps that lied, and provisions that would soon rot, yet they carried also the hopes of General Washington and the survival of the Revolution.Arnold had already seized Fort Ticonderoga, yet Congress treated him with suspicion and scorn. Washington, however, saw fire and trusted him with a bold gamble. If Quebec could be taken, Canada might join the American cause.This is the story of ambition, boldness, and the making of a Revolutionary hero.

Welcome back to Powder to Parchment on WREV 760AM, Norwich's home for Revolutionary Talk. Today, October 2, 1775, we turn to Philadelphia, where the Continental Congress takes up an idea as bold as it is dangerous: creating a navy.John Adams rises and declares, “Without a navy we cannot do much.” His words cut through the dust and hesitation of the chamber. Yet the room divides. Adams sees survival in schooners and privateers; John Dickinson sees danger in expense and provocation. Boldness against caution, liberty against reconciliation.Meanwhile, across the ocean, King George drafts his speech branding us rebels and his ministers hire Hessians to finish the job. So which will it be, Norwich? Ships or speeches? Schooners or supplication? Stay tuned... Revolutionary Talk begins now.

It's October 1, 1775, and WREV 760AM is on the air, bringing you "Revolutionary Talk" with your firebrand host, Dave Diamond. Word from Cambridge is not good. Shocking even. And from London the King has waddled in as he gets ready to open the session of Parliament. It doesn't look like he's in a conciliatory mood. Grab a mug of ale and fill your pipe, settle back in front of the fire as Dave brings you the news of the day as only he can.

This episode starts with a couple of stories that probably only I care about, like the lawsuit over Seattle's homeless shelter hotels and yet another IT failure that managed to make life harder for the people caught in its web. But then the show turns inward.I take you through the long story of my right shoulder, which goes all the way back to Navy sports in the 1980s, took a bad turn with a fall in 2018, and now has doctors listing off arthritis, cartilage tears, and tendon problems like they are reciting baseball stats. The plain English translation? It hurts, it is weak, and it makes life a whole lot more complicated.Surgery might be on the horizon, and that means five weeks of forced immobility. So today's show is about pain, persistence, and trying not to lose sight of what matters most.

Washington State just handed a Florida shipyard a contract worth $714 million dollars to build three new hybrid-electric ferries. For the first time in decades, these boats won't be built here at home, and the ripple effects are already hitting taxpayers, local shipyards, and the reliability of our ferry system.The story is bigger than dollars and steel. It's about climate mandates, political choices, and whether Washington's Climate Commitment Act is driving policy off course. Supporters call this progress. Critics say it's a hidden tax that inflates costs, outsources jobs, and delivers little global impact for a very high local price.Is this really in our best interest, or is it a case study in failed public policy?

Cracker Barrel has long been a roadside favorite, a place for biscuits, rocking chairs, and a slice of nostalgia. But today the chain is at the center of a high-stakes corporate fight. Activist investor Sardar Biglari is challenging Cracker Barrel's leadership, arguing that the company has wasted money, lost touch with its customers, and needs a drastic overhaul. His plan is blunt: cut waste, sell off weak side ventures, fix operations, and return money to shareholders.At the same time, customers are grumbling about smaller portions, slower service, and management that seems disconnected from the brand's roots. Analysts have turned cold, with no buy ratings left on the stock. And looming over it all are the power brokers at BlackRock and Vanguard, whose votes will decide the outcome.Lena Marlowe and Graham Calder unpack what this battle means for Cracker Barrel and for the future of legacy American brands.

This week on Dave Does History, Dave is out, but the show rolls on with Lena Marlowe and Graham Calder in the host chairs. Together, they tackle one of the thorniest questions in American public life: should the National Guard be used to police our cities? Chicago often takes center stage in this debate, with violent crime making national headlines and sparking calls for action beyond what local law enforcement can manage. But bringing in the Guard isn't as simple as it sounds. From the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 to the Insurrection Act and beyond, the legal and historical backdrop is a minefield. Lena and Graham weigh the potential benefits of increased manpower and order against the dangers of militarizing our neighborhoods and blurring the lines between soldier and police officer. Stay tuned, because this is one conversation that reaches far beyond Chicago.

What do Achilles, Odysseus, and the Founding Fathers have in common? In this episode we explore how flawed heroes—from mythic battlefields to the halls of Independence—can still shape the world. Drawing from Stephen Fry's Troy, we unpack the pride, grief, and imperfection of ancient warriors and connect them to the real, complicated men who signed the Declaration of Independence.Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin—none of them were saints. But like the heroes of legend, they carried heavy contradictions while laying the foundation for liberty.As we launch the Liberty – 250 series in the lead-up to America's 250th birthday, we are not polishing halos—we are pulling back the curtain on greatness born from imperfection.Subscribe, share, and join the conversation as we ask the big question: Can flawed men still forge freedom?#Liberty250 #DaveDoesHistory #AmericanFounding #Troy #StephenFry #FoundingFathers #FlawedHeroes

Pope Francis has died, and the world now turns its eyes to the smoke above the Sistine Chapel. In this episode of Dave Does History, Dave Bowman joins Bill Mick to break down the ancient—and often misunderstood—process of the papal conclave. From medieval roof removals to modern-day power plays, Dave explores the rituals, rules, and raw politics of picking the next pope. Was it always this secretive? (Yes.) Was it always this messy? (Also yes.) Tune in for history, humor, and maybe a few holy surprises. It's “Game of Thrones,” but with incense and Latin.

In this episode of Dave Does History on Bill Mick Live, we head north—way north—to uncover the bizarre moment when the United States almost claimed part of Greenland. It started with a bad map, involved a lost Danish expedition, and ended with two frostbitten heroes proving the truth. From mistaken geography to geopolitical consequences, Dave unpacks how a simple cartographic error nearly redrew the Arctic. Join us as we explore survival, sovereignty, and the enduring value of getting your facts straight—even when they're buried under two feet of ice. Catch it now on Spotify, iTunes, and the iHeart Radio app.