Bredesen and Haslam launch podcast diving into complex topics
Former Tennessee Govs. Phil Bredesen and Bill Haslam are launching a podcast this week aimed at bringing together opposing views for civil conversations on complex issues such as gun violence and environmental policy.
The podcast, developed with the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee, will release eight episodes, beginning on Sept. 14.
The podcast is called “You Might Be Right,” a play on a famous quote from the late-u.s. Sen. Howard Baker that “the other fellow might be right.”
“It really does matter how we approach governing,” Haslam said. “I think our fear is, in today’s world, it really has become a game where we’re just trying to win the argument, we’re not trying to get to the best solution. That’s sad to me, that the method of moving people is to stir outrage and not to provide solutions. I think that bothers both of us.”
In an interview last week, Bredesen, a Democrat, and Haslam, a Republican, said they hoped to dial down the temperature on the political debate and delve into complex issues. Both governors said they came away from their conversations with new insight into issues like affordable housing and climate change.
“The bottom line is you just have two people who have been in office, who have dealt with some of these issues, who are feeling around to find a way to communicate and a different way to conduct politics than you see around every day,” Bredesen said.
The first episode will facilitate a discussion about gun violence with Arne Duncan, former U.S. Secretary of Education under President Barack Obama, and David French, a Tennessee resident and senior editor at the conservative news outlet The Dispatch.
“It’s so easy for us to go to a simple answer and harder to wade through the complexities,” Haslam said. “Most of the things we’re talking about are not simply solved.”
Upcoming guests on the podcast include former Vice President Al Gore, former Tennessee governor and U.S. Lamar Alexander, former U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan and others.
Marianne Wanamaker, executive director of the Baker Center, said the podcast format is in part aimed at college students, who often “don’t have a thoughtful model for a functional political debate.”
Wanamaker said the “toxic” nature of recent U.S. political discourse can hold young people back from fully participating in civic life and politics.
“They’ve been raised in a generation and taught to believe that people who disagree with you are evil,” Wanamaker said. “That you’re in a battle, you’re on the good side and they’re on the evil side. It’s your job to stand your ground. We want to turn down the heat on that and remind people that’s actually not public debate, that’s not constructive, that’s not the way you solve problems.”
A new podcast episode will be released every week wherever you listen to podcasts, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Reach Melissa Brown at mabrown@tennessean.com.