In Season 2, hosts and former Tennessee Governors Bill Haslam and Phil Bredesen hit the road, recording live episodes from the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, and from Mount Vernon outside of Washington D.C. Taking on topics including term limits, teaching history, crime, the media, and education disparities, the Governors and their guests demonstrate that thoughtful civil discourse is possible.

Dr. Arthur Brooks joins Governors Bredesen and Haslam to offer practical strategies for navigating disagreements in everyday life. Recorded live at the Baker Center, Brooks, a renowned author, Harvard professor, and happiness expert, notes that no one is ever insulted into agreement and discusses how we can disagree better.

FedEx Founder/Executive Chairman Frederick Smith and Texas Tech economics professor Tim Fitzgerald join Governors Bredesen and Haslam for a conversation about how the US can balance global trade and competing national priorities. Smith contends that automation has had a greater impact on US manufacturing than offshoring personnel. Fitzgerald suggests that while it is valuable to have sufficient production capacity at home for national defense, geographic diversification of production is also...

Former Tennessee Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker join Governors Bredesen and Haslam to discuss the filibuster for a special episode, recorded live at the Baker Center in Knoxville in September 2022. Use of the filibuster, a rule that prevents key nominations and legislation from advancing without the support of 60 senators, is a long-standing practice of the United States Senate and Senators Corker and Alexander discuss how the filibuster works in practice, what they would change, and...

Senior Obama official Nancy-Ann DeParle and Vanderbilt professor Larry Van Horn join Governors Bredesen and Haslam for a lookback on the decade after the passage of the Affordable Care Act and offer perspectives on lowering costs and improving outcomes. DeParle, one of the primary architects of the ACA, recounts how the law came together and regrets that the legislation did not receive bipartisan support. Van Horn, a longtime critic of the measure, laments passage of the ACA as a “lost...

Erskine Bowles, former White House Chief of Staff, and Laurie Goodman, an Institute fellow and founder of the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute, join Governors Bredesen and Haslam to discuss the affordable housing crisis. Goodman walks the Governors through a range of zoning and financing policy considerations, while Bowles discusses his work to develop naturally occurring affordable housing – known as NOAHs – in his hometown of Charlotte and how their unique model could be...

Former US House Speaker Paul Ryan and Professor Barry Eichengreen join Governors Bredesen and Haslam for an informative conversation about our $31 Trillion national debt. Ryan, now a guest lecturer at Notre Dame and Visiting Fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, says our debt burden is a serious risk, both to our currency and ability to provide for future needs. UC Berkeley’s Eichengreen suggests that some debt is “good” and may be a necessity in times of war or pandemics.

Nina Rees, President & CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, and Kaya Henderson, CEO of Reconstruction US, co-host of Crooked Media’s “Pod Save the People”, and former Chancellor of DC Public Schools, join Governors Bredesen and Haslam to discuss improving student outcomes and the role of public charter schools. 

Former Vice President Al Gore, Founder & Chairman of the Climate Reality Project, recounts the bipartisan history of environmental legislation including Howard Baker’s decisive support for the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. TVA’s Jeff Lyash, President & CEO of the nation’s largest public utility, discusses the future of energy in light of climate change and the need to reduce carbon emissions, including the use of new and existing nuclear power plants. 

From red flag laws to gun idolatry and the impact of the new bipartisan gun bill, Arne Duncan, former U.S. Secretary of Education, and David French, Senior Editor of The Dispatch, join Governors Bredesen and Haslam to discuss ways to address gun violence. Duncan, founder of Chicago CRED, discusses his nonprofit’s work to reduce gun violence in his hometown. French, a constitutional lawyer and conservative commentator, shares his views on the “deep responsibility” he has as a gun owner and how...

Introducing “You Might Be Right,” a new podcast from the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee that seeks to facilitate civil conversations about tough topics like gun violence, climate change and the national debt.