Alexis Bartley Paulson is a nurse practitioner, Maryam’s “ride or die” at Rise & Shine as well as during her campaign for Congress in 2024. Their three part conversation convers the Israel / Iran conflict from Summer 2025, how that Congressional campaign was run and Paulson’s recent move to California.

James Dehart is a tradesman, a father, a husband, a Lewisberg (population 13k) resident and a conservative voter who voted for Trump. Maryam and he talk about DOGE, administration policies and whether the President has gotten anything wrong.

We chat with Marshall County Democratic chair Jess Limbird. Talking with her, we learn about the opportunities for change and impact in local rural politics, where community could possibly overcome division.

Find Jess Limbird here:
https://www.instagram.com/theejessness/

We talk with Bethany Torino, a Republican and non profit head, about the federal funding freeze and how it’s impacting her work, and how these broad changes are indiscriminate -whether you’re Independent, Democrat or Republican – in who they impact and harm.

This is a good episode to send to your “efficiency in the government” friends, the folks who think we spend too much and believe perhaps that the shutting down of the federal government is the only way to get at that efficiency. It’s time to have the REAL conversation about government waste.

This episode we’re joined by Khalil Ekulona, host of This is Nashville and longtime NPR contributor across the country. We discuss that there’s no such thing as the Black vote, why folks are looking for something else than the two parties were/are offering, and how our political conversation is actually a conversation about existing.

Maryam speaks with national voucher expert, Josh Cowen, author of The Privateers: How Billionaires Created A Culture War and Sold School Vouchers and Tennessee State Senator Heidi Campbell on the problematic shift from public to private schools. The group discusses what is really going on with the billionaire voucher agenda and tries to find the perspective of why someone might actually want this kind of program.

More on Josh Cowen:
• Bookshop – The Privateers: How Billionaires Created A Culture War and Sold School Vouchers
• @joshcowenmsu on Instagram

More on State Senator Heidi Campbell:
• TN General Assembly Information
• VoteHeidiCampbell.com
• @campbell4tn on Instagram