Crashing The Political Party

This week, we’re joined by farmer and independent candidate for New York’s 24th Congressional District Ken Estes Jr. We talk farming, what Washington DC can learn from farm life, what’s one thing DC could do to help rural America, Ken’s “four pillars”, what a World Cafe is and why his campaign holds them, learning from voters, book recommendations, and more!

In the Season 5 premiere of our special "Hidden in Plain Sight" episodes, AJ sits down with farmer, author, and rural policy expert Brian Reisinger to unpack how the conflict with Iran is quietly reshaping American agriculture. They dig into the ripple effects most people never see: rising diesel and fertilizer costs, the squeeze on crop yields, and why higher grocery prices don’t necessarily mean higher income for farmers. The conversation also explores what government programs can and can’t do, how farmers are adjusting their plans in real time, what everyday consumers can do to support farms while keeping their own costs down, and more!

For this episode, we head down to Mississippi to talk with independent senate candidate Ty Pinkins. Ty and AJ talk about Ty's background, leaving the Democratic Party to run as an Independent, what Ty tells voters about supporting an independent over the major parties, policy priorities for Ty's campaign, how Ty's military service and being a father influence how he'd govern, book recommendations, and food!

In our first Research Note mini-episode, AJ walks through one of his academic publications which tests the theory that alternative candidates would perform better in America under ranked choice voting than the current widely used electoral system. He answers questions about why that might be the case, how he and his coauthors went about studying this, what they found, why even small improvements can matter, and possible future extensions of the work.

AJ is back with another conversation featuring an alternative candidate in the IL-4 race, sitting down with independent Lindsay Church. They get into the decision to run outside the two-party system, military service, perspectives on U.S. involvement in the Middle East, and how being trans shaped the path to candidacy. The conversation also covers key policy priorities, political violence, testifying before Congress, and why IL-4 voters should take a closer look at the campaign. Plus: book recommendations and a mid-interview power outage that they tried their best to act like didn't happen.