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PODCAST

Engaged Citizen

Holly + Josh Hudley

Engaged Citizen is a podcast with Holly and Josh, a couple of ordinary people interested in helping you stay informed in a thoughtful and truthful way. We are saturated with news, so we will take three to four issues each week and discuss why they matter. We’ll end with a bright spot because people still show courage, compassion, and love!

society & culture news commentary

All Episodes

00:41:09

Episode 47 | The Paradox of Tolerance

Engaged Citizen ·

2026/04/21

In this episode, we talk about the war on Iran and Trump’s declining support; how no one seems to stand up to Trump from within his own party, even though they are against his policies; the problem with political pawns; and holding the tension of something as wondrous as Artemis 2 alongside the depravity of our political situation.

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00:38:12

Episode 46 | The Coup Playbook

Engaged Citizen ·

2026/04/07

Last week, Timothy Snyder published a Substack on the five things we need to watch for in anticipation of Trump trying to manufacture a coup to prohibit November elections. While some of them may seem far-fetched, I honestly would not put anything past this administration to hold tight to power. We walk through the scenarios and give our own take.

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00:43:00

Episode 45 | “The Ministry is Interfering at Hogwarts”

Engaged Citizen ·

2026/03/24

We are a nation at war. We are a nation whose democratically elected president is actively trying to undermine and downright take away the vote of millions of people. ICE is in the airports, and some analytical readers of Project 2025 say it was always part of the design. We have primaries and elections coming up in every state. What can we do about any of it? Well, we can show up locally. We can raise our voices, call our representatives, protest on March 28, send letters, and vote. We are

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Episode 44 | a One Way War

Engaged Citizen ·

2026/03/17

The current administration got us into a war that some members of the armed forces, our allies, and US citizens oppose. It’s a war of one-sided aggression and totally unnecessary. It was never about supporting Iranians protesting their regime. It was always about a strongman hitting hard and first. Journalists and political analysts are questioning whether there is any strategy or plan, as Trump is surrounded by people with little experience or international credentials. Each day seems to

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Episode 43 | The Stakes are High

Engaged Citizen ·

2026/03/03

This week, we choose to address the wide-ranging tentacles of the Epstein Files, their relationship to Iran, and the importance of voting. These three are interconnected. Trump and his loyalists keep trying to obfuscate the channels of justice. They refuse to release the full files and keep distracting attention away from their far-reaching crimes by creating chaos in our country and around the world. He is all but broadcasting that he plans to meddle in the November elections for fear of

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00:44:12

Episode 42 | Staying Engaged

Engaged Citizen ·

2026/02/11

Let’s talk about what’s working. Protests are working. Going to city council meetings to refuse permits to privately run human warehouses works. Voting works. Calling your reps works. So does checking on your neighbor and documenting what you see. Shoot, we saw artwork in powerfully during the Super Bowl! We are far too creative a species to take this lying down!

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00:32:30

Episode 41 | “Jesus Wept”

Engaged Citizen ·

2026/02/03

In an unconventional move, Judge Fred Biery wrote these words in his opinion ordering the release of Liam and Adrian Conejo Arias: “Jesus wept.” I don’t read it so much as an imposition of Christian values on the legal system, but as highlighting the moral depravity of an administration that is willing to detain children to prove a point. I’ll link to her commentary below, but a Lawyer and Mother wrote that his use of this verse speaks less to a political failing (though it is) and more to a

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00:33:18

Episode 40 | We Stand WIth Minnesota

Engaged Citizen ·

2026/01/27

The past week has brought an onslaught of events and emotions. We’ve seen ICE double down on Minnesotans, and we’ve seen these resolute midwesterners triple down en masse. It seems the whole state showed up for the protest on January 23. The very next day, we saw ICE brutally murder another citizen advocate, Alex Pretti. Minnesota hasn’t let up. Following the death of Alex Pretti, their National Guard was mobilized and armed with donuts, coffee, and cocoa for the residents they were called to

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00:36:10

Episode 39 | Our Single Garment of Destiny

Engaged Citizen ·

2026/01/20

We recorded on MLK day in the US, and we end this podcast by reading one of his well known quotes from his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” It reads, “In a real sense all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” The US has all but forgotten this truth of reality. We are all the faces of this country. I would ask each of us to examine the face we are showing and how

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00:36:50

Episode 38 | We Are In A Bad Way

Engaged Citizen ·

2026/01/13

We address three topics this week: what we are learning about Venezuela, ICE actions against Renee Good in Minnesota, and voters’ privacy in the upcoming election cycle. As crazy as it seems, there are parallels between what Trump says his purpose was in Venezuela and what occurred in Minnesota. The abduction of Maduro was not about holding him accountable or limiting his power; it was about mimicking it. Days after criticizing Maduro for actions against his own people as a way to justify actions

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00:37:18

Episode 37 | A Week in…

Engaged Citizen ·

2026/01/07

…and many are asking for a refund on 2026 already! Shortly after midnight on January 3, the Trump administration took military action against Venezuela, which resulted in the extradition of Maduro and his wife to the US to be accused and tried for drug trafficking. All of this was performed without congressional approval. Strangely, Trump let Fox and Friends know before informing our elected officials! While there is a precedent for not obtaining approval for military action, the event underscores

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0:36

Episode 36 | the Multi-Headed Hydra

Engaged Citizen ·

2025/12/16

One of the things we talk about in this episode is stamina - how do we keep pressing for the kind of change we need to see in this country? How do we swing back toward democracy? Many are turning a blind eye to the lack of legal processes in our country right now, not least of all the Supreme Court. They are playing to a bully, but they are also getting a taste of power. We are a split population, but there is evidence that the bullies are losing popularity. There is evidence that the hydra is being

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00:30:00

Episode 35 | The Christian Thing To Do?

Engaged Citizen ·

2025/12/09

Though it’s been a couple of weeks, the Trump administration keeps on providing plenty of fodder for podcasts. The whole “let’s strike every boat coming out of Venezuela” strategy seems a great distraction to Trump’s growing unpopularity. When six democratic lawmakers pleaded to the military to remain faithful to the Constitution rather than a despot, Trump called for these people to be executed. Ummmm, what do we call an act of sedition called for by the president himself?? This is from the

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00:38:35

Episode 34 | The Saga Continues

Engaged Citizen ·

2025/11/18

Amidst a democratic victory in the special elections, the current elected Democrats joined with Republicans to reopen the government, with the promise of a vote on healthcare forthcoming. While SNAP benefits have been restored, the rollout is slow and varies by state. ICE continues to rampage cities and traumatize residents. Amidst all of this, a push to release the complete Epstein files continues. While we recorded, Trump issued a statement to the Republicans to release them, which implies that

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00:40:04

Episode 33 | “The Cruelty is the Point”

Engaged Citizen ·

2025/11/04

“The cruelty is the point" was coined by Adam Serwer, a staff writer for The Atlantic Magazine, in his October 2018 essay of the same name. It became a widely used catchphrase to describe the political approach and policies of the Trump administration. Defunding food programs for the poor, withholding pay from government employees, especially the ones the president doesn’t like, and limiting asylum to a few thousand people a year is cruel. There is a delight this administration takes in punishing

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00:39:36

Episode 32 | A Broken House

Engaged Citizen ·

2025/10/28

In the language of dreams, houses symbolize the dreamer’s psyche or inner world. The state of the house — be it chaotic, old, in disrepair, clean, bright, or dark — reflects what might be going on for the dreamer. If we externalize this symbol into the waking world, we might say our house is broken. Quite literally, the White House, a symbol of democracy, has been busted open, and its gilded power has been expanded without process or approval. Dump trucks are carrying debris from the grounds early

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00:40:00

Episode 31 | No Kings

Engaged Citizen ·

2025/10/21

On Saturday, October 18, around 7 million (MILLION!) people marched around the country to support “No Kings Day.” Whether we realize it or not, the protests stretch all the way back to England circa 1215. King John signed the Magna Carta in Runnymede in support of the principle that everyone, including the king, was subject to the law. It introduced key concepts like the right to a fair trial, due process, and protection from arbitrary rule that would inform the US Constitution a few centuries

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00:33:45

Episode 30 | “What’s Going On”

Engaged Citizen ·

2025/10/07

Somehow Marvin Gay’s epic song feels like an appropriate soundtrack to this week’s podcast. What’s going on in our country needs our attention. As ICE is being employed as Trump’s personal paramilitary, as recruitment for it increases and gets ever more lucrative, and as the Texas National Guard makes its way to Illinois, we ought to be singing along. We ought to be flooding the streets. We need to resist by staying informed, supporting causes for freedom, justice, and democracy, and documenting

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00:47:14

Episode 29 | NSPM - 7

Engaged Citizen ·

2025/09/30

Amidst all else that is getting media attention, Trump and his team managed to sign a little-noticed national security directive intended to target “radical left violence” or anything that is anti-Trump. Both individuals and institutions can be targeted if you indicate any of the following behaviors now identified as “violent:” anti-American (what it means to be an American is not clearly defined) anti-Christian (read: anti-Christian Nationalism) anti-Capitalist support for the overthrow of the

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00:45:31

Episode 28 | Free speech & Repsonsibility

Engaged Citizen ·

2025/09/21

It’s impossible to avoid talking about the ugliness of political violence in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Whether we agree with him or not, there is no justification for shooting him. For us, as we are greeted with a barrage of repsonses to his death, the issue that rises to the top is around free speech. The First Amendment states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the

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