Glen and April talk, in this first part of our conversation, with Janie Ginocchio and Scott Perkins, co-founders of Tracking Arkansas, a nonpartisan accountability journalism outlet they launched in 2025. What began as a public resource for tracking legislative bills has grown into a publication that combines policy analysis with investigative reporting. Janie and Scott walk us through that evolution, describe their framework for deciding which stories warrant deeper investigation, and introduce their ongoing series "The Arkansas Machine," which examines how political relationships, lobbying, and money influence public policy in Arkansas — across both parties. They also take us inside a specific case involving campaign finance reports and connections between the Attorney General's office and members of the legislature, explaining how that reporting led them to file formal ethics complaints and what they learned about the ethics complaint process itself — including its strengths, its limitations, and the gaps in current law that the process revealed. Throughout, they reflect on what it means to do this kind of work in a state with concentrated political power, and why they believe an informed public is essential to a functioning democracy. Tracking Arkansas is available at TrackingArkansas.com, on Substack, and on Facebook.

On The Other Hand podcast episode #167: Premier episode of A Braver Arkansas TV show, July 7 2026:

This audio-only recording of the debut episode of A Braver Arkansas, a new TV program on Arkansas TV created in conjunction with Braver Angels Arkansas, sets the stage for the whole series. Co-hosts Glen White and April Chatham-Carpenter open with candid personal stories about relationships in their own lives strained by political division — what they tried, what worked, and what didn't. From there, they turn to the bigger picture — what Braver Angels actually is and why it started in 2016. They summarize what Braver Angels Arkansas has been doing across the state since its origin in 2018, and they explain what "depolarizing America" means (and explicitly does not mean — not abandoning convictions or finding a mushy middle, but changing how people disagree). Glen and April also discuss why this TV show was created now, and they issue an invitation for people to join in as the series continues. To view the video of our first episode of A Braver Arkansas, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8T4VADH_2I&list=PLeFP4XlwSUnk&index=3.

Our On The Other Hand podcast listeners can expect to hear periodic future recordings from later episodes of A Braver Arkansas, along with continued episodes of our interviews with community leaders, as we continue to explore, in both audio and video format now, how we can reduce political polarization in Arkansas, find common ground with those of differing views, and work toward better communities in Arkansas.

In part two of our conversation with Nate Coulter, Nate describes reopening CALS safely during the pandemic and parlaying that credibility into a tax-adjustment win that funded raises and renovations without a tax increase. He walks through Act 372 — the 2023 law that would have criminalized librarians for "harmful to minors" materials — his conversations with sponsors Dan Sullivan and Rob Steinbuck, and his concern that a "government speech" legal doctrine could let officials purge collections based on political makeup. He distinguishes good-faith concerns about kids' access from bad-faith actors exploiting homophobia & transphobia, and notes the fight has quieted locally but remains live at the state level.

In the third and final part of our conversation with Nate Coulter, Director of CALS, the Central AR Library System, Nate lays out libraries' five-fold values — preserving everyone's stories, education, civic space, filling social-service gaps (three social workers on staff), and defending intellectual freedom. Recent CALS events Nate describes include: Be Mighty Little Rock (50,000+ meals), 500–600 at summer reading kickoff, digital cards for 57,000+ K-12 students. He discusses a bipartisan push on exploitative social media/device use in schools, and his approach to disagreement (find common ground, stay in the conversation). Nate closes on hope for reduced political negativity, consistent-principle leadership, and partnering with groups like the Civic Action Network of Arkansas to engage young people in local government.

In this first part of our interview with John Patton, president of the Strange Birds of Little Rock, & Paul Tull, musician and Strange Birds member, Glen White and co-host John O’Brien talk with John and Paul about the local chapter of Parrot Heads in Paradise, the national fan organization built around Jimmy Buffett's music and community service. Parrot Heads in Paradise has contributed $61 million and 5 million volunteer hours over the last 18 years to charity. The Arkansas chapter was formed in 2004 and has donated $20,000 and 3,000 volunteer hours to local not for profits since 2020. John and Paul trace how the "Parrot Head" name emerged from a 1985 Buffett concert near Cincinnati, when Eagles bassist Timothy Schmit likened the Hawaiian-shirted crowd to Grateful Dead fans, and how the movement grew out of an early Atlanta fan club. Both hosts and guests share personal Buffett stories — including Tull's account of ending up on stage with Buffett and Stephen Stills at a political event in Orlando — and discuss how the club got its name from "Strange Bird," the moniker Buffett used for his jet company, which was serviced in North Little Rock. Patton and Tull describe how the group has kept its momentum since Buffett's 2023 death, and they explain the meaning behind the club's motto, "Party With A Purpose" — a condition Buffett himself set for any group using his name, requiring real community service in return.

In part 2 of our conversation with John Patton, president of the Jimmy Buffett fan club Strange Birds of Little Rock, & Paul Tull, musician and Strange Birds member, John and Paul detail the community service work behind the Strange Birds' motto, including their long-running water station at the Little Rock Marathon, food drives with the Arkansas Foodbank, and recycling volunteer work with Keep Little Rock Beautiful at the Little Rock Zoo. They also describe the group’s support for veterans through the Arkansas Veterans Home and the new Fisher House in Little Rock — where Tull recounts helping fund a red guitar donated through singer-songwriter Thom Shepherd's Red Guitar Campaign. They also discuss the club's longtime support of Alzheimer's Arkansas, a cause tied to Buffett's own father, and how the group rotates its fundraising among several causes each year. Turning to Braver Angels' focus on bridging divides, Patton and Tull describe a club where members "check politics at the door," united instead by shared music, service, and what Tull calls the "sweat equity" of working side by side at events. They close with an invitation: the Strange Birds meet the third Thursday of each month at a local restaurant or bar, with more information available on Facebook and at lrphc.org.

In part 2 of our conversation with Bill Kopsky, Executive Director of the Arkansas Public Policy Panel, Bill gets personal — starting with the moment a Yell County cattle rancher sized him up in a Walmart parking lot and told him flat out he didn't know anything about hog farms. That story, and what came from it, captures something central to how the Arkansas Public Policy Panel works: relationships, storytelling, and finding the human stakes beneath the political ones. Bill also unpacks a striking fact about Arkansas rental housing law — or rather, the lack of it — that may surprise you, and he explains how powerful special interests have managed to block what most Arkansans actually want. He offers a candid assessment of where Arkansas politics is headed, with both frustration and genuine optimism, and closes with a challenge to listeners: Arkansas doesn't suffer from too much ideology — it suffers from too little participation.

In this second part of our On The Other Hand podcast conversation with Elizabeth Henry-McKeever, Priest at St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal church in Little Rock, we venture from the beehive to the pulpit — and find more in common between the two than you might expect. Elizabeth draws surprising parallels between her work as a beekeeper and the life of a Christian community: how a hive cares for its most vulnerable, how new colonies form, and what bees might teach us about belonging. From there, she opens up about something far trickier than tending bees — tending a congregation through an era of political polarization. How does a priest preach honestly without turning the pulpit into a partisan platform? Elizabeth shares her approach, including why she starts with scripture rather than opinion, how she navigates disagreement within her church, and the difficult moments when respectful parting becomes the most loving option. She also recounts a memorable congregational debate over women distributing communion that reveals how faith communities can hold deep disagreement without severing relationship. Along the way, April reflects on diversity as a source of beauty — setting the stage for Part 3, where we'll turn to the role of Christianity in government and the harder question of what "common good" really means when we're working alongside people who see the world very differently. Tune in to hear what the bees know that the rest of us are still figuring out.