Farm country has been waiting on a new farm bill for almost two years. Angie Craig, the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee and a Minnesota congresswoman now running for the state's open Senate seat, joins Heidi and Joel to talk about what's holding it up, what tariffs have cost rural families, and why farm bankruptcies are becoming as much a security question as an economic one.

Angie covers the imbalance that lets large agribusiness thrive while beginning farmers struggle to get a foothold, what immigration enforcement means for rural communities, and where she thinks the next farm bill needs to go if it's going to help anyone outside the biggest operations.

In this episode:

• The status of the farm bill and what it means for small and beginning farmers
• The impact of trade tariffs on U.S. agriculture
• Rising farm bankruptcies and farm suicides
• Rebuilding trust and economic resilience in rural communities
• Political dynamics in Congress between Republican and Democratic members
• Election timing and Minnesota's primary process
• ICE reform and immigration policy's effect on rural labor

Resources & Links:

Angie Craig Official Website

Connect with Angie Craig:

Instagram
Facebook
Twitter

Congresswoman Craig makes a solid case for where Washington has failed rural America, and where it goes from here.

The Hot Dish is brought to you by the One Country Project. To learn more, visit OneCountryProject.org, or find us on Substack (Onecountryproject.substack.com), and on YouTube, Bluesky, and Facebook (@onecountryproject).

• (00:00) - - Introduction: Craig's district and rural policy focus
• (00:34) - - Farm bill negotiations with Republicans
• (03:25) - - Family farmers and rising bankruptcies
• (05:40) - - Structuring a farm bill for small and beginning farmers
• (09:43) - - Tariffs, trade wars, and international markets
• (14:06) - - Policy decisions and rural mental health
• (16:02) - - Immigration enforcement and its effect on communities
• (18:22) - - Winning rural voters and rebuilding trust
• (24:06) - - Immigration reform: farm labor and DACA recipients
• (30:50) - - Bipartisanship and election timing
• (35:22) - - Craig's campaign goals and vision for Minnesota

Screw worms nearly disappeared from American ranches sixty years ago. Dr. Eric Deeble, executive director of Americans for the Common Good and former Deputy Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs at USDA under the Biden Administration, has watched them find their way back, and he joins Heidi and Joel to explain what this parasitic fly means for livestock, trade, and the food supply.

Eric covers the biology behind the outbreak, how fast one infected animal can spread it, and why the fly is finding its way north again. He also gets into a newer technique for breeding sterile flies that could make eradication cheaper this time around.

In this episode:

• Why screw worms target living tissue and what that means for treatment
• How a sterile insect technique wiped out the fly from the U.S. the first time
• What let the fly move north again
• The economic risk ranchers face from one undetected outbreak
• How egg sexing could lower the cost of eradication

Resources & Links
Americans for the Common Good

Connect with Eric Deeble on:
LinkedIn

Sixty years of eradication work is unraveling. Eric explains what it'll take to fix that.

The Hot Dish is brought to you by the One Country Project. To learn more, visit OneCountryProject.org, or find us on Substack (Onecountryproject.substack.com), and on YouTube, Bluesky, and Facebook (@onecountryproject).

• (00:00) - - Why screw worm's return matters to agriculture
• (02:07) - - The fly's lifecycle and herd vulnerability
• (04:21) - - Myths versus reality on severity
• (05:43) - - Treatment and quarantine when detected
• (07:25) - - The cost of eradication and prevention
• (10:11) - - How reduced global cooperation risks a resurgence
• (13:22) - - Sterile insect technique: past success, recent setbacks
• (16:29) - - Climate and animal movement driving the spread north
• (18:38) - - Regional factors in where screw worm spreads
• (20:00) - - Funding cuts and the policy fight to maintain control
• (22:35) - - Consumer safety myths and real risks
• (24:16) - - Why continued investment in biosecurity matters
• (27:00) - - Final thoughts: vigilance, cooperation, funding

For America's 250th birthday, Heidi and Joel skip the fireworks and head for the ballpark, and they bring their guest, Bob Kendrick, along. He is the President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. The museum is just a few blocks away from where the team owners established a league of their own in 1920. Bob has spent three decades making sure that the players and the stories of the Negro League are not forgotten.

Bob walks Heidi and Joel through why some of the best baseball in the country got played on fields most fans never read about, how a club from Jamestown, North Dakota beat a lineup of big-league stars, and what happened to the Negro Leagues the day Jackie Robinson finally got his shot. Bob has answers and a lot of good stories to go with them.

In this episode:

• How Jim Crow forced Black players into their own leagues, and how they answered on the field
• Satchel Paige, Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson, and careers the majors delayed or erased
• Why Negro Leagues games often outdrew the majors, and the talent gap that never existed
• Larry Doby and the different fight the American League's first Black player faced
• How World War II shifted the country's willingness to integrate its pastime

Resources & Links

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

Connect with Bob Kendrick on:

Linkedin

Twitter

Two hundred fifty years in, America’s pastime still has a few chapters that are not told enough. Tune in.

The Hot Dish is brought to you by the One Country Project. To learn more, visit OneCountryProject.org, or find us on Substack (Onecountryproject.substack.com), and on YouTube, Bluesky, and Facebook (@onecountryproject).

• (00:00) - - Americana, baseball, and the show's focus
• (00:43) - - Kansas City, birthplace of the Negro Leagues
• (01:36) - - Bob Kendrick on the leagues' history
• (02:12) - - North Dakota's early integration
• (03:07) - - Bismarck and Jamestown's integrated teams
• (05:27) - - The Bismarck-Jamestown rivalry
• (07:03) - - Teaching the discrimination players faced
• (11:20) - - How long the leagues lasted after integration
• (12:30) - - Team geography and migration patterns
• (14:13) - - The East-West All-Star Game
• (17:10) - - Segregation's overt and covert forms
• (18:10) - - Satchel Paige's legend and skill
• (20:22) - - WWII, Willie Mays, and Henry Aaron
• (21:20) - - Jackie Robinson's courage and burden
• (24:13) - - Hank Aaron's rise to stardom
• (25:50) - - Baseball as a unifying force
• (32:00) - - The museum's future and mission
• (33:50) - - Positional barriers in early integration
• (38:01) - - Roy Campanella and other Hall of Famers who started in the leagues
• (43:27) - - Visit the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

For Heidi, the reflecting pool on the National Mall in D.C. is more than a tourist attraction; it's a metaphor for how Washington handles problems. Years of algae, cloudy water, and expensive repairs reflect a familiar pattern: ignore an issue until it becomes a crisis, then spend money on a temporary fix rather than addressing the underlying cause. She believes rural America has been treated the same way for decades.

In this quick episode of The Hot Dish, Heidi talks about how low crop prices, tariffs, and bad policy keep hurting the people who actually farm the land. She also gives a peek at upcoming conversations with Joel.

The Hot Dish is brought to you by the One Country Project. To learn more, visit OneCountryProject.org, or find us on Substack (Onecountryproject.substack.com), and on YouTube, Bluesky, and Facebook (@onecountryproject)

• (02:00) - - Metaphor of the reflecting pool and impulsive government decisions
• (04:30) - - Challenges of unqualified decision-making and resource management in rural infrastructure projects
• (07:00) - - Impact of national policies on rural economies and farmer communities
• (09:00) - - Importance of balanced political messaging and leadership recovery
• (11:15) - - Strategies for rural economic diversification beyond farming
• (14:00) - - Reflection on America's democracy and upcoming celebrations of the nation's founding
• (16:20) - - Closing remarks and optimism for future rural prosperity

Nick Levendofsky has spent years watching Washington write farm bills that land badly in the field. As director of the Kansas Farmers Union, he's tracked input costs climbing, cattle herds shrinking, and processing power concentrating into fewer hands, and he's done sugarcoating what that means.

While Heidi is out this week, Joel sits down with Nick to work through where the farm bill actually stands, why the House version leaves too much on the table, and what trade wars cost rural markets long after the headlines move on.

In this episode:

• Why the House farm bill misses on crop insurance, antitrust, and beginning farmers
• The bipartisan math required to pass anything that actually sticks
• How packers and processors have shifted market power away from producers
• What tariffs and trade disruptions do to rural markets over the long run
• The structural problems no single bill can fix, and where the pressure points are

Resources & Links

Kansas Farmers Union

Connect with Nick Levendofsky on:

LinkedIn

The farm bill keeps falling short, and farmers can't afford to wait. Tune in, get informed, and find out what real reform actually looks like.

The Hot Dish is brought to you by the One Country Project. To learn more, visit OneCountryProject.org, or find us on Substack (Onecountryproject.substack.com), and on YouTube, Bluesky, and Facebook (@onecountryproject).

• (00:00) - Overview of today's focus on U.S. farm policy challenges
• (02:00) - Current status of the farm bill and legislative prospects
• (03:00) - Why the House version falls short for farmers’ needs
• (04:45) - Critical issues: antitrust, beginning farmers, and safety nets
• (05:50) - Land transfers, farm retirements, and generational shifts
• (12:00) - The impact of past reconciliation cuts and nutrition programs
• (14:00) - Farmer reliance on federal aid versus trade-based income
• (15:46) - Concentration in meatpacking and input industries
• (20:12) - The efficacy of checkoff programs amid trade conflicts
• (22:30) - Challenges with U.S. trade policies, tariffs, and international markets
• (26:20) - Long-term outlook for market recovery and trust rebuilding
• (33:27) - The political landscape and farmers’ support for current leadership
• (36:31) - Reflections on football coaching ties and regional pride

Buckle up, history buffs and democracy defenders. We're sitting down with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, professor of history and Italian studies at New York University, author of Strongman, and one of the leading experts on authoritarianism, to connect the dots between today's political chaos and the playbooks of history's most dangerous leaders. The parallels are less "ancient history" and more "this week's headlines," and Ruth is here to decode every one of them.

Heidi and Joel also unpack the shifting electoral map, with a look at Senate battlegrounds, emerging gubernatorial contests, and what the current political climate means for voters heading into the next cycle.

In this episode:

• How today's administration mirrors the tactics of historic autocrats
• The anatomy of a cult of personality, and how they're built
• The "only I can do it" syndrome and why it resonates
• The TINA trap: why "There Is No Alternative" is so dangerous
• What the bunker mentality reveals about autocratic fear
• Religion, symbols, and grievance as tools of authoritarian power
• The warning signs of democratic erosion, and how fast it moves
• Why American resilience may be the one thing autocrats can't plan for

Connect with Ruth Ben-Ghiat on:
Twitter
Substack: Lucid

The playbook for autocracy isn't buried in history books; it's playing out in real time. Tune in, get informed, and maybe think twice before you call this just another political phase.

The Hot Dish is brought to you by the One Country Project. To learn more, visit OneCountryProject.org, or find us on Substack (Onecountryproject.substack.com), and on YouTube, Bluesky, and Facebook (@onecountryproject).

• (00:00) - Introduction to Ruth Ben-Ghiat's expertise on authoritarianism
• (00:01) - The unique and dangerous nature of today’s political threats
• (00:13) - The risks of loyalists and whether they can escape the grip of the cult
• (00:19) - The cult of personality, authoritarian playbook, and Trump’s messaging
• (00:23) - How Trump’s demagoguery compares to Mussolini and fascist archetypes
• (00:24) - The lasting legacy—how Trump’s era might be remembered forever
• (00:26) - The trajectory toward an ethno-state and the exploitation of wealth
• (00:28) - The challenge of former loyalists re-entering politics amid autocratic influence
• (00:35) - The impact of social progress and backlash, race, gender, and democracy
• (00:38) - The fears and vulnerabilities of autocrats like Trump—hidden bunker fears
• (00:39) - The uncharted and disturbing destruction of public health and welfare
• (00:42) - The changing landscape of election rules and the future of democracy
• (00:46) - The rapid speed of autocratic consolidation—Hungary, Russia, and beyond
• (00:46) - How policies are weaponized to transfer wealth and create division
• (00:46) - How autocrats boast confidence but tremble behind the scenes
• (00:52) - The costly mistake of intervening in foreign conflicts
• (00:57) - The autocratic “no alternative” syndrome and potential successors

This episode pulls back the curtain on the AI gold rush, the data centers, the water bills, the NDAs, and what it all means for rural communities that rarely have a seat at the table.

AI sounds like the future, but the costs are landing unevenly, especially outside major cities. Heidi and Joel join Dr. Emily Bender and Dr. Alex Hanna to dig into the real, and rarely discussed, toll of our digital infrastructure boom, from secretive corporate deals to environmental strain, and ask the question nobody in Silicon Valley wants answered: who actually pays the price?

In this episode:

• The gap between AI hype and reality, and why it matters
• Data centers sprouting faster than the regulations meant to govern them
• The true costs to energy, water, and local infrastructure that corporations aren't advertising
• Public resistance, NDA nightmares, and the political pressure to build fast
• Why regulation hasn't kept pace and how communities are pushing back
• The risks of AI overreliance, hallucinations, and why source-checking matters
• Where international regulation stands and the gap in U.S. policy

Guests:

• Emily Bender - Twitter | University Profile
• Alex Hanna’s Website
• DAIR Institute

The AI boom isn't slowing down, but neither are the people asking the hard questions. Tune in, get informed, and maybe think twice before you trust the hype.

The Hot Dish is brought to you by the One Country Project. To learn more, visit OneCountryProject.org, or find us on Substack (Onecountryproject.substack.com), and on YouTube, Bluesky, and Facebook (@onecountryproject).

Today’s episode is a heartfelt dive into the wild, wonderful world of rural health care, featuring the utterly inspiring Tami DeCoteau. We explore everything from Native American trauma to the magic of telemedicine and, of course, the political circus affecting mental health funding.

Why does Tami love her rural practice? How do social media and AI impact our minds? And what’s the deal with farmers feeling more stressed than a coffee addict on decaf?

Heidi and Joel also discuss upcoming Senate and governor races, focusing on Sherrod Brown's potential return to the Senate, the political landscape in Ohio, and insights into key electoral strategies. They analyze the implications of recent political developments and candidate choices, providing you with a comprehensive understanding of the current US political climate.

In this episode:

• The explosive need for mental health services in rural and Native American populations
• How telemedicine is becoming the unsung hero in rural mental health care
• Challenges of attracting providers to North Dakota—money, roads, and reputation
• The importance of trauma-informed care and how childhood experiences shape nervous systems
• The impact of economic stress, especially on farmers, and rising political tensions
• How social media and AI are rewiring our brains—think of it as mental cord-cutting gone wrong
• The future of rural health policy (more resources, better pay, and less stigma)
• The missing link: the pipeline of Native American psychologists and why rural providers are hard to find
• Plus, a quick political roundup, because who doesn’t love some political banter?

Guests:

• Tami DeCoteau - DeCoteau Trauma-Informed Care & Practice

And don’t forget to tell your friends, especially the ones who believe mental health is just "a phase," because Tami proves it's a lifelong mission.

The Hot Dish is brought to you by the One Country Project. To learn more, visit OneCountryProject.org, or find us on Substack (Onecountryproject.substack.com), and on YouTube, Bluesky, and Facebook (@onecountryproject).

• (00:00) - Introduction to Rural Health Care Challenges
• (03:01) - The Importance of Telemedicine in Rural Areas
• (05:43) - Understanding the Demographics of Mental Health Clients
• (09:00) - Building Trust in Rural Communities
• (11:43) - The Impact of Trauma on Mental Health
• (14:52) - Economic Stress and Mental Health in Farming Communities
• (17:58) - The Role of AI in Mental Health
• (20:57) - Policy Changes for Rural Mental Health
• (23:27) - The Need for More Mental Health Providers
• (26:37) - Future Directions for Rural Mental Health Services
• (33:52) - Sherrod Brown's Senate Race Prospects
• (36:46) - Political Landscape and Implications for Ohio