On the Other Hand

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.

Note: This special episode of On The Other Hand is a recording of April Chatham-Carpenter and Glen White, co-hosts of their On The Other Hand podcast, being interviewed by Jonathan Seaborn for his KUAR sponsored podcast "Insight" (https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/podcast/insight-with-jonathan-seaborn). Glen and April stepped in front of the mic as guests on Jonathan Seaborn's Insight program on Little Rock Public Radio (KUAR), talking about Braver Angels Arkansas, their On The Other Hand podcast, and how to talk across political divides. 
Summary: In this special crossover episode, April and Glen turn the tables and become the guests, joining Jonathan Seaborn on Little Rock Public Radio's Insight to talk about Braver Angels Arkansas and the origins of On The Other Hand. They describe how the podcast began as Glen's idea after his retirement from a career as a psychologist, and how their own differing political outlooks make them a natural team for modeling civil, respectful conversation. April walks through Braver Angels' LAPP framework — Listen, Acknowledge, Pivot, Perspective — and both hosts discuss the research behind it, including how identity and emotion, more than facts, tend to drive political belief, and how contact theory helps explain why real relationships change minds when argument alone does not. April shares how she kept her relationship with her sister intact across a divisive election by choosing to listen rather than argue, and Glen discusses road rage, social media, and the case for treating media literacy as a kind of civic hygiene. They close by describing Braver Angels' new "courageous citizenship" direction under CEO Maury Giles, local Arkansas bridge-building efforts underway in Eureka Springs, Conway, and Hot Springs, and how listeners can get involved with Braver Angels Arkansas at arkansas.braverangels.org.

In the second half of our conversation, Janie and Scott describe the practical and legal dimensions of their work, including joining a successful lawsuit over a special election in North Little Rock that was delayed well beyond the 150-day statutory requirement. They offer a straightforward assessment of Arkansas' current political landscape — a Republican supermajority with internal divisions, an opposition party they see as struggling to be effective, and what they observe as a broader pattern of executive branch consolidation. They also make the case that accountability journalism and depolarization work are more compatible than they might seem, pointing to the bipartisan coalition that formed to defend Arkansas' Freedom of Information Act as an example of citizens across the political spectrum uniting around shared values. Looking ahead, Tracking Arkansas has investigations underway into hospitals, rehabilitation facilities, and an insurance industry story now spanning nine states. They close with honest reflections on what success looks like — sustainable independent journalism, a stronger public understanding of how policy gets made, and, only half-jokingly, making their own work unnecessary. Listeners can find Tracking Arkansas at TrackingArkansas.com or on Substack and Facebook, with a GoFundMe in the works to support ongoing accountability litigation.

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.

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.

Join Glen and April as they talk with Bill Kopsky, Executive Director of the Arkansas Public Policy Panel, who says he planned to stay a couple of years but has spent 30 years with the organization. Bill traces the Panel's origins back to a remarkable group of mothers who launched it during the civil rights era, and he explains how it evolved into a statewide force for community organizing across economic, racial, and environmental justice issues. You'll hear why Bill thinks partisan polarization is largely a Capitol building phenomenon — and why the communities his organization works with tell a very different story. He also dives into a high-stakes battle playing out right now over Arkansans' century-old right to put measures on the ballot directly — a fight that's ended up in federal court, and that 80% of voters across party lines say they care about. If you've ever wondered whether ordinary citizens can actually move the needle on problems that have plagued Arkansas for generations, Bill has some answers — and some homework for you.

In this third & final part of our On The Other Hand podcast conversation with Elizabeth Henry-McKeever, Priest at St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal church in Little Rock, we move from the pews into the public square — and into some of the thorniest questions Christians face today. What is the church's role in promoting the common good, and why does Elizabeth believe Christianity is actually most effective when it's operating on the margins rather than the center of power? April presses on the uncomfortable tension between genuine service and evangelism, and Elizabeth doesn't dodge it. She talks about the diversity within Christianity that often gets drowned out, why moderate and progressive Christians need to find their voices, and how to have real conversations with people whose views feel miles away from your own — including what underlying fears often drive those views. Along the way, she shares her thoughts on the separation of church and state and where she still finds hope for common ground. It's a candid conversation that doesn't offer easy answers, but it does offer something rarer: a thoughtful Christian leader willing to wrestle with the questions out loud. Listen in to hear where she lands.

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.

In this first part of a three-part conversation with the Reverend Elizabeth Henry-McKeever, Priest at St. Michael’s Episcopal church in Little Rock, Glen and April explore with Elizabeth the winding road that led her from high school healing prayers to ordination—with a detour through non-profit communications and fundraising along the way. Elizabeth reflects on what it means to create genuinely welcoming spaces for people of all faith backgrounds, introduces us to St. Michael's countercultural founding story (1968, and proud of it), and makes a compelling case that doubt isn't the enemy of faith—it may be the very thing that keeps faith honest. A thoughtful conversation for anyone who has ever wrestled with big questions and wondered whether that wrestling was a problem or a gift.

The headline version of Arkansas politics is division. The reality, according to AR Senators Clarke Tucker and Jonathan Dismang, is considerably more cooperative — it just happens behind the scenes. In Part 2, both senators describe how they navigate governors of either party (honesty about disagreements, focus on genuine overlap), why the appearance of dysfunction owes more to safe seats and hyper-partisan primaries than to actual legislator behavior, and how they set multi-year goals shaped by constituent feedback rather than election cycles. Clarke's approach: be upfront about where you'll disagree, then focus energy on the substantial overlap that remains. Jonathan underscored that the real work happens before anything goes public; quiet, behind-the-scenes negotiation is where durable agreements are built. Their closing message is optimistic and concrete: Arkansas is trending in a positive direction, civic engagement matters, and local journalism is not optional for a healthy democracy. Getting involved — in your community, across political lines — is where hope actually lives.