On the Other Hand

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.

In Part 1 of their On the Other Hand conversation, Arkansas State Senators Clarke Tucker (D) and Jonathan Dismang (R) explore with April and Glen what genuine bipartisan collaboration looks like in a state legislature. Their view is that it starts with something simpler than policy: relationship. The two trace their working partnership, built on personal connection and shared concern over food insecurity, which grew into a multi-year push to expand free school meals. Their 2023 win — eliminating reduced-price meal copays for 49,000 Arkansas families — is a model of how they operate: realistic goals, thorough preparation, and making sure every co-sponsor actually understands what they're signing. Both of them provide pointed advice for anyone tired of political tribalism: get off cable news and social media, and go have a real conversation with someone who disagrees with you. Most legislative work, both senators noted, isn't partisan — it just rarely makes the news.

In Part 2 or our conversation with Dr. Kevin Heifner, local physician, writer and community activist, Kevin opens up about what genuine bridge-building actually looks like from the inside. He's enthusiastic about Braver Angels and its contributions, but he's equally blunt about what doesn't work: "performative peacemaking" — the kind of conflict avoidance that mistakes niceness for progress. Real dialogue, Kevin argues, requires sincerity, integrity, and the courage to engage difficult differences rather than paper over them. Then comes a moment of refreshing self-disclosure. When Kevin reached out to friends to brainstorm how to connect across political and social divides, he realized — mid-call — he had been operating under an unconscious bias. Hear from Kevin about this moment of honest self-reckoning, a process he says is essential before any meaningful conversation can happen with others. The episode also touches on religious diversity, the surprising common ground found between thinkers as different as Robbie George and Cornel West, and what it might take to build a more inclusive Arkansas — though Kevin is candid that he doesn't have all the answers. A conversation marked by humility, hard questions, and genuine hope.

In this first part of Glen and John’s interview with local physician, writer and community activist Dr. Kevin Heifner, we wondered: what does a nephrologist with 35 years of practice have to say about faith, politics, and the state of American civic life? Quite a lot, it turns out. Kevin talks about the community work that keeps him engaged beyond the exam room — and why the same ethic that drives him to treat every patient equally drives his passion for bridging divides in public life. Shaped by a father who traded the pulpit for philosophy, Kevin brings a nuanced, shades-of-gray perspective to questions of faith and social ethics, including his work with Good Faith Media and the Baptist Center for Ethics. The conversation gets lively when the labels come out — or rather, when Kevin pushes back on them. "Progressive." "Conservative." He argues these words don't clarify; they dehumanize. And in a culture built on tribal sorting, that's a problem worth talking about honestly. A conversation that doesn't flinch from the hard questions.
 

In this third & final part of our interview with Robert Steinbuch, law professor and government transparency advocate, Glen and April explore several key issues with Rob. He outlines the tension between FOIA's essential role in exposing government behavior and the equally legitimate need to protect private citizens' personal information — and candidly addresses why ordinary people struggle to enforce their own privacy and defamation rights when attorneys won't take the cases. Rob turns a critical eye on legal academia itself, describing what he sees as a pronounced left-of-center monoculture in law schools, and he recounts the controversy at UA - Fayetteville's Law School, where legislative pushback over a dean search put the tension between academic independence and government accountability on full public display. He reflects on his view of the proper — and improper — roles of government in institutional hiring at state-funded universities. The conversation broadens to Arkansas's societal divides, where Rob argues that while political polarization gets the headlines, economic and racial fault lines run just as deep. He closes with a personal story from a Republican Party meeting where he chose procedural fairness over possible strategic advantage, and he shares reflections from his experience moderating a conversation on Arkansas PBS TV among philosophical opponents on a controversial current issue.

In Part 2 of our three-part conversation with Robert Steinbuch - Law Professor at UA Little Rock and one of Arkansas's leading government transparency advocates - Rob takes Glen and April inside the real-world mechanics of the Freedom of Information Act. He recounts how his FOIA research on law school admissions and affirmative action sparked controversy at his own university, ultimately producing scholarship cited by Justice Thomas in a landmark Supreme Court opinion. Rob walks through the practical nuts and bolts of making Arkansas FOIA requests, breaks down the law's exemptions, and makes a pointed distinction: Arkansas's FOIA is among the best in the nation, but the federal version goes too far in shielding government from accountability. The conversation then broadens into First Amendment territory — an instance when he changed his mind about what constituted legitimate free expression, the role of a free press as the public's proxy for transparency, and the limits of government regulation of social media.   It's a sharp, practical, and occasionally provocative look at transparency and press freedom from someone who has both studied and fought these battles firsthand.