Best Robport Podcasts (2025)

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640: ‘Whoever's in power is going to censor the opposing viewpoint’ (Video) 1:05:59

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8h ago1:05:59

1:05:59

Guest host Chad Oban and guest co-host Pat Finken sit down with Governor Kelly Armstrong for a wide-ranging conversation on politics, policy, and free speech. Governor Armstrong explains why the cure for bad speech is always more speech, why government crackdowns are dangerous no matter who’s in charge, and how the real fight over information today…

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640: ‘Whoever's in power is going to censor the opposing viewpoint’ (Audio) 1:05:59

10h ago1:05:59

1:05:59

Guest host Chad Oban and co-host Pat Finken sit down with Governor Kelly Armstrong for a wide-ranging conversation on politics, policy, and free speech. Governor Armstrong explains why the cure for bad speech is always more speech, why government crackdowns are dangerous no matter who’s in charge, and how the real fight over information today doesn…

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639: A 'clown show' and a 'disaster' (Video) 1:00:10

5d ago1:00:10

1:00:10

Dustin McNally was chosen by Republicans in District 42 to replace former state Rep. Emily O'Brien, who resigned her seat to take a position in Gov. Kelly Armstrong's administration. But despite emerging from that process the winner, he called it a "clown show" and a "bad faith effort all around" on this episode of Plain Talk, describe it as someth…

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639: A 'clown show' and a 'disaster' 1:00:10

5d ago1:00:10

1:00:10

Dustin McNally was chosen by Republicans in District 42 to replace former state Rep. Emily O'Brien, who resigned her seat to take a position in Gov. Kelly Armstrong's administration. But despite emerging from that process the winner, he called it a "clown show" and a "bad faith effort all around" on this episode of Plain Talk, describe it as someth…

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638: 'We have to be concerned about people not even liking or wanting to read' 58:42

6d ago58:42

58:42

It's no secret that the rise of the internet and social media has upended the news business. We've been talking about it for decades. But the industry isn't dying, as many like to say, so much as changing. People still want their news. They just want it in different ways, and the news industry is rising to meet that challenge. That's what Cecile We…

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638: 'We have to be concerned about people not even liking or wanting to read' (Audio) 58:42

7d ago58:42

58:42

It's no secret that the rise of the internet and social media has upended the news business. We've been talking about it for decades. But the industry isn't dying, as many like to say, so much as changing. People still want their news. They just want it in different ways, and the news industry is rising to meet that challenge. That's what Cecile We…

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637: 'Do they know there's ways to influence a president beyond kissing his ass all the time?' (Video) 59:44

11d ago59:44

59:44

In late June, terrible storms destroyed millions of dollars worth of property, and took lives in parts of the state around Enderlin, Spiritwood, and beyond. In late July, Gov. Kelly Armstrong issued a disaster declaration, asking President Donald Trump administration to release aid to the state. Weeks and weeks went by, until North Dakota's Federal…

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637: 'Do they know there's ways to influence a president beyond kissing his ass all the time?' (Audio) 59:44

12d ago59:44

59:44

In late June, terrible storms destroyed millions of dollars worth of property, and took lives in parts of the state around Enderlin, Spiritwood, and beyond. In late July, Gov. Kelly Armstrong issued a disaster declaration, asking President Donald Trump administration to release aid to the state. Weeks and weeks went by, until North Dakota's Federal…

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636: 'Constant distractive state' (Video) 57:40

14d ago57:40

57:40

When Pat Traynor, Gov. Kelly Armstrong's interim Commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services, said that excessive use of cell phones and other digital devices is "probably the biggest public health threat that we have," I wrote that he was wrong, and accused him of stoking a moral panic. Traynor came on today's episode of the Plain …

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636: 'Constant distractive state' (Audio) 57:39

14d ago57:39

57:39

When Pat Traynor, Gov. Kelly Armstrong's interim Commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services, said that excessive use of cell phones and other digital devices is "probably the biggest public health threat that we have," I wrote that he was wrong, and accused him of stoking a moral panic. Traynor came on today's episode of the Plain …

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635: 'Definitely calmed down since the pandemic' (Video) 1:04:23

19d ago1:04:23

1:04:23

A new North Dakota law which went into effect on August 1 states that "every regular meeting of a governing body of a city, county, township, school district, district park district, water resource district must include an opportunity for an individual to provide public comment." Over the last five years or so, school board meetings have become a f…

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635: 'Definitely calmed down since the pandemic' (Audio) 1:04:23

19d ago1:04:23

1:04:23

A new North Dakota law which went into effect on August 1 states that "every regular meeting of a governing body of a city, county, township, school district, district park district, water resource district must include an opportunity for an individual to provide public comment." Over the last five years or so, school board meetings have become a f…

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634: Applied Digital CEO talks about Harwood, AI, jobs, and nondisclosure agreements (Video) 53:19

21d ago53:19

53:19

"It's by far the most important race we've been in in the world." That's what Applied Digital CEO Wes Cummins told us on this episode of Plain Talk. "In my opinion, there's two countries that are racing forward to advance AI, to reach super intelligence, to reach AGI [artificial general intelligence], and it's the United States and it's China." Cum…

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634: Applied Digital CEO talks about Harwood, AI, jobs, and nondisclosure agreements (Audio) 53:19

21d ago53:19

53:19

"It's by far the most important race we've been in in the world." That's what Applied Digital CEO Wes Cummins told us on this episode of Plain Talk. "In my opinion, there's two countries that are racing forward to advance AI, to reach super intelligence, to reach AGI [artificial general intelligence], and it's the United States and it's China." Cum…

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633: 'Why not? We have it.' (Video) 53:39

26d ago53:39

53:39

This is the video version of Episode 633 of the Plain Talk podcast. North Dakota has become a destination for investment in building out America's artificial intelligence infrastructure. Specifically, the massive, power-hungry data centers that enable the sort of cloud computing necessary to make AI work. Public Service Commissioner Sheri Haugen-Ho…

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633: 'Why not? We have it.' 53:39

26d ago53:39

53:39

North Dakota has become a destination for investment in building out America's artificial intelligence infrastructure. Specifically, the massive, power-hungry data centers that enable the sort of cloud computing necessary to make AI work. Public Service Commissioner Sheri Haugen-Hoffart, who serves on the triumvirate that oversees things like utili…

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632: 'A little bit closer to perfect' (Video) 56:59

27d ago56:59

56:59

This full video interview with Erin Oban from North Dakotans for Public Schools is from Episode 632 of the Plain Talk Podcast.

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632: 'A little bit closer to perfect' 57:12

28d ago57:12

57:12

North Dakota's public schools are not perfect, but they are very, very good. Sadly, often thanks to national narratives that have little to do with what's happening in our school districts, that's not always the popular perception the public has. People are left with the impression that kids are being indoctrinated, or in extreme cases even groomed…

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631: Back-to-school tax, Trump's Fedorchak endorsement, and cheerleader culture wars 51:02

1M ago51:02

51:02

Should the voters take their case for covering school lunches for all students to the ballot box with an initiated measure? We discussed the issue on this episode of Plain Talk, and co-host Chad Oban made the case for some populism on this issue. "The legislature has had ample opportunity to pass something that over 70% of North Dakotans support," …

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ND Insurance Commissioner John Godfread from Episode 630 (Video Interview) 34:54

1M ago34:54

34:54

This is the full video version of our August 20, 2025, interview with North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Jon Godfread. The interview is from Episode 630.

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630: One Big Beautiful Bill Act could lead to 'death spiral' in health insurance 55:06

1M ago55:06

55:06

North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Jon Godfread says North Dakota -- and America, really, since our state is hardly an independent nation -- is on an unsustainable trajectory when it comes to the cost of insurance and health care. On this Plain Talk, Godfread, who is also the current president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners…

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F5 Project Founder Adam Martin from Episode 629 (Video Interview) 29:56

1M ago29:56

29:56

This exclusive interview with F5 Project founder Adam Martin is from Plain Talk episode 629.

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629: 'I think it should be wiped across the board' 1:06:23

1M ago1:06:23

1:06:23

A new law that just took effect here in North Dakota seals court records in concluded cases that don't result in a conviction. That would mean instances where the defendant was acquitted, or when the charges were dismissed, or any other outcome that's not a guilty plea or verdict. The argument in favor of the law is that it's not fair to the defend…

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628: 'I pay people the courtesy of candor' 53:51

1M ago53:51

53:51

"There are currently three ethics complaints against my office," Attorney General Drew Wrigley said on this episode of Plain Talk. It's a startling admission, but Wrigley says the complaints are spurious, and that the state Ethics Commission, which he has been outspokenly critical of, is hording complaints like those, instead of clearing them, for …

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627: Jeans, property taxes, scandal, and baseball 46:49

2M ago46:49

46:49

I spent a little time on this episode of Plain Talk bemoaning the horrendous performance of my beloved New York Yankees. Poor roster construction and poor fundamental play are difficult things to watch. Co-host Chad Oban ate it up, as you might imagine, but baseball isn't all we discussed. We touched on the baffling controversy over Sydney Sweeney'…

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626: 'Zip, none.' 56:49

2M ago56:49

56:49

Today on Plain Talk, we had the pleasure of speaking with US Senator John Hoeven, and began our conversation with a pretty historic event: the rerouting of the Red River for the Fargo-Moorhead Flood Control Project. Senator Hoeven, who has been working on this project since he was governor, highlighted how it will "permanently change part of the ro…

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Bob & Dan | The $740,000 Question (Episode 3) 1:01:34

2M ago1:01:34

1:01:34

NOTE: The $740,000 question is a podcast from Plain Talk producer Matt Fern. In the conclusion of this three-part series, filmmaker Matt Fern investigates the two men at the center of North Dakota’s film grant controversy: longtime legislator Rep. Bob Martinson and Canticle Productions founder Dan Bielinski. As an ethics complaint regarding the fil…

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625: Voters need to be responsible for who they're voting for 50:46

2M ago50:46

50:46

On this episode of Plain Talk, my co-host Chad Oban and I talk about the crazy Minot mayoral race, evidence of extremism in the North Dakota Young Republicans, and the controversy over bonuses paid to Commerce Department employees. The Minot race, in some ways, is an important bellwether for North Dakota politics, taking place as it is in one of th…

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624: 'We need more human-to-human, face-to-face interaction' 51:39

2M ago51:39

51:39

Minot-area Democrat Trygve Hammer has run for the U.S. House of Representatives in the last two election cycles. More recently, he's organizing a town hall event in Minot — which he's branded the People's Town Hall — as a clapback to Rep. Julie Fedorchak holding only digital town halls. He was on this episode of Plain Talk to promote that event, bu…

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No Comment | The $740,000 Question (Episode 2) 29:55

2M ago29:55

29:55

NOTE: The $740,000 question is a podcast from Plain Talk producer Matt Fern. After sending a letter to Governor Doug Burgum and receiving no response, a coalition of 27 filmmakers from across North Dakota hold a press conference outside the Attorney General’s office to demand transparency and accountability in how one filmmaker received $740,000 fr…

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623: Democratic lawmaker says now is a good time for local governments to "off ramp" property tax give aways 54:05

2M ago54:05

54:05

Even as some local governments claim that a new, 3% cap on property tax increases will cause chaos in their budgets, Sen. Josh Boschee, a Democrat from Fargo, says he and his colleagues felt it was important to implement. He says lawmakers see it as a way of putting the responsiblity for property taxes back on local governments. "In the last decade…

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622: 'The greasy pole of politics in the Republican party' 53:09

2M ago53:09

53:09

Is Doug Burgum, who is currently serving as Secretary of the Interior under President Donald Trump, a happy man right now? I posed that question in a recent column occassioned by Burgum's visit to infamous island prison Alcatraz at Trump's behest to assess it for use as a detention facility. Burgum has to know that this is a fantastically stupid id…

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621: 'We knew this was coming' 1:02:17

2M ago1:02:17

1:02:17

This episode of Plain Talk is a little unusual, because the guest we interviewed for the show is actually our own producer, Matt Fern. Matt, in addition to producing Plain Talk, is also a filmmaker by trade. A couple of years ago he organized a dozens of his colleagues from around the state to object to hundreds of thousands of dollars in film gran…

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Department of Incompetence | The $740,000 Question (Episode 1) 26:19

2M ago26:19

26:19

The $740,000 question is a podcast from Plain Talk producer Matt Fern. Making movies in North Dakota is hard. Unless you’re one company with powerful connections. In the premiere episode of The $740,000 Question, filmmaker Matt Fern unpacks how a single production company, Canticle Productions, received $700,000 in taxpayer-funded film grants from …

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620: 'This panel has represented George Floyd protesters and they have represented January 6 defendants' 58:16

2M ago58:16

58:16

Public defenders working in the federal system representing indigent defendants aren't getting paid. The federal government ran out of money, as my colleague April Baumgarten reported recently. That's a big problem. Every American accused of a crime has a right to counsel, and while you might think that public defenders are just for poor people, th…

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619: 'Conservation sometimes becomes the dog that everybody can get behind kicking' 1:07:57

3M ago1:07:57

1:07:57

One proposal in the recently passed "big, beautiful bill" that didn't make it to the finish line was an amendment from Utah Sen. Mike Lee, which would have jump-started a sell-off of federally owned lands. On this episode of Plain Talk, John Bradley, executive director of the North Dakota Wildlife Federation, talked about that victory, and also dis…

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618: Legislature stepped up with funding to move public defenders 'in the right direction' 1:03:01

3M ago1:03:01

1:03:01

The criminal justice system is often where public policy debates, from civil rights to addiction, converge. It's also critical for ensuring accountability when the government oversteps. North Dakota's Commission on Legal Counsel for Indigence, led by Director Travis Finck, headed into this year's legislative session facing a "perilous situation," t…

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617: Rep. Nico Rios didn't show up (REPLAY) 39:41

3M ago39:41

39:41

In this replay episode, we revisit a conversation that didn’t go as planned. We had scheduled Rep. Nico Rios to appear on Plain Talk to discuss his recent controversies; from bigoted and homophobic remarks during a DUI arrest, to a social media post invoking the CIA and antisemitic language, to a constitutionally questionable resolution declaring J…

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616: 'We have...lifelong Republicans saying I'm done.' (REPLAY) 37:24

3M ago37:24

37:24

In this special replay episode, Rob Port and Chad Oban revisit a timely conversation with former North Dakota Republican Party Chair Bob Harms. With infighting and censures making headlines again, Harms' perspective on internal party dynamics, district-level power struggles, and the long-term risks to the GOP brand hits even harder today. The discu…

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615: 'Donald Trump likes people who like him' 58:37

3M ago58:37

58:37

President Donald Trump joined Israel's attacks against Iran's nuclear program, and so far the operation seems to have been a success. That's certainly Sen. Kevin Cramer's view of it, as he explained on this episode of Plain Talk. He also praised Trump's willingness to repudiate some of the isolationists in the MAGA movement. "I've often said, and p…

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614: 'When someone on your own side is referring to them as cuts, you're losing that war' 1:02:20

3M ago1:02:20

1:02:20

Recently, Congresswoman Julie Fedorchak sent out an email seeking to debunk what she describes as myths when it comes to proposed changes to the Medicaid program. She argues that the program isn't being cut, but rather just being slowed in its growth. But wherever you come down on that debate, the fact that she's prompted to make these arguments is…

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613: 'We're not providing a grant. We do expect a return to come back to us.' 55:02

3M ago55:02

55:02

In a recent column, I argued that the concept of "baby bonds" — a verison of which is included in "big beautiful bill" President Donald Trump is backing in Congress — is something North Dakotans should implement whatever the federal government might do. We have hundreds of millions in revenue from the Legacy Fund's investments, and we have the Bank…

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612: 'I'm a North Dakotan first. I'm the governor second and a Republican third.' 1:00:40

3M ago1:00:40

1:00:40

The North Dakota Republican Party censured Republican Gov. Kelly Armstrong at a recent meeting. And yes, despite what some party leaders are now saying, Armstrong does see it that way. "It was a censure," he said on this episode of Plain Talk, going on to expand on his immediate reaction to the censures which was "I don't care." The censures expres…

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611: 'The escalation is 100% the point' 1:14:44

3M ago1:14:44

1:14:44

Andrew Loftesnes is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps. Specifically, he served with the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, which is the same unit that President Donald Trump has, controversially, deployed to Los Angeles to, as Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem put it recently, "liberate this city from the socialist and burde…

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610: 'There's going to be an election day reckoning' 1:23:45

4M ago1:23:45

1:23:45

When former Congressman Earl Pomeroy looks at the protests today against the Trump administration and the so-called "big, beautiful bill" in Congress, he sees echoes of the 2009 protests that ended his tenure in elected office. "There's going to be an election day reckoning," Pomeroy, a Democrat who represented North Dakota in the U.S. House from 1…

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609: Remembering Rep. Josh Christy on AI (REPLAY) 33:38

4M ago33:38

33:38

Artificial intelligence continues to dominate conversations worldwide, sparking both optimism and deep concern. On this replay episode of Plain Talk, hosts Rob Port and Chad Oban revisit a compelling discussion with the late Rep. Josh Christy, an influential North Dakota lawmaker and expert in artificial intelligence who tragically passed away duri…

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608: 'That is a blatant falsehood’ (REPLAY) 31:10

4M ago31:10

31:10

At the beginning of this episode of Plain Talk, Attorney General Drew Wrigley took exception to my recent reporting suggesting that he and Gov. Kelly Armstrong are at odds over sentencing legislation and the performance of state prison officials. Based on what would follow, I think the conflict between two of North Dakota's top elected officials is…

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607: How do we do politics in the classroom? (REPLAY) 34:15

4M ago34:15

34:15

We all know the old saying. You don't talk about religion and politics in polite company. Only, does that advice make sense in a society like ours, where we practice self-governance? How can we govern ourselves if we can't talk to one another about politics? And, more pertinent to this episode of Plain Talk, how do we teach our kids how to particip…

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606: ‘We can disagree and still respect each other’ 53:21

4M ago53:21

53:21

Recorded live at the North Dakota Professional Communicators conference in Minot, this special episode features Rob and Chad in front of a live audience talking media bias, political polarization, and the value of honest disagreement. They share lessons learned from tough interviews and respond to audience questions about journalism, trust, and wha…

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605: ‘It just doesn’t work for me’ 1:01:17

4M ago1:01:17

1:01:17

On this episode of Plain Talk, co-host Chad Oban takes the reins with guest co-host and former State Senator Jessica Bell for a conversation with Matt Perdue, Government Relations Director at North Dakota Farmers Union. Perdue, who's running to become the next president of NDFU, emphasizes the uncertainty facing many producers amid economic headwin…