On the Other Hand

In this episode (originally aired July 21, 2026 as "A Braver Arkansas," a TV partnership between Braver Angels Arkansas and Arkansas TV, Arkansas's public television network), we feature audio only from that program, in which Glen and April talk with Lisa McNeir, a retired psychologist and longtime member of Braver Angels Arkansas leadership, currently serving as the organization's statewide Alliance Co...

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 Litt...

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 cont...

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&nd...

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 a...

In this first part of our interview with Nate Coulter, Director of the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS), Nate traces his path from a small Arkansas town to Harvard Law, describing the culture shock of Cambridge and his choice to return to Arkansas for family ties and a bigger impact in a smaller community. He credits his father's furniture store with teaching him respect for employees at every lev...

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 ...

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), talki...

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...

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, d...

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: relationshi...

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...

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...

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 ca...

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 genui...

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 ...

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 progres...

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 eth...