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The Radical Moderate
The Radical Moderate cuts through the noise with sharp, practical conversations about how we move forward as a country. Hosted by businessman and author Pat O’Brien, the show brings clarity, candor, and a willingness to challenge lazy thinking. Whether in business, politics, or culture, we need a fresh approach to how we address problems—and this podcast delivers just that. Every week, in just 30 minutes, Pat explores solutions that respect ideals but measure results. This is moderation with teeth: ideas that hold up over time.
Episodes
31 episodes
Ep. 31 - National Stage: Will Arkansas Claim the White House?
Political dominance is rarely a permanent state, but Arkansas has managed a total transformation from deep blue to solid red in less than a decade. The stakes for 2028 are already high as two of the state's most prominent figures, Senator Tom C...
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Ep. 30 - Control Your Brand While Expanding Fast
Scaling a business is the point where most founders accidentally break what they built. Growth often feels like a choice between staying small and high-quality or going big and watching your standards evaporate. John Mautner joins us to break d...
Ep. 29 - Tenacious Global Domination: The Nutty Bavarian Story
He quits a good-paying corporate job, builds a simple cart with a copper kettle, and bets everything on the smell of cinnamon sugar in the air. Then reality hits: 100-hour weeks, $10 days, late rent, angry suppliers, and the kind of pressure th...
Ep. 28 - Blood and Billions: The Cost of War
War feels abstract until the price shows up in bodies, bills, and broken trust. We’re staring at a new conflict with Iran, and I don’t think the right question is “whose team are you on?” The better question is whether we’ve learned anything fr...
Ep. 27 - Iran War: The 2026 High-Stakes Gamble
A war begins on February 28 and the explanation arrives a month later. That timing alone forces a bigger question than any single headline: what happens to democracy when the commander in chief can stretch war powers without Congress, without a...
Ep. 26 - Nuclear Truth: Safety, Cost, and Reality
A new data center can arrive in 18 months and pull as much electricity as a mid-sized city. The grid that has to serve it might need 10 to 15 years just to permit and build one major transmission line. That gap is where today’s energy fights ar...
Ep. 25 - The Energy Grid: Why Your Lights Stay On
The electric grid is so reliable that we treat it like background noise, until a heat wave hits and your phone flashes a conservation alert. Pat O’Brien sits down with Gary Moody, vice chair of Arkansas Advanced Energy, to break the system down...
Ep. 24 - Border Reality: Perception vs. Policy
The border debate is loud, emotional, and often totally detached from how US immigration law actually works. I wanted to do a real-world self-check: what changed between Trump, Biden, and the current backlash, and why does it feel like the syst...
Ep. 23 - Amnesty to Enforcement: Unpacking the 1986 Turning Point
Fire, grief, and policy collide when we ask a blunt question: how did U.S. immigration become a perpetual crisis, and who actually has the power to end it? We trace the story from the early quota laws through the 1965 reset and into the 1986 gr...
Ep. 22 - Disruptors: From Trump to Stephen A. Smith
What happens when a sports heavyweight starts speaking like a candidate and college athletics starts operating like a startup? We connect the dots between Stephen A. Smith’s jump into political commentary and the market forces transforming NIL-...
Ep. 21 - Radical Honesty: Can Friends Still Talk Politics?
What happens when two close friends, raised on Razorback baseball and drive-in burgers, stand on opposite sides of America’s loudest arguments? We open the door to a raw, respectful conversation that refuses caricature and trades hot takes for ...
Ep. 20 - Holding Police Accountable with Dave O’Brien
Power without limits erodes trust. So we asked civil rights attorney Dave O’Brien to unpack where legal shields end and accountability begins, starting with qualified immunity and the controversial “clearly established” requirement that can blo...
Ep. 19 - Deadly Force Standards Explained with Civil Rights Attorney Dave O'Brien
Two deaths in Minneapolis put the use-of-force spotlight back on the law that governs split-second decisions. We sit down with civil rights attorney Dave O’Brien to unpack what “objectively reasonable” really means, why context can flip a verdi...
Ep. 18 - The Hidden Half: Dyslexia Misunderstood & Underserved | With the Nelm's Dyslexia Center Pt 2
One in five learners may struggle to read, yet the path to support is clearer than most families are told. We sit down with Melissa Duersch of the Nelms Dyslexia Center and Scott Simon of the Don and Millie Nelms Foundation to chart exactly how...
Ep. 17 - Dyslexia and the Hidden Education Crisis | With the Nelm's Dyslexia Center
What if one in five people reads the world differently, and our schools aren’t built for them? We sit down with Melissa Duersch of the Nelms Dyslexia Center and Scott Simon of the Don and Millie Nelms Foundation to trace the path from a parent’...
Ep. 16 - Intersection Economics: A New Way to See the System
What if the economy isn’t a maze to solve but a city to manage, one intersection at a time? We take a practical lens to markets, debt, and reform by introducing “intersection economics,” a rule-set that prioritizes safe, efficient flow over ide...
Ep. 15 - The Debt Bomb Is Ticking
A 38 trillion dollar debt is a big number, but the ratio is the real warning sign. We walk through a century of U.S. debt-to-GDP, from a lean 16 percent in 1929 to a wartime peak after WWII, and finally to today’s structurally heavy load near 1...
Ep. 14 - Let AI Fix Congress
The fight over Congress doesn’t start on election day; it starts on the map. We unpack how gerrymandering turns general elections into afterthoughts, supercharges primaries, and rewards the loudest voices over the most effective problem solvers...
Ep. 13 – Echoes of ’68: Are We Stronger Today?
What if the fire of 1968 and the anxiety of today are different kinds of hard? We take a clear-eyed look at war, political violence, civil rights, the economy, and trust to see where the late 1960s truly outpace our current moment, and where 20...
Ep. 12 - You’re More Talented Than You Think
Ever had your plan evaporate overnight and wondered what’s left when the title goes quiet? That’s where found myself after a narrow statewide loss and a forced pause that led me to Italy and a dog-eared copy of Ken Robinson’s The Elem...
Ep. 11 - Fall 2025: Tragedy, Power Plays & Missed Priorities
Headlines fought for attention all fall, but only a few moments truly shifted the ground. We open with the hardest one: the assassination of Charlie Kirk and what political violence steals from public life. You don’t have to share his views to ...
Ep. 10 - What If Mental Health Care Can Lower Incarceration?
A better answer to rising incarceration might start with a monthly shot. Judge Robert Herzfeld joins us to explore how long-acting injectables, smarter diversion, and targeted accountability can keep people stable, families intact, and courts f...
Ep. 9 - America’s Incarceration Math
Ever wonder why the United States holds the top spot among major nations for incarceration—and what we could do differently without risking public safety? We sit down with Circuit Court Judge Robert Herzfeld, whose career spans prosecuting atto...
Ep. 8 – Building Up, Not Out
Want a clearer way to fund what matters without writing a blank check? We sit down with Fayetteville Mayor Molly Rawn to break down a voter-friendly bond approach that keeps the tax rate steady while letting residents approve nine priorities on...
Ep. 7 - What Makes a City Work: A Mayor’s POV
What if the most important part of your city is the part you never see? We sit down with Mayor Molly Rawn for a candid tour of how Fayetteville actually works, from a “strong mayor” structure that ties policy to execution, to the hidden systems...