Plausibly Live - The Dave Bowman Show Podcast

Dave Bowman
  • 4.8 (13)
  • News
  • Updated Semiweekly

Plausibly Live is where history, politics, culture, and the day’s absurdities collide. Veteran submariner, historian, and longtime radio host Dave Bowman brings sharp analysis, dry humor, and an independent perspective to the stories everyone is discussing, along with a few they ought to be. No slogans, no party-line talking points, and no manufactured outrage. Just thoughtful conversation, historical context, and the occasional rabbit hole.

  1. 1d ago

    Fentanyl, Fifty Cents & Dr. AI

    A listener asks a surprisingly reasonable question: If fentanyl kills thousands of Americans, why isn’t it used for executions? From there, we follow fifty cents through a convenience-store cash register and ask what happens when an overcharge isn’t just taking money from a customer, but from taxpayers and SNAP recipients. Then there’s AI medicine. Can artificial intelligence really provide a “second opinion,” or is its better role helping patients understand what their doctors are telling them and ask better questions? Fentanyl, 7-Eleven, taxpayer money, doctors, algorithms and a little Star Trek. It all makes sense eventually. Plausibly Live with Dave Bowman. #PlausiblyLive #DaveBowman #Fentanyl #DeathPenalty #SNAP #SevenEleven #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #Healthcare #TaxpayerMoney

  2. 2d ago

    The Pain We Don’t Talk About

    Tennessee tried to execute Christa Gail Pike, administered every dose permitted by its protocol, and failed. Whatever one thinks of Pike’s brutal murder of Colleen Slemmer or of capital punishment itself, the state claimed the ultimate governmental power and demonstrated that it could not exercise that power competently. Dave examines the Eighth Amendment, the staggering cost and inconsistency of the death penalty, and whether Tennessee may constitutionally attempt the execution again. Then the discussion becomes deeply personal. A new VA report records 6,488 veteran suicides in 2024, with most occurring among veterans who had not recently received VA health care. Dave talks candidly about chronic pain, service-connected injuries, anxiety, navigating the VA system and understanding why some veterans begin to believe they cannot continue. This is an episode about government accountability, human suffering and finding a reason to get up tomorrow morning. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988, then press 1 for the Veterans Crisis Line. #PlausiblyLive #DaveBowmanShow #DeathPenalty #EighthAmendment #Veterans #VeteransAffairs #VeteranSuicidePrevention #Constitution #GovernmentAccountability

  3. 3d ago

    Second Acts

    Sometimes you need a break from everything you're supposed to be angry about. For Dave, one of those escapes has always been Two and a Half Men, or more precisely, the Charlie Sheen years. The first eight seasons worked because Charlie Harper was more than the drunken womanizer the jokes made him out to be. Beneath the booze, women and complete absence of responsibility was a man who repeatedly demonstrated that he actually loved the family he complained endlessly about. That contradiction was the heart of the character and, arguably, the heart of the show. Now Charlie Sheen is getting another shot. The new sitcom Happy Jack reunites Sheen with his father, Martin Sheen, in a story about an aging lifelong screwup confronting perhaps his last opportunity to become the father he should have been. It raises an intriguing question: what happens when the charming, irresponsible guy finally gets old? For Dave, there's something more interesting here than another television reboot or celebrity comeback. Sheen's very public collapse cost him Two and a Half Men and hurt plenty of people around him. He doesn't get a pass for that. But should the worst period of someone's life define that person forever? Maybe Happy Jack will work. Maybe it won't. But with Martin Sheen beside him, veterans of Two and a Half Men behind the scenes, and an old-fashioned multicamera sitcom filmed before a live audience, Dave is rooting for Charlie Sheen's second act. Plus, a look at the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower flight-deck accident, the dangers of carrier aviation, and what happens when the machinery aboard an aging warship fails. #PlausiblyLive #DaveBowmanShow #CharlieSheen #HappyJack #TwoAndAHalfMen #MartinSheen #SecondChances #USSEisenhower #USNavy

  4. 4d ago

    Washington's Other War

    We remember the American Revolution through its battlefields: Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill, Trenton, Saratoga, and Yorktown. We picture Washington crossing the Delaware, Continental soldiers enduring brutal winters, and British redcoats marching across the colonies. But George Washington was fighting another war at the same time. Smallpox was moving through North America, and the Continental Army was extraordinarily vulnerable. Thousands of men lived together in crowded camps. Recruits arrived from rural communities where exposure to the disease had been limited. One outbreak could incapacitate a regiment without the British firing a shot. Washington understood the danger better than most. He had survived smallpox himself as a young man. At first, his answer was quarantine and strict prohibition of inoculation. Deliberately infecting healthy soldiers with smallpox seemed almost as dangerous as allowing the disease to spread naturally. Then the evidence began to change. The disastrous Canadian campaign demonstrated what smallpox could do to an army. Events in Boston suggested that controlled inoculation might offer another path. Washington now faced an extraordinary military decision: deliberately expose his own soldiers to a deadly disease, knowing that thousands could become sick and contagious at precisely the moment the British might attack. It was a gamble involving medicine, logistics, secrecy, military readiness, and ultimately the survival of the Revolution itself. On Dave Does History, we look beyond the familiar battlefields to Washington’s Other War, and the fight against an enemy that wore neither red nor blue. #DaveDoesHistory #GeorgeWashington #AmericanRevolution #Smallpox #ContinentalArmy #RevolutionaryWar #AmericanHistory #HistoryPodcast

    Washington's Other War

  5. 5d ago

    Slow White Quarterbacks

    What happens when something sounds so absurd that we stop checking whether it’s actually true? On today’s Plausibly Live, a viral headline claims a Columbia professor won an award for a book arguing that white paint is racist. There really is a book called A Dead White: An Argument Against White Paint, but the headline leaves out some rather important details. That opens a larger question about selective outrage, viral memes, and why bad arguments deserve better arguments rather than distorted ones. Then we turn to football. Trevor Lawrence stops at the one-yard line, jokes about helping fantasy owners, and suddenly the conversation isn’t about Jacksonville winning 35–6. It’s about fantasy points, prop bets and who made or lost money. Fantasy football changed the way fans root for players; legalized sports gambling has gone further, putting a financial interest on almost every play. When something strange happens on the field, have we reached the point where our first thought is, “How much money was riding on that?” White paint, viral outrage, slow white quarterbacks, fantasy football, gambling and the increasingly complicated business of simply rooting for your team. Plausibly Live – The Dave Bowman Show #PlausiblyLive #DaveBowmanShow #FantasyFootball #SportsBetting #NFL #TrevorLawrence #FreeSpeech #MediaLiteracy

  6. Sep 26

    Thunderclappers and Hornets: The Strange Places History Survives

    History does not always survive where we expect to find it. Sometimes it is preserved in a journal or an archive. Sometimes it is buried in the dirt. And sometimes it is sitting right in front of us on a professional basketball jersey. On this edition of Plausibly Live – The Dave Bowman Show, Dave begins with his fascination with the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the sheer scale of what the Corps of Discovery attempted. More than two centuries later, despite the extensive journals Lewis and Clark kept, historians still cannot conclusively identify many of the places where the expedition camped. Enter Dr. Benjamin Rush and his wonderfully named Bilious Pills, better known as “Thunderclappers.” The Corps carried hundreds of the powerful laxatives, which contained mercury chloride. That mercury left behind an unexpected archaeological fingerprint in expedition latrines. Two hundred years later, traces in the soil can help archaeologists determine where the Corps actually camped. And yes, there is a song. From there, the story jumps to Charlotte, North Carolina, and an odd connection between the old World Football League and today's NBA: why were both Charlotte teams called the Hornets? The answer takes us back to September 1780, when Lord Cornwallis occupied Charlotte during the American Revolution. Patriot militia under William Richardson Davie could not defeat Cornwallis in a conventional battle, so they made controlling the town and surrounding countryside miserable for the British. dbs_09252026_thunderclappers-tr… The resistance helped give Charlotte its enduring identity as a “nest of hornets.” Long after Cornwallis was gone, the Hornet remained, eventually finding its way into the city's sports culture. Two stories separated by thousands of miles, connected by one of the things that makes history endlessly fascinating: the past leaves tracks. You just have to know where to look for them. #PlausiblyLive #DaveBowmanShow #LewisAndClark #CorpsOfDiscovery #BenjaminRush #Thunderclappers #AmericanHistory #RevolutionaryWar #CharlotteHornets #LordCornwallis #HistoryPodcast

  7. Sep 24

    The Final Frontier

    The United States says it has a weapon in orbit, but has revealed little about what it does. Could the announcement deter an adversary, or could uncertainty make a confrontation in space more dangerous? On this episode of Plausibly Live, I look at the possibilities behind that announcement, from disrupted signals to damaged satellites, and at a question Star Trek fans may recognize: what happens when your instruments show you where a target was instead of where it is? Captain Picard’s famous maneuver offers a surprisingly useful way into the problem. Then it’s back to Earth, where Brooks is selling $150 Mariners sneakers. The tribute to retiring broadcaster Rick Rizzs is a nice touch. After 44 years as a Mariners fan, though, I have some thoughts about what the team is asking us to celebrate. #PlausiblyLive #DaveBowmanShow #SpaceSecurity #StarTrek #PiccardManeuver #SeattleMariners #RickRizzs

  8. Sep 23

    Don’t Feed the Alligator, Do Adopt the Cat

    What do a fiercely progressive lesbian bar, an angry online mob, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and my wife’s desire for a cat have in common? They all demonstrate what happens when you believe you are in control of the situation. In Greenfield, Massachusetts, the Last Ditch Bar built its identity around inclusion, mutual aid, ideological solidarity, and an exceptionally strict masking policy. When financial reality forced the owners to make Saturday nights mask-optional, years of accommodation purchased them precisely no goodwill. The accusations arrived, the apologies followed, and each concession merely produced another offense. It is an old lesson: if you feed the alligator, it does not become grateful. It learns where the food is. Then we turn to a crisis much closer to home. Cami wants a cat. Seeking guidance, I made the questionable decision to study Cats, the musical in which unemployed felines gather in a junkyard, introduce themselves at considerable length, and compete for the privilege of being launched into the upper atmosphere inside a tire. This raises several important questions. What exactly is a Jellicle Cat? Is the Heaviside Layer cat heaven or an elaborate disposal program? Most importantly, what happens when an actual cat discovers the illuminated buttons on my RØDECaster? Join me for an episode about ideological alligators, domestic negotiations, mysterious feline rituals, and the growing suspicion that the cat has already been selected. I simply have not been told its name. #PlausiblyLive #DaveBowmanShow #DontFeedTheAlligator #CatsTheMusical #CatOwnership #Culture #PoliticalCorrectness #FreeSpeech #Commentary #Podcast

See All (694)

4.8
out of 5
13 Ratings

About

Plausibly Live is where history, politics, culture, and the day’s absurdities collide. Veteran submariner, historian, and longtime radio host Dave Bowman brings sharp analysis, dry humor, and an independent perspective to the stories everyone is discussing, along with a few they ought to be. No slogans, no party-line talking points, and no manufactured outrage. Just thoughtful conversation, historical context, and the occasional rabbit hole.

Information

You Might Also Like