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SEASON FOUR: Arizona is less than 3% of the nation’s population but often plays a prominent role in American radicalism, like the insurrection at the nation’s Capitol on January 6th. This podcast asks why? Over four episodes, hosts Ron Hansen and Mary Jo Pitzl trace the history of Arizona’s brushes with extremism. It goes beyond outlandish acts and isolated criminal behavior. It’s a story of disillusionment, distrust of government and outright rebellion that have mixed into the state’s culture and politics. From Confederates drawn to Arizona to Ground Zero for election denialism, this is Rediscovering season four: The Roots of Radicalism. SEASON THREE: Border Patrol Agent Lonnie Swartz respo…
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · August 2026
Rediscovering gives News & Politics listeners a documented Arizona lens on radical politics, immigration enforcement, and institutional distrust.
Rediscovering belongs in News & Politics as reported Arizona history with a sharp sense of memory. The sampled episodes connect current radical politics with older fights over Confederate settlement, anti-communist loyalty campaigns, the Goldwater era, SB 1070, the Malheur…
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A sober look at how militia grievance keeps resurfacing, from Arizona to Malheur.
This chapter tracks the rise of armed anti-government extremism, from Arizona's militia climate after Oklahoma City to the Malheur occupation and the confrontation involving Robert LaVoy Finnecombe.
Arizona's anti-communist history is told with patience, local detail, and a clear eye for how fear took root.
Arizona's political history here is tied to wartime desert camps, Japanese American incarceration, and the anti-communist panic that followed, then carried forward into the Army-McCarthy hearings and the state's loyalty-oath fights.
Arizona's present-day far-right politics are read through a longer history of Confederate migration and political influence.
The episode keeps a tense line in view: Arizona's present-day far-right politics are weighed against Confederate migration, local memory, and political inheritance.
A measured history of SB 1070 that ties politics, policing, and labor together.
The episode looks at how Arizona's SB 1070 grew out of a political climate that turned immigration into a fight over policing, public support for a crackdown, and labor.
A newsroom dispute turns a dog-racing story into a study of wiretapping claims, credibility, and political fallout.
The episode follows the dog-racing reporting as it hardens into a fight over wiretapping, credibility, and who gets to shape the story. Bowles, Frasca, and the Republic's editors are trying to keep up with rumors, memos, and political fallout, and the result is tight without…
LA Times reporter Christopher Goffard traces con man John Meehan's fraud, abuse, and its Bravo TV adaptation.
UFO disclosure with teeth.
Bleak news, deadpan jokes, no broadcast polish.
Australian investigations, followed from the ground up.
The episode opens on Arizona's wartime landscape.
The episode opens with a content warning and the shadow of Oklahoma City.
Jacob Chansley reappears in Arizona a few months after leaving prison and makes clear that his time inside did not change his politics.
Arizona's SB 1070 sits at the center of this episode.
This episode explores the murder of rancher Robert Krentz and its role in sparking Arizona's controversial immigration law SB 1070.
This episode examines the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling on Arizona's SB 1070, focusing on the lingering fear of discrimination in the immigrant community and the broader context of extremism in Arizona.
This episode examines the history and impact of Arizona's Senate Bill 1070, a controversial immigration law, and its connection to broader political extremism in the state.
This episode investigates the 1976 car bombing of journalist Don Bowles and the subsequent murder investigation linking the Mafia and Arizona political figures.
This episode investigates the 1976 murder of journalist Don Bowles and its ties to Arizona's history of extremism.
A journalist faces a $20 million lawsuit after a story about wiretapping, with the episode exploring the ethics of recording conversations.
Don Bowles keeps pushing the dog-racing story while the Funks complain that the newspapers have treated the industry unfairly.