Podcast Summary: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show – "Normally Podcast: Portland, Crime, and Classrooms: What Failing Cities Teach Us About Accountability"

Episode Date: September 30, 2025
Hosts: Mary Kathryn Hamp & Carol Markowitz

Episode Overview

This episode dives into some of America’s most contentious issues—urban decline, education failures, and the cultural schisms driving accountability in our cities and schools. Using recent news stories from Portland, Des Moines, and national education data as jumping-off points, hosts Mary Kathryn Hamp and Carol Markowitz blend sharp criticism, wry humor, and policy analysis. They discuss why some cities and school systems are failing, what’s working elsewhere, and why entrenched ideological bubbles prevent meaningful reform. Other key topics include media coverage biases, school leadership scandals, the aftermath of political violence, and the cycle of radical empathy in the liberal establishment.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Opening Banter & Comedy as Cultural Commentary

(03:13–05:41)

• The hosts kick off with a weekend recap, including Carol's experience seeing comedian Shane Gillis.
• Key Insight: Gillis is highlighted as one of the rare politically engaged comics who critiques both sides, but is nonetheless marginalized by the left for “coding” conservative.
  • “The left will never accept him because he codes so conservative…but he still seems very in the middle. If the left would wake up a little bit, they’d realize what they have in a Shane Gillis type.” – Carol Markowitz (04:21)
• Mary Kathryn notes that live comedy often delivers more nuance than today’s ideologically-driven discourse:
  • “Chris Rock is also a good one for making fun of all sorts of people…he ticks off everyone at some point during the show.” – Mary Kathryn Hamp (05:25)

2. The "Mississippi Miracle:" Literacy, Accountability, and Denial in Blue States

(05:53–13:37)

• National education results are at historic lows, especially in literacy.
  • “32% of high school seniors scored below basic, which means they cannot find details in a text…we’re not doing great.” – Mary Kathryn Hamp (06:04)
• Southern states, particularly Mississippi, have dramatically improved literacy rates using traditional, accountability-driven methods: explicit phonics instruction, flashcards, and holding back non-readers.
  • “All the red states have figured out how to teach kids to read, and blue states are inexplicably not following their lead.” – Mary Kathryn Hamp (07:21)
  • Louisiana’s improvement attributed to “going back to basics...shipping old school flashcards with math facts” (07:28)
  • “It turns out that low income black students can learn to read…you just use phonics, you teach teachers to teach phonics, and then you apply accountability. That’s the three-pronged attack that Mississippi used.” – Mary Kathryn Hamp (08:42)
• Discussion of ideological resistance in blue states; preference for "newfangled" approaches over proven basics, linked to denial and media coverage biases.
  • “They are completely focused on finding newfangled solutions… they don’t understand doing things that have worked in the past.” – Carol Markowitz (09:53)
  • “If your ideological model is more important than kids learning, you have a bad ideological model.” – Carol Markowitz (12:49)
• The role of stigma in retention: elite private schools hold back students for success, but in public schools, it’s seen as failure.
  • “Social promotion is so much worse than being held back…promoting kids who can’t read is a terrible idea.” – Carol Markowitz (11:19)

3. School Leadership Scandal in Des Moines: Ideology Over Integrity

(13:55–18:05)

• Story of Des Moines’ superintendent, Dr. Ian Roberts, detained by ICE for deportation despite past weapons charges, criminal record, and alleged falsification of credentials.
  • The school board president urges “radical empathy” in response, prioritizing compassion for the superintendent over transparency for parents.
  • “Your actual job is to know the facts about the guy you hired…when it comes to education in liberal areas…the stuff they will tell you is acceptable is astounding.” – Mary Kathryn Hamp (16:10)
  • “Having a sex offender in several high school locker rooms…that seems fine to us…The bar is so, so, so low.” – Mary Kathryn Hamp (16:39)
  • Quote of Radical Empathy:
    “It seems fitting to take a page out of Dr. Roberts' book and ask the community to engage in radical empathy as we work through the situation together…” – Jackie Norris, Des Moines School Board (14:54)
• Discussion of broader trends: criminal backgrounds are endorsed as a means to diversify school staff.
  • “He was for it because it would diversify their staff.” – Mary Kathryn Hamp (17:54)
  • Hosts urge listeners not to “take this nonsense from them” and demand higher standards of accountability.

4. Aftermath of Political Violence & Media’s Moral Confusion

(22:36–32:56)

• Examination of the media and left-leaning intellectuals’ reaction to the (fictional) killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
• Ta-Nehisi Coates is quoted as expressing horror at the killing, but ultimately justifies emotional distance based on his perception of Kirk as a “hate monger.”
  • “I always think it’s important to differentiate how people die versus how they live.” – Ta-Nehisi Coates (25:36)
  • Hosts criticize the tendency to justify dehumanization of political adversaries and reject the idea that disagreement equals hate.
  • “I didn’t agree with everything my husband says…It makes no sense.” – Carol Markowitz (27:11)
• Critique of Nicole Hannah-Jones’ response: she equates Kirk’s mainstream conservatism with hate and disallows the possibility of civil debate on campus.
  • “She’s trying to disqualify all conservative thought…Because Jones disagrees with you, she just says, you're a racist, fascist, homophobe.” – Mary Kathryn Hamp (29:55)
• Discussion of public tributes to radical activists (e.g., Assata Shakur), the lack of critique within left-leaning circles, and the erosion of standards for acceptable discourse.
  • “There’s no self policing on the left. There’s no kind of think pieces like, oh, this is not who we are.” – Carol Markowitz (32:28)
  • On the celebration of radical violence:
    “This was all political violence. That is good. And it’s teachers unions and the press and entities of the left are happy to say so.” – Mary Kathryn Hamp (32:14)

5. Portland, Urban Collapse & the Limits of Radical Empathy

(37:55–43:40)

• Discussion of President Trump’s proposal to use the National Guard in Portland, city officials’ denials of urban decline, and media talking points that rebrand decay as “vibrant.”
  • “The Portland mayor says there’s no problem in Portland. What are you even talking about?” – Carol Markowitz (37:58)
  • Mark Hemingway cited:
    “Downtown Portland is mostly vacant and full of stabby homeless addicts. Portland has the second most crime of any city in America. Vibrant and peaceful is objectively a lie.” – Quoted by Carol Markowitz (40:39)
• Hosts recount how major American cities suffered from policy failures during 2020–21 riots, with Portland as a case study in failed leadership and consequences of hands-off policing.
  • “Cities…adopted policies that were basically suicide for their downtown areas…allowing for rioting, vandalism, occupation of major parts of cities.” – Mary Kathryn Hamp (41:08)
• Discussion of successful urban turnarounds, citing New York and Miami as proof that decline can be reversed with will and proper policy.
  • “Cities need to remember that they can fix themselves…Let the Trump administration try to help.” – Carol Markowitz (41:31)
• Critique of “radical empathy” as a governing principle; hosts argue it serves to excuse dysfunction rather than solve it.
  • “The liberal bubble inside these cities…is simply pro the crime…They put the criminal and the criminal’s rights and radical empathy above…the quality of life of their citizens.” – Mary Kathryn Hamp (42:39)
  • “Just be normal.” – Carol Markowitz (43:30)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On blue state resistance to proven educational reforms:
  “They are serving low income and minority children better than California… It turns out that low income black students can learn to read and that you shouldn't treat them as if they cannot and that this is some impossible task.” – Mary Kathryn Hamp (08:42)

• On the political incentives preventing positive coverage:
  “The appetite to tell positive stories in red states is low.” – Karen Vates, quoted by Mary Kathryn Hamp (12:36)

• On the phenomena of ‘radical empathy’:
  “Radical empathy is the recognition that we can disagree and still empathize with each other. The respect of others, humanity. This concept will be essential as we wait to learn more. We do not have all the facts.” – Jackie Norris (14:54)

• On media and activist reactions to political violence:
  “In some parts of polite society, it now holds that if many of Kirk's views were repugnant, his willingness to calmly argue about them…and his insistence that people hash out their disagreements through discourse at a time of such division made him a free speech advocate…and an exemplar of how we should engage politically across differences. But for those who were directly targeted by Kirk's rhetoric, I could think of maybe a different phrase for that in this case.” – Nicole Hannah-Jones, quoted by Mary Kathryn Hamp (28:56)

• On American cities’ decline and potential for renewal:
  “My kids get shocked when they see homeless people…they had gotten used to living in a place where it wasn’t normal to have people just sleeping in the streets. Cities need to remember that they can fix themselves.” – Carol Markowitz (41:31)

Important Timestamps

• Comedy as Political Crossroads: 03:13–05:41
• Mississippi Miracle & Literacy Politics: 05:53–13:37
• Des Moines Superintendent Scandal: 13:55–18:05
• Political Violence & Media Reactions: 22:36–32:56
• Portland, Urban Crime & Empathy Debates: 37:55–43:40

Tone & Style

• Candid, irreverent, and pointed. Mary Kathryn Hamp and Carol Markowitz blend humor with serious critique, highlighting perceived absurdities and failures in progressive governance and media narratives.
• Mix of policy analysis and culture war commentary, delivered in a conversational, accessible style.
• Frequent use of memorable one-liners, e.g., “Just be normal,” and recurring critiques of “radical empathy” and leftwing denialism.

Conclusion

This episode presents a tour through America’s culture and policy wars—sharply critiquing educational failing, media bias, knee-jerk defenses of criminal administrators, and the cycle of radical empathy stifling accountability. The hosts argue for a return to basics: in reading instruction, in public safety, and in civic debate, pressing listeners to demand more from public officials, media, and themselves.