Podcast Summary

Podcast: The David Pakman Show

Episode: BONUS FREEBIE: Republican Rep says he's spoken to dead voters, Trump targets wind and solar
Host: David Pakman (A)
Co-Host: Pat (B)
Date: August 23, 2025

OVERVIEW

In this bonus episode, David Pakman and co-host Pat cover recent right-wing talking points and their real-world implications. The episode begins with the viral claim by Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who stated he spoke to “dead voters,” and unpacks the ongoing Republican narrative around voter fraud and mail-in ballots. The conversation then shifts to Donald Trump’s opposition to renewable energy projects, the flawed but influential arguments leveraged by the right, and an exploration of common resistance to electric vehicles. The episode wraps up with a discussion on map projections—particularly the Mercator vs. Equal Earth debate—highlighting the geographic and political stakes in how the world is visually represented.

1. Republican Rep Claims to Have "Spoken to Dead Voters"

(00:00 - 06:07)

Discussion Points:

• Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew recently claimed he had spoken to “large numbers” of dead voters regarding mail-in ballot fraud, invoking an absurd scenario reminiscent of The Sixth Sense (“I see dead people”) [00:31].
  • David’s Analysis: Linguistically, Van Drew said he spoke to dead people, but the charitable reading is that he spoke with people who claimed to receive ballots for deceased relatives [01:11].
  • Pat’s Take: Even if Van Drew meant something less literal, “it’s still absurd because... the claim of dead people voting does not hold water” [02:03].
• They clarify legitimate administrative lag in removing deceased voters from rolls is not equivalent to fraud:
  • David: “As long as a dead person's not voting because they’re dead, so they can't. And as long as no one else is taking that ballot and filling it in and returning it fraudulently...” [02:34].
  • Voter roll inaccuracies are not evidence of widespread fraud; being registered in two locations is not a scandal unless someone double-votes.
• Motivation for the narrative:
  • Republicans “continue to lie about this issue… it’s worked for them because they've been able to try to restrict voting access across the country whenever they hold power” [03:28].
  • The goal is to push toward eliminating mail-in ballots, especially in GOP-controlled states [03:28-04:42].

Notable Moments & Quotes:

• David: "Clearly a literal linguistic analysis is he says he spoke to large numbers of dead people. There is no doubt that linguistically that's what he said. Do I think he's saying he spoke to dead people? No…" [01:11].
• Pat: "We have plenty of evidence showing that this claim... doesn't hold water. There's not a lot of tangible proof behind it" [02:03].

2. Trump’s Attacks on Renewable Energy

(06:07 - 09:06)

Discussion Points:

• Trump announced plans to halt new solar and wind permits, with Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to make final decisions.
• Trump’s reasons include “whales get cancer,” “blades kill birds,” and “forms of energy are very stupid”—none of which have substantial scientific backing [06:33].
  • David: “Even though it’s true some birds are killed by wind farms, that’s absolutely true. But what about all of the animals killed by oil spills?” [07:37]
  • Trump ignores the much larger negative externalities of fossil fuels.
• If all energy sources lost subsidies, renewables would still quickly gain efficiency and lower costs, provided time to innovate.

Notable Moments & Quotes:

• Pat: "[Trump] just likes to do his shtick about how the wind farms are ugly and how solar energy doesn't work if it's not sunny out… They treat this stuff as if it's like not a serious topic." [08:22]
• Renewable energy opposition is framed as a culture war rather than a good-faith technology debate.

3. Resistance to Electric Vehicles: A Thought Experiment

(09:06 - 11:11)

Discussion Points:

• Rory Sutherland’s thought experiment: If we had a century of electric vehicles, would anyone switch to gas-powered cars given the downsides (noise, carcinogenic emissions, maintenance, risk of carbon monoxide poisoning)? David and Pat agree the proposition is absurd [09:06-10:35].
• David: “We've had gas powered vehicles for a long time. And so much of our economy is based around them... But in the all in all, we of course know that electric cars are better all around.” [11:11]

Notable Moments & Quotes:

• David: “If it’s electric vehicles that continue, I think in 50 years they will look very different. But then we're talking about hydrogen fuel cell and all these other ideas. So my question is, is it an improvement? Is it an improvement? And I've decided that it is. I've been, I've been very happy with mine now for I guess, I guess seven years.” [11:11]

4. The Mercator Map vs. Equal Earth: Size, Shape, and Political Implications

(11:11 - 18:09)

Discussion Points:

• The African Union is proposing adoption of the Equal Earth map projection, as the Mercator map shrinks Africa and exaggerates the size of places like Greenland.
• David & Pat: All flat maps distort some combination of area, shape, distance, or direction. The only “accurate” flat map would be a circular azimuthal projection (North Pole at the center) but it’s not practical [12:00-14:50].
• The Mercator preserves shapes but distorts area; Equal Earth gets land areas right but stretches shapes—e.g., Africa appears “taller than it should be” [14:47].
• Educational Approach: Exposure to multiple map types might foster better geographic literacy and challenge parochial views promoted by the centering and sizing choices of traditional Western maps [14:50-15:50].
• David: Skeptical that a bigger Africa on maps would automatically change investment or Western perceptions.

Notable Moments & Quotes:

• Pat: “Maybe it just makes sense to have a bunch of different varieties of maps in the classroom so people are aware of the different ways to view the world. And even maps that are unconventional, like those maps that are completely upside down…” [15:26]
• David: “Every map. When you translate a three-dimensional sphere onto a flat map, you're going to have some combination of … distortion.” [15:50]
• Pat: “Do you accept the argument that… if Africa was portrayed… to have its actual size, that the world would maybe pay more attention to the continent, invest more in…” — David: “No. I really don't think it would make a difference. I don't.” [16:51–17:04]

Listener Engagement:

• David and Pat invite feedback: “Where are the Mercator stands? ... Depending on how much follow up we get, we can do a story about it.” [17:53-18:13]

TIMESTAMPS & KEY SEGMENTS

• Republican Rep’s “Dead Voter” Claim – [00:00–06:07]
• Trump Attacks on Wind & Solar – [06:07–09:06]
• Thought Experiment: If Electric Cars Came First – [09:06–11:11]
• Map Projections: Mercator vs. Equal Earth – [11:11–18:09]

SELECTED QUOTES

“Clearly a literal linguistic analysis is he says he spoke to large numbers of dead people. There is no doubt that linguistically that's what he said.”
— David Pakman [01:11]

"We have plenty of evidence showing that this claim... doesn't hold water. There's not a lot of tangible proof behind it."
— Pat [02:03]

"Even though it’s true some birds are killed by wind farms... What about all of the animals killed by oil spills?"
— David Pakman [07:37]

"Maybe it just makes sense to have a bunch of different varieties of maps in the classroom so people are aware of the different ways to view the world."
— Pat [15:26]

EPISODE SUMMARY

This episode is a broad-ranging, skeptical, and witty breakdown of misleading right-wing arguments on voting and energy, mixed with a thoughtful examination of how even something as simple as a map shapes our worldview. Engaging and data-driven, David and Pat ground each topic in evidence while maintaining a breezy, accessible tone.