Plausibly Live - The Dave Bowman Show Podcast

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.

Plausibly Live - The Dave Bowman Show Podcast is a news podcast hosted by Dave Bowman, with 694 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Dave Bowman hosts Plausibly Live - The Dave Bowman Show Podcast, a news show with 694 episodes published.

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  Episode #261002

  Fentanyl, Fifty Cents & Dr. AI

  Oct 2, 202629 minS2026

  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

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  Episode #261001

  The Pain We Don’t Talk About

  Oct 1, 202635 minS2026

  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

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  Episode #260930

  Second Acts

  Sep 30, 202628 minS2026

  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

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  Episode #260929

  Washington's Other War

  Sep 29, 202625 minS2026

  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

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  Episode #260926

  Slow White Quarterbacks

  Sep 28, 202631 minS2026

  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

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