🌽Cornhole Champions #8 – Best seats for the billionaires (with Rep. J. D. Scholten, Sen. Zach Wahls, and Austin Frerick)

By Zachary Oren Smith

January 22, 2025

Toss some bags and complain with us about the country’s political alignment with the richest people on earth. Bright ideas: campaign finance reform and lots of it.

🌽Cornhole Champions #8 – Best seats for the billionaires (with Rep. J. D. Scholten, Sen. Zach Wahls, and Austin Frerick) by Zachary Oren Smith

Toss some bags and complain with us about the country’s political alignment with the richest people on earth. Bright ideas: campaign finance reform and lots of it.

Read on Substack

It’s week one of the Trump presidency. If the fat reem of executive orders didn’t bother you, than the 11 trillion dollars dressed as people on the inauguration stage should. These are the people with the president’s ear and the rest of us can’t even get inside to watch the inauguration.

On this episode of Cornhole Champions—after making a big to-do about being a local podcast—we’re thinking about the inauguration, the election and the billionaires that defined it. Hosts Zachary Oren Smith and Amie Rivers dig through executive orders and why mutual aid can do a lot in times like these.

Hear from state Rep. J.D. Scholten and Sen. Zach Wahls about why corporate interests and its political power should worry you. And why Austin Frerick says corporate consolidation in the agriculture and food sector is making our lives worse and less tasty.

Cornhole Champions is a weekly podcast powered by Iowa Starting Line with music by Avery Mossman. We are a proud member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. For more, check out its roundup of local writers.

Subscribe:

Links:

1st Story – Trump versus the US Constitution (Iowa Starting Line)
2nd Story – We care for us: Iowa places to support as another Trump presidency looms (Iowa Starting Line)
3rd Story – ‘Best seats’ for billionaires at Trump’s inauguration (Iowa Starting Line)
Bonus – Read J.D.’s latest on the new Gilded Age and the billionaires that run it all. (You’re Probably Getting Screwed)
2x Bonus – Trump’s Gender Order Won’t Affect Existing Passports — Unless They’re Renewed (NOTUS)

Guests:

Rep. J.D. Scholten of Sioux City is a Democrat representing State House District 1.
Sen. Zach Wahls is a Democrat representing State Senate District 37.
Austin Frericks the author of Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food.

Zachary Oren Smith

Zachary Oren Smith is your friendly neighborhood reporter. He leads Starting Line’s political coverage where he investigates corruption, housing affordability and the future of work. For nearly a decade, he’s written award-winning stories for Iowa Public Radio, The Des Moines Register and Iowa City Press-Citizen. Send your tips on hard news and good food to [email protected].

View all posts

CATEGORIES: TRUMP

Support Our Cause

Thank you for taking the time to read our work. Before you go, we hope you'll consider supporting our values-driven journalism, which has always strived to make clear what's really at stake for Iowans and our future.

Since day one, our goal here at Iowa Starting Line has always been to empower people across the state with fact-based news and information. We believe that when people are armed with knowledge about what's happening in their local, state, and federal governments—including who is working on their behalf and who is actively trying to block efforts aimed at improving the daily lives of Iowan families—they will be inspired to become civically engaged.