Quick note to listeners before we begin,

we recorded this conversation on Tuesday, July 26th.

The next day, Joe Manchin, the Senator from West Virginia,

and Chuck Schumer, the Senate Majority Leader,

announced that they'd reached an agreement on

a big budget bill, the Inflation Reduction Act,

that will, among other things,

allocate hundreds of billions of dollars

to clean energy projects and development.

As you'll hear, much of the conversation was

premised on the widespread belief that Manchin had vetoed

all of that proposed spending.

And that's the news business for you.

But the bigger picture takeaways are all,

I think, still pretty relevant.

So we decided to put it out there anyhow,

kind of like an artifact frozen in amber.

Please enjoy.

Hi, and welcome to Positively Dreadful with me,

your host, Brian Boyther.

So as you know, this is a show about trying to grasp

and hopefully overcome a variety of alarming social trends.

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