{"podcast":{"title":"Serious Inquiries Only","slug":"serious-inquiries-only-495493","podcast_index_feed_id":495493,"rss_url":"https://seriouspod.libsyn.com/","website_url":"http://seriouspod.com","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/7/1/7/5/717589c7d819f89588c4a68c3ddbc4f2/SeriousInquiriesOnly_1400.jpg","author":"Thomas Smith","episode_count":838,"summary":"Join Thomas for some critical thinking on questions of science, philosophy, skepticism and politics. These serious topics are discussed with some serious guests, but in an entertaining and engaging way! This is not your typical interview podcast; it’s a friendly dialogue, conducted thoughtfully and with plenty of humor. It's Serious Inquiries Only; but like, not boring or anything.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-28T20:17:26.077408+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/serious-inquiries-only-495493"},"episode":{"title":"SIO521: The Daily Is Sane-Washing Trump's War on Higher Ed","slug":"sio521-the-daily-is-sane-washing-trump-s-war-on-higher-ed","published_at":"2026-07-21T19:40:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/serious-inquiries-only-495493/sio521-the-daily-is-sane-washing-trump-s-war-on-higher-ed","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/serious-inquiries-only-495493","url":"https://seriouspod.libsyn.com/sio521-the-daily-is-sane-washing-trumps-war-on-higher-ed","audio_url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/media.blubrry.com/atheisticallyspeaking/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/seriouspod/Episode_521_Trump_Defunding_Student_Loans.mp3?dest-id=456804","summary":"Thomas is joined by David O'Brien , a higher education policy scholar who works for the California Community Colleges system, to pick apart Trump's new rules threatening to cut off student loans and Pell grants from \"low-earning\" degree programs, and to fact-check The Daily's recent take on the same story. The real history runs through Reagan, Prop 13, and decades of quiet austerity nobody on that podcast wants to mention. Mentioned: The Daily college episode Reagan 1966 campaign clip Prop 13 CUNY tuition history California Master Plan for Higher Education Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here ! Please support the show on Patreon! You get ad-free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content! https://www.patreon.com/seriouspod","meta_description":"Thomas is joined by David O'Brien , a higher education policy scholar who works for the California Community Colleges system, to pick apart Trump's new ru…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2845,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/serious-inquiries-only-495493/episodes/sio521-the-daily-is-sane-washing-trump-s-war-on-higher-ed/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/serious-inquiries-only-495493/sio521-the-daily-is-sane-washing-trump-s-war-on-higher-ed.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}