Professors weigh in on First Amendment boundaries

On this week’s episode of Tying it Together, host Tim Boyum chats with Congressman Pat Harrigan.  The Republican representing the 10th district is a former Army Special Forces officer and Green Beret. He graduated from West Point with a degree in nuclear engineering, as well.  Tim and Rep. Harrigan talk about his background in the military, why he ran for Congress, the partisan divide and the debate over crime in cities like Charlotte.

On this week’s episode of Tying it Together, host Tim Boyum talks with North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton.  Clayton discusses next year’s top-watched U.S. Senate race, the future of the Democratic party and the political debates centered on crime in the state and around the country. Clayton, who was the nation’s youngest state party chair just two years earlier, recently secured a second term as head of the North Carolina Democratic Party.

On this week’s episode of Tying it Together, host Tim Boyum talks with two First Amendment experts in light of the debate over free speech since the death of Charlie Kirk and Jimmy Kimmel’s temporary suspension.  Tim’s guests are UNC Law professor Bill Marshall and Campbell Law professor Greg Wallace.  They will debate the origins, any exceptions, and whether recent events are tiptoeing the line of violating the First Amendment.

On this week’s episode of Tying it Together, host Tim Boyum dives back into the world of college athletics, focusing on the political aspects of the sport as the college football season continues. This week, he takes a closer look at UNC-Chapel Hill after shocking the world and hiring Bill Belichick. He works to learn how the university is navigating revenue sharing, conference realignment and raised expectations.  Tim is joined by Greg Barnes from Inside Carolina and the On3 network. He’s been at the forefront of writing about the business side of UNC athletics.

On this week’s episode of Tying it Together, host Tim Boyum talks with Matt Brown from Extra Points.  As the college football season heats up, we are talking about the politics of college athletics, from NIL and conference realignment to even video games. Will politicians intervene?  We tackle it all with the founder and publisher of Extra Points, which tackles all things college sports off the field.

On this week’s episode of Tying it Together, host Tim Boyum travels to Cornelius to meet with U.S. Senator Thom Tillis. There they talk about his debate with President Trump and his decision to retire. Sen. Tillis talks in depth about the conversations with President Trump, his decision not to run for reelection and the death threats he has received in recent years.  They also walk the mountain bike path that led to his political career in the first place.

On this week’s episode of Tying it Together, pollster Tom Jensen joins host Tim Boyum to talk about early polling in the 2026 U.S. Senate race and whether we can really glean any insight this early into the race.  Jensen also talks in depth about the overall political mood for 2026, the highs and lows for candidates Roy Cooper and Michael Whatley, and why we should reconsider everything we think we know about the race.  Jensen has been a pollster with the nationally recognized Public Policy Polling since 2007. He’s a UNC-Chapel Hill graduate.

On this week’s episode of Tying it Together, an exclusive interview with Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley.  The RNC Chairman and former N.C. GOP chairman discusses his decision to run for office for the first time, his race against former Gov. Roy Cooper, and all the issues that will make this the most important and closely watched race in the country in 2026.

With cryptocurrency in political headlines from Congress to the White House, we figured it was time to get some experts on to help us understand it all. Two well-versed and well-spoken experts from Duke University join host Tim Boyum to share their experiences. Jimmie Lenz is the Director of the Master of Engineering in Financial Technology and Master of Engineering in Cybersecurity at Duke University. Lee Reiners is a lecturing fellow at Duke University and Duke Law. They have both testified before Congress on the issues and have their own podcast called Coffee and Crypto with Lee and Jimmie.

In just one summer week, the nation’s most important and expensive race blew up with former Gov. Roy Cooper and RNC Chairman Michael Whatley both entering the race.  They are likely to face each other in the 2026 general election to replace Senator Thom Tillis.  This week, one of the state’s most prominent consultants, Republican Jim Blaine, joins us to break down what each candidate brings to the table, their potential pitfalls and who has an advantage some 15 months before the highly anticipated election.  Blaine is a co-founder of The Differentiators and was one of Sen. Phil Berger’s most powerful lieutenants.