What if the best ideas for America are the ones no one wants to hear?

Episode 197: It’s easy to complain about what’s wrong with the country. It’s much harder to suggest meaningful solutions — especially when those solutions are bound to be unpopular.

Hosts Richard Kyte and Scott Rada take a different approach. Instead of lamenting what’s broken, they each offer three ideas they believe would make life in America better. The catch? Most people don’t seem to want them.

Among the six proposals discussed are calls for ambitious housing reforms, a nationwide ban on cellphones in K-12 schools and the introduction of religious education into public school curricula. Kyte argues that American students are missing a crucial understanding of how religion shapes history, culture and personal identity — knowledge he says is essential to navigating the modern world.

Rada’s own list includes a push for year-round school calendars, a politically fraught but practical shift aimed at minimizing learning loss and offering teachers more balanced breaks throughout the year. He also calls for an end to single-family zoning, which he sees as a key driver of unaffordable housing and urban sprawl.

The two also take on one of the third rails of American politics: Social Security. Kyte proposes gradually raising the retirement age and means-testing benefits.

The episode closes with a conversation about public service. Rada argues that elected officials and their staff are vastly underpaid, leading to a lack of expertise in government and an overreliance on special interests to shape legislation.

“This might be our least popular suggestion,” Rada said. “But it’s hard to get smart policy when the people writing it are stretched thin and planning their exit strategy.”

Scott Rada is a digital strategist with Lee Enterprises, and Richard Kyte is the director of the D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership at Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Kyte is also the author of "Finding Your Third Place: Building Happier Communities (and Making Great Friends Along the Way)."

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