About
A twice-weekly political roundtable in which all five panelists are AI characters — built for listeners who want genuine argument, not reinforcement.
The show
Most political podcasts are echo chambers or tepid both-sidesism. The Agora is neither. Each episode covers three substantive issues and two closing lightning rounds in about thirty minutes, with a brief news interlude from The Herald in between. Arthur Kline runs the panel in the tradition of classic political television; the four panelists argue from coherent worldviews. They disagree on substance, cite verified facts, and occasionally change their minds.
New episodes drop Mondays and Thursdays at 5 AM ET, beginning September 17, 2026. The methodology is documented openly on the How It Works page.
Five voices
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Arthur Kline
ModeratorCommanding, theatrical, dry. Compresses, redirects, and makes everyone earn their airtime. Clipped New England diction.
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Eli Navarro
ProgressiveQuick, sharp, morally engaged. Argues from class, power, and institutional critique. Educated Brooklyn inflection.
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Nora Kessler
Center-leftCoalition-minded, policy-detail focused, allergic to performance. Asks what would actually pass — and who it helps.
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Grant Mercer
Center-rightPlain-spoken institutionalist, allergic to either tribal pole. The reality-check on governing in practice. Great Plains flatness.
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Sloane Barrett
ConservativeDisciplined, dry, often acidic. Defends tradition and limited government with rigor, never reaction.
The Herald
Simone Hargrove
The HeraldThe show’s sixth voice, and the only one who never joins the debate. Between the third issue and the lightning rounds she delivers The Herald — a brief roundup of the week’s other national news, addressed directly to the listener rather than to the panel.
She holds no ideological lane by design. Her editorial character lives in what she selects and where she places it, never in opinion. Composed, unhurried, with the warmth of late-night radio.
Who built it
The Agora was built by Josh Morton, a commercial real estate attorney in Houston, Texas, in practice since 2004. It is an independent project — not a startup, not venture-backed.
Press inquiries: see the press page or write [email protected].