The Scouting Lounge
South Dakota’s leading alternative, independent and locally owned newspaper focusing on culture and politics in the Mount Rushmore State. Follow us on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
The Dakota Scout
Show overview
The Scouting Lounge has been publishing since 2022, and across the 4 years since has built a catalogue of 90 episodes. That works out to roughly 90 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a fortnightly cadence.
Episodes typically run thirty-five to sixty minutes — most land between 45 min and 1h 10m — though episode length varies meaningfully from one episode to the next. None of the episodes are flagged explicit by the publisher. It is catalogued as a EN-language News show.
The show is actively publishing — the most recent episode landed 2 days ago, with 34 episodes already out so far this year. The busiest year was 2025, with 44 episodes published. Published by The Dakota Scout.
From the publisher
The Scouting Lounge is a weekly podcast from The Dakota Scout, where award-winning reporters Joe Sneve and Jonathan Ellis ditch the gotcha journalism to bring candid, behind-the-scenes conversations with South Dakota’s political leaders, celebrities and newsmakers. Blending sharp insight with dry humor, the show offers a refreshingly human take on the headlines — plus a peek into the newsroom as Sneve and Ellis wrestle with the challenges of fair reporting in a polarized world. From the state Capitol to backstage passes, The Scouting Report is where South Dakota’s biggest stories meet its most honest voices. No scripts. No spin. Just real talk. www.thedakotascout.com
Latest Episodes
View all 90 episodesRoom for improvement | ‘Back to normal ... what we have here is good’ | A big job | The Democrats most winnable race? | Using AI to improve record keeping | Online & early voter registration
Asking hard questions | Connecting dots | Clinging to leadership | Flock camera hype | Surveying Smithfield | Surviving a fire | Hiring the right person
Visiting Wrigley | Winning state | Forging better athletes | New 9-to-5er | Making a majority | Hiding in the bathroom | Abnormally triggered | Building better businesses
(STRONG LANGUAGE) ‘Doors win wars’ | Vanquished & helpful | Mr. Mandate? | Lessons of ‘02, ‘20 & ‘26 | Did it get in the meat? | The Fifth | Fauci's find, fine & failure
South Dakota Republicans will decide | Final days, final attacks | Finding humor in high-stakes politics | Win or lose, what's next? | About those polls... | Audio wars
Twigs & Ernie | A 'nice' $69M surplus | The governor who shall not be named | Legislative-executive cooperation | Fighting over scraps? | Betty's choice
Remembering David | Congratulating Christine | Sneve's correction | Trolling with public info | Running proud | That other runoff | Constitutional communism?
Blacklisted? | Political Covidians, cowards or 'Midwest Nice'? | Ellis & Joe's favorite Declaration signers | Power posturing | 'This level of smoke' | Founders, framers & America250
A recount advantage | Get ready for court | A divided GOP | Tit for tat in the governor's race | Regulators | America250
EPISODE 200: 100 cops short | Lincoln Day dinners | McPherson County mania | Erickson-Smith predictions | Double standards & malicious politics | Prosecutor packing | Consolidated election failure
Zak v. Zach | Sioux Falls Central District civic champions | Two campaigns, two runoffs | Art, walkability, Smithfield, data centers | Lowercase ‘l’ libertarian | Thinking bigger
Doeden's Matt Hurley & Rhoden's Ian Fury collide | Bombing an intro | USD love, Med school move & keeping Verm alive | Good soldiers | Will civility last | Predictions?
Toby's Babe Ruth call | The Doeden entourage | 'Simplifying' Sioux Falls civics | Double runoff? | A bunk tax filing or a false residency — choose one | Killing the messenger
Partying in Parkston | Hanging at Hansen's | In the K-12 trenches | The pipeline fight's spark | Polling, attack ads & a surge | Spending & sales tax
Dusty's got pipes | A long-shot's 'Hail Mary' | Data centers, electricity & taxes | Not shooting straight | A dedicated Yote | Lemmon to USD | The grocer | Bad candidates | Homeless draw
DSU shines | Coalescing Sanford, Avera & Monument | Navigating new nurses | Skeletons & treasure | Blame Trump | Hunting elephants
The postmortem | Ellis & Lalley decompress | Handwritten notes & more debate rulebreakers | The best questions & answers | Sioux Falls mayoral hopefuls up next
(Steel) horses | Badlands dirt biking | Re-hooked on phonics | Classroom renegade | Why run? | War or Defense | A'bullsh*t' story | South Dakota's First Lady | SURFing with DSU
The mystery of the bogus candidates | 3 theories | 2020's sus count | What a county party does | Courting Dominion | Ballot drought | K-12 superintendent shoutouts
Running while building | From S.D. Trade to the U.N. | Being Brittany Lindberg's husband | The Scout's Iranian subscribers
The Dakota Scout and the Scouting Lounge podcast are subscriber supported. To receive new posts, episodes and stories and support our work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.Did you miss last week’s episode of The Scouting Lounge? Downloaded hundreds of times since both free and paid subscribers of The Dakota Scout received it in their inboxes seven days ago, there’s still time to catch up, hit the link below to listen to “Selling out & selling out | The politics of being A-political | Did $ioux Falls get $nubbed | Four Winds Arts & Music Fest | A wannabe musician’s entitlement complex” and check out all past shows by visiting the podcast archive.KEEP SCROLLING FOR LINKS TO A FEW OF The Dakota Scout STORIES & OTHER TOPICS DISCUSSED DURING THIS WEEK’S EPISODE OF The Scouting Lounge This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thedakotascout.com/subscribe