palindrome check - compare first half and reversed second half; this works on any input (not just alphanumeric)

pal.py

def pal(user_string):
  '''
  check if a word/phrase is a palindrome
  '''
  lus = list(user_string)
  max_ind = int(len(lus)/2)
  l1 = [lus[i] for i in range(max_ind)]
  l2 = [lus[-(i+1)] for i in range(max_ind)]
  if l1 == l2:
    return True
  else:
    return False

if __name__ == "__main__":
  user_string = input('Enter a word to see if it\'s a palindrome: ').lower()
  if pal(user_string):
    print(f'Yes - {user_string} is a palindrome.')
  else:
    print(f'No - {user_string} is not a palindrome.')