Beyond Politics

Republicans coming out of the woodwork to take on Trump, the shrinking political battleground in America, is Alito a leaker, the impeachment train loads up at the station, a real American hero, and a World Cup shocker.

How does a narrow majority in the US House of Representatives work, what will Republicans have to do to manage it, and what can Democrats do to overcome it?  Our inside expert walks us through it. Jerry Hartz worked in Congress for 28 years, most recently as Senior Adviser and Director of Legislative Floor Operations for Nancy Pelosi. There is no one on Earth who knows more about how to run t...

Part two of the conversation with Dr.  William Ewell, a  political science professor and expert on Congress and American elections, discussions the odds that: Democrats will reverse their decline among Hispanic voters in 2024, Biden will be impeached, Republicans will learn their lesson and run more moderate candidates in swing districts, Democrats look back in two years and realize ther...

What are the odds that: Kevin McCarthy will be Speaker in January 2024; The government will shut down in 2023; Trump will be the Republican nominee; The next Congress passes any legislation beyond funding bills and naming post offices; Biden will catch Trump on appointing federal judges by the end of 2024? Matt is joined by Dr.  William Ewell, a political science professor and expert on Congr...

Chris Hill of Motley Fool Money explains why inflation may be easing off, but businesses are tightening belts.  Also, what Mark Cuban told him about his surprising new venture, and why inventories matter.

The panel dissects Donald Trump's impending announcement of another run for President, including Republican analyst Alicia Preston's theory that he might form his own party.  Either way, the question is whether he is going to fatally divide Republicans for the next two years.  Also, the latest from Ukraine, the painful struggle session for Kevin McCarthy, and the impact of gerrymandering...

USA Today's Rex Huppke is one of America's sharpest voices on politics and society, and he joins Beyond Politics to discuss what we really learned about America and politics from the 2022 midterms. Did voters side with "decency"? Where do Republicans go from here on Trump? Does polling do anything good for us? What does it mean that America pushed back against election deniers? What do Republicans...

David Beard, Contributing Editor at DailyKos Elections and co-host of The Downballot podcast, joins Matt to walk through exactly how Democrats could still win the US House of Representatives, and what an ultra-thin margin in the House would mean for both parties. 

The election appears to be a stunning win not just for Democrats, but for the fight against the Big Lie and election denialism. In this extended discussion on the bipartisan Balance of Power round table, Matt, Paul, and Alicia discuss what the results mean for democracy, Democrats, Republicans, Trump, polling, the media, campaigns, and the future of America. 

The midterms could still go either way. That's the message from Michaeleen Crowell, former Chief of Staff and strategist for Bernie Sanders.  She's the rare Washington insider with insights from across the full political spectrum, someone who's seen Democratic and Republican polling and who thinks this election is still up for grabs. Is a Republican sweep possible? Sure she says. But, is a De...

In 1984, Ronald Reagan won a landslide re-election as President on a message of economic recovery, despite prices and unemployment being higher than when he took office. This year, President Biden and Congressional Democrats have a record of achievements that absolutely dwarfs Reagan's, and not just on the economy -- though the greatest one year job growth in history is a good start. Yet, you prob...

Chris Hill of Motley Fool Money explains why Facebook is spiraling, and where that situation may be headed. Also, a b ig week for the big economic picture; a r ough week for Big Tech Companies Not Named Apple; and Amazon has a bold but slightly confusing new offering.

Also, Elon Musk fuels the online dumpster fire, how a quirk in polling may have caught the Democrats, and is John Fetterman's auditory issue really an impediment to him doing the job of US Senator?

Mark Bergman, a top Dem political consultant working on some of the biggest races around the country, joins Matt to look at which factors have really been shaping the midterm elections, where things stand now, and how the dynamics are looking in each of the biggest races on the map.

As we barrel toward the midterms, the parties have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into delivering their messages to voters. Doug Thornell may be responsible for more of those ads than anyone.  He's a partner at SKDK, one of the top strategic communications companies in the world, and one of the few Black media consultants in Democratic politics.  So when we asked him what making...

Also, are debates uniformly terrible? And is Kanye too crazy for Tucker Carlson?

Andrew Heaton is a comedian, author, and political satirist. He’s also the host of “The Political Orphanage” comedy and news podcast.  As a couple of passionate moderates, Matt and Andrew dive in to some of the goings-on in politics recently that are driving us the most nuts.  Then we get into some of the really good ideas we've heard on our shows recently, from why multi member congress...

Something is wrong in America, and we’ve gotten so used to it, we don’t really talk about about, or not enough anyway. We are in a major happiness recession, and we have been for a long time. The highest proportion of Americans ever (80%) say they are satisfied with their family’s financial situation, while an all-time low reports being “very happy” in their lives (14%). Over the last 40 years, a...

Did the January 6 hearings accomplish anything? Did Democrats actually botch the impeachments? Is inflation taking center stage again and killing Dems' ability to talk economic accomplishments?  And are we about to start eating...congressmen?

Matt joins legendary West Virginia radio host Howard Monroe to talk about what going "beyond politics" means, and also to dive into whether Trump will actually testify, where Trump's latest scandal rates in the all-time list, and whether Marjorie Taylor Greene is actually about to be in charge in Washington DC.

In November of 2019, the two top reporters covering the first impeachment of then-President Donald Trump for the Washington Post got together over a bottle of water and decided to write a book about what had really happened. Now, that book is finally hitting bookshelves tomorrow. It’s called “Unchecked, the Untold Story Behind Congress’s Botched Impeachments of Donald Trump.”  The authors, Ra...

Former USA Today / current Editorial Board Columnist and worldwide Twitter star Jason Sattler (known online as @LOLGOP) joins for a massive rundown of the most burning questions in politics heading into the midterms.  Borrowing from podcast legends Bill Simmons and Zack Lowe, Matt and Jason ask 15 big "are we sure" questions like "Are we sure that Democrats aren’t missing golden opportunities...

We are proud to say that Beyond Politics just won an award from the New Hampshire Association of Broadcasters for outstanding Feature Story, so we are re-issuing that interview. One night, New Hampshire Supreme Court Chief Justice Justice Broderick awoke to find himself in the ICU.  He had been attacked by his son. The  story made national news.  But it was only after the cameras le...

The panel looks at the big economic news, including the Saudi oil production cut and the return of a potential railroad workers strike, and asks how much it will matter on election day.  Also, is the Herschel Walker scandal a political nothingburger, why are Republicans hitting the crime angle so hard, and Biden finally passes a "green new deal."

Quitting gets a bad rap. But the thing is, we know from psychological research, behavioral economics, and the professionals who help top business leaders to make decisions that actually, we should be doing a lot more of it, and a lot sooner. In fact, most us stick with losing propositions far too long, and a lot of the time the smartest decision is to make s strategic decision to focus on somethin...