Beyond Politics

Do Democrats actually have a chance to hold on to their majorities in the US House and Senate in the midterm elections in 2022? History is not on their side. Since 1946, the average number of seats in the US House of Representative lost by the president's party in the midterm elections is 46. Projections by our recent guest David Shor show that in 2022, if Senate Democrats somehow manage to beat R...

In recent weeks, there's been one person driving the discussion in Democratic circles: David Shor.  Big profiles in the New York Times and Politico have further elevated this rising political star, along with his stark warning that if Democrats think they're sitting pretty for the coming years having beaten back the forces of Trump in 2020, they're deluding themselves.  Three months ago,...

One year ago today, political scientist EJ Fagan published an article called "End the Algorithm" on Tech Policy Press in which he identified the basic problem with Facebook: that it is powered by machine learning algorithms which favor outrageous, inflammatory, and degrading content.  Now, new revelations from Facebook product manager-turned-whistle-blower Frances Haugen have rocked the compa...

Is something fundamentally wrong with American journalism? On the right, we know that there’s all of the “fake news” propaganda: Fox, the New York Post, and right-wing radio. But on the left, a growing number of experts believe that something has also gone badly off track. Our guest today says that what’s happened is that mainstream news is not liberal anymore; it’s woke: propagating radical ideas...

Author Magdi Semrau recently wrote an article for The Editorial Board arguing that the media is badly misleading the public on Joe Biden's "Build Back Better" plan, and explaining some of the massive political consequences that we could see.  And the Democrats have not only let it happen, they've actively seeded their own problems.  Magdi joins the show to walk us through a major media d...

Every four years, political analysts obsess about the Virginia governor's race, the first and usually closest big election after we elect a President.  This year, the race is balanced on a knife's edge. Operatives around the country will be poring over data in the coming weeks to understand what is happening, what's working, what's not working, and where the 2022 midterms could be headed. &nb...

All paths have led to this day. The Biden agenda. Infrastructure.  Child Care. Health Care. Funding for our entire government. Our entire country's credit.  The biggest issues have all converged in Congress today, and everything is hanging by a thread.  Our Senate insider, former Chuck Schumer right-hand man on policy and legislation Ryan McConaghy, walks us through the standoff...w...

Shenna Bellows is Secretary of State of the State of Maine, the very first woman to hold that position, and she joins us on Beyond Politics during a crisis of American democracy.  Two-thirds of Republican voters say in surveys but they don't believe the 2020 election was legitimate. We have seen 350+ bills introduced in legislatures around the country over the past year that in one way or ano...

Cliff Schecter just hosted Donald Trump's niece and clinical psychologist Mary Trump on the Unpresidented Podcast to talk about the roots of his psychopathology.  Cliff joins Matt to discuss the biggest takeaways from that interview, and how they relate to recent revelations about the Trump plot to overthrow our democratic system and stay in power.

Alison McCook is a veteran science journalist for Reuters , Scientific American, Discover, Nature , Science , and Retraction Watch , as well as a regular columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer.  She takes us inside the winding science and public health road that we've taken on Covid in recent months, explains where science and public communication have gotten out of sync, and looks ahead at...

John Stoehr is the Editor of "The Editorial Board," a newsletter about politics in plain English for normal people, democracy and the common good. We talk about some of the fresh takes and insightful analysis that has appeared on its pages recently, especially around authoritarianism, lawlessness, the media, and how political discourse has gone off the rails. John is a former visiting professor of...

Kathleen Ronayne is a highly respected, veteran Associate Press reporter who covers California and national politics.  So she was the perfect guest to explain some of the wild backstory that got us to tomorrow's California recall, and to preview what national political operatives and experienced analysts will be watching for in the coming days.  Why is this a thing anyway? Could Larry El...

In recent weeks, Afghanistan, the Delta surge, Hurricane Ida, and mixed economic news have changed what’s on voters' minds, and driven new and more negative perceptions of elected leaders and policies in the U.S. Joe Biden is significantly down, as are views of the Democratic Party and the state of the country overall. One of the very best polls in New Hampshire or around the country tracking thes...

There's so much in the news these days -- much of it depressing -- that it's hard to pick our heads up and see what else is going on. It turns out that there's a lot, especially if you pick your head all the way up and look out to other worlds and some of the most exciting frontiers in science. Today, we talk about all of these fascinating developments with "The SKYGUY."  John Gianforte is an...

We’ve all been focused on the news out of Afghanistan in recent weeks, and the story there needs almost no introduction. Today we wanted to talk about the situation, how we got here, and where we’re going in the future. There is no one better to help us understand all of this that Sean Carberry. Sean is an award-winning writer, editor, and foreign policy and national security expert with more than...

In recent months, there have been some potentially landmark developments on abortion. It could well be that the middle of 2021 will mark an historic turning point on an issue that has been one of the cultural hot buttons in America for decades. On May 17, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear Jackson Women’s Health Organization v. Dobbs . The case deals with Mississippi’s law banning abortion after...

The last 10 years have seen a breathtaking pace of technological innovation in every area of our economy and society. These days, anyone on Earth with access to a mobile phone or laptop computer and the connection to the Internet can access almost the entire sum total of human knowledge with the click of a button. American high-tech companies are creating a whole new industries along with millions...

The saga of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in some ways looks like what journalists call a man bites dog story: something that happens so often that it almost escapes our attention. It does seem hardly new that awful behavior and sexual harassment by a male politician comes to light and ends a once-lofty career. But there’s a lot going on under the surface in this story, both in this particular ca...

In 2004, the Pew Research Center poll found that Americans opposed same-sex marriage 60% to 31%. But a series of legal rulings, cultural shifts, prominent gay figures in entertainment becoming wildly popular, and growing advocacy changed the entire tenor of the debate. By 2019, Pew polling on that same question of what we now call marriage equality had totally flipped: 61% supported same-sex marri...

Republicans have been flat-out winning the battle for the judiciary -- the “shadow war” in the fight for control of America’s government. We all know about the Supreme Court, but underneath the Supreme Court there are 13 courts of appeals, and below them 94 district courts.  Most of the time, it is those lower courts that have the final word on questions of federal law. Supreme Court Justice...

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 left that the real story begins. Since that day, Justice Broderick has been on a journey of discovery and leadership on mental health in America. He’s working to improve understanding an...

Michaeleen Crowell was Chief of Staff to US Senator Bernard Sanders for 5 years. She was Senior Advisor to the Bernie 2016 presidential campaign.  She built the social media empire that Senator Sanders uses to reach 25 million people each week. As if this wasn’t enough, she was Legislative Director for civil rights icon John Lewis before that.  Michaeleen joins the show to talk about how...

Democratic data expert David Shor has a stark warning:t if Democrats think they're sitting pretty, they're deluding themselves. "We actually aren't winning the war of ideas as much as we think...and the Republican Party is more popular relative to the Democratic Party than people think.  The Democratic Party brand and agenda has shifted a lot in the last four to five years, and it's gone in a...

In the 1992 presidential race, the Clinton campaign famously came up with what they called a haiku to summarize what they wanted to make everything about. The economy, stupid…change vs. more of the same…and don’t forget health care. 30 years later, that’s also a really good summary of where we find ourselves as a country – and as a region, since we’re broadcast out of New England. Over the last ye...

The numbers we hear about in government and politics are often so big that they lose all meaning.  This is a big deal -- we are after all in a democracy, and if we can't understand what we're even talking about in budgets and programs, it's hard to make smart decisions. That's why Cornell University Professor Steven Strogatz and his student Aiyanna Green wrote a New York Times op-ed explainin...