DSR's Words Matter

Linda Brown was in the third grade when her father Oliver tried to enroll her in Sumner Elementary School in Topeka Kansas. Oliver and his daughter Linda were denied admission to the school that day. The year was 1950. Sumner was an all-white school. And Linda attended the school for black children across town. Separate but equal ruled the day in America. The moment Linda was turned away, it start...

With the Mueller Investigation over and his report delivered to the Attorney General, the battle moves to Capitol Hill. Katie and guest host Joe Lockhart talk with former state and federal prosecutor Elie Honig. As a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, Elie directed major criminal cases against organized crime, street gangs, drug traffickers, corrupt public officials, child pr...

This week we put We Say #NeverAgain into the Words Matter Audible Library. This is a moving journalistic account of shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and the fight for gun control - as told by the student reporters themselves. Read by Melissa Falkowski, Eric Garner, and the Parkland Student Journalists, this important book showcases how the teens told their own story. Li...

Last week we talked to Former White Press Secretary Joe Lockhart about the news of the day how the Mueller investigation operates differently than the Starr investigation operated and how the White House in crisis battles with a hostile Congress and communicates with the press and the American people. Our listeners wanted to hear more -- so we invited him back. Joe served as the 19th White House P...

The month of March is international women's history month and we recently celebrated International Women's Day. Black history month just ended in February -- and so in honor of both, Katie will be highlighting some outstanding women in this space. This week...Charlayne Hunter-Gault is an Emmy award winning investigative journalist and recipient of 2 Peabody Awards. But before any of that, she was...

Joe Lockhart served as the 19th White House Press Secretary under President Bill Clinton from 1998-2000. In 1999, Joe became the only White House Press Secretary in American history to serve during the Senate Impeachment Trial of a US President. Later Joe co-founded the Glover Park Group and went on to serve as Senior Vice President of the National Football League. Joe is currently a CNN political...

This week we put Power Wars, by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Washington correspondent for The New York Times, Charlie Savage into the Words Matter Audible Library. First published in 2015, Power Wars is an investigative history of national-security legal policymaking in the Obama administration. Charlie is also the author of Takeover, published in 2007, which chronicles the Bush-Cheney ad...

The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charlie Savage is a Washington correspondent for The New York Times. He is also the author of “Power Wars,” published in 2015, an investigative history of national-security legal policymaking in the Obama administration, and “Takeover,” published in 2007, which chronicles the Bush-Cheney administration’s efforts to expand presidential power. Charlie has been c...

Katie Barlow is the Host of Words Matter. She is a lawyer and the Founder and Editor of DC Circuit Breaker which provides news and analysis on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. As a journalist, Katie has covered Capitol Hill with WTOP, including Justice Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearing, as well as the Supreme Court with NPR’s Nina Totenberg. As a lawyer, her practice includes...

This week, new host Katie Barlow interviews Vanity Fair special correspondent William D. Cohan as her first episode of Words Matter. Bill is former senior Wall Street M&A investment banker for 17 years and is the New York Times bestselling author of three non-fiction narratives about Wall Street. His latest book Why Wall Street Matters is a must read for anyone trying to understand the political a...

This week we add Why Wall Street Matters By William D. Cohan to the Words Matter Library Bill is former senior Wall Street M&A investment banker for 17 years and is the New York Times bestselling author of three non-fiction narratives about Wall Street. Bill is also a special correspondent at Vanity Fair. He also writes for The Financial Times, The New York Times, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The Atlan...

Washington Post Columnist Max Boot is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a Global Affairs Analyst for CNN. In his latest book, The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right, Max details his ideological journey from a “movement” conservative to a man without a party, beginning with his political coming-of-age as a young...

Steve sits down with Elise and Adam in his first podcast interview since Howard Schultz announced on 60 Minutes that he was "seriously considering" an independent bid for President of the United States. In 2019, a billionaire thinking about running for president is a topic of great consequence. As Steve himself has reminded us again and again over the last two years, these are extraordinarily dang...

April Ryan is an award winning journalist, veteran White House Correspondent, and best selling author. And by reporting from inside the Trump White House, she’s come under fire -- just for doing her job . We talk to April about what it was like to cover the White House under Presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama - and now how and why she’s come under attack by Donald Trump and his press office.  Support...

The Words Audible Matter Library goes to Washington to interview Award winning journalist, best-selling author, and veteran White House Correspondent April Ryan on her new book “Under Fire: Reporting from the Front Lines of the Trump White House.” Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices....

The 35-day federal government shutdown may be over - for now - but the long terms effects will be felt by hard working Americans for months and perhaps years to come. $200 million in spending per week was lost not only by federal workers, but contractors and the people working in businesses that count on those dollars to survive. Elise and Steve discuss the political fallout from Donald Trump’s PR...

On what should be the eve of Donald Trump's second State of the Union address, we add Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 “Four Freedoms” speech and Ronald Reagan’s Challenger Disaster speech to the Words Matter Audible Library. Through Audible you can go back and listen to the full address and absorb and appreciate the history of what real presidential leadership sounds like. Support this show http://su...

The longest government shutdown in US history continues as Donald Trump and Senate Republicans continue to hold the paychecks of more than 800,000 Americans hostage in exchange for an unnecessary and ineffective border wall. Elise and Steve discuss the politics of the latest Trump created crisis - as well as how the 2020 Democratic field is shaping up. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/...

This week, to honor legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr we proudly put “A Letter from Birmingham Jail” and “Where Do We Go from Here?” into the Words Matter Audible Library. There is perhaps no leader or public figure who symbolizes the power and importance of words better than Dr. King. Both of these Audible titles are historical treasures which are all too relevant today.  Support...

Professor Eddie Glaude Jr. argues in his groundbreaking book Democracy in Black that we live in a country founded on a “value gap”—with white lives valued more than others—that still distorts our politics today. Whether discussing why all Americans have racial habits that reinforce inequality, why black politics based on the civil-rights era have reached a dead end, or why only remaking democracy...

We are proud to put "Democracy in Black" by Professor Eddie S. Glaude Jr. into the Words Matter Audible Library. Part manifesto, part history, part memoir, Professor Glaude argues that we live in a country founded on a “value gap”—with white lives valued more than others—that still distorts our politics today. Whether discussing why all Americans have racial habits that reinforce inequality, why b...

Welcome to Season 2 of Words Matter. The federal government is still shutdown, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is the only adult in the room and the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination is off to a fast start. Steve Schmidt gives his take and explains what it all means. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information....

As Nancy Pelosi retakes the Speaker’s gavel and the leadership of the Democratic opposition to Donald Trump, we add “Madam Speaker - Nancy Pelosi’s Life, Times and Rise to Power” to the Words Matter Audible Library. Everything Nancy Pelosi has ever done, she has done extremely well. Listen to the life story of this historic leader -- the only woman and perhaps most influential and greatest House S...

As our first season comes to a close, we review the titles put into the Words Matter Audible Library in 2018. From Steve Kornacki’s “The Red and the Blue”, to “Profiles in Courage” to “Columbine” to “Tailspin” by Steven Brill - we go through the books we selected and why they are important to the public discourse in the Age of Trump.  Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See...

In this addition of the Words Matter Library brought to you by Audible we add this Pulitzer Prize winning book by President John F. Kennedy. Profiles in Courage chronicles acts of bravery and integrity by 8 United States Senators. Caroline Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr. narrate the story of leaders who defied their party and their constituents to do what they felt was right and as a result suffer...