Government That Doesn't Suck

Most nights, Niecy Nash and her daughter, Dia, end up in bed talking true crime, and now they’re inviting you in. If you love Government That Doesn't Suck, you are going to love Crime House’s new podcast out now called Mother Knows Murder. It’s the same team that helps us make this podcast! Mother Knows Murder is hosted by actress Niecy Nash and her daughter, Dia Nash. Each week, one of them bring...

Cynicism is the cancer of the republic. It goes beyond healthy skepticism, anger, or disagreement by convincing people to give up on civic life entirely. George Washington saw it coming in 1796, when he used his farewell address to warn that exhausted citizens might trade liberty for the promise of peace and quiet. This episode, we look at what Washington understood about partisanship and cynicism...

Something has crept into this feed…For Halloween, Hidden History with Dr. Harini Bhat has slipped through the walls to haunt your feed with an episode just for you. On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed while riding in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. Within days, the government named Lee Harvey Oswald as the lone gunman...but more than sixty years l...

It's the same question every election season: can we trust our voting system? To get a straight answer, we talked to someone who spent more than two decades inside the agency that polices money in American politics. We get into what the Federal Election Commission actually does (and what it doesn’t), where the safeguards in our election system come from, and what ordinary voters can do to help pro...

Every generation of leaders inherits a government that feels too slow, too wasteful, or too tangled in its own rules. From the Hoover Commissions of the 1940s and 50s to Al Gore’s forklift full of regulations in the 1990s, the push to make government more efficient is nothing new, but lasting change is incredibly hard. Some efforts left real, durable reforms behind. Others made a lot of noise and...

Fun fact: Did you know Jaws almost never existed because the shark kept sinking while filming? That is Connor Tomlinson just getting started. If that sounds fascinating, you are going to love Rewind Studios’ new podcast out now called WHAT THE FACT hosted by Connor Tomlinson and Carter Roy. It’s produced by the same team that brings you Government That Doesn't Suck. Connor and co-host Carter Roy p...

Hurricane season is almost here, and it’s time to ask yourself: Who do you want to be in charge of your weather forecast? For decades, the National Weather Service has provided free, life-saving forecasts to every American. This episode, we sit down with CBS meteorologist John Elliott to explore the science, history, and people behind America's weather forecasting system and the debate over privat...

Following the Challenger and Columbia Space Shuttle disasters, the government had to rethink space exploration. In 2006, NASA launched the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, allocating $500 million to encourage American entrepreneurs to develop cost-effective cargo and crew transport for the ISS. Today, private enterprises like SpaceX, Starlink, Blue Origin, and Rocket Lab are ubi...

In 1735, a colonial printer named John Peter Zenger spent nine months in jail for printing someone else's criticism of a corrupt governor, and his trial helped plant the seeds of a free press in America decades before the First Amendment existed. This episode, we trace the origins of press freedom, why "fake news" is a much older problem than you'd think, and why the Constitution protects the prin...

Hurricane season is upon us. Did you know that the weather app on your smartphone and the forecasts from TV meteorologists wouldn’t exist without data from the National Weather Service? Yep. The National Weather Service (NWS), part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), provides vital weather, water, and climate data, forecasts, and warnings for the protection of life and p...

It used to be that federal government jobs were awarded via a "spoils system," where political patronage and loyalty were the primary criteria for hiring and firing government employees. This system led to widespread corruption, incompetence, and inefficiency, as unqualified individuals often held positions due to their political connections rather than their abilities. The assassination of Presid...

With its lavishly funded mandate to put a man on the moon, the Apollo mission promised to reinvigorate a country that had lost its way. But a new breed of activists denounced it as a colossal waste of resources needed to solve pressing problems at home. Neil Maher reveals that there were actually unexpected synergies between the space program and the budding environmental, feminist and civil right...

About 200 years ago, We the People created a baseline for a Government That Doesn’t Suck. "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity. In today’s episode, Greg Jackson and Lindsey Cormack disc...

What problem was government trying to solve? What machinery did it build? And did it work? Every other Monday, Professor Greg Jackson and political scientist Professor Lindsey Cormack dig into the laws, agencies, and policies that actually shape American life. From the interstate highway system to the National Weather Service, they break down how government works, when it succeeds, and when the an...