Political Playlist Happy Hour

On this episode of the Happy Hour, Michael, Anna and Anthony talk about Haley Steves, the politician on our playlist. She's a Democratic Congresswoman in Michigan and she's running for the Senate. And now, there's been a new shake up in the race, with State Senator Mallory McMarrow dropping out of the race, leaving Haley and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed as the remaining two Democrats. Haley is the centrist...

On this episode of the Happy Hour, Michael and Anna are joined by Nico Agosta to discuss Campaign Finance Reform. Nico is the founder of Stocking The Capitol, a platform that tracks and evaluates each member of Congress' campaign financial contributions and well as personal stock trades, and awards them a letter grade based on how clean or dirty the source of their money is. If you take only grass...

Okay Playlisters, get ready for this episode...! Anna surprises Michael and Anthony with an episode topic neither were expecting: Hot or Not?!? That's right, on this episode of the happy hour, the gang play Hot Or Not for Anna's top ten Hottest Members of Congress list...and while we def rank their looks, we also rank some of their policies, so it's not all maxim covers. Maybe, SI Swimsuit Edition...

On this episode, Anna and Anthony dive into what the new recipe is to be a successful woman in Republican politics. Reps. Julia Letlow of Louisiana and Ashley Hinson of Iowa are both on the ticket to become senators of their states. We dig into why these women have 'it' and why, in Trump's America, they seem particularly well-fit for the bill of 'Republican female senator' in a party that has appa...

On today's episode, Anna and Anthony dive into the evergreen topic of JD Vance's flip flopping ways. This time, it's about his complete and necessarily reversal of opinion on the Iran war which has landed him in the hot seat of leading negotiations with the adversary for better or worse. Vance, a one time 'no foreign wars' type of guy, is now beating the drum for the administration's stance that a...

Jerrad Christian credits his military service with opening his eyes to how big and diverse the world was. On today's episode, Anna and Michael chat with the veteran and software engineer who is running to flip his Ohio district into Democratic hands. They discuss why he thinks the economy will be a unifying issue in his race, his support for universal healthcare stemming from his mom's cancer jour...

On this Happy Hour, Michael and Anna sit down with Maia Cook, the executive director of Equal Citizens, a democracy reform organization, founded by Lawrence Lessig. Their mission? Fighting for the ultra-sexy, super popular, top of every news cycle issue: campaign finance reform, and specifically reducing the influence of Super PACs and dark money. While we kid that this issue might not be front of...

On this episode of the happy hour, Michael, Anna and Anthony discuss the politician on our playlist this week: Jon Ossoff. In case you don't know the Senator from Georgia yet, fear not, because you're going to be hearing about him plenty. He just gave a speech in Atlanta for his Senate reelection campaign and let's just say it's got everyone pretty hot and bothered about his potential as a Preside...

On this episode of the Happy Hour, Michael, Anna and Anthony discuss the upcoming UFC fight on the south lawn of the...WHITE HOUSE. Wow. I mean, just wow. Great business move on the part of Dana White, but is this really what's become of the People's House under it's current occupant? Full disclosure, we're not fans, particularly Michael who comes fairly fired up and aptly says, 'I think we're all...

On this episode of the Happy Hour, Michael and Anna sit down with Delegate Joe Vogel, a member of the Maryland State House of Delegates (their fancy name for state reps) representing district 17. Joe is not yet thirty years old, but has the experience and resume of someone twice his age, and let's just say, we're impressed. We discuss his entrance into politics, his background and why he considers...

On today's episode of the Happy Hour, Michael, Anna and Anthony discuss how to talk about the Los Angeles Mayor's race. It's shaping up to be a three-way knife fight between incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, Councilwoman Nithya Raman, and former reality TV star Spencer Pratt. Angelenos head to the polls today, and we make it a point of breaking down where these candidates stand on the most important iss...

On this episode of Political Playlist Happy Hour, Michael and Anna continue their exiting new "Primary Watch" series with Candidate Eric Jones. Eric is a businessman and nonprofit executive running in California's 4th Congressional District against a 14 term incumbent! Affordability, healthcare and housing are his biggest issues, and he has vowed not to accept corporate PAC money or lobb...

On this Happy Hour, Michael and Anna continue our popular Primary Watch Series, where we sit down with young Congressional candidates from all across the country! and today, we're talking with Councilwoman Mai Vang, running on the Democratic ticket for CA-7, against a longtime incumbent. Mai has a great story, and a lengthy track record in public service despite her young age. And what's more, she...

On this episode of the Happy Hour, Michael and Anna discuss How To Talk About Data Centers, specifically the one in Utah that Shark Tank's own Mr. Wonderful is trying to build at the expense of the taxpayers--oh, and the whole environment of the state of Utah. He even got into a combative interview with the new People's Hero Tucker Carlson over why taxpayers should fund this type of project. Data...

On this Happy Hour, Anna goes it alone as she welcomes author Soman Chainani to discuss his new book, "Young World" which imagines a world in which a 17-year-old becomes president of the United States and sets off on the adventure of a lifetime. It's a New York Times bestseller, and that makes sense based on Soman's track-record. He's the author of the wildly popular children's series &q...

On this episode of the happy hour, Michael and Anna discuss how to talk about Trump's upcoming visit to China, where he will hold a crucial summit with President Xi to discuss the ongoing war in Iran, Taiwan, Trade, and most importantly AI safety. This is a highly consequential meeting, though as we point out, it isn't likely that any major agreement comes from this. But we discuss what a "wi...

On this happy hour, Michael and Anna sit down with Democratic Congressional candidate Jordan Wood. He's running for Maine's 2nd Congressional district, currently held by Playlister Jarred Golden, a Democrat in a very and we mean VERY purple district. Jordan talks a lot about how he's reaching across the aisle to speak to fellow Mainers about what matters most, and the challenges as well as the ben...

On this happy hour, Michael, Anna and Anthony tackle that age-old Jerry Seinfeld question "what's the deal with AI bipartisanship?" It's a good one, and one that we three tackle with equal parts fear and amazement, as the issue of AI and potential regulation is perhaps the only thing a profoundly divided Congress is finding common ground on. But the big questions remain, what will Congre...

On this episode of the Happy Hour, Michael and Anna sit down with Democratic Congressional candidate Dr. Everton Blair, who's running for Georgia's 13th district. He is 13th district through and through, having grown up in the area, and spent much of his career in education, ranging from Teach For America, to working in the Obama administration on Education initiatives, to most recently being the...

On this Happy Hour, Michael, Anna and Anthony discuss how to talk about the latest shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner, that was likely an assassination attempt on Trump, bringing the total number of attempts to four. This is an alarming and unprecedented number in recent time, and more troubling is the only discussion of conspiracy theories and people calling these staged. While the...

On this Happy Hour, Michael and Anna sit down with Candidate George Hornedo, who's running for Congress in Indiana's 7th district, which is Indianapolis and the greater area. Surprisingly, it's a very un-gerrymandered district. Not surprisingly, the current guy has been in there for a while, and George is looking to shake things up. We had a great conversation with this lawyer turned Obama Adminis...

On this episode of the Happy Hour, Michael, Anna and Anthony discuss How To Talk About these crazy AI Lego pro-Iran propaganda videos that the Regime is making about the war, and how these diss-vids are definitely breaking through social media and no doubt getting under Trump's skin. But despite their silly dumbness, a larger, more serious question is raised: If Iran was losing so bad, why would t...

On this episode of the Happy Hour, Michael and Anna tell you about Anna Paulina Luna, the Politician On Our Playlist this week. She's a Republican from Florida and one of the youngest members of Congress. And, despite being a firm supporter of the President and his agenda, she still carves her own lane when it comes to standing up for women, whether it be pushing for a bill to allow new mothers to...

On this episode of the Happy Hour, Michael and Anna discuss the latest bombshell news surrounding Congressman Eric Swalwell, and his announcement to resign from Congress, as well as Republican Congressman Tony Gonzalez' decision to resign an hour later! Then, the discussion shifts to how to talk about the impending deal with Iran as we look back and try to remember what was in the PREVIOUS nuclear...

On this episode of the happy hour, Michael and Anna sit down with Jake Levine, the politician on our playlist this week! Why is he on the playlist this week? Well, it's because he's running to replace Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman, of California's 32nd Congressional district and it turns out Brad has been in that seat since...1997! (Which is when Michael and Anna were in 6th and 2nd grade, r...