Political Theater

One of the few things that is not different about this year’s political conventions is that the parties are providing valuable national airtime to candidates for Congress whom they want to see succeed. Who shows up, and who doesn’t, provide context for those House and Senate races, even if some of that context is, quite frankly, mystifying. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adch...

We don’t need hindsight to see that 2020 is a year unlike any other in recent memory. The coronavirus pandemic has touched every fiber of our lives and woven itself inextricably into the fold of presidential politics, including the national conventions blanketing the airwaves this week and next.  Usually, the Republican and Democratic parties live up to their collective nouns and really get down a...

Kamala Harris' historic run as vice president comes at a time of big societal and generational changes. Roll Call columnist Mary C. Curtis, who covers the intersection of politics, culture and race, discusses the significance of the California Democrat's spot on the 2020 ticket with Joe Biden. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congress has a record number of women in its ranks, and it doesn't matter if they are Democrats or Republicans, junior members or elected leaders: They share a common set of experiences about being talked down to, overlooked or outright scorned. Heard on the Hill's Kathryn Lyons spoke to some of them and recounts their stories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jamaal Bowman isn’t your average former middle school principal. That’s because the 44-year-old recently beat veteran Congressman Eliot Engel in the Democratic primary in New York’s 16th District. He's part of a changing of the guard of younger, minority politicians who are on their way to Congress. Clyde McGrady discusses his recent conversation with the educator-turned-prospective lawmaker. Lear...

Since Rep. John Lewis' death on July 17, his colleagues have paid tribute and remembered him in ways big and small. And his own words, like the ones we gathered here, make a fitting memorial to a figure whose public service crossed boundaries and generations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The struggle to ensure people have access to the ballot box is one that G.K. Butterfield and his family have been involved in dating back to the early 20th Century. The North Carolina Democrat’s history in Wilson, N.C., is indelibly shaped by his immigrant father and his decades-long advocacy on behalf of Black suffrage in a place notoriously resistant to it. It extends through Butterfield's own p...

It doesn’t matter if you went to Morehouse, or if you were an undercover CIA officer or even a police officer yourself, if you are a Black man, odds are your interactions with the police are more dangerous and memorable than for others. CQ Roll Call’s Clyde McGrady interviewed three members of Congress who reflect on what it was like for them and what was different for them in their encounters wit...

Filmmaker Dawn Porter had a unique challenge in making a documentary about Rep. John Lewis, the Georgia Democrat who recently turned 80 and has been a civil rights hero for more than half a century. How do you say something new and interesting about someone so familiar? She talks about that and more on the latest Political Theater podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adcho...

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton is a third-generation Washingtonian who has been witness to the biggest turning points for the Capital city’s long struggle for civil and political rights. One thing has been constant, though: Citizens of the District of Columbia — federal tax paying citizens — have been denied full voting representation. This week, the House will vote on a bill granting Washington full...

It's been five years since the deadly, racist-motivated shooting at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. But the scars are still present in the current debate over racial justice, Black Lives Matter and the legacy of white supremacist ideology. Roll Call columnist Mary C. Curtis discusses how the tragedy in Charleston still resonates as the United States grapples with its ugly history. Lea...

It might not seem like it, but we’ve come a long way as a country in the last couple of weeks. On May 25th, George Floyd, a black man, died at the hands of Minneapolis Police officers, an all too familiar scene. But this time feels different, in the streets, in the Capitol and everywhere you look. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Filmmaker Dawn Porter's new documentary "John Lewis: Good Trouble" arrives at a time when racial justice is on everyone’s mind. Protests over the death of George Floyd have broken out in major U.S. cities. John Lewis’ life has been all about, in his words, getting into the right kind of trouble, good trouble, protesting for civil rights, the right to vote and justice. Learn more about your ad choi...

Social media was supposed to connect people by bringing them into a common shared space to exchange views, jokes and news. It has become a dominant force that enhances political and cultural divides, and that is largely a result of its founders being people who never learned how to get along with others, like in a bar, says podcaster and author Brandon Wetherbee. If social media was run like a bar...

This isn't the first pandemic the United States, and Washington, has grappled with in the last century. But there are some key differences in our culture, like our ability to eliminate much of the risk of disease to public health. And there is one constant: Congress finds a way to meet amid the outbreak, for better or worse, and no matter who got sick, including speakers, vice presidents and rank-...

The comedian and ‘The Daily Show’ correspondent dives into her new podcast ‘That Black Ass Show’, how she keeps her comedy personal and why she still has to wait to be seated. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're less than six months away from Election Day and the political dynamics have changed little: Donald Trump is a slight underdog for re-election, control of the Senate is a toss-up and conditions favor Democrats to retain the House. CQ Roll Call Elections Analyst Nathan Gonzales explains why not even a pandemic can change the basic facts about the 2020 campaign. Learn more about your ad choices...

The coronavirus pandemic has upended daily life as we know. But the coronavirus might have met its match in some truly indelible parts of our culture: full service gas stations in New Jersey, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. And voting in person in Congress. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart was the first member of Congress to disclose he had COVID-19, and he tells Political Theater about those first scary days of self-quarantine, how grateful he was to his neighbors for their kindness and continuing to work to tackle the pandemic as a lawmaker while recovering from it himself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What lessons did the U.S. government learn from its success in clamping down on the 2014 Ebola epidemic in fighting the coronavirus pandemic? “We did basically everything that was on the ‘don’t’ list,” Reid Wilson, author of "Epidemic: Ebola and the Global Scramble to Prevent the Next Killer Outbreak," says on the latest Political Theater podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone....

When we started realizing how significant the coronavirus pandemic was shaping up to be, we wanted to cover not just the story, but how we covered it. At Political Theater, that meant keeping an audio diary. But sometimes, even when you work in an audio medium, that is easier said than done. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congress has worked hard to address the human and economic costs of the coronavirus pandemic. Amid this work, some senators have gotten testy on the floor, leading to what looked like a meltdown in relations. But this is what actual debate in the Congress looks like, according to James Wallner, senior fellow at the R Street Institute and a former aide to several senators. It's just been so long si...

There are 24 men named Mike on the Hill. It’s the most popular name up there, followed closely by John. To put that into context, there are more men named Mike than there are GOP congresswomen. What does data like this tell us about congress? Heard on the Hill reporter Clyde McGrady and Data editor George Levines join the podcast to talk about their project on the most popular names in congress. L...

A new documentary, "Slay the Dragon" explores what happens when voters fight back against gerrymandering. Jason Dick is joined by the directors of the film Chris Durrance, Barak Goodman, and one of the film's main subjects, Katie Fahey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Margaret Cho has been called a political comedian, but to her political comedy is just a part of the authenticity she strives for. On this episode of Political Theater she joins Heard on the Hill reporter Kathryn Lyons to talk about her development as a comedian and where politics fits in, the democratic presidential candidate she thinks could do a 'mean foxtrot' and what she hopes 2020 will bring...