The Fly

Hello flies! Welcome back to a brand new season of The Fly! We are so excited to kick start this season with a very special guest, Meg Kinnard! Meg is a national politics reporter with a 20 year career at The Associated Press. She anchored the first-ever general election livestream coverage for the AP, and was also the first AP reporter to appear on the AP’s TikTok account. Austin and Sarah sat do...

Welcome back flies! This week we are buzzing back in with a special edition episode featuring California’s outgoing senator Laphonza Butler! Reporting from the Hart Building of the Senate Office, sit down with Will and Sarah as they dive into Butler’s expansive political journey- growing up in Mississippi, graduating from the HBCU Jackson University, and moving from Baltimore to California. Butler...

In the final episode of The Fly's Post-Election Analysis Special, Andrea Smith brings together a diverse set of voices to unpack the results of this year’s election. With a deep dive into what led to the GOP's red wave, Andrea first sits down with Rick Wiley, a seasoned Republican strategist who shares insights on the winning message that propelled the party to victory, especially after the turbul...

Today we are buzzing back in with GU politics fellow Ashley Gunn! Gunn has not only served as a special assistant to the president, the senior director of cabinet affairs for Donald Trump’s administration, but she had worked the behind the scenes of every republican convention since 1991. Tune in to this episode to hear more about Ashley’s take on the people behind our government, the experience o...

We are incredibly honored to bring to you a very special, 2-part episode. Today, all across the country, Americans are voting in one of the most consequential and unique elections in American history. From the near assassination of Former President Donald Trump to President Biden passing the baton to Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black and South Asian Woman to lead a major party, we want...

In part one of our election special, Senior Fly Andrea Smith sits down with former CNN embed Sarah Mucha and Reed Howard, Chief Public Affairs Officer for The Future Caucus. Together, they dive into the fascinating world of swing state voters, focusing on groups like Nikki Haley supporters in Pennsylvania and Gen Zers in Michigan. You’ll get an insider’s perspective on how different this president...

NEW week, NEW episode! 🪰This week, we sat down with the acclaimed American free speech activist Mary Beth Tinker! Tinker is renowned in classrooms and courtrooms alike for her role in the 1969 Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines, which solidified students’ right to free speech. In this exciting new episode, she walks us through her experience with civil rights activism, her take on current ev...

Welcome back to The Fly! There’s no better way to kick off Season 16 than with Rick Wiley, a seasoned GOP political strategist and Spring 2024 GU Politics Fellow. Rick has worked behind the scenes of some of the most high-profile political campaigns in the U.S., most notably as the National Political Director for Ambassador Nikki Haley's presidential campaign. In this episode, Rick dives deep into...

Welcome back to the Fly! There is no better way to end the season than with Dr. Fauci. As leader of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for 38 years, he has been on the frontline of nearly every major disease since the 1980s. His research and dedication have helped save tens of millions of lives. As Dr. Fauci has been widely covered, he gets candid in this episode about many...

Welcome back, flies! We have a very special episode this week, because we have not one but two guests!! First, we sat down with Waleed Shahid, a Senior Democratic Strategist and former Spokesperson for Justice Democrats, about the future of the Democratic party, including "The Squad." Next, we sat down with Allegra Kirkland, the politics director for Teen Vogue. Kirkland shared her thoughts on the...

This week flies sat down with the PBS NewsHour White House Correspondent and CNN Analyst Laura Barrón-López. Laura is a rising star in journalism who knew she wanted to be a journalist since she was 12. She began in local journalism in California early in her college career and, after graduation, moved to DC after receiving an opportunity to be a reporter for E&E News. Since then, she has worked f...

Buzz buzz… sit down with fellow flies Kenneth and Sarah to listen to an engaging conversation with Pentagon Correspondent and the Washington Post’s National Security writer Dan Lamothe. In this episode, Dan discusses how he made his foray into the world of journalism, starting with local reporting and moving toward covering the U.S. military, its people, and its operations. For over 15 years, Dan...

We are zooming in with another incredible interview! Val Demings is a profile in public service. Demings was Orlando’s first woman Chief of Police and served as the Congresswoman for FL-10, where she was a house impeachment manager for Donald Trump’s first impeachment and was there that day on January 6th. She was also on President Biden’s shortlist for Vice President and ran for US Senate against...

Welcome back to another incredible episode. This week, Flys sat down with Machalagh Carr, former Chief of Staff to Kevin McCarthy. Carr is an experienced legal counselor who served as General Counsel for the Speaker and office of the Republican Leader. Additionally, she has held numerous roles across a number of congressional oversight committees. Tune in to hear inside details about the McCarthy...

Welcome back! Here to start off our season: Chase and Sarah joined our very first fellow, Deanne Millison! They had a lively conversation about Deanne’s experience starting off in law school and transitioning into the political sphere. Hear more about Millison’s roles as the Chief Economic Advisor for Vice President Harris, her work with the impeachment proceedings of Pres. Donald Trump, and her t...

Hello Flies, and welcome back! It's a new year and time for a new season of The Fly! We have an exciting roundup of Fellows and guests this season and can't wait to get started. For our very first episode, Chase and Julian sat down with Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia Secretary of State. They had a fascinating conversation about election security, including Secretary Raffensperger's interactions w...

Hello flies! We’re buzzing into Thanksgiving break with a brand new episode! This week flies interviewed Brenda Gianiny, President of Axis Research Inc. and a Republican pollster for notable Republicans such as Liz Cheney, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mitch McConnell, Bush-Cheney 04, and more! We talked about Brenda’s experience as a pollster and how issues like abortion, Trump’s indictments, Jan. 6th,...

Welcome back, flies! As Thanksgiving approaches, we have another great episode for you with one of our GU Politics fellows! This week, we sat down with Emily Horne, the Former Spokesperson for the National Security Council under the Biden Administration. She also is the Former Head of Global Policy Communications at Twitter, and the Founder and CEO of Allegro Public Affairs. Emily shared her thoug...

Buzz buzz, fellow flies! This week’s episode features another GU Politics Fellow, Craig Minassian! Darius and Sarah dive into Craig’s journey of merging the seemingly distant realms of politics and entertainment. Tune in to hear more about Craig’s experience as a producer and consultant for Comedy Central, MTV, ABC, and ESPN, working with Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, in addition to his ten yea...

Hello Flies! Welcome back to another episode! This week, we sat down with another GU Politics Fellow, Joe Hack! Hack graduated from Georgetown in 2009, so we were happy to welcome him back to the hilltop! Hack is the Former U.S. Senate Chief of Staff (Sen. Fischer, R-Neb.), as well as a Senior VP for The Daschle Group and the CEO of Swann Street Consulting. Austin and Chase had a great conversatio...

On this week’s episode, the flies buzzed into an exciting conversation with Georgetown senior Gabe Fleisher, the founder and editor-in-chief of the daily political newsletter Wake Up to Politics. Gabe discussed his experience with starting the newsletter, his coolest experiences as a reporter, and the accessibility of political news. He also shared insight into the Speaker race and his thoughts on...

In this episode, the flies sat down with Nia-Malika Henderson, CNN Senior Political Analyst and GU Politics Fellow. She discussed everything from the challenges of being a black queer woman in the media industry today, to the fallbacks the media had in covering the Obama and Trump administrations, to the significant changes she has witnessed over the past decade, and where she thinks politics and...

We are buzzing into a new season with an interview with former White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain! Beginning working with President Joe Biden in 1988, Klain has nearly four decades of experience serving all three branches of government and the private sector. His unmatched expertise was tested in the first two years of the Biden Administration as they faced a conundrum of crises from Covid-19 to...

Welcome back! For the season finale, we sat down with former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan. Hogan shared his experience during his time as governor, his political career, the future of the Republican Party in Maryland, and more. It's been a fantastic season and year with The Fly, and we can't thank all of our listeners enough for tuning in every week!

In this episode of The Fly, we sat down with David Greene, host of Left, Right, & Center, and a former co-host of NPR’s Morning Edition. David shared s his experiences reporting in Libya during the Arab Spring and in Ukraine last year. The flies also had an honest discussion with him about the current polarization of news and lessons we can learn moving forward. Listen now!