Episodes

  • A most consequential year for Congress

    A most consequential year for Congress
    Dec 18 2025
    The first session of the 119th Congress has been consequential: the legislative branch ceded much of its constitutional responsibilities to the executive branch, senators changed the process for confirming presidential nominees, and the House rank and file grew more emboldened to sidestep their leaders and force votes. Jason Dick and Molly Reynolds discuss these topics and much more as they put 2025 into context. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    59 mins
  • Buy the 'Shadow Ticket,' take the ride

    Buy the 'Shadow Ticket,' take the ride
    Dec 10 2025
    Thomas Pynchon's latest novel, "Shadow Ticket," has a lot to say about politics, so Jason Dick checks in with Sean Carswell, the official Pynchon scholar of the Political Theater podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    56 mins
  • Can Congress save itself?

    Can Congress save itself?
    Dec 3 2025
    Despite its propensity for making itself look bad, some of the inner workings of Congress reveal lawmakers who are finding ways to work together. Can they cut through the noise and solve some real problems? Jason Dick and Justin Papp discuss the changing institution and the people who make it, or try to make it, function. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    38 mins
  • The re-re-redistricting chronicles

    The re-re-redistricting chronicles
    Nov 20 2025
    Jason Dick and Nathan Gonzales talk about how multiple rounds of redistricting congressional boundaries and the lawsuits surrounding them are making a weird year and weird election cycle even weirder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    37 mins
  • There is no such things as an off-year in politics

    There is no such things as an off-year in politics
    Nov 6 2025
    Jason Dick talks with Daniela Altimari and Mary Ellen McIntire about the new Roll Call Most Vulnerable Incumbent list, Tuesday night's election results and the latest rounds of redistricting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    51 mins
  • Taking the ‘Vineland’ express to ‘One Battle After Another’

    Taking the ‘Vineland’ express to ‘One Battle After Another’
    Oct 31 2025
    Jason Dick and Sean Carswell discuss how Thomas Pynchon’s novel “Vineland” led to Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie “One Battle After Another,” the conversation those two works have about American culture and politics, as well as the 1960s left, the Nixonian right, Reaganism, the drug war, Trumpism and, for good measure, Emerson's concept of the level of divine justice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    46 mins
  • Immigration, race and ‘One Battle After Another'

    Immigration, race and ‘One Battle After Another'
    Oct 21 2025
    Jason Dick and Chris Johnson talk about how immigration and racial issues frame the action and plot in the Paul Thomas Anderson movie "One Battle After Another," the salience of those issues in American history and culture and why movies still matter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    33 mins
  • An Orwell movie for Orwellian times

    An Orwell movie for Orwellian times
    Oct 7 2025
    Jason Dick talks with filmmaker Raoul Peck about his documentary "Orwell: 2+2=5," the importance of stepping back from the news cycle to keep things in context and how degrading language leads to degrading humanity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    25 mins