"Top Gun: Maverick," the legacy sequel to the 1986 movie "Top Gun," has soared at the box office since its Memorial Day weekend opening, making more than 550 million dollars and counting. People might just be going to see Tom Cruise in action, but there might be something more going on here. The first "Top Gun" is an iconic piece of pop culture, a product of its times: a hot movie that came out at the coldest point of the Cold War. This "Top Gun?" It’s also a product of its times, a weirder, more asymmetrical one for geopolitics. With us to discuss in CQ Roll Call Editor at Large John T. Bennett. 
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How ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ reflects a stranger, more vulnerable political time

Have you ever asked, “WTF?,” about politics? Or, “who are these people making decisions about my life?” Political Theater pulls back the curtain on the stunts, antics and motivations that drive Washington. Host Jason Dick and the Roll Call team spotlight the spectacle, the players and what’s going on behind the curtain in Washington’s long-running drama: Congress.

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The races that will shape November's election continue to take shape now that we have primary results in Maryland, West Virginia and Nebraska, with consequences at the House, Senate and even presidential level. Roll Call elections analyst Nathan Gonzales discusses those races and his latest Inside Elections ratings changes. 
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Primary colors: Breaking down the latest congressional contests

At Roll Call, we periodically update our list of most vulnerable senators and members of the House as we get closer to the election. It's a shifting list, and reflects a snapshot in political dynamics. So how does one land on the list? Roll Call campaign staff writers Daniela Altimari and Mary Ellen McIntire join the Political Theater podcast to discuss. 
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How to get yourself on Roll Call's Most Vulnerable Incumbents list

There is no way to spin being beaten and bloodied and scared. The history of the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 is still being written, which is an important and massive undertaking. Not everyone wants to talk about the bear spray and broken windows. But the new documentary “The Sixth” by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine gives a fresh voice to some of the people on the ground and in the line of fire that day: police officers, a journalist, a congressional staffer, and a member of Congress. The film is from their perspectives; it’s a sense of what it felt like to be there. 
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Jan. 6, 2021 and the people who will never forget

This has been a momentous week for politics. Jury selection started in the criminal trial of former President Donald Trump. The Senate dispensed with impeachment articles against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. And the House considers a foreign aid package that has made Speaker Mike Johnson a target of his unhappy colleagues. But beyond those headlines: FEC filings show us who raised how much for 2024's election; runoffs in Alabama and another trial that could affect New Jersey races. Roll Call campaigns editor Herb Jackson walks joins the podcast to discuss.
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Meanwhile, in non-Trump, non-impeachment and non-speaker news

People feel so passionately about food that perhaps it is not a surprise it has yielded that rarest of things: A sequel to a documentary. The makers of 2008’s “Food, Inc.,” are, as the new movie’s tagline goes, back for seconds with “Food, Inc. 2,” a multi-layered look at the food industry, its farmers, workers, scientists, journalists and more. Co-directors Robert Kenner and Melissa Robledo are here to talk about it, from soup to nuts.
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How ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ reflects a stranger, more vulnerable political time

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