Political Beats

By National Review

Scot Bertram and Jeff Blehar discuss ask guests from the world of politics about their musical passions.... more

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FAQs about Political Beats:

How many episodes does Political Beats have?

The podcast currently has 145 episodes available.

Political Beats episodes:

September 28, 2020 Episode 85: Christian Schneider / Ramones
Scot and Jeff discuss Ramones with Christian Schneider.
Introducing the Band:
Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Christian Schneider. Christian is a reporter for The College Fix, contributor to The Dispatch, The Bulwark, USA Today, and sometimes National Review, and author of 1916: The Blog. Find him on Twitter at @Schneider_CM
Christian’s Music Pick: Ramones
1, 2, 3, 4! In an episode we joked should only last two minutes, to honor the band, the Political Beats crew take a look at the music and career of Ramones. Formed in Queens in 1974, Ramones have been credited as the first punk rock group, and we tackle that question in the course of the conversation. The band’s first four albums are essentially unimpeachable; short, quick melodic tracks, paying deep debt to the rock music of the late ’50s and early 1960s, The Beach Boys and surf music, and, of course, the magic of fast, loud, downstrokes on the electric guitar. We discuss why the band’s songs often are deeper and more complex than on first listen and dismiss the criticism that “all their songs sound the same.” An unfortunate experience with Phil Spector is forgiven, as all of us heap praise upon the somewhat forgotten PLEASANT DREAMS. At some point, the idea of “quality control” does escape the band’s grasp, and some of the band’s drama becomes more interesting than the recorded output. Still, Ramones stand as one of the most influential groups in rock history and continue to inspire despite the early deaths of all four original members. It might not be a two-minute show, but the time will fly by. Gabba Gabba Hey!
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2h 50min
August 31, 2020 Episode 84: Steven Levy / The Doors
Scot and Jeff discuss The Doors with Steven Levy.
Introducing the Band:
Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Steven Levy. Steven is editor at large of Wired magazine and author of Facebook: The Inside Story. Follow him on Twitter at @StevenLevy.
Steven’s Music Pick: The Doors
It’s been oft-observed that the day destroys the night while the night divides the day, but no matter how much Political Beats tried to run and tried to hide, we could not avoid breaking on through to the other side with our episode about The Doors. In many ways The Doors are the most controversial artist that the show has ever covered, for the simple reason that they are so polarizing: People tend to either adore them or hate them with a fiery splenetic passion. Which makes this episode one of the most fun and interesting ones we have ever done, because you get three perspectives on Jim Morrison & company: a true super-fan who was there at time (indeed in the audience at several of their concerts) in Steven, an ex-fan who doesn’t hate them but definitely has criticisms in Jeff, and then . . . well then there’s Scot. Is this The End for Political Beats? No, we’ll be back at it again soon enough, but now that summer’s almost gone we figured we’d send it out with a bang, and keep at it until the music’s over and we’ve turned out the lights.
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2h 55min
August 17, 2020 Episode 83: Andrew Feinberg / Hüsker Dü
Scot and Jeff discuss Hüsker Dü with Andrew Feinberg.
Introducing the Band:
Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Andrew Feinberg. Andrew is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist whose coverage of the White House, Capitol Hill, and other political venues and matters of import has appeared in The Independent, Newsweek, Breakfast Media, and Politico Magazine. Follow him on Twitter at @AndrewFeinberg.
Andrew’s Music Pick: Hüsker Dü
Is this your celebrated summer? You might not think so given the state of the world in 2020, but Political Beats is here to convince you that it still could become true if you immerse yourself in the music of one of America’s most fearlessly inventive, creative, and critically adored indie bands, Hüsker Dü! (Don’t let the exotic-sounding name throw you off: These were three Minneapolis-St. Paul kids naming themselves after a Scandinavian board game from the 1970s.) The Hüskers — Bob Mould (guitars, vocals, songwriting), Grant Hart (drums, vocals, rival songwriting), and Greg Norton (bass, peerless mustache) — emerged from the MSP-area D.I.Y. punk scene to first become the most fearsome hardcore band on the planet, and then swiftly developed into one of the most ambitious and melodic groups of the entire 1980s. From their early years as punk neophytes to their era as the world’s most intensely ear-shredding hardcore band to their creative zenith to their legendarily bitter collapse and break-up, the Hüskers blazed a path through rock music that remains unique to this day, and left behind some of the finest music of the decade. Searingly personal, buoyantly poppy and melodic, skin-rippingly hardcore . . . and often all three of these things simultaneously: Join us on a journey beyond the threshold as we (most likely) introduce you to the work of Hüsker Dü (and also quite a bit of solo Bob Mould).
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3h 16min
August 04, 2020 Episode 82: Dan McLaughlin / Bruce Springsteen [Part 2]
Scot and Jeff discuss the second part of Bruce Springsteen’s career (1980-2020) with Dan McLaughlin.
Introducing the Band:
Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Dan McLaughlin. Dan is a Senior Editor at National Review and you can find his work, well . . . here! Just click on that tab over there, it’s not hard to figure out! Find him online at @baseballcrank on Twitter.
Dan’s Music Pick: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
Maybe you had a brother in Khe Sanh fighting off the Viet Cong, but after forty years from 1980 onwards to the present day as we resume the second part of our Springsteen summer spectacular, Bruce is still there, and we’re all gone. Part Two witnesses Springsteen’s explosion from cult favorite, critical darling, and sometime-chart-entrant into The Biggest Musician Of The Eighties sweepstakes (it’s a four person standoff between him, MJ, Prince, and Madonna). From Nebraska to Born In The U.S.A. to Live 1975-85 (a five record set that entered the Billboard charts at #1) to the deeply personal Tunnel Of Love, Springsteen owned the decade like few other artists, and his retreat from that during the Nineties (and subsequent reclamation of both the E Street Band and the massive concert audiences from 1999 onwards) is only part of an incredibly complicated and rewarding story set out in musical form. Join us as we run through all of it — not just the albums, but the outtakes, the live performances, the archival releases, heck even the autobiographies — on this epic installment of Political Beats, bringing our survey of The Boss to a close. And after you’re done, assuming you’re the last one out, make sure to shut out the light.
Part Two of Two.
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3h 42min
July 20, 2020 Episode 81: Dan McLaughlin / Bruce Springsteen [Part 1]
Scot and Jeff discuss the first part of Bruce Springsteen’s career (1972-1980) with Dan McLaughlin.
Introducing the Band:
Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Dan McLaughlin. Dan is a senior editor at National Review and you can find his work, well . . . here! Just click on that tab over there, it’s not hard to figure out! Find him online at @baseballcrank on Twitter.
Dan’s Music Pick: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
Summer’s here and the time is finally right for racing in the street. Yes, Political Beats is finally throwing its arms around the single most-requested artist in its three-year history: Mr. Bruce Springsteen, an artist who achieved a modest amount of fame during the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, ’00s, and ’10s (and most likely the ’20s as well). Who is Bruce Springsteen? Well, if you only know Springsteen from his years of mega-stardom and commercial ubiquity during the Eighties then you’re missing out on a long, winding artistic evolution that he underwent during the Seventies, the decade that Jeff for one asserts was truly his. From “the new Dylan” to Van-Morrison-meets-the-Jersey-Shore to The Future Of Rock And Roll to dusty roads littered with broken dreams, Political Beats takes you on a lovingly detailed tour of Bruce Springsteen’s evolution, over the first eight years of his career, into The Boss. Outtakes? Obscure live performances? Surprising amounts of Danny Federici on accordion? This episode has it all, a story about a guy in a town full of losers pulling out of there to win.
Part one of two.
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3h 22min
June 29, 2020 Episode 80: Randy Barnett / The Zombies and Argent
Scot and Jeff discuss The Zombies and Argent with Randy Barnett.
Introducing the Band:
Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Randy Barnett. Randy is the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Legal Theory at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he directs the Georgetown Center for the Constitution. He also writes at The Volokh Conspiracy. Follow him on Twitter at @RandyEBarnett.
Randy’s Music Pick: The Zombies and Argent
It’s summertime, and the livin’ is easy, which also means that it’s the time of the season to discuss not one, but two of the great semi-forgotten bands of pop-rock era in The Zombies and their progressive-rock sequel Argent. The Zombies — led by keyboardist Rod Argent, bassist Chris White, and lead singer Colin Blunstone — may have gotten inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame very recently, but odds are that unless you are a Sixties music snob you still aren’t aware of just how brilliant they actually were as a band, how underrated Argent and White were as pop songwriters and lyricists, and how shockingly great their entire discography is. As Jeff says during the show, even though The Zombies scored three big hits in America (trust us, you’ve heard “She’s Not There” and “Time Of The Season” even if only subliminally, and you probably know “Tell Her No” as well), the rest of their career exemplifies most bizarre losing streak in rock history, because practically every single one of the songs they released (and several that they didn’t!) were top-tier pop and art-rock compositions, and they ended their career with what ranks among the finest albums of the decade in Odessey And Oracle.
But the story doesn’t end there! After The Zombies broke up due to lack of commercial success and critical recognition (both would eventually come, albeit too late for the group), Argent and White went on to form a new band, the eponymous Argent, based around the songwriting skills of Rod and Chris and with the added strength of lead singer Russ Ballard bringing his own music to bear. Argent rapidly moved away from the bright, brisk pop-rock of The Zombies into the piano/organ-based art- and progressive-rock style of the Seventies, and yet still managed to put out a remarkable amount of fine music on their own. Click play and enjoy — is this the dream band you’ve been crying out for?
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2h 28min
June 15, 2020 Episode 79: Lynyrd Skynyrd / Mark Davis
Scot and Jeff discuss Lynyrd Skynyrd with Mark Davis.
Introducing the Band:
Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Mark Davis. Mark is a talk show host at 660 AM The Answer in Dallas-Ft. Worth and can be heard filling in on shows nationally for the Salem Media Group. He’s also a columnist for the Dallas Morning News and Townhall.com. Find him online @markdavis on Twitter.
Mark’s Music Pick: Lynyrd Skynyrd
What song is it you want to hear? If you answered “Free Bird!”, chances are this episode on Lynyrd Skynyd is for you. The band, pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd, of course, formed in Jacksonville back in the 1960s and essentially invested their own genre of music, fusing blues, rock, country, and “swamp music” to define 1970s southern rock. Ronnie Van Zant wrote the lyrics and led his band to a major label deal following years of honing their craft for hours a day in the “Hell House.” What emerged were two of the finest albums of the classic rock era and a string of memorable tales while working for MCA. We discuss the band’s not-so-secret weapon in Ed King and dive into the back stories of “Sweet Home Alabama.” Tragically, the band’s prime years were cut short following a plane crash in 1977, just months after adding guitarist Steve Gaines to the lineup, reinvigorating the group’s sound. Van Zant, Gaines, his sister Cassie, and three others were killed; other band members suffered brutal injuries. The less said about subsequent reunions, the better, though it is covered in the show. Give a fresh listen to the music of one of the finest American rock bands of all time. Don’t forget to turn it up!
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2h 43min
May 18, 2020 Episode 78: Jeff Pojanowski / Crowded House
Scot and Jeff discuss Crowded House with Jeff Pojanowski.
Introducing the Band:
Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Jeff Pojanowski. Jeff is a professor of law at Notre Dame Law School. He also writes about administrative law, legal interpretation, and philosophy of law. Find him online @pojanowski on Twitter.
Jeff’s Music Pick: Crowded House
You might think of Crowded House as a one-or-two-hit wonder in the U.S., but by the end of this episode you’ll be falling at their feet to praise their body of work. The band started with the demise of Split Enz in the mid-80s, leaving main songwriter Neil Finn to carry on by focusing on a stripped down, back-to-basics style of music. The debut featured a couple of songs you might have heard — “Don’t Dream It’s Over” and “Something So Strong.” Crowded House failed to follow up that success in the states, but found interested audiences in the U.K. and their homelands, Australia and New Zealand. Finn and the band wrote and recorded some of the best pop music of the era, then added two surprisingly good reunion albums in the late ‘00s. Those songs are carefully crafted, well-produced, and feature incredibly melodic hooks. We also briefly touch on Neil Finn’s solo records and his work in Split Enz and the Finn Brothers. Listen alone or with a group of friends as you quarantine in your own crowded house.
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2h 32min
April 27, 2020 Episode 77: Nick Gillespie / The Byrds
Scot and Jeff discuss The Byrds with Nick Gillespie.
Introducing the Band:
Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Nick Gillespie. Nick Gillespie is an editor at large at Reason and the co-author of The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What’s Wrong with America. Find him online at @nickgillespie on Twitter.

Nick’s Music Pick: The Byrds
Today the gang is soaring high in the friendly skies as they contemplate the career of one of the greatest and most important bands in the history of post-’50s rock music, The Byrds. Jeff is at pains to emphasize how The Byrds are not just a “Dylan covers act,” but rather one of the most influential acts of the entire era, sparking three separate musical revolutions in popular music with folk-rock, psychedelia, and country-rock. Nick adds that there is true pathos to the story of The Byrds, who brought forth such an effulgence of musical beauty (particularly on their first six albums, a run which represents one of the best winning streaks in pop music history), and yet were always crippled by warring egos and human frailties that prevented them from reaching even higher. But what they did achieve is staggering nonetheless; if for some reason you have remained ignorant of the greatness of what Jim (now Roger) McGuinn, David Crosby, Chris Hillman, Gene Clark, and Michael Clarke accomplished during their heyday, click play and prepare for takeoff.
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2h 51min
April 13, 2020 Episode 76: Cam Edwards / Fountains of Wayne
Scot and Jeff discuss Fountains of Wayne with Cam Edwards.
Introducing the Band:
Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Cam Edwards. Cam is the editor of Bearing Arms, the host of Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co, and the 40 Acres & A Fool podcast. Find him online @camedwards on Twitter.
Cam’s Music Pick: Fountains of Wayne
Are you alone now? Did you lose the monkey? Good. Then you’re prepared for the Political Beats dive into the music of Fountains of Wayne. This special episode is in honor of the late Adam Schlesinger, the bassist and co-songwriter for the band. Nominated for the “Best New Artist” award at the 2003 Grammys, Fountains of Wayne had been active for nearly a decade prior to that point. Their output was remarkably consistent; power pop through and through, with bright chords, innovative rhymes, and huge hooks. The band had only one Top 40 song to their credit (“Stacy’s Mom”), but any number of these songs will remain in your head for weeks after listening to this episode.
But that’s not all he did! Though FOW is the focus, we also touch on his work in movies and television, plus his creative efforts with other bands. Schlesinger clearly was one of the most prolific and talented songwriters of his generation and his absence will be sorely missed.
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2h 21min

FAQs about Political Beats:

How many episodes does Political Beats have?

The podcast currently has 145 episodes available.

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