A speaker is deposed. Members of Congress gets indicted. A former president stands trial. Things feel unsteady, even dangerous. Has it ever been like this before? And will it change? Molly Reynolds, senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, discusses what’s going on in Congress. 

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The instability of the House of Representatives is on full display, with this week seeing the first-ever ouster of a speaker, which led to the first-ever use of continuity of government rules to install a speaker pro tempore to preside over the institution until the chamber can elect its next speaker. And, if you remember how that went in January, it is uncertain how long that will take. Political Theater podcast host pro tempore Herb Jackson and Roll Call editor at large John Bennett walk us through what has happened and what we'll be watching as the leadership race for a person in the presidential line of succession unfolds in an uncertain time.

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Sen. Bob Menendez is a New Jersey institution, and in a familiar place, running for election while fighting federal corruption charges. He has always come out on top before, but times have changed, and his Democratic colleagues are pressuring him to resign. How did Menendez get to where he is, and what are his options? Roll Call Politics Editor Herb Jackson, a man of New Jersey, walks us through it all.

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Filmmaker Dawn Porter’s documentaries run the spectrum of the political world and process, including Bobby Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign, the legacy of Congressman John Lewis, the Tulsa massacre, Civil War spies, abortion and more. Her latest project, the mini-series “Deadlocked,” is a history of the modern Supreme Court, from the Warren Court to the present, and how politics have changed the court, and how the court has changed politics. 

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September is always stressful around Washington. Congress rarely even tries to pass its spending bills in time for the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. Throw in the House GOP’s impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden, and you have even more stress. Both topics, along with another developing wild card, redistricting, are likely to help define the 2024 campaign. We discuss with Nathan Gonzales, Roll Call’s campaign analyst and the publisher of Inside Elections.

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With “Golda,” director Guy Nattiv depicts the story of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir’s leadership during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, bringing his affection for the paranoid thrillers of the 1970s to the screen during a time of heightened political tensions in Israel and the rest of the democratic world. 

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Steve James is a documentary filmmaker whose body of work has taken him from "Hoop Dreams" to the 2008 financial crisis and more. His latest film, "A Compassionate Spy," is about Ted Hall, a physicist who worked at Los Alamos during World War II and helped develop the atomic bomb. You may have heard something or other about the bomb lately, with Christopher Nolan’s "Oppenheimer" in theaters now and creating buzz by the gallons. Hall’s story is just as important. He took what he learned at Los Alamos and shared it with the Soviet Union, an action that continues to reverberate. 

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What's the difference between launching a political campaign on June 30 and July 10? Does it really matter? Here to explain why it does is Nathan Gonzales, Roll Call’s Election Analyst and the publisher of Inside Elections. We also talk about sharks, ditches and an unlikely double feature of "The Skulls" and "Back to School."

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June 24 marks the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade and the federal right to an abortion. Amanda Becker, a former Roll Caller who writes about politics for the 19th and just completed a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard, is writing a book about the immediate fallout of the decision. She joins the podcast to talk about her work and reporting. 

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Washington is a film capital, home to a diverse slate of festivals to match a diverse slate of interests and people. This week, the DC/DOX festival gets under way with dozens of documentary features on topics ranging from the war in Ukraine, the Supreme Court, Joan Baez, Steph Curry and more. DC/DOX co-founder Sky Sitney joins the podcast to talk about movies, creating a community and even Kim's Video.

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