Politics and Prose Presents

Politics and Prose Presents

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Politics and Prose Presents episodes

  • Eoghan Walls — Field Notes from an Extinction - with Leeya Mehta

    Fast-paced and funny. Scientific and tender. A literary thriller featuring Auks. As if Hilary Mantel’s The Giant, O’Brien met Robinson Crusoe, here is a story of one man’s growing humanity amidst famine and extinction.
    Told in the vernacular of the day, this novel-as-notebook features a 19th-century ornithologist on a remote Irish island—from the author of indie favorite The Gospel of Orla.
    Written in the form of a 19th-century notebook of ornithological observations, Field Notes from an Extinction follows the life and work of one Ignatius Green, a fictitious English scientist dispatched by the Royal Society to the remote island of Tor Mor off the northern Irish coast. Green, a widower, is single-minded and self-righteous, brilliant and bumbling. He is determined to set the scientific record straight on the mating rituals, feeding and care of hatchlings and other minutiae he can gather about the Great Auk (pinguinus impennis).
    Green’s world is shattered when his monthly goods delivery arrives ravaged by the local Irish townsmen. His fury at their impertinence is matched only by his dismay at finding a small child amid the shipment--dirty, abandoned, mute, and utterly feral and unmanageable. Worse, the locals are growing restless and hungry. And there is talk sweeping the land of a terrifying woman with unnatural power.
    Green fights for his survival against brigands and hunger and, most fearsome, the resolve of a fierce and angry child. And, perhaps, for a wider understanding of family amidst roiling societal unrest.]

    Eoghan Walls is a Northern Irish poet. He has lived and worked in Ireland, Britain, Germany and Rwanda. He won an Eric Gregory Award in 2006, and his poetry has been shortlisted for multiple international awards, including the Bridport Prize, the Manchester Poetry Prize and the Piggott Prize. He has published the first major translation of Heidegger’s poetical works and currently teaches Creative Writing at Lancaster University. The Gospel of Orla (Seven Stories Press; 2023), his debut novel, was an IndieNext and a Library Reads selection, and was called "utterly convincing and fresh and original" by Colm Tóibín. His new novel is Field Notes from an Extinction.

    Walls is in conversation with Leeya Mehta, whose novel, Extinction, is forthcoming with Simon and Schuster, India (October 6 2026). She is a prize-winning poet, fiction writer, podcaster and essayist, widely published in the US, India, UK, and Austria, including in the Times of India, Poetry London, the Beloit Poetry Journal, the Penguin Book of Modern Indian Poets and in Red Hen Press’s Future Work. Her poetry chapbook A Story of the World Before the Fence “is a lush, lyrical study of memory and history,” writes Tim Seibles. She graduated from Oxford and Georgetown, and is currently the Director of the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center at George Mason University, where she was honored with Faculty Member of the Year (2025), and the Faculty Civic Excellence Award (2024). Her collaborative project received American graphic design awards for their 13-month long Baldwin100 project, celebrating James Baldwin’s centennial. Socials: https://leeyamehta.com/ @LeeyaMehta

    PURCHASE: https://politics-prose.com/book/9781644215340?ic_referral=hSz8LUeXbpJVTwLouVauKkyecM-FCuPu96zgdXxmJYEwM8rjkFFWt6-ogGg2hFj9c75eEAYCIrZnMAzuHes7YzB5QHPORQtGHhs3Gz0QcOBC-n0U1VL_J1crhsNGwFCzzVWOUak

    57 min
  • Elizabeth Heider — Children of the Savage City - I.S. Berry

    Some cities feed on secrets. Naples is ravenous.
    A peaceful evening mass at the historic Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo is shattered when a young au pair is killed in one of the cathedral’s quiet chapels. The daughter of the US Ambassador sees it happen—but she'll speak only to one person: Nikki Serafino.
    Shaken by betrayal in her last high-profile case, Nikki has retreated from the relentless vigilance that once defined her work as liaison between Italian police and the US military. Withdrawn and mistrustful, she works her shifts, cares for her aging family, teaches self-defense classes, and avoids entanglement. But this case threatens her self-imposed invisibility—drawing her into a web of lies and resurfacing old wounds and buried loyalties. The murder investigation leads Nikki and her friend, Naples officer Valerio Alfieri, into a shadow architecture of power: built to protect the guilty and hide their secrets at any cost.
    Can she and Valerio—each carrying dangerous debts—resist the undertow of corruption that swallows truth whole?
    Set against the chaos of modern Naples—the city of Roberto Saviano’s Gomorrah and Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend—where grace and corruption share the same narrow streets, Nikki and Valerio navigate a landscape where even the most principled must confront the cost of survival.

    Elizabeth Heider is the author of May the Wolf Die, named a New York Times Best Crime Novel, a Washington Post Best Mystery, and one of Publishers Weekly’s best books of the year. Her short fiction has been recognized by the Santa Fe Writers Project and New Century Writer Awards. She holds a PhD in physics and most recently worked as a program manager for Microsoft’s AI4Science and as a scientist in the European Space Agency’s human spaceflight program. She's authored original scientific research, a patent, analytical reports for the US government and military, and coauthored a journal article with astronaut Thomas Pesquet. She lived and worked in Naples, Italy, as a civilian analyst embedded with the US Navy’s mission in Africa, where she deployed aboard US and European naval ships. Originally from Utah, she now lives in The Hague, where she's working on the next Nikki Serafino novel.

    Heider is in conversation with I.S. Berry, she spent six years as an operations officer for the CIA, serving in wartime Baghdad and elsewhere. She has lived and worked throughout Europe and the Middle East, including two years in Bahrain during the Arab Spring. Her debut spy novel, The Peacock and the Sparrow, was named The Times (London) Thriller of the Year; a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, The Times, The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, and NPR; and won the Edgar Award, Barry Award, Macavity Award, and International Thriller Writers Award for Best First Novel. The Times calls Berry one of “the top spy novelists of the 21st century,” and Tim Weiner, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Mission, calls her “the best spy novelist of her generation.” She’s been featured in The Washington Post, The Times, and WAMU. Berry is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law and Haverford College, and lives in Virginia with her husband and son.

    PURCHASE:

    https://politics-prose.com/book/9780143138198?ic_referral=HW8XYajKaFvSf98xKw6bCBV0mApqDQk6XU3Ivx4C3IIwMx45rTUFcrR4ACYb7Lz0aO_rR9ymiw7YzqWgpXIspAgpBmts1l_zYYBBNCZNUxXPD430fvjNguPIhEL5enlf59W7E2s

    53 min
  • Olivier Sylvain — RECLAIMING THE INTERNET: How Big Tech Took Control- And How We Can Take It Back - with Nancy Scola

    How the Internet lost its way--and how to fix it


    Recovering the Internet is an indictment of how Big Tech cloaks ruthless commercial exploitation in the language of free speech. Olivier Sylvain, a leading legal scholar and former senior advisor at the Federal Trade Commission, exposes the incentives behind social media design, revealing how they trap users in cycles of addiction, misinformation, and harm--from fatal TikTok challenges to AI chatbot codependency.
    With clarity and urgency, Sylvain dismantles the libertarian mythology that shaped internet law and calls for a new legal regime that protects users over platforms. Recovering the Internet is a powerful, original intervention into the most urgent policy debate of our time--what it will take to reclaim the digital public sphere.

    Olivier Sylvain is a professor of law at Fordham University, a former senior advisor at the Federal Trade Commission, and a Senior Policy Research Fellow at Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute. An expert in communications, administrative, and internet law, his work focuses on platform accountability, consumer protection, and the intersection of technology, speech, and democracy.

    Sylvain is in conversation with Nancy Scola, a veteran Washington D.C.-based reporter and journalist whose work often focuses on the intersections of technology, economics, politics, and policy for publications like New York, Wired, The Information, and The Atlantic. She is a contributing writer at both POLITICO Magazine and Washingtonian Magazine. Nancy also teaches about the history, theory, and practice of journalism, including as a lecturer at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. Earlier in her career, Nancy was a senior technology reporter at POLITICO and a staff writer at the Washington Post. Before going into journalism, Nancy worked in politics and government, including as a professional staffer member on the House Committee on Government Reform.

    PURCHASE:

    https://politics-prose.com/book/9781967190126?ic_referral=aMdPEGq7lGenNEG0Q9msTt-fjF8_UXqLEqnQTyn7F6UwM4fphlerf4WHrK7E-iBk_W9YEEc5m5vT-l-SI7DOGJUPxZeUJFpaox80wVnB1pFH0JsDWf6y7xEHmwrB4jOBwnvTt8M

    1 hr
  • Erin McGoff — The Secret Language of Work: Hyper-Helpful Scripts for Every Situation - with Hannah Williams

    From the creator of AdviceWithErin, the definitive book on how to use the right words at work—so you can build the career you deserve
    We’ve all been there: you’re sweating, sitting in front of your laptop, and the interviewer on the screen says, “Tell me about yourself.” You freeze. Is that even a question? What are they expecting from you? What do you say?
    If that paragraph made your heart beat a little faster, TikTok star, career educator, and “the internet’s big sister” Erin McGoff is here to help. In The Secret Language of Work, McGoff shares her best, customizable scripts for how to communicate in the professional world—word-for-word, exactly what to say during interviews, while negotiating salaries, when you need to set boundaries with co-workers, as you advocate for yourself, and in any sticky situation at the office. With McGoff’s advice, you will master the unwritten rules of work speak that are key to career advancement.
    Learning how to say the right words, in the right order, in the right way, at the right time, is an art that too few people are taught. Stellar communication is probably the most valuable skill you can possess—and once you know the secret language of work, you will be able to confidently tackle anything your sure-to-be outstanding career presents to you.

    Erin McGoff is an award-winning filmmaker and content creator—known as the “internet’s big sister" through her AdviceWithErin branding. McGoff has built a significant online presence with millions of followers, delivering candid career and life advice for Gen Z and Millennials. She received a Pulitzer Fellowship in 2017 and was named a Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient in 2025. Her impact has been recognized by publications like the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, and others, and she is currently a contributor to CNBC. McGoff lives in Washington, D.C., with an occasional trip up to her cabin in the Catskills she custom-built, with her husband, Michael, and dog, Olive.

    McGoff is in conversation with Hannah Williams, a social activist and former data analyst tackling a major issue: salary transparency. After discovering she was underpaid, Hannah created Salary Transparent Street in 2022, a viral series that interviews strangers about their pay to normalize pay transparency and expose workers’ real wages. Her interviews have encouraged international shifts in how companies and governments approach pay transparency, culminating in invitations to testify in support of pay transparency bills in Virginia, Maryland, and DC, with the latter two passing into law. In 2024, she made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and in 2025, she was named to the inaugural TIME100 Most Influential Creators list

    PURCHASE:


    https://politics-prose.com/book/9798217046416?ic_referral=TO1Y26h_biwFIW7-VyJGFHINquQPqdpgKcW1aedWLJswM82yEaURn5NapuetjjjWL5hNZcrH9pwTwPh591wk-Ubw03-SpLlR8vaF0O9OPmmCb-DBE6bkK-cCljAfITrOPcyGUQg

    1 hr 2 min
  • Anand Gopal — Days of Love and Rage: A Story of Ordinary People Forging a Revolution - with Victor Blue

    From Pulitzer and National Book Award finalist Anand Gopal, a mesmerizing and powerful account of six Syrians fighting for a better world, in the tradition of classic works by Philip Gourevitch and Katherine Boo.
    In 2011, in a northern Syrian city, a small group of men and women began a movement that overthrew one of the world’s most brutal dictatorships. For the next eighteen months, citizens of Manbij carried out one of the most remarkable experiments in democracy in modern times.
    Days of Love and Rage details the powerfully intimate narratives of men and women who led this struggle, and who experience the highs of camaraderie and the lows of betrayal: a pair of best friends torn apart by political polarization, a mother who stands up to male dominance, a worker who risks everything for the dream of equality.
    Anand Gopal immerses you in the world of a single city in the throes of revolution, and lays bare the danger that inequality poses to democracy. But this book transcends the particulars of one terrible conflict to tell the sweeping story of democracy and rising authoritarianism in our times. It is, above all, an account of the best and worst of humanity. Both tragic and inspiring, Days of Love and Rage is a story of our enduring human need for freedom, security, dignity, community, love, and hope.

    Anand Gopal is a writer for The New Yorker. He is the author of No Good Men Among the Living and writes about democracy, inequality, and conflict.

    Gopal is in conversation with Victor Blue, a New York based photojournalist whose work is most often concerned with the legacy of armed conflict, human rights and the protection of civilian populations, and unequal outcomes resulting from policy and politics. He has worked in Central America since 2002, concentrating on social conflict in Guatemala, and since 2009 has photographed the Counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan. He practices a deeply reported, character driven documentary photography that tries to both inform viewers intellectually and move them emotionally, and communicate something universal from the particular circumstances of individual lives and struggles. 

    PURCHASE:

    https://politics-prose.com/book/9781668062173?ic_referral=s3ktvNuJIVPdh9sbkSoa2k1UpDIkbQ_FiixA44YALiUwM1enWVeel4jDThW-mYL0V47A9yz80T5VcdvipaaQfGqIvpy_yDLwFRNutnvdykirK7YcGUABnusPVtJrCo_Tpe0xAH8

    54 min
  • Terence Ward & Idanna Pucci — EMILIO PUCCI: THE ASTONISHING ODYSSEY OF A FASHION ICON - with Sara Gay Forden

    The Drama of War and Postwar Italy Through the Life of One of Its Most Celebrated Icons
    When people think of fashion designer Emilio Pucci, it is of his bright, swirling colors and easy, freeing fabrics, and everyone from Sophia Loren to Jackie Kennedy donning the eye-catching dresses that personify La Dolce Vita. What few know about Pucci, however, is that before creating his world-famous fashions, he played a critical role in the war against the Nazis, risking his life to smuggle out to the Allies one of the most important documents of World War II.
    The authors bring to life Italy’s darkest and brightest days, with the extraordinary Emilio Pucci at its center. Italy at the end of the war was broken, and Florence, which the Pucci family had called home for seven centuries, lay in ruins. Pucci returned home bruised in body and soul, having endured trials that would have broken many, but, like Italy itself, rose from the ashes, and went on to design some of the most exuberant fashion of all time. He helped usher in a new era of creativity in Italy, which again became a mecca of fashion, art, design, film, and more.
    A host of supporting characters—including Mussolini’s daughter and Allen Dulles, and, most importantly, the timeless city of Florence and the mythic island of Capri—enrich this compelling narrative that will draw readers of all kinds, from war and history buffs, to fashionistas and fans of espionage thrillers along with the millions of readers who devour books about Italy and her many charms.

    Terence Ward is the author of Searching for Hassan: A Journey to the Heart of Iran and The Guardian of Mercy: How an Extraordinary Painting by Caravaggio Changed an Ordinary Life. 
    Idanna Pucci is the author of The Lady of Sing Sing and The World Odyssey of a Balinese Prince. Idanna grew up in the Pucci palace, eyewitness to her uncle's extraordinary work. She and Terence have had far flung lives, from Iran to Indonesia. They live in Florence.

    Ward and Pucci are in conversation with Sara Gay Forden, is a bestselling author and veteran journalist known for her book The House of Gucci, adapted into a major film, and her extensive reporting on the Italian fashion industry and tech giants for Bloomberg News, where she currently leads the legal team in D.C.; she covered fashion in Milan for years before moving to Washington, D.C. to focus on big tech like Amazon, Facebook, and Google. https://www.saragayforden.com/about

    PURCHASE:

    https://politics-prose.com/book/9781250289674?ic_referral=q4-db_E4ndRn78KEziaox5CsnurHCLMHRoLzaYDBCLcwM9M1-RmeU5gep6A2Lx8PRSmkKQ5Mh84KkHTo1PS0jPVkbPspSsIi3Fb0Ko26DDFEXHW78G5F027GTNoiGkzLFM8mFa0

    1 hr 4 min
  • Sujata Massey — The Star from Calcutta (A Perveen Mistry Novel #5) - with Vera Kurian

    A movie censor murdered, a leading lady vanished—the glamour, romance, and intrigue of the beginnings of Bollywood come to vivid life in the thrilling new installment of the Perveen Mistry historical mystery series.
    India, 1922: Perveen Mistry, the only female lawyer in Bombay, has secured her biggest client yet: Champa Films, a movie studio run by director Subhas Ghoshal and his wife, Rochana, the biggest name in Indian cinema. In the public eye, Rochana is notorious for her beauty and her daring stunts—behind the scenes, she has recently left the studio in Calcutta that made her famous, and the studio owner is enraged by what he claims is a breach of contract. Rochana needs Perveen’s legal help to extricate Champa Films from the impending controversy.
    To study Rochana’s glamorous world, Perveen attends a special screening and brings her film fanatic best friend, Alice Hobson-Jones. But in the aftermath of the event, one of the guests is found dead, and to make matters worse, Rochana has disappeared.
    To protect her clients, Perveen begins to investigate the developing murder case, peeling back the glitz to reveal a salacious web of blackmail, deceit, and romantic affairs. For the first time in their friendship, Alice seems to be keeping a secret from Perveen. Is she hiding key information about the night of the murder? Will Perveen be able to detangle the truth from lies while protecting herself—and her closest friend?

    Sujata Massey was born in England to parents from India and Germany, grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, and lives in Baltimore, Maryland. She was a features reporter for the Baltimore Evening Sun before becoming a full-time novelist. The first Perveen Mistry novel, The Widows of Malabar Hill, was an international bestseller and won the Agatha, Macavity, and Mary Higgins Clark Awards. Visit her website at sujatamassey.com.

    Massey is in conversation with Vera Kurian, a writer and scientist based in Washington DC. Her debut novel, NEVER SAW ME COMING (Park Row Books, 2021) was an Edgar Award nominee, was named one of the New York Times’ Best Thrillers of 2021, and has sold in 15 countries. Her second novel. A STEP PAST DARKNESS, was published in 2024. She regularly writes on Substack.

    PURCHASE:

    https://politics-prose.com/book/9781641295093?ic_referral=ciDNXibXnt8RuL5jIjhzIQuCmbC5b7ms8o32MgUEY0kwM9BnWjKDrYULFP3948LXnBaEu2PPuw125ZyJzug6nesCuPWXxYtCeNaSal35ERCUA2N04YClQp_sbjjH9IP9mvN0HRA

    1 hr 1 min
  • Anne Fadiman — Frog: And Other Essays - with Isaac Arnsdorf

    A new collection of evocative personal essays from one of America’s most beloved nonfiction writers, Anne Fadiman. 
    In Frog, Anne Fadiman returns to her favorite genre, the essay, of which she is one of our most celebrated practitioners. Ranging in subject matter from her deceased frog, to archaic printer technology, to the fraught relationship between Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his son Hartley, these essays unlock a whole world—one overflowing with mundanity and oddity—through sly observation and brilliant wit.
    The diverse subjects of Frog are bound together by the quality of Fadiman’s attention, and subtly, they come to form a slantwise portrait of the artist, a writer dedicated to chronicling the world as it changes around her, in ways small and large, as time passes.

    Anne Fadiman is the author, most recently, of the essay collection Frog (2026). Her first book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (1997), won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the Salon Book Award. In 2017, she published The Wine Lover’s Daughter, a memoir about her father. Fadiman has also written two essay collections, Ex Libris and At Large and At Small, and edited Rereadings: Seventeen Writers Revisit Books They Love. She is Professor in the Practice of English and Francis Writer in Residence at Yale.

    Fadiman is in conversation with Isaac Arnsdorf, who covers the White House for The Washington Post. His work has received the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting, the 2024 Ben Bradlee Award for Courage in Journalism, the 2019 Sandy Hume Memorial Award for Excellence in Political Journalism, and honorable mentions for the Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting in 2019 and 2022. He is the author of Finish What We Started, about the MAGA movement since January 6, and coauthor of 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his family.  

    PURCHASE:

    https://politics-prose.com/book/9780374608743?ic_referral=4liJASul5ddn9BK1jdeUYyqiGk_ALtH8miGuAgruiTowM21K9vj5GEXEchAGDZzE1GpjTAOMywHAO3JPTy0lgkz-8m54wLvxGKBcy8q9A8rr--2nYqw4-IaUQER53Cy5PxeyeBg

    1 hr 3 min
  • Janice Page — Year of the Water Horse: A Memoir - with A.M. Homes

    A warm and witty memoir about the ever-changing relationships between mothers, mothers-in-law, and daughters that traverses two continents and multiple generations of two disparate yet connected families.
    Janice Page hails from Braintree, Massachusetts and a large Catholic brood. Her parents had a complicated marriage. Her five siblings each have their own sagas, and there is a destructive genetic force within the family’s blood lines that causes much heartbreak.
    And then there is the large Chinese family of Janice’s husband, James, equally cinematic and sweeping with a rich and complex history of its own. There is a daring wartime escape, a lost child, immigration to a new world, and a bittersweet reunion after decades of separation.
    Janice first met James fresh out of college while waitressing at Mandarin Garden, the only Chinese restaurant of its kind in Braintree. He had just arrived in America from Taiwan. As they work to bridge the divide between them—emotionally, culturally, and geographically—they begin to build their lives together. From Taiwan to Los Angeles, from her mother's bipolar disorder to the language barrier with her mother-in-law, Janice finds herself constantly searching for the feeling of home. Janice believes she can close the circle when she embarks on her own journey to become a mother. Like so many journeys, Janice’s own journey to motherhood is filled with twists, turns, and surprises, leading to a baby girl from James’s ancestral region of China. Janice and James might finally close a circle that had been open for generations on both sides and find home at last.
    Filled with humor and heart, wisdom and healing, Year of the Water Horse is a profound and compelling story with a deeply satisfying ending that will resonate long after the final page.

    Janice Page edits arts, film, and culture at The Washington Post. Prior to that, Page was a deputy managing editor at The Boston Globe, where she oversaw publication of books done in partnership with The Globe, including The New York Times best-sellers Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy and Whitey Bulger: America’s Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt That Brought Him to Justice and multiple championship sports books on the Patriots, Celtics, Red Sox, and Bruins. She has also been on staff at The Los Angeles Times, The Providence Journal-Bulletin and written for The New York Times and MSN. A Boston-area native, Janice graduated Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude from Rutgers University and was named the 2023 recipient of the Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger Residency at Yaddo, where she worked on Year of the Water Horse.

    Page is in conversation with A.M. Homes, the author of thirteen books, including May We Be Forgiven, which won the UK Women’s Prize for Fiction and the internationally bestselling memoir, The Mistress's Daughter. Her work has been translated into twenty-two languages. She is Professor of the Practice and Acting Director of the Creative Writing Program at Princeton University and lives in New York City. 

    PURCHASE:

    https://politics-prose.com/book/9798897100095?ic_referral=pLEDYafMCYglObk2gQHbjKaj1zV7sy-5E5tpTEhU-vkwM2LHgJDqhqojWS9k-kIHY1SVjf9WDvl0EIf27fCMy86dwJT4d9auWMb5ja7h7ycFTVAm-g75ChLdhKQFo4ZGGlrXM5U

    1 hr
  • Maya L. Kornberg — STUCK: How Money, Media, and Violence Prevent Change in Congress - with Angela Greiling Keane

    Why fifty years of changemaking and reform haven't fixed Congress--and what that reveals about American democracy.

    Congress, the central democratic institution in the United States, is hanging on by a thread. On January 6, 2021, a violent attack on the Capitol Building left five people dead, and threats and attacks against politicians are on the rise. In Stuck, Maya Kornberg chronicles the efforts of congressional reformers over the last fifty years and documents the mounting forces that have kept their reforms from creating meaningful change.

    The "Watergate babies" of 1974, the Contract with America conservatives of 1994, and the historic 2018 class fueled by backlash to Donald Trump all represent younger, more diverse, and less entrenched members who arrived in Washington energized and idealistic. Kornberg reveals the ways Congress has become increasingly inhospitable to change. Political violence, astronomical campaign costs, relentless fundraising demands, shrinking staff, and centralized party leadership all constrain the ability of new members to legislate and represent their constituents. Social media, while offering new platforms for political expression, has also heightened harassment and fed a performative culture that rewards spectacle over substance.

    Bolstered by dozens of interviews, congressional records, and the voices of lawmakers past and present--including Henry Waxman, Toby Moffett, Phil English, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Lauren Underwood--Stuck offers a sobering portrait of a legislative body paralyzed by its own internal dynamics. Kornberg outlines tangible reforms that could restore Congress's capacity to function and amplify the power of its newest members. At a time when Americans are losing faith in democracy's most representative institution, Stuck makes the case for how it could be saved.

    Maya L. Kornberg is a senior research fellow at NYU Law's Brennan Center for Justice and the author of Inside Congressional Committees: Function and Dysfunction in Lawmaking.

    Kornberg is in conversation with Angela Greiling Keane, CNBC's senior editor for politics. She’s covered the intersection of politics, business and policy for more than 25 years and is based in Washington. She’s previously been a senior newsroom leader at Bloomberg and Politico, and she earned a bachelor’s in journalism at the University of Missouri. She has served as president of the National Press Club, National Press Club Journalism Institute and Journalism & Women Symposium.

    PURCHASE:

    https://politics-prose.com/book/9781421454580?ic_referral=KRPtXoptP3Qc4ELBjAMlQ_l1MmxDUaOMSpCMobTfgzAwMxIOXneVBT2S9p_g4pVAwNZBN3aKBTPG6xJr0zGWLQmJEHKHfLZh5FS5UI0hM4T6QqkGI0h48ptpUicIqcl_Wk26n6o

    57 min

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