Pothole Problem Podcast

This week’s guest is Sonia Montalbano, a lawyer and political activist running against several other candidates for Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge in the kind of judicial election that is rarely contested. Sonia discusses her lifelong political commitments and talks about the issues of judicial reform that have inspired her to enter electoral politics in this way. She also looks at the challenges that she and other judicial candidates face under normal circumstances, as well as in the unique coronovirus lockdown campaigning environment.

This episode features "Sister Run," an original song by Frankie Holiday (find her on Facebook and Instagram).

This week’s guest is Alison McCaffree, author of Politics of the Possible, a book about her grandmother, Mary Ellen McCaffree, a pioneering female legislator in Washington State. She is also the founder and executive director of Politics of the Possible in Action, a non-profit organization inspiring community engagement and enhancing civic education. Alison discusses the challenges of doing civic engagement work in today's world and explores the lessons she learned from her grandmother's stories about a life in elected office and her own work spreading the civic engagement message.

To support Alison's organization, click here. Learn more about the play Many Maps, One Voice: http://www.politicsofthepossible.com/many-maps/

Find out about the League of Women Voters of Washington's Redistricting work: https://lwvwa.org/redistricting

This week’s guest is Esperanza Tervalon-Garrett, campaign manager for We Count Oregon and the founder and CEO of Dancing Hearts Consulting, a progressive political consulting firm committed to challenging the status quo. Esperanza describes her earliest experiences as an organizer and activist, and she discusses some of the lessons she's learned along the way about establishing a sustainable life in movement work.

This episode also features a song recorded in 2010 by Man Band, with Chuck Masi singing an untitled composition of his own.

Zane interviews Jack about how COVID-19 is impacting perceptions of politics in the present and how it might change the future. Jack discusses how the pandemic response has the potential to push back against the standard negativity bias that underlies the pothole problem and bring greater balance to people's perceptions of politicians and the government, and he speculates about how broadly and permanently the pandemic will change Americans' views of politics, governance, and themselves.

This episode also features, "Stickin' It To the Man," written and performed by Greg Weinger and originally aired with Episode 1 of this podcast.

This week’s guest is Peter Toll, campaign coordinator for the Clackamas County Democratic Party and a long-time political organizer and party activist. Peter discusses what it takes to energize people in local- and state-level politics and the new and old barriers to success in Democratic politics. Peter also recently “appeared” (via phone interview) as a guest-lecturer for my PSU course in campaign politics. He further discusses his work as a grassroots organizer and local party campaign coordinator, with particular emphasis on the challenges people like him are facing because of the COVID-19 pandemic. You can listen to that interview, recorded on April 8th, 2020, at youcandowhatyouthink.com/ps310/guest-lecture5.

As promised, here are a few links to help get you connected with county parties and elected officials. You can find your Oregon state legislators and member of Congress here: oregonlegislature.gov/findyourlegislator/leg-districts.html. Web pages for the Democratic Party of Oregon’s county-level parties are listed here: dpo.org/counties. And here is a contact list for the county-level parties in the Republican Party of Oregon: oregon.gop/getinvolved.

This episode features "Nice ‘Stache," an original song by Patrick Rademacher performed live via Instagram on Friday, April 3rd, 2020.

This week’s guest is Liz Darby, a former government researcher, policymaker, and lobbyist working in the field of healthcare. Liz discusses how her own view of politics changed from her conservative upbringing to her embrace of liberalism in the 1970s, what her professional life was like, and the ways national politics seemed to change during her time in Washington, DC, from the late-1970s to the early-21st century.

This episode also features "Cold Black Line," an original song by Ashleigh Flynn & the Riveters.

This week’s guest is Amy Rathfelder, policy advisor to Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and campaign manager for his 2020 re-election campaign. Amy examines her youthful outrage at the idea of compromising on her principles and shares what she’s learned about compromise from working in politics for nearly a decade. She discusses the importance of listening to people you disagree with, the difficulties of finding common ground, and the important differences between local, state, and national representatives and their staff in terms of how they connect with the communities they represent and how they relate to power and influence.

This episode features “Jesus Gonna Be Here Soon,” performed live in the White Tiger Studio on June 7th, 2019 by Chuck Masi and Dan Blaker.

Length: 34:27

This week’s episode features a talk that Jack gave at the Lake Oswego Public Library as part of the Lake Oswego Reads program, an annual month-long event with speakers discussing the issues connected to a single piece of writing. This year’s book was Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore by Elizabeth Rush, a work about the impact of climate change on coastal communities and habitats. Jack’s talk was "The Politics of Climate Change." He first discusses the human condition and examines the deep-seated reasons why climate change poses a uniquely difficult problem for human beings, then he looks specifically at the American political system to analyze why it’s been so difficult for the United States to adopt a proactive climate change agenda.

This episode also features the "The Good Bidding of Aquaman," an original song by Guitarzan that also has a cartoon video on YouTube.

This week’s guest is John Horvich, a pollster at DHM Research and a former president of the City Club of Portland. After discussing his own journey through political outrage, John takes us behind the scenes to provide an insider’s perspective on polling – how the data he gathers is used, why it’s gathered in the first place, and why the public doesn’t usually see what the public opinion research industry is really doing.

This episode features excerpts from “Moon Boots,” an original song by Everyday Junior. You can listen to full tracks from this band on their YouTube page.

This week’s guest is Candalynn Johnson, Campaign Coordinator for the League of Women Voters of Oregon and Deputy Campaign Manager for People Not Politicians, a campaign to bring an independent redistricting commission to Oregon. Candalynn discusses how her outrage over identity politics led her to confront her biases and engage in a process of deepening self-awareness. She confronts the issue of burnout and cynicism and explains why self-awareness and self-care are so important for a sustained commitment to politics.

This episode features a live unnamed recording from the White Tiger Lounge.