The Get More Smarter Podcast - A Weekly Show About Colorado Politics

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This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, new polling shows Americans are already sick of Trump 2.0; will shutting down FiveThirtyEight so nobody can get a good polling average help or hurt the 45th and 47th president and his flagging ratings? 

The White House is controlled by Republicans. The senate is controlled by Republicans. The House of Representatives is controlled by Republicans. The New York Times asks, 'Why won’t Democrats stop the government shutdown?' Next, there is some real pain in store for the constituents of our favorite bread sandwich from Colorado’s 3rd congressional district; will Rep. Jeff Hurd stand with the tens of thousands of people in his district who have healthcare because of Medicaid expansion, or will he side with Elon Musk and Donald Trump to kick them off their insurance and doom their rural hospitals to bankruptcy? Finally we check in with the most anti-family political party in the country, the Colorado GOP. 

But first...he was the first officially announced candidate for Colorado Attorney General! He's also the Boulder County District Attorney, and a former deli worker otherwise known as Colorado’s Harvey Dent (but with just the one face). Michael Dougherty joins us to talk about his campaign to be the state’s top cop in 2026.

That’s it for this episode! If you loved watching and/or listening to it as much as we loved recording it, you can thank us by subscribing to the pod wherever you listen, following us over on New Old Twitter AKA Bluesky, subscribing to our shiny new channel on YouTube, smashing that subscribe button on our Substack, and sharing this episode with your friends, your enemies, and your 8th favorite Member of Congress from Colorado! THANK YOU so much for listening, and we’ll see you next time!

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This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the brilliant businesspeople and billionaires that are currently running the country are driving the economy off a cliff; as Donald Trump’s approval ratings slide into net-negative territory at record speed, are we great again yet? Then our neighbors to the north get rightfully pissed at American voters for putting this madman back in the Oval Office -- this time with his North American imperial ambitions! We attempt to gently and politely remind them that more people voted for someone else than voted for Donald Trump. Sorry! Then, Denver’s Mayor, Mike Johnston, goes to Washington DC, and it goes a lot better than it could have, unless you’re a Republican ad maker. And finally we check in with a few of Colorado’s Republican Members of Congress to see how they’re handling the whole governing thing. Spoiler alert: Not well!

But first, Dr. Sarah Wilson Sokhey of the University of Colorado joins us to talk Ukraine, Russia, and whether we’ve ever seen a President of the United States or an entire political party parrot the propaganda of a foreign adversary.

That’s it for this episode! If you loved watching and/or listening to it as much as we loved recording it, you can thank us by subscribing to the pod wherever you listen, following us over on New Old Twitter AKA Bluesky, subscribing to our shiny new channel on YouTube, smashing that subscribe button on our Substack, and sharing this episode with your friends, your enemies, and your 8th favorite Member of Congress from Colorado! THANK YOU so much for listening, and we’ll see you next time!

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On this episode of the Get More Smarter Podcast, "Baby of the Show" Sam Silverii made quite a bit of news as his mom had to schlep him across the country just to be able to do her job forcing House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans to scramble to lock down all their votes on the worst budget resolution we’ve seen in our lifetimes. Town Halls are back, and they’re making the 2017 set look like cute little coffee clutches. Donald Trump, Elon Musk and JD Vance are destroying the country and possibly the world, and it looks like people are quickly taking notice. And we take a look at how 2026 campaigns in Colorado are starting to take shape.

That’s it for this episode! If you loved watching and/or listening to it as much as we loved recording it, you can thank us by subscribing to the pod wherever you listen, following us over on New Old Twitter AKA Bluesky, subscribing to our shiny new channel on YouTube, smashing that subscribe button on our Substack, and sharing this episode with your friends, your enemies, and your 8th favorite Member of Congress from Colorado! THANK YOU so much for listening, and we’ll see you next time!

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This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, we already make the joke about the actor Jeff Bridges in the intro to the interview but we’ve got the Chairman of Colorado’s powerful Joint Budget Committee -- State Senator Jeff Bridges -- on the show to explain the insane math problem that is the Colorado state budget. The economy is rolling along, unemployment is low, and revenue is more than enough to meet spending obligations, so why are we about to cut $1.2 billion from the state budget? Senator Bridges makes it make sense in this interview-only episode.

That’s it for this episode! If you loved watching and/or listening to it as much as we loved recording it, you can thank us by subscribing to the pod wherever you listen, following us over on New Old Twitter AKA Bluesky, subscribing to our shiny new channel on YouTube, smashing that subscribe button on our Substack, and sharing this episode with your friends, your enemies, and your 8th favorite Member of Congress from Colorado! THANK YOU so much for listening, and we’ll see you next time!

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This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, Sam Silverii is three weeks old, which is five days younger than the Trump Administration, and even he knows what’s going on in DC is bonkers. We check in with our 8th favorite soon-to-be-one-term member of Congress, who has spent his time in Washington hiding when he’s not too busy doing Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s bidding. And we check in on the Colorado Legislature, where State House Republicans literally show their asses in defense of the January 6th rioters who Trump pardoned for some indefensible reason.

But first...Jason Bane sat down with the House Assistant Democratic Leader, Colorado’s own Joe Neguse, to ask him what Democrats in Congress can and will do to stop Trump and Musk’s wrecking ball, and what you -- yes you -- can do to help. 

That’s it for this episode! If you loved watching and/or listening to it as much as we loved recording it, you can thank us by subscribing to the pod wherever you listen, following us over on New Old Twitter AKA Bluesky, subscribing to our shiny new channel on YouTube, smashing that subscribe button on our Substack, and sharing this episode with your friends, your enemies, and your 8th favorite Member of Congress from Colorado! THANK YOU so much for listening, and we’ll see you next time!

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This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, Jason Bane is joined by guest host Megan Burns as we continue to keep you updated on what you need to be watching as the Trump administration floods the zone with nonsense. Gabe Evans may be earning a new nickname, while Lauren Boebert just keeps on doing Lauren Boebert things. We’ll also discuss the good and the bad in the state legislature; and we’ve got more “groans” as Colorado Republicans continue playing silly games.

That’s it for this episode! If you loved watching and/or listening to it as much as we loved recording it, you can thank us by subscribing to the pod wherever you listen, following us over on New Old Twitter AKA Bluesky, subscribing to our shiny new channel on YouTube, smashing that subscribe button on our Substack, and sharing this episode with your friends, your enemies, and your 8th favorite Member of Congress from Colorado! THANK YOU so much for listening, and we’ll see you next time!

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This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, President Trump hasn’t even  been in office for two weeks, and he’s already breaking most of the country. Our seventh favorite member of congress is making some really dumb decisions, and so is our eighth favorite member – though that’s a lot more predictable. Sen. Michael Bennet is verbally destroying every Republican in his path…Christy Powell has some interesting campaign finance numbers for us…and the Colorado Republican Party continues to find new ways to embarrass itself. It’s almost impressive.

That’s it for this episode! If you loved watching and/or listening to it as much as we loved recording it, you can thank us by subscribing to the pod wherever you listen, following us over on New Old Twitter AKA Bluesky, subscribing to our shiny new channel on YouTube, smashing that subscribe button on our Substack, and sharing this episode with your friends, your enemies, and your 8th favorite Member of Congress from Colorado! THANK YOU so much for listening, and we’ll see you next time!

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We have a bonus episode this week on the Get More Smarter Podcast: Jason Bane sits down with Corey Hutchins, who oversees the Journalism Institute at Colorado College, advises the Colorado Media Project, and serves on the board of the state chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Each Friday, Hutchins publishes "Inside the News in Colorado," a must-read look into how the media landscape in our state is changing...for better or worse. Hutchins tells us about the new normal for local press; how and where people are getting their news; and how Colorado media outlets did something unprecedented in their 2024 political coverage.  

That’s it for this episode! If you loved watching and/or listening to it as much as we loved recording it, you can thank us by subscribing to the pod wherever you listen, following us over on New Old Twitter AKA Bluesky, subscribing to our shiny new channel on YouTube, smashing that subscribe button on our Substack, and sharing this episode with your friends, your enemies, and your 8th favorite Member of Congress from Colorado! THANK YOU so much for listening, and we’ll see you next time!

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This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, as the Trump regime enters its first week and begins to lay the groundwork for the worst shit imaginable, Colorado’s Democratic leaders ready themselves for the fight while Colorado’s Republicans write letters of support. We check in with our 7th and 8th favorite members of Congress from Colorado...who are quickly getting tied for 8th place. Also, our 100th favorite Colorado State Legislator does something predictably insane.

But first, he studies oligarchies, kleptocracies, and other malformed governments, and he’s here to help us wrap our heads around what the next four years could be like in the United States as the tech oligarchy and the federal government collapse into one supervillianesque entity. Professor Thomas Pepinsky from Cornell joins us to talk about the greatest grift of all time happening right in front of our eyes.

That’s it for this episode! If you loved watching and/or listening to it as much as we loved recording it, you can thank us by subscribing to the pod wherever you listen, following us over on New Old Twitter AKA Bluesky, subscribing to our shiny new channel on YouTube, smashing that subscribe button on our Substack, and sharing this episode with your friends, your enemies, and your 8th favorite Member of Congress from Colorado! THANK YOU so much for listening, and we’ll see you next time!

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This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the battle for the soul of the Colorado Republican Party is beginning. Who will be the unluckiest Coloradan to get the worst job in the state? Then, the Colorado Senate Republicans have plans! And a bunch of crinkly dollar bills! And, about half the seats in the State Senate they would need to do anything about it!

Next, some men will  literally intimidate witnesses to get a drunken rapist put in charge of the pentagon instead of going to therapy and our 7th favorite member of Congress from Colorado kicks off his problem-solving independent-streaking district-voting career as a member of the US House of Representatives by falling straight in line with his party right away. But first, CHOO CHOO, WE’RE TALKING TRAINS and buses and other transit things in our interview today because we have Chris Nicholson on the pod; the newest member of the Regional Transportation District Board joins us to talk about how to win a down ticket race, what RTD is going to do with all the money the voters just gave them, and more!

That’s it for this episode! If you loved watching and/or listening to it as much as we loved recording it, you can thank us by subscribing to the pod wherever you listen, following us over on New Old Twitter AKA Bluesky, subscribing to our shiny new channel on YouTube, smashing that subscribe button on our Substack, and sharing this episode with your friends, your enemies, and your 8th favorite Member of Congress from Colorado! THANK YOU so much for listening, and we’ll see you next time!