How did Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the son of Abraham Schumer, an exterminator, and Selma Schumer, a homemaker, become the most powerful Democrat in the Senate? Schumer’s path to power is, on the one hand, a case study in the American meritocracy elevating one of its best and brightest: a hardworking, public school graduate who worked his way to the top. On the other hand, Schumer’s politics are an object lesson in the demands American democracy makes of those who aim to reach such pinnacles of power. As the November election approaches--and Democrats aim to retake the Senate--this episode features a conversation with the last Democrat to run the Senate, former Majority Leader Harry Reid. 

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