With American democracy in crisis, can students save the day? For college students it can be frightening to consider the prospects for a better tomorrow. But addressing the problems in our political system will require the next generation to be more engaged and less polarized. BridgeUSA was formed by college students to tackle the crisis head-on, with campus-based chapters at colleges around the country. This non-profit group hosts discussions and events, champions ideological diversity, teaches...
Mar 18, 2021•29 min
Jennifer Hook, USC Sociology Professor, is joined by U.S. Congressman Jimmy Gomez and policy experts Brencia Berry and Vicki Shabo to discuss the state of national paid leave, policy changes under the Biden Administration and ways to advance the issue. Featuring: Brencia Berry - Political Director, PL+US Paid Leave For the United States Jimmy Gomez - U.S. Representative (D-CA) Vicki Shabo - Senior Fellow, Paid Leave Policy and Strategy, Better Life Lab at New America Moderated by Jennifer Hook -...
Mar 12, 2021•59 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Spring 2021 Center Fellow Shaniqua McClendon is joined by North Carolina Representative Rachel Hunt and Former U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Comstock to discuss the importance of electing more women to national, state, and local offices, and how political parties are addressing issues important to women voters. Featuring: Barbara Comstock - Former U.S. Representative (R-VA) and Spring 2021 Fellow, Center for the Political Future Rachel Hunt - North Carolina Representative (D-Mecklenburg) Shaniqua M...
Mar 08, 2021•58 min•Season 2Ep. 6
By almost any measure, Congress is much more rigidly divided along partisan lines than it was 30 years ago. Politicians run nationalized campaigns, not local ones, and frequently demonize the other side. We examine ways to find common ground among lawmakers, and those who work on Capitol Hill, with two deeply experienced Washington insiders. Betsy Wright Hawkings served as chief of staff for four Republican members of Congress over 25 years and helped build bipartisan coalitions on a range of vi...
Mar 04, 2021•28 min
Former California Republican Party Chairman James Brulte is joined by current and former California Treasurers Fiona Ma and John Chiang to discuss the future of California’s economy post-COVID, homelessness, transportation, climate change, and other major issues affecting California’s future. Featuring: James Brulte (moderator) - Former California Republican Party Chairman; former CA State Senator and Assembly member J ohn Chiang - California State Treasurer (ret.) (D-CA); former California Stat...
Feb 27, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Center Co-Director Mike Murphy is joined by a group of experts to discuss how both parties should reorient their platforms to speak to minority voters as they become the majority in the U.S. and the higher numbers of voters of color who voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 election. Featuring: Musa al-Gharbi - Paul F. Lazarsfeld Fellow in Sociology at Columbia University Robert A. George - Columnist, Bloomberg Opinion Mike Madrid - Republican strategist; Spring 2019 Fellow, Center For the Politica...
Feb 22, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Season 2Ep. 4
In the first installment of the CPF Fellows Roundtable Series of 2021, CPF Fellows Barbara Comstock, Shaniqua McClendon, and Todd S. Purdum discussed the institutional aspects of American democracy from the Senate and the filibuster to gerrymandering and political parties. This discussion was moderated by CPF Fellows Manager, Harry Burke. Featuring: Barbara Comstock: Former U.S. Representative (R-VA) and CPF Spring 2021 Fellow Shaniqua McClendon: Political Director, Crooked Media and CPF Spring ...
Feb 20, 2021•54 min•Season 2Ep. 3
"All lives will matter when Black lives matter," says our guest, Hawk Newsome, in this passionate, challenging, and fascinating podcast episode. The co-founder and Chair of Black Lives Matter Greater New York answers the skeptics and makes the case for a movement that has grown in scale and significance since widespread protests erupted last summer after the killing of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis. A devout Christian who has spent much of his life campaigning for racial an...
Feb 18, 2021•26 min
Center Director Bob Shrum is joined by authors Thomas Frank and Theodore R. Johnson, Strategist Patrick Griffin, and Former Congresswoman Mimi Walters to discuss how Donald Trump built the second-largest voting bloc in U.S. election history Featuring: Thomas Frank - Political Analyst; Author of "The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-Populism" Patrick Griffin - Founding Partner and CEO, Merrimack Potomac + Charles (MP+C); Fall 2019 Visiting Fellow, Center for the Political Future Theodore R. Jo...
Feb 16, 2021•1 hr 15 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Kelly Johnston and Rob Fersh disagree strongly on many issues and voted differently in the 2020 election. But they are friends and wrote recently that they "agree on major steps that must be taken for the nation to heed President-elect Biden’s welcome call for us to come together." Both believe that constructive steps must be taken to help build trust among Democrats and Republicans, despite deep polarization and a firm resistance to bipartisanship from both ends of the political spectrum. They ...
Feb 04, 2021•32 min
CPF Co-Directors Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy are joined by the Center's Spring 2021 Fellows to recap President Joe Biden's inauguration and share their insights on the country’s future under the Biden Administration. Featuring: Barbara Comstock - Former U.S. Representative (R-VA) and CPF Spring 2021 Fellow Shaniqua McClendon - Political Director, Crooked Media and CPF Spring 2021 Fellow Todd S. Purdum - Former New York Times Reporter and Staff Writer at The Atlantic; CPF Spring 2021 Fellow...
Jan 26, 2021•55 min•Season 2Ep. 1
The vital task of finding common ground in American politics became much more difficult in the traumatic days after the violence and mayhem at the U.S. Capitol. While many Americans viewed the pro-Trump crowd as thugs, others thought of them as patriots. This podcast is the first in a new series on dealing with polarization. We speak with professor Tania Israel, author of " Beyond Your Bubble: How to Connect Across the Political Divide, Skills and Strategies for Conversations That Work ." Dr. Is...
Jan 21, 2021•27 min
James Baker was at the center of American political power for three decades. His resume is exceedingly impressive— Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, and White House Chief of Staff, twice. He ran five presidential campaigns. Baker's accomplishments were far-reaching— he helped end the cold war, reunify Germany, assembled the international coalition to fight the Gulf War, and negotiated the rewriting of the U.S. tax code. Quite simply, he was "The Man Who Ran Washington," which is the...
Jan 07, 2021•32 min
From tragedy and disruption caused by COVID-19, to impassioned pleas for racial justice heard across the country, and the deep divisions in our politics, 2020 was a year like no other. On " Let's Find Common Ground ", we've shared a remarkable range of thoughtful, personal and surprising conversations about some of the most important topics of our time. We revisit a few of the most memorable and special moments in this year-end episode. Among the highlights: Houston's Chief of Police Art Acevedo...
Dec 23, 2020•27 min
For decades, environmental activists have cast themselves as defenders of the planet against greedy, profit-hungry corporations. At the same time, many conservatives have ridiculed the science of climate change, and warned against the economic costs of the Green New Deal and similar initiatives. In this podcast, we explore a new narrative with two environmental campaigners. Bill Shireman and Trammell Crow are authors of the book, " In This Together : How Republicans, Democrats, Capitalists and A...
Dec 10, 2020•27 min
In a time of deep and sometimes bitter political division, what are the most effective ways to have conversations with family members who vote for a different party or don't see the world the way that you do? In this episode of "Let's Find Common Ground" podcast, we explore the challenges and opportunities faced by many families, especially as they come together during the holidays. Our guests are Becca Kearl, a Joe Biden supporter, and her mom, Robbie Lawler, who went for Donald Trump. Becca is...
Nov 25, 2020•29 min
Center Co-Director Mike Murphy is joined by top Republican strategists, journalists, and historians to examine the growing divisions within the Republican Party and explore strategies forward. Featuring: Douglas Brinkley - Author; Professor of History at Rice University; Presidential Historian for CNN Jessica Millan Patterson - Chairwoman, California Republican Party Karl Rove - Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff, George W. Bush Administration Anthony Scaramucci - Entrepreneur, Founder of ...
Nov 19, 2020•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 26
CPF Director Bob Shrum is joined by strategists Stephanie Cutter and James Carville, Journalist Adam Nagourney, and Cristobal Alex, Senior Advisor for Joe Biden's presidential campaign to examine Biden's winning campaign strategy.
Nov 16, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Voters sent decidedly mixed messages in the 2020 election. This episode looks at what we can learn from then about how divided the country is — or isn’t. Voters in cities, suburbs and rural parts of the country went to the polls in record numbers. We discuss the extraordinary level of interest in the presidential campaign, and reasons why President-elect Biden won five million more votes than President Trump. Our guests are Christa Case Bryant , a national political reporter for The Christian Sc...
Nov 12, 2020•31 min
CPF Co-Directors Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy are joined by journalist Adam Nagourney, Republican strategist Mike Madrid, and USC Professor Jane Junn to discuss the future of polling, the Republican Party, and the latest election results. Nagourney has been the Los Angeles Bureau Chief of the New York Times since 2010 and Madrid is a co-founder of The Lincoln Project and a longtime Republican political strategist with an expertise in Latino voting trends and analysis. Junn is a USC Professor of Pol...
Nov 06, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 24
CPF Co-Directors Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy talk to journalist Cynthia McFadden about the presidential election with a focus on election security and voting mechanisms. McFadden is a broadcast journalist who is the Senior Legal and Investigative Correspondent for NBC News. She was an anchor and correspondent for ABC News, who co-anchored Nightline and occasionally appeared on ABC News special Primetime .
Oct 30, 2020•58 min•Season 1Ep. 23
With just days to go before the 2020 election, we invited a Trump supporter and a Biden backer to join us in the same (virtual) room, and share the personal reasons behind their vote. We have a lively, spontaneous and surprisingly friendly discussion about the President's controversial personality, the final debate, and big policy and leadership differences between the two candidates. John Pudner is voting for Donald Trump. He is Executive Director of Take Back Our Republic, a non-profit group a...
Oct 29, 2020•30 min•Ep. 16
This panel examined the impact climate change has had on primary elections and the 2020 presidential election and the issue’s relevance to voters during an economic crisis, the pandemic, and racial justice movements. Featuring: Michelle Lujan Grisham - Governor of New Mexico, former US Representative (D-NM) Bina Venkataraman - Editorial Page Editor, The Boston Globe; Senior Advisor for Climate Change Innovation, Obama Administration Christine Todd Whitman - Former New Jersey Governor and Adminis...
Oct 28, 2020•49 min•Season 1Ep. 22
CPF Co-Directors Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy are joined by Republican media strategist Patrick Griffin to discuss the final Presidential Debate between President Trump and Vice President Joe Biden. Griffin was a Fall 2019 Visiting Fellow at the Center for the Political Future. He is a founding partner and CEO of Merrimack Potomac + Charles ( MP+C), one of New England's leading integrated public affairs and strategic communications firms. He has worked as a Republican media consultant for four U.S....
Oct 23, 2020•58 min•Season 1Ep. 21
With just days to go before a bitterly contested election, we speak with two Members of Congress, one Republican and one Democrat, who are reaching across rigid partisan divides, recognizing the value of compromise and seeking constructive change. Democrat Abigail Spanberger is the U.S. Representative for Virginia's 7th Congressional District, and is serving her first term. In 2018, she defeated a Republican incumbent to win the district, which includes most of the northern suburbs of Richmond. ...
Oct 22, 2020•35 min
Center Director Bob Shrum is joined by political strategist Doug Thornell and journalists Ronald Brownstein and Asma Khalid to discuss President Trump and Joe Biden's dueling Town Halls, following Trump's refusal to participate in a virtual presidential debate originally scheduled for the same day. Brownstein is a Senior Political Analyst at CNN and serves as Atlantic Media's Editorial Director for Strategic Partnerships in charge of long-term editorial strategy. Khalid is a political correspond...
Oct 19, 2020•55 min•Season 1Ep. 20
Center Co-Directors Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy plus special guest Karen Finney discuss the highlights and lowlights of the Vice Presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris and what each candidate needs to do to win the general election. Finney worked for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign as Senior Spokesperson and Senior Advisor for Communications and Political Outreach. She was also Communications Director for Senator Tim Kaine. Finney was the first Black spokeswoman for ...
Oct 09, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 19
President Trump's "America First" policy has led to a U.S. withdrawal from many global institutions. For decades after World War II, American leadership in the world was taken for granted. Today, the future of American hegemony is deeply uncertain. In this election briefing, we explore the future of foreign policy with two highly experienced journalists, Peter Ford and Howard LaFranchi. Based in Paris, Peter is global affairs correspondent for The Christian Monitor. Prior to his current job, he ...
Oct 08, 2020•23 min•Ep. 14
As the headlines and memes roll in, CPF Co-Directors Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy discuss the highlights and lowlights of the chaotic first presidential debate between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden. They also talk about each candidate’s likely strategies for the next two debates in October and the latest polling and trends in the general election.
Oct 01, 2020•50 min•Season 1Ep. 18
With Election Day a little more than one month away, Center Co-Directors Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy discuss the implications of the Supreme Court vacancy following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the latest polling within the battleground states, what to expect in the first Trump/Biden debate, and the President’s comments on the peaceful transfer of power should Joe Biden win the election.
Sep 28, 2020•59 min•Season 1Ep. 17
