Introducing the Band : Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by guest Hannah Rowan. Hannah is the managing editor of Modern Age . You can find her on X at @ Hannah_Cristine and read her review of Debbie Harry's memoir here . Hannah’s Music Pick: Blondie Here's another artist we get to cross off the list of long-awaited episodes. Both Jeff and Scot have been hot to do Blondie for years and it has nothing (okay, relatively little) to do with the attrac...
Oct 23, 2023•2 hr 38 min•Ep. 129
Introducing the Band : Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by guest Eric Kohn. Eric is the Director of Marketing & Communications at the Acton Institute. Check him out on Twitter at @ iEricKohn . Eric’s Music Pick: Huey Lewis & the News Do you believe in miracles? Yes! After years of lobbying, Jeff has proven that anyone will fold, given enough time and pressure. Here is the Huey Lewis & the News episode of Political Beats . Those of yo...
Oct 02, 2023•3 hr 8 min•Ep. 128
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by guest Rory Cooper. He’s a partner at Purple Strategies , a corporate reputation and advocacy agency in Alexandria, Va., a former George W. Bush and Eric Cantor aide, and a longtime Republican strategist. He’s on Twitter at @ rorycooper . Rory’s Music Pick: Simon & Garfunkel If you enjoyed Political Beats ’ episode on the solo career of Paul Simon with Rory Cooper from a year and half ...
Sep 05, 2023•3 hr 11 min•Ep. 127
Introducing the Band : Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are with guest Matt Murray. Matt is the recently departed editor of the Wall Street Journal , now on assignment for its parent company, News Corp. Check him out on Twitter at @ murraymatt . Matt’s Music Pick: Nick Lowe Okay, it says “Nick Lowe” right there above this line, but we need to be straight with you -- there’s a lot of other stuff happening in this show. Nick Lowe-adjacent acts are featured p...
Jul 31, 2023•3 hr 31 min•Ep. 126
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by guest Dave Weigel. Dave is a founding reporter at Semafor , where he covers the 2024 campaign and writes the Americana newsletter. Check his work out here and find him on Twitter at @daveweigel . Dave’s Music Pick: Pet Shop Boys Opportunities are knocking: I've got the brains, and you've got the looks, so let's make lots of money as we use the post–July 4 week to celebrate the United King...
Jul 06, 2023•2 hr 50 min•Ep. 125
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by guest Dominic Green. Dom is a historian and columnist, and he used to be a musician. He is a contributor to the Wall Street Journal and a columnist for the Washington Examiner and Jewish Chronicle . Check him out on Twitter at @DrDominicGreen . Dominic’s Music Pick: The Jam In some ways, this is one of the most necessary episodes of Political Beats ever. In other ways, this is one of the ...
Jun 12, 2023•3 hr 10 min•Ep. 124
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by guest Eric Garcia. Eric is senior Washington writer for the Independent and a columnist at MSNBC. Check him out on Twitter at @EricMGarcia . Eric’s Music Pick: Black Sabbath The storm is upon you; can you hear the peals of thunder in the background, and the bleak clang of the church bell in the sleeping village? Well then break out the most appropriate tritone you can think of as the gang...
Apr 18, 2023•3 hr 2 min•Ep. 123
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are with guest Adam Wollner. Adam is a Washington-based journalist who has covered national politics for CNN, McClatchy, and National Journal. Check him out on Twitter at @ adamwollner . Adam’s Music Pick: My Morning Jacket A reverb-laden, indie-country band? Roots rock? Electro-funk? Jam band? All that and much more could be said to describe My Morning Jacket at various stages of their career. The con...
Mar 23, 2023•2 hr 53 min•Ep. 122
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by guest Mark Hemingway. Mark is a writer at RealClearInvestigations and RealClearPolitics and an occasional contributor at The Federalist . Check him out on Twitter at @ heminator . Mark’s Music Pick: Big Star How do you merit an episode of Political Beats when you've released only a handful of albums in your career? When two happen to be among the best pop/rock records ever recorded and a ...
Feb 27, 2023•2 hr 6 min•Ep. 121
Introducing the Band : Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by Noam Blum. Noam is Chief Technology Officer at Tablet Magazine and co-host of the Ambitious Crossover Attempt podcast and of All Crossed Out on the Callin app, both of which deal with pop culture, media, and politics. Find him on Twitter at @neontaster . Noam’s Music Pick : Tool Since Political Beats dealt with one of Gen Z's niche musical obsessions last episode in tackling The National...
Jan 31, 2023•2 hr 21 min•Ep. 120
Introducing the Band : Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are with guest Phil Wegmann. Phil is White House reporter for RealClearNews and RealClearPolitics . Check him out on Twitter at @ PhilipWegmann . Phil’s Music Pick: The National Let us tell you, we have had *a bunch* of listeners ask us for an episode on The National, and we are nothing if not responsive to our fans. Neither one of your hosts previously was extremely familiar with the band, which is w...
Dec 19, 2022•2 hr 36 min•Ep. 119
Introducing the Band : Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) are joined by guest Andrew Fink. Andrew is a member of the Michigan House of Representative (District 35 -- Branch & Hillsdale Counties). Prior to that, he was the district director for Senate majority leader Mike Shirkey. Follow him on Twitter at @AndrewFinkMI. Andrew’s Music Pick : Otis Redding Ladies and gentlemens, we are so happy to be here with the Love Crowd tonight because we gotta gotta gotta...
Nov 07, 2022•3 hr 10 min•Ep. 118
Introducing the Band : Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are with guest Noah Weinrich. Noah is director of communications for Heritage Action , the grassroots and advocacy arm of The Heritage Foundation. Check him out on Twitter at @ weinrich_noah . Noah’s Music Pick : Weezer What kind of a band starts its career with two stone-cold classic albums, takes a nearly five-year hiatus, and then returns to mixed results for a 20+ year tail? We're about to find ou...
Oct 20, 2022•2 hr 44 min•Ep. 117
Introducing the Band : Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are with guest Jesse Walker. Jesse is books editor at Reason and author of two books, The United States of Paranoia and Rebels On the Air . He can be found on Twitter at @ notjessewalker . Jesse’s Music Pick : Willie Nelson In Part Two, we pick up Willie’s story at his commercial breakthrough, Red Headed Stranger (1975). This opens a window in which Willie records frequent number one albums on the cou...
Sep 26, 2022•3 hr 12 min•Ep. 116
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by guest Jesse Walker. Jesse is books editor at Reason and author of two books, The United States of Paranoia and Rebels On the Air . He can be found on Twitter at @ notjessewalker . Jesse’s Music Pick: Willie Nelson Sure, in the past here on Political Beats we have dabbled in country-ish music. We've dipped our toes in the water of alt-country and country rock. But this, friends, is a full-...
Sep 05, 2022•3 hr 14 min•Ep. 115
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by guest Steve Miller. Steve is a veteran journalist and a reporter at RealClearInvestigations . He's also the author of Detroit Rock City: The Uncensored History of Rock 'n' Roll in America's Loudest City . Steve's Music Pick: Mott The Hoople Do you remember the Saturday gigs? We do, we do! Mott The Hoople are known outside of specialist rock audiences these days either as "one of those wei...
Aug 15, 2022•2 hr 22 min•Ep. 114
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by guest Andrew Heaton. Andrew is a comedian and political satirist you might know from Reason TV. He is the host of The Political Orphanage , a funny policy analysis show for people tired of tribalism. You can find him on Twitter at @mightyheaton . Andrew Music Pick: “Weird Al” Yankovic You should know a few things about Al before we start. First, Al is super smart. He was two years younger...
Jul 04, 2022•2 hr 58 min•Ep. 113
Introducing the Band : Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by guest Scott Immergut. Scott is the CEO of Ricochet.com and the Ricochet Audio Network. He is the long-time producer of the Ricochet Podcast and the GLoP Culture podcast with Jonah Goldberg, Rob Long, and John Podhoretz. He’s also the Executive Producer of The Hoover Institution’s Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson and Good Fellows , with Niall Ferguson, H. R. McMaster, and John Cochr...
Jun 13, 2022•3 hr 2 min•Ep. 112
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by Eli Lake. Eli is a contributing editor at Commentary , and fellow at the Clements Center at UT-Austin. Follow him on Twitter at @EliLake . Eli’s Music Pick: Prince, Pt. 3 (1992-2016) Eli rejoins the gang as they resume their discussion of the career of Prince Rogers Nelson, or as he was known for a significant part of this period covered during this episode, "[unpronounceable symbol]." Ye...
May 23, 2022•2 hr 53 min•Ep. 111
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by Eli Lake. Eli is a contributing editor at Commentary , and fellow at the Clements Center at UT-Austin. Follow him on Twitter at @EliLake . Eli’s Music Pick: Prince, Pt. 2 (1985-1991) Join us once again as we deepen our Strange Relationship with Prince! Eli rejoins the gang as they pick up their discussion of the amazing career of Prince Rogers Nelson in the aftermath of Purple Rain and Ar...
Apr 18, 2022•3 hr 12 min•Ep. 110
Eli’s Music Pick: Prince Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called Life. Electric word, "Life," and it's a mighty long time, but I'm here to tell you, there's something else: Prince Rogers Nelson. Known to the world by his first name, Prince was a self-made musical polymath who performed the singular trick of somehow altering the world to accommodate his eccentricity and musical genius rather than the other way around. We know Prince in our cultural memory as on...
Apr 04, 2022•3 hr 56 min•Ep. 109
Introducing the Band : Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by guest Mike Long. He wrote the sort-of-bestselling book The Molecule of More and he teaches writing at Georgetown University, but mostly he writes things for other people to put their name on. He’s on Twitter at @ mikewrites . Mike’s Music Pick : Robbie Fulks This is almost certainly the most obscure artist we've ever covered on Political Beats . Yet, when the three hours are up, we think...
Mar 14, 2022•3 hr 6 min•Ep. 108
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by guest Rory Cooper. He’s a partner at Purple Strategies , a corporate reputation and advocacy agency in Alexandria, Va., a former George W. Bush and Eric Cantor aide, and a longtime Republican strategist. He’s on Twitter at @ rorycooper . Rory’s Music Pick: Paul Simon Here comes rhymin' Simon, right onto his own edition of Political Beats . This is the rare episode in which neither of your...
Jan 31, 2022•3 hr 12 min•Ep. 107
Introducing the Band : Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by Andrew Prokop. Andrew is Senior Politics Correspondent for Vox, and you can find his work here . Follow him on Twitter at @awprokop . Andrew's Music Pick: Kate Bush Who? Unless you're an art-rocker, Englishman, or Lisa Simpsonesque girl-poet-dreamer, the name "Kate Bush" quite likely means nothing to you. Bush is something close to a beloved institution in the United Kingdom, where she h...
Jan 10, 2022•3 hr 50 min•Ep. 106
Introducing the Band : Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) with guest Bruce Edward Walker. He’s Midwest Regional Editor for The Center Square . He has written extensively on popular culture, literature and public policy for reference books, newspapers, magazines, and websites. He’s on Twitter at @ bruceedwalker . Bruce’s Music Pick : Warren Zevon The show begins its 2021 finishing kick with a long-requested episode featuring the music and career of the great ...
Dec 13, 2021•2 hr 39 min•Ep. 105
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by our old friend Charles C. W. Cooke. Charlie is a Senior Writer for National Review, and you can find his work wherever quality Charles C. W. Cooke products are sold (i.e. mostly right here on this website). Follow him on Twitter at @charlescwcooke . Charlie's Music Pick: Fleetwood Mac "Oh sure," you think as you read what artist we're covering this week, "I know them. Everybody knows them...
Nov 15, 2021•3 hr 13 min•Ep. 104
Scot and Jeff discuss the first part of Fleetwood Mac’s career (1967-1974) with Charles C. W. Cooke. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by our old friend Charles C. W. Cooke. Charlie is a senior writer for National Review, and you can find his work wherever quality Charles C. W. Cooke products are sold (i.e. mostly right here on this website ). Follow him on Twitter at @charlescwcooke . Charlie’s Music Pick: Fleetwood Mac “Oh...
Oct 25, 2021•3 hr 15 min•Ep. 103
Scot and Jeff discuss Michael Jackson with Daniel Gullotta. Introducing the Band : Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by guest Daniel Gullotta. Daniel N. Gullotta is a Ph.D. candidate (ABD) in American Religious History at Stanford University. He is completing a dissertation on how religious politics influenced the rise of Andrew Jackson and the formation of the Democratic and Whig parties. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post , The Bul...
Oct 04, 2021•3 hr 39 min•Ep. 102
Scot and Jeff discuss John Mellencamp with Matt Lewis. Introducing the Band : Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by guest Matt Lewis. He’s a senior columnist for The Daily Beast , author of the book Too Dumb to Fail , and host of the podcast “ Matt Lewis & The News ”. Follow him on Twitter at @ mattklewis . Matt’s Music Pick: John Mellencamp In an episode with the biggest singer name confusion since our Pixies show, Political Beats takes on th...
Aug 30, 2021•2 hr 34 min•Ep. 101
Scot and Jeff discuss The Allman Brothers Band with Andrew Fink. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram ( @ScotBertram ) and Jeff Blehar ( @EsotericCD ) are joined by guest Andrew Fink. Andrew is a member of the Michigan House of Representative (District 58 – Branch & Hillsdale Counties). Prior to that he was the district director for Senate majority leader Mike Shirkey. Follow him on Twitter at @AndrewFinkMI . Andrew’s Music Pick: The Allman Brothers Band Have the risers for the twin...
Aug 16, 2021•3 hr 34 min•Ep. 100
