In this week’s episode of Politics In Question , Julia, Lee, and James consider what could have been if things happened differently at key moments in American political history. What would politics look like today if Richard Nixon defeated John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election? Would Barack Obama’s defeat in the 2012 presidential election alter the trajectory of American politics over the last ten years? What impact do individuals have on politics? Do events matter? Or is politics de...
Apr 11, 2022•39 min•Ep. 80
In this week’s episode of Politics In Question , Julia, Lee, and James ask about Donald Trump’s ongoing influence on the Republican Party. Will the former president be the GOP nominee in 2024? Can anyone defeat Trump if he seeks the nomination? What is the present state of Trumpism in the Republican Party? Is Trumpism changing? Is it in decline? And what do we mean by “Trumpism” in the first place? These are some of the questions Julia, Lee, and James discuss in this week’s episode. Julia Azari,...
Apr 03, 2022•28 min•Ep. 79
In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Sophia Jordán Wallace joins Lee and James to discuss public opinion on immigration policy. Wallace is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Washington. She specializes in Latino Politics, representation, and immigration politics and policy. Wallace is the author of Walls, Cages, and Family Separation: Race and Immigration Policy in the Trump Era (Cambridge University Press 2020). And she has published articles in the Amer...
Mar 24, 2022•39 min•Ep. 78
In this week’s episode of Politics In Question , Heather Hurlburt joins Julia and James to talk about what’s happening in Ukraine. Hurlburt is the director of the New Models of Policy Change project at New America’s Political Reform program. She is a contributor to New York Magazine and she has published articles in numerous publications, including Politico , Foreign Affairs , The National Interest , Fortune , Vox , and Time . Hurlburt also co-hosts the Drezburt podcast and frequently appears in...
Mar 17, 2022•30 min•Ep. 77
In this week’s episode of Politics In Question , Leah Stokes joins Lee and James to discuss energy policy in the United States. Stokes is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science and affiliated with the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management and the Environmental Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) . She is the author of Short Circuiting Policy (Oxford University Press, 2020). Her articles have appeared in the American Poli...
Mar 11, 2022•45 min•Ep. 76
In this week’s episode of Politics In Question , Julia, Lee, and James talk Republican Party politics. What’s happening inside the GOP? Has the party become more authoritarian in recent years? Are there any Republicans who will push back against former President Trump and his allies? Can they succeed? Or is this the wrong way to think about Republican Party politics altogether? These are some of the questions Julia, Lee, and James ask in this week’s episode. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz comp...
Mar 04, 2022•23 min•Ep. 75
In this week’s episode of Politics In Question , Amanda Hollis-Brusky joins Julia and Lee to discuss the conservative legal movement’s effort to transform the Supreme Court. Hollis-Brusky is associate professor and chair of the Department of Politics at Ponoma College. She is the author of two books on the conservative legal movement and the Supreme Court’s transformation. Has Chief Justice John Roberts lost control of the court? How have the recent appointments of Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Ka...
Feb 25, 2022•35 min•Ep. 74
In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Julia, Lee, and James discuss the impending debate over President Biden’s pick to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by Stephen Breyer’s retirement. Whom will Biden nominate to fill Breyer’s seat? Will the president pick a black woman as promised during the 2020 presidential campaign? How will the nominee’s confirmation process unfold in the Senate? Will all Democrats support the nominee? Is there anything Republicans can do to block - or at least...
Feb 11, 2022•35 min•Ep. 73
In this week’s episode of Politics In Question , Julia, Lee, and James consider Senate Democrats’ failure to pass voting rights legislation. Why did Democrats bring up a bill when they didn’t have the votes to pass it? Did Democrats really think that they could pass the voting-rights bill by blowing up the Senate rules? And what is the filibuster’s future? These are some of the questions Julia, Lee, and James ask in this week’s episode. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.c...
Jan 31, 2022•37 min•Ep. 72
In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Julia, Lee, and James consider what American politics will look like in 2022. Is American democracy in decline? What do we mean by democracy? Do Americans focus too much on elections and not enough on what happens in-between elections? What will come out of Congress over the coming year? Do Americans want major policy change to happen? And what will happen in the 2022 midterm elections? These are some of the questions Julia, Lee, and James ask in t...
Jan 14, 2022•41 min•Ep. 71
In this week’s episode of Politics In Question , Julia, Lee, and James consider claims that America’s constitutional order is on the brink of collapse. Are supporters of former President Donald Trump actively plotting to overthrow the government if their candidate does not win the presidency in 2024? Is the effort presently underway in some state legislatures to change the laws that regulate elections an extension of the January 6 attack on the Capitol? And how can Americans protect their democr...
Dec 29, 2021•41 min•Ep. 70
In this week’s episode of Politics In Question , Lee, and James discuss civic participation and voting reform. What is the Freedom to Vote Act? Why can’t the Senate pass it? And why should Americans care? Are there other ways to fix the broken electoral system in some states? these are some of the questions Lee and James ask in this week’s episode. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising....
Dec 22, 2021•42 min•Ep. 69
In this week’s episode of Politics In Question , Julia, Lee, and James discuss thermostatic politics. What is thermostatic politics? Does public opinion shift whenever the party in power changes in American politics? Why do people change their mind on public policy from election to election? Is this phenomenon driven by a lack of responsiveness in American politics more generally? And what is public opinion in the first place? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for inf...
Dec 09, 2021•40 min•Ep. 68
In this week’s episode of Politics In Question , Colorado State Senator Faith Winter discusses the successful collaborative governance process that led to Colorado becoming the first state in the country to enact statewide paid leave through a ballot initiative. Collaborative governance, or co-governance, is a democratic process where residents, activists, bureaucrats, and elected officials share in decision-making power to achieve common goals. In this interview, Faith discusses her involvement...
Dec 02, 2021•37 min•Ep. 67
Lee and James talk Republican Party politics in this week’s episode of Politics In Question . Are Republicans becoming an illiberal and authoritarian party as their critics attest? Or is Republicans’ increasingly strident rhetoric on issues like vaccine mandates and critical race theory a distraction from their unwillingness to act to achieve their goals in institutions like the House and Senate? How does gridlock in Congress obscure divisions among Republicans over important issues like health ...
Nov 08, 2021•29 min•Ep. 66
In this week’s episode of Politics In Question , Julia, Lee, and James discuss David Shor’s recent controversy-provoking advice for Democrats. What does Shor advise Democrats to do ahead of next year’s midterm elections? Why is his advice controversial? And what does the race-versus-economics debate that Shor’s advice sparked reveal about American politics more broadly and why our political institutions are dysfunctional? These are some of the questions that Julia, Lee, and James discuss in this...
Oct 20, 2021•52 min•Ep. 65
In this week’s episode of Politics In Question , Katherine Gehl joins Julia, Lee, and James to take a fresh look at how Americans conduct their elections and to discuss the prospects for reform. Gehl is the founder of the Institute for Political Innovation , a non-profit, cross-partisan public policy organization that aims to reform American politics by using private-sector insights to improve congressional elections and - by extension - fix Congress. She is the author of The Politics Industry: ...
Oct 12, 2021•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 64
In the season four opener of Politics In Question , Julia, Lee, and James unpack the rampant dysfunction on Capitol Hill. Why did Congress wait until the last minute to fund the government and raise the debt limit? What is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s, R-Ky., endgame? And will Democratic divisions prevent Congress from passing President Joe Biden’s agenda moving forward? These are some of the questions that Julia, Lee, and James ask in this week’s episode. Hosted by Simplecast, an Ad...
Oct 01, 2021•36 min•Ep. 63
In this episode of Politics In Question , Amanda Ripley joins Julia, Lee, and James to discuss political conflict. Ripley is an investigative journalist and New York Times bestselling author. Her most recent book is High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out (Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2021). Ripley's writing has appeared in the Atlantic Magazine , Time Magazine , the New York Times , the Washington Post , the Wall Street Journal , Slate , Politico , the Guardian , and The Times of Lo...
Jul 22, 2021•41 min•Ep. 62
In this episode of Politics In Question , Noam Gidron joins Julia and Lee to discuss political polarization. Gidron is an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the co-author of American Affective Polarization in Comparative Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2020). His writing has appeared in the American Political Science Review , Annual Review of Political Science , Journal of Politics , and Social Forces . What is affecti...
Jul 20, 2021•40 min•Ep. 61
In this week’s episode of Politics In Question , Tony Madonna joins Julia and James to discuss voting in Congress. Madonna is an Associate Professor in the Political Science Department at the University of Georgia. He received his PhD in political science from Washington University in St. Louis. His research interests include American political institutions and development, congressional politics and procedure and presidential politics. His work has appeared in such journals as the American Jour...
May 20, 2021•51 min•Ep. 60
In this week’s episode of Politics In Question , Julia, Lee, and James discuss Liz Cheney and whether House Republicans should remove her from their leadership team. What role do party leaders play in Congress? Has that role changed over time? How does the party leader job change when a president of the same party is in the White House? And when is it ok for rank-and-file members to change leaders? These are some of the questions that Julia, Lee, and James discuss in this week’s episode. Show No...
May 07, 2021•41 min•Ep. 59
In this week’s episode of Politics In Question , Jake Grumbach, joins Julia, Lee, and James to discuss democratic backsliding in the United States. Grumbach is is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Washington. He has developed a tool for measuring democracy in the states called the State Democracy Index. His research focuses broadly on the political economy of the United States. He is particularly interested in public policy, American federalism, racial capitalism, ...
May 05, 2021•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 58
In this week’s episode of Politics In Question , Julia, Lee, and James discuss President Joe Biden’s performance during his first 100 days in office. Is Biden a transformative president? Or will his presidency be remembered as “Not Trump?” Can presidents even transform American politics? These are some of the questions Julia, Lee, and James discuss in this week’s episode. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data f...
Apr 30, 2021•45 min•Ep. 57
In this week’s episode of Politics In Question , Mary Stuckey joins Julia and Lee to discuss presidential rhetoric. Stuckey is Sparks Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State University. She is the author of numerous books and articles on presidential communication and rhetoric. Her forthcoming book is Deplorable: The Worst Presidential Campaigns from Jefferson to Trump (Penn State University Press). Why should Americans care about presidential rhetoric? When is it despicable? ...
Apr 23, 2021•35 min•Ep. 56
In this week’s episode of Politics In Question , Kevin Kosar joins Lee and James to consider why Congress can’t do its job. Kosar is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, where he studies Congress, the administrative state, American politics, election reform, and the US Postal Service. Before joining AEI, Kosar served as the R Street Institute’s vice president of policy, vice president of research partnerships, and senior fellow and director of the Governance Project. He also ...
Apr 14, 2021•39 min•Ep. 55
In this week’s episode of Politics In Question , Sara Sadhwani joins Julia and Lee to discuss elections reform. Sadhwani is an assistant professor of politics at Pomona College and serves on California’s Citizens Redistricting Commission. She specializes in Asian American and Latino voting behavior, elections, interest groups, and representation. Her research has been published in Political Behavior , PS: Political Science and Politics , the California Journal of Politics and Policy , and the Jo...
Apr 03, 2021•49 min•Ep. 54
In this week’s episode of Politics In Question , Yanna Krupnikov joins Julia, Lee, and James to discuss independent voters and the impact they have on American politics. Krupnikov is Professor of Political Science at Stony Brook University. Her research and teaching focuses on political psychology, political communication, political persuasion, political behavior, and empirical methodology. She is the co-author (with Samara Klar) of Independent Politics: How American Disdain for Parties Has Led ...
Mar 29, 2021•49 min•Ep. 53
In this week’s episode of Politics In Question , Nancy Rosenblum joins Julia, Lee, and James to discuss conspiracism and the Republican Party. Rosenblum is the Harvard University Senator Joseph Clark Professor of Ethics in Politics and Government emerita. She is the co-author of numerous books and articles, including, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy (Princeton University Press, 2019). What causes conspiracism? How does it threaten American democracy?...
Mar 15, 2021•57 min•Ep. 52
In this week’s episode of Politics In Question , Julia, Lee, and James discuss what makes democracy work in the United States. What is democracy? Can democracy’s meaning change across place and time? If so, which type of democracy is best suited for the American political system at present? These are some of the questions that Julia, Lee, and James discuss in this week’s episode. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of persona...
Mar 05, 2021•59 min•Ep. 51
