The topic of this episode is, Why are legislators on social media?”

We’ve all seen it, and if you haven’t, well, you will soon enough. Social media posts by members of Congress. They are on Facebook, X.com (what used to be called Twitter), Bluesky, and the like. The average voter may be forgiven for wondering, “Why are these lawmakers hanging out online? Don’t they have anything better to do?”

To try to help us better understand what is going on here, I have Annelise Russell, Associate Professor of Public Policy at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Russell has been studying legislators’ use of social media for years and is the author of Tweeting is Leading: How Senators Communicate and Represent in the Age of Twitter (Oxford, 2021). So who better to discuss this topic with us?

Click here to read the full transcript.

The topic of this episode is, “Is Congress getting anything done?”

The 119th Congress convened in early January. Months have gone by, and there are lots of things happening in Washington, DC.

But is it all being done by President Donald J. Trump? Is Congress itself doing anything?

Gabe Fleisher is here to help us answer that latter question. He is the creator and editor of the must-read publication, Wake Up to Politics. He started this newsletter in 2011, and you may have seen him being interviewed CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and in various other major media.

Click here to read the full transcript.

The topic of this episode is a recent book that is titled, Congressional Deliberation: Major Debates, Speeches, and Writings 1774-2023 (Hackett 2024). The book is edited by Jordan T. Cash, a professor at James Madison College at Michigan State University, and by Kevin J. Burns, a professor at Benedictine College.

As the book’s title indicates, its coverage is capacious: the very first excerpt comes from John Adams’ diary entries on the debates in the continental Congress, which he wrote in 1774. The books’ very last entry is taken from the debates that led to the ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy in 2023.

Certainly, I could go on and on about all the parts of the book that fascinate me, but today we’re going to do something better than that. I am going to chat with one of the editors, Jordan Cash.

Click here to read the full transcript.