DecodeDC
254 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 6 years ago - ★★★★★ - 1.2K ratingsA reliable, honest and entertaining podcast about Washington D.C’s people, culture and politics.
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Episodes
131: Is the Supreme Court too supreme?
March 17, 2016 17:58 - 25 minutes - 22.9 MBThe status of the Supreme Court in American government has ebbed and flowed since the Constitution was ratified. But starting in the 1950s, the Court has had a long and unchallenged reign of extraordinary power and authority as the final guardian of the Constitution. In the sweep of history, this is a great aberration, not the norm. This week on the podcast, Larry Kramer, former Dean of the Stanford Law School and now head of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation says we have largely and r...
130: The long view with Madeleine Albright
March 10, 2016 16:27 - 27 minutes - 25.1 MBMadeleine Albright describes herself as a late bloomer but boy, has she made something of that late push. After starting her political career as a Senate staffer at the age of 39, Albright went on to the National Security Council, before serving as UN ambassador and the country’s first female secretary of state. On the latest DecodeDC podcast, host Jimmy Williams sits down with the storied stateswoman as she describes her journey and how the she came to find her voice. As someone who’s been t...
129: Superdelegates, WTF
March 03, 2016 16:11 - 20 minutes - 18.4 MBSuperdelegates. Maybe you’ve heard something about them, but might not know how they came to be, how they work, who they are and why they matter. But if you want to make sense of the delegate math in this year’s Democratic contest, you need to understand what a superdelegate is. Bob Shrum was there when superdelegates were created. The long time Democratic operative says if you trace the origins of this uniquely Democratic Party invention, you’ll see a battle between the people and their part...
128: South Carolina's unholy alliance
February 25, 2016 19:31 - 27 minutes - 25.6 MBLong ago in South Carolina, an unholy alliance was made to keep the races separate. In the second episode of our two-part series on the politics of race in the Palmetto State, we introduce you to two of the people who keep that pact going. And they hate it. So while all the talking heads and politicians turn their attention to this Saturday’s Democratic primary in South Carolina, listen to our latest episode on the real problem down in Dixie: Race. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy info...
Revisiting: The Price of Privacy
February 23, 2016 16:24 - 26 minutes - 24.6 MBRight now, a battle is being waged between Apple and the government over encryption. A federal court has ordered the tech giant to unlock an iPhone used by one of the attackers in the San Bernardino shooting that left 14 people dead. Apple is fighting the order, and a huge public debate is going on about privacy and protection. A few months ago, right after the Paris terrorist attacks, we did a podcast about a Scripps News investigation into encryption. We've decided to repost that episode a...
127: The black and white state of South Carolina
February 18, 2016 20:16 - 29 minutes - 26.8 MBFrom 2010-2014, more than 200,000 people moved to South Carolina. The South is the fastest growing region of the county but unlike its neighbors, the Palmetto state seems to be stuck in time. South Carolina’s schools rank 43rd in the nation. The median income in South Carolina is $44,000 dollars a year. That's nearly $10,000 dollars less than the national average. Democrats have been hoping that the influx of Latinos and African Americans, combined with the movement of retirees might turn the...
126: How Anne Boleyn gave us our right to privacy
February 11, 2016 20:43 - 23 minutes - 21.9 MBToday Americans view privacy as a fundamental civil liberty, a right that puts a boundary on what the government can do. Our ‘right to privacy’ has become part of the essential contract Americans make with their government, a system that protects individuals from the government’s ability to intrude into the private sphere. But it wasn’t so long ago that the very idea of a right to privacy, even of a right to one’s own thoughts, wasn’t such a foregone conclusion. This week on the podcast, we t...
125: Political Dynasties
February 04, 2016 15:43 - 19 minutes - 17.9 MBAdams, Bush, Clinton, Kennedy. Somehow the same family names keep popping up in American politics. And that raises the question: Why, in a proudly democratic country, do we wind up with something that doesn’t feel very democratic? This week on the podcast, guest host Michelle Cottle speaks with historian Stephen Hess about our obsession with political dynasties. Hess, whose best seller “America’s Political Dynasties” was recently updated, says we will always have dynasties—but they won’t alwa...
124: Broad Politics
January 28, 2016 17:11 - 25 minutes - 23.4 MBBeyoncé had it right. Who runs the world? Girls. Just ask Jay Newtown-Small, a Time magazine correspondent and author of the new book, “Broad Influence: How Women Are Changing the Way America Works.” This week on the podcast, Newton-Small speaks with host Jimmy Williams about her experience reporting her book and it’s key takeaway: once women make up between 20 and 30 percent of an institution, they begin to impact and change the way that institution works. See omnystudio.com/listener for pr...
123: The new kid on the block
January 21, 2016 19:37 - 30 minutes - 28.3 MBFrom the outside looking in, Brian Sims seems to have it all. He’s young, energetic, well liked, and his political career’s on the rise. After becoming one of the first openly gay college football players in NCAA history, Sims went on to law school and embarked on a career as an LGBT activist before becoming the first openly gay candidate elected to Pennsylvania’s state legislature. Now he’s ready to take the next step: the US. House of Representatives. Is Sims crazy? No one seems to have a k...
Bonus: TrailMix 2016 Ep 1 - Feeling the Bern, Bill Clinton & women, endorsements and Nickelback
January 15, 2016 19:05 - 26 minutes - 24.4 MBWe thought you might enjoy a look at Scripps News' newest podcast, TrailMix 2016 - a weekly conversation about the state of the campaign. This week’s topics include: Is it time to take Bernie Sanders seriously? What about Bill Clinton and women? Do endorsements make a difference? And, what does Nickelback have to do with the campaign? Join Scripps politics reporter Miranda Green, Daily Beast social media editor Asawin Suebsaeng and Independent Journal politics editor Justin Green for insight,...
122: When words speak louder than actions
January 14, 2016 19:43 - 23 minutes - 21.3 MBJeremy Frimer, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Winnipeg, teamed up with some other researchers in Canada and Germany and tried to answer this question: Why do the American people seem to hate Congress so much? And what they found was that it’s all about what Congress says, not what it does. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
121: The Sorry State of the State of the Union
January 07, 2016 17:48 - 22 minutes - 20.7 MBFrom members of Congress jockeying for the best tv spot, to constant interruptions of applause, the State of the Union address has become a primetime spectacle. On our latest podcast, former Capitol Hill staffer and current lobbyist Steve Moffitt offers up some advice on how to fix the State of the Union. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Meet Jimmy Williams: DecodeDC's New Host
January 05, 2016 18:56 - 28 minutes - 26.2 MBJimmy Williams is a veteran of Washington, D.C.'s political scene, engaging in nearly every facet of American politics, as a congressional staffer then lobbyist and now, as DecodeDC's new host. Podcasting is new to Jimmy, so he sought ought the advice of some experienced pros, including Gimlet Media CEO and Start-Up host Alex Blumberg , the Daily Caller’s Matt Lewis, Adam Davidson, co-founder of Planet Money and co-host of Surprisingly Awesome, and Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers of Pa...
120: Our 2015 favorite episodes and the tape you didn't get to hear
December 29, 2015 17:15 - 27 minutes - 25.2 MBIt's been a big year in politics - and an even bigger one is on its way. Before we dive into the coming year of campaigns, candidates, and conventions, host Jimmy Williams sits down with DecodeDC's producers and editors to talk about some of our best moments from the last year. From our deep dive into America's prison problem, to our explorations of racist government policies, and even to a Donald Trump rally in Dallas, you'll get some insight into what goes into producing and reporting a De...
119: The Lie of the Year
December 23, 2015 19:36 - 32 minutes - 29.9 MBTis the season of year-end lists – and so we offer our second annual Lie of the Year podcast thanks to our friends from PolitiFact, the fact-checking Website. PolitiFact Editor Angie Drobnic-Holan talks us through this year’s top 10. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
118: Does conservative media have too much power?
December 17, 2015 20:07 - 23 minutes - 21.1 MBConservative media has gone through surprising changes in recent years, not that many people outside that orbit have noticed. There is a world of talk radio, podcasts and websites far bigger, a new breed like the commentator Steve Deace, who are more conservative and, surprisingly, more hostile to the Republican party than Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. And they're having a serious influence on Republican lawmakers. On this week's podcast, we speak with Jackie Calmes, a national correspondent fo...
117: #tbt to when Congress actually worked
December 10, 2015 17:10 - 24 minutes - 22.9 MBIn today’s political atmosphere of partisan bickering and congressional dysfunction, there’s something reassuring about reflecting on a time when things actually worked on Capitol Hill. On the latest DecodeDC podcast, we’re traveling back to the 1940s to tell you a story about Congress at its very best. It’s a story about a little known senator named Harry Truman and the committee he led that investigated waste, fraud and abuse in the lead up to the United States entering World War II. “It re...
116: A Bad Case of Electoralitis
December 03, 2015 19:42 - 22 minutes - 20.3 MBThis week on DecodeDC, Dick Meyer and Dr. Anthony King discuss American elections and how they're viewed abroad. King is a British professor of comparative government and the author of "Running Scared: Why America’s Politicians Campaign Too Much and Govern Too Little," He questions some of the fundamental assumptions Americans make about what an election is supposed to look like and how long it should last. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Rerun: The military has its fingers in your food
November 24, 2015 15:03 - 17 minutes - 15.6 MBAs you sit around the dining room table this week with family and friends, giving thanks and enjoying roasted turkey, creamy mashed potatoes and warm stuffing, here’s something to keep in mind: Some of that food you’re chowing down might have originated in a military lab. Every once in awhile we like to re-run one of our more popular episodes, and this is one of those occasions. Enjoy listening—or re-listening—to our conversation with Anastacia Marx de Salcedo about her book, “Combat Ready Ki...
115: The Price of Privacy
November 19, 2015 22:19 - 26 minutes - 24 MBIn the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris, the battle between privacy versus public safety has become ever more relevant. Law enforcement agencies maintain that the same encryption you use on your cell phone to keep your private information safe has become a tool for criminals and terrorists. Scripps News and the Toronto Star teamed up over the past several months, investigating how law enforcement is losing the war over access to information they need to solve crimes. On the latest Decod...
114: Budget Battle B.S.
November 12, 2015 17:35 - 25 minutes - 23.7 MBAt this point, the Washington federal budget cycle is pretty well established. A stalemated federal government leads to the predictable standoff. Cue the shutdown clocks on cable news, ignore the threats lobbed between members of Congress and await the prospect of “closed’ signs at federal agencies and national parks. On the latest DecodeDC podcast, we take a look at the federal budget and try to answer the question: what’s broken about the federal budget – the process or the politicians? Se...
113: Is the Electoral College broken?
November 05, 2015 18:32 - 20 minutes - 19.2 MBThe Electoral College - it's something we have to deal with during every presidential election. But should we? This week on the podcast, we look at how and why the Electoral College system came to be. We also talk with Dr. John Koza, chairman of the National Popular Vote, a movement dedicated to changing the presidential election process entirely. If his group succeeds, our system of voting for president could be completely different by 2020. CORRECTION: In a previous version of this episode,...
Bonus: DecodeDeceased on Capitol Hill
October 30, 2015 13:52 - 9 minutes - 9.12 MBCapitol Hill can be horrifying… On this bonus episode of DecodeDC, we focus on the spookier aspects of Capitol Hill during a ghost tour with ScaryDC. Long-dead Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase comes back to walk us through the stories of haunted architects, spectral spies, and General Logan’s stuffed horse. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
112: GOP Family Feud
October 29, 2015 17:20 - 19 minutes - 17.6 MBThings are pretty weird in the House of Representatives right now. Paul Ryan was just chosen to be the next speaker of the House, a position he never wanted, after a fractured Republican Party united behind him. Republicans have the largest majority of seats in the House since 1920, so it should be a golden time to move their agenda forward. Instead, it's been pretty miserable. Lots of fingers are pointing to the House Freedom Caucus, a group of about 40 of the most conservative members of t...
111: Conversation in the digital age...nvm, tl;dr
October 22, 2015 17:36 - 18 minutes - 16.7 MBIt’s a bizarre question at first: Is our capacity for meaningful, soul-nourishing conversation something that can go away? Sherry Turkle, professor of psychology at MIT, and author of “Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in the Digital Age”, says yes, emphatically. On this episode of DecodeDC, Dick Meyer has a long conversation with Turkle about conversation - and then invited the newsroom to join. Spoiler alert: We’re all at risk of becoming device-addicted, never-present techno-dwee...
110: What we talk about when we talk about poverty
October 15, 2015 19:02 - 20 minutes - 19 MBIf it seems impossible to talk about poverty in the U.S. without talking about race and culture, that's thanks in large part to one man: Daniel Patrick Moynihan. In 1965, Moynihan wrote a government memo that changed the way we think about poverty. In this episode, writers Peter-Christian Aigner and Stephanie Coontz weigh in on the report's legacy, and Moynihan's intentions. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
109: The military has its fingers in your food
October 08, 2015 18:05 - 18 minutes - 16.9 MBNestled in the woods just outside of Boston sits the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Systems Center. The base does research on the necessities soldiers need on the frontline, such as clothing, shoes, body armor and food. Part of Natick’s mandate is to get the food science it uses in producing military combat rations onto grocery store shelves and into your kitchen. That’s what Anastascia Marx de Salcedo writes about in her new book, “Combat Ready Kitchen: How the U.S. Military Shapes the Way You Eat...
108: It's Citizens United, Stupid
October 01, 2015 21:05 - 24 minutes - 22.2 MBDecodeDC reporter Miranda Green and producer Eric Krupke recently took a trip to the frontlines of the 2016 battlefield -- a rally for Sanders in North Carolina and one for Trump in Texas. And what they learned was surprising. While visibly different on the surface, the events had one clear similarity: supporters, on both sides of the political spectrum, with a deep fear of big money in politics. On this week’s podcast, Green and Krupke take you to the rallies and let you hear from the suppo...
107: The Pope's Political Reach
September 23, 2015 20:07 - 26 minutes - 24.4 MBLess than 24 hours after touching down on U.S. soil for the very first time, Pope Francis made quite clear his stance on issues such as immigration and climate change. Confronting major global disputes with forceful words is nothing new for Pope Francis. He has used the worldwide papacy platform to speak out on issues both inside and outside the church. But according to David Gibson, a national reporter for the Religion News Service, the challenge lies in transforming the pope’s words into gl...
Bonus: Housing discrimination - one man's story
September 22, 2015 18:21 - 10 minutes - 9.82 MBAntoine Lynch is having a hard time finding an affordable place to live. That is, until the DC government provided him with a housing voucher that guaranteed partial payment of his monthly rent. But, when he called around to housing complexes where he wanted to live - apartments that were in neighborhoods with grocery stores, good schools, and low crime rates - the landlords told him they wouldn’t accept his voucher. Antoine is facing what’s called source of income discrimination, and it’s il...
106: Separate and Unequal
September 17, 2015 17:24 - 26 minutes - 24.3 MBWe think our cities look a certain way because of people’s choices and preferences, but it turns out, the government has had a huge hand in keeping neighborhoods separate and unequal. This week on DecodeDC, we tackle the question that’s been vexing the country for more than half a century, how much can, and should, the government do to right its past wrongs when it comes to housing and segregation? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
105: Terrified of terrorism
September 10, 2015 17:09 - 22 minutes - 20.5 MBThis week’s podcast challenges a political sacred cow. In fact, it might be the mother of all sacred cows. It is the belief that foreign terrorism is one of the most serious threats to the safety of Americans and the security of what since 9/11 we have called the “homeland.” That belief is deep. The facts supporting it are thin. But it is a premise so fundamental to our post-9/11 worldview that is rarely debated, challenged or reexamined. No one has tried harder to unsound the alarm, to show ...
104: Revisiting A Brief History of Humankind
September 02, 2015 14:07 - 34 minutes - 31.2 MBEvery once in a while, we like to rerun one of our most popular podcasts, and this is one of those occasions. Enjoy listening--or relistening--to our conversation with Yuval Noah Harari about his book "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind". See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
103: When weed is your only hope
August 27, 2015 19:16 - 18 minutes - 17.1 MBRenee Petro was desperate to help her son, Brandon, who sometimes would experience as many as 100 seizures a day. She tried medications, she looked into surgery...and then she discovered cannabis. On this episode of the DecodeDC podcast, guest host Miranda Green teams up with News 21 reporters who talked to parents desperate to get their children access to medical marijuana. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
102: A Glimpse into Gitmo
August 20, 2015 17:01 - 26 minutes - 24.1 MBOn this week’s podcast, we sit down with reporter Carol Rosenberg, who’s outlasted soldiers, interrogators, and lawyers at Guantanamo Bay. For more than 13 years, she has become the keeper of record for what remains a controversial response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 – the decision to detain, without trial, hundreds of men picked up around the world for their alleged connections to al-Qaeda and other U.S. enemies. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
101: David Simon
August 13, 2015 18:29 - 18 minutes - 16.8 MBThe creator of The Wire and Treme has a new miniseries debuting this Sunday. We talk with David Simon about 'Show Me A Hero,' Simons's first project that he says is explicitly about race, class and how decades of government policy have created 'two Americas'. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
100: America's Prison Problem
August 06, 2015 17:57 - 23 minutes - 21.8 MBWith more than two million people behind bars, a 500 percent increase since the mid 1970s, politicians on both sides of the aisle have come to agree that America has a prison problem. On this week’s DecodeDC podcast—our 100th episode—guest host Emily Kopp sits down with Marc Mauer of the Sentencing Project, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal and Sean Walker, a former inmate who spent two decades behind bars, about what they see in the push for prison reform. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy ...
Bonus: I didn't come here to make friends
August 04, 2015 17:02 - 10 minutes - 10.1 MBThe similarities of reality TV and politics – especially with The Donald on the debate stage – are the topic of this bonus episode of the DecodeDC podcast. Host Miranda Green talks with Robert Galinsky, president and coach at the Reality TV School of New York, who says politicians could learn a thing or two from reality TV stars. Alanna Haefner contributed to this story. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
99: Why would Iran give up on its nuclear program?
July 30, 2015 16:15 - 22 minutes - 20.8 MBOn this week’s DecodeDC podcast, guest host Todd Zwillich talks with Rupal Mehta, an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska, about why countries that start down the path of developing nuclear weapons decide to stop. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
98: Spirited History
July 23, 2015 15:53 - 19 minutes - 17.8 MBForget the debate over Alexander Hamilton’s spot on the ten-dollar bill. The founding father’s image may be better suited on a bottle of bourbon. On the latest DecodeDC podcast, guest host Todd Zwillich sits down with Reid Mitenbuler, author of Bourbon Empire: The Past and Future of America’s Whiskey. Zwillich and Mitenbuler discuss a battle between two founding fathers—Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson—and how that battle has profoundly affected both American bourbon and business. See ...
97: Tell me a (political) story
July 16, 2015 14:52 - 17 minutes - 16.5 MBPolitical campaigns are about a lot of things: message, money, organization and of course, more money. But campaigns are also about storytelling. Stories help candidates connect with voters, putting a human face on dry policy debates. Some politicians are born storytellers, while others need some help. That’s where strategists like Burns Strider come in. Strider is a long-time Democratic operative who has worked on more than 100 campaigns, including as the head of faith outreach for Hillary C...
96: Revisiting Populism's Popularity
July 09, 2015 14:36 - 17 minutes - 15.8 MBThe number keeps growing but at the moment there are 22 noble or nutty (you pick) souls running for president – and the election is still 16 months away. One of them, Bernie Sanders, says he is a socialist, whatever that means in 2015 America. Sanders certainly does, however, fit in to the great American populist tradition, so we thought this would be the perfect time to rerun our podcast on the origins of populism. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
95: SCOTUS: The People's Court?
July 01, 2015 20:59 - 24 minutes - 22.5 MBThe Supreme Court’s term has ended with two supreme-sized rulings, one affirming a right to same-sex marriage, the other upholding the Affordable Care Act. Overall, the conventional rap on the term has been that it was a decidedly liberal year for the conservative Roberts court. That’s true but simplistic, according to Stuart Taylor Jr., whom we brought in to decode the court’s most recent pronouncements on this week's podcast. Taylor graduated from Harvard Law School and went on to cover the...
94: The $140 Billion Investment No One Is Tracking
June 25, 2015 16:23 - 24 minutes - 22.7 MBEvery year, we spend $140 billion on grants and loans for college students. How's that investment doing? Well, we really don't know, and to find out, it turns out we'd have to break the law. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
93: LBJ and the racial divide, 50 years later
June 18, 2015 18:17 - 19 minutes - 18.2 MBIt isn’t often that the president of the United States opens up about America’s history of racism or about how African Americans have suffered because of it - or about how white America must accept responsibility for these wrongs. But that is exactly what happened 50 years ago this month when President Lyndon Johnson delivered the commencement address at Howard University in Washington, D.C. And those who were in the crowd June 4, 1965, say what they heard on still feels relevant today. “I t...
92: Laughing Matters
June 11, 2015 19:42 - 19 minutes - 18.1 MBHost: Dick Meyer I’ve gotten interested in humorlessness. I’ve come to believe that politics has become less funny, more humorless. I think this is certainly true of professional politicians and their henchmen and henchwomen. I think it is true of pundits and talking heads. Most important, I think it is true of regular civilians who like to talk – and argue – about politics over dinner or at a bar. Stridency is up; the capacity to take teasing is down. At least that’s my hunch. There is no na...
91: Congress and...the mafia?
June 05, 2015 14:08 - 22 minutes - 20.6 MBIt’s no secret that members of Congress spend much of their time raising money. But here’s something you probably didn’t know: A huge chunk of the money they haul in is not spent on their campaigns. It’s funneled directly to the political parties in the form of dues. On the latest DecodeDC podcast, host Andrea Seabrook explains how Congress works a little like another organized group when it comes to money, power and loyalty — the mafia. There are no Don Corleones, of course, in the strict se...
90: Narwhal vs. Orca
May 27, 2015 21:19 - 16 minutes - 14.8 MBOnce upon a time in the fairytale land of politics, there was an epic clash of magical beasts. On one side, the sea-unicorn called the narwhal. With a wave of his single tusk, he could muster thousands of volunteers, knock on millions of doors and direct a laser-beam of votes on behalf of Barack Obama. On the other side, the narwhal’s natural enemy, the orca, tasked with unearthing voters across the realm for challenger Mitt Romney. This may sound too fantastical to believe, but it’s actually...
89: Revisiting 'Under the Radar'
May 22, 2015 00:06 - 26 minutes - 24.4 MBThere’s been a major development in the wake of a Scripps News Investigation featured in a DecodeDC podcast last December. Congress has now passed legislation that requires the Department of Defense to register sex offenders directly with an FBI database available to civilian law enforcement agencies and the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website prior to an offender’s release from a military prison. A Scripps News Investigation found hundreds of convicted military sex offenders flyi...