Off The Record With Paul Hodes

Democratic political and media consultant Mark Bergman has a message for Democrats...we're right about a lot of things, including striving for equality, supporting working families on needs like child care, and following science on Covid. But the the voters are not seeing things the same way.  It's partly the message, partly the priorities we talk about, partly the brand of the entire party...and there's a healthy dose of distortion from right wing media. But the bottom line is, we're losing the middle, and we can't win elections in 2022 or 2024 with just our activist base, because the Republican base is even more fired up.  We need to appeal to persuadable working class voters again. The good news is that it ain't over yet. "That's why you play the whole ball game...the Cincinnati Bengals thought they were going to win the Super Bowl until the final two minutes," Mark says.  In this episode, Mark gives a dose of reality, but also some helpful pointers about how to fight back against the headwi

Matt joins legendary West Virginia radio broadcaster Howard Monroe to talk about why school issues - including mask mandates, closures, curriculum, "transparency," and critical race theory - have become such a huge focus in politics these days.  And are Republicans winning on these issues?

The agreement from gun manufacturer Remington to settle a civil court case brought by Sandy Hook families marks the first time a gun company in America has been held liable for a mass shooting.  The case revolved around the marketing campaign for the rifle used by the Newtown shooter and whether it targeted teenage boys and young adults through ad placement in violent video games. The fact that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case could open the door to many more state-based lawsuits, while the settlement award could put financial pressure on other manufacturers across the industry. So is the $73 million settlement a turning point for gun reform efforts? We wanted to ask one of the top veterans of the gun reform advocacy community, Cliff Schecter, who has worked for Mike Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Everytown for Gun Safety, and the Brady Campaign, and has written widely about gun safety.  Photo by Bexar Arms on Unsplash

No...not that Michael Cohen.  This Michael Cohen is one of the most thoughtful, analytic, and interesting minds in the Republican Party. Mike has worked in politics for 25 years, primarily in polling, and he also teaches at Johns Hopkins University’s graduate communications program and has appeared on numerous media outlets.  He had the number one opinion piece in The Hill this weekend, making the case that Mike Pence should run for President.  He is "out" on the Republican Party right now.  So I asked him, what would it take to get him back in?  We also cover both parties' prospects for the midterms, his book "Modern Political Campaigns" and whether America is simply depressed. 

Dr. Roderick Graham is Associate Professor in Sociology & Criminal Justice at Old Dominion University who writes social critique through a sociological lens.  We tackle affirmative action, immigration, harm reduction centers, "hate launderers" and why America has become so culturally unhealthy. Make sure to check Rod out on YouTube, Twitter, Substack, and at The Editorial Board.

Moundsville, directed by David Bernabo and John W. Miller and currently playing on PBS, is the biography of a classic American town: Moundsville, WV (pop. 8,400), on the Ohio River, where Appalachia hits the Midwest. Told through the voices of residents, the film diverts from the well-trod paths – opioids, coal, Trump – to trace the many forces that have buffeted this proud town, diminishing it but also offering new promise and opportunities. In this crossover episode with the Great Ideas Podcast -- which we hope you'll subscribe to -- director and former Wall Street Journal reporter John Miller joins the show to tell us what he learned after a year talking to the people of Moundsville, and what they can teach all of us about the future of America.

Chris Hill, the host of Motley Fool Money, the number one stock investing radio show in America, explains what the heck is going on with successful big tech companies that continue to grow steadily while Facebook hits the skids.  Also, we dive into the future of Peloton, and are all those expensive Super Bowl ads actually worth it?

Four months ago, our co-host Matt Robison wrote an article in Newsweek arguing that it was time for America to panic. He quoted from the government scholar Robert Kagan: "the United States is heading into its greatest political and constitutional crisis since the Civil War, with a reasonable chance over the next three to four years of incidents of mass violence, a breakdown of federal authority, and the division of the country into warring red and blue enclaves." Last week, a powerful and respected Washington voice published a comprehensive and detailed breakdown of how all of this is unfolding right before our eyes, and what we must start doing right now to stop it. He's Matt Bennett, the Executive Vice President at Third Way, a leading Washington, DC think tank that aims to develop fresh thinking and moderate ideas. Matt joins the podcast (also available on video) to share the stunning details. 

Today, we wanted to bring you portions of a conversation that Matt Robison had on the Healthier Tech Podcast with host R Blank. Some of you may recognize that name from my previous conversation with him in which we talked about the science behind electromagnetic radiation and some of the effects that that type of radiation -- which comes from everything in the world around us that runs on electricity -- has on our bodies, our brains, and our health. There is some pretty compelling science that suggests it's a problem. There are direct effects that are measurable in the cells inside our body, and there's a lot more research that's needed on the association with various diseases.  So what can we do to get government to take this on? The show is also about other intersections between our health and technology.  That includes mental health and social health, the kinds of issues that have been raised by the Facebook whistleblower Francis Haugen, and some of the documents that she's brought to light about

Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement raises a number of significant questions about the future of the Supreme Court. To understand what has been happening on the Court, the implications of losing Justice Breyer, and what’s coming next as President Biden decides on a nominee, we’re very pleased to have one of the country’s top legal analysts, Joyce White Vance. She’s a frequent legal commentator on MSNBC and other media outlets, a Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Law at the University of Alabama School of Law and served eight years as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama.

Americans are sad, angry, and fed up these days...and with the lingering pandemic, high prices, and continued partisan bitterness, it's understandable.  So what is that doing to elected officeholders, voter perceptions of the two parties, and re-election prospects for everyone on the ballot in 2022? Neil Levesque of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics who oversees the top-rated St. Anselm's poll walks through their latest findings, and what they mean for the direction of public opinion and politics as we head toward the mid-term elections. 

With the eyes of the world on Ukraine, we look today at why Russia has pushed the world to the brink of war.  Max Bergmann is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he focuses on Europe, Russia, and U.S. security cooperation. From 2011 to 2017, he served in the U.S. Department of State in a number of different positions, including as a member of the secretary of state’s policy planning staff, where he focused on political-military affairs and nonproliferation; special assistant to the undersecretary for arms control and international security; speechwriter to then-Secretary of State John Kerry; and senior adviser to the assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs.  He helps us understand why there is a brewing conflict, what the options are, and what the path ahead should be. Photo by Snowscat on Unsplash

Today, I published an article in the Editorial Board that is getting a ton of attention online, arguing that the answer to the question “what grade do you give Biden’s first year in office?” is “A+” and that anything else is insane.  Here's why. 

We did our regular check in with Chris Hill, the host of Motley Fool Money, the #1 stock investing radio show in America, and one of the biggest financial podcasts out there.  We look at Microsoft's giant acquisition, what are the big trends to look for in earnings season, and how are live sports doing (hint: amazing). 

Fred Wellman is the former Executive Director of The Lincoln Project, a West Point and Army veteran, and a former Republican.  He's spent years fighting what Donald Trump stands for.  But the insurrection on January 6th, 2020 marked a turning point. He saw something new: a clear parallel to the roots of the fascist movement in Germany in the  1930s growing here in America.  So Fred’s decided to take everything he learned at the Lincoln Project and do something about it. He’s founded  The Beer Hall Project, a new super PAC with a goal of battling Donald Trump and his supporters who are trying to rewrite the history of what really happened on January 6. He joins us to talk about how to win this fight against a Trump movement that is trying to overthrow American democracy.

The Supreme Court followed up its recent ruling on state district maps with a shot across the bow of state Republicans today, blasting their ludicrously gerrymandered Congressional map and sending it back to the drawing board. This is a big deal not just because of how it could affect the count in Congress, but also because it provides a blueprint for how Democrats can fight back against the assault on free elections by using a little focus and tactical smarts.  There's a backstory to how we got here, and there's no one better to tell it than one of its architects: former Ohio Democratic Party Chair David Pepper, author of Laboratories of Autocracy about what Republicans are doing at the state level.  We pulled him onto an emergency podcast to explain what happened, why it's so significant, and most important, what lessons Democrats elsewhere can learn.

Today we talk with former Sunday editor at the Chicago Sun-Times and former metro editor at the Chicago Tribune Mark Jacob about a crisis in media like nothing we have ever seen before. Criticizing the media is nothing new.  But today, the fracturing of the media landscape, the rise of social media, the battle for attention and eyeballs online, and the willingness to brazenly disregard the truth on the part of some politicians has left the media reeling, and unable to help its readers, viewers, and listeners understand what is real and what is invented. The blizzard of lying is coming disproportionately from the Republican Party, and the mainstream media is giving those lies "more credence, more time, and more legitimacy." It's a demoralizing and dangerous situation in a democracy that requires that people have real facts and good faith analysis. The good news: Mark has some ideas about how to fix things.  The not-so-good news? None of them are easy. 

In the aftermath of the insurrection of January 6th 2021, it appeared for a moment that Donald Trump's effort to cast the 2020 election as illegitimate and to overturn the results of that election had come to an end. While 140 Republican members of Congress did vote to overturn the results – literally in the midst of the damage around them in the capitol – Republican leaders ultimately expressed acceptance of the election and a rejection of the insurrection. It seemed like there was a chance that this was an issue that Americans might generally come together on. But in the year since, the opposite has happened. Americans attitudes about that day and everything that led up to it shifted almost immediately, and fell into familiar partisan patterns, yet shocking in the face of the violence that day and the revelations about it since then. And in the past two weeks leading up to the anniversary of the insurrection, a number of polls have returned with alarming results about how Americans view the last election an

In the wake of the January 6 insurrection, a Harvard professor decided, in a matter of days, to teach a course that unfolded in real time and dug deep into what happened on January 6th, the roots of the insurrection, and the still-developing understanding of the events of that day. So what did he and his students learn, and what can we say about the future now that we are a year out?  We wanted to bring the kind of insight that you get in a Harvard course to everybody, so we brought that professor onto the show today. Alexander Keyssar is the Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and author of “Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College?”

Matt joins veteran radio host Howard Monroe to talk about why the insurrection was, yes, an insurrection, where public opinion has gone, and why we are in more peril now than we were a year ago.