

DSR's Words Matter
The DSR Network
American politics is undergoing seismic changes that will alter the course of history. At Words Matter, we believe that facts, evidence, truth and objective reality are necessary and vital in public discourse. Our hosts and guests have broad experience in government, politics and journalism -- this gives them a unique ability to explain recent events and place them in historic context. Together, with fellow journalists, elected officials, policy-makers and thought-leaders, they will analyze the week's news and get at the real truth behind all the distracting headlines.
Episodes
Mentioned books

May 2, 2019 • 49min
Words Matter Library: Max Boot - Why I Left the Right
This week we put The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right, by Max Boot into the Words Matter Library. Washington Post Columnist Max Boot details his ideological journey from a “movement” conservative to a man without a party, beginning with his political coming-of-age as a young émigré from the Soviet Union, enthralled with the National Review and the conservative intellectual tradition of Russell Kirk and F. A. Hayek. Against this personal odyssey, Max simultaneously traces the evolution of modern American conservatism, jump-started by Barry Goldwater’s canonical The Conscience of a Conservative, to the rise of Trumpism and its gradual corrosion of what was once the Republican Party.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 29, 2019 • 53min
The Post Mueller Landscape
Katie and Joe discuss the Biden roll-out, the Great Impeachment Debate, Sarah Sanders and 28 years later we give Anita Hill the final word.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 26, 2019 • 54min
SPECIAL: The Great Impeachment Debate - Round 1
To impeach or not to impeach -- that is the question. This week our own Joe Lockhart had a op-ed column published in The New York Times under the headline: “There’s a Prize Bigger than Impeachment” -- that followed a Times column back in March by our friend Philippe Reines co-Host of the new podcast Unredacted with Emily Brandwin and Molly Jong Fast, entitled -- “Why Impeaching Trump is ‘Worth It’”. Philippe's argument was the exact opposite of Joe's.So, they decided to debate the issue face to face on Words Matter. Katie moderates Round 1 of the Great Impeachment Debate.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 25, 2019 • 5min
Final Word: Columbine 20 Years Later
The shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado happened 20 years ago this week. Katie gives a special Final Word to Laura Hall and Sarah Bush -- sisters who survived the shooting and last week ran the Boston Marathon together.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 22, 2019 • 53min
The (Redacted) Mueller Report -- Now What?
Katie and Joe sit down with Carrie Cordero and Elie Hoenig. Carrie is the Robert M. Gates Senior Fellow and General Counsel at the Center for a New American Security. She is also an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, a CNN legal analyst, and a contributing editor of Lawfare. Carrie has served in numerous senior positions at the Department of Justice and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Her research and writing focus on intelligence community oversight, transparency, surveillance, cybersecurity and related national security law and policy issues. Elie is a former state and federal prosecutor with extensive experience leading and managing criminal trials and appeals. In his work in the state of New Jersey. And as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. Elie has directed major criminal cases against street gangs drug trafficking organizations illegal firearms traffickers corrupt public officials child predators and white collar criminals. He also serves as executive director of the Rutgers Institute for Secure Communities at Rutgers University. And in his spare time Elie is a CNN legal analyst where he just launched Cross-Exam a new weekly column.Carrie and Ellie explain what the Mueller Report really says, what it means and what happens next.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 16, 2019 • 44min
SPECIAL: How to Read the (Redacted) Mueller Report
With the (redacted) Mueller Report set to be released on Thursday morning, Katie and Joe are joined by Matthew Miller for a reader's guide. Matt has worked at the highest levels of government and politics including service as the Director of the Office of Public Affairs for the Department of Justice, leading the Department’s communications team and serving as Attorney General Eric Holder’s spokesman.Prior to his service at DOJ, Matthew worked in leadership positions in both the U.S. House and Senate, as well as the 2004 presidential campaign for then-Senator John Kerry.He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, an MSNBC contributor and has written for the Washington Post, Time Magazine, Politico and others.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 15, 2019 • 57min
Margaret Sullivan
Margaret Sullivan is the media columnist for The Washington Post and before that Margaret served as the fifth public editor of The New York Times and was the first woman to hold that position. Margaret is a native of Lackawanna, New York and began her career as a summer intern at the Buffalo News becoming the first woman editor there and managing editor in the hundred and thirty nine year history of that storied newspaper.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 12, 2019 • 1h
Words Matter Library: Zucked by Roger McNamee
The New York Times bestseller about a noted tech venture capitalist, early mentor to Mark Zuckerberg, and Facebook investor, who wakes up to the serious damage Facebook is doing to our society – and sets out to try to stop it. This week we add ZUCKED by Roger McNamee to the Words Matter Library. It’s a story that begins with a series of rude awakenings. First there is the author’s dawning realization that the platform is being manipulated by some very bad actors. Then there is the even more unsettling realization that Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg are unable or unwilling to share his concerns, polite as they may be to his face. And then comes the election of Donald Trump, and the emergence of one horrific piece of news after another about the malign ends to which the Facebook platform has been put. To McNamee’s shock, even still Facebook’s leaders duck and dissemble, viewing the matter as a public relations problem. Now thoroughly alienated, McNamee digs into the issue, and fortuitously meets up with some fellow travelers who share his concern, and help him sharpen its focus. Soon he and a dream team of Silicon Valley technologists are charging into the fray, to raise consciousness about the existential threat of Facebook, and the persuasion architecture of the attention economy more broadly — to our public health and to our political order. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 8, 2019 • 39min
Welcome Joe Lockhart
Katie officially welcomes Joe as the new co-Host of Words Matter. This week Katie and Joe discuss the politics of the Mueller Report, Trump's tax returns and Joe Biden's bad week. And Katie pays tribute to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the 51st anniversary of his poignant and iconic "Mountain Top" Speech -- this week Dr. King, has the final word.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 4, 2019 • 21min
Words Matter Library: 'Madam Speaker - Nancy Pelosi’s Life, Times and Rise to Power'
As Nancy Pelosi retakes the Speaker’s gavel and the leadership of the Democratic opposition to Donald Trump, we add “Madam Speaker - Nancy Pelosi’s Life, Times and Rise to Power” to the Words Matter Audible Library. Everything Nancy Pelosi has ever done, she has done extremely well. Listen to the life story of this historic leader -- the only woman and perhaps most influential and greatest House Speaker in American History.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices