The Get More Smarter Podcast - A Weekly Show About Colorado Politics

Send us a message! Really!Jason had to take an emergency trip to Argentina to check on his $20 billion investment in something called an "experiment in Anarcho-capitalism," so this week you've just got Ian interviewing David Seligman, candidate for the Democratic nomination for Attorney General of Colorado in 2026. We'll be back for an even bigger pod this Friday.   One of the country's leading workers' rights, consumer rights, and antimonopoly lawyers, David Seligman has dedicated his legal career to fighting for regular people against corporate abuse. After attending Harvard Law School and clerking for federal trial and appellate judges, David became the Executive Director of Towards Justice, a nationally recognized non-profit legal and labor rights organization based in Denver. David has seen throughout his legal career that there are two sets of laws in this country: one for the rich and powerful and another for the rest of us. He has brought some of the most important and cutting-edge legal cases in the country, helping working Coloradans and small businesses take on powerful corporations and the Trump Administration. He stands up in court for nurses, rideshare drivers, meatpackers, Amazon workers, veterans, teachers, federal employees, grocery workers, renters buried in junk fees, and working families drowning in medical debt.  You can learn more about David and his campaign at www.seligmanforag.comThat’s it for this episode! If you loved watching and/or listening to it as much as we loved recording it, you can thank us by subscribing to the pod wherever you listen, following us over on New Old Twitter AKA Bluesky, subscribing to our shiny new channel on YouTube, smashing that subscribe button on our Substack, and sharing this episode with your friends, your enemies, and your 8th favorite Member of Congress from Colorado! THANK YOU so much for listening, and we’ll see you next time!

Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the Federal Government Shutdown enters its second-ish week and Democrats seem to have the upper hand, at least so far. Then, can puppy-killer DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and her masked goons defeat an army of grannies with ukeleles and people in inflatable costumes in war-raveged Portland, Oregon? Even though 2026 is a ways away, we’ve got some more updates on the campaigns that matter most to Colorado. And we’ll tell you who didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize (spoiler: It's not the guy who is siccing the military on his own citizens and canceled billions of dollars in foreign aid to starving children across the world). And in our continuing quest to interview every viable Democrat running for a major office in Colorado, Trisha Calvarese is on the pod to talk about her labor background, her ground game in the district, and why Co-04 primary voters should give her another chance to take on our 7th favorite member of Congress from Colorado. That’s it for this episode! If you loved watching and/or listening to it as much as we loved recording it, you can thank us by subscribing to the pod wherever you listen, following us over on New Old Twitter AKA Bluesky, subscribing to our shiny new channel on YouTube, smashing that subscribe button on our Substack, and sharing this episode with your friends, your enemies, and your 8th favorite Member of Congress from Colorado! THANK YOU so much for listening, and we’ll see you next time!

Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the shitdown shutshow or the shutdown shitshow or whatever you want to call it is officially on as Democrats and Republicans in Washington DC fail to reach an agreement on temporary funding and Mike Johnson and Donald Trump are just lying about it everywhere. Then, the hands-down winner for “least self aware giant unprecedented military leadership gathering of the century” is announced, and you won’t believe truly how much they deserve the award. Then a pretty big group of Colorado Republicans love them some Marxism, really, as a different group of Colorado Republicans can’t figure out the basic rules for replacing retiring lawmakers! And...continuing in our quest to interview every Democrat in a competitive primary for a big race in Colorado in 2026, State Representative Brianna Titone joins us to talk about her campaign for state treasurer, what it’s like being the first openly transgender state legislator in Colorado history, and her side-gig as a movie producer! That’s it for this episode! If you loved watching and/or listening to it as much as we loved recording it, you can thank us by subscribing to the pod wherever you listen, following us over on New Old Twitter AKA Bluesky, subscribing to our shiny new channel on YouTube, smashing that subscribe button on our Substack, and sharing this episode with your friends, your enemies, and your 8th favorite Member of Congress from Colorado! THANK YOU so much for listening, and we’ll see you next time!

Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, despite polling showing that Colorado voters have soured on Democrats, they have not sweetened up to Republicans -- we explain why in a new segment called "Which is Worser." Then, Colorado braces for a recession as prices keep rising everywhere, the job market looks like it’s really starting to suck, and the nonpartisan economic staff starts predicting stormy skies ahead. And we’re officially back on shutdown watch as the shitshow in Washington DC sees no signs of stopping soon. And later...many have tried, but could our guest today be the one to finally send Lauren Boebert to her eventual home on Newsmax or Fox? Rear Admiral Eileen Laubacher joins us to talk about her campaign for the fourth congressional district, the weird meeting Pete Hegseth just called, and how she plans to do what no Democrat has done before. That’s it for this episode! If you loved watching and/or listening to it as much as we loved recording it, you can thank us by subscribing to the pod wherever you listen, following us over on New Old Twitter AKA Bluesky, subscribing to our shiny new channel on YouTube, smashing that subscribe button on our Substack, and sharing this episode with your friends, your enemies, and your 8th favorite Member of Congress from Colorado! THANK YOU so much for listening, and we’ll see you next time!

Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, it's a special interview-only episode! Jason was volunteering in Siberia on a sabretooth tiger preserve so Ian reached out to old friend of the pod Chris deGruy Kennedy and new friend of the pod Christina Soliz to hear about the initiative their coalition is working to place on the 2026 ballot that would cut taxes for 98% of Coloradans while raising them on anyone making over $500,000 per year. We get into the policy, the politics, the numbers, and the rationale for this push into tax fairness, and you're not going to want to miss this interview! That’s it for this episode! If you loved watching and/or listening to it as much as we loved recording it, you can thank us by subscribing to the pod wherever you listen, following us over on New Old Twitter AKA Bluesky, subscribing to our shiny new channel on YouTube, smashing that subscribe button on our Substack, and sharing this episode with your friends, your enemies, and your 8th favorite Member of Congress from Colorado! THANK YOU so much for listening, and we’ll see you next time!

Logan Davis, a progressive researcher and writer from Denver, dives into the alarming influence of right-wing extremists connected to Russian oligarchs shaping Colorado's politics. He discusses how vast financial contributions from wealthy individuals like Phil Anschutz fuel conservative narratives despite their poor electoral outcomes. The conversation also touches on the stark differences in vaccine policies between Colorado and Florida, along with the troubling spread of misinformation surrounding Medicaid funding. Davis highlights the ongoing challenges faced by local journalism in exposing these issues.

Jessica Killin, an Army veteran and Democratic candidate for Colorado's 5th Congressional District, shares her vision for political engagement in a largely Republican area. They discuss the recent billion-dollar budget cuts and the challenges stemming from contentious tax reforms. Killin emphasizes grassroots involvement and the importance of community accountability in her campaign. Additionally, the conversation touches on unusual political proposals and the shifting voter sentiment in Colorado, pointing towards prospective electoral shifts as the 2026 election approaches.

Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, cutting taxes is bad, actually, and the State Legislature is about to go cut another billion dollars from the state budget because of it. Then, do you enjoy friend of the pod Kyle Clark’s innovative evening news show, microgiving campaigns, and refusal to let the worst stories become the most important stories? Well you better set your DVR because if a big corporate mega merger goes through, it might be the "Last of Next." Then, do you enjoy the convenience of having about a month to research all of the candidates and initiatives on your mail ballot and the ability to drop them off or mail them back every election? Well we also have bad news for you on that! And finally, we dig into the practical possibility of Colorado joining the redistricting arms race to the bottom and the new way Libertarians are trying to screw with Colorado Republicans this time. That’s it for this episode! If you loved watching and/or listening to it as much as we loved recording it, you can thank us by subscribing to the pod wherever you listen, following us over on New Old Twitter AKA Bluesky, subscribing to our shiny new channel on YouTube, smashing that subscribe button on our Substack, and sharing this episode with your friends, your enemies, and your 8th favorite Member of Congress from Colorado! THANK YOU so much for listening, and we’ll see you next time!

Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, it’s a Special Session Special Episode Special! Again! And this time it’s not even our fault! As the effects of the Big Bullshit Bill come into focus, Colorado has to cut ANOTHER billion dollars from the state budget on top of the billion dollars TABOR forced us to cut earlier in the year. Where will lawmakers find the money? Then, a Republican state representative leaked screenshots of a secret group chat (hey, weren’t they not supposed to have those anymore?) to a reporter where other members were making sexist and racist comments about a Democratic colleague; is there no depth to the depravity of the Colorado GOP? Then, tariffs are both dumb as shit and super unpopular. That’s it, that’s the segment. And finally, brain worms are eating your vaccines; Gabe Evans is saving Medicaid by kicking everyone off it; and any Republican brave or stupid enough to have a town hall meeting is getting what they deserve. That’s it for this episode! If you loved watching and/or listening to it as much as we loved recording it, you can thank us by subscribing to the pod wherever you listen, following us over on New Old Twitter AKA Bluesky, subscribing to our shiny new channel on YouTube, smashing that subscribe button on our Substack, and sharing this episode with your friends, your enemies, and your 8th favorite Member of Congress from Colorado! THANK YOU so much for listening, and we’ll see you next time!

Send us a message! Really!THIS WEEK on the Get More Smarter Podcast, we always said that Gabe Evans would deport his own grandparents if it meant he could get elected to congress, and now we have proof! Then, the Epstein Files finally seem to be the scandal that Trump can’t slither out from…so far. Speaking of which, Lauren Boebert finally got a chance to vote to release those same Epstein Files which she’s been demanding since she first ran for office back in 2020, so, how did she vote? Then, Colorado’s Attorney General Phil Weiser has filed more suits than a Men’s Wearhouse! Then, there’s benzene in the groundwater and arsenic in the soil, can you guess which vaunted and totally safe Colorado industry put them there? Probably the same industry bankrolling Right Wing interest groups to try to fuck up the state budget even worse than it already is! And finally, we’ve got some great listener feedback to share with you, but you’ll have to stick around to the end of the episode to hear it! That’s it for this episode! If you loved watching and/or listening to it as much as we loved recording it, you can thank us by subscribing to the pod wherever you listen, following us over on New Old Twitter AKA Bluesky, subscribing to our shiny new channel on YouTube, smashing that subscribe button on our Substack, and sharing this episode with your friends, your enemies, and your 8th favorite Member of Congress from Colorado! THANK YOU so much for listening, and we’ll see you next time!