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

Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the First Regular Session of the 74th General Assembly has adjourned Sine Die and it was a despicable failure, or a resounding success, or somewhere in between, depending entirely on how much time you spend putting money into Elon Musk’s pocket. To wrap up the session in style, Christy Powell returns to play "Legislating with Crayons," and we check in on our 6th and 8th favorite members of congress from Colorado to see what in the hell they’re up to (spoiler alert: nothing good). 

Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast...we've reached EPISODE 150!!! Holy crap!!!Ahem, Sine Die is upon us, and for those of us who don’t speak latin, that means the 2023 Legislative Session is mercifully coming to an end. With so many outstanding items we ask the question every reporter has asked this week since 1876: "How will they get it all done?” The Supreme Court of the United States is an ethical disaster, but really only the Justices appointed by Republican Presidents; Heidi Ganahl, the last statewide elected Republican in Colorado (and possibly the worst candidate in state history) may be planning on Unleashing herself onto the state. Again. We take bets on how big her margin of defeat will be next time. With one month to go in the Denver Mayoral Election, two dudes from Lakewood will discuss how the hell it got like this; our 8th favorite congressperson from Colorado clearly, badly needs attention, and we'll give her a little more! And finally, Tucker Carlson may be off the airwaves, but his inexcusably racist influence on the GOP will remain for a long, long time. 

Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, The new chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, Dave Williams, is hopefully “not just milking big government” by drawing a taxpayer funded salary at 40 hours a week while also allegedly running the party for 40 hours a week...and this is according to the Republican House Minority Leader. As the scourge of gun violence continues to plague the nation one Republican state Representative says the quiet part out loud -- like really, really loud. A right wing dark money group wins an appeal on a campaign finance case in which they were absolutely, clearly guilty; we ask why bother having laws? And DARK BRANDON RISES to run for re-election. BUT FIRST returning guest and perhaps (perhaps not) returning champion Andrew Baumann is back on the pod with a new poll! This one spells doom for our 8th favorite member of Congress from Colorado.

Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, House Republicans continue to filibuster without wanting anything; will they do it for the next 15 days or so? The title of this show, the Get More Smarter Podcast, is intentionally bad grammar (for those of you who have emailed us about it), but someone out there in the world is showing why we can’t even joke about it anymore. While more mass shootings happen every single day in this country, Democrats in the Colorado Legislature have passed more bills to address gun violence prevention. And there's a new poll out about our 8th favorite member of congress from Colorado; Rep. Lauren Boebert is in deep, deep cow dung. 

Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, we complete our crossover event with City Cast Denver. In our last episode, we interviewed Paul Karolyi and Bree Davies of City Cast Denver about THEIR discussions with 13 of the 16 candidates running for Mayor of Denver. This week, the roles are flipped.Jason Bane joined Bree Davies and friends at City Cast Denver to talk about the outcome of the Denver municipal election and the newest efforts by Democrats to take down Congressperson Lauren Boebert in 2024.

Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, Colorado House Democrats invoke Rule 14 to stop the 19 Republicans from filibustering a package of gun safety laws while yet another mass shooting unnecessarily takes the lives of more American children. The GOP is the party of insurrection, gun violence, and coddling criminals, and our 8th favorite member of Congress from Colorado is leading the charge. BUT FIRST, in our efforts to cover the Denver Mayor’s race without covering the Denver Mayor’s race... it’s a crossover episode! We’ve got Bree Davies and Paul Karolyi from City Cast Denver on the show to discuss their efforts to interview all 17 candidates who were at least at some point running for Mayor of that big smoldering crater in the ground to the east of Lakewood. 

Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, there have been two shootings in or near East High School in Denver in less than 40 days, and Colorado Republicans are just flat-out saying that they really don't care about your feelings on the subject. This is what happens when the people who think more guns are the answer and the current situation is just fine take full control of the Colorado Republican Party. In addition to being the party of endless gun death, the GOP is also now the party of...weakening child labor laws? The Affordable Care Act is old enough to be bar-mitzvah’d; we ask if it’s memorized its torah portion yet. Twice impeached former President and current GOP nomination frontrunner Donald Trump is about to be arrested and/or indicted for paying hush money to a porn star; after all these years, will the leader of the party of Law and Order finally see some? And the unofficial third host of the Get More Smarter Podcast is back with a new stack of horribles from listening to the state legislature so we don’t have to. Christy Powell joins us once again to play our confusing Republican legislative game we call "Legislating With Crayons."

Send us a message! Really!In our second episode this week of the Get More Smarter Podcast, Congressman Joe Neguse (D-Boulderish) returns for another visit to discuss being named the most effective lawmaker of the last Congress; his role leading the messaging arm of the House Democratic Caucus; and how his job is different now that Democrats are in the minority in the House of Representatives.Later, we check back on two of our recurring segments, "That's Bull***" and "The Boebert Report," including the news from Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-ifle) that she's about to be a 36-year-old grandmother. Colorado Republicans are fleeing the party after the selection of Dave Williams as State Party Chair; we'll discuss this as well as why the GOP's insistence on talking about Denver as a crime-infested hellhole is doing them no favors. Also, former gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl has a new podcast/lecture series about why you're wrong; how one candidate for Denver Mayor might now be in the driver's seat for the runoff election; and remembering former Congresswoman Pat Schroeder, who died at the age of 82.  

Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the Colorado Republican Party has a new chair -- can he possibly be worse than the last one? Colorado has an ongoing gun violence problem, and Democrats in the state legislature are doing something about it. We'll tell you which Republicans have been named the rightiest of them all; and ballots are in the mail for the Denver Mayor’s race, so who better than two dudes who live in Lakewood to break down the final few weeks! But first, Colorado House Speaker Julie McCluskie joins the podcast to discuss her first few months on the job and to preview some upcoming legislation. Speaker McCluskie also gives us an honest response to the news that former State Rep. Dave Williams is now the leader of the Colorado Republican Party. 

Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, are Colorado Democrats really good, or are Colorado Republicans really bad? We have a one word answer for you. In the worst game of musical chairs ever played in Colorado, who will lead the Colorado GOP into the next era of electoral failure, finger pointing, backstabbing, and utter delusion? We take bets! Speaking of sore losers, we’ve got another tragic tale of a Colorado Republican trying to save themselves from themselves and, if we had to guess, it’s not looking good. Democrats are bringing bills to a gunfight; how many Republicans will misplace loaded firearms in the Capitol during this latest effort to curb mass shootings? The battle for the U.S. House majority in 2024 runs right through Colorado, but the districts in play will look very different this time around. And finally, anti-Semitism is alive and well in America. Who could possibly be to blame for such a thing?