

The Get More Smarter Podcast - A Weekly Show About Colorado Politics
Colorado Pols and The Bighorn Company
The Get More Smarter Podcast is a weekly overview of Colorado politics. The podcast is hosted by seasoned Colorado politicos Jason Bane of ColoradoPols.com and Ian Silverii, former 9News talking head, former Denver Post Columnist, former Executive Director of ProgressNow Colorado, and current has-been. Each week they dive into the local and national news, and for some reason, have had Governors, US Senators, Members of Congress, and countless local elected officials as guests over the years. The guys are also frighteningly good at predicting the future. No, really. Are you ready to Get More Smarter?
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jun 5, 2023 • 1h 5min
Thus Begins the 'Dave Coin' Economy (feat. Dave Young)
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, we take this show on the road to visit State Treasurer Dave Young and look at all the weird stuff in the vault near his office. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy got a debt ceiling deal that’s about as good as it could possibly be (for Democrats), so don’t tell anyone! Our 8th favorite member of Congress from Colorado -- Rep. Lauren Boebert -- spent so much time trying to get attention for voting no on the debt ceiling bill that she forgot to show up and actually vote no on the debt ceiling deal. And the Denver Mayor’s race ending about as strangely as it began.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!

May 29, 2023 • 1h 14min
Christian Nationalism is Coming for You (feat. Rob Boston)
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the Colorado Republican Party isn’t just morally bankrupt! No, the Grand Old Party may actually be financially bankrupt as well, and the national party may bankrupt the entire nation! Yay, fiscal responsibility! Yet another fiscally conservative Republican who lit 5 million dollars of his own money on fire in 2022 losing to Michael Bennet may be talked into lighting another pile of his own money on fire in losing to another Colorado Democrat in 2024. Ron DeSantis made a DeSasterous entrance into a now-very-crowded GOP presidential field and seemingly DeStroyed DeServers at Twitter. And we check in on the Denver mayor’s race with just one week to go. But first, as Christian nationalism goes from a theoretical threat to a really real oh-crap-here-it-is threat, we check in with Rob Boston, senior adviser at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, to see what kinda Constitution these conservatives are reading.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!

May 22, 2023 • 1h 8min
Everybody Gets a New Mayor! (feat. Alan Salazar)
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, Republicans are losing municipal races across the country as Donald Trump continues to destroy the party, and one of those races is in what at least used to be Colorado’s conservative stronghold. Friend of the pod, Senator John Hickenlooper, seems to share our ranking for our 8th favorite member of Congress from Colorado -- and he has a banger OpEd in the Grand Junction Sentinel this week to prove it. Scott “There is No" Bottoms, who is either our 18th or 19th favorite Republican in the Colorado House, gives up the game on GOP obstruction. And someone with a podcast less popular than ours is lying to his audience, himself, or more likely both. But first...perhaps we could call this his exit interview...Alan Salazar, Chief of Staff to Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and the godfather of top Democratic Staff in Colorado comes back on the pod to talk all things local government -- including the final days of the race for Denver Mayor.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!

May 15, 2023 • 1h 1min
Legislative Session Wrap Up (feat. Christy Powell)
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). 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!

May 7, 2023 • 55min
Sine Die is Nigh (And We Hit 150 Episodes!)
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. 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!

May 1, 2023 • 1h 14min
Just Do Your Job! (feat. Andrew Baumann)
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.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!

Apr 17, 2023 • 35min
The Politics of Nothing
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. 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!

Apr 7, 2023 • 45min
The City Cast Denver Cross(back)over
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.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!

Apr 3, 2023 • 1h 23min
What (Almost) Every Denver Mayoral Candidate Has to Say (feat. City Cast Denver)
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. 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!

Mar 27, 2023 • 1h 4min
The Colorado GOP Says "We Don't Care" About Gun Violence (feat. Christy Powell)
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."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!


