

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

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!

Mar 19, 2023 • 58min
All Truth, No Lies (feat. Rep. Joe Neguse)
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. 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 16, 2023 • 58min
House Speaker Julie McCluskie Gets More Smarter
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. 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!

Feb 27, 2023 • 50min
The Answer is: Yes!
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?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!

Feb 20, 2023 • 1h 22min
Why Biden and Trump Are Still Tied Together (feat. Eli Stokols)
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, you know him as the former political reporter for Fox 31 Denver...or from...the Wall Street Journal...or the Los Angeles Times...POLITICO's White House Correspondent Eli Stokols is back on the Get More Smarter Podcast. Stokols talks about the difference in covering the Trump and Biden administrations, and why 2024 could be 2020 all over again. Later in an unusually-long episode, we talk about how the Colorado GOP's scheme to take over the El Paso County Party backfires spectacularly, and why one of Colorado’s biggest political spenders is trying to find a way to save the GOP from itself. 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!

Feb 13, 2023 • 60min
Please Stop Yelling at the State of the Union (feat. Christy Powell)
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the State of our Union is….WEIRD. Ian Silverii reports back from the worst seats in the House Gallery because Jason Bane wasn't invited. The great Christy Powell joins us with a new game where we try and explain the inexplicable, for prizes (metaphorical ones). Overtly racist pro-claymore mine lobby Rocky Mountain Gun Owners flies its overtly-racist flag. There is still no bottom with Representative Scott Bottoms. And our 8th favorite member of Congress from Colorado, Lauren Boebert, has some loud thoughts about WHO TURNED OFF MY TWITTER MACHINE???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!

Feb 6, 2023 • 1h 10min
Kyle Clark of "Next With Kyle Clark" is, Uh, Next...
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, it’s Groundhog Day! So we’re re-running last year's episode. Just kidding! With the 2023 Colorado Legislative Session in full swing we ask the question on everybody’s mind, is there no (Scott) Bottom(s) to the State House GOP? We have many more occasions to ask the podcast’s favorite question, "What the Buck!?" BUT FIRST, you know him as Colorado’s most (or least) favorite evening news anchor and a man of 1,000 thrift store sport coats: 9News anchor/reporter/producer Kyle Clark joins the podcast to talk about how to cover a jam-packed Denver Mayoral race; calling a lie a lie (and a liar a liar); and the disservice that journalists do for a community when they "both sides" a story into oblivion. 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!


