

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

Sep 17, 2021 • 47min
Heidi Ga-Not-Gonna-Be-Governor Trips Into the Race
Send us a message! Really!The Colorado Governor’s race has gone to the doggy day care: we interview a dog to find out what this all means. We have questions for anyone running for office in 2022 and so should you; we’ve been asking you all to vax that ass up for weeks now, and now President Biden is requiring you to do so; map madness continues with another round of staff maps from the congressional and legislative redistricting commissions; on top of being generally awful, Lauren Boebert is just, well, weird; the Mesa County Clerk Crime family is at it again, who’s turning themselves in this week?; and those death panels Sarah Palin warned us about back in 2008? Well, they’re real now, and they’re in Idaho. Hosts: Jason Bane | Ian SilveriiProducer: Ethan BlackIntern: Taleen SampleMusic: Breakmaster CylinderFollow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review if you Got More Smarter. Send all angry and non-angry rants to angryrants@getmoresmarter.com.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!

Sep 7, 2021 • 52min
Come Home Tina Peters!
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast,Our main Colorado podcast competition and known logo thieves probably break campaign finance laws (or most certainly will);Colorado’s 8th congressional district doesn’t yet exist, but a solid Democratic candidate for it certainly does;Embattled Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters is still on the lam, but she popped up to talk to MyPillow Guy Mike Lindell (with whom she most certainly is not having a torrid love affair);Lauren Boebert as crooked as she is shady, and she’s very, very bad at hiding it;Ken Buck still sucks, but not as bad as...The totally-not-Republican-redistricting-squad-who-are-entirely-made-up-of-washed-up-Republicans-pretending-not-to-be-Republicans;Speaking of Republican stupidity, they’re trying to disenfranchise the majority of Colorado voters because they’re not out of power enough.Hosts: Jason Bane | Ian SilveriiProducer: Ethan BlackIntern: Taleen SampleMusic: Breakmaster CylinderFollow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review if you Got More Smarter. Send all angry and non-angry rants to angryrants@getmoresmarter.com.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!

Aug 28, 2021 • 46min
Boebert's Big Bogus Bonus Bribe
Send us a message! Really!This week, Donald Trump has resumed his rightful place back in the White House...just kidding, that didn’t happen. The Colorado GOP has the worst August on record: we take bets on how much worse it can get in the last week! The Republican Mesa County Clerk and Recorder is in hiding with the MyPillow guy after leaking confidential election security information to QAnon people and Lauren Boebert has about 15 enormous problems she didn’t have last week. We read you the internet, and we talk about Ian's personal favorite subject: legislative cartography!Stuff We TweetedIan on the CO GOP's terrible week: https://twitter.com/iansilverii/status/1428794521257709568Jason on mysterious chickens: https://twitter.com/jason_bane/status/1428362161093447680Ethan's hot Jeopardy! takes: https://twitter.com/EthanBlack/status/1428735818751909888 -----Hosts: Jason Bane | Ian SilveriiProducer: Ethan BlackMusic: Breakmaster CylinderSubscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review if you Got More Smarter. Send all angry and non-angry rants to angryrants@getmoresmarter.com.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!

Aug 15, 2021 • 53min
Mesa County Missteps (ft. Congressman Ed Perlmutter)
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, both conspiracies and conspiracy-theorists are getting a lot dumber and a lot scarier, and for some reason, lots of Colorado right-wingers are knee deep in the crazy. In a very related note, the Colorado Republican Party just cannot seem to get their poop in a group, adding to the list of infamous Colorado politics fails this week with an impressively off-key press conference, the first somewhat-legit challenger to Michael Bennet arrives, we discuss why the entire campaign will be about skinny little swords, fancy horses, and the Iraq war (if he’s actually nominated). But first, we interview The Get More Smarter Podcast’s official member of congress, Ed Perlmutter. He tells us all the good things he’s bringing home for us from DC, and all of the no-things his Republican colleagues are bringing home to their districts. Hosts: Jason Bane | Ian SilveriiProducer: Ethan BlackIntern: Taleen SampleMusic: Breakmaster CylinderSubscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review if you Got More Smarter. Send all angry and non-angry rants to angryrants@getmoresmarter.com.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!

Aug 1, 2021 • 59min
Choose the Side Without Neo-Nazis
Send us a message! Really!This week, national Republicans continue to attempt to warp the reality of the deadly attack on the capitol on January 6th by Trump supporters to somehow blame Nancy Pelosi; we determine if they’re the worst people on the planet, or in the galaxy; we are very mad about the fact that we’ll all have to start wearing masks everywhere again because a bunch of whiny crybabies are scared of needles like a bunch of third graders and pretend like they can’t breathe with a tiny piece of cloth over their dumb faces; we check in with the person who wins Worst Coloradan of the Year, every year, who also happens to be our 7th favorite congressperson from our great state; and we read you things we posted on the internet. Also, BEAVERS! A dry California creek bed looked like a wildfire risk. Then the beavers went to work (The Sacramento Bee, 7/2/21)Hosts: Jason Bane | Ian SilveriiProducer: Ethan BlackMusic: Breakmaster CylinderIntern: Taleen SampleSubscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review if you Got More Smarter. Send all angry and non-angry rants to angryrants@getmoresmarter.com.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!

Jul 20, 2021 • 50min
All-Star Alternate Universes
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, we have an intern and so can you! Ian dusts off his old metaphysics and epistemology textbooks from college and we dive deep into the very nature of reality. Former Colorado Christian University adjunct instructor and one-time Rudy Guilliani seatmate, Jenna Ellis, is in the news again, and we discuss why she shouldn’t be. We pay a visit to our 6th and 7th favorite congressional representatives from Colorado and realize that perhaps we do live in alternate universes after all.Hosts: Jason Bane | Ian SilveriiProducer: Ethan BlackMusic: Breakmaster CylinderSubscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review if you Got More Smarter. Send all angry and non-angry rants to angryrants@getmoresmarter.com.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!

Jul 13, 2021 • 1h 14min
Therapy's Cheaper Than Polling (ft. Andrew Baumann)
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, The Rocky Mountaineer is back! We dig into the latest poll from Global Strategy Group and ProgressNow Colorado to see how much Democrats in the legislature overreached this session, and how much the voters really really liked it. The failed attempt by right-wing goons to overturn the results of the 2020 election in a violent insurrection turns six-months old this week and we discuss the Russian dolls of alternative reality Republicans have put themselves in since then. We have some preliminary redistricting and reapportionment maps, and we discuss why where the lines are right now almost certainly will not matter to the seats actually being campaigned in in 2022. And we read you the internet like we’re your parents and talk about some horrible things Lauren Boebert said! But first, we interview Andrew Baumann, an at-best-mediocre poker player and the senior vice president at Global Strategy Group, and more importantly the lead pollster on this issue of the Rocky Mountaineer. The Rocky Mountaineer Poll (mountaineerresearch.org)Colorado Democrats are heading into the 2022 election cycle in a position of strength, poll shows (Colorado Sun, July 6, 2021)First draft of Colorado’s new state Senate, House district maps could pit 20 incumbents against each other (Colorado Sun, June 29, 2021)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!

Jun 27, 2021 • 1h 26min
The Libertarians Are Doing Their Best (ft. Jon Murray of The Denver Post)
Send us a message! Really!This week, the Colorado Republican Bench is down to one candidate—what office will Heidi Ganahl run for and lose in 2022? The Big Line is back; we discuss why the Dead Guvs are the best prognosticators in Colorado Politics; teaching about racism isn’t racist, no matter how hurt your feelings get, white people; we have a new segment about Twitter, and it will come in 280 character bursts; and we talk about our 6th and 7th favorite congresspeople from Colorado. But first, Jon Murray, Enterprise and Transportation Reporter from the Denver Post, joins us to talk about his weekend feature on the Libertarian Party’s 50 years of not-making-a-very-big-impact on politics in Colorado or anywhere else and the historic, bipartisan transportation bill that was signed into law last week. The Libertarian Party, born in Colorado 50 years ago, still seeks elusive mainstream acceptance by Jon Murray (The Denver Post | June 20, 2021)Hosts: Jason Bane | Ian SilveriiProducer: Ethan BlackMusic: Breakmaster CylinderSubscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review if you Got More Smarter. Send all angry and non-angry rants to angryrants@getmoresmarter.com.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!

Jun 18, 2021 • 1h 1min
Biggest Legislative Session Ever (ft. Speaker Alec Garnett)
Send us a message! Really!The first regular session of the 73rd Colorado General Assembly has come to a close! We tell you what the hell happened, give you the rundown of this year’s Winners and Losers, and debate the proper pronunciation of sine die; Lauren Boebert goes from embarrassing herself to embarrassing the good people of Pueblo and they’re not happy about it; some guy who won’t be a US Senator is running against Michael Bennet; we report on some not so shocking news about Colorado’s vaccination rate and it’s...pretty good; 30% of 30% percent of the country thinks Donald Trump will be reinstated as president...any day now...any day now...BUT FIRST we interview the Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives Alec Garnett!Hosts: Jason Bane | Ian SilveriiProducer: Ethan BlackMusic: Breakmaster CylinderSubscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review if you Got More Smarter. Send all angry and non-angry rants to angryrants@getmoresmarter.com.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!

Jun 10, 2021 • 52min
Stop Trying to Make "Gerrymandering" Happen. It's Not Going to Happen.
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, we talk at length about the filibuster; we pour one out for Donald Trump’s Livejournal and encourage him to try Friendster next; we flip our Legislating with Crayons segment on its head and instead decide to legislate with laser printers and fountain pens; Colorado Republicans are using last-decade’s lies to discuss this year’s redistricting process; Lauren Boebert essentially argues for the extrajudicial killing of Dr. Fauci; and the good people of Aurora deserve so, so much better than Mike Coffman and his merry band of hacks who are campaigning to join him on Aurora City Council.-------Hosts: Jason Bane | Ian SilveriiProducer: Ethan BlackMusic: Breakmaster CylinderSubscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review if you Got More Smarter. Send all angry and non-angry rants to angryrants@getmoresmarter.com.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!


