

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

Aug 16, 2024 • 1h 4min
Don't Let the Internet Eat Your Brain, Kids (feat. Charles Ashby)
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, Ian went on a little summer break and…the entire world changed completely! We'll talk more about the vibe shift, the VP’s VP, the Trump campaign, and so much more. Friend of the Pod, Governor Jared Polis, is calling the Colorado Legislature back into a special session, again, to cut property taxes, again, to avoid a really bad hostage situation, again! But first, you know him as the Get More Smarter Podcast’s Western Correspondent: Fan Favorite Charles Ashby, the Political Reporter for the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, is back on the pod to give us the latest from the Western Slope including the Tina Peters court case, a Boebert-less existence, and whether or not our favorite "Bread Sandwich" is actually campaigning. 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 4, 2024 • 1h 8min
Weird, Weird, Weird...but Also Good! (feat. Christy Powell)
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, Ian is out of town volunteering at a no-kill aardvark shelter, so Christy Powell is here to save Jason from talking to himself. Presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris has changed EVERYTHING and Donald Trump’s campaign is falling apart. It’s been a wild few weeks. Former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters is finally on trial, and you’ll never guess who showed up to support her. The Colorado Republican Party continues further down its bizarre Chairmanship rabbit hole, and we’ll explain what “Leave it to the States” really means when Republicans talk about abortion rights.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 21, 2024 • 23min
Holy Shit: Biden is Out. Emergency Pod!
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, it’s a HOLY SHIT HE REALLY DID IT emergency podcast! We’re recording around 2:30 pm Mountain Time on Sunday, July 21st -- just about 2 hours after President Biden announced he was stepping down from the top of the Democratic Presidential ticket, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, and making HISTORY. Listen up to find out what we think about that, and what we think happens next. 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 18, 2024 • 56min
Shut Up, Gaetz
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, just when you thought this election couldn’t possibly get any more insaner, Donald Trump survived an actual assassination attempt; if you’re just waking up from a coma, yes, he’s about to officially be renominated as the GOP presidential candidate. We check in on the RNC convention in Milwaukee Wisconsin where Trump picked J.D. Vance, a dude barely one year older than Ian, to be his Vice Presidential running mate for a "Double MAGA"ticket. With pressure still sort of building on President Biden to step aside and let someone else take his spot at the top of the Democratic ticket, we check in on Colorado’s delegation to see how Democrats are handling this moment. Next we look across the aisle at our friends in the Colorado GOP, who, despite it all, continue to beclown themselves in front of Colorado, the country, and the entire universe. Oh! And their candidate in the only remotely competitive pickup district for them this year, Gabe-ish Evans, is surrounded by liars and hypocrites. 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 11, 2024 • 1h 32min
The Get More Smarter Podcast 200th Episode Spectacular (feat. Gov. Jared Polis)
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, WE DID IT Y’ALL! WE MADE IT ALL THE WAY TO EPISODE 200! The world is a mess and politics has sure gotten weird over the last two weeks but we made 200 episodes of a Colorado Politics podcast and you’re still listening! Yes you! On this episode we’ll look back at how far we’ve come, how far we still have to go, and interview one of our favorite guests, Colorado Governor Jared Polis.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, 2024 • 1h 2min
The POST-Primary Political Podcast for the People
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the Colorado Primary Election is over! The winners won and the losers lost and were here to celebrate and/or weep with you, depending on your preferred outcome. But, to be honest, we’re pretty happy with the results across the board; we’ll unpack what this all means for Colorado politics going forward, especially as it relates to the Democratic and Republican parties and their relative relevance.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, 2024 • 51min
The Pre-Primary Political Podcast for the People
Exploring the key races and ballot initiatives in the 2024 Colorado primary election, internal conflicts within the Colorado GOP, Republican focus on election issues and job numbers analysis, primary election predictions and fundraising analysis, discussion on the Colorado Libertarian Party's unusual presidential nomination situation, Colorado ballot measures impact on education budget, and former president's visit to Detroit and comments on Joe Biden's cognitive abilities.

Jun 11, 2024 • 1h 19min
Water, Water Everywhere...and Not a Drop for Nonfunctional Turf (feat. Alan Salazar)
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the Colorado GOP’s flag burning stochastic terrorism is the straw that broke the camel’s back, strangely enough, as local county party chairs are FINALLY calling for their chairman’s ouster. Just like we told you in our last episode, being a felon running for President kind of hurts you, at least a little. We also wind up another round of prognostications so we can tell you the future before you experience it yourself. And friend of the show and newly minted CEO of Denver Water Alan Salazar is BACK on the pod to talk about the essence of wetness, the battle over Colorado's water, and what he thinks about the first year of Denver Mayor Mike Johnston's administration.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 4, 2024 • 1h 6min
The Colorado GOP Issues a Fatwa: Abandon Public Schools!
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the Colorado Republican Party continues it’s absolutely undefeated effort to ensure permanent electoral dominance by the Colorado Democratic Party, this time by saying every single Coloradan should pull their kids out of public schools; we report on how that’s going for them. Democrat of the Decade, Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams, is also doing his part by draining the money from the party he runs for his own personal political gain! Also, we check in with our 8th favorite member of Congress from Colorado; our first (but not only!) most competitive election; and a primary debate in Ken Buck’s old district. ALSO, Donald J Trump is a convicted felon!!! In case you haven’t heard, the 45th president of the United States of America was convicted on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records for paying hush money to a porn star to try and keep an affair he had secret during the 2016 election. Of course, Republicans are demanding his resignation from the presidential nomination and will be replacing him with someone who didn’t do all of that...just kidding! 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, 2024 • 60min
In Which We Predict the Future (More or Less)
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, with six months left to go until the 2024 election, we look at the state of the U.S. House, the Senate, and the Presidential race that will literally determine the course of American and probably global history. Cool! Here in Colorado we have dueling slates of Republicans; we ask the question on everybody’s mind: "Will they actually split into two parties?" If not, what the hell happens next? We also talk furries, aromatherapy masseuses, and state legislative candidates. 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!