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

Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast...check your mailboxes, your email inboxes, and your text messages because ballots are on their way in Colorado! Congress tosses another aspiring House Speaker off the balcony; this time it’s legislative terrorist and sexual misconduct ignorer Jim Jordan of Ohio. That makes three down and 218 to go! As "CNN Ken" brushes up his list of TV appearances, failed politicians of all stripes signal really, really loudly that they’d like his job. Have ya Herd? Of Jeff? The guy from Grand Junction giving our 8th favorite member of Congress from Colorado a run for her money, which she just hasn’t raised very much of for her reelection campaign. And we turn our sights back on the building with the gold dome on Colfax & Sherman where Scott "There Is No" Bottoms once again earns his nickname for going to a lower low than he’s ever gone before. And Christy Powell returns with a report from the third fundraising quarter. Who's up, who’s down, and who’s been overpaying for catering at their ex-boyfriend’s bar?

Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, it’s going to be pretty hard to be funny as the Hamas terrorist attacks on innocent Israelis quickly turns into a war that will mean far too many deaths of both Palestinian and Israeli civilians. We'll talk about what this means for Colorado and national politics as well. The Republican Party has once again failed to nominate a candidate that can get enough votes in their own conference to become Speaker of the House;  "CNN Ken," or is it "KenSNBC," is just a contrarian for the sake of it and is quickly approaching 8th-favorite-member-of-congress levels of attention seeking. The current titleholder, Lauren Boebert, is still indefensibly horrible. A new Colorado State Representative refused to condemn political violence not once but twice; what should we think, and why did Republicans botch this opportunity? And your ballot is on the way this week! We talk about the two statewide initiatives you need to know about.

Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, we have some extra pod!Logan Davis of the Colorado Times Recorder has been investigating the school board politics in a small town just north of Colorado Springs for the better part of a year, and he’s got a crazy story to tell that everyone with an interest in public schools needs to hear. We've devoted an entire episode to discussing the wild Woodland Park School District, which includes notable characters from the 2006 Jefferson County School Board recall, that has made national news for all the wrong reasons. The hard-right shift in Woodland Park is a test case for a bigger effort funded by some of the most well-known names in Republican politics. This is everything you need to know before it comes to a school board near you. 

Send us a message! Really!Leaves are falling. Blue books are arriving. ELECTIONS ARE HAPPENING! This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the government shutdown was avoided, Kevin McCarthy’s career was ended, and Democrats were in "array." We’ve got a crazy week in Washington to report back on with a special guest who was there for the action -- Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen! Our 7th favorite member of congress from Colorado, "CNN Ken", seems to have found a way to piss off every single faction in American politics all at the same time...well, except for us, we’re really enjoying this whole thing! Our 8th favorite member of Congress is losing more endorsements and getting attacked by MAGA internet people, and there’s DRAMA on their airwaves; as Colorado Republicans find themselves with the least power and influence in modern history in Colorado, what else is there to do but unify around the time honored tradition of…fighting amongst themselves.  

Send us a message! Really!By the time you hear this episode of the Get More Smarter Podcast, the federal government most likely will have shut down because of the MAGA clown show, but if it hasn’t -- and it didn't! -- that’s good, we guess. Our 8th favorite member of Congress from Colorado is trying to flood the zone with nonsense to make people forget about #Beetlebert and, well, no one is forgetting about #Beetlebert. Since Rep. Ken Buck is going to be a TV star, the CO-04 Republican Primary Election in 2024 is going to be straight bananas; we walk through the likely clowns that will jam into this particular car. And the second GOP (not gonna be) President debate was a hot mess! Why on earth do we keep having these sad, sad events?

Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, Jason Bane is psychic. Or Ken Buck is predictable. Or both! As the MAGA Shutdown Shitshow careens toward it’s inevitable conclusion, one question remains, will Kevin McCarthy screw up Ian's Yom Kippur plans this year? The scandal known as Beetlebert continues into a third week; will our 8th favorite member of Congress from Colorado ever be able to send a tweet without her replies becoming a hot mess ever again? The deal struck between the Colorado GOP and the Colorado Libertarian Party is going great...for Colorado Democrats. And Donald Trump, like Thanos -- the guy who eradicates every other living being in the universe -- really seems inevitable.  BUT FIRST...Karen Middleton, Executive Director of the abortion rights group Cobalt, joins us to talk elections, reproductive freedom, and the 2024 initiative to protect the rights of roughly one half of the population coming to a ballot near you.

Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, our 8th favorite member of Congress from Colorado is once again making headlines for all the wrong reasons -- this time getting kicked out of a production of the musical version of the seminal 90’s movie, Beetlejuice; the madness continues in Congress under weak loser House Speaker Kevin McCarthy as the MAGA caucus continues to demand things, move the goalposts, investigate Joe Biden and try to shut down the government (hey didn’t they all campaign on crime and inflation, what the hell happened to that?) Our 7th favorite member of Congress from Colorado does a head spinning reversal after doing a Sunday show audition tour pretending to have integrity; and we interview Micah Parkin executive director of 350.org, to talk about a potential 2024 ballot initiative to fight climate change in Colorado. 

Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the Chairman of the party of hard work and individual responsibility just can’t seem to…work hard and take individual responsibility. Quad-dicted YUGE loser Donald Trump produced a video name checking several El Paso County Republicans in an attempt to…make them somehow even more unelectable? Former Bruce D Benson Center for Right Wing Grievance and Nonsense at the University of Colorado Visiting Scholar John Eastman is being indicted, disbarred, and generally tarred and feathered, and Fox News is joining in on the fun, I guess. And we have a new installment of a fan-favorite recurring segment! Bur first...Juan Marcano, Aurora City Councilmember and candidate for Mayor of the 3rd largest city in the state joins us to talk about how he’s going to beat Mike Coffman, what it’s been like serving on the city council, and how Coffman's idiotic "strong mayor" proposal was even worse than you thought.

Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, our 8th favorite member of Congress from Colorado is trailing her leading Democratic challenger by two points. Will she realize that she’s the problem? The Colorado Republican/Libertarian Party alliance is getting sadder and stupider, as we predicted, reinforcing the idea that instead of playing stupid games with less than 40% of the voting population of a state like Colorado, maybe the Grand Old Party should try to appeal to another 10% of voters if they’d like to win an election in the next decade? And we have a couple of great listener comments to pass along.BUT FIRST, eight Republican hopefuls debated one another in Milwaukee for the chance to maybe get to be Donald Trump’s running mate, as long as they don’t piss him off too much. We break it down with our returning guest, Professor Seth Masket (aka SMOTUS) of the University of Denver, who has some new results of his county chair survey and some spicy takes on the debate.

Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, he’s Once, Twice, Thrice, Fourthce times indicted? Big ass loser Donald Trump has been charged with another series of crimes, this time in Georgia; can the big man escape the big house when he doesn’t have the power to pardon himself for committing felonies at the state level? That Colorado Republican and Libertarian party “alliance” is getting weirder, and it’s also very clearly not going to help the GOP win any more elections. Our 8th favorite member of Congress is using taxpayer dollars to rebut ads calling her out for voting against veterans and her campaign manager is attacking veterans as “liberal extremists,” while constituents who try to meet with her keep finding her office closed during business hours; this is going great! And we’ve got an update on the Mike Coffman Power Grab; in this chapter, he goes ahead and maces his own face (metaphorically, of course).