

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

Feb 5, 2024 • 1h 3min
Every Person Listening to this Podcast is a Person
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, we learn that all persons are persons from our coverage of the ClusterBuck in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District...which continues with the results of a debate, a straw poll, and some partial campaign finance reports that are coming in as we record. While nobody’s really breaking fundraising records here, this race may be breaking the record for “most candidates with arrest records in a primary election in Colorado History.” There was also a GOP debate in the 8th congressional district which is a must-win if Colorado Republicans want to crawl out of their cavern of irrelevance and if national Republicans want to keep their now-one-seat-majority. But the candidates there are...not the best. And we check in on the second regular session of the 74th General Assembly where GOP leadership has transitioned from worse to bad -- and a brand new kind of microminority infighting has just begun.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!

Jan 24, 2024 • 1h 3min
Two Republican Stories So Crazy We Couldn't Possibly Make Them Weirder
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, there was so much news between the last time we recorded and today that we had to throw out a whole episode and start over! First, the ClusterBuck in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District gets more cluster-er as the Colorado House Minority Leader cops to a DUI and one of his caucus members/leading opponents for the nomination admits to paying for an abortion for his college girlfriend during a speech he made opposing the recognition of Roe v. Wade. Our 8th favorite member of congress from Colorado -- who is soon to be our first favorite former member of Congress from Colorado -- lays low as she finishes unpacking after moving into what she hopes is her new district, but it won’t be, really. The economy is rolling, and Americans have finally noticed! And the "Fat Lady" is warming up, because Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee for President after Ron DeSanctimonius dropped out and Nikki Haley got her clock cleaned in New Hampshire. 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!

Jan 12, 2024 • 60min
The Colorado Republican Party is Dying Right Before Our Eyes (and Ears)
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, absolutely nobody has done more for Democrats in Colorado than Republicans in Colorado; it's not remotely close, and it's about to get worse. With ZERO statewide offices, total irrelevance in the Colorado legislature, and now zero-out-of-three incumbents running for re-election in their own congressional seats, the Colorado GOP is undeniably at their lowest point in modern history...perhaps all of history! We dance on the ashes of a once politically competitive organization that is more worried about infighting than any other sort of political battle. The Colorado House and Senate kick off the second regular session of the 74th general assembly; we do a preview of a preview of some of the big fights, the little fights, and the medium fights. 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!

Jan 10, 2024 • 45min
How Democrats Can Get it Right in 2024 (feat. Will Marshall)
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, it’s a special interview-only episode! Will Marshall, president of the legendary center-left think tank Progressive Policy Institute, joins us to talk pragmatism versus performance, how Democrats can start winning working class voters again, and what the 2024 election is going to look like. 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!

Dec 29, 2023 • 44min
EMERGENCY POD: Lauren Boebert Goes Seat Shopping!
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, we almost made it through 2023 with another podcast episode, but then Lauren Boebert announced late on December 27th when LITERALLY NOBODY WAS TRYING TO THINK ABOUT HER that she was going to carpetbag her broken campaign down to the 4th congressional district. So, in this special episode of the Get More Smarter Podcast: What the Buck is our 8th Favorite Member of Congress from Colorado Doing in the 4th District?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!

Dec 22, 2023 • 1h 4min
The Inside Story of How Colorado Barred Donald Trump from the Ballot (feat. Mario Nicolais)
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast...the Colorado Supreme Court held that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prevents the Secretary of State from placing Donald Trump on the Presidential ballot in Colorado, setting up a constitutional showdown with national implications. Mario Nicolais, one of the attorneys for the six electors who brought the case to the State Supreme Court, walks us through how it all went down and what he expects might happen 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!

Dec 21, 2023 • 24min
CROSSOVER EPISODE: The 2023 Lauren Boebert Get More Smarter x City Cast Denver Holiday Clicktacular!
Send us a message! Really!We were so excited to be invited back to the excellent City Cast Denver podcast to talk about our 8th Favorite Member of Congress from Colorado, Lauren Boebert's 2023: from Beetlebert to facing a legit primary threat to George Santos being her grandbaby sitter to...well, all the rest. 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!

Dec 18, 2023 • 48min
Boebert, Bidenomics, and a Bread Sandwich
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast: Bidenomics? Bidenflation? Bidenpeachment? What portmanteau can’t we create with the President’s last name? Our 8th favorite member of congress from Colorado is living it up in the Big Apple! Has Rep. Lauren Boebert given up on winning reelection or has she just not realized that New York City isn’t in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District? Speaking of which, Barbora Hurd’s Husband has an ad, and it actually features him? It also happens to feature the same damn floor stompy guitar twang as every other Republican TV Ad in Colorado. And if you thought the Supreme Court of the United States was done taking away abortion rights, you were unfortunately probably wrong; we break down the mifepristone case headed to SCOTUS and hope we pronounced that correctly.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!

Dec 11, 2023 • 55min
We're Not Dead Yet!
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, Republicans from Colorado to Washington DC to North Carolina, to South Carolina, to California, and probably everywhere else too, in between are a big, big mess. We ask the question on everybody’s mind, how the hell does anyone still vote for them? The rats are fleeing the ship of our 8th favorite member of congress from Colorado, will it be enough to help Barbora Hurd’s Husband return the third congressional district to the red team?Just because you deny the results of an election doesn’t mean it didn’t happen (we’re talking to you, entire Colorado Republican Party); while we were out, the Colorado Legislature had a special session on property taxes and boy are our brains tired; and we announce the series finale of our segment on our 7th favorite member of Congress from Colorado -- What the Buck -- as CNNKenSNBC makes way for the CD4 primary clown car to really get rolling down to Yuma.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!

Nov 13, 2023 • 1h 23min
The 2023 Election Recap (feat. Seth Masket)
Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the 2023 Election is over and Democrats notched some big wins across the country (and one glaring loss right here in Colorado). We break down the results and talk about what’s so special about the upcoming irregular legislative session. Of course, we check in again on our 8th favorite member of Congress from Colorado, Rep. Lauren Boebert, and we also talk about the most indicted Presidential candidate in history. On the topic of Republican Presidential candidates, Seth Masket, Director of the University of Denver’s Center on American Politics and the official "Professor of the Get More Smarter Podcast" returns to unpack the latest Republican Presidential Undercard Debate; he watched it so we didn’t have to! 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!


