IlliNoise

Since I launched this podcast, I’ve gotten questions that cover a pretty broad range of topics in Illinois government. But there’s one topic—one particularly notorious individual—that folks are really curious about. I heard from 6 people who all asked more or less the same question about House Speaker Mike Madigan: How did he get so much power? And how does he keep it? To answer this question, we’ll take a history lesson in machine politics, we’ll learn a little something about partisan...

I know, I know you just got done thinking about taxes for the year. But bare with me! When you’re slogging through tax forms, it’s hard to take a step back and consider, why do my taxes work the the way they do? And who decided that? Lindsay Welbers has been thinking about all these things, and she’s wondering if maybe there’s a better way. She sent us this great question: Is it a pipe dream to have a progressive tax in Illinois? Lindsay already knows a thing or two about tax policy, but...

This podcast is usually about state government and how it works. But there are lots of other kinds of government in Illinois. There's cities, counties, school boards, and more! Today we're looking into what each of those governments do, what power they hold, and how they interact with each other. Our question asker, Kayla Ginsburg, told me that she's really interested in understanding how government can impact public schools in Chicago. So we used education as a lens to map out the powers...

This is the very first episode of IlliNoise! Moving forward this show is going to be built entirely around your questions about our state government. But this week and this week only, I’m digging into a question of my own: What exactly does the Illinois Attorney General do? I’ve been wondering about this because back in September our current attorney general Lisa Madigan announced that she wouldn’t be seeking reelection this year. Our state’s primaries are coming up in March. So that means...