Heartland Politics with Robin Johnson

Tim Alberta discusses his book The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism

Jon Grinspan talks about his book, Age of Acrimony: How Americans Fought to Fix Their Democracy 1865-1915

Luke Russert, host and creative director of “MSNBC Live”, discusses his book Look For Me There: Grieving my Father, Finding Myself.

Sasha Issenberg, author of The Lie Detectives: In Search of a Playbook for Winning Elections in the Disinformation Age.

John Lawrence discusses his book, Arc of Power: Inside Nancy Pelosi’s Speakership, 2005-2010.

Author James Kaplan talks about his new book, 3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans and the Lost Empire of Cool.

Daniel Shea and Nicholas Jacobs talk about their new book, The Rural Voter, The Politics of Place and the Disuniting of America.

Patrick Wohl, author of Down Ballot: How A Local Campaign Became A National Referendum on Abortion, talks about this historic race, abortion politics, the key players, how state legislative campaigns are run, the role of ‘dimpled chads’ in the outcome locally and in the 2000 presidential race in Florida, why local elections are so important, and much more.

Harry MacLean, author of Starkweather, The Untold Story of the Killing Spree That Changed America, discusses the 1958 murders that shocked the nation, drew national attention, and was an inspiration for the movie Natural Born Killers, Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, a 1973, Martin Sheen movie, Badlands, and mention in Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire.

Rust Belt Unions Blues: Why Working-class Voters Are Turning Away From the Democratic Party

Illinois Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi talks about his role as Ranking Member on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

Former Republican Congressman Scott Klug from Wisconsin talks about hyper partisanship in the US.

David Leonhardt, Pulitzer-prize winning essayist for the New York Times, discusses his new book, Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream.

Patrick Ruffini, Republican pollster and co-founder of Echelon Insights, talks about his new book, Party of the People Inside the Multiracial Populist Coalition Remaking the GOP, including the causes of working class voters shifting to the Republicans, key insights into the educational divide, the interplay of culture, class and race, and much more.

Jerry Nowicki, Editor-in-Chief of Capitol News Illinois, discusses the top five headlines of 2023 and predicts the top stories of 2024.

Chris Larimer, Political Science Professor at Northern Iowa University, analyzes the Iowa Caucus results.

Nikki Haley, Republican presidential candidate, former Ambassador to the UN and former South Carolina Governor, talks about Ukraine, Gaza, border security, restoring our manufacturing base, China, whether to ban TikTok and much more.

Republican presidential candidate, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, talks about his record in Florida, the Middle East, China, ethanol, and bringing manufacturing jobs back.

Erin Murphy, Des Moines bureau chief for The Gazette, lists his top five Iowa political/governmental headlines from 2023 and uses his crystal ball to project the top five stories for 2024.

Scott Eyman, author of book Charlie Chaplin v America: When Art, Sex and Politics Collided, talks about Chaplin’s impact on the American film industry.