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

Send us a message! Really! This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the Epstein Files bill passed the House and Senate nearly unanimously and was signed into law by Donald Trump. That means that we get to see everything that was in them, right? Right? Then Trump’s mid-cycle gerrymandering mandate seems to have totally backfired on the GOP with a federal judge in Texas blocking the Lone Star State’s attempt to rig the 2024 midterms in their favor right after California voters overwhelmingly approved their counteracting measure...oops! Then, have Trump’s polling numbers finally hit rock bottom, or is he essentially in free fall through a polling mine shaft? A raft of new polling indicates he may not have even hit terminal velocity yet. Then, one military veteran in Colorado’s Congressional delegation has had his life threatened by the president of the united states, while another military veteran in Colorado’s Congressional Delegation can’t stop lying his ass off, can you guess who is who? And finally, we peer into the present with a new poll from our friends at the Colorado Polling Institute, and peer into the future with yet another 2026 election update because pretty soon we won’t be able to joke that it’s 2025 anymore! 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!

Send us a message! Really! This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, we can finally shut up about the shut down as it has met a rather anticlimactic end right in time for the holiday travel crunch, but, the only thing we care about is…WHO WON, and, hey, what the hell is going on with all those healthcare premiums anyway...and, hey, what's with that multi-milliion dollar payout for Republican senators doing in there? Then, President Trump is totally not worried about the release of more information related to the Epstein files, so he and the White House are doing what totally not-worried people do in this situation: They’re freaking the fuck out. How does that impact our least-favorite members of congress from Colorado? And...you know him as Pollster of the Pod because he’s the pollster we’ve had on the pod more than any other…Andrew Baumann is BACK to discuss the national political environment after the 2025 elections, and a new poll from friend of the pod Jessica Killin, which has us asking: Are YOU Killin Pilled too? 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!

Send us a message! Really! This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, it’s 2017 all over again, but bigger, better, and BLUE-YER as Democrats from all sides of the spectrum ride an anti-Trump wave to huge win margins across the country that are sending Republicans into the long, dark teatime of the soul. We unpack the results of the 2025 election and ask “why the fuck did we have to learn this lesson, again, America?” Then, with SNAP benefits expiring and 1 out of every 10 flights getting canceled over the upcoming holidays, is there an end to the shutdown in sight? And we talk about what this all means for the 2026 midterms! And...our guest today in our seemingly never-ending quest to interview every viable democratic candidate for a major race in Colorado, friend of the pod Jeff Bridges joins us once more to explain his campaign for State Treasurer and his love for "T-pools." 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!

Send us a message! Really! This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the money is pouring into primary elections in Colorado, but, really just for one party, can you guess which one? Best friend of the pod Christy Powell is back to break down the third quarter fundraising results in Colorado. Also, the shutdown shitshow continues into its sixth week, and most Americans aren’t stupid, so they know who’s to blame -- namely, the party who currently controls the House, the Senate, and the White House. And finally, the most potent weapon against the excesses of the Trump administration isn’t Congress, and it’s isn’t even states or governors; it turns out that the courts are the last thing standing between the American People and full blown stupid techno-fascism. 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!

Send us a message! Really! Jason had to take an emergency trip to Argentina to check on his $20 billion investment in something called an "experiment in Anarcho-capitalism," so this week you've just got Ian interviewing David Seligman, candidate for the Democratic nomination for Attorney General of Colorado in 2026. We'll be back for an even bigger pod this Friday. One of the country's leading workers' rights, consumer rights, and antimonopoly lawyers, David Seligman has dedicated his legal career to fighting for regular people against corporate abuse. After attending Harvard Law School and clerking for federal trial and appellate judges, David became the Executive Director of Towards Justice, a nationally recognized non-profit legal and labor rights organization based in Denver. David has seen throughout his legal career that there are two sets of laws in this country: one for the rich and powerful and another for the rest of us. He has brought some of the most important and cutting-edge legal cases in the country, helping working Coloradans and small businesses take on powerful corporations and the Trump Administration. He stands up in court for nurses, rideshare drivers, meatpackers, Amazon workers, veterans, teachers, federal employees, grocery workers, renters buried in junk fees, and working families drowning in medical debt. You can learn more about David and his campaign at www.seligmanforag.com 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!

Send us a message! Really! This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the Federal Government Shutdown enters its second-ish week and Democrats seem to have the upper hand, at least so far. Then, can puppy-killer DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and her masked goons defeat an army of grannies with ukeleles and people in inflatable costumes in war-raveged Portland, Oregon? Even though 2026 is a ways away, we’ve got some more updates on the campaigns that matter most to Colorado. And we’ll tell you who didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize (spoiler: It's not the guy who is siccing the military on his own citizens and canceled billions of dollars in foreign aid to starving children across the world). And in our continuing quest to interview every viable Democrat running for a major office in Colorado, Trisha Calvarese is on the pod to talk about her labor background, her ground game in the district, and why Co-04 primary voters should give her another chance to take on our 7th favorite member of Congress from Colorado. 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!

Send us a message! Really! This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the shitdown shutshow or the shutdown shitshow or whatever you want to call it is officially on as Democrats and Republicans in Washington DC fail to reach an agreement on temporary funding and Mike Johnson and Donald Trump are just lying about it everywhere. Then, the hands-down winner for “least self aware giant unprecedented military leadership gathering of the century” is announced, and you won’t believe truly how much they deserve the award. Then a pretty big group of Colorado Republicans love them some Marxism, really, as a different group of Colorado Republicans can’t figure out the basic rules for replacing retiring lawmakers! And...continuing in our quest to interview every Democrat in a competitive primary for a big race in Colorado in 2026, State Representative Brianna Titone joins us to talk about her campaign for state treasurer, what it’s like being the first openly transgender state legislator in Colorado history, and her side-gig as a movie producer! 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!

Send us a message! Really! This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, despite polling showing that Colorado voters have soured on Democrats, they have not sweetened up to Republicans -- we explain why in a new segment called "Which is Worser." Then, Colorado braces for a recession as prices keep rising everywhere, the job market looks like it’s really starting to suck, and the nonpartisan economic staff starts predicting stormy skies ahead. And we’re officially back on shutdown watch as the shitshow in Washington DC sees no signs of stopping soon. And later...many have tried, but could our guest today be the one to finally send Lauren Boebert to her eventual home on Newsmax or Fox? Rear Admiral Eileen Laubacher joins us to talk about her campaign for the fourth congressional district, the weird meeting Pete Hegseth just called, and how she plans to do what no Democrat has done before. 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!

Send us a message! Really! Send us a message! Really! This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, it's a special interview-only episode! Jason was volunteering in Siberia on a sabretooth tiger preserve so Ian reached out to old friend of the pod Chris deGruy Kennedy and new friend of the pod Christina Soliz to hear about the initiative their coalition is working to place on the 2026 ballot that would cut taxes for 98% of Coloradans while raising them on anyone making over $500,000 per year. We get into the policy, the politics, the numbers, and the rationale for this push into tax fairness, and you're not going to want to miss this interview! 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 favorite local fiscal policy wonk! THANK YOU so much for listening, and we’ll see you next time! 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!

Send us a message! Really! This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, HOLY SHIT, it’s Episode 250!!! And we have a great one for you. First up, RFK Jr. gets his ass handed to him in a Senate Finance Committee Hearing and absolutely lied in his confirmation hearings. Relatedly: Governor Polis took quick action to make sure Coloradans still have access to lifesaving vaccines, proving once again that having Democrats in charge really, really matters, because Republican Florida is basically doing the exact opposite. Then, Republicans are ramping up their campaign of lies on Medicaid, President Trump is trying to move Space Command from Colorado to Alabama, again, because he’s the most corrupt monster to ever occupy the White House, and the economy is really starting to take a nosedive. But first, Listener Favorite Logan Davis from the Colorado Times Recorder is BACK on the pod to talk about his latest big investigation detailing how radical right-wingers connected to Russian Oligarchs and at least one local billionaire are actually shaping a lot of the politics in our very blue state. 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!

Send us a message! Really! This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the Colorado State Budget got a billion dollar cut, again, thanks to Gabe Evans, Jeff Hurd, and the rest of the Republicans Colorado sends to Washington. We break down the outcome of the recently concluded Special Session. Then, friend of the pod Governor Jared Polis has some...words for HHS Secretary RFK Junior, and, frankly, they’re words neither we nor any other major Democrat in Colorado would ever use. And finally, can a Democrat win Colorado’s 2nd most Republican congressional district? Well, if one can, it might just be our guest today: Jessica Killin joins us from Colorado Springs to talk about how she plans to win the 5th district in 2026. 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!

Send us a message! Really! This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, cutting taxes is bad, actually, and the State Legislature is about to go cut another billion dollars from the state budget because of it. Then, do you enjoy friend of the pod Kyle Clark’s innovative evening news show, microgiving campaigns, and refusal to let the worst stories become the most important stories? Well you better set your DVR because if a big corporate mega merger goes through, it might be the "Last of Next." Then, do you enjoy the convenience of having about a month to research all of the candidates and initiatives on your mail ballot and the ability to drop them off or mail them back every election? Well we also have bad news for you on that! And finally, we dig into the practical possibility of Colorado joining the redistricting arms race to the bottom and the new way Libertarians are trying to screw with Colorado Republicans this time. 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!

Send us a message! Really! This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, it’s a Special Session Special Episode Special! Again! And this time it’s not even our fault! As the effects of the Big Bullshit Bill come into focus, Colorado has to cut ANOTHER billion dollars from the state budget on top of the billion dollars TABOR forced us to cut earlier in the year. Where will lawmakers find the money? Then, a Republican state representative leaked screenshots of a secret group chat (hey, weren’t they not supposed to have those anymore?) to a reporter where other members were making sexist and racist comments about a Democratic colleague; is there no depth to the depravity of the Colorado GOP? Then, tariffs are both dumb as shit and super unpopular. That’s it, that’s the segment. And finally, brain worms are eating your vaccines; Gabe Evans is saving Medicaid by kicking everyone off it; and any Republican brave or stupid enough to have a town hall meeting is getting what they deserve. 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!

Send us a message! Really! THIS WEEK on the Get More Smarter Podcast, we always said that Gabe Evans would deport his own grandparents if it meant he could get elected to congress, and now we have proof! Then, the Epstein Files finally seem to be the scandal that Trump can’t slither out from…so far. Speaking of which, Lauren Boebert finally got a chance to vote to release those same Epstein Files which she’s been demanding since she first ran for office back in 2020, so, how did she vote? Then, Colorado’s Attorney General Phil Weiser has filed more suits than a Men’s Wearhouse! Then, there’s benzene in the groundwater and arsenic in the soil, can you guess which vaunted and totally safe Colorado industry put them there? Probably the same industry bankrolling Right Wing interest groups to try to fuck up the state budget even worse than it already is! And finally, we’ve got some great listener feedback to share with you, but you’ll have to stick around to the end of the episode to hear it! 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!

Send us a message! Really! This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the 2026 Primary field for Colorado Democrats up and down the ticket is getting crowded! And we’ve got a big announcement for you on what that means for the podcast! Then, are you a human being, with a body, and, skin, and organs, and stuff like that which needs occasional tending to? Well, your healthcare is about to get a lot more expensive, and most likely, not any better! Next, Schrodinger’s Epstein Files are the scandal of the decade. Or they don’t exist. Or...maybe BOTH, depending on whom you talk to. But one thing is certain: Donald J Trump is absolutely in them! Then, do recissions cause recessions? We’re about to find out, unfortunately; Big Bird and your local public radio station are on the chopping block because of it. And finally, in a country that has seen some progress on fighting gerrymandering and making elections and democracy more fair, representative, and reflective of the will of the people, one part in one state says…to hell with all that, we want power! Can you guess who it is? Can you?

Send us a message! Really! This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, we took a break to celebrate what is potentially the last Independence Day for the nation as we know it. The Big Bullshit Bill passed and was signed into law, despite some of the worst provisions getting kicked down the road until after the midterms, of course. Gabe Evans is the biggest liar in Colorado practicing a brand of “technically correct but actually lying” not seen since Cory Gardner was booted out of office in 2020. Then, the people who brought us the pizzagate lie about Democrats running a satanic child sex abuse conspiracy have suddenly decided the Epstein files don’t exist and don’t matter. And it’s absolutely 100% because Donald Trump is all over them. We know this. It’s in court records! Then, every Tuesday is TACO Tuesday when you’re Donald Trump’s tariff policy! Next, Elon Musk is starting a third party nobody asked for, we imagine what it might be like if that idea didn’t suck. And finally, there’s no Colorado Democrat like a Colorado Republican, at least when it comes to defeating other Colorado Republicans.

Send us a message! Really! This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, oh no! The big bullshit bill has hit some serious roadblocks! Wait, sorry, OH YAY! The big bullshit bill had hit some serious roadblocks! And by “some serious roadblocks” we mean “the opinion of the vast majority of voters” How does it play in Paonia? Then, it turns out that cutting healthcare kills people. You mean, you can’t just rub a crystal on it and call it good? Next, the big bullshit bombing of Iran maybe slowed down their development of a nuclear weapon by a few weeks, despite President Trump's claim that he “totally obliterated” their enrichment capacity. We ask, what the fuck, man? Then, your federal lands are safe, for now, sort of...we think...ask us next week. And finally, we go through some updates on the 2026 campaigns even though yes indeed it is still 2025. But first, she’s the President of COBALT Advocates and a friend of the show: Karen Middleton is back on the pod to talk about Colorado’s exceptional progress on abortion rights since the disastrous Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade about three years ago.

Send us a message! Really! This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the big beautiful bullshit bill is banging around in the US Senate, and the longer it does, the worse it gets for President Trump and the Republicans who voted for it. Then, Remember Stagflation -- that thing that is worse than both a stagnating economy and inflation? Well, it’s back thanks to very very dumb Trump administration policies. Next...hey, Colorado, do you hunt, fish, ski, hike, bike, camp, canoe, kayak or enjoy the outdoors in any way, shape or form? Well, unfortunately, all those public lands you enjoy are going to be sold to the highest bidder thanks to, you guessed it, Trump and Republicans. Speaking of public lands, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is creating American history whitewashing whistleblowers by asking visitors to historical sites to report “un-American activities.” Then, who’s to blame for Colorado’s fiscal policy woes? One Republican weighs in with the obviously wrong answer. But first….Congressman Jason Crow is back on the show to talk military parades, the dangers of over-the-top political rhetoric, the GOP budget bill, and conflict with Iran. *Note: This episode was recorded before President Trump decided to bomb nuclear sites in Iran.

Send us a message! Really! This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, it’s no wonder there’s a clown car of candidates in Colorado’s 8th congressional district because the current incumbent is the biggest clown of them all! Then, that same clown famously promised that it would be “gangsters, not grandmas!” that ICE was going to deport in President Trump’s mass deportation raids; now that the exact opposite is true, Gabe Evans has put his name on a mildly worded letter expressing some concerns! Then, that constitutional crisis we’ve been talking about? Well, it’s exploded into full blown fascism -- who could have guessed that was going to happen? And finally we visit our 8th favorite member of congress from Colorado who gleefully reminded us that all this horrible shit is exactly what she voted for (even if she didn't). But first, with a poll showing Gabe Evans is less popular than Donald Trump in his own district, and some interesting findings about public health, social media, and medicaid, Healthier Colorado CEO Jake WIlliams is BACK on the pod to talk about the recent survey they just published.

Send us a message! Really! This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, another violent antisemitic attack hits the USA, this time very close to home as Republicans try to politicize the tragedy to gin up anger against immigrants and Colorado Democrats stand in solidarity with the Jewish community. Then, it’s the greatest feud ever on the dumbest timeline imaginable. Will Donald Trump deport Elon Musk? Will Elon start a new party to spite Trump? Will both of them get outed in the Epstein files? Will anyone, anywhere learn anything from any of this? And finally is it getting crowded in here or is it a WAVE YEAR? There are now five legit candidates in the pool to take on Gabe-ish Evans in Colorado’s 8th congressional district. Meanwhile, the AG’s race gets a fourth Democratic candidate and even the Bread Sandwich draws a primary opponent. But first...in our unofficial series “interviewing as many reporters whose editors don’t listen to the show as possible,” we’ve got Tyler Duncan, government reporter for the Greeley Tribune and some other papers on the show this week to talk about Northern Colorado politics, being a young local journalist in the age of AI, and why so many people are moving there despite the…you know…you know what distinguishing feature Greeley has (we don’t have to tell you).