The Get More Smarter Podcast

This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, we take this show on the road to visit State Treasurer Dave Young and look at all the weird stuff in the vault near his office. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy got a debt ceiling deal that’s about as good as it could possibly be (for Democrats), so don’t tell anyone! Our 8th favorite member of Congress from Colorado -- Rep. Lauren Boebert -- spent so much time trying to get attention for voting no on the debt ceiling bill that she forgot to show up and actually vote no on the debt ceiling deal. And the Denver Mayor’s race ending about as strangely as it began.

This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the Colorado Republican Party isn’t just morally bankrupt! No, the Grand Old Party may actually be financially bankrupt as well, and the national party may bankrupt the entire nation! Yay, fiscal responsibility! Yet another fiscally conservative Republican who lit 5 million dollars of his own money on fire in 2022 losing to Michael Bennet may be talked into lighting another pile of his own money on fire in losing to another Colorado Democrat in 2024. Ron DeSantis made a DeSasterous entrance into a now-very-crowded GOP presidential field and seemingly DeStroyed DeServers at Twitter. And we check in on the Denver mayor’s race with just one week to go. But first, as Christian nationalism goes from a theoretical threat to a really real oh-crap-here-it-is threat, we check in with Rob Boston, senior adviser at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, to see what kinda Constitution these conservatives are reading.

This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, Republicans are losing municipal races across the country as Donald Trump continues to destroy the party, and one of those races is in what at least used to be Colorado’s conservative stronghold. Friend of the pod, Senator John Hickenlooper, seems to share our ranking for our 8th favorite member of Congress from Colorado -- and he has a banger OpEd in the Grand Junction Sentinel this week to prove it. Scott “There is No" Bottoms, who is either our 18th or 19th favorite Republican in the Colorado House, gives up the game on GOP obstruction. And someone with a podcast less popular than ours is lying to his audience, himself, or more likely both. But first...perhaps we could call this his exit interview...Alan Salazar, Chief of Staff to Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and the godfather of top Democratic Staff in Colorado comes back on the pod to talk all things local government -- including the final days of the race for Denver Mayor.

This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the First Regular Session of the 74th General Assembly has adjourned Sine Die and it was a despicable failure, or a resounding success, or somewhere in between, depending entirely on how much time you spend putting money into Elon Musk’s pocket. To wrap up the session in style, Christy Powell returns to play "Legislating with Crayons," and we check in on our 6th and 8th favorite members of congress from Colorado to see what in the hell they’re up to (spoiler alert: nothing good).

This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast...we've reached EPISODE 150!!! Holy crap!!! Ahem, Sine Die is upon us, and for those of us who don’t speak latin, that means the 2023 Legislative Session is mercifully coming to an end. With so many outstanding items we ask the question every reporter has asked this week since 1876: "How will they get it all done?” The Supreme Court of the United States is an ethical disaster, but really only the Justices appointed by Republican Presidents; Heidi Ganahl, the last statewide elected Republican in Colorado (and possibly the worst candidate in state history) may be planning on Unleashing herself onto the state. Again. We take bets on how big her margin of defeat will be next time. With one month to go in the Denver Mayoral Election, two dudes from Lakewood will discuss how the hell it got like this; our 8th favorite congressperson from Colorado clearly, badly needs attention, and we'll give her a little more! And finally, Tucker Carlson may be off the airwaves, but his inexcusably racist influence on the GOP will remain for a long, long time.

This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, The new chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, Dave Williams, is hopefully “not just milking big government” by drawing a taxpayer funded salary at 40 hours a week while also allegedly running the party for 40 hours a week...and this is according to the Republican House Minority Leader. As the scourge of gun violence continues to plague the nation one Republican state Representative says the quiet part out loud -- like really, really loud. A right wing dark money group wins an appeal on a campaign finance case in which they were absolutely, clearly guilty; we ask why bother having laws? And DARK BRANDON RISES to run for re-election. BUT FIRST returning guest and perhaps (perhaps not) returning champion Andrew Baumann is back on the pod with a new poll! This one spells doom for our 8th favorite member of Congress from Colorado.

This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, House Republicans continue to filibuster without wanting anything; will they do it for the next 15 days or so? The title of this show, the Get More Smarter Podcast, is intentionally bad grammar (for those of you who have emailed us about it), but someone out there in the world is showing why we can’t even joke about it anymore. While more mass shootings happen every single day in this country, Democrats in the Colorado Legislature have passed more bills to address gun violence prevention. And there's a new poll out about our 8th favorite member of congress from Colorado; Rep. Lauren Boebert is in deep, deep cow dung.

This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, we complete our crossover event with City Cast Denver. In our last episode, we interviewed Paul Karolyi and Bree Davies of City Cast Denver about THEIR discussions with 13 of the 16 candidates running for Mayor of Denver. This week, the roles are flipped. Jason Bane joined Bree Davies and friends at City Cast Denver to talk about the outcome of the Denver municipal election and the newest efforts by Democrats to take down Congressperson Lauren Boebert in 2024.

This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, Colorado House Democrats invoke Rule 14 to stop the 19 Republicans from filibustering a package of gun safety laws while yet another mass shooting unnecessarily takes the lives of more American children. The GOP is the party of insurrection, gun violence, and coddling criminals, and our 8th favorite member of Congress from Colorado is leading the charge. BUT FIRST, in our efforts to cover the Denver Mayor’s race without covering the Denver Mayor’s race... it’s a crossover episode! We’ve got Bree Davies and Paul Karolyi from City Cast Denver on the show to discuss their efforts to interview all 17 candidates who were at least at some point running for Mayor of that big smoldering crater in the ground to the east of Lakewood.

This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, there have been two shootings in or near East High School in Denver in less than 40 days, and Colorado Republicans are just flat-out saying that they really don't care about your feelings on the subject. This is what happens when the people who think more guns are the answer and the current situation is just fine take full control of the Colorado Republican Party. In addition to being the party of endless gun death, the GOP is also now the party of...weakening child labor laws? The Affordable Care Act is old enough to be bar-mitzvah’d; we ask if it’s memorized its torah portion yet. Twice impeached former President and current GOP nomination frontrunner Donald Trump is about to be arrested and/or indicted for paying hush money to a porn star; after all these years, will the leader of the party of Law and Order finally see some? And the unofficial third host of the Get More Smarter Podcast is back with a new stack of horribles from listening to the state legislature so we don’t have to. Christy Powell joins us once again to play our confusing Republican legislative game we call "Legislating With Crayons."

In our second episode this week of the Get More Smarter Podcast, Congressman Joe Neguse (D-Boulderish) returns for another visit to discuss being named the most effective lawmaker of the last Congress; his role leading the messaging arm of the House Democratic Caucus; and how his job is different now that Democrats are in the minority in the House of Representatives. Later, we check back on two of our recurring segments, "That's Bull***" and "The Boebert Report," including the news from Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-ifle) that she's about to be a 36-year-old grandmother. Colorado Republicans are fleeing the party after the selection of Dave Williams as State Party Chair; we'll discuss this as well as why the GOP's insistence on talking about Denver as a crime-infested hellhole is doing them no favors. Also, former gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl has a new podcast/lecture series about why you're wrong; how one candidate for Denver Mayor might now be in the driver's seat for the runoff election; and remembering former Congresswoman Pat Schroeder, who died at the age of 82.

This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the Colorado Republican Party has a new chair -- can he possibly be worse than the last one? Colorado has an ongoing gun violence problem, and Democrats in the state legislature are doing something about it. We'll tell you which Republicans have been named the rightiest of them all; and ballots are in the mail for the Denver Mayor’s race, so who better than two dudes who live in Lakewood to break down the final few weeks! But first, Colorado House Speaker Julie McCluskie joins the podcast to discuss her first few months on the job and to preview some upcoming legislation. Speaker McCluskie also gives us an honest response to the news that former State Rep. Dave Williams is now the leader of the Colorado Republican Party.

This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, are Colorado Democrats really good, or are Colorado Republicans really bad? We have a one word answer for you. In the worst game of musical chairs ever played in Colorado, who will lead the Colorado GOP into the next era of electoral failure, finger pointing, backstabbing, and utter delusion? We take bets! Speaking of sore losers, we’ve got another tragic tale of a Colorado Republican trying to save themselves from themselves and, if we had to guess, it’s not looking good. Democrats are bringing bills to a gunfight; how many Republicans will misplace loaded firearms in the Capitol during this latest effort to curb mass shootings? The battle for the U.S. House majority in 2024 runs right through Colorado, but the districts in play will look very different this time around. And finally, anti-Semitism is alive and well in America. Who could possibly be to blame for such a thing?

This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, you know him as the former political reporter for Fox 31 Denver...or from...the Wall Street Journal...or the Los Angeles Times...POLITICO's White House Correspondent Eli Stokols is back on the Get More Smarter Podcast. Stokols talks about the difference in covering the Trump and Biden administrations, and why 2024 could be 2020 all over again. Later in an unusually-long episode, we talk about how the Colorado GOP's scheme to take over the El Paso County Party backfires spectacularly, and why one of Colorado’s biggest political spenders is trying to find a way to save the GOP from itself.

This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the State of our Union is….WEIRD. Ian Silverii reports back from the worst seats in the House Gallery because Jason Bane wasn't invited. The great Christy Powell joins us with a new game where we try and explain the inexplicable, for prizes (metaphorical ones). Overtly racist pro-claymore mine lobby Rocky Mountain Gun Owners flies its overtly-racist flag. There is still no bottom with Representative Scott Bottoms. And our 8th favorite member of Congress from Colorado, Lauren Boebert, has some loud thoughts about WHO TURNED OFF MY TWITTER MACHINE???

This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, it’s Groundhog Day! So we’re re-running last year's episode. Just kidding! With the 2023 Colorado Legislative Session in full swing we ask the question on everybody’s mind, is there no (Scott) Bottom(s) to the State House GOP? We have many more occasions to ask the podcast’s favorite question, "What the Buck!?" BUT FIRST, you know him as Colorado’s most (or least) favorite evening news anchor and a man of 1,000 thrift store sport coats: 9News anchor/reporter/producer Kyle Clark joins the podcast to talk about how to cover a jam-packed Denver Mayoral race; calling a lie a lie (and a liar a liar); and the disservice that journalists do for a community when they "both sides" a story into oblivion.

This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, after yet another rash of mass shootings in Colorado and the country, State House Democrats are ready to do something big about it. Did you know almost 1/4th of Colorado Legislators were elected by a few dozen people? We break down the Vacancy Committee influence on Colorado Politics and why such an antidemocratic process is so often used to choose the state’s lawmakers. We talk about some other stuff too, but first, you know him as Colorado’s Favorite Never Trumper: Tim Miller from The Bulwark and Rolling Stone joins us to talk Turning Point USA, The Colorado GOP then and now, and his new book, "Why We Did It: A Travelogue From the Republican Road to Hell."

This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, your hosts Jason Bane and Ian Silverii talk with legendary Colorado politico Alan Salazar and coin a new term from his vast experience. Currently serving as Chief of Staff to Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, Salazar has been a top adviser to Congressmen, Senators, Governors, and even Presidents -- for familiar names such as Roy Romer, Mark Udall, John Hickenlooper, and Bill Clinton. We discuss the traits that these successful politicians all have in common (other than hiring Alan Salazar). Later, Jason and Ian also dive into the debt ceiling and try to understand why Colorado Republican lawmakers refused to co-sponsor a resolution honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, Republicans say they want to make government smaller, but what happens when they blast it into microscopic pieces? Republicans claim they won a slim majority in Congress because they were talking about issues like inflation, crime, and the southern border, so why are the first things they’re doing trying to ban abortion and launch meaningless partisan investigations you’ll only understand if you subscribe to Tucker Carlson’s newsletter? Meanwhile, Colorado Democrats in the State Capitol have gotten to business in the 74th General Assembly, with an agenda that is laser-focused on the issue that are top of mind for voters; state legislative Republicans, unfortunately, have the same problems as their Washington DC counterparts.

This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, it’s the last episode of 2022 -- you know, the year that brought the biggest Blue Wave Colorado has ever seen! Our soon-to-be-8th favorite member of Congress from Colorado nearly lost her seat; has she learned a damn thing from it? With the retirement of the worst party chair to ever lead the Colorado GOP now a sure thing, who is crazy, dumb, or unlucky enough to lead the red team into a Presidential Election cycle? The one place where Colorado Republicans HAVE seen a modicum of electoral success is a total disaster; will they find a way to lose power there too? Donald Trump is still around, but how "dead" is Trumpism on a scale of 1-8 Freddy Krugers? And finally, we revisit an old Colorado story to try and process the George Santos shitshow.