Podcast
The Get More Smarter Podcast - A Weekly Show About Colorado Politics
Hosted by Colorado Pols and The Bighorn Company · EN
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?
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Episodes
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The Cajun Karate Master (feat. Amanda Gonzalez)
1w ago01:12:30Tap to summarizeSend us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, by the time you hear this the state legislature will be just hours away from adjourning sine die. But because we record on Fridays, you’re going to have to wait a week to get the download of what passed, what failed, and what might get vetoed. Then, we dig into some 2026 updates as candidates for state level office report what they raised and spent in the last critical quarter before the primary election on June 30th. Next, even though Republicans have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the governor’s race, that doesn’t mean their primary is any less entertaining. We report from the cheap seats as the gloves come off for who has the privilege of losing to Phil Weiser or Michael Bennet this November, and we’ve got a few other down ballot updates for you as well.But first, she made the topline on the ballot through the Democratic caucus and assembly process and wants to be the one to run Colorado’s gold-standard elections for the next four years after spending the last four years making Jeffco, home of the podcast, the best place to cast a ballot. Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder Amanda Gonzalez joins the pod to tell us why she wants to be promoted to the state’s chief elections officer.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!
Transcribe →The Primary Election is Coming, but the British are Not
2w ago01:01:02Tap to summarizeSend us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, with a little less than 70 days left until the Colorado Primary Elections, we wonder…where the hell are all of the ads? Do the candidates know that they have to spend all the money they raised to win the only elections that matter in Colorado, the ones that happen between Democrats on June 30? Then, the Supreme Court dealt yet another blow to the Voting Rights Act, this time allowing Republican states to just draw Black districts out of existence, but surely they wouldn't do something like that, right? In local news, the Colorado GOP still doesn’t have a chairperson and won’t until May 30th at the earliest; with the worst political environment since 2018 coming for them, we guess some candidates will have to make sure their postage deals with the Arizona Republican Party are still good! And finally, it’s always a good time to Blame Biden for the absolute disastrous shape of not only the country, but the entire world, even though Donald Trump has been president for like a year and a half already.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!
Transcribe →Fundraising and Prognostication for the Primary (feat. Christy Powell)
3w ago01:08:17Tap to summarizeSend us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, is Donald Trump the least popular president in history, or just the least popular president in history so far? We dig in to the President’s latest pathetic polling numbers. Then, in a unique twist for our FAFO of the week, it includes, well, pretty much everyone! Except, you know, us, and if you’re listening to this show, probably you, too! In Colorado news, Republicans are still wildly unserious, not ready to govern, and, luckily, won’t be given the opportunity to any time soon. But first, it’s she! Fan favorite and Best Friend of the Show Christy Powell is BACK to run down the latest campaign finance numbers and help us prognosticate what it might mean for the primary elections which are now just fifty-ish days away!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!
Transcribe →Where is the Floor? (feat. Dwayne Romero)
Apr 801:15:05Tap to summarizeSend us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, Democrats are UP and Pam Bondi is out as the "America Last" President fires yet another member of his cabinet -- one that friend of the pod Joe Neguse also took to task, earning him the new nickname, THE CABINETSLAYER. Then Donald Trump, the peace president who was going to eliminate the national debt and start NO NEW WARS is asking Congress for 1.5 TRILLION DOLLARS for his dumb unconstitutional war on Iran, leading to what could be called the Easiest No Vote in History. In the meantime, Trump falls to Watergate/Katrina-level presidential approval numbers. Then, our 8th favorite member of Congress from Colorado, Gabe Evans, blows up the DHS funding showdown narrative Republicans were trying to pin on Democrats; as it turns out, despite being in unified control of government, voters are not as dumb as Gabe and the GOP want them to be. And finally, Tina Peters will remain behind bars, but for an undetermined amount of time as an appeals court orders her resentencing. But first, a late entry into the race to take on the "Bread Sandwich" himself, Democrat Dwayne Romero joins us to talk about his campaign for the third congressional 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!
Transcribe →Blame it on Biden
Apr 100:47:56Tap to summarizeSend us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, as Democrats prepare for their state assemblies you can bet a bunch of lawyers are preparing legal briefs in case their candidates don’t make the ballot through the most straightforwardly indefensible and undemocratic system of nominating candidates we can think of. Abolish the caucus and assembly process! Then, for Donald Trump and his friends: Mail Ballots. For the rest of us: Long lines in November weather with no water or pizza. The Colorado budget is fucked, again, as lawmakers stare down the barrel of another $1.5 billion dollar hole thanks to conservative pressure groups and Donald Trump sucking at being President. But if you don’t want to blame the people responsible for this, you can just blame Joe Biden. Everyone’s doing it! And finally, Colorado Republicans remain silly and our 6th favorite member of Congress from Colorado decides once again that facts are dumb. But first, let’s start with something fun this week, because everything is truly, horribly, awful... 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!
Transcribe →Toasting and Un-Toasting the Bread Sandwich (feat. Alex Kelloff)
Mar 2501:12:50Tap to summarizeSend us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the Bread Sandwich was toast, and now he’s…untoasted as Donald Trump un-undorseses him for the seat he already has in Congress. Then, what would you do with $200 billion dollars? If the answer isn’t “probably start World War III,” well, then you have a better fiscal policy than the President of the United States! Speaking of our 47th favorite president ever, he went ahead and embarrassed the entire nation several more times, including making a “joke” about Pearl Harbor to the Japanese Prime Minister. Colorado Republicans remain the least serious political party in the country, and we’re including Oklahoma Democrats. And finally, our favorite local television station may about to become our least favorite local television station, unless our Attorney General continues his streak of winning lawsuits against the Trump administration.But first...he’s running for the opportunity to take on Rep. Jeff "Bread Sandwich" Hurd in the race for the Third Congressional District. Alex Kelloff joins us to talk about being a fourth generation Coloradan and how he can win in November.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!
Transcribe →Colorado Republicans Have No Confidence in Anything (feat. Evan Munsing)
Mar 1801:15:42Tap to summarizeSend us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, by the time you hear this episode we may be at war with Cuba, or Ecuador, or Transylvania, because there is seemingly no country that the FIFA Peace Prize President won’t bomb! Also, the Colorado GOP hasn’t won a major election in Colorado in over 12 years, but they’ve defeated their own party chairperson yet again...and just months before a critical election. Then, if you thought International Women’s Day could be the last bastion of bipartisanship in Colorado politics, you’d be wrong! We also have some more 2026 updates as caucuses turn to assemblies and assemblies turn to conventions and these processes get neither more democratic nor less inscrutable to decide who actual voters get to vote for. But first, in our third and final installment of “who wants to be the CD8 Democratic Nominee, we’ve got Evan Munsing on the show to tell us why Democratic Primary voters should pick him to run against our 8th favorite member of Congress from Colorado this November.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!
Transcribe →The DHS Secretary is Noem More (feat. Joe Neguse and Shannon Bird)
Mar 1101:21:46Tap to summarizeSend us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, there’s a lot going on in Colorado and the world this week, so we’ve got two interviews AND a full episode for you! We weren’t at war with Iran when we recorded our last episode, but, surprise, we are now. Then, the Colorado GOP is once again trying to oust their party chair in the run-up to a midterm election in which they’re about to get absolutely crushed because some things never change. And if you’re polling below “undecided” in a survey, there’s a pretty good chance nobody is going to believe that you can somehow win that campaign without an overdose of motivated reasoning. In our continuing quest to interview every Democratic candidate in a competitive primary for an important election in Colorado, we’ve got Shannon Bird on the show to tell us why she thinks she the best one to take on our 8th favorite member of Congress from colorado this NovemberBut First! we’ve got a real life version of fan favorite segment “That’s Bullshit”; friend of the pod Rep. Joe Neguse joins us to talk about his absolutely wild takedown of DHS secretary Kristi Noem which was so humiliating for the Trump administration they basically fired her the moment Joe was done exposing some wild corruption allegations. 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!
Transcribe →Why is Inflation? (feat. Manny Rutinel)
Mar 301:18:26Tap to summarizeSend us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, does Colorado have MAGA Democrats? One concerning candidate forum might provide an answer. Then, Donald Trump delivered his first-ish State of the Union address in his second term; what did it mean for Colorado? Next, we visit our 8th favorite member of Congress from Colorado and check in with our old 8th favorite member of Congress from Colorado before going into some 2026 updates.But first, he’s one of the three democrats vying for the chance to be the one who sends Gabe Evans back to his three-cow “Farm.” State Rep. Manny Rutinel joins us to explain why he thinks he should be the one to face Gabe-ish this November. 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!
Transcribe →This Goes Out to All You Legislative Lunatics
Feb 2401:04:53Tap to summarizeSend us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, in a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of cold hard cash, what does the SCOTUS tariff smackdown mean for Colorado’s 8th favorite member of congress? Then, while President Trump flails on the national stage, Colorado democrats take the gloves off and jump into the redistricting fight with both feet. Friend of the pod Jessica Killin gets a much deserved designation from the DCCC, will it be enough to flip a district Democrats haven’t won since it was drawn over 50 years ago? And, finally, should Colorado decriminalize prostitution, make it easier to understand the fiscal impacts of ballot measures, or keep hunting for Scott Bottoms’ alleged state capitol pedophile ring? We’ve got an update from 200 E Colfax for all your legislative lunatics.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!
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