Eye on Congress:The Big Story

Filmmaker Dawn Porter’s documentaries run the spectrum of the political world and process, including Bobby Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign, the legacy of Congressman John Lewis, the Tulsa massacre, Civil War spies, abortion and more. Her latest project, the mini-series “Deadlocked,” is a history of the modern Supreme Court, from the Warren Court to the present, and how politics have changed the court, and how the court has changed politics.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

September is always stressful around Washington. Congress rarely even tries to pass its spending bills in time for the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. Throw in the House GOP’s impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden, and you have even more stress. Both topics, along with another developing wild card, redistricting, are likely to help define the 2024 campaign. We discuss with Nathan Gonzales, Roll Call’s campaign analyst and the publisher of Inside Elections. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With “Golda,” director Guy Nattiv depicts the story of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir’s leadership during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, bringing his affection for the paranoid thrillers of the 1970s to the screen during a time of heightened political tensions in Israel and the rest of the democratic world.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steve James is a documentary filmmaker whose body of work has taken him from "Hoop Dreams" to the 2008 financial crisis and more. His latest film, "A Compassionate Spy," is about Ted Hall, a physicist who worked at Los Alamos during World War II and helped develop the atomic bomb. You may have heard something or other about the bomb lately, with Christopher Nolan’s "Oppenheimer" in theaters now and creating buzz by the gallons. Hall’s story is just as important. He took what he learned at Los Alamos and shared it with the Soviet Union, an action that continues to reverberate.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's the difference between launching a political campaign on June 30 and July 10? Does it really matter? Here to explain why it does is Nathan Gonzales, Roll Call’s Election Analyst and the publisher of Inside Elections. We also talk about sharks, ditches and an unlikely double feature of "The Skulls" and "Back to School." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

June 24 marks the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade and the federal right to an abortion. Amanda Becker, a former Roll Caller who writes about politics for the 19th and just completed a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard, is writing a book about the immediate fallout of the decision. She joins the podcast to talk about her work and reporting.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Washington is a film capital, home to a diverse slate of festivals to match a diverse slate of interests and people. This week, the DC/DOX festival gets under way with dozens of documentary features on topics ranging from the war in Ukraine, the Supreme Court, Joan Baez, Steph Curry and more. DC/DOX co-founder Sky Sitney joins the podcast to talk about movies, creating a community and even Kim's Video. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Good documentaries tell stories that work on multiple levels. Filmmaker Ondi Timoner’s “Last Flight Home” does this by portraying a family as it prepares for the loss of its patriarch, who has chosen to end his life, and documenting a very specific time in our history, when the most personal medical and health care choices are the sources of monumental political debate. The fact that the family is Timoner’s gives the movie an extra resonance, and she is sharing not just the movie but her perspective on the politics surrounding it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Yellowstone" and its related series are a cultural phenomenon, and have provided Native Americans a voice and platform that breaks boundaries. Two of the actors in the series, Mo Brings Plenty and Michael Spears, discuss their recent visit to Capitol Hill, Native representation in movies and pop culture and what makes "Yellowstone" different.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The annual Capital Challenge foot race is a unique gathering of the three branches of government and the journalists who cover them: a three-mile, mid-week, morning race of about 600 people that raises money for youth financial literacy. But there is more going on beyond folks pounding the pavement. CQ Roll Call's Health Team Editor Jessica Wehrman, a long-time runner of the race herself, coordinated our many teams this year and lets us know how it all went. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It is a Roll Call tradition: identifying the most vulnerable House and Senate incumbents each election cycle. And for our first look at the franchise for 2024, we will discuss the 20 on the hot seat whom we have put on the list with Herb Jackson, Roll Call’s politics editor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The White House Correspondents Dinner, the crown jewel of Washington’s spring prom season, roared back this past week, freed from many of the physical and psychological restraints of the COVID pandemic. But the pandemic is but one of the many turning points in the dinner’s long history — which includes the Mummers. George Condon, the White House Correspondents Association historian and White House correspondent for National Journal, joins the podcast in the latest in our occasional series on D.C. institutions.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Joe Biden made it official this week: He is running for re-election. The 2024 presidential race will be determined largely in the same battlegrounds it did the last few elections. In some cases, that means the presidential race could have a down-ballot effect on competitive House and Senate races. Nathan Gonzales, publisher of Inside Elections and Roll Call’s elections analyst, joins the podcast to discuss.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ah, the Senate. Anything you think should be simple never really is. Democrats there are trying to figure out what to do about the extended absence of Sen. Dianne Feinstein from committee work. But they cannot just replace her on committees temporarily, as they sought to do this week. Why? Because the Senate is a continuing body subject to organizing resolutions that the chamber has to pass. And it is very easy to grind things to a halt in the Senate, even on something that seems routine.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The National Press Club is part of the fabric of Washington politics and news. It is a professional and social gathering place for people in the news, or people looking to make news, from Charlie Chaplin to Barack Obama. It’s got a complicated history, but it is also a key part of the battle for press freedoms across the globe. On this episode we’re dipping back into our series of explaining some of the institutions around Washington, this time with Herb Jackson, politics editor at Roll Call and vice chairman of the National Press Club’s board of governors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The country’s founders were big fans of separating the powers of the branches of government. The current tussles among Congress, the White House and the courts show that the debate over where one institution’s authority ends and another begins is as lively as ever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For decades, CQ has studied the votes of members of Congress and lined them up according to party unity, loyalty to the president, participation, and more. There is a lot that goes into it, and people around the world look to these studies to make sense of the legislative branch. Ryan Kelly and Herb Jackson from the CQ Roll Call newsroom discuss CQ’s annual vote studies.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Gridiron Club is one of Washington’s longest-standing journalism institutions. Founded in 1885, it is known for its annual dinner, a gathering of club members, fellow journalists and Washington elites. Normally shrouded in secrecy, the Gridiron is making news. National Journal’s George Condon discusses everything you wanted to know about the Gridiron, but were afraid to ask. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trump-first Republicans have CPAC. Never Trumpers have Principles First. And on one magical weekend, the two twain did meet, or at least met at roughly the same time. Roll Call political writers Mary Ellen McIntire and Daniela Altimari unpack these two disparate political hootenannies and their implications for the 2024 elections.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The documentary “The Smell of Money” chronicles several North Carolina families’ fight for environmental justice against pork producers whose facilities adversely affect their surrounding land. Senior CQ Roll Call writer Ellyn Ferguson discusses the film with its writer, Jamie Berger. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices