• Episode 11, The Senate Press Gallery, with Paul Kane
    Apr 13 2025

    Paul Kane is the senior congressional correspondent for the Washington Post and has been covering the Senate for 25 years.


    Host: Claude Berube, PhD

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    29 mins
  • Senator Robert C. Byrd, with Glenn Elliott
    Apr 5 2025

    A former aide to Senator Byrd, Glenn Elliott discusses the life and legacy in the Senate of Robert C. Byrd.


    Host: Claude Berube, PhD

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    24 mins
  • Episode 9: Stories of the Senate, with Dr. Donald Ritchie
    Mar 30 2025

    Dr. Don Ritchie, Historian Emeritus of the United States Senate shares stories of the Senate including the Senate press, Drew Pearson & Joe McCarthy, Robert Byrd, and others.


    Host: Claude Berube, PhD


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    50 mins
  • Episode 8: The Life & Library of Senator Margaret Chase Smith, with Dr. Chris O'Brien
    Mar 23 2025

    Chris O'Brien, PhD, Director of the Senator Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan, Maine, discusses her life and the collection available to researchers.


    Hosted by Claude Berube, PhD.


    Senator Smith's "Declaration of Conscience" speech can be found here: https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/margaretchasesmithconscience.html

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    28 mins
  • Episode 7: Senate Staff, with Alec Rogers
    Mar 16 2025

    Former Senate staff member Alec Rogers discusses the staff ecosystem in the Senate.

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    34 mins
  • Episode 6: Advise and Consent, with Kelly Johnston
    Mar 10 2025

    Kelly Johnston, former Secretary of the Senate, and host Claude Berube discuss the 1962 movie "Advise and Consent," based on Allen Drury's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1959 novel by the same name.


    There were some minor audio glitches in this episode.

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    39 mins
  • Episode 5: The Confirmation Process and Sherpas
    Mar 3 2025

    The guest for this episode, Dirk Maurer, is a retired Marine who earned his Juris Doctorate from GeorgetownUniversity Law Center. He has served in the Pentagon, appointed by the George W. Bush and first Donald Trump administrations three times as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense. At the beginning of the first Trump administration, he was responsible for overseeing the confirmation of all Department of Defense Senate-confirmed personnel and worked confirmations on the Presidential Transition team. He worked for three US Senators and as a Professional Staff Member on the Senate Armed Services Committee.


    Hosted by Claude Berube, PhD.

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    24 mins
  • Episode 4: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, with author John Gilstrap
    Feb 23 2025

    New York Times best-selling novelist and screenwriter John Gilstrap discusses the 1939 movie "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," about an idealistic young Senator played by Jimmy Stewart.


    In addition to his novels, Netflix is developing a movie about his early non-fiction work, "Six Minutes to Freedom."

    You can learn more about him and his works at www.johngilstrap.com


    The show is hosted by Claude Berube, PhD.

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    37 mins