It's the Democracy, Stupid Full Episodes
From Heartland Signal and WCPT AM 820 in Chicago, "The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath" is now "It's the Democracy, Stupid with Edwin Eisendrath." Each week Edwin and his guests get specific about politics, government, campaigns, and the kind of country all this work is meant to build. Join us live every Saturday from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central to be part of the conversation. About Edwin Edwin Eisendrath served two terms in Chicago’s City Council before being appointed Midwest Region Director of HUD by President Bill Clinton. He was subsequently appointed Federal Receiver in charge of the takeover and turnaround of the Chicago Housing Authority. Off the campaign trail, Edwin has worked in higher education and as a consultant to universities here and around the world. After the 2016 election cycle he knew he had to focus back home. He brought business and labor leaders together to rescue the Chicago Sun-Times and its subsidiary, the Chicago Reader. He ran the company as its CEO until both publications were saved. Back in the 1990s Bill Clinton’s campaign slogan, "It’s the economy, stupid," captured the biggest concern of the era. Today American democracy itself is under attack. So Edwin launched an effort called, "It’s the democracy, stupid." In addition to his radio show here on WCPT, Edwin has built a community around his political ideas on Substack, hosts a weekly show on Lincoln Square, and is a frequent guest on political shows. He remains deeply involved in democracy work. He is a proud Chicagoan, married to the journalist Jennifer Schulze.
Episodes
On this week's show
– Laura Belin, publisher, editor, and reporter for Bleeding Heartland, a community website focused on Iowa politics
– Chioma Chukwu, the executive director of American Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog organization that advances accountability and democracy by enforcing the public’s right to government records
– Eric Garcia, Washington bureau chief at The Independent
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On this week's show
– David DeWitt, Ohio Capital Journal editor-in-chief and opinion columnist
– David Smith, Washington bureau chief for the Guardian
– Kendall Scudder, chair of the Texas Democratic Party
– Will Bunch, national opinion columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer
Catch “It’s the Democracy, Stupid” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on ...
On this week's show
– Michael Mann, climatologist, geophysicist, and author of “Science Under Siege: How to Fight the Five Most Powerful Forces that Threaten Our World”
– Perla Trevizo, reporter with the ProPublica/Texas Tribune Investigative Initiative
– Gregory Royal Pratt, investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune; he is one of the Tribune reporters recently awarded, as Staff...
On this week's show
– Adam Klasfeld, founder and editor-in-chief of All Rise News
– Nicholas Grossman, teaching assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
– Daniel Nichanian, founder and editor-in-chief of Bolts
– Rev. Earle J. Fisher, Ph.D., senior pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church, founder of #UPTheVote90...
On this week's show Jill Wine-Banks fills in for Edwin and her guests are
– Lynn Sweet, Chicago Sun-Times Washington bureau chief
– Victor Shi, Gen Z activist/organizer, podcaster, and communications professional
– Jim Robenalt, author, presidential historian, lawyer, and regular contributor to Vanity Fair, The Washington Post, and Politico
– Rachel E. VanLandingham, professor of law and associat...
On this week's show
– Eric Garcia, Washington bureau chief at The Independent
– Brian Finucane, senior adviser with the U.S. Program at the International Crisis Group and a former attorney-adviser at the U.S. Department of State
– Jill Lawrence, opinion writer for The Bulwark and author of the History Keeps Happening Substack newsletter
– Dean Baker, co-founder and senior economist...
Edwin Eisendrath is joined by
– Ahmed Baba, independent journalist, political analyst, and founder of the best-selling Substack publication “Ahmed Baba News”
– Rachel Cohen, Chicago-based attorney and organizer
– Tim Murphy, national correspondent at Mother Jones; he talks about his recent article “Downballot Democrats Are Smashing Recruitment Records“
– P...
On this week's show
– Tamar Jacoby, director of the New Ukraine Project at the Progressive Policy Institute and contributor to Washington Monthly; her most recent article is “Could the Tide Be Turning Ukraine?”
– Elizabeth Jacobs, professor emerita of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and a founding member of the public health advocacy group Defend Public Health
– Br...
On this week's show
– Ari Berman, national voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones
– Mark Jacob, author of the Stop the Presses newsletter on Substack, former metro editor at the Chicago Tribune and Sunday editor at the Sun-Times, co-author of several books on history and photography
– Scott Colom, district attorney for the 16th Judicial District of Mississippi and 2026 candidate ...
On today's show
– Bill Scher, politics editor at Washington Monthly; his latest article is “The Platner Collapse Is a Cautionary Tale About Polling“
– Eesha Pendharkar, senior reporter for Maine Morning Star, part of States Newsroom; her latest article is “More than 5,500 Mainers seek a role in choosing Graham Platner’s replacement“
– David Smith, Washingt...
On this week's show
– Peter Gleick, water and climate scientist, author, and co-founder of The Pacific Institute
– U.S. Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL)
– Alex Aronson, co-founder and executive director of Court Accountability
– Will Bunch, national opinion columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer
Catch “It’s the Democracy, Stupid” Saturdays from 1:00 to...
Paul Chivari fills in for Edwin Eisendrath and his guests are
– William Muck, professor of political science at North Central College [Listen]
– Kevin Schultz, professor of history at UIC and author of “Why Everyone Hates White Liberals (Including White Liberals): A History” [Listen]
Paul also plays an interview Edwin recently recorded with The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols [Listen]
Ca...
On this week's show
– Jen Bendery, senior politics reporter for HuffPost
– Lisa Graves, founder and executive director of True North Research, legal scholar, and author of “Without Precedent: How Chief Justice Roberts and His Accomplices Rewrote the Constitution and Dismantled Our Rights“
– Adam Klasfeld, founder and editor-in-chief of All Rise News
– Virginia Cant...
On this week's show
– Maya Kornberg, senior research fellow in the Elections and Government Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, and the author of “Stuck: How Money, Media, and Violence Prevent Change in Congress“
– Greg Sargent, staff writer at The New Republic and the host of the podcast “The Daily Blast“, and author of “An Uncivil War: Taki...
On today's show
– Amanda Marcotte, senior writer at Salon
– Gillian Brockwell, independent journalist
– Sam Levine, reporter for the Guardian
– David DeWitt, Ohio Capital Journal editor-in-chief and opinion columnist
Catch “It’s the Democracy, Stupid” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/edwin).
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On this week's show
– Victor Ray, University of Iowa associate professor in the Departments of Sociology & Criminology and African American Studies and vice president of The American Sociological Association
– Ahmed Baba, independent journalist, political analyst, and founder of the best-selling Substack publication “Ahmed Baba News”
– Dan Friedman, senior reporter Mother Jo...
On this week's show
– Bobby Kogan, senior director of Federal Budget Policy at the Center for American Progress
– Gregg Carlstrom, Middle East correspondent at The Economist, and author of “How Long Will Israel Survive? The Threat From Within”
– Bill Scher, politics editor at Washington Monthly
– Jill Wine-Banks, legal analyst, former general counsel of ...
On this week's show:
– G. Elliott Morris, data-driven journalist, pollster, author of the Substack newsletter “Strength In Numbers” and the book “Strength in Numbers: How Polls Work and Why We Need Them”
– Aaron Parnas, independent journalist on TikTok and Substack
– Jonathan Larsen, veteran journalist, TV news producer, and Substack content creator offering “adversarial jour...
On this week's show
– Holly McCall, editor-in-chief of Tennessee Lookout
– Brian Lyman, editor of the Alabama Reflector
– Josh Orton, president of Demand Justice and former senior adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris
– Dr. Lisa Corrigan, social movement scholar, professor of communication at the University of Arkansas, and author of "Prison Power: How Prison Influenced the Movem...
On this week's show
– Kate Riga, reporter who covers the Supreme Court for TPM‘s Washington, D.C. bureau and co-hosts “The Josh Marshall Podcast“
– Dana Strohl, director of research for The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
– Oona A. Hathaway, Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law at Yale University
– Maaria Mozaffar,...
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