Hosted by Gerry Shields
Gerry is a former longtime Washington correspondent and political writer for The New York Post, Baltimore Sun, and Philadelphia Inquirer and author of the new book: The Front Row: My Jagged Journey Recording American History from Reagan to Trump.
Episodes
Welcome to the Retail Politics Podcast. Without enough hand sanitizer for candidates to shake hands, let alone kiss voter babies, we redefine Retail Politics for the digital world, reaching you one download at a time. We’ll speak weekly for 30 minutes to politicians, academics, and reporters on the front lines of American political issues to help you choose best how your government should function.
S01E24 Dr. Andrew Kolodny, Politics of the Opioid Crisis
Despite 500,000 Americans dying from opioid painkiller overdoses in the last 25 years, prescriptions continue being written aggressively while the federal government fails to regulate it, a leading medical expert on the issue told the Retail Politics Podcast with Gerry Shields Sunday.
Dr. Andrew Kolodny, medical director of Opioid Policy Research at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, said the chief contributor to the crisis is the federal Food and Drug Administration, who approved the drugs and continues to fail to regulate them.
S01E23 Colm O’Comartun, Politics of Ireland
Great Britain has severed ties with the Economic Union in Europe – known as Brexit – whose impact is washing ashore on the island of Ireland and Northern Ireland, threatening to undermine economic gains that blossomed from the peace, said Colm O’Comartun, former director of the Irish Institute at Boston College.
“It exposed in many ways... how little the British government thinks about Northern Ireland,” O’Comartun told the Retail Politics Podcast with Gerry Shields. “They entered into the Brexit process without acknowledging or understanding constitutional and international agreements.”
S01E22 Daniel DiSalvo, Politics of Bullying
The current political troubles of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo – now accused of sexual harassment and fudging COVID nursing home death numbers -- stem back to the year 1512, said Daniel DiSalvo.
“The great Italian philosopher, Machiavelli’s phrase, was ‘choose to be loved or feared,’” the chair of the City College of New York’s political science department told the Retail Politics Podcast with Gerry Shields on Sunday.
S01E21 Ken Herman, Politics of a Texas Size Storm
“It was the most snow in Austin since 1949,” Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, Ken Herman of the Austin American-Statesman, told the Retail Politics Podcast with Gerry Shields on Sunday. “This impacted everyone in Texas in some way...It was an all-encompassing disaster you couldn’t escape.”
S01E20 Martin DeAngelis, Politics of Print Media
Award-winning newspaper columnist Martin DeAngelis, formerly of The Atlantic City Press, told the Retail Politics Podcast on Sunday that the purchase by Aldan Global Capital will likely result in staff and salary cuts to journalists already reeling from a drastic drop in newspaper circulations and the elimination of 50 percent of the print reporting workforce over the last 15 years.
S01E19 Gerry and Brad Celebrate President’s Day By Talking First Ladies
A special President’s Day edition of the Retail Politics Podcast with Gerry Shields celebrated the works of the nation’s 45 First Ladies, dubbing Eleanor Roosevelt, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's wife, as the gold standard.
S01E18 Paul Kane, Politics of the U.S. Senate
American Democrats’ rejoice over a Georgia Senator’s win last month giving them control of the Senate is being tempered by a chamber filibuster rule that leaves them ten votes short shy of passing President Biden’s legislative agenda.
Veteran Washington Post congressional correspondent Paul Kane explained the rule on the Retail Politics Podcast with Gerry Shields.
S01E17 Jim Steele, Politics of the U.S. Economy
The gap between the rich and poor in America is at levels not seen in more than a century as the nation wrestles -- both politically and economically -- over the question of public welfare versus private gain, a legendary investigative reporter said Sunday.
James B. Steele told the Retail Politics Podcast with Gerry Shields that tax breaks to the rich over the last 40 years have cut their individual contributions to the federal government in half while corporate tax rates have fallen 30 percent.
S01E16 Dennis Culhane, Politics of Homelessness
Dennis Culhane, the foremost expert on American homelessness, told the Retail Politics Podcast with Gerry Shields that the number of street homeless has spiked 75 percent in the last six years.
S01E15 September Penn
September Penn, the musical director for Dr. Clayborne Carson, who was commissioned by King’s wife, Coretta, to edit her husband’s papers, said on the weekly Retail Politics Podcast with Gerry Shields, the dream remains unfulfilled for too many.
S01E14 Pete Leffler, Politics of Fury
Leffler accurately predicted in September that Pennsylvania, which gave Trump the 20 electoral votes need to win in 2016, and Biden the same in November, would play the crucial role in the election. In addition, he stated at the time that Trump followers would claim the election was stolen and that there would be “blood on the streets.”
S01E13 Ken Herman, Politics of Texas
Ken Herman, Pulitzer prize-winning columnist for the Austin American-Statesman told the Retail Politics Podcast with Gerry Shields on Sunday that Texas changing back to Democratic blue is inevitable.
Holiday Wishes, from our host to your ears.
S01E12 Ray “The Loan Whisperer” Rau, Politics of Student Debt
Graduates carrying huge student debt are unable to qualify to buy homes, leaving them boxed out of participating in a major segment of the national economy, said Ray “The Loan Whisperer” Rau on the weekly Retail Politics Podcast with Gerry Shields.
S01E11 Mary Ganganna, Politics of Small Business
A Washington, D.C. small business owner said Sunday that Congress's delay to a second COVID economic relief bill would result in additional business bankruptcies.
Mary Ganganna, the DTS Transportation chauffeur services owner, told the Retail Politics Podcast with Gerry Shields that she faces financial ruin during political bickering.
Gary McLhinney, Politics of Policing
The former president of the Fraternal Order of Police in Baltimore -- one of America’s most violent cities -- called for more and better police training to reduce the number of deaths of unarmed African Americans.
Gary McLhinney, who also served as a Maryland police chief, told the Retail Politics Podcast with Gerry Shields broadcasting Sunday that academy racial sensitivity instruction is inadequate and needs to be enhanced.
S01E09 Mark Salter, Politics of McCain’s Arizona
Mark Salter, who worked for McCain for 18 years, stated on the Retail Politics Podcast with Gerry Shields that Biden’s win of Arizona by only about 10,000 votes was aided by former McCain backers angered at Trump.
S01E08 Kerry Hawk Lessard, Politics of Native America
On a special Thanksgiving edition of the Retail Politics Podcast with Gerry Shields reviewing the current state of Native America, Kerry Hawk Lessard said African Americans are inspiring the American Indian.
“On one hand, it’s sad that our voices have not been enough,” said Lessard, executive director of Native American Lifelines, an inner-city Indian health care agency. “We’ve been talking about these issues for decades, but that gave the push needed to get our issues before people.”
S01E07 Bill Cowles, Politics of Counting Votes
Bill Cowles, the supervisor of elections for Orange County, Florida, and a former member of the Federal Elections Commission Board of Advisors, said Florida is now the model for tabulating elections due to changes made after the historic Bush-Gore presidential election debacle of 2000.
S01E06 Troy Yocum, U.S. Veteran Suicides at Crisis Level
Troy Yocum, founder and president of the Kentucky non-profit, Active Heroes, stated on the weekly Retail Politics Podcast with Gerry Shields that the suicide number has climbed to 20 per day since COVID.