Politics in Question

In this week's episode of Politics in Question, Lee and James chat with Soren Dayton about the importance of factions within Congress. Dayton is Director of American Governance Policy at the Foundation for American Innovation (FAI) and co-author of a new paper alongside James, Rebuilding Congress from Within: How Factions Facilitate Deliberation and Lawmaking (FAI, 2026).

How can factions help decentralize Congress's decision-making process? Where do factions come from? How do factions operate inside the House and Senate? These are some of the questions Lee and James explore in this week's episode. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com
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In this week’s episode of Politics in Question, Lee chats with Danielle Thomsen about the role of money in politics. Thomsen is a Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine and author of The Money Signal: How Fundraising Matters in American Politics (The University of Chicago Press, 2025).

How does our current fundraising landscape reinforce inequality in politics? Who typically donates to political campaigns? How has the role of money in politics evolved over the last decade? These are some of the questions Lee explores in this week’s episode. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com
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In this week’s episode of Politics in Question, Lee chats with Liz Suhay about the death and myth of the American Dream. Suhay is a professor of government in the School of Public Affairs at American University and the author of Debating the American Dream: How Explanations for Inequality Polarize Politics (Russell Sage Foundation, 2025).

Is the lack of the American Dream the fault of the individual or of systemic factors? What role does partisanship play in individuals’ beliefs about meritocracy? Why do we justify unfair systems? These are some of the questions Lee explores in this week’s episode. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com
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In this week’s episode of Politics in Question, Lee and James talk with their former co-host Julia Azari about the role of presidents in shaping of racial norms. Azari is a Professor of Political Science at Marquette University and author of Backlash Presidents (Princeton University Press, 2025).

How have presidents shaped racial norms? Why was President Andrew Johnson a “backlash president”? What role does Congress play in coalition-building and norm shaping? These are some of the questions Lee and James explore in this week’s episode.

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In this week’s episode of Politics in Question, Lee and James dive into the “moderate debate.” They discuss Lee’s recent Substack essay, The Moderation Debate Fiddles with 2% While Democracy’s Dimensionality Collapses.
Should parties move to the center? How do we define “moderate”? And what would it take to reinvigorate dimensionality in party politics? These are some of the questions Lee and James ask in this week’s episode.
Links to the previous episodes referenced:
Why do Americans use primary elections to select candidates for office? (featuring Robert Boatright)
How did the Great Migration help shape today's politics? (featuring Keneshia Grant)

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