450 episodes

Welcome to Playbook Deep Dive, the stories behind the power. From Congress and the White House to bar stools and back rooms, POLITICO Playbook’s Ryan Lizza brings you interviews with the most compelling and important figures who explain what’s really going on in Washington.

Playbook Deep Dive POLITICO

    • Politics
    • 1.5 • 2 Ratings

Welcome to Playbook Deep Dive, the stories behind the power. From Congress and the White House to bar stools and back rooms, POLITICO Playbook’s Ryan Lizza brings you interviews with the most compelling and important figures who explain what’s really going on in Washington.

    Inside the WSJ’s ‘very intense’ effort to free Evan Gershkovich

    Inside the WSJ’s ‘very intense’ effort to free Evan Gershkovich

    A year ago today, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Russia and charged with espionage, an allegation he and the Journal said was absurd. The State Department declared that Gershkovich was “wrongfully detained,” an official status that commits the Biden administration to work for his release.

    Journal publisher Almar Latour has played a key role in the legal and diplomatic effort to free Gershkovich. On this episode of Playbook Deep Dive, host and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza talks with Latour to learn the inside story of this effort.

    They discuss: how the shadow of basketball star Brittney Griner’s detainment in Russia is influencing talks to bring Evan home; why a Russian hitman serving a life sentence in Germany may be the key to unlocking a deal with Putin; and how the 2024 election may affect Gershkovich’s fate.

    • 28 min
    The new politics of Israel dividing Biden’s Democratic Party

    The new politics of Israel dividing Biden’s Democratic Party

    The politics of the Israel-Hamas war have become one of the most divisive issues in the Democratic Party. Mark Mellman, the president of Democratic Majority of Israel – and a longtime pollster – joins host and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza to get into the weeds on the new politics of Israel within the Democratic Party.

    Other subjects covered include the polling data behind Biden’s age, Trump’s hold on the GOP, double doubters, abortion, the fate of Nikki Haley voters, and whether you should bother paying attention to polls in the first place.

    • 49 min
    Kellyanne Conway’s advice to Republicans on abortion & TikTok

    Kellyanne Conway’s advice to Republicans on abortion & TikTok

    TikTok, abortion, and IVF: three of the biggest issues in American politics right now and Kellyanne Conway is in the middle of all of them.

    Conway has been advising Donald Trump and Mike Pence for years and lately she’s best known for urging the GOP to leave TikTok alone and moderate the party’s message on reproductive rights.

    On this episode of Deep Dive, host and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza has a spirited conversation with Conway at POLITICO’s Health Care Summit, where they recorded Deep Dive’s first-ever live show.

    • 25 min
    The secrets of Jill Biden’s East Wing

    The secrets of Jill Biden’s East Wing

    First ladies are among the most powerful advisers in any White House and Jill Biden is no exception. On this episode of Deep Dive, host and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza is joined by NYT White House correspondent Katie Rogers, who recently published “American Woman: The Transformation of the Modern First Lady, from Hillary Clinton to Jill Biden,” an authoritative account of how this century’s first ladies have influenced the nation.

    Ryan and Katie discuss Jill Biden and Melania Trump’s roles in staffing, campaigning, and policy decisions; sensitive items from their times in the White House, such as Melania and Donald’s prenup; and whether or not Jill Biden has ever forgiven Kamala Harris for what she said about Joe in 2020. Additionally, Katie opened up about the time her editors at the New York Times sent her to Arkansas and forced her to report a story about the Bidens that she didn’t want to cover — and how it ended up forcing Jill and Joe to confront an uncomfortable truth about their family.

    • 45 min
    How Washington’s top book critic reads between 2024’s political lines

    How Washington’s top book critic reads between 2024’s political lines

    Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Carlos Lozada reads political books so that you don’t have to. Here’s what he learned from his close reading of Trump, Biden, Obama and more, and what it reveals about the future of our politics.

    • 53 min
    Nancy Mace’s main character energy

    Nancy Mace’s main character energy

    Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) has a way of being in the middle of things, whether it’s standing up to Trump after Jan. 6 when many in her party kept quiet, helping overthrow House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, or warning Republicans about how they were wrong when it comes to the politics of abortion.

    But some of that drama is catching up with Mace back home in South Carolina, which on Saturday will be the center of the political world as voters head to the polls in the state’s presidential primary. Mace is now back in Trump’s corner and facing a primary which features not one but two candidates at least partly motivated by revenge: a candidate backed by McCarthy and Mace’s own former chief of staff.

    On this episode of Deep Dive, host and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza talks to Rep. Mace about her on-again, off-again history with Trump; the revenge plots playing out in her primary; her prediction about Trump’s margin of victory on Saturday; and the backstory to that time she wore a giant scarlet “A” on the House floor.

    • 46 min

Customer Reviews

1.5 out of 5
2 Ratings

2 Ratings

Talik3 ,

Used to be good

Originally this was a good podcast, but lately the editors started to incorporate these weird sound effects and soundtracks a-la-This-American-Life which I found distracting, unrelated and amateurish. I’ve unsubscribed and will try to be satisfied with the Politico website.

Top Podcasts In @@categoryName@@

POLITICO Playbook Daily Briefing
POLITICO
Power Play
POLITICO
POLITICO's Pulse Check
POLITICO
POLITICO's Off Message
POLITICO
POLITICO
POLITICO
POLITICO Tech
POLITICO

You Might Also Like

POLITICO Playbook Daily Briefing
POLITICO
FiveThirtyEight Politics
ABC News, 538, FiveThirtyEight, Galen Druke
Political Gabfest
Slate Podcasts
The Political Scene | The New Yorker
WNYC Studios and The New Yorker
POLITICO Tech
POLITICO
The Daily Punch
Punchbowl News