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Conduit Street Podcast
by Maryland Association of Counties
From the halls of the State House to the heart of county government, the Conduit Street Podcast breaks down the decisions shaping Marylanders’ daily lives. Produced by the Maryland Association of Counties (MACo), this weekly podcast offers smart, accessible insights on the latest state and local policy — with counties always at the center. Explore how legislation, executive actions, and agency decisions affect essential public services like education, infrastructure, public safety, health, and other core functions that matter most to Maryland residents. With special guests from across the state and the occasional world-famous dad joke, Conduit Street keeps you informed, engaged, and ready for what’s next. Whether you’re a policymaker, a public servant, or just policy-curious, this is your front-row seat to Maryland’s political landscape.
Episodes
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The Briefing Room: The Real Deal on Land Banking
Send us Fan Mail What if vacant and abandoned properties could become opportunities for new housing and neighborhood revitalization? In Episode 14 of The Briefing Room, MACo's Dominic Butchko and co-host Terry Hickey, Director of Baltimore County's Department of Housing and Community Development,...
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Prediction Markets, AI Agents, and Who Sets the Rules
Send us Fan Mail From betting on election outcomes to AI agents acting on their own, emerging technologies are raising new questions about regulation, accountability, and the role of government. On this week's Conduit Street Podcast, Kevin Kinnally and Michael Sanderson welcome back Ben Yelin of...
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The Briefing Room: Breaking Down Private Equity in Housing
Send us Fan Mail Private equity has become an increasingly prominent part of the housing conversation, but its role is often more complicated than the headlines suggest. In Episode 13, Dom and Terry welcome Dave Bramble, Managing Partner of MCB Real Estate, to break down how private equity fits...
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Blueprint Check-In: The Local School Board Perspective
Send us Fan Mail Five years into the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, how are local school boards navigating the challenges of turning statewide education reforms into reality? In the latest installment of the Conduit Street Podcast’s education reform series, MACo’s Sarah Sample sits down with...
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The Briefing Room: The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act
Send us Fan Mail For much of this series, the housing conversation has centered on what states, counties, developers, and lenders can do to make projects work. But this summer, the federal government reentered the debate in a significant way. In Episode 12, Dom and Terry sit down with Congressman...
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News or Noise? What Matters Now, What Comes Next
Send us Fan Mail The Conduit Street monthly roundup of “News or Noise?” is back, as we dig into the headlines from recent weeks, looking for the real takeaways. The Governor takes action on AI and data centers. The State adjusts its revenue forecast. The Family Leave program prepares for its...
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The Briefing Room: A Ton of Talk About TIFs
Send us Fan Mail Tax Increment Financing (TIF) can be a powerful tool for supporting development, but it can also be one of the more misunderstood pieces of local economic and housing policy. In Episode 11, Dom and Terry break down how TIF works, why jurisdictions use it, and how future tax…
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Blueprint Check-In: The Educators’ View
Send us Fan Mail Five years into implementation of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, how is Maryland’s sweeping education reform plan affecting the people responsible for bringing it to life in classrooms and schools across the state? Sarah Sample continues her Conduit Street Podcast series...
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The Briefing Room: Baltimore City’s War on Vacancy
Send us Fan Mail For decades, vacant and abandoned properties have been one of Baltimore City’s most persistent challenges. Now, the numbers are moving in a different direction. Vacant homes have fallen from more than 16,000 to fewer than 12,000 during Mayor Brandon Scott’s time in office, while...
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Blueprint Check-In: The Superintendents’ View
Send us Fan Mail Five years into implementation of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, Maryland’s sweeping education reform plan is approaching a pivotal moment. On this episode of the Conduit Street Podcast, Sarah Sample kicks off a new series examining how the Blueprint is playing out on the...
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The Briefing Room: All Bangers, No Mash
Send us Fan Mail Housing’s biggest challenges rarely have a single solution. What happens when you stop talking about the housing problem and start kicking the tires on possible solutions? In Episode 9, Dom and Terry are joined by Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development Secretary...
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Local Revenue Flexibility Takes Center Stage
Send us Fan Mail This week on the Conduit Street Podcast, Kevin Kinnally and Michael Sanderson break down the latest from Maryland’s Local Revenue Task Force and the options on the table as it considers how to modernize county and municipal revenue structures. They dig into property tax...
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The Briefing Room: The Hemlock Grove Playbook
Send us Fan Mail For the final episode of The Briefing Room's housing finance series, the conversation heads west to Garrett County, where local leaders are putting many of the tools explored throughout the series into practice. Dom Butchko and Baltimore County Housing and Community Development...
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News or Noise: Blueprint Pressure, AI Surveillance, and College Sports
Send us Fan Mail Summer Conference is in the rearview mirror, but many of the conversations shaping Maryland policy are just getting started. In the latest round of News or Noise, Kevin Kinnally and Michael Sanderson are joined by Sarah Sample for a look at the headlines, policy debates, and...
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The Briefing Room: Preservation as a Housing Strategy
Send us Fan Mail Building new housing is only part of the affordability challenge. Counties also need tools to preserve the affordable homes already in their communities. In Episode 7 of The Briefing Room's housing finance series, Dom Butchko and Terry Hickey are joined by Jonathan R. Butler,...
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Summer MACoCon Is Over but the Conversations Continue
Send us Fan Mail The 2026 Summer MACoCon might be over, but many of the conversations that filled the convention center's halls are ongoing. In this episode of the Conduit Street Podcast, Shantelle Malcolm-Lym is joined by Karrington Anderson and Dominic Butchko to look back at what stood out at...
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Special Bonus Episode: Frederick County's Data Center Playbook
Send us Fan Mail Following the response to The Briefing Room's energy series, we're revisiting one of the topics that generated the most listener interest: data centers. In this special bonus episode, Dom Butchko is joined by Frederick County Executive Jessica Fitzwater to discuss why Frederick...
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The Briefing Room: The Office-To-Housing Challenge
Send us Fan Mail Converting empty offices into housing sounds like a straightforward way to address two challenges at once, but the financial and physical realities are often far more complicated. In Episode 6 of The Briefing Room’s housing finance series, Dom Butchko and Terry Hickey are joined…
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News or Noise: Redistricting, Revenue, and NBA Hot Takes
Send us Fan Mail Every month, the Conduit Street Podcast separates the headlines that matter from the stories generating more attention than action. Let's take a look at where things stand as July comes to an end. In this edition of News or Noise, Kevin Kinnally, Michael Sanderson, and Karrington...
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The Briefing Room: Smith Island Cake Effect
Send us Fan Mail Housing costs rarely rise because of one single policy, fee, or requirement. More often, they build layer by layer until the numbers no longer work. Capturing a Maryland icon, a housing advocate started to tag the layer-upon-layer of process as the "Smith Island Cake Effect." In...
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Healthy Communities With the American Heart Association
Send us Fan Mail Public Health is about more than hospitals and healthcare; it's also about the policies that help people live healthier lives every day. This week on the Conduit Street Podcast, Michael Sanderson and Karrington Anderson are joined by Laura Hale, State Government Relations…
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The Briefing Room: Inside the Private Side of Housing Finance
Send us Fan Mail Building affordable housing takes more than public funding. Private lenders and investors play a critical role in turning plans into completed projects. In Episode 4 of The Briefing Room's housing finance series, Dom Butchko and Terry Hickey are joined by Jordan Bishop of...
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The Briefing Room: The State's Role in Solving Maryland's Housing Crisis
Send us Fan Mail Over the first two episodes of our housing finance series, Dom Butchko and Terry Hickey explored how affordable housing projects are financed and why today's economic conditions make development more challenging. In Episode 3, the conversation turns to the public sector. Joined…
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Special Edition: The Briefing Room Talks Data Centers, Fact vs. Fiction
Send us Fan Mail Instead of this week's regular Conduit Street Podcast, we're bringing you a bonus episode of The Briefing Room in response to a high-interest topic from our recent energy series. Data centers quickly became one of the most popular topics in our energy series, so Dom Butchko and...
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The Briefing Room: Why Housing Costs More Than Ever
Send us Fan Mail Housing projects do not rise or fall only on land, design, or political will. They also rise or fall with the cost of capital, aka the capital stack. In Episode 2 of The Briefing Room, Dom Butchko and Terry Hickey are joined by Brian McLaughlin, entrepreneur and Board Member of…
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News or Noise: Maryland Primaries, Power Shifts, and What Comes Next
Send us Fan Mail This month’s News or Noise dives into the biggest political developments coming out of Maryland’s June primary elections, and what they could mean for county government, legislative priorities, and the 2027 General Assembly. Kevin Kinnally, Michael Sanderson, and Karrington...
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The Briefing Room: Before the Bricks, the Financial Realities of Housing
Send us Fan Mail After wrapping our series on Maryland’s energy future, The Briefing Room turns to another defining challenge for counties: housing. In Episode 1 of our new housing finance series, Dom Butchko is joined by Terry Hickey, Baltimore County’s Director of Housing & Community…
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From Maryland to Missouri, County Issues Align
Send us Fan Mail This week on the Conduit Street Podcast, Michael Sanderson is joined by Steve Hobbs, Executive Director of the Missouri Association of Counties, for a conversation on the issues shaping county government across state lines From property tax pressures and housing affordability to...
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Different States, Similar County Challenges
Send us Fan Mail This week on the Conduit Street Podcast, Dominic Butchko and Kevin Kinnally record from the Conference of Southern County Associations (CSCA) in Williamsburg, Virginia, joined by county leaders and policy experts from across the South for a discussion on the issues shaping local...
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The Briefing Room Ep 5: The Annapolis Energy Agenda
Send us Fan Mail In the final episode of The Briefing Room energy series, host Dom Butchko turns the conversation to Annapolis and the broader policy choices shaping Maryland’s energy future. Joined by Delegate David Fraser-Hidalgo, Chair of the House Energy Subcommittee, the episode looks at how...
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The Briefing Room Ep 4: The Data Center Dilemma
Send us Fan Mail In Episode 4 of The Briefing Room, we continue our five-part energy series with a closer look at one of the fastest-growing and most controversial issues facing state and local governments: data centers. Host Dom Butchko is joined by Joe Lerch, Director of Local Government Policy...
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May in Maryland: What's News, What's Noise?
Send us Fan Mail We're back with another special edition of the Conduit Street Podcast, with the MACo team taking up several issues from this month's headlines, and trying to sort out which are the real stories (news) and which are more smoke than fire (noise). Hosts Kevin Kinnally, Michael...
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The Briefing Room Ep 3: Where Our Power Comes From
Send us Fan Mail In Episode 3 of The Briefing Room, Maryland’s energy picture comes into sharper focus. Host Dom Butchko is joined by Public Service Commission Chair Kumar Barve to unpack one of the biggest questions facing the state: where does our power actually come from? From fossil fuels and...
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Maryland Mail-In Ballot Questions, Answered
Send us Fan Mail This week on the Conduit Street Podcast, Kevin Kinnally and Michael Sanderson break down the recent vendor issue involving Maryland's mail-in ballots for the June 23 gubernatorial primary and walk through what county officials and voters need to know moving forward. The...
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The Briefing Room Ep 2: How PJM Shapes Maryland’s Energy Future
Send us Fan Mail In Episode 2 of The Briefing Room’s energy series, Dom Butchko sits down with Jason Stanek, Executive Director of Governmental Services at PJM Interconnection, to unpack the role of energy regions in Maryland’s power future. The conversation breaks down what PJM is, how it works...
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Service, Strategy, and Next Steps - A Conversation With Senator Sara Love
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the Conduit Street Podcast, host Dom Butchko sits down with Senator Sara Love for a wide-ranging conversation on public service, legislative strategy, and the issues shaping Maryland policy. Senator Love discusses her path to elected office, her approach to...
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Maryland by the Numbers: The Latest UMBC Poll With Mileah Kromer
Send us Fan Mail This week on the Conduit Street Podcast, Kevin Kinnally and Dominic Butchko sit down with Dr. Mileah Kromer, director of the Institute of Politics at UMBC, to break down the latest UMBC Poll releases and what they reveal about Maryland voters heading into the 2026 election cycle....
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The Briefing Room Ep 1: Who Really Controls Maryland’s Energy?
Send us Fan Mail The Conduit Street Podcast is launching something new. Introducing The Briefing Room, a new limited series designed to take a deeper dive into the complex policy issues shaping Maryland’s counties. In this first episode, host Dominic Butchko kicks off a multi-part series on…
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News or Noise? Breaking Down Maryland’s 2026 Session
Send us Fan Mail This week on the Conduit Street Podcast, longtime hosts Kevin Kinnally and Michael Sanderson are "back in the saddle" with a post-session "news or noise" breakdown of what really mattered, and what didn't, from Maryland's 2026 legislative session. From a quieter-than-usual budget...
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90 Days Later; Sine Die Recap
Send us Fan Mail This Week on the Conduit Street Podcast, we bring you an episode fresh from Sine Die to break down the 2026 legislative session from start to finish. With major leadership shakeups before session even began, a fast-moving 90 days, and plenty of last-minute fireworks, this year…
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Elections, Federal Executive Orders, and What’s Real
Send us Fan Mail This week on the Conduit Street Podcast, Kevin Kinnally sits down with Maryland State Administrator of Elections, Jared DeMarinis, to cut through the noise surrounding recent federal election activity and what it actually means for Maryland. From executive orders to the SAVE Act…
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Puzzle Pieces of the Balanced Budget
Send us Fan Mail This week on the Conduit Street Podcast, Kevin Kinnally and Michael Sanderson break down where Maryland’s budget and “Big BRFA” stand as the General Assembly enters its final weeks. As usual, their conversation covers a wide range of issues. From the teacher pension cost shift…
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A Day in the Life at MACo: Legislative Session Edition
Send us Fan Mail As Maryland’s legislative session approaches crossover, MACo’s policy team is deep in the work of shaping legislation that affects counties across the state. In this episode of the Conduit Street podcast, Michael Sanderson is joined by Karrington Anderson and Charlotte…
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Session Updates on Housing, Budget Pressure, and the Road to Crossover
Send us Fan Mail This week on the Conduit Street Podcast, we check in on the 2026 Maryland General Assembly session as lawmakers approach the critical crossover deadline. MACo’s Michael Sanderson, Dominic Butchko, and Kevin Kinnally break down where things stand in Annapolis, including the state...
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Educating the Next Generation of Public Leaders
Send us Fan Mail On this episode of the Conduit Street Podcast, Michael Sanderson sits down with Dr. Roger E. Hartley of the University of Baltimore’s College of Public Affairs for a wide-ranging discussion on the future of public service in Maryland. Hartley reflects on his decade as dean and...
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Local Leaders Rally To Avoid Highway User Revenue Cliff
Send us Fan Mail As Maryland lawmakers weigh how to address a looming transportation “cliff,” local leaders are sounding the alarm about what’s at stake for local roads and bridges. In this special episode of the Conduit Street Podcast, hosts Michael Sanderson and Shantelle Malcolm-Lym bring...
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The Governor’s Budget and the County Bottom Line
Send us Fan Mail In this week’s episode of the Conduit Street Podcast, our familiar hosts Kevin Kinnally and Michael Sanderson take the microphone to walk us through Governor Wes Moore’s proposed FY27 budget and the accompanying Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act – or as Michael likes to…
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County Health on the Front Lines
Send us Fan Mail As flu season intensifies and public health misinformation continues to circulate, counties remain on the front lines of protecting community health. In this episode of the Conduit Street Podcast, Michael Sanderson and Karrington Anderson are joined by Dr. Meena Brewster, Health...
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Setting the Stage for 2026: Affordability, County Priorities, and an Election Year Shift
Send us Fan Mail As Maryland heads into the 2026 General Assembly session, county governments are confronting a familiar challenge, but with sharper edges. In this episode of the Conduit Street Podcast, MACo’s Kevin Kinnally, Michael Sanderson, and Dominic Butchko break down why affordability is...
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Exelon Talks Energy Security and Rising Costs in Maryland
Send us Fan Mail As Maryland heads toward another consequential legislative session, energy policy is once again front and center, and counties are feeling the pressure. In this episode of the Conduit Street Podcast, hosts Kevin Kinnally and Dominic Butchko are joined by Valencia McClure, Senior...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
From the halls of the State House to the heart of county government, the Conduit Street Podcast breaks down the decisions shaping Marylanders’ daily lives. Produced by the Maryland Association of Counties (MACo), this weekly podcast offers smart, accessible insights on the latest state and local policy — with counties always at the center.
Explore how legislation, executive actions, and agency decisions affect essential public services like education, infrastructure, public safety, health, and other core functions that matter most to Maryland residents. With special guests from across the state and the occasional world-famous dad joke, Conduit Street keeps you informed, engaged, and ready for what’s next.
Whether you’re a policymaker, a public servant, or just policy-curious, this is your front-row seat to Maryland’s political landscape.
HOSTED BY
Maryland Association of Counties
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Conduit Street Podcast have?
Conduit Street Podcast currently has 389 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Conduit Street Podcast about?
From the halls of the State House to the heart of county government, the Conduit Street Podcast breaks down the decisions shaping Marylanders’ daily lives. Produced by the Maryland Association of Counties (MACo), this weekly podcast offers smart, accessible insights on the latest state and local...
How often does Conduit Street Podcast release new episodes?
Conduit Street Podcast publishes regularly with 389 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Conduit Street Podcast?
You can listen to Conduit Street Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Conduit Street Podcast?
Conduit Street Podcast is created and hosted by Maryland Association of Counties.
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