The Senate

Paul Kane is the senior congressional correspondent for the Washington Post and has been covering the Senate for 25 years.Host: Claude Berube, PhD

A former aide to Senator Byrd, Glenn Elliott discusses the life and legacy in the Senate of Robert C. Byrd.Host: Claude Berube, PhD

Dr. Don Ritchie, Historian Emeritus of the United States Senate shares stories of the Senate including the Senate press, Drew Pearson & Joe McCarthy, Robert Byrd, and others.Host: Claude Berube, PhD

Chris O'Brien, PhD, Director of the Senator Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan, Maine, discusses her life and the collection available to researchers.Hosted by Claude Berube, PhD.Senator Smith's "Declaration of Conscience" speech can be found here: https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/margaretchasesmithconscience.html

Former Senate staff member Alec Rogers discusses the staff ecosystem in the Senate.

Kelly Johnston, former Secretary of the Senate, and host Claude Berube discuss the 1962 movie "Advise and Consent," based on Allen Drury's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1959 novel by the same name.There were some minor audio glitches in this episode.

The guest for this episode, Dirk Maurer, is a retired Marine who earned his Juris Doctorate from GeorgetownUniversity Law Center. He has served in the Pentagon, appointed by the George W. Bush and first Donald Trump administrations three times as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense. At the beginning of the first Trump administration, he was responsible for overseeing the confirmation of all Department of Defense Senate-confirmed personnel and worked confirmations on the Presidential Transition team. He worked for three US Senators and as a Professional Staff Member on the Senate Armed Services Committee.Hosted by Claude Berube, PhD.

New York Times best-selling novelist and screenwriter John Gilstrap discusses the 1939 movie "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," about an idealistic young Senator played by Jimmy Stewart.In addition to his novels, Netflix is developing a movie about his early non-fiction work, "Six Minutes to Freedom."You can learn more about him and his works at www.johngilstrap.comThe show is hosted by Claude Berube, PhD.

Kelly Johnston discusses the role and history of Secretary of the Senate, a position in which he formerly served. https://kellyjohnston.substack.com/

Alan Frumin served in the Senate Parliamentarian's office longer than anyone in history. In this episode he explains the roles and authorities of the Senate Parliamentarian.

Dr. Dan Holt is an Associate Historian with the Senate Historical Office. In this episode, he discusses how the Founders conceptualized and formed the Senate through early debates.

This brief episode sets the vision for this series about the United States Senate, a non-partisan, non-political podcast about the history, culture, rules, procedures, and people of the Senate. Hosted by Claude Berube, PhD, an author and former professor. He previously created and hosted for four years the Preble Hall Naval History podcast.