Meet Nancy Pelosi (PODCAST)

“[An] illuminating new biography of the most powerful woman in American politics.”

―Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times Book Review

On Real Washington, the weekly podcast I co-host with Michael Zeldin, radio and television commentator and the host of That Said with Michael Zeldin on CommPRO, we interviewed Molly Ball, Time Magazine’s National Political Correspondent, political analyst for CNN, and a regular guest on the Sunday political talk shows. She is the author of the New York Times’ best seller Pelosi,  just out in paperback this week—and kindly spent three-quarters of an hour with us, offering an insider’s view of Nancy Pelosi, the first woman Speaker of the House, one of the most powerful people in Washington and a consummate vote counter. In the modern political era, there have been few successful speakers for either the Democrats or Republicans, unable to unify their parties, despite Herculean efforts. Speaker Pelosi is a throwback to the rarified skill of vote counting, able to get every last bit of legislation into the compromise. In an age when more attention is paid to television appearances, rallies and 24/7 campaigning, Speaker Pelosi knows how to get things done. Not the least of her skills is exhaustive listening.Molly traces the speaker from her rise in a working-class Catholic neighborhood where she was “raised to be a nun” and the lessons she learned from her Baltimore political family, to helping to build the modern Democratic Party and how she works with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to effectively deal with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in a highly partisan age. All politics are neutral; this biography provides exceptional insights into one of the great and underrated political leaders of our time. Molly is a joyous interview who shares terrific stories along with brilliant political understanding and a few laughs. Join us, won’t you?

Richard Levick

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