448 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

    • News
    • 4.1 • 1.4K 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.

    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
    Jim Himes on satellites, space nukes and Section 702

    Jim Himes on satellites, space nukes and Section 702

    Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, joins host and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza to discuss everything you might want to know about Russian space weapons, Section 702 reforms, and the behind-the-scenes action at the Intelligence Committee during a week of extraordinary volatility.

    • 45 min
    Chris Murphy's untold border bill backstory

    Chris Murphy's untold border bill backstory

    Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) was the Democratic lead on the much anticipated bipartisan border legislation that was supposed to sail through the Senate and unlock funding for the war in Ukraine. But everything went sideways this week when Republicans, at Donald Trump’s insistence, abruptly turned against the bill. On this episode of Deep Dive, Sen. Murphy tells host and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza what really happened behind the scenes in the negotiations that assembled the bill and how things unraveled so fast.

    • 36 min

Customer Reviews

4.1 out of 5
1.4K Ratings

1.4K Ratings

The Mad Moleman ,

Consistently Excellent

If you want to understand how policymaking and politics really works Playbook Deep Dive is the podcast. Guests are frequently not the most famous politicos that you see regularly on mainstream media but rather politicians, staffers, civil servants, and consultants that are doing much of the real policymaking work. And Lizza is consistently amazing in his questioning to get down to what the real situation is and how the process is working (or not working); and often learning a small bit of personal information that humanizes his guests. I consistently look forward to the pod dropping every Friday.

Balling penguin ,

Kelly Ann Conway

Giving a voice to KAC ( who gave us alternative facts, circular logic, lies, and what-aboutism), is a new low! Great job! I couldn’t hit the unsubscribe button fast enough!

nbvc75432$@& ,

Kelly Anne Conway

Is a puppet for trump- I can listen to Hannity if I want a brainwashed lecture, uncontested by the interviewer.

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