Politically Re-Active

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Politically Re-Active with W. Kamau Bell and Hari Kondabolu
Politically Re-Active Season 2.jpeg
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Hosted by
Genre Politics
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Publication
Original release2016
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Website www.politicallyreactive.com

Politically Re-Active is a political comedy podcast hosted by comedians W. Kamau Bell and Hari Kondabolu. The left-leaning show, organized around guest interviews, launched in June 2016 and initially focused on the 2016 United States presidential election, but continued through October 2017. After a hiatus, it resumed in October 2020.

Contents

History

Bell and Kondabolu previously worked together on Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell , [1] with Bell hosting and Kondabolu serving as writer and correspondent. [2] The show grew out of conversations the two hosts were having by telephone and backstage at shows over the course of their careers as stand-up comedians. [3]

The first two seasons of Politically Re-Active were produced by First Look Media in collaboration with Slate's podcasting division, Panoply. [4] The show was First Look Media's first podcast. The third season was produced by Topic Studios and WarnerMedia Podcast Network. [5]

Schedule

The podcast debuted in June 2016. [2] Early episodes focused on the U.S. presidential campaign of 2016, with weekly episodes from June through the election in November. Politically Re-Active aired two post-election episodes in November 2016, then went on hiatus. [6] Season 2 began on March 15, 2017, and ended on October 5, 2017. [7] The show's third season debuted on October 5, 2020. [8] [9] [10] [11]

Format

The show consists of interviews and political comedy. Bell and Kondabolu "host (typically left-leaning) guests each week to try to understand the different ideologies that are shaping this election." [12] Wired described Politically Reactive as "mostly reasonable discussions with guests." [13] Topics of discussion have included dog-whistling, private prisons, presidential debates [14] and the Olympics. [15] Interviews are edited to insert occasional explanations from Bell and Kondabolu (introduced by Kondabolu saying, "Hold up, wait a minute!") to give additional context. [14]

Reception

ColorLines called it a "hilarious new politics podcast" [16] and The Guardian said of the debut, "Bell and Kondabolu are two of the sharpest, funniest political minds around, and based on the first episode, Politically Re-Active will be a great addition to the podcast roster." [17] In July The A.V. Club said the series had "start[ed] off strong," particularly praising the interview with Kathleen Hanna: "an altogether enjoyable episode that's also a nice primer on both feminism and mansplaining. If the first three episodes are any indication, Bell and Kondabolu are going to be a podcasting force to be reckoned with." [18] AlterNet called it "a seriously great podcast series...easily one of the most binge-worthy things I've listened to in recent memory, and already a runaway hit." [19]

In the first six episodes, Politically Re-Active made iTunes' top 15 chart. [20]

Episodes

Season 1

DateTitle
June 9, 2016Introducing Politically Re-Active
June 28, 2016 Dog Whistling with Ian Haney López
June 30, 2016 Private Prisons with Shane Bauer
July 6, 2016 Kathleen Hanna on 3rd Wave Feminism & Why She's "With Her"
July 13, 2016Pastor Michael McBride Says Stop Reaching for Whiteness
July 14, 2016 Robert Reich on Min. Wage, the Bern, & His Date with Hillary
July 20, 2016 Pramila Jayapal on Majority Minority Districts & Teaching Hari How to Dress Himself
July 27, 2016 Democracy Now's Amy Goodman Gives Us the Election Unfiltered
August 3, 2016How Van Jones Keeps His Cool in the Cable News Circus
August 10, 2016 dream hampton on Black Liberation in the Hour of Chaos
August 17, 2016David Daley on How Republicans Ratf**ked American Democracy
August 24, 2016 Dave Zirin on Loving and Hating the Olympics
August 30, 2016 Lindy West on Seeing Women as Real People
September 7, 2016 Shaun King on Controversy, Color, and Kaepernick
September 14, 2016 Jasiri X: Hip Hop and the Movement
September 15, 2016BONUS EPISODE: NoDAPL, Mailbag, & Our Old Pal Adam Mansbach
September 21, 2016Presidential Debate Tailgate with John Dickerson
September 28, 2016 Rachel Maddow on Donald Trump, Dick Cheney, and River Monsters
October 5, 2016 Rosa Clemente on Third Parties in a Broken System
October 12, 2016Comedian Zahra Noorbakhsh & Chicano Band Las Cafeteras
October 19, 2016 S. E. Cupp on being an Anti-Trump Conservative
October 26, 2016Dr. Jill Stein on Investing Your Vote
November 2, 2016Comedian Hasan Minhaj on New Brown America and His Superpowers
November 8, 2016Voting Day Update about This Week's Show!
November 10, 2016 Roxane Gay on Anger after the Election
November 17, 2016Facing the Future with CNN's Jake Tapper
November 23, 2016Presenting Maeve in America

Season 2

DateTitle
March 15, 2017Season Two?
March 29, 2017 Patrisse Khan-Cullors on Black Lives Matter & Resistance Under 45
April 5, 2017YouTube's Akilah Hughes on #BlackWomenAtWork & Feeding the Buzz
April 12, 2017Journalist Alia Malik on What We're Missing When We Talk About Syria
April 19, 2017Michael Skolnik on Being a White Woke Guy
April 27, 2017 Aasif Mandvi on the Gaslighting Presidency
May 4, 2017Getting Adversarial with Journalist Jeremy Scahill
May 11, 2017Political Analyst Angela Rye Calls It Like It Is
May 18, 2017 Kate Schatz and Miriam Klein Stahl on Rad American Women
May 25, 2017 Rashad Robinson & Color of Change Cancels Bill O'Reilly
June 1, 2017 Jill Filipovic on the Feminist Pursuit of Happiness
June 8, 2017Comedy in the Trump Era: 3 Comedians, a Professor, and Kamau's Mom
June 15, 2017 Naomi Klein Says "No Is Not Enough"
June 22, 2017 Janet Mock on Surpassing Certainty
July 6, 2017BONUS! Phoebe Robinson, Lindy West, Shane Bauer-Live at Clusterfest
July 13, 2017Street Heat w/ Congresswoman Barbara Lee & Linda Sarsour
July 20, 2017Hold Up, Wait a Minute: Twitter Feuds & Threat Models
July 27, 2017 Killer Mike of Run the Jewels on Allyship, Equity, and Apocalypse Preparation
August 3, 2017 Lewis Black, legendary political comedian is so angry, he won't even talk about 'you know who'. Now THAT'S angry!
August 10, 2017Is this what democracy looks like? Jake Tapper & Jessica Byrd give their take
August 17, 2017 Charlottesville: Why did this happen and how do we move forward?
August 19, 2017Bonus! Listeners respond to Charlottesville
August 24, 2017Smashing the Confederacy in the streets and on the screen
August 31, 2017 Roy Wood Jr. and Franchesca Ramsey fighting trolls with truth and satire
September 7, 2017Disaster Capitalism and How To Fight It, with Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Mustafa Santiago Ali
September 14, 2017Speaking with bell hooks and talking DACA
September 21. 2017 Neil de Grasse Tyson brings the universe down to Earth
September 28, 2017Writing for very smart brothas (including President Obama)
October 5, 2017What did we learn? With Alicia Garza and Wyatt Cenac

Season 3

DateTitle
October 5, 2020Catching up with Kamau & Hari
October 7, 2020The Four-Letter Word for 2020? Hope (with Alexandra Rojas and Desmond Meade)
October 14, 2020Insiders + Insurgents with Jon Lovett and Cori Bush
October 21, 2020Maria Hinojosa + The Case for Court-Packing
October 28, 2020Katie Porter! + Caroline Giuliani + Hari's Dad
November 4, 2020Election Re-Action with Alicia Garza
November 11, 2020Phoebe Robinson + The Electoral College's Slaveholder Math
November 18, 2020Sarah Cooper + Dr. Peter Hotez
December 2, 2020Ijeoma Oluo + Sarah Silverman
December 9, 2020The Georgia Episode with LaTosha Brown
December 16, 2020Daveed Diggs
January 6, 2021Georgia! + What the hell?
January 13, 2021Defund the Police 2021 + Trump's Twitter

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Kumar, Rashmee (August 3, 2016). "Hari Kondabolu: 'People want to laugh to deal with frustrations about the world'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on August 5, 2016. Retrieved August 5, 2016.
  2. 1 2 Dry, Jude (June 27, 2016). "Hari Kondabolu and W. Kamau Bell Get Political In New Comedy Podcast". Indie Wire. Archived from the original on August 3, 2016. Retrieved August 5, 2016.
  3. ↑ Sarah, Lakshmi (July 14, 2016). "Race, Identity and the (Digital) Airwaves: The Renaissance of POC-Hosted Podcasts". KQED Pop. Archived from the original on October 10, 2016. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
  4. ↑ Kulwin, Noah (June 27, 2016). "Pierre Omidyar's First Look Media and Slate are teaming up on podcasts, starting with W. Kamau Bell". Recode. Archived from the original on August 1, 2016. Retrieved August 5, 2016.
  5. ↑ "'Politically Re-Active' Will Restart After Two-Year Hiatus Under New Network". Insideradio.com. September 11, 2020. Archived from the original on October 21, 2020. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
  6. ↑ Acker, Mike (November 23, 2016). "Political comedian Hari Kondabolu brings tour to Portland: 'I don't hold back'". The Oregonian. Archived from the original on September 26, 2017. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
  7. ↑ "Politically Re-Active post". www.facebook.com. Archived from the original on June 24, 2022. Retrieved December 28, 2018.
  8. ↑ Bhavani, Divya Kala (October 13, 2020). "Hari Kondabolu : 'Politically Re-Active' will not be short on material this US election!". The Hindu. ISSN   0971-751X. Archived from the original on October 16, 2020. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
  9. ↑ Berkowitz, Joe (October 8, 2020). "'Politically Re-Active,' 2016's smartest political comedy podcast, is back for another historic election". Fast Company. Archived from the original on October 11, 2020. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
  10. ↑ Politically ReActive (October 5, 2020). "PREMIERING TOMORROW!". Twitter. Archived from the original on October 20, 2020. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
  11. ↑ "Politically Re-Active". Topic. Archived from the original on October 17, 2020. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
  12. ↑ Mausser, Grace (November 7, 2016). "In the Public Ear: Time to Pod-Cast Your Ballot". MediaFile. Archived from the original on November 30, 2016. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
  13. ↑ McFarland, K.M. (July 21, 2016). "Hari Kondabolu Is the Best Political Comedian You Don't Know Yet". Wired. Archived from the original on November 30, 2016. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
  14. 1 2 Jagannathan, Meera (October 19, 2016). "7 podcasts that will make your life better — especially if you like improv comedy, Lifetime movies or politics". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved January 23, 2017.
  15. ↑ Ober, Lauren (December 20, 2016). "Here Are Some Of Our Favorite Podcast Episodes Of 2016". NPR. Archived from the original on January 17, 2017. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  16. ↑ Rao, Sameer (June 29, 2016). "W. Kamau Bell and Hari Kondabolu Launch Election-Focused Podcast". ColorLines. Archived from the original on August 8, 2016. Retrieved August 7, 2016.
  17. ↑ Locker, Melissa (July 5, 2016). "This week's best podcasts: Serial's impact, Vox Tablet ends, FOUND begins". The Guardian. Archived from the original on August 13, 2016. Retrieved August 7, 2016.
  18. ↑ Browning, Laura M. (July 11, 2016). "W. Kamau Bell and Hari Kondabolu's Politically Re-Active begins with a bang". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on August 5, 2016. Retrieved August 5, 2016.
  19. ↑ Holloway, Kali (July 21, 2016). "Hari Kondabolu: America's Smartest and Funniest 'Mainstream Comic'". AlterNet. Archived from the original on July 25, 2016. Retrieved August 5, 2016.
  20. ↑ Tseng, Ada (July 25, 2016). "Mainstream comic? Hari Kondabolu is changing the definition". PRI. Archived from the original on July 28, 2016. Retrieved August 5, 2016.
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