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The Conversation with Dasha Burns

The Conversation with Dasha Burns

By: POLITICO
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 The Conversation with POLITICO’s Dasha Burns is a fresh take on the traditional Sunday show format, going beyond conventional wisdom and short sound bites to broaden the political conversation. Each week, Dasha will sit down with one of the most compelling – and sometimes unexpected – power players in Washington and beyond for a real discussion about how they are shaping the current moment.All rights reserved Political Science Politics & Government
Episodes
  • FDA Head Marty Makary on Food Dyes, Ultra-Processed Foods and the MAHA Agenda

    FDA Head Marty Makary on Food Dyes, Ultra-Processed Foods and the MAHA Agenda
    Jul 27 2025
    Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Martin Makary is getting lobbied by the MAHA movement to restrict food dyes and ultra-processed foods, as well as by the food, agriculture and pharmaceutical industries to reduce government oversight. “We want to go bold and there are a lot of things to do,” Makary tells POLITICO’s Dasha Burns. “But we also want to find common ground and work incrementally.” At the same time, he says, “The amount of pressure I feel from industry or other branches of government is zero.” Makary also discusses how the agency is addressing women’s health and access to mifepristone, what he calls a “child vaping epidemic,” and explains the rationale behind FDA staffing cuts as well as some controversial hires. Plus, White House reporter Jake Traylor joins Burns to discuss the mood inside the White House amid the fallout over the Jeffrey Epstein story, why President Trump is “itching” to get back on the campaign trail ahead of the 2026 midterms and whether GOP candidates in swing districts will welcome him. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    51 mins
  • Sen. Eric Schmitt on being a White House whisperer and Senate budget reformer

    Sen. Eric Schmitt on being a White House whisperer and Senate budget reformer
    Jul 20 2025
    Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt is a lawyer, former state attorney general and a skilled navigator of the old — and new — wings of the Republican Party. He also has another title: White House whisperer. Schmitt joins POLITICO’s Dasha Burns to talk about his closeness with the Trump administration, driving the Senate’s $9.4 billion rescissions bill, his involvement with passing Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” his belief in Medicaid reform, the controversy over the release of the Epstein files and what he describes as his “America First” — but not isolationist — foreign policy approach. “I think a slur that's often uttered is that it's an isolationist point of view,” Schmitt told Burns. “That's not true at all.” (Note: This interview was conducted before the Senate and House passage of the rescissions bill.) Plus, POLITICO reporter Ben Jacobs digs into his reporting on social media influencers running for office and how the phenomenon is reshaping electoral politics. Listen and subscribe to The Conversation with Dasha Burns on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    42 mins
  • Trump Border Czar Tom Homan: ‘There Will Be No Amnesty’

    Trump Border Czar Tom Homan: ‘There Will Be No Amnesty’
    Jul 13 2025
    Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, is a longtime immigration law enforcement official now tasked with helping implement the administration’s massive deportation campaign. In a wide-ranging interview with POLITICO’s Dasha Burns, Homan explains what will be done with the $170 billion recently passed by Congress to help the effort, defends the tactics of ICE agents, and has a message for those who say undocumented farmworkers should be spared. “People who say ‘don't arrest workers,’ they don't understand the whole ugly underbelly of illegal immigration the way I do,” he tells Burns. Plus, on the one year anniversary of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, PA, journalist Salena Zito shares her first-hand account as described in her new book, “Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America's Heartland.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 5 mins
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