The Speaker is a New Limited-run Podcast Series That Offers Exclusive Access to Pelosi as She Reflects on Her Career and Life as She Exits Public Office
Episode One Drops September 16
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – As Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi prepares to leave Congress after 39 history-making years, KQED is dropping a five-part podcast exploring her political rise from a bruising first campaign in 1987, to her refusal to “wait her turn” for House leadership, culminating with an unprecedented two terms as Speaker of the House.
The Speaker builds on exclusive access to Pelosi in her final months in office. Over the course of five episodes, Pelosi reflects candidly on her career, the political obstacles she overcame, her adversarial relationship with President Trump, and the consequences that large-scale political battles have had on Americans, including her own family.
The series is hosted by Scott Shafer, KQED’s senior politics correspondent and co-host of the award-winning podcast Political Breakdown. A one-time press secretary under San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos and reporter who has covered local, state and national politics for KQED since 1998, Shafer brings the unique background of working in politics and government during Pelosi’s first run for Congress before becoming a journalist covering her.
Shafer sat down with Pelosi for hours of recorded conversations over the past four months. The series also features interviews with Pelosi’s family, political critics, and notable peers like Sen. Adam Schiff, Rep. Ilhan Omar, former Congressman and CIA director Leon Panetta, and Rahm Emanuel, who worked with Pelosi to lead Democrats in retaking the House majority in 2006 before becoming President Barack Obama’s chief of staff.
The series provides an enthralling narrative of Pelosi’s path to power starting as a young mother and grassroots organizer in San Francisco, to narrowly seizing a San Francisco House seat in a special election, through her historic stints as Speaker and various high-profile battles, wins and losses in Washington, D.C. Among her many political accomplishments, she secured billions in funding for HIV/AIDS research and pushed “The Affordable Care Act” over the finish line in Congress, overcoming at times resistance from the highest levels of her own party. And of course there were the iconic moments arising from her relentless challenges to President Donald Trump.
What emerges is a compelling and expansive portrait of a singular figure in modern American politics. The raw-access interviews with Pelosi will find a permanent home at the Oral History Center at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library, where they will be available in their entirety for scholars and researchers.
“Nancy Pelosi was often discounted and underestimated by political allies and adversaries, making her path to power all the more extraordinary and often controversial,” says Shafer. “For this project, she has provided new and candid insights about the use of political power, her role in the American political landscape of the last four decades, where the country has been, and where she thinks it may be headed.”
The Speaker is available wherever you get your podcasts starting September 16 with new episodes dropping each week through October 14.
LISTEN TO THE TRAILER
About Host Scott Shafer
Scott Shafer is a veteran political journalist now serving as senior politics correspondent with the KQED Politics and Government desk. He came to KQED in 1998 to host the statewide The California Report after a career in politics and government, including a tenure serving as the press secretary for former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos. Using that inside experience, he was previously Senior Editor for KQED’s Politics and Government Desk where he provides reporting, hosting and analysis as a senior political correspondent. Scott co-hosts the radio and podcast versions of Political Breakdown with Marisa Lagos, and he hosted The Political Mind of Jerry Brown, an eight-part series about the life and extraordinary political career of the former governor. Scott’s career in local politics and as a journalist covering local, state and national politics has closely overlapped with Pelosi’s career whom he has covered and interviewed extensively over the past three decades.
About KQED
KQED serves the people of Northern California with a public-supported alternative to commercial media. An NPR and PBS affiliate based in San Francisco, KQED is home to one of the most-listened-to public radio stations in the nation, one of the highest-rated public television services and an award-winning education program helping students and educators thrive in 21st-century classrooms. A trusted news source and leader and innovator in interactive technology, KQED takes people of all ages on journeys of exploration — exposing them to new people, places and ideas. kqed.org