exploring a human activity we love to hate
A podcast about politics close to home, from our schools, streets, businesses, and local governments. Hosted by Sunil Dasgupta. Complete list of episodes.
Share Your Music on IHPpod
Since the beginning of the pod in February 2021, we have featured local musicians on the show. All genres and all ages. Opera to alt-rock. Students and dad bands. Amateurs and professionals. Click here to connect to our music release form.
The form answers questions about how we use your music and what rights you are sharing. If you have further questions, email us. We do a special Christmas show every year with all the year’s music from the show. Check out the All Music Yule Log 2021 and 2022.
2022 Musicians and Bands
Dara Blecher
IHPbot Voter Guide
About the IHPbot
IHPbot is a personalized online voter guide designed to raise turnout in low-information elections informed by direct knowledge of candidates and issues using the local news bank of “I Hate Politics” Podcast. As a pilot, IHPbot was limited to the Democratic primary in Montgomery County but offered candidate selection for 19 different positions from state governor to school board. Though IHPbot helps voters pick candidates, it is independent, nonpartisan, and unrelated to any candidate or campaign, which can be applied to different jurisdictions and elections. The IHPbot team is working on the next iteration of the app. To learn more, sign up for news HERE or at the top of the page.
About Sunil
Dr. Sunil Dasgupta is a UMBC political scientist and heads the university’s political science program at the Universities at Shady Grove in Montgomery County, MD. He is the host of a cheeky local news podcast called “I Hate Politics,” which tries to stem the decline in local news using community journalists embedded in existing local institutions such as education and social institutions. During the 2022 primary election in Maryland, he interviewed nearly 50 local and state candidates, bringing in-depth focus to elections missing in local news reporting. He helped design and create a web-based app called IHPbot, which helped voters generate their best slate of candidates using their policy preferences. Dr. Dasgupta ran for school board in Montgomery County in November 2020.
2022 Nonprofit Giving Suggestions
- Woman to Woman Mentoring
- The Civic Circle
- Project Linus Montgomery County Chapter
- Action Committee for Transit
- Urban Adventure Squad
- The Senior Connection of Montgomery County
- Miriam’s Kitchen
- UpCounty Prevention Network
- Washington Independent Review of Books
- VisArts Art Lab
- Bethesda Chevy Chase Rescue Squad
- Poolesville Green
- MoCoPAAN
- Sustainable Earth Eating
- Repair the World
- Montgomery County Special Olympics
We don’t always get to say what we want. When that happens, we write:
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Op-Ed: PTA ‘badly broken’
In the debate over how to improve public education, we pay lip service to the home-school partnership. Parent participation in schools is one of the four pillars of academic success, alongside teachers, principals and resources, but the primary instrument of this relationship — the parent-teacher association (PTA) — is badly broken. As millions of American…
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Opinion: Governor Says to Reopen Schools, But What’s the Plan?
Gov. Larry Hogan’s announcement authorizing school districts across the state to reopen school buildings days before the new school year was about to start is going to add to parent, student and teacher anxiety and stress. The larger trends are not promising. Public health experts see infection rates moving back up as the flu season…
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Opinion: High school mulch sales produce too much plastic waste
The events raise money and build community, but is there a better way to do both? On Saturday, April 2, our local high school mulch sale sold and delivered 11,500 bags of mulch, topsoil and compost in the Aspen Hill and Rockville area of Montgomery County. More than 400 students—a quarter of Rockville High School’s…
Book Reviews
Here are some off-the-beaten-path books we found interesting. We hope you do too.
The Last Resort: A Chronicle of Paradise, Profit, and Peril at the Beach, by Sarah Stodola – Review
Fixer-Upper: How to Repair America’s Broken Housing Systems, by Jenny Schuetz – Review
Districts that Succeed: Breaking the Correlation Between Race, Poverty, and Achievement, by Karin Chenoweth – Review
Sylvia Pankhurst: Natural Born Rebel, by Rachel Holmes – Review