Now serving as Whip of the Blue Dog Coalition, Gray ran as a Blue Dog in a district that is home to one of the founders of the original Blue Dog Caucus, and he is one of many Blue Dog Democrats to serve CA-13 district in Congress. Remarkably, in 2024, Gray was the only Democrat to flip a district that voted for Trump in that election cycle. Gray is speaking at WelcomeFest June 4 in Washington, DC. RSVP to hear from him live!

Reed Howard, who helped lead Biden Republicans in 2020 and Republicans for Harris in 2024. Reed is also a 2025 Democracy Practitioner Fellow at the University of Virginia’s Karsh Institute of Democracy, and a member of the American Enterprise Institute’s Millennial Leadership Network. Reed writes about centrism and rejecting extremism on his Substack, Maverick. You can catch Reed at WelcomeFest on June 4 in Washington, DC! Learn more and RSVP here.

Josh Barro about what went wrong for Democrats in 2024, how to address the problems, and who can lead us out of the wilderness. Josh is an independent journalist who writes the publication Very Serious on Substack. He previously wrote for The New York Times, New York Magazine, and Business Insider.

Throughout the episode, Zivan offered crucial insight into why it’s not enough to simply reside in the center; the center must offer a vision for a healthy society.

Kuo argues that political parties play a central role in the democratic process: the problem is polarization, not partisanship. Additionally, she makes that case that both parties have been weakened by candidate-centered politics. She argues that parties should be civic vehicles that prioritize the needs of individuals and help them transcend narrow interests.

Episode Three of The Depolarizers features guests Patrick Ruffini and Ruy Teixeira. Ruffini is a Republican pollster, author of Party of the People, and one of the country’s leading experts on political targeting, technology, and demography. Ruffini worked on Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign and has been a leader in the Republican Party’s shift to digital. Teixeira is a name you’ve probably heard mentioned on WelcomeStack, as he also leads popular centrist publication The Liberal Patriot. Teixeira is a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a political scientist who focuses on demographic political trends. He’s co-author of Where Have All the Democrats Gone?, which explores how Democrats are risking losses among key historical constituencies by catering too much to college-educated white voters.

Our first episode features Matt Yglesias, writer of popular Substack publication Slow Boring and Sam Rosenfeld, author of two books about polarization (The Polarizers and his latest with Daniel Schlozman, The Hollow Parties). Rosenfeld’s book inspires the name of our podcast. In it, he introduces us to those who created America's polarization in the 20th Century, and why. Throughout this episode and our show, we’ll introduce you to the people working to effectively depolarize American politics. We hope you'll join us for the ride.

Our recent essay in Democracy Journal introduces a number of the themes in our podcast. We recommend including it in your podcast journey.