Q&A

C-SPAN's Q&A has been a Sunday evening institution since 2005, hosted by Peter Slen, featuring hour-long conversations with people who are actually doing consequential work in politics, journalism, and public affairs. The format is deliberately unhurried in a media environment that rewards hot takes -- each episode gives a single guest a full sixty minutes to explain what they think and why. The guest list reads like a who's who of nonfiction publishing and political journalism. Historians working on new books about American institutions, foreign correspondents back from conflict zones, investigative journalists with years-long projects -- these are the kinds of voices that get space here. Peter Slen's interviewing style is notably restrained. He asks clear questions and lets the guest talk, which sounds simple but is actually rare in political media. The show has been running for two decades now with 377 episodes in the podcast feed, carrying a 4.4 rating. It is not flashy, and it does not chase trending topics. Instead, it provides the kind of deep, substantive conversation that used to be common on television and is now mostly found in podcasts. If you care about understanding policy and politics beyond the daily news cycle, this is one of the most reliable sources for it. The production has the straightforward, no-frills quality you would expect from C-SPAN -- no sound effects, no comedy bits, just smart people given room to explain complex subjects.