The Radical Centrist

Wayne King hosts The Radical Centrist with the conviction that the space between the two major parties is not empty, it is just underrepresented. The show tackles current events, policy debates, and election issues from a self-described centrist perspective -- which in practice means King is willing to criticize both sides, sometimes in the same episode, and does not mind making his progressive and conservative friends equally annoyed. Episodes usually feature a guest, often a politician, academic, or former government staffer, and run somewhere in the 30-to-60-minute range. King is a former state representative from New Hampshire, so he knows the mechanics of lawmaking in a way a lot of commentators do not, and that experience comes through when he presses guests on the difference between a talking point and an actual working policy. The show has been running since 2018 and has accumulated over 75 episodes, which gives new listeners plenty of back catalog to work through. Production is clean, interviews are substantive, and King genuinely listens to his guests instead of just waiting for his turn to talk. A good fit for anyone who finds most political podcasts too neatly aligned with a team and wants something that takes the center seriously as a place to think from.