Blue Thursday
Blue Thursday is a monthly political happy hour at the Hideout, hosted by Indivisible Chicago and its near-north chapter Blue Beginning. On the third Thursday of the month (usually) we gather to have a few drinks, share some gossip, and mix with and hear from elected officials, fellow activists, and political insiders.
October 17
We devoted October’s Blue Thursday to a special edition of our canvass training program Yes You Canvass, preceded by a brief appearance from Chicago’s first poet laureate, Avery R Young. Unfortunately we lost audio from 9:03 to 23:20. But it’s all there in the Soundcloud version.
September 19
Two of our favorite guests hold forth on the presidential campaign, Mayor Brandon Johnson, the Democratic convention, the Biden-Harris handoff, and much more. Gregory Royal Pratt is the Tribune investigative reporter who recently published The City Is Up for Grabs, on the tumultuous single term of Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Brandon Pope is Emmy-winning host of WCIU 26's "On the Block," (a regular on WGN radio’s Mincing Rascals podcast, and probably Chicago's most prolific tweeter.
July 18
In the midst of one of the most chaotic and eventful political weeks in recent memory, Indivisible Chicago members and friends gather to talk it out: the Great Debate Debacle and the ensuing angst; the assassination attempt; the Republican convention reality show; and the role we can and must play in whatever comes next. Our special guests are two esteemed Indivisible Chicago leaders, founder Jason Rieger and board chair Kathy Tholin.
June 20
Two campaign consultants walk into a bar . . . and we drink in some of the smartest analysis we’ve been served in a long time. They are Don Rose, "a legend in Chicago politics" (Sun-Times), and Pete Giangreco, one of the the "top influencers" in Illinois (Ballotpedia).
May 16
Is the city ready for the Democratic National Convention and the crowds of passionate protesters who are sure to come? We discuss with Liza Roberson-Young, senior supervising policy counsel at the ACLU; and Leslie Fox, executive director of the last Chicago Dem convention in 1996.
April 18
How’s Brandon Johnson doing? Any better than Lori Lightfoot did? We discuss with two old friends and savvy mayor-watchers: Tribune reporter Gregory Royal Pratt, author of a new book about Lightfoot, The City Is Up for Grabs; and Brandon Pope, who among many other things is the Emmy-winning host of WCIU 26 / Block Club Chicago’s TV show On the Block.
March 21
Are the media meeting the moment? We spoke with press critic Mark Jacob, former editor at both the Tribune and Sun-Times. He’s now proprietor of stopthepresses.org, a Substack newsletter that focuses on media performance in this critical election year; and Michael Spikes, a lecturer at Northwestern-Medill and co-founder of the Illnois Media Literacy Coalition.
February 15
Our guest was Emma Tai, the superorganizer heading up the Bring Chicago Home campaign. Formerly the executive director of United Working Families, she’s credited with running the ground game that elected Brandon Johnson in 2023 and Delia Ramirez in 2022.
January 18
We talked with former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti, Politico legal affairs columnist and analyst for CNN, MSNBC, and more. His topic: the many legal entanglements of Donald Trump. His conclusion: don’t wait for the justice system to put him away, do it yourself in November.
November 16, 2023
With just One Year to Save the World, we talked with two campaign pros who have been around the block and then some: Robert Creamer and Pete Giancreco. What are Democrats’ best strategies for winning in 2024? How can we build on our string of off-year successes? Should we be worrying about polls? (No.) Should we get to work? (Yes!)
September 21
Our evening was kicked off with spoken-words by Bigg Ceno, one of the artist-activists who make up Collaboraction Theatre’s youth ensemble The Light. Then we talked indictments, incitements, and electoral requitement with William Howell, professor in American politics at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy.
hear the audio on WCPT’s SoundCloud channel.
watch the Facebook video (program starts about 2:30)
