Who's running the country? (Part 1)

Meet your president's Cabinet. Who was appointed, by what margin, and a look at the backgrounds of the people filling these critical roles. In other words, who is running our country? Let's find out. This is the first part of a two-part episode. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Hannah McCarthy?

  Nick, when this show was started way back in 2017, it was because people were writing emails to our radio station and asking a lot of questions about the government. And a lot of those questions were to the tune of, now wait a minute, what are we even talking about here?

• 0:18Nick Capodice?

  Right, stuff like, I'm reading and hearing a lot about X, Y, or Z person in government and what they're up to, and there's a ton of headlines telling me this is a big deal. But why is this a big deal? Is this really a big deal?

• 0:33Hannah McCarthy?

  And it's hard to know if it's a big deal if you don't know who that person is that you're asking about, or what they're supposed to be doing. And over the past couple of months, I have been reading a lot of stuff about the people who President Donald Trump picked to run the government.

• 0:49Nick Capodice?

  Ah, yes, the cabinet.

• 0:51Hannah McCarthy?

  The cabinet, which you recently made a lovely episode about.

• 0:55Nick Capodice?

  I did, Hannah. So what are we doing here, then?

• 1:00Hannah McCarthy?

  All right, relax. We're here to talk about who these people actually are and what they're actually supposed to be doing.

• 1:08Nick Capodice?

  I'll allow it.

• 1:09Hannah McCarthy?

  This is Civics 101, I'm Hannah McCarthy.

• 1:11Nick Capodice?

  I'm Nick Capodice.

• 1:12Hannah McCarthy?

  And today, who's running the place? And what are they supposed to do?

• 1:22Nick Capodice?

  All right, Hannah, let's just get something out of the way real quick.

• 1:25Hannah McCarthy?

  Your opinions about the Lord of the Rings film franchise, which Nick and I have been discussing civilly lately?

• 1:31Nick Capodice?

  Really civilly. Let's leave that for the other podcast. We're going to start where you expose my niche opinions for a niche audience.

• 1:38Hannah McCarthy?

  All right, fair enough. Oh, by the way, everyone, fun little challenge. See if you can spot a young Nick Capodice in Peter Jackson's 1992 movie, Brain Dead, AKA Dead Alive. And please, send us an email when you do. I will send a Civics 101 mug to the first listener who can tell us the timestamp, bonus points for a screenshot. But I digress. Nick, what did you want to get out of the way?

• 2:03Nick Capodice?

  You digress, indeed, Hannah. I look pretty much the same now as I did in that bathrobe in 1992. But anyways, here's my question. You're going to talk about who's running the government. You're not talking about the president. You are talking about the heads of the executive branch departments, right?

• 2:20Hannah McCarthy?

  Right, plus a few others, but yeah.

• 2:23Nick Capodice?

  And these are the people who the president nominates. He wants to appoint them, the heads of various, super important, super powerful departments. And in order for them to actually get the job, they've got to be confirmed by the Senate.

• 2:36Hannah McCarthy?

  That they do.

• 2:38Nick Capodice?

  And it seems to be like I am seeing the word controversy a lot this year when it comes to this process.

• 2:45Speaker 02

  I mean, the Department of Defense is one of the most complex bureaucracies in human history. And the president is choosing its leader the same way I chose breakfast cereals as a kid.

• 2:56Nick Capodice?

  There are a lot of articles and a lot of pundits and a lot of politicians questioning Trump's nominees on various counts. So I want to begin by asking, is this unusual? Or is that the sort of thing that happens every time?

• 3:09Hannah McCarthy?

  That is a good place to start. My answer is yes and no. This year, you may have heard a lot about Trump's quote unquote controversial appointment nominees. Is that a new thing? No, taking issue with an incoming administration's potential executive leaders is par for the course. I looked back as far as Jimmy Carter, and I could not find a single president whose nominees did not get pushback in one way or another. Also, plenty of nominees in the past have actually withdrawn before they ever get to the Senate confirmation part because often of controversy.

• 3:44Nick Capodice?

  All right, so that's the no, this is not unusual. What about the yes?

• 3:49Hannah McCarthy?

  The yes, this is unusual, has to do with a few factors. One being the current political climate and how politicians are operating within it. Or, you know, maybe manipulating it, amping it up. Division, pushback, and disagreement are the name of the game right now. And a friendly reminder, and I do mean friendly, that you, dear listener, have the power to play a healthier and happier game. We are also talking about a president who promised a major shakeup in Washington and has nominated people who appear to be in service of that promise.

• 4:22Nick Capodice?

  So controversy was pretty likely from the get go.

• 4:26Hannah McCarthy?

  Yeah, but you know, like Ronald Reagan also came into office promising to cut the fat in Washington. And his appointees were also in service of that. The difference here, Nick, between that situation and this one. Is in the vote.

• 4:41Nick Capodice?

  What do you mean the vote?

• 4:42Hannah McCarthy?

  The final hurdle in becoming an executive branch leader. The Senate takes a vote. Generally speaking, Nick, the Senate is pretty deferential to the president when it comes to nominees. Some people may have a harder time than others, but most of the time, a nominee will get a significant majority of yes votes, of yay votes. And a lot of the time, the Senate will just take a voice vote.

• 5:06Nick Capodice?

  All right, that's when the presiding officer is like, here's the question to vote on. Who's in favor?

• 5:11Speaker 03

  All in favor say aye.

• 5:13Nick Capodice?

  Aye. And then the officer's like.

• 5:14Speaker 03

  All opposed say nay. The ayes have it.

• 5:17Hannah McCarthy?

  That's about how it works. In other words, you know, it's already pretty clear how this vote is going to go. So we don't need everyone to vote individually. And there have only been, Nick, three rejected nominations in the 20th century. So what does that tell you?

• 5:32Nick Capodice?

  Uh, that generally, the Senate just goes with it when the president nominates someone.

• 5:37Hannah McCarthy?

  This year, looks a little different. In the past, nominees were generally, not always, less controversial. This year, the vote majorities are slimmer. The pushback and the resistance is pretty significant.

• 5:51Nick Capodice?

  But so far, as of this recording, February 25th, the Senate has not rejected any of Donald Trump's 2025 nominees. So far.

• 6:01Hannah McCarthy?

  So far. And this whole thing has happened pretty quickly, too. Also nominees used to need a three fifths super majority, 60% of the vote. But as of 2013, they only need a simple majority of senators to vote in favor of their appointment.

• 6:18Nick Capodice?

  So they gotta have at least half. And since over half of the current Senate is the same party as the current president.

• 6:25Hannah McCarthy?

  Right. Pretty good chances of getting those appointees into the job. But since we are talking about votes here, Nick, that is how I'm gonna go about this. From most yays to least.

• 6:37Nick Capodice?

  Hannah, the ghost of my father is forcing me to say fewest yays.

• 6:41Hannah McCarthy?

  All right, Nick, I have been editing your grammar on the fly for seven years, so I'm gonna give myself some grace here. I'm trying to get through a lot. Anyway, who are our new government leaders? 22 of them have been nominated. 18 have been confirmed as of the writing of this episode. 15 of the 22 are department heads, six are not, but still have super important jobs. Lot of numbers there. Who are they? What are they supposed to do? Did they squeak by or breeze right in? This is part one, because ears, eyes, and time are precious human resources. So in this episode, you're gonna hear about nine.

• 7:21Hannah McCarthy?

  So let's start with the only unanimous confirmation so far. The one who got in with nary a nay, Nick.

• 7:28Nick Capodice?

  Nary a nay. Wait, can I guess first before you tell me? Secretary of the Interior.

• 7:33Hannah McCarthy?

  So close.

• 7:34Nick Capodice?

  Ah! I just feel like people don't talk much about the Department of the Interior. Like, they're not worried about it.

• 7:40Hannah McCarthy?

  Yeah, I mean, maybe they should think a little bit more about it. But the Secretary of the Interior did get the second most votes.

• 7:46Nick Capodice?

  All right, see, I knew it.

• 7:48Hannah McCarthy?

  But we're going to start with the guy who got 99 votes. 99, by the way, because J.D. Vance was a senator before he hopped over to the White House. So his seat was vacant for a portion of these committee hearings and confirmations.

• 8:01Speaker 04

  To promote peace abroad and security and prosperity here at home. That is the promise that President Trump was elected to keep. And if I am confirmed, keeping that promise will be the core mission of the United States Department of State.

• 8:17Hannah McCarthy?

  Our new Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. The way this whole thing works is before the vote, the nominee has a hearing. They talk to whatever Senate committee pertains to the job they're applying for. So Rubio chatted with the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. They talked for five hours, which might sound like a long time, but in this whole process is not necessarily that long. And it was a pretty friendly chat. And then the vote happened. And Rubio was unanimously in.

• 8:46Nick Capodice?

  Wait, wait, wait. Marco Rubio is a senator?

• 8:48Hannah McCarthy?

  Not anymore.

• 8:49Nick Capodice?

  Okay, but, I mean, did he get to vote for himself?

• 8:53Hannah McCarthy?

  He did. And now he's in charge of foreign policy.

• 8:55Nick Capodice?

  Sounds easy.

• 8:59Hannah McCarthy?

  Marco Rubio will now be in charge of an absolute mountain of responsibility. He's in charge of negotiating our foreign affairs. We're talking treaties, agreements, protecting US interests and people abroad, understanding and communicating the politics, economy, humanitarianism, and culture of other countries, administering US immigration law abroad, repping the US at international gatherings, and a lot more. It's a huge job. Marco Rubio himself once called it, quote, "the second most important position in the US government, with all due respect to the Vice President," unquote.

• 9:37Nick Capodice?

  When did he say that?

• 9:39Hannah McCarthy?

  During Rex Tillerson's confirmation hearing for the gig back in 2017, Rubio asked Tillerson if Vladimir Putin was a war criminal. Tillerson deflected. Rubio did not like that.

• 9:51Speaker 04

  You are still not prepared to say that Vladimir Putin and his military have violated the rules of war and have conducted war crimes in Aleppo.

• 10:00Hannah McCarthy?

  And now Rubio has been tasked with figuring out an end to Russia's war in Ukraine, though President Trump has called Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator and suggested that Ukraine started the war. They did not. And Rubio is also charged with maybe negotiating an alliance with Russia.

• 10:18Nick Capodice?

  That feels like it's going to require a little bit of pivoting.

• 10:21Hannah McCarthy?

  Yeah. Rubio also ran against Trump in the 2016 presidential election and has generally been in favor of US aid abroad and soft power, though Donald Trump has almost entirely dismantled USAID, which does exactly that. So, yeah, Rubio is one of the more interesting appointees when you look at his politics versus serving at the pleasure of the president. All right, Nick, we've got 17 others. Let's go.

• 10:45Nick Capodice?

  Shall we go to the interior?

• 10:49Hannah McCarthy?

  Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum.

• 10:51Speaker 05

  It's certainly an honor to have been nominated by President Trump to serve as the 55th Secretary of the Interior.

• 10:58Hannah McCarthy?

  Former governor of North Dakota, he got 80 ayes and 17 nays.

• 11:02Nick Capodice?

  All right, that sounds like the Senate generally agreed on that one.

• 11:06Hannah McCarthy?

  Burgum will now be in charge of the Department of the Interior, which is what, Nick?

• 11:10Nick Capodice?

  Yeah, what is that thing, Hannah? I'm joking, everyone, I'm joking. The Department of the Interior manages the stuff on the interior, you know, inside of the US, public lands and waters.

• 11:25Hannah McCarthy?

  Yes, inside the Department of the Interior is the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, and Fish and Wildlife Service, and a bunch of other bureaus, including Indian Affairs and Ocean Energy Management. It is the Secretary's job to protect and manage natural resources and cultural heritage, and to honor treaties and agreements with tribal nations in the US.

• 11:48Nick Capodice?

  And as far as this particular Secretary of the Interior?

• 11:51Hannah McCarthy?

  So he ran for president in 2023, dropped out of the race, became an energy policy advisor for Trump's campaign, he's a major promoter of gas and oil. Burgum says we are in an energy crisis. He also says that he supports conservation and will be a driving force in Trump's plans to ramp up gas, oil, and mineral extraction.

• 12:11Nick Capodice?

  All right, so Burgum is the drill baby, drill arm of the executive branch.

• 12:16Hannah McCarthy?

  In short, coming in at 77 ayes and 22 nays, again, senators are sort of fluctuating right now, is Sean Duffy, our new Secretary of Transportation.

• 12:27Speaker 05

  I'm honored to have the trust of President Trump, and hopefully this body, to lead such an important segment of our economy.

• 12:34Hannah McCarthy?

  Duffy was a Wisconsin District Attorney, then a US House Rep for Wisconsin from 2011 to 2019. He then became a lobbyist on behalf of domestic airlines, and then a Fox News co-host. And before that, Nick, he was on Real World Boston and a couple of other reality shows.

• 12:53Nick Capodice?

  What?

• 12:54Hannah McCarthy?

  Here we go, Sean, rock and roll, baby.

• 13:02Nick Capodice?

  You Hannah are from Boston.

• 13:06Hannah McCarthy?

  That I kind of am. If you want to know what Duffy is tasked with as Secretary of Transportation, I recommend listening to our recent episode with former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. Basically, the Secretary of Transportation is in charge of transportation policies. Duffy has gotten some bipartisan praise. He said he'd focus on roadway safety and aviation. The big news item about him so far is that he is, as the Secretary of Transportation, investigating California's high-speed rail project.

• 13:38Hannah McCarthy?

  All right, Nick, coming in next, we've got Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins. That's at 77 yays and 23 nays.

• 13:45Speaker 06

  You know, America is the greatest nation on earth, and it's the greatest nation on earth, I believe, because of the men and women who serve.

• 13:51Hannah McCarthy?

  It'll be his job to oversee the health, education, disability, funeral, and financial benefits earned by veterans of the United States Armed Forces. Collins is a Baptist minister. He was a church pastor for 11 years, served as a chaplain for the US Navy and US Air Force Reserve. He's a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve. And he was a Georgia State Rep from '07 to 2013, and a United States Rep from 2013 to 2021, also representing Georgia. He was also a major Trump defender, especially during Trump's first impeachment.

• 14:23Nick Capodice?

  All right, what's his plan, Hannah?

• 14:25Hannah McCarthy?

  He plans to streamline the VA and cut regulations while making it easier for veterans to access medical care. He also wants to root out what he calls corruption. The VA fired 1,000 employees shortly after Collins joined. He said that there could be more layoffs, and Collins said the money that they're saving will go to healthcare and benefits for vets.

• 14:48Hannah McCarthy?

  All right, next up, Nick, we have someone who is not a department head. But is someone who served in the previous Trump administration?

• 14:57Nick Capodice?

  Oh, OK. I think I know this one. Is it Ratcliffe?

• 15:01Hannah McCarthy?

  Right on the money, John Ratcliffe. He was confirmed with a 74-25 split.

• 15:05Speaker 03

  Today, we face what may be the most challenging national security environment in our nation's history.

• 15:10Hannah McCarthy?

  Nick, can you tell the people who Ratcliffe is?

• 15:13Nick Capodice?

  Certainly. So he is now the director of the CIA, but he was the director of national intelligence in the last year of Trump's first presidency, which I believe is also a confirmation position.

• 15:25Hannah McCarthy?

  It is indeed. And now, back to the CIA. It is an independent government agency as opposed to an executive department. Now, the first time Ratcliffe was confirmed, he got zero votes from Democrats. And that was the first time a national intelligence director got confirmed without opposition party votes, right? So like, they're of the party of the president. The opposition party is not the party of the president. But this is the first time that nobody in that opposition party made that confirmation in that role.

• 15:52Nick Capodice?

  But this time around, it sounds like he's a little more popular, so to speak?

• 15:57Hannah McCarthy?

  He is. He's actually now considered by people on both sides of the aisle, one of the more qualified appointees in this batch.

• 16:03Nick Capodice?

  All right. And I know he was a US House Representative from Texas.

• 16:07Hannah McCarthy?

  Yes. And before that, he was mayor of Heath, Texas. Now, as far as his job goes today, Nick, the CIA, what do we know?

• 16:18Nick Capodice?

  Can I quote the Fug song, Hannah?

• 16:20Hannah McCarthy?

  You can if you cut out the swears.

• 16:22Nick Capodice?

  Who can kill a general in his bed? Overthrow dictators if they're red, CIA man. But really, sorry, everyone. When it comes to the CIA, we know as much as they want us to know, and maybe just a smidgen more than that. They are the spies.

• 16:40Hannah McCarthy?

  They would probably say, you know, covert agents, covert operations. But yeah. Intelligence gathering, and that takes many forms. And there are a lot of people who do a lot of things. It's now Ratcliffe's job to oversee intelligence collection, analysis, covert action, counterintelligence, and liaison relationships with foreign services. Now, that's from the CIA website, which I'm just going to admit here, Nick, I think of all of the government websites, it is the coolest-looking one.

• 17:10Nick Capodice?

  Yeah, like it looks like a spy website.

• 17:13Hannah McCarthy?

  It kinda does. I don't think that's an accident, by the way, but that's just me. Anyway, the interesting thing about this confirmation hearing and what we know about this job to come is that we don't know much because Ratcliffe won't or can't say.

• 17:29Nick Capodice?

  Spies.

• 17:31Hannah McCarthy?

  Well, what we do know is that Ratcliffe promises to make the CIA more aggressive. He says that it will be less risk averse and take more covert action when the president wants it to. On that note, Nick, we're gonna disappear into the night like a couple of covert agents ourselves. And when we get back, the new government gets just a little less popular.

• 17:50Nick Capodice?

  But before that assignment, just a quick reminder that you can find deeper dives into many, many departments of our executive branch at our website civics101podcast.org, among every other thing we've ever made for years and years. All right, come on Hannah, let's go pick some code names.

• 18:20Nick Capodice?

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• 19:00Nick Capodice?

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• 19:40Nick Capodice?

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• 20:25Nick Capodice?

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• 20:45Hannah McCarthy?

  We're back. We're giving you an introduction to your new government, and ours, via the appointees to the executive branch. And we're going down the list from most yeas to fewest yeas. Up next, we have Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

• 21:02Speaker 07

  I want to thank and so overwhelmed at the honor to potentially serve the men and women who daily, without pause or complaint, provide our great nation and the world with the best food, fiber, and fuel.

• 21:16Hannah McCarthy?

  She got the gig with 72 yeas, 28 nays. She is the second female ag secretary ever, and her new job is a lot.

• 21:24Nick Capodice?

  Yeah, because the USDA is a lot. Listen to her episode on it if you want to know. Because first and foremost, the USDA is about food, which might sound simple, but it is also the stuff we use to stay alive at a basic level. So I know the secretary oversees food safety and inspection, but then they are also overseeing the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, SNAP, which used to be called food stamps. Oh, and school lunch as well.

• 21:58Nick Capodice?

  And there's trade, right Hannah? Like, the USDA monitors, a ton of stuff that we export and import.

• 22:05Hannah McCarthy?

  Yeah, the secretary is also overseeing and supporting farmers, forestry, grasslands, conservation efforts. Basically, yeah, I mean, think food supply. So Rollins did get unanimous support from the Senate committee. So not the whole Senate, but the committee who held her hearing. But others are concerned about her lack of experience. She ran two conservative think tanks and served in the last Trump administration in two roles. One, she was the Director of the Office of American Innovation.

• 22:35Nick Capodice?

  The what now?

• 22:36Hannah McCarthy?

  Yeah, this was the White House office that was basically the liaison between the White House and the tech industry. It existed really only during Trump's first administration. Then Rollins was the Acting Director of the US Domestic Policy Council. But now, she's got to tackle the impact of potential tariffs on our food producers, and the loss of farmhands from new immigration policies, and the bird flu.

• 23:00Nick Capodice?

  Oh, the eggs.

• 23:02Hannah McCarthy?

  Yeah, the eggs. Trump has said that Rollins will, quote, "do something about egg prices." Next on the list, coming in at a 68-29 confirmation, is Scott Besant, our new Treasury Secretary.

• 23:21Speaker 07

  Most Americans watching at home will be unfamiliar with my background.

• 23:26Nick Capodice?

  That is our Chief Financial Officer, right?

• 23:28Hannah McCarthy?

  Yeah, right. So, the Treasury Secretary is in charge of making sure our economy doesn't tank, and doing something about it if it does. Peek inside this department and you will find the Mint, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The Mint makes coins, Bureau of Engraving and Printing makes dollars. The IRS. Also, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, among lots of other things. This department investigates financial crimes, it's in charge of borrowing money for the US, and the Secretary also sits on the National Security Council because, guess what? Money and security are pretty closely linked.

• 24:04Nick Capodice?

  All right, so I do know one thing about Besant.

• 24:07Hannah McCarthy?

  What's that?

• 24:08Nick Capodice?

  Well, he's not just a guy who knows money, he's a guy who has money. Lots of it. Billions of bits of it.

• 24:18Hannah McCarthy?

  Yeah, so Besant is a hedge fund manager. For a while, he worked for George Soros.

• 24:24Nick Capodice?

  George Soros. Wait, George Soros is famously a liberal philanthropist, Hannah.

• 24:30Hannah McCarthy?

  And billionaire.

• 24:32Nick Capodice?

  And billionaire.

• 24:33Hannah McCarthy?

  So Besant was a major Democrat donor, and he is now a major Republican donor. He was an advisor to Trump, and he is still an advisor to Trump, though now is a secretary. And it will be on him to help figure out tax cuts, tariffs, and regulation rollbacks, some things that Donald Trump has promised. All right, up next, 59 yays, 34 nays for Kristi Noem.

• 24:56Nick Capodice?

  Okay, I know this one. That is the new Homeland Security Secretary.

• 25:01Speaker 06

  We will undertake a large job and a large duty that we have to fulfill, that the American people expect us to do by securing our border.

• 25:10Nick Capodice?

  Also, she was South Dakota's only rep in Congress because South Dakota is only one district.

• 25:16Hannah McCarthy?

  I forget that all the time. The whole state is just one district. It's very interesting. And yes, you are correct. She served four terms and was then elected the first ever female governor of South Dakota in 2018, and now is the head of DHS. She is in charge of our immigration system.

• 25:34Nick Capodice?

  Which, as we know, is a major element of Donald Trump's presidential plans.

• 25:38Hannah McCarthy?

  As we know. So Noem has already deputized 600 State Department officials to help with arrests and deportations. She will also be overseeing Customs and Border Protection, the US Coast Guard, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, aka FEMA, though Trump has suggested getting rid of FEMA, so that part remains to be seen. Also, Noem oversees the Secret Service, which she has promised to overhaul. All right, Chris Wright, the new Energy Secretary. He got 59 yays, 38 nays.

• 26:10Speaker 05

  Energy has been a lifelong passion of mine, and I've never been shy about that fact. Then again, I've never been shy about much.

• 26:18Nick Capodice?

  Oh, yeah. Chris Wright is an oil man.

• 26:21Hannah McCarthy?

  He is, indeed. He was the head of a fracking firm. He is now overseeing the science, technology, and security of energy in the US. So this includes energy production, think oil and gas and wind and solar, though the oil and gas part is the major priority for Donald Trump, as well as overseeing our nuclear weapons program and the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, which is supposed to address climate change.

• 26:49Nick Capodice?

  All right, so this administration is really focused on oil and gas and focused hard. So what does that mean for the rest of it?

• 26:58Hannah McCarthy?

  All right, so in the past, Wright has said that there is no climate crisis. In this hearing, he was like, actually, it's real, it's global, and we have to develop new energy technologies.

• 27:09Nick Capodice?

  Even though the president has suggested it's a hoax?

• 27:12Hannah McCarthy?

  Yes, but let's say that he does disagree with the president on that point. He's very much on board with the quote unquote unleashing of American energy. That is something that Trump has ordered, which in terms of the numbers, I mean, like in terms of the numbers of American energy, it's not leashed. We are the leading producer of oil and gas, but the idea is to ramp up extraction, ramp up production, anyway. So Wright is in line with the president's agenda, but suggests that there is a multi-pronged approach here.

• 27:44Hannah McCarthy?

  Okay, Nick, those are nine of the 18 new appointees so far, set to run our federal government.

• 27:51Nick Capodice?

  Oh, that's it, we did it.

• 27:53Hannah McCarthy?

  I mean, that's not it, but we are leaving it at that for now. And in the next episode, we're going to see some slimmer vote margins. Contention peppers the confirmation hearings. The appointees make it to the big show, but not without fielding some serious Senate reservations. And you can learn about all of that in part two of Who Is Running the Government? Which, if you want, you can go listen to right now. All right, Nick, let's jam.

• 28:23Nick Capodice?

  Let's do it.

• 28:25Hannah McCarthy?

  This episode of Civics 101 was produced by me, Hannah McCarthy, with Nick Capodice and Rebecca Lavoie, who also happens to be our executive producer. Thank you, Rebecca. Christina Phillips is our senior producer. Music in this episode comes from Epidemic Sound. You can learn a lot more about a lot of these departments and agencies at our website, civics101podcast.org. And while you're there, give Nick's episode on the cabinet a listen, it is a really good one. Civics 101 is a production of NHPR, New Hampshire Public Radio.

• 29:01Speaker 05

  Did you know that if your spouse goes missing and you don't tell anyone, that's not necessarily a crime? That surprising fact is at the heart of the brand new season of Bear Brook, the critically acclaimed true crime podcast from New Hampshire Public Radio. I'm your host, Jason Moon. In this season, Bear Brook investigates another New Hampshire mystery. A Christmas tree farmer with dementia vanishes. His wife never reports him missing. Can he still be found? Don't miss it. Follow Bear Brook wherever you get your podcasts.