Sunil Dasgupta Ends I Hate Politics Podcast After Five-Year Run

Sunil Dasgupta has brought his local public affairs podcast I Hate Politics to an end after more than five years and 420 episodes focused on Montgomery County politics, public policy, and community news.

Announcement

Dasgupta, a political science professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, announced the decision at the conclusion of the podcast’s June 30 episode. The end of the show was first reported by Montgomery Fix.

“Projects begin and they end. Life goes on,” Dasgupta told The MoCoShow. “We start things thinking they will all outlast us, but of course they don’t.” While Dasgupta acknowledged experiencing burnout, he said he does not view the conclusion of the podcast as a failure.

“I started the podcast thinking that local reporting in Montgomery County and more generally in DC was declining, but thanks to your efforts, the start of the Banner, and now several other blogs, I feel like coverage has improved, making IHP less necessary than it was five years ago,” he said.

Producing the show required approximately 50 hours each week, according to Dasgupta, who continued working his regular job throughout the podcast’s run. He said he had not taken a week off from the show since February 2021, including during vacations, illnesses, and a bout with COVID-19.

“Call it burnout, but I like to think I am ready for a new adventure,” he said. Dasgupta said the podcast attempted to examine politics and power from the bottom up while avoiding the kinds of compromises that can come with maintaining access to public officials.

“We make deals with power. We trade access for favorable coverage,” he said. “I think IHP did not do that.” The podcast’s final episode featured an interview with an architect who spent a year in prison for defacing a statue at the National Gallery of Art during a climate protest. The five-hour interview, conducted over two days, was edited into a 35-minute episode examining prison life, climate activism, and the challenges of collective action.

Among the podcast’s most notable projects were approximately 100 long-form interviews with local candidates during the 2022 and 2024 election cycles. Rather than asking each candidate the same questions, Dasgupta asked them to identify their strongest issue and focused the entire interview on that subject.

“We didn’t do a gotcha show,” he said. “The candidates chose the topic and I asked questions. Turned out the interviews were very revealing.” Dasgupta also pointed to the podcast’s early coverage of the dispute over LGBTQ+-inclusive books and the opt-out policy in Montgomery County Public Schools. The show featured student reviews of the books involved and devoted extensive coverage to the debate before it became a major regional and national story.

He believes the show’s reporting on housing, environmental issues, and energy and electricity policy will also stand the test of time. On a personal level, however, Dasgupta said some of his favorite episodes featured musicians from Montgomery County and the surrounding region. “One of my big regrets the last few years has been that I have not been able to go to the live shows by IHP musicians on a regular basis,” he said. “Now that I have time, I am really looking forward to this.”

Hosting the podcast also changed Dasgupta’s understanding of how political power operates in Montgomery County and Maryland. “Politics in a one-party jurisdiction is different from places where Democrats and the GOP are in a tighter contest,” he said. “Power is exercised here most of all in creating a sense, even façade, of consensus when, in reality, people differ quite dramatically about the method, if not objectives.”

Dasgupta said he also learned that Montgomery County government agencies can be highly responsive, but that their responses often depend on how local power is organized and applied. He pointed to MCPS as an example, saying residents seeking a policy change must repeatedly fill the Board of Education meeting room, secure public speaking slots, and present organized, well-reasoned arguments through groups recognized as having expertise.

The podcast’s title also reflected one of Dasgupta’s central conclusions from the project. “I learned that people do really hate politics,” he said. “Most do not say they hate politics. Instead, they say that their favorite issue should not be political.”

Dasgupta said even disagreements over seemingly small community matters, such as whether to install sidewalks, ultimately require political solutions. “Politics is also not a pejorative,” he said. “It is a necessity without which we do not get to build schools, roads, or pay the fire and police departments.”

He also came away impressed by Montgomery County’s extensive network of civic and community organizations, describing its civic culture as among the densest he has encountered. “For the most part, MoCo residents are deeply embedded in their communities and their organizations,” he said. “Obviously, there are East-West differences in the county, but controlling for income and wealth, I think the network density in MoCo is off the charts.”

Dasgupta hopes listeners leave the podcast with a greater willingness to care about their communities, engage with public issues, and look beyond identity when making political decisions. “Caring about communities takes time and effort, and it is inherently political action,” he said. “While politics can be identity-based, solving problems elevates us.”

He also encouraged residents to start their own blogs, podcasts, or other community-focused projects and said he remains available to help. Dasgupta does not yet know what comes next, although he said a future project related to environmental protection is one possibility.

For now, the conclusion marks the end of a 420-episode run that documented five and a half years of Montgomery County elections, policy debates, community organizing, local music, and the people working to shape the county.