Andrea Seabrook

In the first of a two-part series on immigration, former NPR correspondent Andrea Seabrook’s political podcast, Decode DC, explores this serious and volatile subject and looks at how humor can get closer to solving a problem than political talking points ever could. Guest host Korva Coleman

Ohio Senator Rob Portman said Friday that he has a gay son and can no longer justify his opposition to same-sex marriage, making him one of the most prominent Republicans to oppose his party on the issue. In her latest DecodeDC report, former NPR correspondent Andrea Seabrook profiles former Rep. Jim Kolbe, an Arizona Republican who served in Congress from 1985 to 2003, and who came out in 1996.

House Speaker John Boehner says there is no easy way to stop the budget cuts -- known as the “sequester” -- that began taking effect Friday, and he voiced uncertainty about how Washington can solve the fiscal problems that have consumed the nation’s politics for more than two years. Sequester threatens nearly 50,000 jobs and many programs in Maryland. Andrea Seabrook, former NPR congressional correspondent and now the host of her podcast, DecodeDC, explains how this whole thing began and how it might end.

Whether you call it the fiscal cliff, fiscal slope or something else, the series of mandatory spending cuts and tax increases that could take place January 1 is the dominant subject on Capitol Hill. Former NPR Washington correspondent Andrea Seabrook, who has started her own blog and podcast, “DecodeDC,” will give us the latest on the talks to avoid “the cliff,” the debate over entitlements and more.

After 14 years with NPR and nearly a decade covering Congress, Andrea Seabrook left to start a blog and podcast called DecodeDC, in large part because she got fed up. Capitol Hill has become such a spin-zone that Seabrook wants to cut through the lies she felt she was being told as a reporter and to “stop coddling the lawmakers.” What’s really going on in Washington, what it all really means, ans a new approach to political journalism in the digital age.