The Asset
The Asset
District Productive
In 2016, Donald Trump conspired with a foreign government to become President of the United States. On July 25, 2019, with the 2020 election around the corner, he decided to do it again.The first time around, it was collusion, aiding and abetting Russia’s attack on American democracy. The second time, it was extortion, demanding the Ukrainian government manufacture dirt on Trump’s political opponents in exchange for help the country needs to fend off a Russian invasion and chart a democratic future free of Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin.  To make sense of these recent events that have rocked American politics and led to very real concerns that the President of the United States may be a Russian asset, we need to dig a little deeper. In Season 1, The Asset dives into Trump’s decades-long history with Russia, from his extensive business dealings with Russian oligarchs to his presidential campaign and the investigations that have sent some of his closest associates to prison.In Season 2, The Asset explores the backstory to Trump’s infamous phone call with the newly-elected Ukrainian President, where he demanded an investigation into a political opponent and set off a series of events leading to the impeachment inquiry.Hosted by Max Bergmann, a senior fellow and director of the Moscow Project at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, and featuring expert guests, The Asset will put together the pieces of Trump’s relationship with Russia and Ukrainian extortion campaign.The Asset is a partnership between the Center for American Progress Action Fund, District Productive, and Protect the Investigation. It is produced by Paul Woodhull, a 20-year veteran media executive and president of Build Better Media, and Peter Ogburn, the executive producer of the Bill Press Show.
Chapter 3: The Washington Administration
After The American Revolution, George Washington becomes the first President of the United States, John Adams is swept into the vice presidency, and Thomas Jefferson takes on a central role as Secretary of State. Built from real historical language and dramatized from the founders’ letters, speeches, and memoirs, the episode explores how the new nation begins to define power, duty, and the limits of government.As Adams and Jefferson argue over the presidency, federal power, the British Constitution, political parties, and the French Revolution, the story also turns to Jefferson’s alliance with Thomas Paine and the rupture it causes with Adams. The episode ends with the emerging divide between the two men and the growing tension between public principle and personal friendship.Patriarchs is a six-part audio drama about John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the founding of the United States, and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence enacted in 1776. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jul 4
22 min
Chapter 2: Oceans Apart
From the producers of The Asset. During the American Revolution, John Adams leaves Braintree for a dangerous crossing to France, while Thomas Jefferson retreats to Monticello, grief-stricken after the death of Martha Jefferson. Built from real letters, speeches, and memoirs, the episode follows Adams, Jefferson, Abigail Adams, and Sally Hemings as they move between war, diplomacy, family, and the moral contradictions of the founding era.From the Atlantic crossing and the French salons to London, Paris, and Monticello, the episode deepens the friendship between Adams and Jefferson while showing how power, marriage, slavery, and public duty shape their lives. Patriarchs is a six-part audio drama about John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the founding of the United States, and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence enacted in 1776. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jul 2
26 min
Chapter 1: Declaration
From The Asset team: Patriarchs. Subscribe hereThis first episode begins at the end, then rewinds to before the Revolutionary War, at the Continental Congress, where Adams and Jefferson clash, collaborate, and argue over independence, democracy, and the future of the nation. With powerful performances and historically grounded dialogue, Patriarchs explores the human cost of power, principle, and ambition.Patriarchs is a six-part audio drama about John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the founding of the United States, and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence enacted in 1776. Patriarchs stars Stacy Keach as Thomas Jefferson and Edward Gero as John Adams. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jun 24
26 min
Patriarchs
The Asset team is releasing a 6-part audio drama Patriarchs. As the United States approaches 250 years of independence, the nation is asking hard questions about how it began, who paid the price, and what kind of republic it has become. Patriarchs, a loaded but apt term in today’s vernacular, is a six-episode historical podcast drama that answers those questions by chronicling the most consequential relationship in early America: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, told in their own words. Subscribe hereWe begin with two former presidents looking back over a life together as friends, rivals, and uneasy family.  From there, listeners travel back to the moment these strangers first step outside the  Continental Congress to talk, two lawyers, two farmers, two men who have no idea they are  about to remake the world. Every scene, every argument, every confession in Patriarchs is drawn from real letters,   speeches, and memoirs, voiced by an ensemble of award-‑winning actors—with Stacy Keach   starring as Thomas Jefferson. The result is an intimate drama of brilliant founders who are also flawed fathers, husbands,  slaveholders, and partisans. ​We hear their partnership forged in crisis, as they push Congress toward independence and wrestle the language of the Declaration onto the page.​ Alongside them is Abigail Adams, one of the sharpest political minds of the age, whose letters  slice cleanly through ego and ideology. Patriarchs also confronts the reality of slavery and sexual exploitation in the founding  generation, centering Sally Hemings not as rumor but as a speaking, thinking presence whose  choices and constraints shape Jefferson’s life. Patriarchs is a chance to hear the founding generation as they really sounded: insecure, vain, idealistic, petty, courageous, haunted—often in the same breath in a rare combination of rigorous  primary-source history and bingeable character drama, led by Stacy Keach and a veteran cast  capable of carrying both prestige storytelling and wide audience appeal. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
May 28
26 min
Trump’s Historic Unpopularity: Majority See Him as a Dangerous Dictator
President Trump has unprecedented negative approval ratings within his first 100 days back in office.
May 5, 2025
44 min
Courts Under Siege: Dahlia Lithwick on Trump's Judicial Threats & Democracy's Future
legal journalist Dahlia Lithwick (Slate’s Amicus podcast) exposes how Trump’s second-term agenda is testing judicial independence.
Mar 28, 2025
53 min
Millions will Starve and Millions will Die
Rev. Jim Wallis speaks with Rev. Tim Costello an eyewitness to the desperation, devastation, and imminent death that is resulting from the Trump Administration’s vicious assault on people providing life-saving humanitarian aid around the world.
Mar 6, 2025
40 min
Fighting Trump's Immigration Policies in Court
In this very special guest episode from Social Justice Warrior icon Rev. Jim Wallis, we examine one of Donald Trump's biggest legal battles regarding his alleged unconstitiutional efforts invading houses of worship. A historic lawsuit has been filed by the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, in partnership with the Center on Faith and Justice, on the behalf of a broad coalition of 27 national church and organization plaintiffs, whose combined membership numbers in the millions, to defend the teachings of Jesus and the traditions of all Abrahamic religions. {Subscribe to weekly Jim's Substack column here to stay up to date with our progress.}Rev. Jim Wallis speaks with two important leaders involved in the case of Mennonite Church USA VS The Department of Homeland Security: Kelsey Brown Corkoran, the Supreme Court Director at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law, and Reverend Carlos Malave, the president of the Latino Christian National Network (LCNN), which is a broad Christian Latino network in our country, including Pentecostals, evangelicals, Catholics, and mainline leaders.On the first day of his second term as President of the United States, according to Fox News, Donald Trump ordered the Department of Homeland Security to upend a decades long practice honoring sacred spaces and “sensitive locations” to allow religious leaders and congregants to obey the commandment of Jesus from Matthew 25: “As ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Jesus’ words include “the stranger” which means immigrant and refugee in Greek.Immigrants and refugees, who rely on these sacred spaces for sustenance for their souls and bodies, are being deterred by the aggressive and unorthodox tactics from the Trump Administration that the lawsuit alleges are a violation of the First Amendment right to freely practice religion. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Feb 20, 2025
40 min
American Heretics: Donald Trump and White Christian Nationalists Spread the False White Gospel
Rev. Jim Wallis calls on all Americans to reject and help dismantle a false gospel that propagates white supremacy and autocracy.
Jul 11, 2024
23 min
Stoppable: Building 1200
The 19 year-old walked towards the school from where he had been expelled the previous year...What was about to happen?...Was this Stoppable?
Apr 26, 2024
41 min
Load more