Ana and Deep welcome Rayna Kingston, Denver community organizer, content creator, and founder of Denver Activist Women's Group (DAWG), for a conversation about building political power outside electoral politics. Rayna walks through her arc: from a Christian conservative kid in Littleton, to a food-tour content creator during COVID, to a first-time candidate for Colorado House District 5, to the decision to step away from a race she was probably going to win. She founded DAWG after the 2024 election with a single Instagram Story that reached 500 women instead of the 30 she expected, and the group has now grown to a reach of 11,000+. Then she gets into what she learned running for office and the moment she realized she'd have to lie to voters about how much a junior state rep can actually change.

Ana and Deep welcome Kyle Giddings, Deputy Director of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition (CCJRC), for a conversation on what's happening inside Colorado's prisons and what's about to happen if voters pass Prop 132 this November. Kyle walks through his own journey from Republican aide, to jail, to being one of the loudest voices for reform in the state. He names the paradox at the heart of Colorado's justice system: crime is at a five-year low, but prison populations are growing. Then they turn to Prop 132, the fentanyl ballot initiative funded by Advance Colorado. Kyle calls it a private prison money grab that would felonize all fentanyl possession, lump sharing drugs with dealing at 8-32 year mandatory minimums, and increase overdose deaths by 41%. If it passes, 25 years of Colorado criminal justice reform gets undone in a single election. Vote NO on Prop 132.

Ana and Deep sit down with David Sirota, founder of The Lever, creator of Master Plan and Meltdown, former Bernie Sanders speechwriter, and one of the sharpest voices in independent political journalism. Sirota walks listeners through the through-line from Obama's supermajority-era failures to Trump's rise, connects it to his 50-year investigation of how the right legalized corruption in America, and offers a warning to the new wave of progressives (Melat Kiros, Zohran Mamdani, Phil Weiser, Abdul El-Sayed) about what happens if they win power and don't use it. Sirota lays out public financing of elections and how Zohran Mamdani couldn't have won New York without it. Denver also has a version of it and it's the single lever that could break the corporate stronghold on Democratic primaries. This is a wisdom-from-an-elder conversation for the movement leaders about to inherit a broken system. We cannot build another cult of personality but instead must build pressure to keep whoever wins accountable.

When Graham Platner dropped out of the Maine Senate race and Eric Swalwell exited California’s Governor’s race over sexual assault allegations, the coverage focused on the campaigns. Ana and Deep sit down with Tracing the Steps founder Kelsey Harbert to ask what the political conversation keeps missing: what about the survivor? Kelsey walks through what actually happens when a survivor comes forward in Colorado. She breaks down Colorado's evidence kit backlog, the Missy Woods scandal where a 29-year senior CBI analyst admitted to deleting DNA, and what has to change under incoming Governor Weiser and AG Griswold. We end with a call to action to support her GoFundMe that’s already raised over $100,000 to process backlog kits. This is what accountability looks like from outside the system.

Ana and Deep break down Colorado's June 30 primary from the winners to the bummers to what's next. Phil Weiser walloped Michael Bennet despite Bloomberg's millions. Melat Kiros ended a 30-year DeGette era in CD-1 with 6,000 volunteers, 116,000 doors knocked, and 500,000 phone calls. Julie Gonzales came within 5 points of Hickenlooper, and Jena Griswold won AG in a fractured four-way field that ranked-choice voting would have fixed. Down-ballot, progressives ran the table: Chela Garcia Irlando, Iris Halpern, Gabriel Cervantes, and Kenny Van Nguyen all beat six-figure dark money attacks. One Main Street may be officially extinct. Then Ana and Deep look ahead to November: CD-3, CD-5, CD-8, the Sarah Parady vacancy for Denver’s City Council, and the fent@nyl, ICE, and graduated income tax ballot measures. Plus Hunter Biden on why "conviction beats caution."

Ana and Deep head "west and south" to break down Colorado's 3rd Congressional District, the largest and most overlooked race on the June 30 ballot. They're joined by Democratic candidate Alex Kelloff, whose family roots in the district go back 130 years. The episode walks through CD-3's wild political saga and what Kelloff is actually hearing at the doors after 13 months of grassroots campaigning. They name the Tina Peters water hostage deal, FEMA's no-show in Meeker, rural hospital closures from the Big Ugly Bill, data centers straining Western Slope water, the 5-1 Garfield County vote against an ICE detention facility, and the Hope Shuffleman bribe that proves Trump will invent fake government jobs to bend a primary his way. Ballots due 7pm June 30. (This episode was taped on June 5th)

Ana and Deep are joined for the first time by a repeat guest: Melat Kiros, the 29-year-old progressive organizer running against 30-year incumbent Diana DeGette in Colorado's 1st Congressional District. The conversation comes 18 days before the June 30 primary, which in safe-blue Denver is functionally the general election. Melat lays out the issues hitting hardest at the doors (ICE, data centers and privacy, anti-corruption), explains how her grassroots campaign moved from "no chance" to neck-and-neck in the betting markets, and walks through the Montana Plan, a ballot measure that could end corporate personhood and crack Citizens United open at the state level. Ana and Deep also cover the basics every Colorado voter needs to know before June 30: unaffiliated voters get both ballots but can only return one, and same-day registration is allowed. The episode ends with a hard call to action: vote, tell five friends, and get out canvassing.

Deep and Ana welcome former state representative, Chicano Studies professor, and longtime Chicano organizer Tim Hernandez into the attic for one of LITA's most direct conversations yet about working class politics, immigrant rights, and what actually keeps people safe when ICE shows up. Tim walks through his political awakening, his vacancy committee election as the youngest Colorado state representative in 180 years, the October 7 confrontation that went viral, and the dark money campaign that took his seat. They go deep on Colorado's Rapid Response Network, why ICE is already here every day (not coming someday), how to become a confirmer, and the case Tim makes for abolishing both ICE and citizenship itself. They break down Advance Colorado's Initiative 95, the ballot measure that would force local agencies to hand people over to ICE and roll back twenty years of immigrant protections, and unpack the petition canvasser conversation Ana had outside the rec center that captured exactly how the right is selling this. 

Ana and Deep sit down with Zach Neumann, co-founder and CEO of the Community Economic Defense Project, to break down Colorado’s housing crisis, eviction defense, and why renter protections keep failing at the Capitol. Zach shares how a single pandemic Facebook post grew into one of the state’s largest tenant-defense operations, helping tens of thousands of Coloradans access legal aid and emergency assistance. They discuss eviction as a debt collection tool, surveillance pricing, predatory car “kill switches,” and Colorado’s Portable Tenant Screening Report law. They end with sharing a new partnership with Rentell aimed at making housing applications easier and more affordable for renters.

Deep and Ana sit down with civil rights and employment attorney Azra Taslimi for one of LITA’s most direct conversations on Colorado politics, accountability, and the Muslim American experience in 2026. Azra shares her path from public defender in New York to civil rights litigator in Denver, representing clients facing police misconduct, discrimination, and censorship, while reflecting on growing up Muslim in post-9/11 America and the legacy of Sikh and Muslim solidarity. The conversation centers on Colorado Muslim Vote, the organizing effort she helped build to unify roughly 100,000 Muslim voters after elected officials failed to engage with calls for a ceasefire, including a 2024 protest vote and ongoing pressure on state leaders. They also discuss tensions within Colorado’s Democratic establishment, including a 2026 gubernatorial forum where Gaza-related questions became a flashpoint and Senator Michael Bennet no-showed. They close with a call to visit Denver’s Unseen exhibit of Palestinian family photos.

Ana and Deep welcome Paul Karolyi, senior executive producer at City Cast Denver, into the attic for a wide-ranging conversation about Colorado's 2026 primary landscape, and end up disagreeing with each other more than once. Paul shares how studying the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a protest march in Nazareth pulled him toward journalism instead of activism. They recap the YIMBY and Greater Denver Transit gubernatorial forum with Phil Weiser and Michael Bennet, where Weiser came with specifics and Bennet came with goals. From there, the trio dig into the Bennet and Hickenlooper political history and both senators' votes for Trump cabinet nominees. They close on the high-stakes CD8 race: the hypocrisy of Gabe Evans's grandfather story and the case against Shannon Bird as a general-election liability. (Episode was filmed in 2/25/26)

Most Colorado voters have no idea their June primary ballot is shaped long before they show up to vote. In this episode, Ana and Deep break down the full caucus-and-assembly process — from Tuesday-night precinct caucuses to the state assembly floor — explaining how candidates either clear the 30% threshold to make the ballot or shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars in petition signatures instead. Along the way, they cover a coordinated progressive organizing effort behind Melat Kiros that flooded the delegate pool, tech meltdowns and voting chaos at the county assembly, Diana DeGette's surprisingly close call at the CD1 assembly, and the state-level results: Phil Weiser dominating the governor's race, Julie Gonzales advancing, a tight AG contest between David Seligman and Jenna Griswold, and Jeff Bridges left as the only treasurer candidate after others missed the threshold entirely. They also get honest about who the process leaves out — Tuesday-night meetings, accessibility barriers, and a delegate pool that skews older and whiter than the actual Democratic electorate.

Ana and Deep host Left in the Attic with special guest Hetal Doshi, a first-generation American, former deputy in the DOJ Antitrust Division under the Biden-Harris administration, now running for Colorado Attorney General. They discuss International Women’s Day and the value of multigenerational spaces, then Doshi shares her upbringing across the Deep South and how civil rights history shaped her path to law. Doshi explains antitrust as protecting competition, wages, and fair prices, and argues states must enforce existing laws as federal enforcers fall short. She outlines priorities as AG: defending Colorado from a lawless federal administration, “Trump-proofing” the economy through antitrust/consumer protection/workers’ rights, and protecting environmental freedom. They cover the DOJ’s Ticketmaster/Live Nation case, concerns about a sudden DOJ settlement, and broader media consolidation, ending with calls to support local businesses and submit public comments.

Ana and Deep host Colorado State Senator Julie Gonzales to discuss her U.S. Senate campaign challenging incumbent John Hickenlooper, arguing Colorado needs stronger leadership on affordability, worker power, and civil liberties. Gonzales shares her background growing up on an Apache reservation and on the South Texas border, her path from organizing to the state senate, and her focus on policies like universal child and elder care and Medicare for All while rejecting corporate PAC money. The episode highlights reports of nine secret ICE “holding rooms” in Colorado used to detain people far beyond intended limits, including children and the elderly, and connects immigration detention to for-profit incentives and surveillance. They also discuss U.S. escalation with Iran without congressional authorization, potential regional expansion, and impacts on working-class people. The episode ends with a call to contact Senators Hickenlooper and Bennet to oppose Markwayne Mullin for DHS.

Ana and Deep interview Colorado Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Phil Weiser about democratic accountability, Colorado resisting federal overreach, and his case for governor in a head-to-head primary against Senator Michael Bennet. Weiser describes his background as a first-generation American whose mother was born in a concentration camp, his clerkship with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and his path through the Justice Department, academia, and the Obama White House to elected office. He argues Colorado needs a governor who will confront the Trump administration, citing his 54 lawsuits and criticizing Bennet for voting to confirm eight Trump cabinet picks, including Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. They discuss housing and cost-of-living solutions, corporate landlord abuses, social media harms to kids, “Colorado Core,” mentoring, youth political engagement, and bipartisan work on the Tina Peters case. They also discuss a listener voicemail from Lucy in East Denver who asks about Ezra Klein’s book “Abundance” and critics to Klein’s arguments. The episode closes with a call for Democrats to attend caucus week March 3–7 and get involved in local party roles.

In this episode of Left in the Attic, Ana and Deep talk with civil rights attorney, Colorado Attorney General candidate David Seligman, Executive Director of Towards Justice, about collapsing trust in the rule of law and how corporate power and opaque AI systems now shape everyday life. They also discuss elite accountability gaps and the growing influence of “black box” AI in hiring, healthcare, housing, and wage-setting, including a lawsuit challenging an AI hiring tool. The episode closes with calls to action around banning surveillance-based wages and prices and joining community efforts to protect vulnerable communities.

In this episode of Left in the Attic, hosts Ana and Deep talk with Colorado State Representative Brianna Titone (HD-27) about her path from tech and public service into politics, flipping a Republican district in 2018 as Colorado’s first openly transgender elected official, and her current run for state treasurer. Titone explains what the treasurer’s office does and her goals. They also dig into Colorado’s first-in-the-nation AI consumer protections bill against algorithmic discrimination, corporate influence, and concerns over data centers like the new one in Denver’s Elyria-Swansea. The episode closes with a call to action to show up, contact legislators, and follow groups like ACLU of Colorado and Towards Justice for AI updates and rallies.

In this episode of Left in the Attic, hosts Ana and Deep delve into the workings of local party politics, focusing on caucuses, delegates, and precinct organizers. They explain how everyday people can get involved in shaping the Denver Democratic Party. Special guest James Reyes, the current chair of the Denver Democrats and DNC Member, joins to share insights about his journey from being a young Republican to leading Colorado’s largest Democratic County Party. The episode also highlights the historic win of Bad Bunny at the Grammys and its cultural significance. Listeners learn about the upcoming caucus process, the importance of precinct organizers, and how to become a delegate for the county and state assemblies. The episode wraps up with multiple calls to action for those interested in political involvement.

In this episode of Left in the Attic, hosts Ana and Deep dive into the critical themes of law, justice, and accountability in the Trump era. They welcome Michael Dougherty, three-time elected district attorney in Boulder County and candidate for Colorado Attorney General. The discussion kicks off with Michael and the hosts sharing their new year themes. The conversation then shifts to pressing issues, including the prosecution of Tina Peters for election fraud, emphasizing the importance of upholding the rule of law. They also discuss holding Democrats accountable, citing the case of Tracy Bernett, a Democratic representative prosecuted for falsifying residency documents. The episode tackles the complexities of ICE operations, particularly the tragic incident involving Renee Good in Minnesota, and the challenges local jurisdictions face against federal overreach. Michael highlights the importance of Senate Bill 276 for immigrant protections in Colorado and stresses the necessity of maintaining public trust in the justice system.

In this episode of Left in the Attic, hosts Ana and Deep reflect on the major wins and losses of 2025 and share their predictions for 2026. Deep opens up about the recent loss of his mom, illustrating the significant impact she had on his life and community. They discuss his mom’s inspiring journey from India to the United States and her relentless community organizing efforts. The episode picks up pace as they dive into the political, cultural, and scientific wins and losses of the year. They highlight significant events such as the impact of Zohran's election in New York, the troubling consequences of the Big Beautiful Bill, and the setbacks in science due to the rise of misinformation. The hosts also share personal achievements, including Deep becoming a father and Ana's career pivot after losing her job at the CDC. They wrap up with a call to action for civic engagement, encouraging listeners to join community organizations and stay politically active.