And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN, the Axviles, with your

host, David Axelrod.

I have a soft spot for Michael Spurkhanish because, like me, he has a long history in urban

politics and a treasure trove of stories about it.

And he made the switch to journalism, though I went the other way.

And now he's one of the most listened to talk radio hosts in America.

And he has an interesting angle on it because he doesn't come from the left or right.

He dropped by the Institute of Politics the other day and we sat down to talk about his

career, the state of talk radio and our politics.

Michael Spurkhanish is such a pleasure to see you.

Grateful that you're here at the Institute of Politics.

We've spent many hours together on various panels over the years.

It's good to be here to talk about you, the man behind the beard.

So tell me about the Spurkhanish's and you have a very rich kind of European ethnic history

that is kind of the classic American story.

My parents are cold crackers from Northeast Pennsylvania, a turf you know well, very politically

significant, especially in the last cycle.

And then my father, who was a school teacher and then guidance counselor in the public schools

moved to the suburbs of Philadelphia and that's where he and my mother raised my brother

and me.

Drug, your grandfather was a, as you say, a coal miner.

He was so committed to his church that he prepared his own funeral that he laid the whole

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