The anticipation is building and so is the hype. You might say the force is

awakening. The force. It's calling to you. And at this point you may be

wondering if you downloaded the wrong podcast but I assure you this is the

NPR Politics podcast. I'm Tamara Keith Whitehouse correspondent. I'm Scott

Detrello I cover the campaigns in tech. I'm Brent Neely I'm a political

editor here and we are all together because we're Star Wars nerds and

Tam is wearing Princess Leia Buns as we speak in the studio. Which sadly do not

double its headphones. But with earbuds you can still wear your Leia Buns and

tape your Star Wars podcast. But you don't have to be a total Star Wars junkie to

enjoy this we swear. You just need to know what this means.

I am your father. That of course is Darth Vader telling the Jedi Luke Skywalker

that he is his father because Star Wars is in the end just a big family drama.

But it is also a political drama or at least as we started watching the pre-

cools to get ready for the new movie coming out we realized that those movies

that came out about a decade ago they are political movies it's it's like

C-SPAN with some lightsaber fights. From the opening scroll.

Turmoil has engulfed the galactic republic. The taxation of trade routes to

outlying star systems is in dispute. Hoping to resolve the matter with a blockade

of deadly battleships the greedy trade federation has stopped all shipping to

the small planet of Naboo. While the Congress of the Republic endlessly

debates this alarming chain of events the Supreme Chancellor has secretly

dispatched two Jedi knights the Guardians of Peace and Justice in the galaxy to

...