Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

So, even if you detest politics, you're probably aware that there is like a really big election this week.

That brings me to the most important question here. Midterms are two weeks away.

How is it looking?

With just four.

One, two, three, four days before the historic midterm elections.

You guys excited for the midterms?

That's right, the midterms.

Every seat in the House of Representatives and a bunch in the Senate are up for election. Midterm elections, they have consequences, sometimes huge consequences, especially in the last two decades,

when massive electoral waves have swept the country, flipping the political status quo on its head.

For this episode and the next, we're going to look back at two such electoral waves.

One Democratic, one Republican, with the help of Martin Powers, and can he do that?

Another Washington Post podcast you should be listening to.

First, 2006.

President George W. Bush was in his second term.

And the House, it had been controlled by Republicans since 1995.

With Bush and the Republican Party wounded over the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina,

and a host of other problems, Democrats sensed their greatest chance in a generation to win back

the House of Representatives. But Democrats in the House, including Nancy Pelosi, who'd be the first

female speaker, if they

won, knew they needed to shake up in their ranks to get it done. And so, to chair the Democratic

Congressional Campaign Committee, they turned to a young, brash, and frequently cursing representative

...