Hi, this is Dolgoon from Alambata, Mongolia, and I just cast my vote in our presidential election to elect our sixth president.

This podcast was recorded at...

205 PM on Thursday, June 10th.

Things may have changed by the time you hear this.

I'm sorry, did he say Mongolia?

I think he did, it's not... no matter what else is going on, the world voters are always voting.

Hey there, it's the MPR Politics Podcast. I'm Susan Davis, I cover Congress.

And I'm Wana Summers, I cover Politics and Racial Justice.

And we are welcoming a new voice from the Washington Desk to the pod today.

Our dear friend and colleague, Barbara Sprun.

Barbara, please introduce yourselves to our listeners.

Well, thank you guys, I'm Barbara, good to be here with you.

I'm longtime listener, former producer of the podcast,

longtime fan, and currently covering politics.

Barbara has joined us on the Hill team and has been helping all of us out tremendously on the Hill,

but doing a little bit of our own political reporting as well,

which is why we wanted you on the pod today.

Well, thank you.

So you've been reporting on an issue that has been getting a lot of attention in America's ongoing and never-ending culture wars.

And that's this idea of critical race theory.

So before we dig in too deep to the politics and why this debate's happening,

can you just take a step back and explain to us what we're talking about when we use the term critical race theory?

...