From WNYC Studios.

I'm Brian Lerer.

This is my daily politics podcast.

It's Tuesday, May 12th.

We have NPR's senior national politics correspondent.

Mara Liason standing by is our first guest today with some really big things

in national politics developing right now, like the effects of the Iran war versus the effects of

the redistricting wars on who will hold power in the United States the next two years. The inflation

report just out this morning turns out to add a lot to that narrative. We'll give you

the details. So does the latest NPR PBS Marist poll about the president and his party's

approval ratings and relative to the Democrats. But can the Republicans, with the help of the

Supreme Court, you might say, redistrict their way out of their unpopularity, and is that

what democracy looks like? Mara Liason is with us. Mara, we always appreciate your analysis on the

network. Thanks for some WNYC time for our listeners today. Mara, you there?

Yes, can you hear me? Good. Yes, I can hear you.

I was just saying that the New York Times lead on this inflation report says it shot up at 3.8% as an annual rate.

The Wall Street Journal headline uses the word sword.

How do you see the political context of this right now?

Well, I see this as the most significant economic indicator. It's the one that voters understand every single day. They know

what gas prices are because they're in giant letters in front of every gas station. And

inflation jumping up by 3.8% is a really big jump.

And finally, the chickens have come home to roost, the cost of the war on gas prices,

...