Clay Aiken Launches New Podcast on iHeartMedia

Live politics podcast set to be broadcast each Thursday

Pictured left to right: Matthew Sheffield; John Iadarola; Clay Aiken and Lauren Chen

Former “American Idol” runner-up (and one-time candidate for Congress) Clay Aiken is taking his voice to the podcast realm with a new show aimed at bringing together both sides of the political aisle.

The show is titled “How the Heck are We Gonna Get Along?” and it is produced by KMG Utopia Studios, the podcast division of Krantz Media Group Networks. It will be will be hosted on iHeartRadio.

One-hour episodes of the show will be released every Thursday and feature a panel of guests with varying political views, who will take questions from a live studio audience about the issues of the day.

“What I’m excited about with this new show is the opportunity to not only put people with differing positions into a room together, but also make them face a live audience’s questions and figure out how the heck are we gonna get along,” Aiken said in a statement.

The podcast was originally broadcast as a panel at Politicon, an annual non-partisan political convention which began in Los Angeles in 2015. It was well-received by audiences, which led the team to expand it into its own show.

In its first episode, the podcast features guests including BlazeTV’s Lauren Chen, The Young Turks’ John Iadarola and Matthew Sheffield, founder of NewsBusters.

“In 2020, when politics feels more polarizing than ever, we’re excited to unveil the concept as a podcast with a live studio audience asking the questions,” Politicon co-founder Simon Sidi said in a statement.

Aiken is no stranger to politics — in the 2014 midterms, he began a run for a seat in North Carolina’s 2nd congressional district but lost in the general election to Republican Congresswoman Renee Ellmers, who captured 59 percent of the vote.

“As election season heats up, there’s no better time for a show like this one,” Conal Byrne, president of iHeartPodcast Network, said in a statement. “This series genuinely tries to bridge the gap between the extremes of American politics, with a little something for everyone.”

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