What's Happening MoCo?

What's Happening with Ball Hockey and the I Hate Politics Podcast?

• Derrick Kenny, bob berger, jason machstein • Season 9 • Episode 89

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Sunil Dasgupta, the voice behind the popular podcast "I Hate Politics," takes us on his journey from a school board election defeat to finding his voice through podcasting. Encouraged by his wife and a friend, Sunil transformed his political frustrations into a powerful platform, launching his show in February 2021. Now with over 230 episodes and counting, he passionately discusses the necessity of politics in everyday life. 

Switching gears, we explore the rising enthusiasm for ball hockey in Montgomery County. Ben Berger enthusiastically shares his passion for the sport, highlighting its accessibility and the growing community spirit it fosters. From the NBHL Maryland Tier 3 League to the DC Youth Ball Hockey League, learn about the affordable and inclusive opportunities these leagues offer for players of all ages. Whether you're a seasoned player or a curious newcomer, this segment reveals why ball hockey is capturing the hearts of many in the area.

Speaker 1:

Good day and welcome to what's Happening MoCo, an authentic unscripted podcast from your Montgomery County government. Now here's your host, derek Kenney.

Speaker 2:

Good day and welcome to what's Happening MoCo. Today's episode. We have the resident spotlight and today we're highlighting two residents. One, you're going to learn about his podcast, I Hate Politics. The other we'll learn about ball, hockey, ball hockey in Montgomery County, maryland. Up first we have Sunil and he has a podcast called I Hate Politics, very popular podcast that focuses on local, very hyper-local politics here in Montgomery County, maryland. Here's Sunil. We talked to him at the MAKO conference in Ocean City, maryland this past August. All right, good day and welcome to what's Happening, moco.

Speaker 2:

We are doing our resident spotlight, but this is not just a regular spotlight. This is a spotlight of a fellow podcaster. As you know, if you subscribe to the what's Happening MoCo podcast, you get to hear us whenever you'd like. But also, if you know if you've been listening, we also like to highlight residents of Montgomery County that are doing great things. We've talked to Jason McStein who has the Modernity MoCo platform for news. We've talked to Alex Aronis, who's the owner proprietor for the MoCo show. We talked to another young gentleman that has the PG MoCo crime blotter. But today we're with Sunil. Sunil, how are you today, sir? Tell me, tell the people out there, tell me how people will recognize who you are.

Speaker 3:

Well, my name is Sunil Dasgupta. I live in Aspen Hill, abutting the city of Rothwell, just outside the city. I am in District 6 and District 19. In the Legislative District. I am the host of I Hate Politics podcast, which I produce from my basement.

Speaker 2:

Alright, alright.

Speaker 3:

Just by my washer and dryer, in fact, when right just buy my uh washer and dryer in fact. So when I am working the washer and dryer does not work so.

Speaker 2:

So when he's, when he's sacrificing, when he's working hard on his podcast, nothing, no clothes in the house. Get cleaned that's right.

Speaker 3:

No laundry.

Speaker 2:

I'm sacrificing laundry for this well, I will say this is not the first time I've heard of uh samil in this podcast. I've known of it for quite some time. It's been around for what? How long has it?

Speaker 3:

been. It's almost, uh, getting to be four years.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, four years four years and it's, it's, it's a a passion project. Would you say it is a passion project?

Speaker 3:

so would you say, it is a passion project. So, you know, many things came together for me to do it. The first was I had just lost an election in 2020. I ran for the school board and I lost that election and so, you know, I was moping around wondering what to do with my life and my wife, after a point, was like do something. And a friend of mine had called saying, know, you should do a podcast. And I didn't know anything about audio, audio engineering, nothing, uh. But I, you know, sat down and learned.

Speaker 3:

And october, I beg your pardon, uh, february of 8, 2021, february 8, 2021 I did my first episode on and the subject was the interchange in Georgia and 495. And they were going to the planning department had just won a small grant to redesign that, and so that was the story and we looked into what it why. You know the advocacy around it and all of that, and from there I have not stopped. Every week since then I have, yes, every week since then I've produced a show. And not just that. Since valentine's day in 2024, I've been producing two shows a week. Oh, wow wow.

Speaker 2:

So it's. It's not just passion. Now, this is what you do. You are a podcast host. You have a popular podcast, relatively for Montgomery County, maryland. And let's go back though. You started in 2021, february. You were inspired by your wife, which is wonderful. That's where the great inspirations come from for action. Why the name?

Speaker 3:

I hate politics okay, so it one of the. So I, first of all, my day job is as a professor of political science at umbc. Oh, okay, and I run. I direct the political science program on behalf of umbc at the universities of sherry grove. That's my real job. That's what pays for the laundry machines, okay, and the cleaning of the clothes and uh. So um, when a lot of my students would say, why should I do political science? I hate politics.

Speaker 3:

On the campaign trail I heard a lot of people say why should I talk to you? I hate politics. And to me as a political scientist, that was a weird thing to hear, right? Because if you didn't have politics, you would have no tax collection mechanism. If you didn't have a tax collection mechanism, you would have no police, roads, schools, nothing right. Civilization as we know it would not exist without some form of government. And so if you want any form of government and you want that government to be efficient, effective, however you want to put it, you have to engage in politics. The basis of politics is aggregating the preferences of the public. As soon as you speak of aggregated preferences, you are talking politics. So even if you want to escape politics, you cannot, even when you don't participate, you don't escape politics. That's the top of my show. All right, all.

Speaker 2:

And I hate politics. Well, soon he'll Soon he'll All right. So you now, how many episodes have you had now? 230. 230 episodes, all right. And what is your favorite episode so far and what are some of the topics that you've covered? What's your favorite?

Speaker 3:

episode. You know, favorite episode I'm not going to say, because it's like choosing a favorite child. I'm not going to go there. But I'm going to say one of the things that we do that is, I think, unique to our head politics is our candidate interviews, and practically every elected member, council member, school board member in Montgomery County has been on the show doing a candidate interview. And these candidate interviews are the antithesis of the candidate forums where most people speak. And what do I mean by that? I'm the I I had politics candidate interview are long. They can sometimes go 40 minutes, 50, 50 minutes sometimes, but belatedly I've tried to cut them shorter because people don't like listening to long. But the interview itself is long. So when I interviewed county executive mark elridge, that interview ran two hours. Oh wow. And then we, I edited it and then I made it, you know, about 35 minutes, which is manageable.

Speaker 3:

So the candidate interviews, what they do is they focus on one topic and I give the candidate the choice of topic. So they choose the topic. I ask them questions, ok, right. I want them to show their best side, ok, so. But. And I ask them questions and they answer, but I ask follow-up questions. I think that is the difference and a candidate forum in contrast. You know you're asked a question and you're given two minutes to answer. Then you move on to the next person, right and the same. You know the entire table is asked the same question over and over again. That is not what it is here. You have to really prepare yourself to be able to speak.

Speaker 2:

Cool and you get what I like to call a deep dive. Like podcast is great for a deep dive.

Speaker 4:

That's correct.

Speaker 2:

So you don't get the superficial on the record type of thing. You don't get the talking points. You get the real answers to the questions in long form. So if someone wants to know a follow-up to I support public safety, why do you support public safety? What do you think about that? What types of public safety initiatives would you institute so you are able to kind of manage all those things or cover all those things in your long-form podcast?

Speaker 3:

That's correct and the thing is that it is extraordinary. So, coming for the November 2024 election, all the six candidates that are in the running for the school board, three school board seats I have interviewed them. You can hear them in their own voice in the long form and make up and help yourself make up your mind. Don't leave the school board races unfilled. On your ballot Right, there is a. That happens a lot. We just call the down ballot drop off where you know folks will. Voters will choose the presidency, maybe the senator and the governor, and then nothing else, right? So this year there's presidency, there's a president race, there is a. There's a Senate important Senate race, but there's no governor race, right? That happens in 2026. But when you fill out your ballot right, make sure to go all the way down to school board and other races. School board is perhaps the most important Montgomery County race this time and all the interviews are available on. I Hate Politics.

Speaker 2:

All right, fantastic. Now, speaking of the interviews being available and a bunch of podcasts, how can people listen to your podcast? If they have questions, how do they reach you?

Speaker 3:

Okay, so you can listen to the podcast on any platform that you choose YouTube, apple Podcasts, spotify, pandora, iheartradio whatever platform you use If you want to reach out to me email. Producer at ihppodorg. Producer at ihppodorg.

Speaker 2:

Fantastic, that's what's happening. Moco, I hate politics. Well, sunil, a county resident, and we're so proud of you, thank you. That's a resident doing something. Resident Spotlight I hate politics. You, we're so proud of you, thank you. That's a resident doing something. Resident Spotlight I hate politics.

Speaker 3:

You didn't know that it was made through MoCo there you go.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, made in MoCo. Thank you, derek. All right, no-transcript, but now you'll know him as the Wayne Gretzky of ball hockey. Good day, what's happening, moco. This is Derek Kinney, and I'm here live at Michael and Sons Athletic Center.

Speaker 5:

Sports Arena.

Speaker 2:

Sports Arena in Rockville, Maryland. I'm here with Jason McStein and the Burger, the Burger man. What's your first name? Ben Burger? Ben Burger and Jason McStein they are two local ball hockey players. What is ball hockey, Jason?

Speaker 5:

So it's kind of like what you originally see played in the streets, you know with a stick and a ball, and we've got a full arena now and play four or five nights a week here. It's a big part of my life. I've been playing here for 14, 15 years and I've been playing ball hockey since I was six. So 32 years Wow.

Speaker 2:

And this past season was significant for your team. What's the name of your team and why was this past season significant for your team?

Speaker 5:

So we're the Savage Ogopogos, our National Ball Hockey League team. We went from last to first we were actually the first team to do that to go from last to first to win the local Maryland Tier 3 NBHL championship. And then we went on to New Jersey to play in the Nationals and had pretty good showing there. We got two wins, two losses and we were the eighth seed out of 18 teams for the playoffs there. So we were pretty happy with our performance.

Speaker 2:

Excellent, excellent. And how many years have you been playing with this team? So this is only the.

Speaker 5:

this past season was the second year of the NBHL Maryland Tier 3 League, so two years.

Speaker 2:

All right, excellent, excellent. And Ben Berger and Ben Berger. Ben Berger, what is it about ball hockey that you really enjoy?

Speaker 4:

so I grew up without playing ice hockey at all, but loving the sport of hockey itself, and it just is very easy to get into really anybody. All you need is a stick, pair of shoes, and I mean gloves, shin guards, everything help, but the barrier to entry is just so easy. You can play anywhere, you can play in your backyard. Obviously, games need to be done on a more focused arena, but there's a. The accessibility is the big thing for me.

Speaker 2:

And what was it like when you first started here? Did you start here in Rockville, maryland, first, or did you start somewhere else?

Speaker 4:

I started here. A couple of my friends after college moved back with our parents, saw this because we used to play soccer here growing up and we're like whoa, this is so much better than soccer. And yeah, we're I'm, I think, six years into it now and loving it every day.

Speaker 2:

All right, so six years into it. So what do you, what do you say to young people out there, and are there opportunities out there for young people to get involved in this game of ball hockey?

Speaker 5:

So we have our DC Youth Ball Hockey League, which is about to actually start back up in October 15th I think and you know it's a great opportunity to play. It's relatively cheap for the amount of indoor space. The cost is very low. There's a very low barrier to entry, as he said, and you know it's one of those things where you can develop skills for all different sports. So you know, there are parts that are similar to basketball, there are parts that are similar to football, soccer, so all these athletes that play other sports can easily come in and play ball, hockey and have fun. It's like low pressure because we don't have that college level, professional level, so there's not that kind of crazy parent atmosphere in a lot of youth sports. But we are working to build the sport to become bigger here. You know, develop travel teams, like some other bigger East Coast areas have, and stuff like that, so that we can advance the sport here.

Speaker 2:

All right, Ben Berger, putting you in the spot here. Give me the top three reasons why people should start playing ball hockey.

Speaker 4:

I would say health-wise it's a great run. I personally hate running just by myself, but if there's a ball to chase I'm down every day. It's a great camaraderie aspect, like I've been to weddings that are based on ball hockey friend groups, I've been hanging out with people that I've met through here pretty much every night of the week. And also, like affordability Ice hockey is one of the most expensive sports out there. Ball hockey is a fraction of the cost. You're still. A lot of people do it off-season. I was good enough to go to our world championships as a staff member and most of the men's team for that played college ice hockey or higher, currently playing professional some of them. So it's a great like compliment to ice hockey Fantastic.

Speaker 2:

Now, what do you guys want to say? Because you're on rival teams and you compete, why should someone cheer for your team as opposed to his team?

Speaker 5:

Well, we're the two-time champions. We got that. Nobody else can say that in two years. And you know, I think really we just want people to cheer for the sport, you know, and to come out, have fun, check out the games. All of our National Ball Hockey League games are on YouTube so you can check out the last season or whatever, and see what it's like. So, yeah, how about you?

Speaker 4:

The Blazers. We're the young guns, we like to have a lot more fun out there. High risk, high reward. So we have some highlight reel goals, but man do reward. Or high yeah. So we we have some highlight real goals, but man do we let in some goals, as the goalie defense is not our number one strength, but having fun is the number one goal, all right and having fun.

Speaker 2:

And that's what's happening. Moco, here, with Jason McStein and, of course, ben Berger ball hockey, rockville, maryland, montgomery County, maryland. And that's what's happening, moco. Thanks a lot, guys. Thank you. Rockville, maryland, montgomery County, maryland. And that's what's happening in MoCo.

Speaker 5:

Thanks a lot, guys. Thank you.

Speaker 2:

So that's our resident spotlight episode of what's Happening, moco, if you are a resident of Montgomery County, maryland, and you have something interesting to share on our podcast, feel free to connect with me via email derrickkenney at montgomerycountyndgov. That's D-E-R-R dot K E N N Y at Montgomery County MD dot gov. Or connect with us via social media at County cable.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to what's happening, please subscribe. And follow us on Facebook. This podcast is brought to you by County Cable Montgomery, your source for news and information from the Montgomery County Government. Connect with us via cable, facebook, instagram or YouTube by searching for County Cable MoCo.