Conduit Street Podcast
From the halls of the State House to the heart of county government, the Conduit Street Podcast breaks down the decisions shaping Marylanders’ daily lives. Produced by the Maryland Association of Counties (MACo), this weekly podcast offers smart, accessible insights on the latest state and local policy — with counties always at the center.
Explore how legislation, executive actions, and agency decisions affect essential public services like education, infrastructure, public safety, health, and other core functions that matter most to Maryland residents. With special guests from across the state and the occasional world-famous dad joke, Conduit Street keeps you informed, engaged, and ready for what’s next.
Whether you’re a policymaker, a public servant, or just policy-curious, this is your front-row seat to Maryland’s political landscape.
Episodes
377 episodes
News or Noise: Blueprint Pressure, AI Surveillance, and College Sports
Summer Conference is in the rearview mirror, but many of the conversations shaping Maryland policy are just getting started.In the latest round of News or Noise, Kevin Kinnally and Michael Sanderson are joined by Sarah Sample fo...
The Briefing Room: Preservation as a Housing Strategy
Building new housing is only part of the affordability challenge. Counties also need tools to preserve the affordable homes already in their communities.In Episode 7 of The Briefing Room's housing finance series, Dom Butchko and Terry Hi...
Summer MACoCon Is Over but the Conversations Continue
The 2026 Summer MACoCon might be over, but many of the conversations that filled the convention center's halls are ongoing.In this episode of the Conduit Street Podcast, Shantelle Malcolm-Lym is joined by Karrington Anderson and Dominic ...
Special Bonus Episode: Frederick County's Data Center Playbook
Following the response to The Briefing Room's energy series, we're revisiting one of the topics that generated the most listener interest: data centers.In this special bonus episode, Dom Butchko is joined by Frederick County Executive Je...
The Briefing Room: The Office-To-Housing Challenge
Converting empty offices into housing sounds like a straightforward way to address two challenges at once, but the financial and physical realities are often far more complicated. In Episode 6 of The Briefing Room’s housing finance series, Dom ...
News or Noise: Redistricting, Revenue, and NBA Hot Takes
Every month, the Conduit Street Podcast separates the headlines that matter from the stories generating more attention than action. Let's take a look at where things stand as July comes to an end.In this edition of News or Noise, Kevin K...
The Briefing Room: Smith Island Cake Effect
Housing costs rarely rise because of one single policy, fee, or requirement. More often, they build layer by layer until the numbers no longer work. Capturing a Maryland icon, a housing advocate started to tag the layer-upon-layer of process as...
Healthy Communities With the American Heart Association
Public Health is about more than hospitals and healthcare; it's also about the policies that help people live healthier lives every day.This week on the Conduit Street Podcast, Michael Sanderson and Karrington Anderson are joined by Laur...
The Briefing Room: Inside the Private Side of Housing Finance
Building affordable housing takes more than public funding. Private lenders and investors play a critical role in turning plans into completed projects.In Episode 4 of The Briefing Room's housing finance series, Dom Butchko and Terry Hic...
The Briefing Room: The State's Role in Solving Maryland's Housing Crisis
Over the first two episodes of our housing finance series, Dom Butchko and Terry Hickey explored how affordable housing projects are financed and why today's economic conditions make development more challenging. In Episode 3, the conversation ...
Special Edition: The Briefing Room Talks Data Centers, Fact vs. Fiction
Instead of this week's regular Conduit Street Podcast, we're bringing you a bonus episode of The Briefing Room in response to a high-interest topic from our recent energy series.Data centers quickly became one of the most popular ...
The Briefing Room: Why Housing Costs More Than Ever
Housing projects do not rise or fall only on land, design, or political will. They also rise or fall with the cost of capital, aka the capital stack. In Episode 2 of The Briefing Room, Dom Butchko and Terry Hickey are joined ...
News or Noise: Maryland Primaries, Power Shifts, and What Comes Next
This month’s News or Noise dives into the biggest political developments coming out of Maryland’s June primary elections, and what they could mean for county government, legislative priorities, and the 2027 General Assembly.Kevi...
The Briefing Room: Before the Bricks, the Financial Realities of Housing
After wrapping our series on Maryland’s energy future, The Briefing Room turns to another defining challenge for counties: housing.In Episode 1 of our new housing finance series, Dom Butchko is joined by Terry Hickey, Baltimore ...
From Maryland to Missouri, County Issues Align
This week on the Conduit Street Podcast, Michael Sanderson is joined by Steve Hobbs, Executive Director of the Missouri Association of Counties, for a conversation on the issues shaping county government across state linesFrom property ...
Different States, Similar County Challenges
This week on the Conduit Street Podcast, Dominic Butchko and Kevin Kinnally record from the Conference of Southern County Associations (CSCA) in Williamsburg, Virginia, joined by county leaders and policy experts from across the South for a dis...
The Briefing Room Ep 5: The Annapolis Energy Agenda
In the final episode of The Briefing Room energy series, host Dom Butchko turns the conversation to Annapolis and the broader policy choices shaping Maryland’s energy future. Joined by Delegate David Fraser-Hidalgo, Chair of the House ...
The Briefing Room Ep 4: The Data Center Dilemma
In Episode 4 of The Briefing Room, we continue our five-part energy series with a closer look at one of the fastest-growing and most controversial issues facing state and local governments: data centers. Host Dom Butchko is joined by J...
May in Maryland: What's News, What's Noise?
We're back with another special edition of the Conduit Street Podcast, with the MACo team taking up several issues from this month's headlines, and trying to sort out which are the real stories (news) and which are more smoke than fire (noise)....
The Briefing Room Ep 3: Where Our Power Comes From
In Episode 3 of The Briefing Room, Maryland’s energy picture comes into sharper focus. Host Dom Butchko is joined by Public Service Commission Chair Kumar Barve to unpack one of the biggest questions facing the state: where does our po...
Maryland Mail-In Ballot Questions, Answered
This week on the Conduit Street Podcast, Kevin Kinnally and Michael Sanderson break down the recent vendor issue involving Maryland's mail-in ballots for the June 23 gubernatorial primary and walk through what county officials and vote...
The Briefing Room Ep 2: How PJM Shapes Maryland’s Energy Future
In Episode 2 of The Briefing Room’s energy series, Dom Butchko sits down with Jason Stanek, Executive Director of Governmental Services at PJM Interconnection, to unpack the role of energy regions in Maryland’s power future. <...
Service, Strategy, and Next Steps - A Conversation With Senator Sara Love
In this episode of the Conduit Street Podcast, host Dom Butchko sits down with Senator Sara Love for a wide-ranging conversation on public service, legislative strategy, and the issues shaping Maryland policy. Senator Love discusses her path to...
Maryland by the Numbers: The Latest UMBC Poll With Mileah Kromer
This week on the Conduit Street Podcast, Kevin Kinnally and Dominic Butchko sit down with Dr. Mileah Kromer, director of the Institute of Politics at UMBC, to break down the latest UMBC Poll releases and what they reveal about...
The Briefing Room Ep 1: Who Really Controls Maryland’s Energy?
The Conduit Street Podcast is launching something new.Introducing The Briefing Room, a new limited series designed to take a deeper dive into the complex policy issues shaping Maryland’s counties. In this first episode, host Domin...
