STE-Palmer-Sherman-imagery
  • Episode 29
  • October 9, 2022

Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman: The Punch In Punchbowl

Today’s guests founded the groundbreaking Punchbowl News. Anna Palmer worked for the Legal Times and Roll Call before joining Politico in 2011. While at the Legal Times she began to attract national attention for her work and investigating the activities of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who ultimately went to prison. Not long after joining Politico, she joined the team of journalists investigating sexual harassment allegations against presidential candidate, Herman Cain, who subsequently suspended his campaign.

While at Politico, she served as its senior Washington correspondent. She also led Women Rule, a leading platform aimed at expanding leadership opportunities for women, and hosted the critically acclaimed Women Rule podcast. She also got to work with our other guest, who would become her primary writing partner.

Jake Sherman grew up in Connecticut before attending George Washington University and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. He worked for the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune in their Washington DC bureaus and joined Politico in 2009. He too became a successful senior writer for Politico. But it seems to me that much of the real magic started happening when he began to partner with Anna. They collaborated extensively at Politico, especially covering the U.S. Congress. They reported on corruption scandals among Democrats and Republicans. Including on the matter of Congressman Aaron Schock, who ultimately resigned.

For four years, they took over the wildly popular Politico playbook after Mike Allen’s departure, further expanding its readership. And in 2019, our dynamic duo wrote The Hill To Die On: The Battle for Congress and the Future of Trump’s America, a New York Times bestseller. They left Politico in 2020 to start Punchbowl News, which would offer non-partisan reporting with a special focus on Washington’s elite power players.

Anna would become Punchbowl News’ CEO with one of the top names in the business. She has been a political commentator for CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and Washington Week. And Jake, too, would become a top name in the business, serving as a political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC.

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