Pete Buttigieg Launches New Podcast

Pete Buttigieg, former Mayor of South Bend, Ind. and contender in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, has just launched "The Deciding Decade with Pete Buttigieg," his first podcast, The Hill reports.

As posted to the iHeart platform, the podcast's premise is based on questions of who are "the thinkers and doers... catalyzing action and paving the way for enduring change" and "big ideas worth wrestling with." The first episode, from September 1, introduces the new series in a brief two minutes, described in summary:

The first year of the 2020s has left us all asking: How will we move forward from here? Join Pete Buttigieg, former presidential candidate and Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, in conversation with leading activists, politicians, authors, scholars, entertainers and more to confront America's greatest challenges and discuss the ideas and actions that will shape the times we are about to live through.

Buttigieg's tenure as South Bend mayor ended in January. Where the Democratic primaries are concerned, he placed fifth in terms of overall delegates – an impressive feat for a figure who seemed to emerge from obscurity and spent part of his campaign reiterating how to pronounce his surname while mounting a vigorous campaign and becoming a popular favorite.

Throughout his primary campaign, Buttigieg challenged the Trump administrations stances on climate change and LGBTQ rights, among others, only to be met with insults from the current occupant of the White House. Buttigieg praised former Vice President and current Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden for leading the party on issues such as marriage equality.