We all know New Hampshire is the first state in the nation to host a presidential primary every election cycle. But how many of us know how the state got its special status? Lauren Chooljian and Jack Rodolico of New Hampshire Public Radio are on a mission to tell that story, through their podcast "Stranglehold."
"Lauren and I started digging into the backstory and the relevance of it now, and everything sort of fit into this theme of stranglehold," Rodolico told Boston Public Radio on Friday. "New Hampshire didn't get this thing on purpose, but the state has held onto it on purpose, so everything flows from that vantage point."
Every four years, the small New England state gets flocked by national and international media, and sometimes more than a dozen candidates. So how much could a couple of local public radio reporters pull out of the story that everyone else couldn't? You can listen to find out for yourself, but Chooljian said the primary institution is complex, and warrants being held accountable, just like any other government institution.
"What is the story that only a local newsroom in New Hampshire could tell?" she said. "How can we provide somebody, kind of like a homework assignment, a way to conceptualize what the heck this thing is, and how we got it? These are questions we get from people in New Hampshire, so we wanted to kind of provide a little gift to people to binge before the big show."
