Ask a Pol’s upending Washington one interview at a time
Ask a Pol’s your conduit to Congress — a new, people-powered press corps. When the herd zigs, we zag.
We’re a small band of scrappy, well-sourced and savvy independent journalists working out of the US Capitol. Since 2006, Ask a Pol founder Matt Laslo's been a Washington correspondent, covering Congress for WIRED, VICE, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Daily Beast, etc.
Laslo operates The LCB a regionally-focused, national wire service that’s covered Congress for 60+ local NPR member stations, two Pulitzer Prize-winning regional print outlets, alt-weeklies from coast to cloistered coast, a slew of regional newspapers, nonprofit newsrooms and a handful of national magazines.
Since 2016, Laslo’s been a political communications Lecturer at Johns Hopkins University’s MA in Government & Public Policy program, where he got his MA.
Good political journalism isn’t about tweeting a good game. It’s about asking the right questions. And then listening — truly hearing the nation’s lawmakers above all the noise.
At Ask a Pol, we listen when lawmakers talk to the pack, but we like to have our conversations with policymakers away from the cameras. Ask a Pol publishes 99.9% exclusives.
We dig deeper, pry harder and we’re patient.
Sign up for FREE! Or we have VIP tiers*
*Student? Lost a gig? Hard times? Been there. Got you. No questions asked. Just ping us and we’ll give you VIP access for as long as you need.
Want a front row seat to the (s***) show that is the contemporary Congress? Subscribe to Ask a Pol to see the unvarnished underbelly of American politics.
Choose your adventure for FREE!
We’ll never clog your inbox, but we’ll empower you to regularly wow your boss or peers by keeping you ahead of the next day’s news cycle.
Ask a Pol aims to send subscribers a minimum* of one exclusive, raw and uncut interview with a member of the US Congress a week from the vertical of your choosing.
Current offerings: politics, AI, crypto, drugs, abroad and UAPs.
We’re a startup, with startup woes. But we’re growing daily and expanding our coverage area according to what our community cares about. So, please, send us a note! What issues matter most to you?
*minimum — when news that our subscribers care about breaks, we’ve been known to do, say, 12 to 32 interviews in a day.
Join our VIP party!
Ask a Pol’s subscribers — who are and always will remain as anonymous as they want within our private community — include some of the brightest, most powerful people in Washington and around the globe in their respective fields.
We’re followed by sitting members of Congress of all stripes, powerful congressional staffers, professors, intelligence analysts, federal workers, leaders of industry, some of the biggest names in journalism, curious students, award-winning executive producers, Hollywood actors, magazine editors & publishers, Grammy-winning artists, blue collar patriots, etc.
But we’re empowered by you and your neighbors! Questions from our community members regularly redirect congressional investigations and impact legislation in real-time.
Our press passes give us access, but our subscribers feed us the intelligence, tips and probing questions that are waking up Washington. When voters speak politicians know to listen. When Ask a Pol speaks, we speak for you.
VIP: Perks for paid subscribers*
Our raw interviews are open for everyone to listen to for FREE, though occasionally paying subscribers are sent special sneak peeks of breaking news before we’re able to polish an entire post and release it publicly.
Paid subscribers get to post comments and join our Ask a Pol community. They also get to help direct our coverage by voting in our occasional subscriber-only polls!
Paid Subscriber Perk: LIVE Listening w/ Laslo & a Lawmaker
Matt Laslo’s taking what he learned as a correspondent for Emmy-winning VICE News Tonight / HBO and deploying it in Ask a Pol’s Live Listening sessions — an occasional live Discord Q&A meant as a “Thank you!” to Ask a Pol supporters.
Don’t. Miss. These.
Prof. Laslo promises to pull the veil back and show you Congress as it really is. We hear he’s fun, knowledgeable, untamable, unbought and a tad unpredictable (in the fun ways).
Buckle. Up.
Ask your lawmakers your questions (even when there’s no county fair…)
Seriously. Don’t miss our private Discord sessions: You literally get to ask your lawmakers questions!
What’s your question for your federal lawmakers? Let us know!
Matt Laslo’s a veteran congressional correspondent, adjunct new media professor and founder of Ask a Pol.
Ask a Pol: Asking your questions to your lawmakers at your US Capitol. @Ask_a_Pol / @askpols
Take typos up with Congress (and ping us, please).
