The David Pakman Show, originally Midweek Politics with David Pakman, is a news and political talk program, known for controversial interviews with political and religious extremists, liberal and conservative politicians, and other guests. TDPS has been involved in a number of controversies involving homophobic and racist guests. The program focuses on the politics and news of the day, technology and energy development, business, religion and other topics. TDPS airs on both radio and television affiliates around the US and across the world.
Host David Pakman holds an MBA from Bentley University and an undergraduate degree in economics and communication from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He is originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina. At the time he started the program, at age 21, Pakman was the youngest nationally syndicated political host. He has been compared to Rachel Maddow, both for his incisive, sometimes sarcastic political analysis and for starting his radio career in the same city as Maddow, Northampton, Massachusetts.
Pakman started to produce a local version of TDPS on Pacifica radio affiliate WXOJ while an undergraduate student at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, during his time as an intern at the Media Education Foundation, the non-profit holding WXOJ’s license at the time. The program focused on national politics from its inception, and was initially made available only to Pacifica Radio Network affiliate stations. Immediate interest from few but important affiliates spread around the US, and as the production value and notability of guests of the show rose, affiliates continued to add the program to their schedules. Broader public radio syndication followed.
In 2007, TDPS added Louis Motamedi, childhood friend of Pakman’s, as radio producer. This expanded the program further, allowing for a wider variety of programming, more well-known guests, and live phone calls, and generally improved the production value of the show, which was until that point a one-person operation.