All the way back in 2008, Jeffrey Graves and I were two years into our nascent undergrad student podcasting careers. Living and studying in Denver, Colorado, we had the opportunity to cover the biggest political event of 2008 — that’s right, the 2008 Libertarian National Convention (oh, and we covered some Democratic National Convention thing a couple months later).  One of the candidates at the Convention? Former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel, who started the 2007-8 campaign season in the Democratic Party before becoming part of the race for the Libertarian nomination (he finished fourth after several rounds of balloting). On the first day of the Convention, Jeffrey and I interviewed Gravel.

Recently, Gravel has launched an unorthodox campaign in the Democratic Party primary, with the intention of making it in to the debates in order to articulate an anti-war, anti-interventionist message and to work to push the debate and party to the left. Enterprising nearing-middle-age-semi-washed-up-podcasters that we are, Jeffrey and I unearthed our 2008 interview with Gravel from the depths of a long forgotten external hard drive.

And now, we bring you our May 2008 interview with former Senator Mike Gravel, in which he discusses his move from the Democratic to Libertarian primary, his critique of the two-party system and military industrial complex, the Whigs, grassroots campaigning circa 2008, his famous Rock ad and more.

The audio has been edited for clarity. Thanks to Jordan Cass for his cover of “No Surprises,” which is used as the intro music to this audio gem.

The younger, not-as-well-dressed-as-they-are-today Jeffrey Graves (L) and John McMahon (R), with former Senator Mike Gravel on the first day of the 2008 Libertarian National Convention.

(link to the mp3 file itself here)