Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas joins 13th and Park for a wide-ranging conversation rooted in service, values, and the practical demands of governing. A fifth-generation farm kid and first-generation college student, Marshall spent 25 years as the only OB-GYN serving roughly 60,000 people in Great Bend, Kansas, delivering more than 5,000 babies before bringing that same instinct for listening and diagnosing to the United States Senate. He draws a direct line between what made him a good doctor and what he believes makes a good senator: the willingness to stop talking and actually hear what people are telling you.
Marshall breaks down what Kansans are really worried about right now, from the lingering cost-of-living squeeze left by four years of cumulative inflation, to a housing market that has effectively locked out anyone under 40, to a deep and surprising anger he says is being actively stoked by both cable news and social media. He describes his practice of touring all 105 Kansas counties every year as a kind of ongoing focus group, one that has surfaced everything from childcare and fentanyl to farmer mental health and the heated debate over data centers and water resources.
On policy, Marshall details two bills he helped push into law: the return of whole milk to school cafeterias and a new housing measure. He explains the Rural Health Transformation Fund and the Rural Emergency Hospital model he developed alongside Dr. Oz, a concept designed to stop the financial bleeding at critical access hospitals while keeping emergency services close to home. He also walks through the 45Z tax credit for ethanol and sustainable aviation fuel, which he personally pitched to President Trump at Mar-a-Lago and which he believes could multiply American agricultural exports by tenfold.
The conversation closes on the state of the Senate itself. Marshall reflects on the loss of Senator Lindsey Graham, leads a bipartisan prayer breakfast every Wednesday, and pushes back hard on the purity tests he says are fracturing both parties. His closing message is characteristically Kansan: get back to fundamentals, protect the American dream, and remember where you came from.
Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:27 Bob Dole and Kansas Legacy 2:14 25 Years as Doc Marshall 3:36 What Patients Taught Him About Leadership 4:29 What Kansans Are Saying Right Now 6:54 Touring All 105 Kansas Counties 9:30 Kansas Values and Getting Back to Fundamentals 11:00 Whole Milk and Housing Bills 13:06 Rural Healthcare and the $50 Billion Fund 16:09 The Rural Emergency Hospital Model 16:44 Agriculture, Cattle, and the 45Z Tax Credit 19:20 Quick Take on Iran 20:08 Bipartisanship and Senator Graham's Legacy 22:54 The American Dream He Wants to Protect
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