Patriot Games

Best friends Rich Carlson and Tom Swenor got so fed up with the political process in America that they decided to form their own Tea Party chapter in Petoskey, Michigan.

Best Documentary: Bronze2011 Third Coast / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition

2011 / Ben Calhoun / This American Life, USA

Best friends Rich Carlson and Tom Swenor got so fed up with the political process in America that they decided to form their own Tea Party chapter in Petoskey, Michigan.

But as election season revved up and push came to shove, Rich and Tom had very different ideas about how to advance a conservative agenda. In the end, their idealism, their jobs and their friendship suffered the consequences.

Patriot Games won the Best Documentary: Bronze Award in the 2011 Third Coast/Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition. It was reported and produced by Ben Calhoun in 2010 for WBEZ's This American Life, and was edited by Ira Glass and Julie Snyder.


produced by


Featured in


May we recommend…