Podcasts: Clay Aiken Returns To Politics, Sort Of

Never say never, but running for political office -- again -- is not at the top of Clay Aiken's to-do list. And least not anytime soon.

That's even though Aiken, who first gained fame as a runner-up on "American Idol" and then went on to star on Broadway and run for the U.S. House in North Carolina's 2nd Congressional District in 2014, has a new project that's pretty politics-centric.

Aiken is the host of a new Politicon podcast called "How the Heck Are We Gonna Get Along," a sort of roundtable debate of political and current events topics.

Politicon, not to be confused with Politico, started as a Comicon-style convention that melds the worlds of entertainment and politics. As someone who straddles those worlds, Aiken sat on panels at Politicon conventions for several years and was approached by the creators (coincidentally, two former "American Idol" producers) to host the podcast. He says they knew he would not "demonize the people I disagree with."

"I grew up here and a lot of my family and I disagree and vote for different people, and I realize from that -- and from running in a very red district a few years ago -- that I can very adamantly disagree with people from a different party from me and also realize that they are not evil," says the Raleigh native, a registered Democrat.

"And I think that's in short supply nowadays. They knew that I was willing to listen to Republicans and conservatives and not think that they were evil."

Aiken says the podcast aims for conversation without excessive arguing but admits they don't always succeed at that. After a couple of recent episodes about George Floyd, a North Carolina native who died while in police custody in Minneapolis, things "got a little heated," Aiken says, so they started having two guests instead of four. For now, they alternate with progressives for one episode and then conservatives the next.

"We do our best not to choose guests who are dyed in the wool and refuse to listen to the other side," Aiken says. "The goal is to have a conversation where people listen to each other."

That inability to listen to those from the other side, or to demonize those from a different party, is something Aiken has experienced firsthand.

When he ran for office against former U.S. Rep. Renee Ellmers in 2014, Aiken knew he would probably lose a lot of fans, even some diehard "Claymates" (a term that was given to his most devoted fans, but a term many of them do not care for).

"One of the things that made me hesitate to run for office was I believed-slash-knew that as soon as I put a 'D' behind my name, I was going to have people just not like me anymore. Period," Aiken says. "I says, 'if you're going to go into this, you have to be willing to never sing again.'"

Aiken recounts being in an airport in Atlanta around that time and encountering a former fan working in the Delta Club.

"The lady at the desk says, "Oh my God, Clay Aiken! I used to love you! I can't anymore because you're a Democrat.'

"She was sweet, and we had a conversation, but she was dead serious," he says.