Anne Dunsmore has been in the room for nearly 50 years of American politics, and it all started because she lost a bet in a D.C. bar.

She sits down with Chad Peace and Cara McCormick to tell her story: working the floor with James Baker and Margaret Tutwiler on George H.W. Bush's 1980 campaign, turning around Pete Wilson's reelection from what she calls an "Exxon Valdez" moment, and raising $1.2 billion alongside Michael Ovitz to rebuild UCLA after the Northridge earthquake. Along the way she talks fundraising for Muhammad Ali, being one of the only women in rooms full of "cavemen," and why she never needed to be an ideologue to be effective. By the end, Chad and Cara land on the idea that independent thinkers aren't just riding the tide of American politics, they're the disruption itself.

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Chapters:

0:00 – Independence of Mindset, Not Ideology

2:17 – I Lost a Bet in a Bar

4:18 – Upstairs to Where Jim Baker Was Sitting

6:42 – Oregon, Then California for Good

9:03 – Scheduler or Fundraiser: What They Let Women Do

11:25 – In the Room, With an Opinion

13:44 – Angel Force and the Number Nobody Believes

16:08 – One Suicide Changes 135 Lives

18:19 – The Disconnect Between Leadership and Reality

20:59 – We're the Rogue Wave