This is a special episode of Chris Riback's Conversations.

For this podcast, I read the opening statement of Lieutenant Colonel Alexander S. Vindman to the US House Impeachment Investigators on October 29. As you surely know, Lieutenant Colonel Vindman is the decorated Iraq war veteran and top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, who listened in on that July 25 telephone call between President Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky.

That’s it. No conversation; no interview. Just the 6-page document itself -- a DocuPod.

Here’s why I believe there’s a need for this type of service – audio reads of important public documents.

First, with our democracy under stress, these documents are interesting and essential; 2) with all of the spin, it helps to know the exact words ourselves; and 3) those exact words are powerful — much more powerful than that third-party spin. And of course: It’s really hard to find time to read them.

For show notes & my newsletter, go to chrisriback.com.