Latest / Pod Save America / "Body temperature takes." (500th episode special!!)

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"Body temperature takes." (500th episode special!!) · Pod Save America

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: I'm Jon Lovett.
• 0:23
  Speaker 4: I'm Tommy Vitor.
• 0:24
  Speaker 5: I'm Dan Pfeiffer.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: We're all here because on today's pod, we're celebrating the
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: 500th episode of Pod Save America. Can you believe it, guys?
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: 500 hours of Lukewarm takes.
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I can too.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it feels like, feels about right. Feels like it's
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: been about 500.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: I would say there were between warm and hot.
• 0:45
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Somewhere like more than Lukewarm, but less than Less than spicy.
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: Body temperature takes.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Body temperature takes.
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: It's good. All right.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: To celebrate the 500th episode, we asked all of you
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: to send us questions that you haven't heard answered yet
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: here on Pod Save America. And you guys all really delivered.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: We do not have enough time to go through them all,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: but we're going to try our best to answer as
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: many as possible. So here goes. We're going to just
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: dive right into the mailbag. Our first question is from Richard.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: who asks, what lessons have you learned about how political
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: media operates and needs to change in the future based
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: on your experience so far? What has been the most
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: surprising lesson you've learned in the last few years at
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Pod Save America and Crooked?
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: Love it.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Why don't you start us off?
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I saw this question and I think the rest
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: of you will have richer, deeper thoughts. But my first
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: reaction to the question was just.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Set the bar low.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: It's, um, um, we spent a lot of time talking
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: about partisan divides, but I think one of the lessons
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: that I've taken away from the last five years really
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: is that the deeper divide is between people who pay
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: attention to people who don't and people who pay attention.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: Love it.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: This was, this was my take to this question too.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: Great. Well, we've been doing this together a while, but, but,
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: but that, that I think one of the things that
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: I still feel, actually, I was thinking about this most recently,
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: even just watching the mayoral candidates in New York. having
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: a debate and which ones I thought sounded like politicians
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: and which ones sounded like regular human beings. And I
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: think sometimes the language we use in politics is for
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: people who pay attention to politics. And it's really hard
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: to get out of that. It's just really hard to
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: break that.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I'll just add on to that since
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: I kind of had the same point. Like, I think
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: what's most surprised me is trust in traditional media is
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: at an all time low this year, hit another low.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: It hits new lows every year. And part of this
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: is like right wing attacks on fake news. you know,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: only 18% of Republicans trust traditional media now, but 57%
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: of Democrats trust traditional media, which is also an all-time
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: low for Democrats. And having done a lot of wilderness
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: stuff where you like talk to swing voters, the first
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: thing they say, swing voters who aren't reliable partisans, is
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: how much they hate the media. And it's not just
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: because of for partisan and ideological reasons. They don't like Fox.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: They don't like CNN. They don't like the nightly news.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: They don't trust social media anymore. And so you have
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: this group of people in the country who don't pay
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: a lot of attention to the media, don't pay a
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: lot of attention to politics, and all of us who
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: do pay a lot of attention to politics in the
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: media and who work in politics in the media, we
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: have a pretty good idea of what sort of the
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: opposite partisan believes about politics. Like we know how MAGA
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: people think, we know what Trumpy people think, and we
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: know how liberals think, but we don't know a lot
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: about what most of the country thinks about politics because
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: a lot of them aren't paying that much attention to
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: the news. And I think it's a huge divide in
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: this country. Dan, Tommy, you guys got anything to add
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: on this?
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: John, I think you nailed it.
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's perfect.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: I know Dan thinks about this.
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: Well, I would just say that in a deeply divided nation,
• 3:55
  Speaker 5: both on Republican and Democratic divides, and I think the
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: more important divide that I've pointed out, the one thing
• 4:01
  Speaker 5: that unites people is a distaste of media and political
• 4:04
  Speaker 5: media in particular. And that's something that should– it's a
• 4:07
  Speaker 5: gigantic problem for democracy and it's something that should elicit
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: at least some measure of self-reflection from the purveyors of
• 4:14
  Speaker 5: that media.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 4:17
  Speaker 7: Sure.
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Keep waiting around that self-reflection.
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: I mean, also it just brings a challenge, which is like,
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: you know, we all spend so many years in politics.
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: You know, you work with your opposition research team and
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: your press team trying to think about like the perfect
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: oppo story to lay down on your opponents, blow up
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: their news cycle and drive voters away. And now we're
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: just in this reality where we are so backed into
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: our respective quarters that you are almost more likely to
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: be mad at the person or the outlet making the
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: attack than you ever are to blame the candidate you
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: like for doing something terrible. And that's troubling to me.
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: Like when you see Matt Gaetz running around, you know,
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: beating his chest despite all the allegations against him, it's
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: not good.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: It's not good. It's not good. Daniel asks, why does
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: the Democratic Party as a whole struggle so much with messaging?
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: The RNC has been very successful pushing Usually false narratives
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: about public safety, big government coming for you, and even
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: the removal from circulation of children's books that no one reads. Meanwhile,
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: Democrats never seem to quite get talking points across. Dan,
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: what do you think? This is a question I feel
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: like I have gotten for years. Doing Pod Save America,
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: not doing Pod Save America from friends and family, from
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: strangers in the street. That's a very common question.
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: So let's stipulate that Democrats could be better at messaging.
• 5:34
  Speaker 5: Our talking points could be tighter. The messengers that we
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: have in party leadership or on cable news could be better.
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: But let me try to, I think we have to
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: understand that the problem here is much bigger than strategy.
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: It's structure.
• 5:47
  Speaker 5: So imagine two armies who get up and fight each
• 5:50
  Speaker 5: other every day. One of them is fighting with pocket knives.
• 5:54
  Speaker 5: The other one has stealth bombers and tanks. And then
• 5:58
  Speaker 5: when the latter army wins every time, everyone then turns
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: to the pocketknife army and says, why aren't you guys
• 6:04
  Speaker 5: better at fighting? We have to understand the Republicans have
• 6:06
  Speaker 5: this massive media firepower advantage with Fox News, with Facebook.
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: It is wild.
• 6:13
  Speaker 5: Our problem is not what words we have. It is
• 6:15
  Speaker 5: the distribution mechanisms by where we get it out. It's
• 6:17
  Speaker 5: why you guys started this company. It's why this podcast exists.
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: But we still are so far behind there. And I
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: think we have to figure out that problem. And then
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: we can worry about which member of Congress gets booked
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: on Lawrence O'Donnell that night.
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: The other thing I think people don't always get, it's
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: not just that Fox News is a propaganda tool that
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: blasts away all day, every day. We were all just
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: reviewing some research for a later segment about the dumbest
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: Obama scandals. And what you notice is When Fox News
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: talks about some dumb scandal like the tan suit for
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: five days, all of a sudden it's on CNN. It's
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: on MSNBC. It's on the nightly news on NBC and
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: the networks. Everything they do bleeds into the mainstream media coverage.
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: The mainstream media often gets led around by the right-wing
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: propaganda press. And that's just the reckoning the mainstream media
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: reporters need to have with themselves. But again, I'm not
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: all that hopeful.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: I have one thing to add that's more about the
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: message itself than the media part of this, which I
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: completely agree with you guys about. We are trying to
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: come up with a message that's appealing to an incredibly
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: diverse coalition, diverse by race, class, gender, education, identity, geography,
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: you name it. And what's even harder, that message is
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: fundamentally about... believing that people from different walks of life
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: can come together and sacrifice for the common good through government.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: The other side is a bunch of mostly non-college educated
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: white people who are being told that they need to
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: fight off the powerful forces that are intruding on their
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: way of life so they can be left alone to
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: live in peace. That is just, I think there is
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: a mismatch in the messages themselves. It is an easier
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: message to scare people into thinking, Like all these people
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: are coming for you. They're coming for your way of life.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: And we're just going to try to leave you alone.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Our project is like try to get 300 million super
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: diverse people together rowing in the same direction through government.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: It's just a harder, it's a harder task.
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: And also because no one is actually coming for anyone's
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: way of life, they're always succeeding at preventing it.
• 8:23
  Speaker 8: Right.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: It's always on the verge of happening.
• 8:26
  Speaker 9: Right.
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  Speaker 10: Yeah.
• 8:27
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: Okay. Max asks, one thing I've wondered in the post-Trump
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: era going forward, how does crooked media see its role
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: in intradem party debates? Is it to elevate specifically progressive
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: candidates and issues, elevate what's best for the party, even
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: if it means supporting moderates and purple areas, et cetera? Tommy,
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: what do you got?
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: Max, this is the hardest part of the job. I
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: think the There's no consensus, crooked media opinion on politics.
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: We're not a monolith. I think we're just a bunch
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: of people who disagree on stuff at times. So we
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: mostly view the job as surfacing the most important policy
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: positions and differences between candidates and giving you guys the
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: information you need to make a decision. There are definitely
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: times when we put our thumbs on the scale, right?
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: Like Favreau is wearing an anti-filibuster suicide vest at all times.
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: Ben and I pressured- all the 2020 candidates that we
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: got to talk to on certain foreign policy issues. So
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: we have biases, but I think we try to wear
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: them on our sleeves. But then also, you know, the
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: lesson from 2016 was approach these questions with some humility
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: and don't think that you know who is the most
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: quote unquote electable candidate, right? Just like talk about the
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: things that matter as much as you can. So, you know,
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: that's the ideal we strive for. We will fall short,
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: but that's the thinking.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: Love it. What about you?
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think everything that Tommy said is right. And
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: I think we should be a home to everybody who's
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: part of this coalition. Like we've had Joe Manchin on,
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: we've had AOC, and we think they should all be welcome,
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: even as we are, I think, pretty... direct about our
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: views about certain positions Joe Manchin has held and will held.
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: But the only real debate, the only intellectually honest, sincere
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: policy debate that exists in this country exists on the left.
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: There is no other place for it. The right has
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: fully abandoned policymaking in virtually all respects. There's a, you know,
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: a tiny group of right wing pundits who are like
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: desperately trying to like, hold on to some idea of
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: conservatism in their mind that is not Trumpism. But meanwhile,
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: you know, every big important debate happens inside of the
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: Democratic Party and the broader progressive movement. And we want
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: to be a place where that conversation can happen.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Dan, what about you? I know you're a DSA member
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: who often pulls your punches on this stuff.
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: Look, I think that's right, that you guys have done
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: a great job with Crooked Media and we try to
• 10:51
  Speaker 5: do with Pod Save America to have a place where
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: you can have all views are within the Democratic Party
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: are welcome. We have that debate. We're going to have
• 10:57
  Speaker 5: specific policy views, specific views on political strategy, but that
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: doesn't mean we don't want to hear from people who
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: don't have those opinions.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: I have a real like we report you decide philosophy
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: on this one. I think it's partly because I'm someone
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: who like personally.
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: John just runs around the office yelling media cliches. He's
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: always like, if it bleeds, it leads.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: Where's my lunch?
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: Like I would say that because personally, I– believe deeply
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: in progressive policy. I also am cognizant of electoral reality.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: So like, I'm not always sure, you know, it's not,
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: it's not like when you guys hear us on the pod,
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: we are absolutely sure of an opinion and we're just
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: sort of like pulling our punches because we're trying to,
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: you know, hide this or that. A lot of times
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: we're wrestling with these debates just like you are. And
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: so I think rather than us try to say, this
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: is the way to do it, we know best it's
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: here's all the best information we have. Here's an analysis
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: based on our experience in politics and you guys be
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: the judge, you know?
• 11:57
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: It's funny. It's, um, but I would, I would hope,
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: I think this is true everywhere except Twitter. Um, like I,
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: I definitely feel it's probably a combination of just getting
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: a little bit older, but also just the, the surprises
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: and rollercoaster of the last really 10 years in American
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: politics that like, I feel like I have a better
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: sense of my values and I have a less confident
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: sense in what those values dictate in terms of what
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: policy outcomes, political realities. I feel like I come to
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: things with a bit more humility than I did even before.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: And I think that's probably good. And I am very
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: skeptical of certainty. And certainty is obviously the token of Twitter.
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: So that's all.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: More certain about my values, less certain about my takes.
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: But we're not going to let that stop us.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: That's age.
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: No, we won't.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: We're still spitting those takes. Tom asks, when you were
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: in the White House, how influenced were you by Democratic
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: pundits or opinion writers? Did they have any effect in
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: shaping policy or dealing with criticism? In that same vein,
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: do you think the current Biden White House staff listened
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: to and are at all influenced by what you guys
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: say on the pod? This is a question going right
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: to Dan Pfeiffer. Because I want to hear him talk
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: all about being in the White House and being influenced
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: by puns.
• 13:19
  Speaker 5: What you may not know is that although Jon Favreau
• 13:23
  Speaker 5: worked for Barack Obama, the person he really worked for,
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: his direct supervisor, was David Brooks.
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: David Brooks?
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: Yes. Deputy White House Chief of Staff, David Brooks.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: Whose fault was that? Whose fault was that? Who would
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: email us David Brooks columns, huh?
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: Yeah. I think that in general, you do not want
• 13:47
  Speaker 5: to listen to the strategic advice of pundits who give
• 13:50
  Speaker 5: their advice publicly, right? I think that will get you
• 13:54
  Speaker 5: in a lot of trouble. Conventional wisdom is almost always wrong.
• 13:56
  Speaker 5: That's what makes it conventional wisdom. But when you were
• 13:58
  Speaker 5: in the White House, particularly when you were trying to
• 14:00
  Speaker 5: pass legislation, you have to recognize that the people who
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: vote on the legislation listen to those pundits. You have
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: to spend a lot of time trying to shape that
• 14:09
  Speaker 5: public opinion, whether that is bringing in columnists or pundits
• 14:13
  Speaker 5: to meet with the president or the white house chief
• 14:16
  Speaker 5: of staff or others. Like it does, like we want
• 14:18
  Speaker 5: to say it does not matter, but it does like
• 14:20
  Speaker 5: stakeholders help make your presidency run. And you need to
• 14:25
  Speaker 5: manage that. It is incredibly annoying. It is a huge problem.
• 14:28
  Speaker 5: A lot of times you, you know, a, there would
• 14:31
  Speaker 5: be a legitimate level of panic during the healthcare debate
• 14:34
  Speaker 5: because Ezra Klein had a negative post on the Washington
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: post blog. And, you know, you would get a call,
• 14:40
  Speaker 5: like the alleged affairs staff would call with like pants
• 14:43
  Speaker 5: on fire because we just bled like three blue dogs
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: because of an Ezra Klein column. And so that like
• 14:48
  Speaker 5: that stuff does matter. And I'm sure it drives the
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: Biden folks as it drove us insane. And they have
• 14:54
  Speaker 5: to deal with that. We didn't really have to deal
• 14:56
  Speaker 5: for at least in the early years of the presidency
• 14:58
  Speaker 5: with Twitter as much. It was really what was honestly
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: in the paper or on cable news. And now any
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: number of people can ruin their morning before they even
• 15:06
  Speaker 5: get to work.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: Tommy, what do you think? You dealt with a lot
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: of the pundits on the foreign policy side.
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I assume this question came in from
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: Tom Donnell and my former boss, the former National Security Advisor. And,
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: you know, look, the general rule, right, is it's just
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: like Twitter. You can be praised 99 times for something,
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: but you're going to remember and react to the one
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: piece of criticism. So, you know, if David Rothkopf or
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: Fareed Zakaria, Tom Friedman are taking a shot at the
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: Obama foreign policy, you better believe they were– strolling into
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: Tom's office a couple of days later for lunch or
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: something like that. I think it's good to listen to people.
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: It's good to take critics seriously. But it's also important
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: to remember that the reason that David Plouffe and David
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: Axelrod and some of the people we worked with were
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: so goddamn smart is because they had access to more
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: data than anyone else on the planet by a factor
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: of 100. We had nightly tracking polls and focus groups.
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: So like those folks could see opinions changing in real
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: time the way the rest of the sort of DC
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: pundit class can't. Everyone else is catching up. And so
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: that's why I think like trusting, well, one, trusting your
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: gut on things when you're Obama and like the sort
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: of values that drive your decisions is important. And then two,
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: just like trusting the people that are really evaluating like
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: public sentiment on a real-time basis and not just kind
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: of what they overheard at some salon in Georgetown is important.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: I think people, pundits who took the time to make
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: really tough but persuasive criticism, like we listened to and
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: affected us more. People who were assholes didn't really affect
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: us at all. We yelled about them, but they didn't
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: shape opinion. And people on the left and people on
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: television who were part of neither ideological.
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: Side, too.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: Um, it's just, that's just advice to you as you're,
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: for all of you, as you're trying to persuade people
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: in your life, reach the Biden administration, whatever it may
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: be like when you're an asshole, people don't listen. And
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: that doesn't mean you can't be tough in your criticism.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: It just needs, you have to be, you know, sensible
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: and persuasive.
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: There's sort of like a couple of different kinds of
• 17:09
  Speaker 5: people here. When you sort of like, we sort of
• 17:12
  Speaker 5: complete all of them.
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: There are.
• 17:14
  Speaker 5: Opinion makers in media who could be across all the
• 17:17
  Speaker 5: ideological spectrum. People who are generally on your side of
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: the ideological spectrum are much more influential in your White
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: House and to the overall success of your presidency. There
• 17:24
  Speaker 5: are professional critics. Most of them are on the right.
• 17:27
  Speaker 5: There's some on the left who wake up every day
• 17:28
  Speaker 5: and sort of their shtick is to attack Biden or
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: attack Obama when he was there. And then there are
• 17:33
  Speaker 5: people who have opinions on politics that you respect. And
• 17:37
  Speaker 5: those are the ones that you listen to either as
• 17:40
  Speaker 5: validation or as cause for introspection if they think you're
• 17:43
  Speaker 5: doing something wrong or missing the ball on it. And
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: the people who do that best are the ones who
• 17:48
  Speaker 5: do it with a measure of humility and in some
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: understanding of the complicated circumstances that anyone balancing all of
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: the challenges of being in the White House have to
• 17:58
  Speaker 5: deal with.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: So three questions that Tommy picked out are all kind
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: of similar. Want to take them all at once. Eric
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: asks what Democrats can do to get Manchin in line
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: and suggests we remove him from committees or threaten to
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: primary him because, quote, losing his vote changes almost nothing.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: John asks what the chances are of passing any legislation
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: outside of reconciliation. and says he's feeling powerless, frustrated, and
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: burnt out after working his ass off in Georgia. And
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: Jim says, quote, even if we win, we lose.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: And why does it seem impossible for us to do
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: anything about it? The answer cannot always be to protest
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: on the streets or log massive volunteer hours or phone-in campaigns.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: Isn't that why we voted in a trifecta in 2020
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: to actually solve these problems? Tommy, you want to try
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: to take all these?
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I'll do short versions. Eric, there might be nothing
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: we can do to get Joe Manchin to listen to us.
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: And that sucks. And I'm trying to come to terms
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: with it emotionally. And I just can't help you here. OK,
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: I need to sort out my own shit before I
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: can be there for you. And I think you're being
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: a touch needy. John, for what it's worth, the Senate
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: just passed like a $ 35 billion bill that does something
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: to update water infrastructure. That's not really sexy stuff, but
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: I think it will probably be meaningful. It's like a
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: little mini stimulus. Dan, don't furrow your brow at me.
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: Water matters. And then Jim, I hear your frustration. But
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: we have won some stuff. I don't think we'd be
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: in a good place on vaccinations if Trump was still president.
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: The combination of Biden winning and the Senate seats in
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: Georgia resulted in over a trillion additional dollars in stimulus
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: going out the door. There's lots more to do, but
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: it's still pretty early. So we just got to keep working.
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: But but look, we Democrats were sometimes a little half
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: glass empty. We got to be half glass full.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: For those of you who are just listening and not watching,
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: Tommy did hold up a glass half full of water
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: on the video. Just wanted to narrate that. Lovett, what
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: do you think?
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: You know, like, I've seen a little bit of discourse
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: around like, oh, we're not playing hardball with Joe Manchin. Like,
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: it's just a practical question. Like, will that work? Is
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: he receptive to like traditional political pressure and And it's
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: just not clear that the answer is yes, because it's
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: not even clear if he's running for reelection. And it's
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: not clear that he views like his relationships with Democrats
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: in Washington as like essential to his political success. In fact,
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: in a lot of ways, like over the years, he
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: has tried to create moments of real division between him
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: and the democratic party to seem independent to West Virginia.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: Like I, you know, Um, it's really, it's really tough
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: because we don't just need Joe Manchin on voting rights.
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: We need Joe Manchin on everything, on everything. Um, and
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: you know, Joe Manchin was there in 2017 to protect Obamacare.
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: He voted for the stimulus. He is in favor of
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: a big infrastructure package, even though he is pretending that
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: that can somehow be done with Republicans. So it is really,
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: really hard and super frustrating. It's just not clear that
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: there's a better answer. Anybody disagree with that?
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: I know Eric said, you know, losing his vote changes
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: almost nothing. I completely disagree with that. Like, I realize, look,
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: he drives me fucking crazy. I say this every day,
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: so I don't need to keep saying that. But like,
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: as Tommy pointed out, it's a trillion dollars worth of spending.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: There are people who have health care today, who have jobs,
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: who there are children out of poverty because of the
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: American Rescue Plan. No Joe Manchin, no American Rescue Plan.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: We're going to put judges on the court. We're starting
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: to put judges on the court that will serve for life.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: No Joe Manchin, no judges. And so if all we
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: get is a bunch of judges and a bunch of
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: reconciliation packages that are a couple trillion dollars each, that's
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: still a lot. It sucks if we didn't do all
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: the other things we wanted to do because of Joe Manchin.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: But that doesn't mean that he's still the reason we
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: did all that other good stuff.
• 21:57
  Speaker 9: It is.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: And, you know, Jim saying. The answer cannot always be
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: to protest on the streets or volunteer, stuff like that.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry, but that is always going to be the answer.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: That's been the answer for the last few hundred years
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: in this country. That's the answer in every single democracy
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: around the world. Again, we have 300 million people in
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: this country. They're free to say whatever they want, lie,
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: do crazy shit. That's what America is. And so our
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: job is to figure out a way to persuade people
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: to agree with us. And we have to do that constantly,
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: every single day, every single year. That's politics.
• 22:30
  Speaker 7: My name is Elijah Cohn. I have been working on
• 22:35
  Speaker 7: the video side of Pod Save America since August of 2017.
• 22:38
  Speaker 7: The first office that Crooked Media had was in the
• 22:44
  Speaker 7: attic above a comedy club called The Largo in West Hollywood,
• 22:48
  Speaker 7: Los Angeles. It was across the street from a strip
• 22:52
  Speaker 7: club on one corner and a lingerie store on the
• 22:56
  Speaker 7: other corner. And it was above a bong shop. It
• 23:00
  Speaker 7: was so small and it didn't have adequate air conditioning
• 23:04
  Speaker 7: or heat. So it got quite hot and quite cold.
• 23:06
  Speaker 7: There were like four rooms in it. And we started
• 23:09
  Speaker 7: out with maybe five people there. And I ended up
• 23:12
  Speaker 7: with 20 by the end. And there was only one bathroom.
• 23:15
  Speaker 7: The bathroom was right in the middle of the office.
• 23:18
  Speaker 7: It was like a square little room centered in the
• 23:20
  Speaker 7: middle of the office in between the other four rooms.
• 23:23
  Speaker 7: And so that meant that when we were recording a podcast,
• 23:25
  Speaker 7: which was often because we're a podcast company, it meant
• 23:28
  Speaker 7: you couldn't... flush the toilet or it would get into
• 23:31
  Speaker 7: uh the recording so there was a very awkward rule
• 23:35
  Speaker 7: for like hours at a time during the day you
• 23:37
  Speaker 7: just wouldn't be able to use that bathroom in that
• 23:39
  Speaker 7: office we've come a long way since then all.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: Right here we go jeffrey what were some of your
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: favorite bullshit scandals from your time at the white house? Tommy,
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: I know you were doing some research, so you were
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: just ready.
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: I I'm, I'm loaded for bear. And I, I just,
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: I can, I'm hoping we can just kind of wallow
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: in and luxuriate in this section for a while. Cause
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: it's unbelievable. So we're going to have fun with this.
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: I do want to just point out that so many
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: of these scandals, when you look back at them are
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: just fundamentally racist. These are racist news outlets reporting on
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: Obama in racist ways. For example, uh, This was new
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: to me. The Daily Caller wrote up an article when
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: the Obamas got their second dog, Sunny, and they said
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: it ended with, the Obamas do not have any white dogs.
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: Like somehow that was a problem. Like dogs have races.
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: Like they literally wrote that. When Obama put his feet
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: up on his desk, the Washington Times said it was a,
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: they reported that it sent shockwaves around the world. The
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: Daily Caller also reported when the Obamas left the White
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: House that their new residence was, would be close to
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: the Islamic center of Washington, D.C. So again, just like
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: horrible people.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: A little too close. A little too close, it sounds like.
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think we should make Dan. I don't see
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: the problem there. Fox News called a fist bump, the
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: terrorist fist jab. I think we should make Dan tell
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: the Churchill bust story because he had to eat. Dan
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: had to eat so much shit on that. I just
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: do want to say two things before I shut up. One,
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: the tan suit wasn't fucking tan. It was gray. I
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: don't understand how it's been called the tan suit all
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: these years. It's definitely not tan.
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: Tommy, I was there. It was definitely a tan suit
• 25:22
  Speaker 5: and it definitely did not fit well.
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: Dan, you're lying. It was gray. Two, Obama was mocked
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: for putting Dijon mustard on everything. And I just want
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: to say that when I just started working for him
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: in 2004, we got like dinner somewhere at some downstate
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: place and I put ketchup on my plate and he
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: literally looked at me and like sneered It was like
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: ketchup is disgusting. So he deserves that one. But Dan,
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: why did you hide the Churchill bust?
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: It's a child's condiment.
• 25:54
  Speaker 5: It's delicious.
• 25:55
  Speaker 11: It's delicious.
• 25:57
  Speaker 5: There was a very strange controversy in the Obama White
• 26:00
  Speaker 5: House because Barack Obama took the bust of Winston Churchill
• 26:05
  Speaker 5: out of the Oval Office and he replaced it with
• 26:07
  Speaker 5: a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. This was seen
• 26:09
  Speaker 5: by everyone on the right as Obama– disrespecting the special
• 26:15
  Speaker 5: relationship between, and that's a very important term, special relationship
• 26:18
  Speaker 5: between the United States and the United Kingdom. It is,
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: ironically enough, all the people who complained about that did
• 26:25
  Speaker 5: not care when Donald Trump attacked the Queen, attacked Theresa May,
• 26:29
  Speaker 5: and did everything else. It was a completely, entirely absurd scandal.
• 26:34
  Speaker 5: I can't even get into all the details of it
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: because it is very confusing, involving the chain of custody
• 26:37
  Speaker 5: of an alternative Winston Churchill bus that required me to
• 26:40
  Speaker 5: Apologize to Charles Krauthammer in public. It was truly terrible.
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: That's the best part. Dan got a bum steer on
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: this story and had to eat shit. And I think
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: that was probably my fault, but I'm not really sure.
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: You know, there's something that like, this happened with Meghan
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: Markle too, which is that like American right-wing pundits are
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: so instinctively racist and aggrieved that at any moment, a
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: British person just becomes a stand-in for like an American
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: white conservative.
• 27:10
  Speaker 6: Yep.
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: If the if the person on the other side of
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: the of the issue is a black American, like it's wild.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: I have a few as I was just going through
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: the research. There was the latte salute. The president held
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: a latte as he was saluting the Marines. That was
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: a problem. At one point, the Marine held an umbrella
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: over Barack Obama's head as he was giving a press
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: conference out in the rain, as well as a foreign leader.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: That was a huge problem. Um, Tommy, you talked about
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: the terrorist fist bump. I remember the Obama's date night
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: in New York. So Obama's went to New York for
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: the weekend to have a date. And that was a
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: huge scandal because that, I don't know why president Obama
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: bowing to the Saudis. Remember when we went to Saudi
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: Arabia and he bowed, that was a huge problem. By
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: the way, the Dijon mustard incident, the Fox chyron that
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: day was President Poupon.
• 27:58
  Speaker 4: That's pretty good.
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: That's good.
• 28:00
  Speaker 5: That's just good.
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: It's really good. The selfie stick. Remember when Barack Obama
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: held a selfie stick and it was a huge scandal?
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: CNN's John King said, people are wondering, is he demeaning
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: the office? That was from CNN. That wasn't from Fox.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: That was from CNN.
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: I'm trying to remember because there wasn't there also an
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: issue where he smiled at a funeral scene?
• 28:19
  Speaker 5: There was a selfie at the Mandela funeral.
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: At Mandela's memorial.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: A selfie at Mandela's funeral. When you put it that way,
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: love it, it sounds bad.
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: Okay, we found a real scandal.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: It wasn't like in front of the casket.
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: The reason it was controversial, it was with the villain
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: from Lethal Weapon 2. So that was really inappropriate. Do
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: you remember when the White House just tweeted the picture
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: of Barack Obama took with Cody Keenan dressed as a pirate,
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: but they happened to have tweeted it on the day
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: that Benjamin Netanyahu was in DC. And they said he
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: was too busy to meet with Benjamin Netanyahu because he
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: was meeting with a pirate. None of which was true.
• 29:05
  Speaker 5: Also, the pirate photo was like three years old at
• 29:08
  Speaker 5: that point.
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: Three years old.
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: And again, lest you think this is all like, you know,
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: fake scandals and the conservative media ecosystem, um, When President
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: Obama did not wear a jacket in the Oval Office,
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: the chyron on the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: was jacket gate.
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: That one?
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: Jacket gate.
• 29:28
  Speaker 4: I remember watching this in real time.
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: NBC Nightly News.
• 29:32
  Speaker 4: And Andy Card, the former Bush White House chief of staff,
• 29:36
  Speaker 4: was attacking all of us. I'm like, I'm sorry, man.
• 29:39
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 29:39
  Speaker 4: Sorry we didn't invade fucking Iraq with our coats on.
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember that. I remember the wrong country, but
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: make sure you're all buttoned up.
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the Bush people were like jeans in the Oval Office.
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: That's no way to run a preemptive war. Fucking absolute sickos.
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: God damn it. That is the Bush administration in a nutshell. Like, yeah, yeah,
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: obviously we started the worst foreign policy blunder in our history,
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: but we had a sense of decorum, not like these
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: Trump people.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: We look sharp doing it. Taylor asks, when are you
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: going back to the office? Soon, Taylor.
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: July.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: We're going back in July. We're starting to go back
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: in July. We'll be recording Pod Save America again in
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: July in the office. We're very excited.
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: I can't wait.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: I'm in the studio currently. I'm just kind of wondering
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: why you guys aren't here. You're just there by yourself.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: Daniel will have to come down again. We haven't seen
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: Dan in person in.
• 30:31
  Speaker 10: Over a year.
• 30:31
  Speaker 5: I literally cannot wait to come to your office. Who's
• 30:34
  Speaker 5: going in and watering that plant behind Tommy?
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: Oh, it's plastic. But it was funny. You should ask Dan, uh,
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: Tanya watered it for about two years, not realizing. Great.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: Great at content, not a gardening.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: Um, okay.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: Uh, Neil asks, is there a timeline for potentially doing
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: live shows again? The people want to know. And we
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: also got, would you want to do another tour outside
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: the U S one day? Like you did when you
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: went to Europe? If so, where would you want to go? Um, Yeah,
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: the timeline for doing live shows is when we can
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: start booking live shows again. But we are, I think,
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: I will speak for everyone on this Zoom. We're all
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: pretty excited to get back on the road, right?
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: You bet.
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: I think you'll start seeing some action maybe this fall.
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: Maybe this fall.
• 31:24
  Speaker 9: Be nice.
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, tell us where you want to go. Reach out.
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: We'll go there. What about a tour outside the U.S.?
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: I've been thinking about this. I've never been to Australia,
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: and I would love to go to Australia.
• 31:35
  Speaker 7: Yeah, me too.
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: I want to go to Australia.
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: That'd be cool. Rhodes and I have been kicking around
• 31:39
  Speaker 4: a little Canada option. I don't want to get too
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: crazy on you guys, but we're thinking about popping north.
• 31:46
  Speaker 4: We have real listeners in Canada.
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: I've been watching Handmaid's Tale, and you just said Canada,
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: and I was like, oh, yeah, we should go to Canada.
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: Build some ties.
• 31:54
  Speaker 9: Just in case.
• 31:55
  Speaker 4: We need some rat lines.
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: Just in case. Just in case.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: Christopher asks, whose parent, family member, significant other is the
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: most dedicated listener? Who is the least? Let's cause some problems.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: I would say, yeah, I mean, it's a tie for least.
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: I think the competition for least dedicated listener is going
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: to be fierce among our respective significant others. Actually, Howley
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: is like a nice, lovely person who often sends nice
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: notes about like good interviews and stuff. But I do
• 32:25
  Speaker 4: think there's a way we could make this a competition, right?
• 32:27
  Speaker 4: Which is to say the clock starts now. So Emily, Hannah, Ronan,
• 32:32
  Speaker 4: if you hear this segment, let us know. Now, the
• 32:35
  Speaker 4: problem is- Be the first, yeah. The segment could go
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: on infinity, right? Because none of them ever listen. So
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: no snitch tagging. Let's let the chips fall where they weigh.
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: But I guess if they talk about this on Keep It,
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: Hannah will probably win. But if that doesn't happen, I
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: think I'm losing.
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: There is zero chance Ronan will ever hear this conversation.
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: It is an impossibility. We might as well not even
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: be recording it.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: Emily does listen whenever I mention that she doesn't listen
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: and then she feels guilty. So I will not, I
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: will make sure not to mention it just so the game,
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: we can keep the game, uh, you know, going. I
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: will say on, on most dedicated listener, uh, My dad,
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: my dad will, Mark Favreau will text when the pod
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: is out, but has not been up on YouTube yet.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: Cause now he used to listen and now he and
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: my mom watch on, on their television screen on the
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: YouTube and 40 years old, right? Oh, the YouTube. Where's
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: the Tik TOK? But he watches, he comments, he has ideas,
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: he has suggestions. He'll text you guys directly sometimes when
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: something happens.
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: A lot of good pitches.
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: He has like business advice. He was like, why don't
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: you guys have ads on your YouTube, on the YouTube
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: show yet? You should really get ads up there. He's got,
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: Mark's got all kinds of ideas. And he's a very,
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: very dedicated fan. So that's mine. What about you guys?
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: Who's most dedicated in your life?
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: My mom. She's the best. A lot of long drives
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: in her day, too. And your mom's very active on Twitter, too, Tommy.
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: She's tweeting all of us. Yeah, that's a thing that
• 34:10
  Speaker 4: we should talk to them all about, which is to
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: say don't do that. I think we've all talked about
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: this before. I don't know that I would like me
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: just based off the Twitter version. I think we all
• 34:20
  Speaker 4: kind of suck two to three times more on that platform.
• 34:24
  Speaker 4: And so her watching me behave that way is probably
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: not a good thing.
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Fran's an avid listener.
• 34:30
  Speaker 5: Hallie is an avid listener who... leverages my access to
• 34:33
  Speaker 5: the PSA production Slack channel to, uh, know when the
• 34:37
  Speaker 5: pot is coming out.
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: Oh, smart, smart, smart.
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: That's cool.
• 34:42
  Speaker 4: That's cool.
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: How are all your dogs doing? Have they missed each other?
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: Have they gotten really attached to you guys and your
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: partners in the past year of being at home? How
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: have they helped you get through things? Leo's Leo's fantastic.
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: I will say something very embarrassing. So, uh, I do
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: think pundit is more attached to us. I do think
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: we're more attached to pundit. We've become that kind of
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: over-the-top gay couple parents to a dog that's like really
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: hard to watch unfold to the point where before we
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: go to sleep each night, we say, family time. And
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: then pundit runs between us and rolls over and gets, uh,
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: you know, a good night belly rub and then goes
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: to her spot at the end of the bed, which
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: is like, I don't even know why I'm sharing it.
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: It's not even like funny, embarrassing. It's embarrassing.
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: I don't think it's embarrassing at all. I would not have,
• 35:41
  Speaker 4: I would not have survived quarantine without Luca. She was
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: far and away my best friend. I love you too, Hannah.
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: It's weird. She doesn't listen to the pod. I mean,
• 35:52
  Speaker 4: you know, like.
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: Luca listens.
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: Luca, yeah, Luca listens. Her, I think my separation anxiety
• 35:58
  Speaker 4: is probably worse than hers at this point, but we're
• 36:00
  Speaker 4: both learning to live again.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: Leo's always been incredibly attached to us, hates any time
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: we leave the house. So this last year, the pandemic
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: for Leo was probably like the best year of his
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: life because we never left the house and he was
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: home all the time. So, but yeah, no, I feel
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: the same way about him. They haven't really missed, well...
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: They've all seen each other now. We've a pundit and
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: Leo have reunited Luca and Leo have seen each other
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: a bunch. So yeah, they're all, they get to play.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: Dan Matthew asks, as someone living in Delaware, when is
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: Dan running for Senate or governor? Here we go. Let's
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: do it.
• 36:35
  Speaker 5: Should we announce now or should we save that for
• 36:37
  Speaker 5: a special bonus episode?
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: I know what he says. This is what bonus episode
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: just called the announcement.
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: I think it's important that we set up Dan's run
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: here because Dan is is both a carrot and a stick.
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: Dan is a threat to those senators from Delaware who
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: might not understand that the time has come to put
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: the filibuster, a racist relic of our past, in the
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: past where it belongs. But he's also a carrot, and
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: that he'd be a great senator for the people of Delaware.
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: And so just something to keep in mind that he
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: may not do it. Dan may not do it, all right?
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: He has no plans to run. But he cares about
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: this country. He cares about the people in Delaware. Are
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: you pitching yourself to voice the first bio?
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: Those are good remarks.
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: I thought it was pretty good.
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: I like it.
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: And I just think, you know, people who are around
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: Chris Coons and people who are around.
• 37:27
  Speaker 5: The other guy.
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: Carper, Tom Carper. Well, how do you remember Tom Carper
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: when you got a rock star like Chris Coons in it? Carper, Coons,
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: just be aware. Dan Pfeiffer, he's like a shark. If
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: you stop swimming, you guys.
• 37:46
  Speaker 5: End of pitch. Look, who wouldn't want to dedicate themselves
• 37:50
  Speaker 5: to a year of campaigning for the opportunity to have
• 37:53
  Speaker 5: lunch with Dianne Feinstein once a week?
• 38:02
  Speaker 11: Hi, guys. My name is Mariana, and I'm 17, and
• 38:05
  Speaker 11: my time as a friend of the pod has encouraged
• 38:08
  Speaker 11: me to be more politically active, and most importantly, it's
• 38:11
  Speaker 11: made me really excited to vote for the first time
• 38:14
  Speaker 11: next year in the 2022 midterms.
• 38:16
  Speaker 6: My name is Erin, and because of this podcast, I
• 38:18
  Speaker 6: stepped out of my comfort zone and became a moderator
• 38:20
  Speaker 6: for Team Florida for Vote Save America and set an
• 38:23
  Speaker 6: example for my daughters that one person can work really
• 38:26
  Speaker 6: hard and make a difference.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: Thank you!
• 38:29
  Speaker 5: Hey, guys.
• 38:29
  Speaker 12: Jessica and Madison here. Pod saved my sanity. Pod gave
• 38:32
  Speaker 12: me the tools to be a better citizen and fucking
• 38:35
  Speaker 12: do something. Pod made sweet-ass merch. Pod came to Madison first,
• 38:38
  Speaker 12: and I got to meet you. Pod taught me how
• 38:40
  Speaker 12: to advocate for progressive priorities and show my five-year-old twins
• 38:43
  Speaker 12: their voices fucking matter. Pod saved me.
• 38:46
  Speaker 6: Thank you so much.
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: Thank you.
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: Wendy asks, love it. I kind of miss Mia's house,
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: but love the room you are speaking from. Your decor
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: or Ronan's?
• 39:02
  Speaker 4: Not Ronan's.
• 39:02
  Speaker 7: Mine.
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: I did this.
• 39:04
  Speaker 8: All right.
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: I just want everyone to know, Lovett picked this question.
• 39:10
  Speaker 4: You bet I did.
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: You bet I did.
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: Also, two days ago, you told us that those books
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: behind you were left there by some drifter who was
• 39:17
  Speaker 4: in your home. It looked like this was all some
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: purposeful thing.
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: That's how you make, that's decorating. You just find things.
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: You put them together. You make something happen. You're picking
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: sea glass?
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: What are you talking about?
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: Look, I have a much gayer aesthetic in my choices
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: than Ronan. Ronan wants to live in like a 17th
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: century hunting lodge for some reason. I need a gay space.
• 39:38
  Speaker 3: That's why. That's how it goes.
• 39:46
  Speaker 4: I could totally see that.
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: Tish asks, what is everyone's creative outlet of choice? Art, craft, instrument,
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: et cetera.
• 39:53
  Speaker 4: Uh, edibles. Is that an answer?
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: I play the piano once in a while. Tom, you
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: play guitar.
• 40:00
  Speaker 4: I was playing all the time for a while. And
• 40:02
  Speaker 4: then I think anyone who's played an instrument knows the
• 40:05
  Speaker 4: thing that happens to you, which is you sort of
• 40:07
  Speaker 4: plateau at sort of some sort of mediocre level where
• 40:10
  Speaker 4: you are playing parts of the same songs over and
• 40:13
  Speaker 4: over again and not learning anything new and not entirely
• 40:15
  Speaker 4: what I always, have a struggle with is like figuring
• 40:17
  Speaker 4: out how to practice well so then i just put
• 40:20
  Speaker 4: the thing down like six weeks ago and i haven't
• 40:22
  Speaker 4: touched it since and i kind of feel shame about it.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah in fact we have plateaued at a level where
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: now tommy and i along with our friends shamik and
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: mike o'neill are in a wedding band we play at
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: weddings once in a while so that's our that's that's
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: the highest that we go now we just play away
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: love it you play the drums remember.
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: I do play the drums yet never seem to get
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: once upon a time.
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: We were all going to be in a band and
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: you were never and you're somehow we're going to play
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: the drums.
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: Somehow my audition for Taj and the Mahals, which is
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: the name of the band, never comes.
• 40:49
  Speaker 4: Shomiknated.
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: Love it.
• 40:51
  Speaker 4: Remember in Oslo when there was a platform that literally
• 40:55
  Speaker 4: raised up into the air with the drum kit on
• 40:57
  Speaker 4: it and Love It was on just like fucking rocking
• 40:59
  Speaker 4: away and they got you like six feet off the floor?
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: Yes, I do remember that. And I remember there were
• 41:05
  Speaker 3: these nice Swedish people being like, These are the people
• 41:08
  Speaker 3: we invited to speak at our event. They seem like
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: American losers. They are going to speak about politics. This one,
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: this little chubby gay one seems to make no sense.
• 41:19
  Speaker 4: Didn't you insult the monarch or something?
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: It was Norway.
• 41:22
  Speaker 4: It was Norway. Oh, it was Norway.
• 41:24
  Speaker 12: Norway.
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: Oh, fucking now I'm dead.
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: Looks like we're not getting invited back there.
• 41:30
  Speaker 5: This will surprise.
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: No, they were very nice.
• 41:31
  Speaker 4: They were very nice.
• 41:32
  Speaker 5: This will surprise literally no one, but I have no
• 41:34
  Speaker 5: creative outlet.
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: No drawing. You have two kids.
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: But even for three kids. You've written two books.
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: You've written two books. Dan, I'm about to ask you
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: a question that speaks directly to your creative outlet. Forrester asks,
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: would Dan rather be on the below deck crew hosting
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: the GOP leadership or be on The Amazing Race with
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: Paul Ryan?
• 41:54
  Speaker 4: Well, a couple of things.
• 41:55
  Speaker 5: One, I've never seen The Amazing Race, but I think
• 41:58
  Speaker 5: I get the gist. And so if I were to,
• 42:00
  Speaker 5: if I were to boil this question down, it is comes,
• 42:04
  Speaker 5: this question boils down to, you're going to have to
• 42:05
  Speaker 5: hang out with at least one asshole. Do you want
• 42:08
  Speaker 5: to do it on a super yacht or do you
• 42:10
  Speaker 5: want to do it stuck in a small car traveling
• 42:13
  Speaker 5: around the country? So I would pick the super yacht
• 42:16
  Speaker 5: with Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise and Elise Stefanik, as
• 42:19
  Speaker 5: opposed to the amazing race with Paul Ryan.
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: I knew you wouldn't pick Paul Ryan. I knew it.
• 42:25
  Speaker 4: I knew it. It's just, can I offer a hot
• 42:27
  Speaker 4: take about Paul Ryan? We always we always want Republicans
• 42:32
  Speaker 4: to speak out about Trump and Trumpism and like sort
• 42:34
  Speaker 4: of make the counter argument. I believe that if you
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: are going to do so in a fashion that is
• 42:40
  Speaker 4: as pathetic and weak as the way Paul Ryan did
• 42:43
  Speaker 4: it by like not naming Trump or naming him once
• 42:45
  Speaker 4: or like these oblique references that you actually are doing
• 42:49
  Speaker 4: net harm to your cause because you look like such
• 42:51
  Speaker 4: a weenie. And then Trump and Jason Miller come out
• 42:54
  Speaker 4: and just blast you as of course they will. That's
• 42:58
  Speaker 4: my theory.
• 42:58
  Speaker 5: I thought you were going to defend Paul Ryan so
• 43:00
  Speaker 5: we could have some real back and forth here.
• 43:03
  Speaker 6: No.
• 43:04
  Speaker 4: Dan, we don't– Wait.
• 43:06
  Speaker 5: Is this Crossfire? Yes, it's Crossfire. That was Paul Ryan
• 43:11
  Speaker 5: giving a speech in which he did not mention Trump
• 43:13
  Speaker 5: except for one time to praise him for his economic
• 43:15
  Speaker 5: performance pre-pandemic. was just something perfectly designed to annoy me
• 43:19
  Speaker 5: because obviously Paul Ryan annoys me. And the weird tactic
• 43:24
  Speaker 5: that a lot of politicians use where you will criticize,
• 43:26
  Speaker 5: you will do an entire speech about a politician, but
• 43:28
  Speaker 5: then not mention their name for reasons that make no
• 43:30
  Speaker 5: sense at the same time was just incredibly annoying. And
• 43:36
  Speaker 5: I will say, I've never praised Jason Miller before, but
• 43:39
  Speaker 5: Jason Miller responding to the New York Times by saying,
• 43:41
  Speaker 5: who's Paul Ryan, was a pretty good response to that.
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: It was good. That was good. That was good.
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: I have to say though, Tommy, I do think that
• 43:47
  Speaker 3: that's like, that is an interesting take to me because
• 43:49
  Speaker 3: we've always thought of it as useless, but I do
• 43:51
  Speaker 3: actually think you're making a good point. It is worse
• 43:54
  Speaker 3: than useless. It is counterproductive to do the weenie semi
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: hit because they look bad and it doesn't work.
• 44:00
  Speaker 4: You just look weak. You just look weak as hell.
• 44:02
  Speaker 4: You're so weak, Paul Ryan. Weak.
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: Chris asks, why does John F have a Canadian accent
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: if he's from Massachusetts?
• 44:11
  Speaker 4: Where does this come from?
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: I picked this question. I don't know. And I don't,
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: so here's the best answer I can think of. My
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: father's whole family, they're French Canadian. They settled in New Hampshire.
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: Maybe some of that rubbed off on me. But if
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: you listen to my dad and my mom, they both
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: have pretty thick Boston accents. I can't tell if it's like, I've,
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: I lost my Boston accent when I was in college
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: and I don't, I don't know if maybe I didn't
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: completely lose it. And so what's resulted is I say
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: some words.
• 44:38
  Speaker 4: What do you put a knife in? What do you
• 44:40
  Speaker 4: put a knife in, in the kitchen?
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: A draw.
• 44:43
  Speaker 4: You haven't lost it.
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: That's not Canadian. That's just bad American.
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: I say room. I say room, too.
• 44:49
  Speaker 4: It's trash American.
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: I say room. I say room a lot.
• 44:51
  Speaker 3: I think maybe what we're learning here is that your
• 44:53
  Speaker 3: American accent is almost as bad as Kate Winslet's Pennsylvania accent.
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's pretty bad.
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: And maybe you're actually a British actor.
• 45:03
  Speaker 5: I hate to tell you this. As someone who grew
• 45:06
  Speaker 5: up within that 30-mile radius of Easttown, that that's actually
• 45:09
  Speaker 5: not that bad. It's pretty... Oh, wow.
• 45:12
  Speaker 13: Yeah.
• 45:13
  Speaker 5: Wow.
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: Seriously, Dan, I'm not saying it's that bad, but it
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: comes and it goes. There's a specific word that she
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: trained pretty hard to get a specific vowel sound.
• 45:24
  Speaker 7: Water.
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: Water.
• 45:28
  Speaker 4: John's a crisis actor.
• 45:28
  Speaker 5: I also just want to note, John, that you were like,
• 45:30
  Speaker 5: I don't know where this crazy question comes from. Let
• 45:32
  Speaker 5: me give you just a very esoteric theory. My dad's
• 45:35
  Speaker 5: family's from Canada. That probably answers it.
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: But it's not like direct. It's like my grandfather, you know, came.
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's not like my dad lived in Canada.
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: They're from Manchester. Okay. This is a very important question.
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: Taylor asks, on a scale of 1 to 10, how
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: much does Lovett hate Aaron Sorkin?
• 45:56
  Speaker 6: 20.
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: I didn't pick that question.
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: I have nothing but... I have nothing but cherished memories
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: of my experience making season three of The Newsroom. I
• 46:04
  Speaker 3: learned a lot and have made wonderful friends.
• 46:05
  Speaker 4: That 9-11 scene you wrote was amazing.
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: No, it was when we caught Bin Laden on the plane.
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: That was just a brilliant scene from Love It.
• 46:14
  Speaker 4: When you had him salute the captain.
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: I thought that was so, it was such great writing.
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: People criticize that, but I'm going to defend Love It.
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: I'll say one thing that I did say in the
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: writer's room which I think that he did not, it
• 46:32
  Speaker 3: came back around to bite me later. And I won't
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: talk about that, but I will say there was one
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: moment where we were, there was some debate about some
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: like particularly dramatic moment about, you know, making this news
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: broadcast for Atlantis cable news, uh, basically a version of MSNBC.
• 46:50
  Speaker 3: And I just remember thinking like, Everyone here is being
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: so dramatic, but can we just all keep in mind
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: the best case scenario is they make a great episode
• 46:59
  Speaker 3: of Rachel Maddow?
• 47:03
  Speaker 4: How'd that go?
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: He did not like that.
• 47:08
  Speaker 4: Very funny. Very funny.
• 47:10
  Speaker 3: Another great episode of Rachel Maddow, but I don't know.
• 47:14
  Speaker 4: We need the strings.
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: Speaking of Rachel Maddow, our last question. Our last question
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: is from Rachel. We're going to end on a nice, serious,
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: reflective note. How do you maintain optimism or sanity when
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: talking about the topic of politics and the future of America?
• 47:30
  Speaker 4: Love it.
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: Why don't you start?
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: Edibles. Yeah, that's a good question. Yes, edibles. I do
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: think that like I try to remember that the amount
• 47:43
  Speaker 3: you're paying attention to is not a stand-in for how
• 47:47
  Speaker 3: much you care or how much good you can do,
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: and that your attention is the most valuable commodity in
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: this media environment, in this political environment. And so I
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: think that obviously we're in a special situation. We read
• 48:01
  Speaker 3: about the news, we cover the news, we have to
• 48:03
  Speaker 3: stay informed. But I do think for most people, treating
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: their attention as a valuable thing, as basically their time,
• 48:11
  Speaker 3: as your time, And to treat it as precious and
• 48:14
  Speaker 3: to only deploy it when necessary. You know, Dan wrote
• 48:17
  Speaker 3: a great piece in Messagebox about basically don't retweet Ted Cruz.
• 48:22
  Speaker 3: Don't give Ted Cruz the retweets because they're of value.
• 48:25
  Speaker 3: But I think that that's a small example of a
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: larger issue, which is don't give your attention away without
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: being thoughtful about it because you only have so much
• 48:33
  Speaker 3: of it. And protecting your attention is, I think, another
• 48:36
  Speaker 3: way of protecting your well-being during this time and not
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: just getting bashed. getting sucked into the endless loop of
• 48:43
  Speaker 3: frustrations that, that just sort of have no bottom, you know?
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: What about you, Tommy?
• 48:50
  Speaker 4: You know, I'm not sure that I do maintain optimism
• 48:53
  Speaker 4: per se. I mean, I think like, you know, I
• 48:55
  Speaker 4: was lucky enough to work for Barack Obama and I
• 48:57
  Speaker 4: think his sort of like big picture, long-term outlook, uh,
• 49:02
  Speaker 4: and the way he talked about that in a way
• 49:04
  Speaker 4: informed all the things we did is sort of what
• 49:07
  Speaker 4: I've borrowed from, uh, at times when I've, when I've struggled,
• 49:11
  Speaker 4: but I think, you know, sometimes you're allowed to be
• 49:14
  Speaker 4: pissed and sad and, and harness those feelings too. If
• 49:18
  Speaker 4: we're being totally honest, I'm not sure I feel all
• 49:21
  Speaker 4: that optimistic about redistricting and voter suppression laws and all
• 49:25
  Speaker 4: this stuff, but you kind of just don't have an option.
• 49:27
  Speaker 4: You got to keep going.
• 49:28
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: Dan?
• 49:30
  Speaker 5: I think it's easy to get frustrated by Joe Manchin,
• 49:33
  Speaker 5: the things that haven't gotten done yet, and never-ending, ongoing.
• 49:39
  Speaker 5: Infrastructure talks and all that. But I think we can't
• 49:41
  Speaker 5: lose the thread about what happened in 2020. Like the
• 49:45
  Speaker 5: entire fucking enterprise was on the line in the middle
• 49:49
  Speaker 5: of a pandemic. And millions of people, a lot of
• 49:52
  Speaker 5: whom we got a chance to meet back when we
• 49:53
  Speaker 5: could leave our homes and travel, many of them listeners
• 49:56
  Speaker 5: of this podcast and Crooked Media Podcasts and people who
• 49:59
  Speaker 5: support Vote Safe America, got together, found a way in
• 50:02
  Speaker 5: the middle of a pandemic to to find time to
• 50:05
  Speaker 5: make phone calls, text bank, donate money they may not
• 50:08
  Speaker 5: have known they were going to have. And they saved
• 50:10
  Speaker 5: the fucking country, right? Is all the work done?
• 50:13
  Speaker 8: No.
• 50:13
  Speaker 5: But imagine what would have happened if we had lost
• 50:15
  Speaker 5: that election. Imagine what would have happened if we hadn't
• 50:16
  Speaker 5: won in Georgia. That's because people stepped up. And it's easy,
• 50:20
  Speaker 5: and we do it all the time, get sort of
• 50:22
  Speaker 5: very focused on the things that have not been fixed
• 50:24
  Speaker 5: yet or the continuing– the way the deck continues to
• 50:28
  Speaker 5: be stacked against Democrats. But And we should push Joe
• 50:31
  Speaker 5: Manchin and everyone else to unstack that deck and to
• 50:33
  Speaker 5: not miss the opportunity to do that. But even with–
• 50:36
  Speaker 5: under the hardest circumstances possible, running against an incumbent with
• 50:41
  Speaker 5: all of the advantages that a Republican has in our
• 50:43
  Speaker 5: political system, Democrats stepped up and won. And we would
• 50:46
  Speaker 5: be so absolutely fucked if that had not happened as
• 50:51
  Speaker 5: a democracy, as a country in the middle of a pandemic.
• 50:52
  Speaker 5: And people did it. I think that is something to
• 50:55
  Speaker 5: be optimistic for because it was a truly heroic thing
• 50:57
  Speaker 5: that– like the most important election in history. a bunch
• 51:00
  Speaker 5: of people stepped up in the hardest times potentially in
• 51:03
  Speaker 5: their lives and delivered.
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: And the reason that I remain optimistic, you know, in
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: light of what you just said, Dan, is I think
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: politics is fundamentally about persuading people to change their minds.
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: And that's either like changing the party that they vote
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: for or changing their status from non-voter to voter. You're
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: always trying to persuade people. And if you persuade enough
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: people to change their minds, you change politics and you
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: change the country. And I've seen that happen too many
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: times in life to believe that it can't. You mentioned this, Tommy,
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: but the formative political experience of my life was helping
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: to elect a black state senator named Barack Hussein Obama president.
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: And if that's possible, then anything's possible. If you can
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: persuade people to do that, I've seen it in 2006, 2008, 2012, 2018,
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: and again in 2020. And You know, as dark as
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: it seems, this is just about person to person trying
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: to change people's minds. And as long as you can
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: keep doing that, then you should still have optimism.
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: Hello, my name is Caitlin. I first started listening my
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: junior year of high school. I have listened to every
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: episode since. Because of the pod, I decided to be
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: a political science major. And this year, I was an
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: intern for the campaign of the first black female mayor
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: of St.
• 52:20
  Speaker 5: Louis.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for inspiring me to get involved.
• 52:23
  Speaker 9: Hey there, this is Marshall Schaefer. I've been a listener
• 52:25
  Speaker 9: since playing politics, even before keeping it 1600. John and Dan,
• 52:29
  Speaker 9: in particular, are really responsible for making it click into
• 52:32
  Speaker 9: place that I'm a Democrat, and every door I knocked,
• 52:34
  Speaker 9: voter I canvassed, call I made, text I sent, is
• 52:37
  Speaker 9: because this team converted me and inspired me to live
• 52:39
  Speaker 9: a life and own a political identity that actually matches
• 52:41
  Speaker 9: the values that I hold.
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: All right, love it. I heard you had a game
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: for us.
• 52:48
  Speaker 3: And now it's time for a game. What is the present?
• 52:52
  Speaker 3: We live our entire lives in it. It is the
• 52:54
  Speaker 3: only place we can live. And yet deep down, we
• 52:56
  Speaker 3: know it doesn't really exist. No matter how close you
• 53:00
  Speaker 3: zoom in on time itself, you cannot find a space
• 53:03
  Speaker 3: between the past and the future. They are always touching.
• 53:07
  Speaker 3: But in defiance of this contradiction, this paradox, there is
• 53:10
  Speaker 3: impossibly Twitter, which manages to separate the past and future,
• 53:14
  Speaker 3: to hold the two apart. with the strength of takes
• 53:17
  Speaker 3: alone and scream from the chasm between, right now is
• 53:21
  Speaker 3: all that matters. The present is real and vast and all-consuming. Anyway,
• 53:26
  Speaker 3: now it's time for a game we call First Pod
• 53:28
  Speaker 3: Gets the Fave 500th Episode Edition. Here's how it works.
• 53:32
  Speaker 3: I'm going to share a comment made on Twitter or
• 53:35
  Speaker 3: Pod Save America by a host or a guest, and
• 53:38
  Speaker 3: you'll have to figure out who said it. Are you ready, boys? Yes.
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: This is tough.
• 53:43
  Speaker 3: Dan, I'll start with you. Which guest said the following
• 53:46
  Speaker 3: on Ponce of America in June of 2017? We couldn't
• 53:49
  Speaker 3: get one Republican to vote for it back in 2010.
• 53:53
  Speaker 3: The Republicans have doubled down and made it even worse.
• 53:56
  Speaker 3: They haven't even put up the appearance that they want
• 53:59
  Speaker 3: it to be bipartisan.
• 54:02
  Speaker 10: June of 2017.
• 54:03
  Speaker 5: That was before the pandemic, right? Trump was president.
• 54:11
  Speaker 3: 2017, early on, early days.
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: Was it.
• 54:14
  Speaker 5: Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer.
• 54:18
  Speaker 7: Incorrect.
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: Anybody want the steal? It was Joe. It was Joe Manchin. Oh, yeah.
• 54:27
  Speaker 4: Roll the clip.
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: That's so good.
• 54:29
  Speaker 8: But then still, yeah, we couldn't get one Republican to
• 54:31
  Speaker 8: vote for it back in 2010. The Republicans have doubled down,
• 54:36
  Speaker 8: made it even worse to where they haven't even asked
• 54:39
  Speaker 8: the Democrats. They haven't even put the appearance up that
• 54:41
  Speaker 8: they wanted to be bipartisan.
• 54:43
  Speaker 3: John, over to you. In May of 2017, Witch Pond
• 54:46
  Speaker 3: Save America host tweeted the following. Again, this is May
• 54:49
  Speaker 3: of 2017.
• 54:50
  Speaker 6: Quote, Me?
• 55:04
  Speaker 3: It was Dan Pfeiffer.
• 55:05
  Speaker 5: Dan Pfeiffer.
• 55:06
  Speaker 3: And it was, always tweets are devoid of their context.
• 55:10
  Speaker 3: And I don't know what was going on that this
• 55:13
  Speaker 3: was meant to capture, but I assume it has to
• 55:15
  Speaker 3: do with something with like Scaramucci and Reince Priebus. Tommy,
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: in July of 2017, this Pod Save America host said,
• 55:26
  Speaker 3: and I quote, I'm starting to really like Susan Collins.
• 55:33
  Speaker 4: Oh no.
• 55:34
  Speaker 3: Favreau. It was, it was John Favreau. It was because
• 55:39
  Speaker 3: she had been caught on a hot mic torching representative
• 55:42
  Speaker 3: Blake Farenthold of Texas. A male Senator said to Collins,
• 55:47
  Speaker 3: you could beat the shit out of him. And Collins replied,
• 55:50
  Speaker 3: he's so unattractive. It's unbelievable.
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: Oh, I remember that.
• 55:54
  Speaker 4: That is like the funniest thing she's ever said. Anyway,
• 55:58
  Speaker 4: you're canceled, John.
• 55:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you're canceled. Dan, which United States senator said this
• 56:03
  Speaker 3: in December of 2017? Your podcast nurtures, nourishes, energizes, fires
• 56:08
  Speaker 3: me up as well as informs me.
• 56:10
  Speaker 8: Oh, this.
• 56:11
  Speaker 5: Chuck Schumer.
• 56:13
  Speaker 3: Incorrect. Tommy for the steal.
• 56:16
  Speaker 4: Cory Booker.
• 56:17
  Speaker 3: It was Cory Booker. Sadly, it was about the daily.
• 56:24
  Speaker 4: That was a good chop, though, yeah.
• 56:27
  Speaker 3: Roll the clip.
• 56:29
  Speaker 4: Your podcast nurtures, nourishes, energizes, fires me up, as well
• 56:35
  Speaker 4: as informs me.
• 56:36
  Speaker 3: You're so extra.
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Senator Booker, for listening. I'm going to say
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: thank you, Senator Booker.
• 56:46
  Speaker 4: And we asked some sort of super mundane question about
• 56:49
  Speaker 4: Jeff Sessions and DOJ, and he turned it into an
• 56:51
  Speaker 4: attack on us, as if we didn't realize that DOJ
• 56:54
  Speaker 4: had always been doing... It was very odd. It was
• 56:57
  Speaker 4: a very odd interview. I really like Cory Booker. Weird interview.
• 57:02
  Speaker 3: John... Weird interview. John, this is a two-part question. A
• 57:07
  Speaker 3: certain Pond Save America host held up a picture of
• 57:10
  Speaker 3: a now United States senator and said, I'm sorry we
• 57:14
  Speaker 3: ever doubted you. Who was the host and who was
• 57:18
  Speaker 3: the senator?
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: Uh, the host was you?
• 57:24
  Speaker 3: Mm-mm. Nope.
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: The host was Tommy.
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: It was.
• 57:29
  Speaker 3: It was Tommy, but who was the senator? Now senator.
• 57:33
  Speaker 3: She is currently a senator.
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: Now senator.
• 57:35
  Speaker 3: Was not a senator when he held.
• 57:37
  Speaker 4: Up the photo. I held up a photo. Mm-hmm.
• 57:42
  Speaker 3: Dan, you have any guesses? What date was this?
• 57:44
  Speaker 5: Did you give a year?
• 57:46
  Speaker 3: This was in November of 2018. That's a hint.
• 57:49
  Speaker 5: It is Tommy's favorite senator, the person he would work
• 57:53
  Speaker 5: for if he left this podcast, Kyrsten Sinema.
• 57:55
  Speaker 3: That's exactly right. It was actually because you were saying
• 57:59
  Speaker 3: that you doubted her victory, but you held up a
• 58:01
  Speaker 3: picture that says, I'm sorry we ever doubted you because
• 58:03
  Speaker 3: we had made the same mistake. We were like fucking
• 58:08
  Speaker 3: Trump being like, ah, she lost. And then the votes
• 58:11
  Speaker 3: came in. And of course she had won.
• 58:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we didn't. We totally are bad. Every media organization
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: did this, but our bad for like poor Kirsten said
• 58:19
  Speaker 2: of his staff was like, uh, we think we won this.
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: What are y'all talking about?
• 58:23
  Speaker 5: Like when the money paid us back every day since.
• 58:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's all we paid for that mistaken blood.
• 58:32
  Speaker 3: Over to Tommy in September of 2020, a guest on
• 58:35
  Speaker 3: Pond Save America said, you're a bad boy. Who was
• 58:38
  Speaker 3: the guest and who was the bad boy?
• 58:43
  Speaker 2: Joe Biden, you're a bad boy.
• 58:50
  Speaker 3: It's surprising. It's surprising.
• 58:54
  Speaker 4: There's a lot of danger, even in guessing.
• 58:59
  Speaker 3: Who called? I'll tell you. I'll now tell you that
• 59:02
  Speaker 3: the bad. Favreau is the bad boy.
• 59:04
  Speaker 4: I kind of remember this.
• 59:07
  Speaker 10: Oh.
• 59:07
  Speaker 4: Was it Elizabeth Warren?
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: Was it Schumer? Was it Schumer?
• 59:10
  Speaker 4: It was Schumer.
• 59:11
  Speaker 3: It was Schumer.
• 59:11
  Speaker 4: Roll the clip.
• 59:13
  Speaker 2: So I know this is like asking you to pick
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: between all of your children, but do you have a
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: favorite under the radar Senate race where you're feeling good
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: about the Democrats' chances? You're a bad boy.
• 59:27
  Speaker 4: What a weird thing to say.
• 59:29
  Speaker 3: In November of 2018, this host tweeted, this is November
• 59:32
  Speaker 3: of 2018, we not only have to win, we have
• 59:35
  Speaker 3: to run up the margins in 2020 or he won't
• 59:38
  Speaker 3: accept the results. He may not anyway.
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: I think I know this.
• 59:42
  Speaker 5: Is it Jon Favreau?
• 59:45
  Speaker 4: No, it was me.
• 59:45
  Speaker 3: It was the only good prediction this entire game.
• 59:48
  Speaker 7: I love it.
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: He said that all the time.
• 59:50
  Speaker 3: It's the only good prediction. But I actually, while we
• 59:54
  Speaker 3: were recording, I did want to pull Uh, uh, another one. Uh,
• 59:59
  Speaker 3: this is from October of 2016. Uh, Tim Cain is
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 3: running for vice president in 2016. Mike Pence is running
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 3: for president in 2020.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 8: Who said it?
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 4: Dan.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 5: It sounds like such a stupid thing. I would say.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 2: Sounds like it. Sounds like a Dan take.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 3: Wow, that's really hurtful to Dan. It was my terrible
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 3: tweet because I couldn't just give my one tweet an
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 3: excellent take.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 4: I tweeted some effusive over-the-top thing when Tim Kaine was
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 4: named and he gave a very good announcement speech because
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 4: I was hearing from tons of ex-staffers. And yeah, I
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 4: don't know that I nailed that one.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 3: And finally, this last question, anybody can take it. Jump ball,
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 3: as they say, I guess. Which early guest said, and
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 3: I quote, I cannot believe people actually listen to you.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: Barack Obama.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 4: You got it. You got it.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 3: And that's the game. That's the game. You're all winners
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 3: in my book. You're all winners in my book.
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 4: Well done.
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 2: Guys, that was a great game. Great game.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 5: That was fun.
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 4: That was great.
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 10: This is Travis Hellwig, former head writer of Crooked Media,
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 10: resident bad boy. I just wanted to say congratulations on
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 10: 500 episodes. I miss you guys so much. My favorite
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 10: backstage memory was the night of the 2018 midterm elections.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 10: We had a live stream that Priyanka and I were
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 10: just going to do like maybe five minutes between you
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 10: guys talking. But at the beginning of the night, we
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 10: got some numbers out of Florida that looked terrible. And John, John,
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 10: Tommy and Dan all panicked and hid in their office,
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 10: I believe in tears, leaving me and Priyanka to vamp
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 10: about an election we were confident we were losing and
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 10: doing everything we could to try to not show that
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 10: behind the scenes there was true panic.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 3: And over the course of.
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 10: The night, we learned that we won the House and
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 10: it wasn't nearly as bad of a Evening as it
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 10: looked at first, but it was very fun to be
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 10: on the air knowing literally nothing about politics while the
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 10: adults in the room were sobbing in an office. And honestly,
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 10: that one might make you look bad, but the real
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 10: favorite memory that I have is driving around the country
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 10: with you guys on tour. and getting to see the
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 10: country and meet a bunch of people that were just
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 10: as inspiring and knowledgeable as the four of you. And
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 10: it really meant a lot. And I had a lot
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 10: of fun, and it was some of the most fun
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 10: I've ever had at a job. So I just wanted
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 10: to say thank you.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 3: Congrats.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 13: My name is Jordan, and I was an associate producer
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 13: on PodSafe America. Lovett is finally letting me share a
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 13: joke that he asked to be left on the cutting
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 13: room floor at the end of 2019 when we asked
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 13: all of the presidential candidates to share their New Year's resolutions.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 13: And then John John and Tommy reacted to the recordings.
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 13: Mayor Pete said that he wanted to do more yoga,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 13: to which Tommy responded, why? Yoga is just standing in
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 13: a room while other people fart. And Lovett said, I
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 13: feel like Mayor Pete has been holding in one long
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 13: fart his entire life. But then he made us cut
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 13: it because he was worried Mayor Pete would win the
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 13: nomination and we would be the podcast that had made
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 13: fart jokes about the president.
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: So that's it. That's our show for today. That's our
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 2: 500th episode. To everyone who submitted a question, thanks for
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: sending that in. We always enjoy hearing from you. And
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 2: thanks for sticking with us for the last couple years.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 2: It's been fun. And the reason this job is fun
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: and doing this podcast is fun is because of all
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 2: of you. Because you all engage with us. Because you
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 2: show up at shows. Because you... lob in criticism, have ideas.
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 2: And because all of you worked so hard to volunteer in,
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 2: in 2018 and 2020 and, and really stepped up when the,
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 2: when the country needed you. So thanks guys. And we're
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 2: excited for 500 more, 500 more. Are we ready for
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 2: 500 more?
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah. 500 more.
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 4: It's fine. Daily show.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 3: All right, good.
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 2: There we go. Have a good one, everyone.
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 6: Bye.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 4: Bye everybody.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 2: Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. The executive
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 2: producer is Michael Martinez. Our senior producer is Flavia Casas.
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 2: Our associate producers are Jazzy Marine and Olivia Martinez. It's
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 2: mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Kyle Seglin is our
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 2: sound engineer. Thanks to Tanya Somenator, Katie Long, Roman Papadimitriou,
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 2: Caroline Rustin, and Justine Howe for production support. And to
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 2: our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Narmal Konian, Yale Freed, and
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 2: Milo Kim, who film and upload these episodes as videos
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 2: every week.