1 00:00:00,760 --> 00:00:03,680 Speaker 1: Hey, guys, ready or not, twenty twenty four is here, 2 00:00:03,880 --> 00:00:06,360 Speaker 1: and we here at breaking points, are already thinking of 3 00:00:06,400 --> 00:00:08,600 Speaker 1: ways we can up our game for this critical election. 4 00:00:08,800 --> 00:00:11,719 Speaker 2: We rely on our premium subs to expand coverage, upgrade 5 00:00:11,760 --> 00:00:15,120 Speaker 2: the studio ad staff give you, guys, the best independent 6 00:00:15,160 --> 00:00:17,440 Speaker 2: coverage that is possible. If you like what we're all about, 7 00:00:17,720 --> 00:00:20,040 Speaker 2: it just means the absolute world to have your support. 8 00:00:20,160 --> 00:00:21,840 Speaker 3: But enough with that, let's get to the show. 9 00:00:21,960 --> 00:00:23,880 Speaker 1: I don't think the right has figured out if a 10 00:00:23,920 --> 00:00:26,880 Speaker 1: lot of the problems it is most concerned about are 11 00:00:26,880 --> 00:00:30,400 Speaker 1: even amenable to policy solutions in the first place. The 12 00:00:30,440 --> 00:00:32,440 Speaker 1: reason jd. Vance was so good in that debate is 13 00:00:32,479 --> 00:00:34,560 Speaker 1: he didn't sound like Jadavance at all. You go watch 14 00:00:34,680 --> 00:00:37,920 Speaker 1: him in all these podcast interviews and speeches and not 15 00:00:38,120 --> 00:00:40,120 Speaker 1: con conferences and whatever that he was doing on his 16 00:00:40,200 --> 00:00:42,000 Speaker 1: rise up, and he sounds like one guy, and then 17 00:00:42,040 --> 00:00:44,160 Speaker 1: when he needs to try to win over the general public, 18 00:00:44,159 --> 00:00:46,280 Speaker 1: he sounds totally different. This is where you see a real, 19 00:00:46,560 --> 00:00:49,560 Speaker 1: a real political problem. When the things you're actually saying 20 00:00:50,159 --> 00:00:52,120 Speaker 1: and the things you then need to say in public 21 00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:55,320 Speaker 1: develop that level of divergence from each other, then you 22 00:00:55,400 --> 00:00:58,480 Speaker 1: have an unresolved problem. Within not just your political coalition, 23 00:00:58,520 --> 00:01:00,680 Speaker 1: but your political thinking, because you're not going to be 24 00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:02,560 Speaker 1: able to do it if you can't even really talk 25 00:01:02,560 --> 00:01:03,000 Speaker 1: about it. 26 00:01:03,160 --> 00:01:05,640 Speaker 3: You and I were both rattling the cages for some 27 00:01:05,800 --> 00:01:09,200 Speaker 3: type of an open process to nominate a replacement for Biden, 28 00:01:09,440 --> 00:01:12,479 Speaker 3: if he could be persuaded to drop out. Were we right? 29 00:01:14,800 --> 00:01:17,520 Speaker 3: On today's long form episode of Counterpoints, part of a 30 00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:22,440 Speaker 3: series that we're doing with independent journalists and also mainstream journalists. 31 00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:26,919 Speaker 3: Today we're joined by an independent slash mainstream one, Ezra 32 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:31,080 Speaker 3: Kleine from The New York Times. Ezra, some people called 33 00:01:31,120 --> 00:01:34,120 Speaker 3: you the breakout star of the twenty twenty four election, 34 00:01:34,160 --> 00:01:35,920 Speaker 3: But when I saw it, I was like, wasn't as 35 00:01:35,959 --> 00:01:38,880 Speaker 3: there already? Kind of I think everybody kind of already 36 00:01:38,920 --> 00:01:40,440 Speaker 3: knew whoever it was. I don't think he needed the. 37 00:01:40,360 --> 00:01:43,080 Speaker 1: Twenty I just got here. I'm having a great rookie year. 38 00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:46,160 Speaker 1: It's been a thrill, amazing first year. 39 00:01:46,640 --> 00:01:49,360 Speaker 3: But thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate it. 40 00:01:49,920 --> 00:01:50,760 Speaker 1: I'm glad to be here. 41 00:01:51,600 --> 00:01:54,960 Speaker 3: Emily is joining us from a reporting trip she's doing 42 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:58,120 Speaker 3: over in Rome. May not be able to stick around 43 00:01:58,160 --> 00:02:02,800 Speaker 3: for the entire episode. Hopeful she can obviously for people. 44 00:02:02,560 --> 00:02:04,760 Speaker 1: Who don't know brutal I stayed for my whole episode 45 00:02:04,760 --> 00:02:09,840 Speaker 1: with Emily, but. 46 00:02:10,040 --> 00:02:12,919 Speaker 4: Emily as soon as there's a hard conversation. 47 00:02:14,080 --> 00:02:16,520 Speaker 3: So Emily, why don't you why don't you kick it 48 00:02:16,520 --> 00:02:18,200 Speaker 3: off since you said you might have to go, but 49 00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:21,840 Speaker 3: hopefully you can stick around for the for the whole thing. Yeah. 50 00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:24,640 Speaker 4: Well, first of all, this all kind of came about 51 00:02:24,639 --> 00:02:27,280 Speaker 4: because as I was super kind and hosted me on 52 00:02:27,320 --> 00:02:30,480 Speaker 4: his extremely popular podcast, and we've talked a little bit 53 00:02:30,480 --> 00:02:34,240 Speaker 4: about the trend of postliberalism on the right part of 54 00:02:34,240 --> 00:02:36,760 Speaker 4: what I'm actually sort of here to think about in realm, 55 00:02:36,840 --> 00:02:39,639 Speaker 4: but Ezra, one of the things Ryan and I thought 56 00:02:39,720 --> 00:02:41,840 Speaker 4: might be interesting. A good place to start would be 57 00:02:42,160 --> 00:02:45,519 Speaker 4: some of our younger viewers and maybe even your younger 58 00:02:45,560 --> 00:02:50,160 Speaker 4: listeners might not know your origin story in journalism and 59 00:02:50,160 --> 00:02:53,280 Speaker 4: how tethered it is to the story of technology and 60 00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:56,040 Speaker 4: journalism in and of itself, and we kind of wanted 61 00:02:56,080 --> 00:02:59,360 Speaker 4: to ask you about what feels like a horseshoem of 62 00:02:59,440 --> 00:03:02,720 Speaker 4: almost a horse shoe moment from the blogging of the 63 00:03:02,720 --> 00:03:08,040 Speaker 4: Oughts to substack of today, and how independent thinkers, even 64 00:03:08,080 --> 00:03:13,040 Speaker 4: people who have found very mainstream platforms are adapting to 65 00:03:13,360 --> 00:03:17,840 Speaker 4: that environment with new technology and new delivery systems, and 66 00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:20,679 Speaker 4: how all of that is just shaking up basically the 67 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:23,000 Speaker 4: industry for everyone. So I don't know if you have 68 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:27,200 Speaker 4: any thoughts on whether the substack era, the substack moment 69 00:03:27,280 --> 00:03:32,240 Speaker 4: that we're in now the kind of journalism. Maybe are 70 00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:36,360 Speaker 4: we returning to what happened when the Internet first started 71 00:03:36,360 --> 00:03:38,440 Speaker 4: to change journalism in some sense? 72 00:03:40,280 --> 00:03:41,960 Speaker 1: Oh man, I'm so much more interested in who you're 73 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:45,520 Speaker 1: meeting in Rome than I am with my I want 74 00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:47,960 Speaker 1: to know about the Rome Post liberals. But okay, substack 75 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:53,280 Speaker 1: and blogging. I came, I came into journalism. I didn't 76 00:03:53,320 --> 00:03:56,240 Speaker 1: intend to be a journalist, had no intention of getting 77 00:03:56,240 --> 00:03:58,800 Speaker 1: into getting into media, no even thought of getting into media. 78 00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:00,760 Speaker 1: I was just a blogger back when Bogin was young 79 00:04:00,920 --> 00:04:04,480 Speaker 1: and was not seen as a way you would do 80 00:04:04,640 --> 00:04:07,760 Speaker 1: anything right. People now like blog is a normal word, 81 00:04:07,800 --> 00:04:09,720 Speaker 1: but it's a strange word, and people looked at you 82 00:04:09,720 --> 00:04:12,080 Speaker 1: strangely when you said it. So I was like two 83 00:04:12,080 --> 00:04:16,520 Speaker 1: thousand and three when I began my first blog back 84 00:04:16,520 --> 00:04:21,040 Speaker 1: in my dorm room at UC Santa Cruz. There's a line, 85 00:04:21,080 --> 00:04:23,960 Speaker 1: it's not my line, that the media only does two things. 86 00:04:24,320 --> 00:04:28,120 Speaker 1: It bundles and it unbundles, and you're just always either 87 00:04:28,120 --> 00:04:30,960 Speaker 1: in a cycle of bundling or a cycle of unbundling. 88 00:04:31,880 --> 00:04:36,360 Speaker 1: The blogging era was a cycle of unbundling. Previously, in 89 00:04:36,520 --> 00:04:39,279 Speaker 1: order really to have an audience, in order to reach 90 00:04:39,760 --> 00:04:41,400 Speaker 1: many people, you had to be at a publication. You 91 00:04:41,440 --> 00:04:44,320 Speaker 1: had to be at some kind of bundle, a magazine, 92 00:04:44,400 --> 00:04:48,960 Speaker 1: a newspaper, television network, cable news network. And then the 93 00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:51,640 Speaker 1: rise of the Internet in many different ways, blogging being 94 00:04:51,640 --> 00:04:55,520 Speaker 1: only one of them, made it possible to do that independently. 95 00:04:55,600 --> 00:04:58,919 Speaker 1: You could have you know, ezra cliin dot blog spot 96 00:04:59,080 --> 00:05:02,880 Speaker 1: or dot typead. But soon after that you also had YouTube. 97 00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:06,839 Speaker 1: You had a rise of all kinds of you know, 98 00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:10,440 Speaker 1: Twitter was part of this Facebook, right, you have Instagram, pundits, 99 00:05:11,080 --> 00:05:14,120 Speaker 1: all that is possible. You then went into a period 100 00:05:14,120 --> 00:05:17,320 Speaker 1: of rebundling, and so a lot of the bloggers got 101 00:05:17,400 --> 00:05:20,920 Speaker 1: snapped up by different kinds of first very small publications. 102 00:05:20,920 --> 00:05:23,839 Speaker 1: I went to the American Prospect, and then overtime bigger 103 00:05:23,880 --> 00:05:27,400 Speaker 1: publications in my own career, the Washington Post. Then there 104 00:05:27,440 --> 00:05:31,080 Speaker 1: was another period where people who were making a name 105 00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:34,520 Speaker 1: inside these bigger publications, people like me and Nate Silver 106 00:05:36,279 --> 00:05:40,760 Speaker 1: and many others. Matt Iglesias would then, you know, kind 107 00:05:40,760 --> 00:05:44,760 Speaker 1: of Ben Smith leave and build our own outlets. Right, 108 00:05:44,839 --> 00:05:47,719 Speaker 1: This was a sort of a mixt of unbundling and rebundling. 109 00:05:48,240 --> 00:05:49,880 Speaker 1: It wasn't that easy to do it on your own. 110 00:05:49,920 --> 00:05:52,440 Speaker 1: At that point, blogging had sort of died. The blogsphere 111 00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:55,760 Speaker 1: had been eaten away by Twitter, by Facebook, and again 112 00:05:55,760 --> 00:05:57,680 Speaker 1: by the big players. But you had the rise of 113 00:05:57,720 --> 00:06:01,200 Speaker 1: things like Vox, BuzzFeed News under Ben Smith. You know, 114 00:06:01,240 --> 00:06:03,640 Speaker 1: five point thirty eight. You can name somebody's on the right, 115 00:06:03,720 --> 00:06:07,159 Speaker 1: like the free bacon, free Beacon, Weather and free bacon. 116 00:06:07,200 --> 00:06:08,480 Speaker 4: There's no such thing as free bacon. 117 00:06:08,680 --> 00:06:10,839 Speaker 1: That was an old there was an old joke that 118 00:06:10,920 --> 00:06:14,440 Speaker 1: somehow came to mind there. First you also had on 119 00:06:14,480 --> 00:06:17,040 Speaker 1: the right, the Federalist right under Ben Dominic and folks 120 00:06:17,080 --> 00:06:20,599 Speaker 1: like that, where I think you worked, Emily. And then 121 00:06:21,520 --> 00:06:24,400 Speaker 1: we sort of went back into the first cycle as 122 00:06:24,480 --> 00:06:28,080 Speaker 1: a lot of the money funding digital media dried up 123 00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:30,080 Speaker 1: as interest rates went up. A lot of these organizations 124 00:06:30,120 --> 00:06:33,000 Speaker 1: are still around. Box is still there, Federals are still there. 125 00:06:33,080 --> 00:06:35,480 Speaker 1: But but it it that that sort of idea that 126 00:06:35,520 --> 00:06:38,960 Speaker 1: they would become the next generation of major incumbents I 127 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:40,840 Speaker 1: think didn't quite pan out the way a lot of 128 00:06:40,920 --> 00:06:45,080 Speaker 1: us hoped, and substack ros and that created I think 129 00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:48,159 Speaker 1: another moment of unbundling. So you had a lot of 130 00:06:48,200 --> 00:06:52,960 Speaker 1: these same people, including iglaciers, including Silver, including Ben Dominic, 131 00:06:53,279 --> 00:06:56,160 Speaker 1: go to substack where they could do something you couldn't 132 00:06:56,200 --> 00:06:59,800 Speaker 1: do in the blogosphere, which was monetize your audience. So 133 00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:02,840 Speaker 1: the blogs here is very good at creating traffic, very 134 00:07:02,839 --> 00:07:06,640 Speaker 1: good at creating interlinks between communities. You know, there's an 135 00:07:06,680 --> 00:07:09,840 Speaker 1: amazing link economy. It was a very generous ecosystem of media. 136 00:07:10,120 --> 00:07:12,200 Speaker 1: People would talk to each other, It was very easy 137 00:07:12,200 --> 00:07:14,720 Speaker 1: to follow arguments across different places. It really was I 138 00:07:14,720 --> 00:07:18,200 Speaker 1: think an ecosystem. Substack is not an ecosystem in that way, 139 00:07:19,080 --> 00:07:21,560 Speaker 1: but it does allow you to make a living the 140 00:07:21,600 --> 00:07:23,520 Speaker 1: thing that I think you see happening now, though I 141 00:07:23,520 --> 00:07:26,200 Speaker 1: don't think substack is really panning out except for a 142 00:07:26,200 --> 00:07:29,360 Speaker 1: small number of people independently. It is very hard for 143 00:07:29,400 --> 00:07:31,400 Speaker 1: me to come up with many substacks begun in the 144 00:07:31,480 --> 00:07:34,560 Speaker 1: last year that seemed to me to have developed, at 145 00:07:34,640 --> 00:07:38,000 Speaker 1: least in the news and politics space, a particularly significant audience. 146 00:07:38,360 --> 00:07:42,280 Speaker 1: You are seeing substack emerge now as a platform on 147 00:07:42,320 --> 00:07:45,600 Speaker 1: which to create new bundles, with probably the Free Press 148 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:49,320 Speaker 1: under Berry Weiss and the Dispatch under Sam Stein being 149 00:07:49,440 --> 00:07:51,760 Speaker 1: the best examples of that. But you know, you also 150 00:07:51,760 --> 00:07:54,280 Speaker 1: see it with work. You know, there's like obviously a 151 00:07:54,320 --> 00:07:57,440 Speaker 1: new Ryan Grimm site, and YouTube is of course a 152 00:07:57,440 --> 00:07:59,520 Speaker 1: big player here too. So now I think you're seeing 153 00:07:59,760 --> 00:08:03,520 Speaker 1: a turn to some of these you know, mid level 154 00:08:03,760 --> 00:08:06,520 Speaker 1: this sort of like the media middle that got somewhat 155 00:08:06,600 --> 00:08:08,960 Speaker 1: decimated by the rise of interest rates in the collapse 156 00:08:08,960 --> 00:08:12,480 Speaker 1: of media venture capital trying to find a way again. 157 00:08:12,600 --> 00:08:15,920 Speaker 1: As it turns out that the independent path is pretty 158 00:08:15,960 --> 00:08:19,120 Speaker 1: tough on sub stacks, specifically because once people subscribe to 159 00:08:19,160 --> 00:08:21,560 Speaker 1: a bunch of them, they stop wanting to subscribe to more. 160 00:08:21,640 --> 00:08:24,280 Speaker 1: The subscriptions are expensive. I think it's a distribution channel 161 00:08:24,560 --> 00:08:27,280 Speaker 1: that max is out at a pretty low level, unlike 162 00:08:27,320 --> 00:08:30,400 Speaker 1: the original blogosphere, where it was sort of costless to 163 00:08:30,440 --> 00:08:34,120 Speaker 1: keep like surfing over to new sites. So that's where 164 00:08:34,160 --> 00:08:36,960 Speaker 1: I think we are at the moment. And you know, 165 00:08:37,080 --> 00:08:40,280 Speaker 1: in one of the endless turns of this endless media recursion. 166 00:08:40,600 --> 00:08:42,000 Speaker 3: Yeah, and there was a period if. 167 00:08:41,960 --> 00:08:44,439 Speaker 4: You don't mind, well, I was just say I have 168 00:08:44,480 --> 00:08:47,440 Speaker 4: a quick follow up is there and maybe Ryan, this 169 00:08:47,480 --> 00:08:48,760 Speaker 4: goes well with what you were going to ask, so 170 00:08:48,760 --> 00:08:50,200 Speaker 4: maybe you just tag it on to the end of this. 171 00:08:50,320 --> 00:08:52,880 Speaker 4: I wonder if they're a cynical person might say this 172 00:08:52,920 --> 00:08:56,120 Speaker 4: is just like Dylan going electric. This is you know, 173 00:08:56,240 --> 00:08:59,640 Speaker 4: the it's not that the mainstream media has become more 174 00:08:59,640 --> 00:09:02,880 Speaker 4: tolerant sort of independent voices. It's that the independent voices 175 00:09:02,920 --> 00:09:05,400 Speaker 4: have found their way into the mainstream because you know, 176 00:09:05,559 --> 00:09:08,439 Speaker 4: there might be like a Chomsky criticism, like they've become 177 00:09:08,480 --> 00:09:10,800 Speaker 4: part of the machine. And I don't think that's quite right. 178 00:09:10,920 --> 00:09:14,680 Speaker 4: And Ryan, do you I mean, do you have a okay, Yeah, 179 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:16,960 Speaker 4: what do you make of that? Azrael? Like, just in 180 00:09:17,040 --> 00:09:20,720 Speaker 4: terms of the content of what's expressed when you go 181 00:09:20,840 --> 00:09:25,640 Speaker 4: from one platform to another, because my perspective actually is 182 00:09:25,679 --> 00:09:28,720 Speaker 4: that it probably has become the mainstream has seen in 183 00:09:28,760 --> 00:09:31,520 Speaker 4: the market there's an interest in these different opinions and 184 00:09:31,559 --> 00:09:35,080 Speaker 4: ideas from outside, you know, their usual gates, and brought 185 00:09:35,080 --> 00:09:37,240 Speaker 4: those voices in because they know they can market them, 186 00:09:37,280 --> 00:09:39,760 Speaker 4: they know there's an appetite for them. But I'm curious 187 00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:40,599 Speaker 4: what you make of that. 188 00:09:43,480 --> 00:09:46,080 Speaker 1: This just doesn't strike me as as a new phenomena. 189 00:09:46,800 --> 00:09:51,000 Speaker 1: The major institutions are always looking around to try to 190 00:09:51,040 --> 00:09:54,880 Speaker 1: see who is gaining audience, what is resonating with their audiences, 191 00:09:54,920 --> 00:09:56,839 Speaker 1: and in what way so it can become part of 192 00:09:56,880 --> 00:10:00,360 Speaker 1: their product. That's capitalism at its finest. It happens in music, 193 00:10:00,640 --> 00:10:03,000 Speaker 1: it happens in movies, it happens in television, it happens 194 00:10:03,040 --> 00:10:06,400 Speaker 1: in media, right. I mean my own story in journalism 195 00:10:06,600 --> 00:10:10,480 Speaker 1: is part of that. I think there was a moment 196 00:10:10,600 --> 00:10:16,320 Speaker 1: of substack explosion when there were particular ideological fights that 197 00:10:16,520 --> 00:10:19,920 Speaker 1: were blowing up media organizations, right. And I think this 198 00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:22,120 Speaker 1: is a period where you see things like Andrew Sullivan 199 00:10:22,160 --> 00:10:25,440 Speaker 1: go into substack from New York Magazine. That moment is 200 00:10:25,480 --> 00:10:28,680 Speaker 1: not that true, right, It's not how these organizations currently 201 00:10:28,720 --> 00:10:32,199 Speaker 1: feel from the inside. It doesn't feel like the ideological 202 00:10:32,200 --> 00:10:36,000 Speaker 1: strictures lay down, at least in exactly that way. And 203 00:10:36,080 --> 00:10:40,920 Speaker 1: so at this juncture, I don't particularly find substack offering 204 00:10:40,960 --> 00:10:45,600 Speaker 1: me a hugely different ideological set of perspectives, and I 205 00:10:45,600 --> 00:10:48,520 Speaker 1: can get elsewhere, and often I can get them else 206 00:10:48,840 --> 00:10:51,839 Speaker 1: with better editing. As an example, right in the thing 207 00:10:51,880 --> 00:10:53,960 Speaker 1: that you were on my show to talk about, Emily. 208 00:10:54,840 --> 00:10:57,120 Speaker 1: I follow the post liberals, but I follow them mostly 209 00:10:57,160 --> 00:11:00,360 Speaker 1: through journals and I follow them in their writing places 210 00:11:00,400 --> 00:11:03,400 Speaker 1: like The New Statesman, and I do follow the substacks, 211 00:11:03,440 --> 00:11:05,920 Speaker 1: but I find a lot of the substacks to be 212 00:11:06,360 --> 00:11:09,520 Speaker 1: tiresome to follow and not the best expression of those 213 00:11:09,559 --> 00:11:13,120 Speaker 1: ideas over time. And so you know. But but First 214 00:11:13,160 --> 00:11:15,080 Speaker 1: Things can be a very useful magazine, I think, to 215 00:11:15,120 --> 00:11:17,320 Speaker 1: read in a regular way, the clear amount you know, 216 00:11:17,360 --> 00:11:20,680 Speaker 1: review of books is an interesting journal to read right now. 217 00:11:21,120 --> 00:11:24,839 Speaker 1: So I don't find this to be a particularly new phenomena. 218 00:11:25,440 --> 00:11:28,000 Speaker 1: There's always a bit of a lag between what is 219 00:11:29,240 --> 00:11:33,800 Speaker 1: finding new audience in the more independent sphere and what 220 00:11:33,920 --> 00:11:36,760 Speaker 1: is finding its way into mainstream institutions. But I typically 221 00:11:36,880 --> 00:11:39,040 Speaker 1: view that as a as much more of a lag 222 00:11:39,080 --> 00:11:41,800 Speaker 1: as places you know, come to to understand, you know, 223 00:11:41,840 --> 00:11:43,480 Speaker 1: what you could really call, in a sentic way, the 224 00:11:43,520 --> 00:11:48,439 Speaker 1: market signals, rather than typically a chomp sky and manufactured 225 00:11:48,480 --> 00:11:52,600 Speaker 1: consent approach or or a model or a you know, 226 00:11:52,640 --> 00:11:57,679 Speaker 1: some kind of model of the constantly acused censorship. 227 00:11:57,840 --> 00:12:01,040 Speaker 3: And through through through all those different gigs that you 228 00:12:01,200 --> 00:12:05,880 Speaker 3: mentioned that you've gone through. At each step you somebody 229 00:12:05,920 --> 00:12:08,960 Speaker 3: watching from the background, or maybe even let's say you 230 00:12:09,240 --> 00:12:12,000 Speaker 3: as like a college student would say, oh wow, I've 231 00:12:12,400 --> 00:12:14,480 Speaker 3: made it. This is the place where I need to be, 232 00:12:15,040 --> 00:12:17,080 Speaker 3: and now I can just do my work, Like even 233 00:12:17,600 --> 00:12:20,800 Speaker 3: at the very beginning of getting you know, the Washington Post, 234 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:23,760 Speaker 3: when when we were growing up in the eighties nineties, 235 00:12:23,920 --> 00:12:28,280 Speaker 3: like being a Washington Post columnist was like the pinnacle 236 00:12:28,440 --> 00:12:32,560 Speaker 3: of opinion writing, journalistic success that was equivalent to the 237 00:12:32,640 --> 00:12:35,760 Speaker 3: New York Times. People might find that shocking now, like 238 00:12:35,800 --> 00:12:38,960 Speaker 3: nobody ever really talks about the Washington Post opinion section 239 00:12:39,040 --> 00:12:41,680 Speaker 3: the way they do New York Times anymore. But yet 240 00:12:41,679 --> 00:12:46,240 Speaker 3: after several years of that, you moved on then started Vox, 241 00:12:46,320 --> 00:12:51,120 Speaker 3: very you know, extremely successful, you know, independent online news organization, 242 00:12:52,080 --> 00:12:54,840 Speaker 3: which maybe you could say, well now now we made it. Now, 243 00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:57,200 Speaker 3: now this is what I'm going to do, and then 244 00:12:57,200 --> 00:13:01,040 Speaker 3: you moved on again. So are you restless? Did you just? Like, 245 00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:03,960 Speaker 3: what was the thing that was moving you from place 246 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:04,440 Speaker 3: to place? 247 00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:07,520 Speaker 1: I don't think I'm restless, at least I don't feel it. 248 00:13:07,559 --> 00:13:09,320 Speaker 1: But I feel it is tired. What I feel is 249 00:13:09,360 --> 00:13:12,480 Speaker 1: profoundly tired all the time. When I went from the 250 00:13:12,480 --> 00:13:18,760 Speaker 1: Post to Vox, I believed, and in some ways this 251 00:13:18,840 --> 00:13:21,640 Speaker 1: was born out. In some ways it wouldn't. It wasn't 252 00:13:22,040 --> 00:13:26,000 Speaker 1: that we could use the growing tools of digital media 253 00:13:26,720 --> 00:13:30,040 Speaker 1: to do new things in the news. What you know, 254 00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:33,400 Speaker 1: I always say I fundamentally left the Washington Post for 255 00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:37,800 Speaker 1: a different content management system, and we wanted to build 256 00:13:37,800 --> 00:13:42,280 Speaker 1: this explanatory layer underneath the work. This constantly updated. I mean, 257 00:13:42,320 --> 00:13:44,160 Speaker 1: when you really think of what you can do online 258 00:13:44,679 --> 00:13:48,040 Speaker 1: that you can't do in print, in text, and most 259 00:13:48,040 --> 00:13:51,520 Speaker 1: of the early phase of online journalism was simply moving 260 00:13:51,520 --> 00:13:55,480 Speaker 1: what you did in print into a computer, the opportunities 261 00:13:55,520 --> 00:13:59,480 Speaker 1: are remarkable, right. It's still to me the untapped opportunity 262 00:13:59,800 --> 00:14:03,120 Speaker 1: of you can update a webpage and as such, a 263 00:14:03,160 --> 00:14:07,160 Speaker 1: single story can change and grow over time. Sometimes people 264 00:14:07,280 --> 00:14:09,640 Speaker 1: look at that as some way of pulling one over 265 00:14:09,679 --> 00:14:11,600 Speaker 1: on the audience, but that's because we've given the audience 266 00:14:11,640 --> 00:14:14,559 Speaker 1: expectations from a different era, right. 267 00:14:14,640 --> 00:14:14,800 Speaker 2: You know. 268 00:14:14,840 --> 00:14:17,720 Speaker 1: One of our big views at Box was what if 269 00:14:17,760 --> 00:14:20,480 Speaker 1: we could have this story that is a fundamental part 270 00:14:20,480 --> 00:14:22,680 Speaker 1: of a story, right, not the new piece of news, 271 00:14:22,960 --> 00:14:25,200 Speaker 1: but the context for all those new pieces of news. 272 00:14:25,600 --> 00:14:27,920 Speaker 1: What if we had that growing and changing we call 273 00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:32,560 Speaker 1: those card stacks. What really made that hard? And I 274 00:14:32,560 --> 00:14:34,680 Speaker 1: mean there were certain workflow issues that we're just really 275 00:14:34,680 --> 00:14:36,680 Speaker 1: really difficult about keeping up that many of them when 276 00:14:36,680 --> 00:14:39,480 Speaker 1: you were a small organization. I think you needed to 277 00:14:39,480 --> 00:14:41,080 Speaker 1: be something the size of The New York Times to 278 00:14:41,120 --> 00:14:43,720 Speaker 1: really make that work. But the other was that there was, 279 00:14:43,720 --> 00:14:46,520 Speaker 1: at least for a period, a real split into the platforms, 280 00:14:47,080 --> 00:14:51,560 Speaker 1: and there was this phase driven by traffic on Facebook 281 00:14:51,760 --> 00:14:55,600 Speaker 1: and traffic elsewhere where we weren't just publishing. And this 282 00:14:55,640 --> 00:14:57,080 Speaker 1: is true for Box, but also true for The New 283 00:14:57,160 --> 00:14:59,480 Speaker 1: York Times, for the Washington Post, for everybody. You weren't 284 00:14:59,480 --> 00:15:02,800 Speaker 1: just publishing to your site. You were publishing to Facebook 285 00:15:02,840 --> 00:15:06,480 Speaker 1: incident articles, you were publishing to Google Amp, you were 286 00:15:06,480 --> 00:15:10,160 Speaker 1: publishing into Apple News, you're publishing onto Snapchat in a 287 00:15:10,200 --> 00:15:13,320 Speaker 1: very different way. And in publishing it to all these 288 00:15:13,360 --> 00:15:16,200 Speaker 1: different places, you no longer control over the underlying system. 289 00:15:16,560 --> 00:15:20,440 Speaker 1: So a lot of that burst of enthusiasm for what 290 00:15:20,480 --> 00:15:22,520 Speaker 1: you could build and how you can make it different 291 00:15:22,520 --> 00:15:25,200 Speaker 1: by taking advantage of your ability to code the underlying 292 00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:29,840 Speaker 1: content management and code and recode the website and change 293 00:15:29,840 --> 00:15:32,960 Speaker 1: what was possible that just didn't pan out. A lot 294 00:15:32,960 --> 00:15:34,840 Speaker 1: of other things did pan out, And I'm super proud 295 00:15:34,880 --> 00:15:36,320 Speaker 1: of a lot of things that we did when I 296 00:15:36,360 --> 00:15:37,760 Speaker 1: was at Vox, and a lot of things that the 297 00:15:37,840 --> 00:15:40,720 Speaker 1: Box is doing now. I mean it was built to 298 00:15:40,760 --> 00:15:46,000 Speaker 1: be a organization focused on contextual journalism or explanatory journalism, 299 00:15:46,480 --> 00:15:48,560 Speaker 1: and I think that ended up not just both being 300 00:15:48,600 --> 00:15:51,320 Speaker 1: good for it, but good for the broader media, where 301 00:15:51,400 --> 00:15:54,040 Speaker 1: a lot of things that we pioneered have been absorbed 302 00:15:54,360 --> 00:15:57,240 Speaker 1: at a pretty deep level and are now commonplace. But 303 00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:00,600 Speaker 1: the reason I personally left was in and it was 304 00:16:00,640 --> 00:16:03,720 Speaker 1: sort of the opposite of restlessness but exhaustion. Managing a 305 00:16:03,760 --> 00:16:07,000 Speaker 1: startup for seven or eight years is really hard, and 306 00:16:07,160 --> 00:16:09,000 Speaker 1: I was editor in chief for about half of that 307 00:16:09,120 --> 00:16:11,440 Speaker 1: and then editor at large. But when you're one of 308 00:16:11,440 --> 00:16:14,000 Speaker 1: the founders of something, you're sort of always a key 309 00:16:14,040 --> 00:16:16,200 Speaker 1: manager of it when you're there, and I wanted to 310 00:16:16,240 --> 00:16:18,520 Speaker 1: be able to focus back on my own work just 311 00:16:18,560 --> 00:16:20,960 Speaker 1: as a person and not really be a manager of 312 00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:22,640 Speaker 1: an organization that at that point was one hundred and 313 00:16:22,640 --> 00:16:25,840 Speaker 1: fifty people, And in order to both do that for 314 00:16:25,960 --> 00:16:28,800 Speaker 1: myself and also to create space for the people who 315 00:16:28,840 --> 00:16:32,680 Speaker 1: would be managing vox to really have full freedom right 316 00:16:32,760 --> 00:16:35,080 Speaker 1: not have people constantly coming to me and saying, hey, 317 00:16:35,120 --> 00:16:36,720 Speaker 1: I'm not sure this is really you know, how we 318 00:16:36,800 --> 00:16:38,720 Speaker 1: started out, or should we really be doing this, or 319 00:16:38,720 --> 00:16:40,160 Speaker 1: we'd love to have you in this meeting or what 320 00:16:40,160 --> 00:16:43,520 Speaker 1: do you think about this? At some point it's really 321 00:16:43,560 --> 00:16:46,120 Speaker 1: hard to manage around a founder, you know, when the 322 00:16:46,120 --> 00:16:48,040 Speaker 1: founder is sitting there and still doing a bunch of 323 00:16:48,040 --> 00:16:51,080 Speaker 1: the an immediate organization, the journalism, so both. So I 324 00:16:51,080 --> 00:16:53,680 Speaker 1: could no longer be a manager and the managers could 325 00:16:53,680 --> 00:16:56,720 Speaker 1: truly be the managers. It was time for me to 326 00:16:57,040 --> 00:16:57,360 Speaker 1: move on. 327 00:17:00,200 --> 00:17:03,320 Speaker 3: Interesting piece of Internet history. In the earlier part of 328 00:17:03,720 --> 00:17:05,680 Speaker 3: what you said that I think people who are newer 329 00:17:05,760 --> 00:17:07,760 Speaker 3: to this, you know, need to understand part of it. 330 00:17:08,280 --> 00:17:10,760 Speaker 3: You talked about the early link economy, with the with 331 00:17:10,800 --> 00:17:14,119 Speaker 3: the Bloggi sphere, and the difference with substact being that 332 00:17:14,119 --> 00:17:16,560 Speaker 3: you can actually make make a living. There was a 333 00:17:16,560 --> 00:17:19,560 Speaker 3: period of time maybe you weren't making a lot of money, 334 00:17:19,920 --> 00:17:21,800 Speaker 3: but where you could act. There were actually bloggers who 335 00:17:21,840 --> 00:17:26,719 Speaker 3: were making money from ads, uh and kind of overnight 336 00:17:26,960 --> 00:17:29,240 Speaker 3: and you might even remember this the Google ad Sense 337 00:17:29,280 --> 00:17:32,199 Speaker 3: apocalypse or whatever the bloggers at the time called it. 338 00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:34,880 Speaker 3: Google basically just said, no, what, we're actually not doing 339 00:17:34,880 --> 00:17:37,240 Speaker 3: that anymore. We've decided we're going to We're going to 340 00:17:37,320 --> 00:17:41,720 Speaker 3: keep the money now. And because everything was at that 341 00:17:41,800 --> 00:17:45,879 Speaker 3: point monopolized by Google, they could they could simply just 342 00:17:45,960 --> 00:17:49,320 Speaker 3: do that, and then we witnessed, you know it kind 343 00:17:49,320 --> 00:17:55,320 Speaker 3: of a parasitic takeover of of digital media organization revenue 344 00:17:55,600 --> 00:17:57,520 Speaker 3: years later, in the exact way that you've talked about, 345 00:17:57,560 --> 00:18:03,280 Speaker 3: where the platforms successfully persuaded individually all of these different 346 00:18:03,320 --> 00:18:05,960 Speaker 3: news organizations, some of them to quote unquote pivot to video, 347 00:18:06,080 --> 00:18:10,000 Speaker 3: which was its own criminal debacle, I believe. 348 00:18:09,800 --> 00:18:11,040 Speaker 1: Yeah, who wants to watch video? 349 00:18:11,840 --> 00:18:16,440 Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, Well, so the pivot to video, if people 350 00:18:16,480 --> 00:18:21,280 Speaker 3: don't remember this was this was driven by Facebook, which 351 00:18:22,320 --> 00:18:26,800 Speaker 3: spent enormous amounts of money giving it directly to news organizations, 352 00:18:28,080 --> 00:18:33,280 Speaker 3: basically funding their journalism to pivot to creating these online 353 00:18:33,520 --> 00:18:35,520 Speaker 3: these online videos that they would put on Facebook, and 354 00:18:35,560 --> 00:18:38,320 Speaker 3: then Facebook, we now know because a lot of the 355 00:18:38,359 --> 00:18:42,879 Speaker 3: records are now public, was completely lying about the views 356 00:18:42,880 --> 00:18:44,960 Speaker 3: that they were getting. I remember one of the first 357 00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:48,000 Speaker 3: ones I did over at Hugh Post. They said it 358 00:18:48,040 --> 00:18:51,200 Speaker 3: got like one hundred and fifty thousand live viewers. 359 00:18:51,480 --> 00:18:52,520 Speaker 4: Is this top Post Live? 360 00:18:53,320 --> 00:18:55,879 Speaker 3: No, this is this is pre huff Post It Actually, 361 00:18:55,880 --> 00:18:59,320 Speaker 3: I think it helped kill huff Post Live and that 362 00:18:59,440 --> 00:19:01,520 Speaker 3: what it did is that killed a lot of organic 363 00:19:02,920 --> 00:19:06,920 Speaker 3: ideas that journalists had, like yourself over at fox hof 364 00:19:06,960 --> 00:19:09,439 Speaker 3: Post Live, for instance, trying to build an actual, like 365 00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:14,480 Speaker 3: native live video audience and pushed it into this Facebook 366 00:19:14,560 --> 00:19:17,760 Speaker 3: video operation. And then Facebook got tired of that a 367 00:19:17,760 --> 00:19:20,760 Speaker 3: couple of years later. But by that point they had 368 00:19:21,040 --> 00:19:23,159 Speaker 3: gobbled up all of the revenue and the audience and 369 00:19:23,200 --> 00:19:27,240 Speaker 3: there was nothing left for digital news organizations. They raised, 370 00:19:27,280 --> 00:19:30,800 Speaker 3: they raised interest rates, the money drives up, and they 371 00:19:30,800 --> 00:19:33,680 Speaker 3: all and they all disappear, like it's that's more or 372 00:19:33,760 --> 00:19:37,639 Speaker 3: less like the collapse, the rise and the collapse, and 373 00:19:37,680 --> 00:19:41,480 Speaker 3: then the kind of platforms walk away with with uh 374 00:19:41,600 --> 00:19:45,959 Speaker 3: with with most of the audience. H what remains though? 375 00:19:46,040 --> 00:19:49,439 Speaker 3: The New York Times, like somehow out of that fire, 376 00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:52,840 Speaker 3: you know, emerges this phoenix that looked like it might 377 00:19:52,880 --> 00:19:55,320 Speaker 3: not make it at some point. And you know, look 378 00:19:55,320 --> 00:19:58,040 Speaker 3: at the Los Angeles Times, look at the Chicago Trimmune. 379 00:19:58,560 --> 00:20:00,720 Speaker 3: Yet the New York Times has been become almost a 380 00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:07,560 Speaker 3: platform onto itself. Do you think that's becoming increasingly interesting 381 00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:10,119 Speaker 3: way to think about the Times rather than as a 382 00:20:10,160 --> 00:20:12,560 Speaker 3: news organization that's interesting. 383 00:20:12,920 --> 00:20:14,920 Speaker 1: Is it a platform? I don't think it's a platform, 384 00:20:14,920 --> 00:20:18,040 Speaker 1: because I think a platform implies within it the ability 385 00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:19,879 Speaker 1: for others to build on it, I will say I 386 00:20:19,920 --> 00:20:23,280 Speaker 1: largely agree with your history there of the twenty tens. 387 00:20:23,640 --> 00:20:25,360 Speaker 1: The only thing I would say to it is that 388 00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:28,080 Speaker 1: I don't even think Facebook, at least in my experience, 389 00:20:28,080 --> 00:20:31,639 Speaker 1: Facebook put some money into help into encouraging people to 390 00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:34,840 Speaker 1: bring things to video, but for most media organizations, they 391 00:20:34,840 --> 00:20:37,280 Speaker 1: didn't give them that much money. They weren't that interested 392 00:20:37,480 --> 00:20:41,040 Speaker 1: in us. What they were doing is both inflating views 393 00:20:41,200 --> 00:20:45,320 Speaker 1: and just in Facebook and really everywhere, the promise of 394 00:20:45,359 --> 00:20:49,560 Speaker 1: that era was that you were building these huge audiences 395 00:20:49,600 --> 00:20:54,640 Speaker 1: on these platforms and that eventually they build the revenue 396 00:20:54,680 --> 00:20:56,760 Speaker 1: mechanisms so you can monetize that. Right, if you think 397 00:20:56,760 --> 00:20:59,239 Speaker 1: about what BuzzFeed was, what Vice was, what everything was, 398 00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:02,920 Speaker 1: well huff Post, right, everything was sort of designed now 399 00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:07,960 Speaker 1: on this theory that having used you know, have Facebook 400 00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:13,000 Speaker 1: and Twitter and whatever to reach more readers, viewers, whatever 401 00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:15,080 Speaker 1: it might have been, than we ever had before, we 402 00:21:15,080 --> 00:21:18,240 Speaker 1: would turn that into money. And at a certain point 403 00:21:18,359 --> 00:21:20,560 Speaker 1: in each one of these cases, a platform said came 404 00:21:20,600 --> 00:21:23,040 Speaker 1: in and said, I know what we've been telling you, 405 00:21:23,640 --> 00:21:26,240 Speaker 1: but actually we're going to turn that into money. And 406 00:21:27,560 --> 00:21:29,800 Speaker 1: that was the end of it. Right that ultimately those 407 00:21:29,840 --> 00:21:32,480 Speaker 1: business models couldn't work. And that speaks to what you 408 00:21:32,560 --> 00:21:35,600 Speaker 1: just said about The New York Times, because the Times 409 00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:40,040 Speaker 1: fairly early in this process, building off of its own 410 00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:43,399 Speaker 1: centrality in the media world, its own size, and the 411 00:21:43,440 --> 00:21:45,960 Speaker 1: quality of the offering, they made a decision that at 412 00:21:46,080 --> 00:21:48,960 Speaker 1: the time they made it was highly controversial in journalism, 413 00:21:49,359 --> 00:21:51,040 Speaker 1: which was they were going to try to get people 414 00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:53,040 Speaker 1: to pay for The New York Times, and they were 415 00:21:53,040 --> 00:21:55,120 Speaker 1: going to put articles behind a paywall, and they were 416 00:21:55,119 --> 00:21:58,520 Speaker 1: going to go virtually all in on the idea that 417 00:21:58,560 --> 00:22:02,440 Speaker 1: you could build a subscription busines business to media digitally, 418 00:22:02,960 --> 00:22:05,440 Speaker 1: even though all your competitors were free, right, even though 419 00:22:05,480 --> 00:22:09,399 Speaker 1: somebody could easily just substitute in the Washington Post, the 420 00:22:09,560 --> 00:22:13,760 Speaker 1: La Times, the Atlantic Right, choose your you know, choose 421 00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:16,200 Speaker 1: your media organization. The Times wasn't the only one. The 422 00:22:16,560 --> 00:22:19,560 Speaker 1: Journal and the Financial Times had been doing subscriptions, but 423 00:22:19,600 --> 00:22:22,720 Speaker 1: there was a view that these publications that were a 424 00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:25,159 Speaker 1: little bit more like trade publications for the financial press 425 00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:30,440 Speaker 1: could make subscriptions work, whereas something that was as easily 426 00:22:30,480 --> 00:22:34,080 Speaker 1: substitutable as news could not. And the absolute core of 427 00:22:34,080 --> 00:22:36,720 Speaker 1: the New York Times success was making the paywall work 428 00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:39,520 Speaker 1: and making subscriptions work, and then that informs a lot 429 00:22:39,560 --> 00:22:42,720 Speaker 1: of subsequent strategy, which is obviously, you know, not mostly 430 00:22:42,760 --> 00:22:44,280 Speaker 1: stuff that happened before I came here, and I have 431 00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:46,640 Speaker 1: no role in any of it even now. But when 432 00:22:46,640 --> 00:22:49,919 Speaker 1: you think of things like games and cooking, the Times 433 00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:53,520 Speaker 1: has this model which is in a way almost more 434 00:22:53,560 --> 00:22:54,520 Speaker 1: like the Netflix model. 435 00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:54,800 Speaker 4: Right. 436 00:22:54,920 --> 00:22:59,320 Speaker 1: If they can make the package worth paying for, then 437 00:22:59,320 --> 00:23:01,480 Speaker 1: the whole thing work. And so anything that makes a 438 00:23:01,520 --> 00:23:04,840 Speaker 1: package more incrementally valuable is very, very valuable to The 439 00:23:04,880 --> 00:23:06,919 Speaker 1: Times and to me it's one of the And now 440 00:23:06,920 --> 00:23:09,719 Speaker 1: they're putting podcast like mine behind a paywall. I mean, 441 00:23:09,880 --> 00:23:11,600 Speaker 1: the new episodes are free, but the older ones are 442 00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:15,800 Speaker 1: going into this paywalled archive because of you. Is the 443 00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:19,239 Speaker 1: only thing that is really reliable in funding journalism is 444 00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:22,560 Speaker 1: persuading the audience to pay for it at some level. 445 00:23:22,680 --> 00:23:26,040 Speaker 1: Anything else, be it advertising where the advertisers have a 446 00:23:26,080 --> 00:23:29,080 Speaker 1: lot of views understandably so on what they want to 447 00:23:29,080 --> 00:23:31,440 Speaker 1: advertise next to it's like, you don't want the brand 448 00:23:31,480 --> 00:23:35,480 Speaker 1: association between Lexis to be the devastation of Gaza, right. 449 00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:39,080 Speaker 1: So it's very hard to get really strong advertising for 450 00:23:39,320 --> 00:23:42,199 Speaker 1: a lot of hard and important news stories, and the 451 00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:46,280 Speaker 1: platforms are completely unreliable partners. So if you don't want 452 00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:47,919 Speaker 1: to be completely subject to the whims of one of 453 00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:51,360 Speaker 1: those two businesses or partnerships, you have to be able 454 00:23:51,359 --> 00:23:54,120 Speaker 1: to make convincing people to pay for the thing you're 455 00:23:54,119 --> 00:23:55,000 Speaker 1: making for them work. 456 00:23:56,640 --> 00:23:59,920 Speaker 4: So what's really interesting I think about all of that, 457 00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:03,040 Speaker 4: and I'm curious about your take on this. I think 458 00:24:03,119 --> 00:24:06,359 Speaker 4: what made your writing so compelling in the blog days 459 00:24:06,400 --> 00:24:11,320 Speaker 4: and still now was a sense that the neoliberal consensus, 460 00:24:11,320 --> 00:24:13,800 Speaker 4: if we can call it that, sort of taken on 461 00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:19,240 Speaker 4: more of a profound or popular meaning now, but at 462 00:24:19,280 --> 00:24:21,440 Speaker 4: the time in the Bush era, there was a sense 463 00:24:21,480 --> 00:24:25,280 Speaker 4: that it wasn't really working. People in the Bloggis Fair 464 00:24:25,359 --> 00:24:28,159 Speaker 4: were writing about privacy and data and aftermath of nine 465 00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:31,880 Speaker 4: to eleven and adventurism abroad and all of that, And 466 00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:35,439 Speaker 4: I kind of wonder you've written about family policy, or 467 00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:37,399 Speaker 4: you've talked about family policy, right, and I wanted to 468 00:24:37,400 --> 00:24:39,720 Speaker 4: ask you about that too. There's a sense on the 469 00:24:39,840 --> 00:24:42,760 Speaker 4: right that came after the Bush era, in fact, really 470 00:24:42,800 --> 00:24:46,399 Speaker 4: after the Obama era, that suddenly this neoliberal consensus that 471 00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:49,320 Speaker 4: they had defended so doggedly, whether it was the FBI 472 00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:54,640 Speaker 4: or the Patriot Act, really wasn't working, or anti welfare 473 00:24:54,680 --> 00:24:57,359 Speaker 4: policies really wasn't working. And there's some thinking in that 474 00:24:57,400 --> 00:25:00,800 Speaker 4: space now about how conservatives can use policy is to 475 00:25:01,200 --> 00:25:03,399 Speaker 4: shape a world that they see as more conservative on 476 00:25:03,920 --> 00:25:07,560 Speaker 4: family level, on community level. So I guess I wonder 477 00:25:07,760 --> 00:25:11,679 Speaker 4: if you think you were sort of the right is 478 00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:14,679 Speaker 4: kind of a Johnny come lately to what in some sense, 479 00:25:15,160 --> 00:25:18,560 Speaker 4: not exactly obviously in your policy prescriptions are wildly different 480 00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:21,880 Speaker 4: in some cases, but we're you sensing Do you think 481 00:25:21,880 --> 00:25:24,640 Speaker 4: you were ahead as someone who is center left, Were 482 00:25:24,640 --> 00:25:27,160 Speaker 4: you ahead of sensing something that the right is now 483 00:25:27,359 --> 00:25:28,240 Speaker 4: kind of catching up to. 484 00:25:31,119 --> 00:25:33,959 Speaker 1: I'd have to think about that. It's funny because I 485 00:25:34,920 --> 00:25:37,800 Speaker 1: my initial instinct is to say no. As much as 486 00:25:37,800 --> 00:25:42,760 Speaker 1: I'd like to sell you on on my own prescience, well, 487 00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:45,000 Speaker 1: I'm not sure I would totally buy that that version 488 00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:47,640 Speaker 1: of what made my writing useful over these over these years. 489 00:25:47,640 --> 00:25:52,120 Speaker 1: But let me not make this about me. I do 490 00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:56,720 Speaker 1: think that the right is dealing with its own set 491 00:25:56,760 --> 00:25:59,520 Speaker 1: of failures, and one of the things that I think 492 00:25:59,560 --> 00:26:02,239 Speaker 1: is interesting about where it has ended up is it 493 00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:06,320 Speaker 1: has a lot of trouble then distinguishing what it actually 494 00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:10,960 Speaker 1: wants to do about them. From banal prescriptions on the left. 495 00:26:11,119 --> 00:26:12,440 Speaker 1: And I think if you want to see this very 496 00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:16,520 Speaker 1: clearly among the ideological post liberals, you go listen to 497 00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:19,840 Speaker 1: the podcast episode I did with Patrick Deneen, you know, 498 00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:23,800 Speaker 1: eighteen months ago, a year ago, And in that episode, Daneen, 499 00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:27,560 Speaker 1: who is very close to Jade Vance and has become 500 00:26:27,600 --> 00:26:31,879 Speaker 1: one of these people who you know, talks about, you know, 501 00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:37,040 Speaker 1: the liberals who have been in charge, as if to 502 00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:39,320 Speaker 1: say they've betrayed the country and the people would be 503 00:26:39,320 --> 00:26:42,200 Speaker 1: too too gentle for how he frames it in my view. 504 00:26:42,520 --> 00:26:44,720 Speaker 1: But then you talk to him and it was very 505 00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:47,960 Speaker 1: hard to figure out where he really differed from Joe Biden, 506 00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:51,080 Speaker 1: And if you then read his subsequent book, it was 507 00:26:51,119 --> 00:26:52,600 Speaker 1: still very hard to figure it out. It's like you're 508 00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:55,280 Speaker 1: going to expand the House of Representatives to a thousand people, 509 00:26:55,320 --> 00:26:57,119 Speaker 1: You're going to do national service, like this is your 510 00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:01,080 Speaker 1: big set of ideas. These are again like they've been everywhere. 511 00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:03,720 Speaker 1: But I don't think it's because the center left or 512 00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:09,240 Speaker 1: the left since to these problems earlier. Necessarily, I don't 513 00:27:09,240 --> 00:27:11,320 Speaker 1: think the right has figured out if a lot of 514 00:27:11,320 --> 00:27:15,119 Speaker 1: the problems it is most concerned about are even amenable 515 00:27:15,160 --> 00:27:18,800 Speaker 1: to policy solutions in the first place, Right, if you're 516 00:27:18,880 --> 00:27:21,720 Speaker 1: worried about family breakdown, which people have been worried about 517 00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:24,720 Speaker 1: in different contexts for a very long time, right, I 518 00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:29,480 Speaker 1: think you can really understand JD. Vance's Hillbilly elegy as 519 00:27:29,560 --> 00:27:32,679 Speaker 1: an extension of what had been written about black communities 520 00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:34,959 Speaker 1: for a very long time and is bringing a lot 521 00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:36,920 Speaker 1: of that same research. Somebody described it to me the 522 00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:38,480 Speaker 1: other day as like the Mooin to Hand report for 523 00:27:38,520 --> 00:27:43,000 Speaker 1: white people. And this family breakdown is a very very 524 00:27:43,040 --> 00:27:45,280 Speaker 1: hard problem to solve. People have tried lots of different 525 00:27:45,320 --> 00:27:47,399 Speaker 1: things on the right and the left, and it's not 526 00:27:47,480 --> 00:27:50,440 Speaker 1: really worked. Fertility rates, which are a big question on 527 00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:52,520 Speaker 1: the right right now, there are a lot of countries 528 00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:55,480 Speaker 1: have been going through much more profound fertility collapse and 529 00:27:55,480 --> 00:27:58,000 Speaker 1: anything we're seeing in the United States. They have a 530 00:27:58,200 --> 00:28:01,879 Speaker 1: much more intense set of incentives to do something about it, 531 00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:04,040 Speaker 1: and nothing they have tried. If you're looking at places 532 00:28:04,119 --> 00:28:07,520 Speaker 1: like South Korea and Japan and Italy and others, none 533 00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:09,360 Speaker 1: of it has worked. And by the way, that's true 534 00:28:09,359 --> 00:28:11,919 Speaker 1: on the you know, more liberal solutions too. A lot 535 00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:13,560 Speaker 1: of times liberals will say, well, if you want to 536 00:28:13,560 --> 00:28:16,480 Speaker 1: do something about fertility rates, you need universal childcare and 537 00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:18,760 Speaker 1: this and that, but they're not higher in the Nordic 538 00:28:18,840 --> 00:28:21,800 Speaker 1: countries where you do see those kinds of wrap around 539 00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:24,199 Speaker 1: social policies. So I think there are a bunch of 540 00:28:24,320 --> 00:28:27,600 Speaker 1: things people on the right are worried about. Some of 541 00:28:27,640 --> 00:28:30,560 Speaker 1: them you could solve in more liberal ways, right, I mean, 542 00:28:30,600 --> 00:28:33,280 Speaker 1: you could get wages up using a number of the 543 00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:36,639 Speaker 1: just normal policies like the ear in income tax credit. 544 00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:38,800 Speaker 1: You know, in the child tax credit. You can get 545 00:28:38,840 --> 00:28:41,080 Speaker 1: effectively the amount of money people have to spend up 546 00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:43,320 Speaker 1: by using tax transfers. We know how to do that. 547 00:28:43,840 --> 00:28:46,959 Speaker 1: But in terms of some of the broader community dimensions, 548 00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:49,400 Speaker 1: family dimensions that I think truly sit at the core 549 00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:52,640 Speaker 1: of things people on the right are worried about, I 550 00:28:52,640 --> 00:28:55,200 Speaker 1: don't think they have. They've only, I think, begun to 551 00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:58,960 Speaker 1: recognize the scale of the problem. They definitely have not 552 00:28:59,240 --> 00:29:02,560 Speaker 1: thought up, or worked through or trialed out solutions that 553 00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:04,920 Speaker 1: fit the problem. And to a bunch of things we 554 00:29:04,960 --> 00:29:08,080 Speaker 1: talked about. When you're on my show, then you get 555 00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:11,920 Speaker 1: into the cultural dimensions of the rot the right or 556 00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:13,520 Speaker 1: the postable right, or whatever you want to call it. 557 00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:16,560 Speaker 1: The new right is seeing and on the other hand, 558 00:29:16,600 --> 00:29:21,320 Speaker 1: they've tied themselves to Donald Trump and barstool sports and 559 00:29:21,400 --> 00:29:25,800 Speaker 1: a bunch of aggressive accelerators of that cultural rot and 560 00:29:25,840 --> 00:29:30,160 Speaker 1: so the contradictions become even more profound within that movement. 561 00:29:30,520 --> 00:29:35,920 Speaker 1: So I think the ideological difficulty of what of what 562 00:29:35,960 --> 00:29:37,720 Speaker 1: the sort of new right is trying to grapple with 563 00:29:38,120 --> 00:29:40,840 Speaker 1: is at this point like frankly underappreciated. 564 00:29:41,440 --> 00:29:44,760 Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe that's a good question for Emily then is 565 00:29:45,040 --> 00:29:47,880 Speaker 3: I thought, tell me if you agree as with that. 566 00:29:48,600 --> 00:29:51,520 Speaker 3: Jade Vance's performance in the vice presidential debate, in a 567 00:29:51,560 --> 00:29:55,640 Speaker 3: lot of moments, was actually the most eloquent articulation of 568 00:29:55,760 --> 00:30:00,960 Speaker 3: Biden's economic policy and Biden's economic agenda that anybody had 569 00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:05,520 Speaker 3: put forward, except it would then be done with a 570 00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:08,920 Speaker 3: line also that Biden is destroying the country. It's like, okay, fine, 571 00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:11,480 Speaker 3: but everything you just said is something that they have 572 00:30:11,640 --> 00:30:14,760 Speaker 3: embraced and done and would like to and would like 573 00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:18,040 Speaker 3: to do, and to the point that it might not 574 00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:21,760 Speaker 3: be enough to do the cultural things that he's arguing 575 00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:25,280 Speaker 3: for Emily, is it like that goes back to the 576 00:30:25,320 --> 00:30:27,680 Speaker 3: question of how real is it? And is some of 577 00:30:27,720 --> 00:30:32,320 Speaker 3: this just cover for actually wanting to smuggle in the 578 00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:36,680 Speaker 3: cultural stuff under the guise of the kind of economic populism, 579 00:30:36,800 --> 00:30:40,280 Speaker 3: but understanding that you need both to make them more palatable, 580 00:30:40,320 --> 00:30:44,960 Speaker 3: like what like, how do you move forward as the 581 00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:45,400 Speaker 3: new right? 582 00:30:45,440 --> 00:30:48,800 Speaker 4: There I think, I think there's a cynical interpretation where 583 00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:50,800 Speaker 4: there are some people who are genuinely engaged in the 584 00:30:50,800 --> 00:30:53,040 Speaker 4: project of smuggling. I think there are other people I 585 00:30:53,040 --> 00:30:55,560 Speaker 4: would include myself, I would include JD and this who 586 00:30:55,640 --> 00:31:00,280 Speaker 4: see them as inextricably intertwined the sort of project of 587 00:31:00,320 --> 00:31:06,240 Speaker 4: economic populism and a more conservative culture. But what's really 588 00:31:06,280 --> 00:31:08,840 Speaker 4: interesting about that comparison. I'm very curious as we thinking 589 00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:13,600 Speaker 4: about this too, is it shows what's untenable I think 590 00:31:13,720 --> 00:31:16,880 Speaker 4: about ultimately the realignment between right and left, because you 591 00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:21,040 Speaker 4: could see the JD vance defense of the Biden policy 592 00:31:21,160 --> 00:31:25,160 Speaker 4: I think being true if Biden was explicitly doing it 593 00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:30,800 Speaker 4: to reduce single parent households, to improve marriage rates, to 594 00:31:30,880 --> 00:31:33,520 Speaker 4: make people more interested in getting married and less interested 595 00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:38,240 Speaker 4: in getting divorced, to you know, ultimately boost the cause 596 00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:42,320 Speaker 4: of let's say like community, civic society and all that. 597 00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:44,080 Speaker 4: And I guess Biden might say it was about civil 598 00:31:44,120 --> 00:31:48,440 Speaker 4: society as well, but marriage and children in particular. We 599 00:31:48,520 --> 00:31:51,959 Speaker 4: see the Harris campaign, you know, understandably latching onto JD's 600 00:31:52,040 --> 00:31:56,160 Speaker 4: childless cat lady quote. And I think that's the fundamental 601 00:31:56,160 --> 00:32:01,840 Speaker 4: difference between JD's his defense of economic populism and Biden's 602 00:32:01,840 --> 00:32:04,720 Speaker 4: defense of economic populism. And I actually think that that's 603 00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:07,840 Speaker 4: what makes it sort of untenable the realignment in the 604 00:32:07,880 --> 00:32:09,640 Speaker 4: long term. And I think it's a huge problem for 605 00:32:09,680 --> 00:32:11,400 Speaker 4: those of us on a new Right who want to 606 00:32:11,480 --> 00:32:14,640 Speaker 4: sell these policies to the public. It's just the public's 607 00:32:14,680 --> 00:32:16,600 Speaker 4: really not with us on some of those were those 608 00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:18,160 Speaker 4: questions of cultural conservatism. 609 00:32:19,080 --> 00:32:21,280 Speaker 1: Here's I think an interesting way of thinking about this. 610 00:32:21,640 --> 00:32:23,920 Speaker 1: I think it's worth thinking of Pete Boodhajedge and JD 611 00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:28,360 Speaker 1: Vance as having certain echoes of each other, which I 612 00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:30,240 Speaker 1: think both people, both of them would really hate. But 613 00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:32,480 Speaker 1: it's one reason they hate each other so much. But 614 00:32:32,560 --> 00:32:35,520 Speaker 1: if you look at and go listen to the podcast 615 00:32:35,520 --> 00:32:38,120 Speaker 1: episodes that Pete Bootajedge did while Pete boota judge was 616 00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:41,040 Speaker 1: rising up in politics over the past you know, five 617 00:32:41,120 --> 00:32:44,320 Speaker 1: or six years, you go listen to the things he 618 00:32:44,400 --> 00:32:46,960 Speaker 1: did with people like me and on you know liberal 619 00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:50,200 Speaker 1: shows that where the audience is a liberal and he 620 00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:52,040 Speaker 1: was not quite as well known as he is today. 621 00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:55,240 Speaker 1: And he sounds the way he does when he just 622 00:32:55,280 --> 00:32:57,680 Speaker 1: did my show a month ago. Right, he sounds the 623 00:32:57,680 --> 00:32:59,400 Speaker 1: way he does when he goes on Fox News more 624 00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:03,280 Speaker 1: or less. Right, he sounds the same. The thing that liberals, 625 00:33:03,920 --> 00:33:07,960 Speaker 1: even to somebody the left, are saying internally is the 626 00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:10,440 Speaker 1: same as what they are saying externally. They believe that 627 00:33:10,480 --> 00:33:12,400 Speaker 1: what they are saying to each other is actually a 628 00:33:12,440 --> 00:33:15,800 Speaker 1: thing they can say to the public. You look at 629 00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:18,000 Speaker 1: the problem Jady Vance has had and then what he 630 00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:21,920 Speaker 1: did in that debate, And the reason Jady Vance was 631 00:33:21,920 --> 00:33:23,360 Speaker 1: so good in that debate is he didn't sound like 632 00:33:23,440 --> 00:33:26,640 Speaker 1: Jady Vance at all. He did an amazing job not 633 00:33:26,760 --> 00:33:29,240 Speaker 1: sounding like Jadvance and also not sounding like Donald Trump. 634 00:33:29,840 --> 00:33:32,280 Speaker 1: So what he did was you go watch him in 635 00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:36,640 Speaker 1: all these podcast interviews and speeches and nat Con conferences 636 00:33:36,640 --> 00:33:38,600 Speaker 1: and whatever that he was doing on his rise up, 637 00:33:38,960 --> 00:33:40,800 Speaker 1: and he sounds like one guy, and then when he 638 00:33:40,840 --> 00:33:42,920 Speaker 1: needs to try to win over the general public, he 639 00:33:42,960 --> 00:33:46,000 Speaker 1: sounds totally different. Now, there's always obviously a certain amount 640 00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:48,320 Speaker 1: of running to the center that happens in political campaigns. 641 00:33:48,320 --> 00:33:50,960 Speaker 1: You can certainly see it with Kamala Harris but there 642 00:33:51,040 --> 00:33:55,680 Speaker 1: is something deeper here happening that is of particular difficulty, 643 00:33:55,720 --> 00:33:58,360 Speaker 1: I think for the right, where part of what the 644 00:33:58,440 --> 00:34:01,400 Speaker 1: right I think has persuaded itself of is it modern 645 00:34:01,440 --> 00:34:07,400 Speaker 1: American culture is decadent and perverse. And part of maybe 646 00:34:07,440 --> 00:34:09,439 Speaker 1: what you need to do about that has to do 647 00:34:09,719 --> 00:34:12,839 Speaker 1: with calling it decadent and perverse. And so in their 648 00:34:12,880 --> 00:34:16,399 Speaker 1: own fora we'll call it decadent and perverse and talk 649 00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:18,760 Speaker 1: about the miserable, childless cat ladies and all the terrible 650 00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:20,880 Speaker 1: choices are making in their own lives. And then they 651 00:34:20,880 --> 00:34:24,440 Speaker 1: have to win over an actual voter. They shut the 652 00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:26,959 Speaker 1: hell up about that and run from it as fast 653 00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:30,040 Speaker 1: as they possibly can. And the problem Vance has had 654 00:34:30,360 --> 00:34:32,160 Speaker 1: is that it's not that easy for him to run 655 00:34:32,200 --> 00:34:34,080 Speaker 1: for it. But this is where you see a real, 656 00:34:34,400 --> 00:34:37,320 Speaker 1: a real political problem. When the things you are actually 657 00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:40,000 Speaker 1: saying and the things you then need to say in 658 00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:44,399 Speaker 1: public develop that level of divergence from each other, then 659 00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:47,680 Speaker 1: you have an unresolved problem within not just your political 660 00:34:47,680 --> 00:34:50,400 Speaker 1: coalition but your political thinking, because you're not going to 661 00:34:50,400 --> 00:34:52,359 Speaker 1: be able to do it if you can't even really 662 00:34:52,400 --> 00:34:55,760 Speaker 1: talk about it. 663 00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:58,480 Speaker 3: Is that something that people are grappling with on the right. 664 00:34:58,520 --> 00:35:01,720 Speaker 3: And I'm curious how much of the the different presentations, 665 00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:04,759 Speaker 3: let's say, is on a right wing podcast versus and 666 00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:07,759 Speaker 3: the vice presidential debate, how much of those different presentations 667 00:35:07,840 --> 00:35:11,560 Speaker 3: reflect fundamentally different politics, and how much of it reflects 668 00:35:12,880 --> 00:35:15,279 Speaker 3: what he would argue is the same politics and the 669 00:35:15,320 --> 00:35:21,360 Speaker 3: same policies but kind of dressed up differently messaging purposes 670 00:35:21,360 --> 00:35:22,360 Speaker 3: for different audiences. 671 00:35:23,440 --> 00:35:26,400 Speaker 4: Well, I think for JD it's definitely different messaging purposes 672 00:35:26,440 --> 00:35:31,680 Speaker 4: for different audiences, and it's like exactly correct about him. 673 00:35:32,239 --> 00:35:33,920 Speaker 4: I think for some people, I mean, I actually get this. 674 00:35:33,960 --> 00:35:37,480 Speaker 4: Sometimes it's like you you it's it's in good faith 675 00:35:37,640 --> 00:35:40,960 Speaker 4: because you know that there's such a massive gulf between 676 00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:43,840 Speaker 4: where you are in terms of like your faith and 677 00:35:43,880 --> 00:35:46,400 Speaker 4: where you are where you're whoever you're talking to, whatever 678 00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:48,880 Speaker 4: audience you're talking to, is you know, if you're talking 679 00:35:48,880 --> 00:35:53,560 Speaker 4: to an audience, for example, that has people who who 680 00:35:53,600 --> 00:35:56,160 Speaker 4: could have you know, trans family members, which is basically 681 00:35:56,200 --> 00:35:58,560 Speaker 4: any audience right now, like you you can't talk to 682 00:35:58,600 --> 00:35:59,799 Speaker 4: them like you would be talking to them. The right 683 00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:03,239 Speaker 4: wing podcasts would be like just be rude more than 684 00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:06,680 Speaker 4: you know, being unappealing, It would just be rude and uncharitable. 685 00:36:06,760 --> 00:36:08,920 Speaker 4: So I think there's there's some of that that happens 686 00:36:08,960 --> 00:36:11,480 Speaker 4: when media is siloed in the technological ways that we 687 00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:15,160 Speaker 4: were talking about, and some of these these social gaps 688 00:36:15,239 --> 00:36:20,000 Speaker 4: are so significant. But I think, you know, for politicians 689 00:36:20,080 --> 00:36:24,759 Speaker 4: like JD. Vance, watching him is fascinating because there's some 690 00:36:24,800 --> 00:36:27,240 Speaker 4: of the stuff that conservatives really thought in the aftermath 691 00:36:27,280 --> 00:36:29,600 Speaker 4: of twenty twenty when there was some you know what 692 00:36:29,640 --> 00:36:31,799 Speaker 4: people have called quote unquote woe flash, when there were 693 00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:34,120 Speaker 4: some of that, conservatives thought, this is it, this is 694 00:36:34,160 --> 00:36:36,360 Speaker 4: our ticket. We have found the way to sell and 695 00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:39,000 Speaker 4: Jdvans very much ran on this platform. We have found 696 00:36:39,040 --> 00:36:41,759 Speaker 4: a way to sell this new right agenda of economic 697 00:36:41,800 --> 00:36:45,120 Speaker 4: populism and cultural conservatism. The public is ready for it, 698 00:36:45,360 --> 00:36:47,880 Speaker 4: and that quickly they became it quickly became clear that 699 00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:50,719 Speaker 4: that was not true. And so some of it right 700 00:36:50,760 --> 00:36:52,840 Speaker 4: now I think absolutely isn't bad faith. It is you know, 701 00:36:53,000 --> 00:36:58,680 Speaker 4: just talking to different audiences with messages that are in 702 00:36:58,719 --> 00:37:01,839 Speaker 4: some ways deceptive, right deceptive, And it's a I think 703 00:37:01,840 --> 00:37:02,799 Speaker 4: it's a really interesting point. 704 00:37:04,040 --> 00:37:06,200 Speaker 3: And as we're actually I'm curious for your take on 705 00:37:06,239 --> 00:37:08,640 Speaker 3: the on the from the inside of the New York 706 00:37:08,640 --> 00:37:10,600 Speaker 3: Times and the on the woe the woe clash, as 707 00:37:11,280 --> 00:37:13,400 Speaker 3: Emily called it. I hadn't actually heard that phrase before, 708 00:37:13,440 --> 00:37:15,200 Speaker 3: but I but I love it with but we we 709 00:37:15,200 --> 00:37:17,600 Speaker 3: we can all, we can all feel it happening. That 710 00:37:17,719 --> 00:37:23,160 Speaker 3: it felt like the center left kind of overstepped when 711 00:37:23,160 --> 00:37:27,080 Speaker 3: it came to identity politics and has is now very 712 00:37:27,160 --> 00:37:31,480 Speaker 3: quietly stepping back, but not doing so overtly, Like there's 713 00:37:31,520 --> 00:37:35,560 Speaker 3: nobody is out there necessarily kind of renouncing any of 714 00:37:35,640 --> 00:37:38,560 Speaker 3: the bumper stickers or yard signs that they have, but 715 00:37:38,600 --> 00:37:42,520 Speaker 3: they're just not putting up fresh ones. I'm curious if 716 00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:48,239 Speaker 3: you're if you're seeing that unfold inside the inside the 717 00:37:48,239 --> 00:37:50,840 Speaker 3: the ecosystems where you kind of operate. 718 00:37:52,200 --> 00:37:54,440 Speaker 1: I say nothing about the inside of the New York Times, 719 00:37:54,480 --> 00:37:56,840 Speaker 1: and nothing I say here will be about the inside 720 00:37:56,840 --> 00:37:58,879 Speaker 1: of the New York Times. I will say I think 721 00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:04,279 Speaker 1: you can look around the media politics generally, and yeah, 722 00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:06,800 Speaker 1: see a huge change. I think there are a couple 723 00:38:07,360 --> 00:38:10,480 Speaker 1: dimensions to this. One is that there is a difference 724 00:38:10,520 --> 00:38:12,319 Speaker 1: between what people came to believe and how they came 725 00:38:12,360 --> 00:38:14,440 Speaker 1: to act, or at least how they came to be 726 00:38:14,480 --> 00:38:17,239 Speaker 1: pushed on those beliefs. And the core thing here in 727 00:38:17,239 --> 00:38:22,720 Speaker 1: My view was actually technological. You had this two new 728 00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:25,680 Speaker 1: things hit the media in a fairly compressed period of time, 729 00:38:25,800 --> 00:38:31,040 Speaker 1: and also many other corporate environments or institutional environments too. Obviously, Ryan, 730 00:38:31,080 --> 00:38:33,000 Speaker 1: you were at a huge and very very influential piece 731 00:38:33,040 --> 00:38:35,960 Speaker 1: on progressive movement politics about this. But I would call 732 00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:39,840 Speaker 1: it Slack and Twitter. And what Slack did was created 733 00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:46,040 Speaker 1: internal capacity for workers to talk and to organize, right, 734 00:38:46,080 --> 00:38:48,680 Speaker 1: not organized necessarily the labor union term of the sense, 735 00:38:48,719 --> 00:38:53,319 Speaker 1: but organized in a more informal term, and managers can't right. 736 00:38:53,520 --> 00:38:57,719 Speaker 1: The way the Slack works and institutions was, at least 737 00:38:57,719 --> 00:39:00,440 Speaker 1: in that period was there was a lot of you know, 738 00:39:00,560 --> 00:39:03,200 Speaker 1: emojis coming in under things people said. But but the 739 00:39:03,239 --> 00:39:05,640 Speaker 1: managers are much more you know, checking what they say 740 00:39:05,640 --> 00:39:07,959 Speaker 1: by HR and the lawyers and so on. So first 741 00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:10,640 Speaker 1: you had this sort of communication gulf changing. 742 00:39:10,719 --> 00:39:10,839 Speaker 2: Right. 743 00:39:10,840 --> 00:39:12,480 Speaker 1: It used to be that it is fairly easy for 744 00:39:12,880 --> 00:39:15,120 Speaker 1: the boss to kind of call everybody into the room 745 00:39:15,239 --> 00:39:17,880 Speaker 1: and make some speech, and it's actually harder for the 746 00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:23,000 Speaker 1: sense of the employees to be to be passed back up. 747 00:39:23,239 --> 00:39:25,400 Speaker 1: Slack made that very easy, and then Twitter made it 748 00:39:25,440 --> 00:39:28,799 Speaker 1: easy for that to spill out, particularly in high visibility 749 00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:31,719 Speaker 1: industries into public and so the thing that a lot 750 00:39:31,719 --> 00:39:34,839 Speaker 1: of these institutions had no immunity to was what did 751 00:39:34,880 --> 00:39:37,920 Speaker 1: you do when these sort of internal slack fights became 752 00:39:38,040 --> 00:39:42,960 Speaker 1: external public relations problems or perceived public relations problems on Twitter, 753 00:39:43,520 --> 00:39:45,120 Speaker 1: and a lot of them just were folding kind of 754 00:39:45,160 --> 00:39:47,799 Speaker 1: left and right. They you know, were firing people, They 755 00:39:47,840 --> 00:39:50,360 Speaker 1: were acting in ways that were afraid. They were putting 756 00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:53,160 Speaker 1: out statements they didn't necessarily believe. Now that doesn't mean 757 00:39:53,200 --> 00:39:55,600 Speaker 1: they didn't believe the under a set of the underlying 758 00:39:55,680 --> 00:39:59,759 Speaker 1: things about there being huge levels of systemic racism in society. 759 00:40:00,280 --> 00:40:02,160 Speaker 1: You know that there were all kinds of problems and 760 00:40:02,200 --> 00:40:05,760 Speaker 1: inequities that should be addressed. And I do think part 761 00:40:05,960 --> 00:40:09,320 Speaker 1: of the step back has been a step back from 762 00:40:09,680 --> 00:40:14,920 Speaker 1: some of the ways that institutions without any immune system 763 00:40:14,960 --> 00:40:17,879 Speaker 1: to this sort of new era kind of would overreact 764 00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:20,320 Speaker 1: to I think, in my view, fairly modest levels of 765 00:40:20,360 --> 00:40:23,359 Speaker 1: public criticism. But that does not mean I think there's 766 00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:26,400 Speaker 1: been a step back from believing a lot of the 767 00:40:26,440 --> 00:40:29,320 Speaker 1: things that were not believed about society in say, twenty 768 00:40:29,400 --> 00:40:32,919 Speaker 1: and thirteen, in twenty fourteen, so, for instance, I think 769 00:40:32,960 --> 00:40:38,040 Speaker 1: the view that there is systemic racism in policing is 770 00:40:38,080 --> 00:40:40,840 Speaker 1: widely held, but the view that you defund the police 771 00:40:40,960 --> 00:40:44,200 Speaker 1: is not now widely held. But I think ten years ago, 772 00:40:44,360 --> 00:40:46,319 Speaker 1: neither view was all that widely held, or at least 773 00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:49,000 Speaker 1: not talked about that often in public. And I think 774 00:40:49,040 --> 00:40:50,680 Speaker 1: you could find a lot of different things like this 775 00:40:50,840 --> 00:40:55,759 Speaker 1: where the idiological priors have been absorbed into or the 776 00:40:55,760 --> 00:40:59,160 Speaker 1: ideological arguments up to a point, have been absorbed into 777 00:40:59,200 --> 00:41:01,920 Speaker 1: the system. They are now kind of common sense when 778 00:41:01,920 --> 00:41:04,879 Speaker 1: they weren't at another time. I think organizations think about 779 00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:07,839 Speaker 1: representation very differently than they did when I got into 780 00:41:07,880 --> 00:41:11,000 Speaker 1: the media in two thousand and five, for instance. But 781 00:41:11,120 --> 00:41:15,759 Speaker 1: the sense that your employees are going to, you know, 782 00:41:15,800 --> 00:41:19,239 Speaker 1: in a progressive nonprofit or a media organization or even 783 00:41:19,280 --> 00:41:22,000 Speaker 1: a corporation like Nike, your employees are going to put 784 00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:25,840 Speaker 1: a bunch of like slack faces under something somebody said 785 00:41:26,320 --> 00:41:28,439 Speaker 1: and then you know, go public on Twitter, and that's 786 00:41:28,480 --> 00:41:31,800 Speaker 1: going to be treated as a problem for the organization 787 00:41:31,840 --> 00:41:33,640 Speaker 1: to deal with, as a problem for the employee to 788 00:41:33,680 --> 00:41:35,319 Speaker 1: now have to deal with their bosses. I think that 789 00:41:35,440 --> 00:41:38,640 Speaker 1: has changed, so my views, administrators and managers have a 790 00:41:38,680 --> 00:41:41,560 Speaker 1: very different approach to dealing with these things, and some 791 00:41:41,719 --> 00:41:44,520 Speaker 1: of the sort of inability to say, well, hey, wait, 792 00:41:44,600 --> 00:41:47,480 Speaker 1: is that actually a good idea has gone away. But 793 00:41:47,520 --> 00:41:49,520 Speaker 1: it's not like we've gone all the way back to 794 00:41:50,040 --> 00:41:52,560 Speaker 1: how people understood the situation to be in twenty ten. 795 00:41:52,640 --> 00:41:55,680 Speaker 1: I think there's a very very different sense of what 796 00:41:55,800 --> 00:41:58,480 Speaker 1: is required of and should be thought about in a 797 00:41:58,520 --> 00:42:01,440 Speaker 1: lot of both key decisions and and in society at large. 798 00:42:02,400 --> 00:42:04,880 Speaker 3: Yeah, and Emily, I think the left had gone a 799 00:42:04,880 --> 00:42:08,080 Speaker 3: little so bananas for a while that the right felt 800 00:42:08,239 --> 00:42:13,640 Speaker 3: like it had a really easy target, and I feel 801 00:42:13,640 --> 00:42:15,960 Speaker 3: like that target has been taken away. I'm curious from 802 00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:19,880 Speaker 3: the right, like if, as you grapple with the left 803 00:42:19,920 --> 00:42:22,600 Speaker 3: and go out and target this like the wocism and 804 00:42:22,640 --> 00:42:25,399 Speaker 3: all that stuff, if it feels harder for the right 805 00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:27,920 Speaker 3: to hit it now, Like if it feels like and 806 00:42:28,360 --> 00:42:30,960 Speaker 3: almost I could imagine from the right's perspective in almost 807 00:42:30,960 --> 00:42:33,440 Speaker 3: an unfair way, because it's like, wait a minute, we 808 00:42:33,560 --> 00:42:35,279 Speaker 3: never talked about it on the rise up there was 809 00:42:35,480 --> 00:42:37,359 Speaker 3: that everybody kept saying there is no such thing as 810 00:42:37,400 --> 00:42:41,960 Speaker 3: cancel culture. Obviously there was, but that makes it harder 811 00:42:41,960 --> 00:42:44,239 Speaker 3: for then people to talk about its recession at the 812 00:42:44,280 --> 00:42:46,680 Speaker 3: same time because something that was never here, can't go away. 813 00:42:47,000 --> 00:42:51,520 Speaker 3: It was like you're fighting these ghosts, but now they 814 00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:53,920 Speaker 3: might be actual ghosts. So I'm curious from your perspective 815 00:42:55,680 --> 00:43:00,200 Speaker 3: if it feels like a tougher target to hit now. 816 00:43:00,760 --> 00:43:03,839 Speaker 4: I think there's something to that because one of the 817 00:43:04,440 --> 00:43:06,560 Speaker 4: one of the trends that I've observed going back to 818 00:43:06,600 --> 00:43:10,480 Speaker 4: the beginning of this conversation is I think some of 819 00:43:10,520 --> 00:43:13,040 Speaker 4: mainstream media responding to the market pressures that when you 820 00:43:13,040 --> 00:43:15,600 Speaker 4: see people doing really well on a platform like substack. 821 00:43:15,640 --> 00:43:17,239 Speaker 4: If you're the New York Times and you see Barry 822 00:43:17,280 --> 00:43:19,560 Speaker 4: weis doing really well on a platform like substack, I 823 00:43:19,560 --> 00:43:23,279 Speaker 4: think you realize that the the people who are complaining 824 00:43:23,840 --> 00:43:30,400 Speaker 4: about coverage that undercut the consensus position on like puberty blockers, 825 00:43:30,400 --> 00:43:34,520 Speaker 4: for just to take one example, is acceptable, and that 826 00:43:34,560 --> 00:43:36,960 Speaker 4: there you know that there are more people who are 827 00:43:37,040 --> 00:43:41,600 Speaker 4: open to having a reasonable discussion than the sample of 828 00:43:41,680 --> 00:43:45,840 Speaker 4: people in the publications slack or you know, the slack 829 00:43:45,880 --> 00:43:48,480 Speaker 4: at the Washington Post or the LA Times or the 830 00:43:48,480 --> 00:43:52,880 Speaker 4: Associated Press that the country more broadly is is comfortable 831 00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:55,759 Speaker 4: with having a conversation that everyone in your newsroom might 832 00:43:55,800 --> 00:43:59,040 Speaker 4: not be. So whether some of these elite opinions be 833 00:43:59,080 --> 00:44:03,799 Speaker 4: they at Disney or somewhere else, is ultimately representative of 834 00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:11,239 Speaker 4: a larger trend and young people. It was probably the 835 00:44:12,320 --> 00:44:16,280 Speaker 4: was overestimating the public support for some of those really 836 00:44:16,400 --> 00:44:20,279 Speaker 4: radical or harder left positions. And I think also just 837 00:44:20,880 --> 00:44:24,960 Speaker 4: really quick final point would be that media in general 838 00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:26,600 Speaker 4: makes it hard for the right to come to a 839 00:44:26,640 --> 00:44:28,880 Speaker 4: policy position, like to actually have a firm position on 840 00:44:28,920 --> 00:44:30,880 Speaker 4: a lot of policies, because so much of our energy 841 00:44:31,160 --> 00:44:34,560 Speaker 4: is understandably tied up in picking apart media coverage and 842 00:44:34,840 --> 00:44:37,960 Speaker 4: finding bias and arguing against bias, that we all sort 843 00:44:37,960 --> 00:44:39,520 Speaker 4: of end up looking around and saying, okay, but what 844 00:44:39,560 --> 00:44:41,960 Speaker 4: do we actually what do we actually think about this? 845 00:44:42,040 --> 00:44:45,680 Speaker 4: What should we actually do about this? And oftentimes you 846 00:44:45,760 --> 00:44:47,760 Speaker 4: just never get to that point because the first step 847 00:44:47,840 --> 00:44:50,000 Speaker 4: is like going through the bad coverage. 848 00:44:50,600 --> 00:44:52,400 Speaker 1: I think two things about this one. I think it 849 00:44:52,400 --> 00:44:54,880 Speaker 1: would be really really healthy for the right if it 850 00:44:54,880 --> 00:44:57,600 Speaker 1: didn't tell itself that if the right would spend more 851 00:44:57,640 --> 00:45:00,759 Speaker 1: time creating good media organizations to do good reporting at 852 00:45:00,760 --> 00:45:04,160 Speaker 1: a high level of factual accuracy instead of complaining so 853 00:45:04,200 --> 00:45:06,400 Speaker 1: much about the media, it'd be so much healthier. I 854 00:45:06,440 --> 00:45:09,319 Speaker 1: remember when Tucker Carlson came out and said he was 855 00:45:09,400 --> 00:45:12,680 Speaker 1: building the Daily Caller right and it was going to 856 00:45:12,680 --> 00:45:15,279 Speaker 1: be the conservative New York Times, and good lord, but 857 00:45:15,360 --> 00:45:19,120 Speaker 1: that became right. There's like a real level of empirical 858 00:45:19,320 --> 00:45:22,600 Speaker 1: and epistemic standards that the right does not hold itself to, 859 00:45:22,680 --> 00:45:24,960 Speaker 1: which is not a thing the left does to it, 860 00:45:25,000 --> 00:45:29,879 Speaker 1: but is an actual problem on its own side. And that, 861 00:45:30,000 --> 00:45:31,200 Speaker 1: in my view, is what makes it hard for the 862 00:45:31,280 --> 00:45:33,760 Speaker 1: right to come to strong policy positions, because it doesn't 863 00:45:33,760 --> 00:45:38,640 Speaker 1: have strong internal internal standards for its own debates. And 864 00:45:38,880 --> 00:45:42,000 Speaker 1: one way of thinking about this, to connect it to 865 00:45:42,080 --> 00:45:44,359 Speaker 1: what we were just talking about, is there all kinds 866 00:45:44,400 --> 00:45:48,440 Speaker 1: of things that you know we're coming were ideological waves 867 00:45:48,480 --> 00:45:51,240 Speaker 1: happening on the left and the Democratic Party in twenty twenty. 868 00:45:51,600 --> 00:45:54,960 Speaker 1: The Democratic Party and the sort of broader left, central left, 869 00:45:55,000 --> 00:45:58,120 Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it, liberal coalition has metabolized. 870 00:45:58,160 --> 00:46:00,239 Speaker 1: It's kind of said, Okay, we're taking this part, even 871 00:46:00,239 --> 00:46:03,879 Speaker 1: this part behind. That's not true for the right from 872 00:46:03,880 --> 00:46:06,600 Speaker 1: what it was dealing within twenty twenty. Jd Vance will 873 00:46:06,600 --> 00:46:10,200 Speaker 1: not currently say that Donald trumb lost a twenty twenty election. 874 00:46:10,840 --> 00:46:14,200 Speaker 1: Mike Pence was not at this year's Republican National Convention, 875 00:46:14,719 --> 00:46:17,160 Speaker 1: and so one actual asymmetry to me between the parties 876 00:46:17,200 --> 00:46:19,560 Speaker 1: when you think back to their condition in twenty twenty 877 00:46:20,040 --> 00:46:22,040 Speaker 1: was both parties were having a very very hard year 878 00:46:22,080 --> 00:46:23,799 Speaker 1: for a bunch of different reasons. I also think the 879 00:46:23,840 --> 00:46:26,239 Speaker 1: pandemic year is very hard on both parties. Right, There's 880 00:46:26,280 --> 00:46:28,680 Speaker 1: a lot going on in American society that had had 881 00:46:28,719 --> 00:46:33,040 Speaker 1: pushed kind of everybody into a very strange place. But 882 00:46:33,080 --> 00:46:35,800 Speaker 1: I think the institutions on the left are just frankly 883 00:46:35,840 --> 00:46:39,759 Speaker 1: healthier and more able to engage in slightly reasoned and 884 00:46:40,120 --> 00:46:43,759 Speaker 1: managed criticism and periods of renewal, and at least under 885 00:46:43,800 --> 00:46:45,800 Speaker 1: Donald Trump on the right, that's not been as true. 886 00:46:45,880 --> 00:46:48,480 Speaker 1: And frankly the institutions on the right that have been 887 00:46:48,480 --> 00:46:51,080 Speaker 1: trying to build some kind of structure for this. I 888 00:46:51,080 --> 00:46:54,600 Speaker 1: think Heritage Foundation and Project twenty twenty five really saw 889 00:46:54,640 --> 00:46:56,719 Speaker 1: itself as one of these groups, right, they were going 890 00:46:56,760 --> 00:46:58,480 Speaker 1: to take this kind of mess of things from twenty 891 00:46:58,520 --> 00:47:01,000 Speaker 1: twenty and turn it into some thing, and it's become 892 00:47:01,040 --> 00:47:04,080 Speaker 1: like a huge catastrophe over there. But I do think 893 00:47:04,080 --> 00:47:07,160 Speaker 1: Trump himself creates a lot of difficulty and the media 894 00:47:07,239 --> 00:47:10,680 Speaker 1: dynamics themselves, right, I mean the Fox News and Dominion 895 00:47:11,560 --> 00:47:14,640 Speaker 1: like settlements really tell you something. And now Tucker Carlson 896 00:47:14,760 --> 00:47:18,280 Speaker 1: is over on X you know, with Elon Musk, where 897 00:47:18,560 --> 00:47:20,399 Speaker 1: you know, he's still a very influential figure on the right, 898 00:47:20,440 --> 00:47:24,560 Speaker 1: but has even less institutional strictures on what he can 899 00:47:24,600 --> 00:47:27,600 Speaker 1: say or what level you know, those statements are going 900 00:47:27,640 --> 00:47:30,160 Speaker 1: to be held to. And so I do think institutional 901 00:47:30,200 --> 00:47:33,520 Speaker 1: health is a very big part of this, and just 902 00:47:33,560 --> 00:47:35,919 Speaker 1: a problem the right is facing is that it has 903 00:47:36,040 --> 00:47:39,239 Speaker 1: not learned a lot from twenty twenty right. I think 904 00:47:39,239 --> 00:47:40,600 Speaker 1: the left actually has. 905 00:47:40,880 --> 00:47:42,640 Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm curious for your take on that, because there 906 00:47:42,680 --> 00:47:45,000 Speaker 3: was this I don't know if you know this speech 907 00:47:45,040 --> 00:47:48,600 Speaker 3: that Tucker Carlson gave several years after he started the 908 00:47:48,680 --> 00:47:51,400 Speaker 3: Daily Caller, as you might remember this too, where he 909 00:47:51,440 --> 00:47:54,759 Speaker 3: basically said I was wrong. Like the right doesn't want this, 910 00:47:55,320 --> 00:47:58,440 Speaker 3: Like the right does not want a rigorous conservative New 911 00:47:58,520 --> 00:48:02,919 Speaker 3: York Times. The right ones a warrior, you know, for 912 00:48:03,000 --> 00:48:05,400 Speaker 3: the right, like and that's what it And it sees 913 00:48:05,680 --> 00:48:08,719 Speaker 3: right wing journalism as a weapon to be wielded on 914 00:48:08,840 --> 00:48:13,040 Speaker 3: behalf of the movement rather than on the left. It's 915 00:48:13,480 --> 00:48:15,280 Speaker 3: it's kind of it's like a check on the movement. 916 00:48:15,360 --> 00:48:18,600 Speaker 3: It's like and the journalism is first and the and 917 00:48:18,680 --> 00:48:22,560 Speaker 3: the kind of ideology is a second that does seem 918 00:48:22,560 --> 00:48:25,440 Speaker 3: to be an asymmetry. Not to speak ill of your colleagues, 919 00:48:25,440 --> 00:48:28,440 Speaker 3: as we're talking institutionally, not not colleagues, not none of 920 00:48:28,480 --> 00:48:30,799 Speaker 3: your particular colleagues at different institutions. But I'm curious if 921 00:48:30,840 --> 00:48:34,520 Speaker 3: that's been your uh if if that's been your experience 922 00:48:34,560 --> 00:48:36,919 Speaker 3: on the in in the right, in the right wing 923 00:48:36,960 --> 00:48:39,799 Speaker 3: media ecosystem, you know. 924 00:48:40,200 --> 00:48:42,360 Speaker 4: I think part of it, so I'll say, actually, I 925 00:48:42,360 --> 00:48:44,080 Speaker 4: think part of it is that Fox News is the 926 00:48:44,120 --> 00:48:48,040 Speaker 4: elephant in the room because everyone is sort of like 927 00:48:48,120 --> 00:48:51,360 Speaker 4: comparing themselves or the Fox just has so much power 928 00:48:51,800 --> 00:48:53,520 Speaker 4: and it's waned a little bit, but has so much 929 00:48:53,560 --> 00:48:58,480 Speaker 4: power over the consumer. So it's hard to you it's 930 00:48:58,560 --> 00:49:02,560 Speaker 4: it's it's hard to kind of build conservative media. 931 00:49:03,360 --> 00:49:06,680 Speaker 3: From especially when Tucker launch Daily Caller that Fox was 932 00:49:06,680 --> 00:49:07,440 Speaker 3: like hegemonic. 933 00:49:07,719 --> 00:49:11,319 Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, oh my gosh. Absolutely, And so that really 934 00:49:11,360 --> 00:49:13,719 Speaker 4: set the tone for a lot of people in conservative media. 935 00:49:13,760 --> 00:49:15,840 Speaker 4: I mean, obviously there are a ton of conservative journalists, 936 00:49:15,920 --> 00:49:17,960 Speaker 4: and you know, we would maybe disagree on some of them. 937 00:49:18,000 --> 00:49:19,680 Speaker 4: I know a lot of people who are committed to 938 00:49:20,600 --> 00:49:25,160 Speaker 4: pursuing truth. As you know, an open biased conservative but 939 00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:28,080 Speaker 4: you know, there are definitely I do. I agree that's 940 00:49:28,120 --> 00:49:30,640 Speaker 4: a problem. I think the dominion settlement point is really 941 00:49:30,680 --> 00:49:34,680 Speaker 4: interesting because my sort of rebuttal that would be there 942 00:49:34,680 --> 00:49:38,040 Speaker 4: was also the Covington Catholic Settlement from CNN, and I 943 00:49:38,200 --> 00:49:40,640 Speaker 4: just don't know. For me, I see the forces that 944 00:49:40,719 --> 00:49:45,840 Speaker 4: created the dominion settlement, meaning Fox News's coverage of the 945 00:49:45,840 --> 00:49:49,440 Speaker 4: twenty twenty election that led to the dominion settlement, which 946 00:49:49,520 --> 00:49:52,680 Speaker 4: in some cases really followed Trump's line. I see that 947 00:49:53,040 --> 00:49:57,640 Speaker 4: as being downstream of the forces that created the Covington 948 00:49:57,680 --> 00:50:01,000 Speaker 4: Catholic Settlement, which came from CNN kind of jumping the 949 00:50:01,000 --> 00:50:03,960 Speaker 4: gun on what happened to Nick Sandmen on the National 950 00:50:04,000 --> 00:50:07,040 Speaker 4: Mall for reasons that were pretty clearly ideological. You guys 951 00:50:07,080 --> 00:50:09,920 Speaker 4: might disagree, you know, journalists get things drunk sometimes. I 952 00:50:10,360 --> 00:50:14,120 Speaker 4: thought that was purely ideological error. So I think conservatives 953 00:50:14,160 --> 00:50:18,359 Speaker 4: are just constantly reacting. It becomes very hard for our 954 00:50:18,440 --> 00:50:22,400 Speaker 4: institutions to reflect sort of first principles and then pursue 955 00:50:23,280 --> 00:50:26,680 Speaker 4: a healthy debate over policies. So I kind of agree 956 00:50:26,680 --> 00:50:27,759 Speaker 4: and disagree at the same time. 957 00:50:27,800 --> 00:50:32,960 Speaker 3: I guess as were before you go, uh, I did 958 00:50:33,600 --> 00:50:36,239 Speaker 3: you know you covered you cover economic policy that's, you know, 959 00:50:36,280 --> 00:50:40,440 Speaker 3: your thing for decades really has been that area. So 960 00:50:40,520 --> 00:50:43,600 Speaker 3: tell us, like what is going on with Kamala Harris's 961 00:50:43,680 --> 00:50:46,879 Speaker 3: campaign and Lena Khan and Jonathan Cantor, Like, why why 962 00:50:46,920 --> 00:50:50,080 Speaker 3: haven't they just come out and said, of course we're 963 00:50:50,080 --> 00:50:53,920 Speaker 3: going to reappoint Lena Khan and Jonathan Cantor. They have 964 00:50:54,160 --> 00:50:58,959 Speaker 3: they have been central to this this pro worker, anti 965 00:50:58,960 --> 00:51:01,799 Speaker 3: trust policy that the Biden administration is pushed forward. What 966 00:51:02,360 --> 00:51:03,440 Speaker 3: why won't they just do that? 967 00:51:03,800 --> 00:51:05,359 Speaker 1: Like, what do you hear? I don't think they would 968 00:51:05,400 --> 00:51:08,399 Speaker 1: do that about any member of the administration, like one. 969 00:51:08,400 --> 00:51:10,080 Speaker 1: I think there's actually a rule you're not allowed to 970 00:51:10,160 --> 00:51:13,400 Speaker 1: do that usually. Uh, but they haven't said we're going 971 00:51:13,480 --> 00:51:15,600 Speaker 1: to repoint Jennet Yellen, who's going to be you know, 972 00:51:15,600 --> 00:51:17,600 Speaker 1: who's been central to the economic recovery. 973 00:51:17,719 --> 00:51:21,160 Speaker 3: Right, But also nobody on Wall Street is demanding that. 974 00:51:20,600 --> 00:51:25,280 Speaker 1: I just I think the actual I think the actual 975 00:51:25,320 --> 00:51:27,759 Speaker 1: line you're look, I think there's a version where why 976 00:51:27,800 --> 00:51:31,560 Speaker 1: have they not said, listen, Lena Khan's you know, approach 977 00:51:31,640 --> 00:51:32,839 Speaker 1: is great versus we're definitely going. 978 00:51:32,840 --> 00:51:34,719 Speaker 3: To Rea think those are. 979 00:51:34,680 --> 00:51:38,560 Speaker 1: Pretty different questions, and the answer here is a little 980 00:51:38,600 --> 00:51:42,480 Speaker 1: bit I'm not sure. I don't know what I think 981 00:51:42,520 --> 00:51:45,000 Speaker 1: Kamala Harris believes in her harder hearts about anti trust policy. 982 00:51:45,000 --> 00:51:47,680 Speaker 1: I don't think it's necessarily that you know, read Hastings 983 00:51:47,719 --> 00:51:50,719 Speaker 1: or read Hoffmann. I forget which read was Antilena Kon 984 00:51:51,120 --> 00:51:55,480 Speaker 1: gets to set FDC policy, but her, you know. I 985 00:51:55,520 --> 00:51:58,040 Speaker 1: think one of the realities of the Kamala Harris campaign 986 00:51:58,840 --> 00:52:02,239 Speaker 1: is it emerged in matter of weeks, right, and so 987 00:52:02,280 --> 00:52:04,239 Speaker 1: the work that a normal campaign would have done and 988 00:52:04,239 --> 00:52:07,359 Speaker 1: that the candidate themselves would have done over the course 989 00:52:07,360 --> 00:52:09,959 Speaker 1: of a primary and a year to kind of work 990 00:52:10,040 --> 00:52:11,960 Speaker 1: every dimension of this out and give a series of 991 00:52:11,960 --> 00:52:14,960 Speaker 1: major speeches laying out there thinking on it, they both 992 00:52:15,040 --> 00:52:18,279 Speaker 1: not only didn't do, but didn't have to do. And 993 00:52:18,400 --> 00:52:20,319 Speaker 1: a lot of that is done because you have to 994 00:52:20,320 --> 00:52:24,080 Speaker 1: do it right. In some ways, it's strategically valuable to 995 00:52:24,080 --> 00:52:26,920 Speaker 1: be ambiguous. The people who would be upset if you 996 00:52:27,560 --> 00:52:30,920 Speaker 1: didn't reappoint Lenicon or someone like her, If you tell 997 00:52:30,960 --> 00:52:33,440 Speaker 1: them we're not going to appoint Lenikon or someone like her, 998 00:52:33,440 --> 00:52:36,080 Speaker 1: they're really mad, Whereas if you don't say anything at all, 999 00:52:36,560 --> 00:52:39,440 Speaker 1: they're not happy, but they're still there in the coalition 1000 00:52:39,520 --> 00:52:41,319 Speaker 1: trying to influence the coalition, and so the fact that 1001 00:52:41,360 --> 00:52:44,800 Speaker 1: Harris did not have a primary process were pushed from 1002 00:52:45,239 --> 00:52:48,440 Speaker 1: the left or from the right, she had to distinguish 1003 00:52:48,480 --> 00:52:50,480 Speaker 1: which side of somebody. These divides she's been on has 1004 00:52:50,520 --> 00:52:54,200 Speaker 1: given them the opportunity to maintain a high level strategic ambiguity. 1005 00:52:54,280 --> 00:52:57,239 Speaker 1: So they maintain to some degree, given the Donald Trump 1006 00:52:57,280 --> 00:52:59,719 Speaker 1: is the opponent, the loyalty of the people and the 1007 00:52:59,800 --> 00:53:02,680 Speaker 1: lean con wing of the Democratic Party, even if that 1008 00:53:02,760 --> 00:53:07,680 Speaker 1: loyalty is currently suspicious and a little bit frustrated, but 1009 00:53:07,840 --> 00:53:11,000 Speaker 1: also the donors that that maybe don't want that, and 1010 00:53:11,040 --> 00:53:12,960 Speaker 1: then if they win the election, then they're gonna have 1011 00:53:13,000 --> 00:53:15,000 Speaker 1: to make some choices, you know, at the moment, they 1012 00:53:15,040 --> 00:53:15,640 Speaker 1: don't have to make. 1013 00:53:16,719 --> 00:53:18,640 Speaker 3: Speaking of that open primary, you and I were both 1014 00:53:18,719 --> 00:53:22,239 Speaker 3: rattling the cages for some type of an open process 1015 00:53:23,040 --> 00:53:26,000 Speaker 3: to nominate a replacement for Biden, if he could be 1016 00:53:26,040 --> 00:53:29,399 Speaker 3: persuaded to drop out. Were we right at the time? 1017 00:53:29,480 --> 00:53:30,840 Speaker 3: You think? I mean, I. 1018 00:53:30,840 --> 00:53:33,319 Speaker 1: Think early we were right. I mean I think Early 1019 00:53:33,360 --> 00:53:35,560 Speaker 1: still right the right thing? Are we still No? I 1020 00:53:35,560 --> 00:53:37,200 Speaker 1: don't think they should do an open primary. 1021 00:53:37,000 --> 00:53:40,000 Speaker 3: Or not now, But like in hindsight, were we right? 1022 00:53:41,040 --> 00:53:44,839 Speaker 1: I don't know. I think two things about this hard One. 1023 00:53:44,920 --> 00:53:46,719 Speaker 1: We don't know if Kamala Harris is going to win 1024 00:53:46,760 --> 00:53:50,040 Speaker 1: the election, and if it turns out that the polling 1025 00:53:50,280 --> 00:53:53,240 Speaker 1: is systematically, you know, getting Trump wrong by three points 1026 00:53:53,280 --> 00:53:55,880 Speaker 1: in the Midwest, I think there's gonna be a lot 1027 00:53:55,880 --> 00:53:58,480 Speaker 1: of people who say, yeah, you know, either she should 1028 00:53:58,480 --> 00:54:01,480 Speaker 1: have picked Jos Shapiro or or in fact running a 1029 00:54:01,760 --> 00:54:05,239 Speaker 1: sort of a liberal San Franciscan politician, you know, in 1030 00:54:05,280 --> 00:54:07,239 Speaker 1: the industrial Midwest is not what the party should have 1031 00:54:07,280 --> 00:54:10,480 Speaker 1: been doing this year, which is why there was actually 1032 00:54:10,520 --> 00:54:13,719 Speaker 1: so much resistance to having Joe Biden stepped down and 1033 00:54:13,760 --> 00:54:16,200 Speaker 1: Kamala Harris step up much earlier in the process. I mean, 1034 00:54:16,239 --> 00:54:17,560 Speaker 1: as you know, because you were doing some of this 1035 00:54:17,600 --> 00:54:19,960 Speaker 1: work too. The big thing in the party was not 1036 00:54:20,000 --> 00:54:22,080 Speaker 1: that Joe Biden at eighty one or eighty two is 1037 00:54:22,120 --> 00:54:24,960 Speaker 1: an effective candidate, but there was very very little faith 1038 00:54:25,480 --> 00:54:29,319 Speaker 1: that Harris could step into his place effectively given where 1039 00:54:29,320 --> 00:54:32,400 Speaker 1: Democrats needed to win. Now, Harris was clearly underrated. I 1040 00:54:32,440 --> 00:54:34,359 Speaker 1: made that point back in February. I made that point 1041 00:54:34,360 --> 00:54:38,280 Speaker 1: consistently after February. But we don't exactly know how underrated, 1042 00:54:38,960 --> 00:54:41,239 Speaker 1: and so if she wins, I think people are going 1043 00:54:41,320 --> 00:54:45,040 Speaker 1: to say that was all ridiculous. Harris is great particly 1044 00:54:45,040 --> 00:54:48,720 Speaker 1: she wins convincingly, and if she doesn't, people are going 1045 00:54:48,800 --> 00:54:51,480 Speaker 1: to say that. You know, Joe Biden should have stepped 1046 00:54:51,480 --> 00:54:53,040 Speaker 1: down earlier in the party, should have been able to 1047 00:54:53,040 --> 00:54:55,560 Speaker 1: go through a competitive process to figure out, you know, 1048 00:54:55,600 --> 00:54:59,000 Speaker 1: which kind of candidate could best compete in the places 1049 00:54:59,040 --> 00:55:01,840 Speaker 1: Democrats need to win. But by the time Joe Biden 1050 00:55:01,960 --> 00:55:05,640 Speaker 1: actually stepped down, given how late in the game it was, 1051 00:55:05,680 --> 00:55:07,720 Speaker 1: I mean you were talking weeks before the Democratic Convention 1052 00:55:07,760 --> 00:55:11,080 Speaker 1: at that point, and given how exhausted the party was 1053 00:55:11,239 --> 00:55:13,720 Speaker 1: by what it took to get him to step aside 1054 00:55:14,160 --> 00:55:16,719 Speaker 1: and his endorsement, like, there was no uh, there was 1055 00:55:16,760 --> 00:55:19,400 Speaker 1: no possibility or opening for that right. If he had 1056 00:55:19,440 --> 00:55:21,440 Speaker 1: stepped down in March or decided not to run for 1057 00:55:21,480 --> 00:55:24,520 Speaker 1: reelection at all, that would have been a different question. 1058 00:55:25,080 --> 00:55:28,040 Speaker 3: How much how much heat did you get for that 1059 00:55:28,040 --> 00:55:31,480 Speaker 3: that February piece calling for Biden to step aside by 1060 00:55:31,480 --> 00:55:33,520 Speaker 3: the Power Center, It's like I'm at a place now 1061 00:55:33,520 --> 00:55:36,520 Speaker 3: in my career. I'm a a at a place my career. 1062 00:55:36,880 --> 00:55:40,200 Speaker 3: Those those folks used they used to give me hell 1063 00:55:40,280 --> 00:55:43,520 Speaker 3: all the time, Like the like Center Left World they've 1064 00:55:43,600 --> 00:55:45,440 Speaker 3: kind of given up on me. Like they're like, we're 1065 00:55:45,480 --> 00:55:48,239 Speaker 3: not we're not we're not influencing this guy, but we're 1066 00:55:48,239 --> 00:55:53,000 Speaker 3: not even gonna waste waste our breath anymore. But you 1067 00:55:53,000 --> 00:55:56,400 Speaker 3: know that also means that when I say, like, you know, 1068 00:55:56,480 --> 00:55:58,600 Speaker 3: Joe bidens to old hat step aside, they're like, well, 1069 00:55:59,000 --> 00:56:01,120 Speaker 3: that's what he says, Like we dont understand. We guess 1070 00:56:01,200 --> 00:56:03,520 Speaker 3: we already know he feels that way, but when you 1071 00:56:03,560 --> 00:56:06,360 Speaker 3: say it, it packs more punch. What kind of counter 1072 00:56:06,400 --> 00:56:09,319 Speaker 3: punch did you get at the time. 1073 00:56:10,280 --> 00:56:12,919 Speaker 1: I mean, a lot of people were not happy with me. Look, 1074 00:56:13,000 --> 00:56:15,719 Speaker 1: I always want to I'm not like I sit at 1075 00:56:15,840 --> 00:56:17,879 Speaker 1: ESK and I write things and I say them into 1076 00:56:17,920 --> 00:56:21,480 Speaker 1: a microphone. It's not a job of tremendous courage. There 1077 00:56:21,480 --> 00:56:22,800 Speaker 1: are people are pissed at me. And there were a 1078 00:56:22,800 --> 00:56:25,239 Speaker 1: lot of people privately, you know, we're thinking about these 1079 00:56:25,320 --> 00:56:27,200 Speaker 1: questions and wanted to talk about it. But but what 1080 00:56:27,239 --> 00:56:30,000 Speaker 1: they really felt was that I had not sufficiently considered 1081 00:56:30,040 --> 00:56:32,520 Speaker 1: how bad the alternatives were. That was the real private 1082 00:56:32,560 --> 00:56:35,160 Speaker 1: reaction I got. Probably are people were like fuck that guy, 1083 00:56:35,200 --> 00:56:37,239 Speaker 1: but they said it on Twitter. Right, you can go 1084 00:56:37,280 --> 00:56:39,279 Speaker 1: look at people you know calling me all sorts of 1085 00:56:39,280 --> 00:56:42,080 Speaker 1: things on Twitter. But because I don't read, I don't 1086 00:56:42,080 --> 00:56:44,720 Speaker 1: really read social media reaction in that way. I actually 1087 00:56:44,800 --> 00:56:46,600 Speaker 1: missed a lot of It is funny that when things 1088 00:56:46,640 --> 00:56:49,160 Speaker 1: sort of turned on this argument, people came to me like, 1089 00:56:49,280 --> 00:56:51,600 Speaker 1: oh my god, I'm so sorry for how everybody treated you, 1090 00:56:51,640 --> 00:56:53,600 Speaker 1: and I was like, they treated me that badly. I 1091 00:56:53,640 --> 00:56:57,239 Speaker 1: hadn't actually totally totally clocked how bad people must have been. 1092 00:56:57,320 --> 00:56:59,120 Speaker 1: Although you know, then people sent me when. 1093 00:56:58,960 --> 00:57:03,640 Speaker 4: Did you stop? Why didn't you stop tuning into Twitter? 1094 00:57:05,040 --> 00:57:07,440 Speaker 1: I'll read it. I don't read stuff about me on it. 1095 00:57:07,680 --> 00:57:11,000 Speaker 1: I don't think the human mind is well adapted for 1096 00:57:11,040 --> 00:57:13,040 Speaker 1: that level of feedback. And I find that I am 1097 00:57:13,040 --> 00:57:16,640 Speaker 1: a less independent thinker if I am tightly tuned in 1098 00:57:16,680 --> 00:57:19,000 Speaker 1: to the reaction people have to the things that I think, 1099 00:57:19,120 --> 00:57:23,120 Speaker 1: or say or do. But in private, right and I 1100 00:57:23,160 --> 00:57:25,680 Speaker 1: had a lot of conversations, including with Biden administration people, 1101 00:57:26,440 --> 00:57:28,880 Speaker 1: and you know, they were they thought I was wrong. 1102 00:57:30,360 --> 00:57:31,840 Speaker 1: But they thought I was wrong because one, I was 1103 00:57:31,920 --> 00:57:34,760 Speaker 1: underestimating Joe Biden. They thought I was wrong. Two because 1104 00:57:34,800 --> 00:57:37,320 Speaker 1: I was overestimating Kamala Harris, and they thought I was wrong. 1105 00:57:37,360 --> 00:57:40,440 Speaker 1: Three because there's no way that a party could manage 1106 00:57:40,440 --> 00:57:43,160 Speaker 1: an open convention that if Kamala Harris was weak, would 1107 00:57:43,160 --> 00:57:45,840 Speaker 1: pass around Kamala Harris and if you believed all three 1108 00:57:45,880 --> 00:57:49,360 Speaker 1: of those things. And I was definitely wrong, But but 1109 00:57:49,400 --> 00:57:52,520 Speaker 1: I didn't. You know, people knew Joe Biden's age was 1110 00:57:52,560 --> 00:57:58,959 Speaker 1: a problem. So in the more reflective spaces in which 1111 00:57:59,000 --> 00:58:02,840 Speaker 1: I tended to like actually have conversations, you know, in 1112 00:58:03,080 --> 00:58:05,280 Speaker 1: a way I that I cared about, you know, it 1113 00:58:05,320 --> 00:58:07,640 Speaker 1: was it was a little bit more interesting. I did 1114 00:58:07,720 --> 00:58:09,920 Speaker 1: find that people thought I was like a total fucking idiot, 1115 00:58:09,920 --> 00:58:12,280 Speaker 1: said so in public and people who didn't said so 1116 00:58:12,360 --> 00:58:15,200 Speaker 1: in private. But you know, I got to have the 1117 00:58:15,200 --> 00:58:16,240 Speaker 1: benefit of both sides of that. 1118 00:58:18,600 --> 00:58:21,480 Speaker 3: Cool Emily, anything else, I know, as there's got to 1119 00:58:21,560 --> 00:58:22,560 Speaker 3: run pretty soon. 1120 00:58:25,360 --> 00:58:27,320 Speaker 4: No, I just want to say thank you. This was 1121 00:58:27,680 --> 00:58:29,840 Speaker 4: fantastic and we really appreciate you coming on the show. 1122 00:58:30,760 --> 00:58:32,720 Speaker 1: I'm touched you stay through the whole thing, Emily, and 1123 00:58:32,760 --> 00:58:34,800 Speaker 1: I'm excited to hear to hear what you find from 1124 00:58:34,880 --> 00:58:36,560 Speaker 1: from from the Rome Post a little. 1125 00:58:36,360 --> 00:58:38,360 Speaker 3: Bit wall give us tell us real quick, what are 1126 00:58:38,440 --> 00:58:45,479 Speaker 3: you hearing, Emily, anything new from your from your Roman friends. 1127 00:58:45,720 --> 00:58:46,840 Speaker 4: I think a lot of this is going to change 1128 00:58:46,840 --> 00:58:48,120 Speaker 4: based on what happens in November. 1129 00:58:48,240 --> 00:58:54,480 Speaker 3: So okay, that's a lot of things right now. All right, well, 1130 00:58:54,520 --> 00:58:57,160 Speaker 3: Ezra Kleine, host of the Ezra Klines Show, New York 1131 00:58:57,160 --> 00:58:59,400 Speaker 3: Times columnist, thank you so much for joining us. 1132 00:59:00,040 --> 00:59:00,320 Speaker 1: A Gill