Exploring the Meaning of a Worthy Life: Focus on character, relationships, and society's greater good for a fulfilling life. Engage in substantive conversations to navigate important questions.
According to David Brooks, a worthy life is about making the most of the gift of existence by living in a way that allows us to look back at the end and feel a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. This can be achieved by focusing on important questions related to our character, relationships, and the greater good of society. Brooks emphasizes the importance of having substantive and wise conversations with others to help us navigate these questions, and he highlights Leon Kass as an exemplary figure in this regard. Throughout his career, Kass has explored various aspects of living a worthy life, from personal relationships to the role of a nation in bringing people together. The conversation between Brooks and Kass delves into these topics and offers insights on how to be a good person and build a meaningful life.
Living a Meaningful Life: Harmony Within and Without: Find harmony in self, others, and great loves through work, relationships, community, learning, and spirituality. Focus on personal resonance over societal pressures.
Living a meaningful life involves finding harmony within oneself, with others, and committing to great loves. This can be achieved through various domains, including real work, love and friendship, devotion to community, learning and understanding, and a connection to something higher. Many people struggle to identify their vocation or calling, and it's essential to focus on what truly resonates with us rather than societal pressures. Ultimately, we all desire to feel that our lives have mattered, and it's up to us and our culture to support and encourage these pursuits.
Discovering true passion and vocation: Encourage self-reflection to find what brings satisfaction and deep gladness, not just status or admiration. Explore problems in the world that resonate with you and keep an open mind.
Finding one's true passion and vocation in life is a complex and often lengthy process. Many young people are so focused on fulfilling obligations and meeting social expectations that they may lose touch with what truly makes them feel alive and fulfilled. To help students discern genuine passion from a desire for status or admiration, it's essential to ask questions and encourage self-reflection. The key is to identify what one loves to do and what brings satisfaction that doesn't depend on external validation. Eventually, individuals may find their vocation where their deep gladness meets the world's deep need. However, the traditional paths to finding a career are no longer as clear-cut as they once were, and many people may need to try various options before finding their true calling. It's crucial to encourage young people to look for problems in the world that resonate with them and to keep an open mind as they explore different possibilities.
Assessing happiness and goals intentionally: Reflect on your happiness and goals every few years, find inspiration from historical and contemporary figures, and strive to make a positive impact on those around you.
Living a meaningful life involves being intentional and reflective, breaking it down into smaller chapters, and striving to make a positive impact on those around us. The colonel's advice to assess happiness and goals every few years resonates with the idea of intentional living. We can learn from historical and contemporary figures who have lived worthy lives, no matter their circumstances. Morality is a matter of taste and admiration, and we can find examples of it in everyday life, from the radical self-sacrifice of Jimmy Durell to the disciplinarian love of LaRue Dorsey. By focusing on the good in the world and in people, we can find inspiration and motivation to live our own meaningful lives.
Becoming a good person through love and virtues: Learn compassion and courage from experiences, value eulogy virtues over resume virtues, and strive for a life of impact and service to others.
Becoming a good person involves a combination of pure love and practical virtues, learned through experiences and habituation. The speaker draws on examples of individuals like nurses, Dorothy Day, and Abraham Lincoln, who have shown compassion and courage in their respective fields. While suffering can lead to compassion, it doesn't guarantee it. Instead, it's the habit of facing challenges and the disposition towards compassion that shapes one's character. The speaker values the eulogy virtues, which are the qualities that make a person admirable after they're gone, over resume virtues, which are skills that make a person good at their job. Ultimately, the speaker encourages us to broaden our definition of the good life to include these virtues and to strive for a life of impact and service to others.
Exploring Moral Formation: Guidance and Individual Responsibility: Moral formation involves guidance and individual responsibility, shaping desires and refining judgments through experiences and intelligence.
Moral formation is a process of confronting and overcoming fears, weaknesses, and negative desires, while also cultivating positive ones. This process begins with guidance from community, teachers, and religious leaders, but ultimately relies on individuals taking the reins of their own moral growth. Desires play a crucial role in this process, as having proper motivations and elevated desires can shape our actions and help us acquire good habits. Responsibilities, particularly those of parenthood, can also significantly impact moral development by instilling a sense of responsibility and love for others. Ultimately, moral education involves both shaping desires and refining judgments through experience and intelligence.
People are driven by their ruling passions for pleasure, honor, or understanding: Understanding people's ruling passions can help us navigate relationships and interactions
People are primarily driven by the ruling passions of their souls, and these passions shape their motivations and behaviors. Human beings are not just thinking creatures, but desiring ones. The most revealing distinctions among us are not based on race, class, gender, wealth, power, or culture, but rather, our fundamental differences lie in our passions for pleasure, honor, or understanding. By observing how people live, we can gain insights into their ruling passions. For instance, some people are driven by the desire for recognition and honor, while others are motivated by the pursuit of fun and pleasure, or the quest for knowledge and wisdom. The discussion also touched upon the concept of intimacy motivation, which suggests that many people have a deep longing to be loved and appreciated by their family and friends, and to form meaningful relationships. Ultimately, understanding the ruling passions of ourselves and others can help us navigate our relationships and interactions with the world around us.
Marriage as a 50-year conversation: Encourage young people to value communication, understanding, and commitment in long-term relationships, emphasizing marriage as a 50-year conversation for deep, authentic connections.
People yearn for deep, authentic connections and meaningful relationships, particularly in the context of marriage. While the cultural conversation around relationships and marriage has shifted towards a focus on individualism and instant gratification, it's important to remember that marriage is a 50-year conversation and requires a partner with whom you can talk, share, and grow. Nietzsche's idea of marriage as a long-term conversation hits the mark, as does the importance of kindness, admiration, and all three types of love: friendship, passion, and selfless love. However, young people today often view marriage as an outdated institution and prioritize vocation over relationships. As a result, it's crucial to encourage them to consider what marriage could mean for them and to practice building meaningful relationships. By emphasizing the importance of communication, understanding, and commitment, we can help them navigate the complexities of love and relationships and foster a culture that values and supports long-term partnerships.
Understanding Deep Relationships: Insights from Historical Texts: Historical texts like Jane Austen's novels and Aristotle's perspective on friendship offer valuable insights into deep relationships, emphasizing the importance of character-based connections for lasting growth and enrichment.
In today's society, there are few rules guiding deep relationships, be it romantic or platonic, leaving individuals to figure things out on their own. This period of rulelessness can be challenging and disappointing, as people lack practices to navigate complex emotions and character assessments. In contrast, historical texts like Jane Austen's novels offer valuable insights into understanding human nature and distinguishing between different types of relationships, such as those based on utility, pleasure, and character. Aristotle's perspective on friendship highlights the importance of friendship based on character, where individuals are drawn to each other for who they are and enjoy the intellectual exchange of thoughts and ideas. Such friendships are unique and enduring, as they enrich both parties and provide a lifetime of learning and growth.
The power of shared experiences and common vulnerabilities: Shared experiences and common vulnerabilities build deep connections and loyalty, essential during challenging times, as seen in the Israelites' journey from slavery to a nation.
Shared experiences and common vulnerabilities build deep connections and loyalty among individuals, whether it's through a weekly basketball game or military service. However, these relationships can be tested during challenging times, and it's essential to have friends who can provide support and understanding. The story of Exodus, as described in the book "Founded God's Nation," offers valuable insights into the formation of a people and a nation. The Israelites' journey from slavery to a nation of 600,000 people involved three significant stages: their enslavement and miraculous deliverance, receiving the law at Sinai, and building the tabernacle to worship their creator. These stages provide a national narrative, a moral and legal framework, and an aspiration for spiritual connection, which can serve as pillars for any stable regime.
Elements for a stable nation: shared story, common law, higher aspiration: The Exodus story emphasizes the importance of replacing servility and oppression with edifying and elevating service. America's identity is rooted in the spirit of liberty and religion, but the balance between them has shifted, threatening our common humanity and moral values.
A shared national story, a common law, and a higher aspiration are essential elements for a stable and enduring nation. The Exodus story, which has played a significant role in America's identity, emphasizes the importance of replacing servility and oppression with edifying and elevating service. The spirit of liberty and religion were once mutually reinforcing in America, but the balance between them has shifted. The biblical teachings of our common humanity and moral values that produce virtuous citizens are increasingly threatened and in retreat. Without these foundational elements, the fabric of a nation may fray, and its people may struggle to remain cohesive.
Biblical teachings and foundational principles of justice and fairness: The cultural teachings that support self-command, self-restraint, and community have weakened, leading to a loss of social capital, a breakdown in connections, and a rise in individualism. We need to address this issue to maintain a robust, unified national society and culture.
The foundational principles of justice and fairness in American society have roots in biblical teachings, but the cultural teachings that support self-command, self-restraint, and community have weakened, leading to a loss of social capital, a breakdown in connections, and a rise in individualism. This has resulted in a society that is more divided and less communal than in the past, and it is a significant sociological problem that requires attention. Despite the challenges, there is hope that we can recreate institutions and communities that we have faith in and are willing to submit to in order to be formed by them. However, the current state of affairs is cause for concern, and it is essential to address these issues if we care about a robust, unified national society and culture.
Reconnecting with America's heritage through education and engagement: Through education and engagement with great works of American history, founding documents, and Western civilization, we can deepen our understanding of ourselves and our nation, fostering the formation of souls and communities.
To understand and appreciate the present and future of America, we must reconnect with our intellectual, cultural, and moral heritage. This can be achieved through education, focusing on the great works of American history, founding documents, and Western civilization. It's essential to remember both the challenges and the greatness of America. Furthermore, the formation of souls and communities can be fostered by engaging with people who make a difference in their local areas. The book of Exodus, for instance, can make us more humble and gentle by encouraging us to read it with an open mind and heart, and to imagine ourselves as part of a larger story. Through this process, we can gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and our nation.
Experience great books deeply for personal growth: Close reading and active engagement with impactful texts can lead to new perspectives and soul-touching experiences, making a difference in everyday life.
Great books should not be merely read and studied for academic purposes, but rather, they should be experienced deeply and personally in order to allow them to impact and transform us. The speaker, a professor, shared his own experiences of being deeply moved by works like the Nicomachean Ethics, the Hebrew Bible, Tocqueville's Democracy in America, and George Eliot's Daniel Deronda. He emphasized the importance of close reading and active engagement with these texts, and encouraged readers to approach them with the hope that they might open new perspectives and touch the soul. The speaker also highlighted the importance of these "big subjects" in everyday life, and expressed gratitude for the opportunity to discuss them in depth on the Ezra Klein Show.
Timeless Wisdom for Leading a Life of Love, Friendship and Learning
Recent Episodes from The Ezra Klein Show
Zadie Smith on Populists, Frauds and Flip Phones
I stumbled on a Zadie Smith line recently that stopped me in my tracks. She was writing in January 2017, and describing the political stakes of that period — Brexit in the U.K., Trump in the U.S. — and the way you could feel it changing people.
“Millions of more or less amorphous selves will now necessarily find themselves solidifying into protesters, activists, marchers, voters, firebrands, impeachers, lobbyists, soldiers, champions, defenders, historians, experts, critics. You can’t fight fire with air. But equally you can’t fight for a freedom you’ve forgotten how to identify.”
What Smith is describing felt so familiar — how politics can sometimes feel like it demands we put aside our internal conflict, our uncertainty, so we can take a strong position. I see it so often in myself and people around me, and yet I rarely hear it talked about. And Smith’s ability to give language to these kinds of quiet battles inside of ourselves is one reason she’s been one of my favorite writers for years.
Smith is the author of novels, including “White Teeth,” “On Beauty” and “NW,” as well as many essays and short stories. Her latest novel, “The Fraud,” also deals with politics and identity. It’s about a case in 19th-century London, but it has eerie resonances with our current political moment. I wasn’t surprised to learn that Trump and populism were front of mind for her when she wrote it. In this conversation, we discuss what populism is really channeling, why Smith refuses the “bait” of wokeness, how people have been “modified” by smartphones and social media, and more.
This episode contains strong language.
Mentioned:
Feel Free by Zadie Smith
“Fascinated to Presume: In Defense of Fiction” by Zadie Smith
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
“Generation Why?” by Zadie Smith
Book Recommendations:
The Director by Daniel Kehlmann
The Rebel’s Clinic by Adam Shatz
Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.
You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Annie Galvin. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Kate Sinclair. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota and Efim Shapiro. Our senior editor is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Rollin Hu, Elias Isquith and Kristin Lin. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.
The Real ‘Border Czar’ Defends the Biden-Harris Record
Republicans want to label Kamala Harris as the border czar. And by just looking at a chart, you can see why. Border crossings were low when Donald Trump left office. But when President Biden is in the White House, they start shooting up and up — to numbers this country had never seen before, peaking in December 2023. Those numbers have fallen significantly since Biden issued tough new border policies. But that has still left Harris with a major vulnerability. Why didn’t the administration do more sooner? And why did border crossings skyrocket in the first place?
Harris was not the border czar; she had little power over policy. But to the extent that there is a border czar, it’s the secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas. So I wanted to have him on the show to explain what’s happened at the border the past few years — the record surge, the administration’s record and what it has revealed about our immigration system.
Book Recommendations:
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
String Theory by David Foster Wallace
Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.
You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Rollin Hu. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld. Our senior editor is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Annie Galvin, Elias Isquith, Kristin Lin and Aman Sahota. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. And special thanks to Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, Dara Lind, David Frum, Jason De Léon, Michael Clemens, Natan Last and Steven Camarota.
Harris Had a Theory of Trump, and It Was Right
Tuesday night was the first — perhaps the only — debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. And it proved one of Harris’s stump speech lines right: Turns out she really does know Trump’s type. She had a theory of who Trump was and how he worked, and she used it to take control of the collision. But this was a substantive debate, too. The candidates clashed on abortion, health care, the economy, energy, immigration and more. And so we delve into the policy arguments to untangle what was really being said — and what wasn’t.
Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.
You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Claire Gordon. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Kate Sinclair and Jack McCordick. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld. Our senior editor is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Annie Galvin, Rollin Hu, Elias Isquith, Kristin Lin and Aman Sahota. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.
The Opinions: A Pro-Life Case for Harris and a Writing Contest With ChatGPT
Our Times Opinion colleagues recently launched a new podcast called “The Opinions.” It’s basically the Opinion page in audio form, so you can hear your favorite Times Opinion columnists and contributing writers in one place, in their own voices.
It’s an eclectic and surprising mix of perspectives, as you’ll see with these two segments we’ve selected for you to enjoy. The first is with the Times Opinion columnist (and friend of the pod) David French, a lifelong conservative who’s staunchly pro-life, on why he’s voting for Kamala Harris this November, and the second is with the novelist Curtis Sittenfeld, who enters into a writing competition of sorts against a new writer on the block — ChatGPT.
Mentioned:
“David French on the Pro-Life Case for Kamala Harris”
“Can You Tell Which Short Story ChatGPT Wrote?”
You can subscribe to “The Opinions” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, iHeartRadio — or wherever you listen to podcasts.
On Children, Meaning, Media and Psychedelics
I feel that there’s something important missing in our debate over screen time and kids — and even screen time and adults. In the realm of kids and teenagers, there’s so much focus on what studies show or don’t show: How does screen time affect school grades and behavior? Does it carry an increased risk of anxiety or depression?
And while the debate over those questions rages on, a feeling has kept nagging me. What if the problem with screen time isn’t something we can measure?
In June, Jia Tolentino published a great piece in The New Yorker about the blockbuster children’s YouTube channel CoComelon, which seemed as if it was wrestling with the same question. So I invited her on the show, and our conversation ended up going places I never expected. Among other things, we talk about how the decision to have kids relates to doing psychedelics, what kinds of pleasure to seek if you want a good life and how much the debate over screen time and kids might just be adults projecting our own discomfort with our own screen time.
We recorded this episode a few days before the Trump-Biden debate — and before Donald Trump chose JD Vance as his running mate. We then got so swept up in politics coverage we never got a chance to air it. But I am so excited to finally get this one out into the world.
This episode contains strong language.
Mentioned:
“How CoComelon Captures Our Children’s Attention” by Jia Tolentino
“Can Motherhood Be a Mode of Rebellion?” by Jia Tolentino
How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell
Book Recommendations:
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut
Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.
You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Annie Galvin. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Kate Sinclair and Mary Marge Locker. Mixing by Isaac Jones, with Efim Shapiro and Aman Sahota. Our senior editor is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Jeff Geld, Rollin Hu, Elias Isquith and Kristin Lin. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Special thanks to Sonia Herrero.
Best Of: Tired? Distracted? Burned Out? Listen to This.
I’m convinced that attention is the most important human faculty. Your life, after all, is just the sum total of the things you’ve paid attention to. We lament our attention issues all the time — how distracted we are, how drained we feel, how hard it is to stay focused or present. And yet, while there’s no shortage of advice on how to improve our sleep hygiene or spending habits or physical fitness, there’s hardly any good information about how to build and replenish our capacity for paying attention.
Gloria Mark is a professor at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of the book “Attention Span.” And she’s one of the few people who have deeply studied the way our attention works, how that’s been changing and what we can do to stop frittering away our attention budgets.
This was our first release of 2024, a kind of New Year’s resolutions episode. And since it can sometimes help to be reminded of the intentions with which you began your year — especially in the midst of a high-intensity election season — we thought we’d share it again.
Book recommendations:
“The Challenger Launch Decision” by Diane Vaughan
“The Undoing Project” by Michael Lewis
“The God Equation” by Michio Kaku
Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.
You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Claire Gordon. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld. Our senior editor is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Rollin Hu and Kristin Lin. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.
Best Of: The Men — and Boys — Are Not Alright
We recently did an episode on the strange new gender politics that have emerged in the 2024 election. But we only briefly touched on the social and economic changes that underlie this new politics — the very real ways boys and men have been falling behind.
In March 2023, though, we dedicated a whole episode to that subject. Our guest was Richard Reeves, the author of the 2022 book “Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It,” who recently founded the American Institute for Boys and Men to develop solutions for the gender gap he describes in his research. He argues that you can’t understand inequality in America today without understanding the specific challenges facing men and boys. And I would add that there’s no way to fully understand the politics of this election without understanding that, either. So we’re rerunning this episode, because Reeves’s insights on this feel more relevant than ever.
We discuss how the current education system places boys at a disadvantage, why boys raised in poverty are less likely than girls to escape it, why so many young men look to figures like Jordan Peterson and Andrew Tate for inspiration, what a better social script for masculinity might look like and more.
Mentioned:
"Gender Achievement Gaps in U.S. School Districts" by Sean F. Reardon, Erin M. Fahle, Demetra Kalogrides, Anne Podolsky and Rosalia C. Zarate
"Redshirt the Boys" by Richard Reeves
Book recommendations:
"The Tenuous Attachments of Working-Class Men" by Kathryn Edin, Timothy Nelson, Andrew Cherlin and Robert Francis
Career and Family by Claudia Goldin
The Life of Dad by Anna Machin
Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.
You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Emefa Agawu, Annie Galvin, Jeff Geld, Rogé Karma and Kristin Lin. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Mixing by Sonia Herrero. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Special thanks to Carol Sabouraud and Kristina Samulewski.
Kamala Harris Wants to Win
On Thursday night, Kamala Harris reintroduced herself to America. And by the standards of Democratic convention speeches, this one was pretty unusual. In this conversation I’m joined by my editor, Aaron Retica, to discuss what Harris’s speech reveals about the candidate, the campaign she’s going to run and how she believes she can win in November.
Mentioned:
The Truths We Hold by Kamala Harris
Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.
You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Claire Gordon. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Jack McCordick. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota. Our senior editor is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Annie Galvin, Rollin Hu, Elias Isquith and Kristin Lin. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.
Can the Democratic Party Reclaim Freedom?
Democrats spent the third night of their convention pitching themselves as the party of freedom. In this conversation, my producer Annie Galvin joined me on the show to take a deep look at that messaging. Why do Democrats see an opportunity in this election to seize an idea that Republicans have monopolized for decades? What’s the meaning of “freedom” that Democrats seem to be embracing? And how does this message square with other Democratic Party values, like belief in the ability of government to do good?
Mentioned:
How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.
You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced and hosted by Annie Galvin. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Kate Sinclair and Mary Marge Locker. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota. Our senior editor is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Rollin Hu, Elias Isquith and Kristin Lin. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.
The Obamas Strike Back
Is Obamaism making a comeback? Tuesday night at the Democratic National Convention, Michelle and Barack Obama electrified the crowd with the most powerful speeches of the week so far, and seemed to anoint Kamala Harris as the inheritor of their political movement. For this audio diary, I’m joined by my producer Elias Isquith to dissect those two speeches. We discuss what Obamaism was in 2008 and 2012, and what it means to pass the baton to Harris in 2024.
Mentioned:
“Biden Made Trump Bigger. Harris Makes Him Smaller.” by Ezra Klein
“That Feeling You Recognize? Obamacore.” by Nate Jones
Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.
You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced and hosted by Elias Isquith. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld. Our senior editor is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Annie Galvin, Rollin Hu, Kristin Lin and Aman Sahota. Original music by Aman Sahota and Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.
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*podcast show notes contributed by Tracy Ackeret
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