Full Program

Part 1

With two weeks to go before the November 4^th midterm elections, we begin with an analysis of the critical senate races that will determine the fate of the remainder of the Obama presidency. Democratic strategist Ed Kilgore, the principal writer for the Washington Monthly’s Political Animal blog, who was formerly Vice President for Policy at the Democratic Leadership Council and Communications Director for U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, joins us to discuss the recent shift in the polls in favor of Republicans that make it more and more unlikely the Democrats will retain the senate, particularly with fear-mongering driving Republicans to the polls while apathy and indifference on the Democratic side usually makes turnout low for them in midterms.   

Part 2

Then we examine the epidemic or unreasonable fear and irrational paranoia sweeping the land following the contraction of Ebola by two healthcare workers in Texas. Barry Glassner, a professor of sociology at Lewis and Clark College in Oregon and author of the award-winning book “The Culture of Fear: Why Americans are Afraid of the Wrong Things”, joins us to discuss why, according to recent polls, almost 50% of Americans believe they are at risk of contracting Ebola and how much exaggerated fears drummed up by Republican politicians of porous borders allowing Ebola and the Islamic State to spread across the land are likely to drive voters to the polls.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Sung Yoon Lee, a Professor of International Affairs at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and an Associated in Research at the Korea Institute at Harvard University, about the release of one of three Americans held captive in North Korea and examine the possible reasons why North Korea’s young leader has been absent from view as speculation over his health has prompted false rumors of a coup when it might just be that Kim Jong-un has gout as a result of eating too much rich food in a country where people are starving.  

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the extent to which scandal dominates politics today and how every political incident nowadays ends up with a “Gate” attached to it, the latest of which is the recent so-called Secret Service scandal which has yet to be branded Secret Service Gate, but stayed tuned. Matt Bai, the national political columnist at Yahoo News and a former chief political correspondent for the New York Times Magazine joins us to discuss his new book “All the Truth is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid”, which traces the current fusion of news and infotainment to the scandal that erupted around Senator Gary Hart back in 1987 when he was the front-runner to be the next president of the United States, way ahead of George H.W. Bush in the polls, only to become the laughing stock of late night television and a footnote in history. We examine what happened to break the tradition of silence about the private lives of politicians, in particular presidents like FDR, JFK and Lyndon Johnson, who the press knew were engaged in extra-marital affairs but never went public with the information.

Part 2

Then we hear from John Dean in an interview I did with him back on August the 7th when his new book came out “The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It”. We discuss the mother of all political scandals Watergate and its legacy on journalism and in politics as the reforms that took place in the wake of Watergate are being rolled back and all political scandals since, whether large or small, have been given the “Gate” label whether they deserve it or not.