Just a reminder, tickets for our live show in New York City go on sale today, August 12th. Today, August 12th at 2 p.m. Eastern Time at 9.2N.org. Again, the show is Saturday. October 4th, tickets go on sale when?

Today. Today. Today. See you there. We hope. Today.

Hello, big picture listeners. For the next few weeks,

Sean and I are handing over the feed to a narrative podcast called Mission Accomplished,

which chronicles how the movies of the 2000s tell the story of that tumultuous decade,

in Hollywood, and in America. It's hosted by a longtime rigor contributor and friend of the pod, Brian Raftery,

who you might remember from a few other narrative podcasts we've done,

a Hollywood hack, Do We Get to Win This Time, and Gene and Roger?

Sean and I will be back in a few weeks.

In early 2000, I was given the chance to interview a guy who had no shot of becoming the next

president of the United States, George W. Bush. At the time, Bush hadn't yet secured the

Republican ticket, but he did have a famous last name, and he spent the last few years as the

governor of Texas.

On the campaign trail, though, Bush always sounded like he was trying to hide how confused he was.

His speeches were full of garbled statements, like,

I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully.

I thought Bush was a goof.

And so, as a young journalist, when I got the chance to interview him, and by interview,

I mean email some questions to his press team, I didn't ask Bush about his foreign policy

plans, or about what he'd do with Social Security, or even about his spotty record as an

oil man.

Instead, I asked,

...