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Chapo Trap House

1043 - The Obamalisk feat. Kate Wagner (6/8/26)

Chapo Trap House

Chapo Trap House

News

4.69.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 June 2026

⏱️ 56 minutes

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Summary

McMansion Hell writer and architecture critic Kate Wagner joins us for an early review of the Obama Presidential Center. We talk about its design, its architecture, its cloying message of “HOPE” that feels like Ludovico conditioning, and what it means as a final, definitive end of the Obama era and the Long 2010s. Check out McMansion Hell: https://mcmansionhell.com/ Follow Kate Wagner on X: https://x.com/mcmansionhell?lang=en And Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/katewagner.wehwalt.net

Transcript

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0:00.0

All right

0:02.0

All I want to be is a joke

0:07.0

All I want to be is a joke all I'm going to be is a joke Okay. Greetings, friends. It's Monday, June 8th, and we've got some chop for you you. On today's episode, we will be talking about buildings. And in fact, one specific building in particular that's new to the community of buildings in America. That's right. We're discussing about soon to be open to the public on Chicago's south side,

0:56.4

the Obama Presidential Library.

0:59.0

And joining us to discuss this wonderful new building

1:02.1

is the architecture critic for the nation and the author of the blog,

1:07.0

McMansion Hell. You might know her as Mick Mansion Hell, but she also goes by

1:12.5

Kate Wagner. Kate, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Happy to be here.

1:17.2

Kate, we wanted to have you on because, yes, the Obama Presidential Library is opening in

1:22.1

south, in the south side of Chicago, but a few weeks. You have been lucky enough to have been

1:27.4

granted access inside behind the veil

1:30.5

of this sacred building and institution. And I would just like to begin with, like,

1:34.8

your perspective as someone who studies architecture, who is very familiar with it, I'm just

1:38.8

going to say right off the bat that even by the standards of presidential libraries, the Obama building is one of the

1:46.6

most evil-looking structures I think I've ever seen. Yeah, it's definitely. For a long time,

1:51.1

that record was held by Lyndon B. Johnson's presidential library, which is like a brutalisk.

1:57.2

I don't even know how to describe it. It is just like a hulking kind of windowless, strange library.

2:03.1

I was going to compare the Obama Library to the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library

2:07.3

at the University of Texas because it's the only presidential library I've been to.

2:11.7

And speaking for myself, I thought I kind of liked the building.

2:14.4

And I think it's actually like a really excellent museum as well.

2:17.7

Yeah, I think that's a great a really excellent museum as well. Yeah,

...

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