A Politics Reporter Walks Into a Singles Mixer

Modern Love

The New York Times

Nytimes, Redemption, Society & Culture, New York Times, Love, Essay, Storytelling, Loss, Nyt

4.4 • 8.7K Ratings

🗓️ 21 February 2024

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The New York Times political reporter Astead Herndon went speed dating in a swing state to ask daters fun questions like: How early do you tell a prospective date whether you lean red or blue? When do you talk about your stances on issues like abortion or gender equality? It’s hard enough to find someone you click with. Then add election-year tensions into the mix, and things get even more complicated. Today: Our host Anna Martin speaks with Astead Herndon, host of the weekly politics podcast “The Run-Up" about the not-so-distant worlds of politics and dating.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the New York Times, I'm Anna Martin, this is Modern Love, and today we have a little treat for you.
0:14.4	I'm here with my colleague Ested Herndon. Hey Ested. Hey Anna, thank you for having me.
0:19.2	So Ested you're a political reporter here at the Times,
0:22.6	and you're the host of The Run Up, which is our weekly politics show.
0:26.4	And you're here because you recently went to a speed dating event.
0:31.2	Not for yourself for reporting purposes. I want to be very clear about that.
0:35.0	And instead you went to this event to find out how are single people bringing
0:42.0	politics into their search for love and do their political beliefs
0:46.3	influence who they decide to date? I cannot wait to talk to you today, but I gotta ask first,
0:52.4	as a political reporter reporter did you ever think
0:55.2	you'd be on modern love? No. I am a listener, a fan, but...
1:03.5	You don't consider yourself a modern lover?
1:06.0	No, I wouldn't say that, you know, I'm more of um...
1:12.4	Old school. Old school. I was gonna say was the opposite of
1:15.4	bothered and love old school and old school hater exactly that's more my vibe.
1:22.8	Well, welcome, we welcome that vibe on the show.
1:25.6	So your beat is politics, mine is love, but you just made an episode recently that combined
1:31.0	the two.
1:31.9	So can you tell me about what you wanted to
1:33.9	investigate and how your team went about it? Yeah I mean so much of our show is
1:39.2	focused on themes of division and political polarization.
1:43.3	One of the things we wanted to do was see how politics is playing out
	...

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