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Impolitic with John Heilemann

Aaron Sorkin

Impolitic with John Heilemann

Audacy | Puck

News, Politics

4.84.5K Ratings

🗓️ 6 December 2022

⏱️ 55 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Over the past three decades, Aaron Sorkin has staked a claim as America’s most renowned film and television writer. With a list of credits that runs from "A Few Good Men," "The American President, "The Social Network," and "Moneyball" on the big screen to "Sports Night," "The Newsroom," and his crowning achievement, "The West Wing," on TV, Sorkin's work has achieved vast popular success, critical acclaim, and cultural resonance. On this week’s episode, Hell & High Water continues its year-end review, with Heilemann and Sorkin discussing how COVID-19, Trump's final year in office, and the racial justice movement affected Hollywood in general and three of Sorkin's projects in particular: his stage version of "To Kill a Mockingbird," the reunion episode of "The West Wing," and his film "The Trial of the Chicago 7." Sorkin also offers his lists of top TV shows and movies of the year — and his favorite political films of all time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:22.8

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0:30.6

Ah, Benny's parents, thanks for coming. Hiya. So, Benny has really blossomed this term.

0:35.7

You're telling me, he outgrew his bike. We sold it on on eBay. Oh, that's not quite what I meant. It's free to sell on there. Free to sell? Easy too. Sold Benny's bike, your guitar, my jacket. You sold my guitar? Shall we talk about Benny? When it's this easy to sell for free, you can't help but say you on it's eBay.

0:56.8

Things people love.

0:58.1

T's and Cs and Cs Apply, Excludes vehicles.

1:00.2

Hey, everyone, John Heilman here and welcome to Helen Highwater, my podcast about politics and culture on the edge of Armageddon.

1:06.4

It's a determined, if dubious, committed if cuckoo for cocoa puffs, often wrong but rarely in doubt

1:12.6

exercise in elevated gas baggery that neither rain nor snow nor heat nor gloom of night, nor the toxic

1:20.3

rantings of the Nuthouse Right, a president attempting to invalidate a legitimate election and

1:25.2

staged an auto coup complete with an armed insurrection at the United States Capitol,

1:29.3

nor more broadly and arguably even more disturbingly,

1:33.1

the capture of a decent-sized chunk of our political, social, and civic spheres

1:36.5

by a cadre of incoherent, insidious, conspiracy addled, autocracy craving,

1:42.7

authoritarian-worshorshipping lunatics, hustlers, grifters, nihilists, and nincompoops, none of it, none of it has kept us from our duly sworn duty and obligations, giving you, our listeners, a fresh episode of this podcast week after week, after week after week.

1:58.0

Maybe not without fail because, you know, hashtag epic fail is one of our many mottoes around here, but certainly without a pause. We've been doing that for more than two years, haven't had a break, all of which is to say that I am plum shagged out and desperately in need of some R&R.

2:21.2

And with the midterm election, now comfortably in the rearview mirror in our democracy,

2:26.1

amazingly, if I will admit, a little unexpectedly, still intact,

2:30.5

it seems like a suitable time for the Hell and high water home office to give itself a fucking break.

2:37.3

And so for the next few weeks, that is exactly what we are going to do.

2:41.2

And we'll see you back here on the other side of the holidays.

2:44.1

Tanned, rested, refreshed, revitalized, and raring to go.

...

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