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The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Al Franken on learning to be a politician

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox Media Podcast Network

Politics, News, News Commentary, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.511.1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2017

⏱️ 54 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sen. Al Franken’s new book, Al Franken, Giant of the Senate, is the rare politician memoir that’s actually interesting. And note that I said interesting, not funny (though it is also funny).Most books by politicians are about how they’re not really politicians — they’re authentic, they’re honest, they shoot from the hip, they still remember what it was like growing up in a mill town raised by feral dogs and subsisting on nothing but hay.Franken’s book is the opposite: It’s the story of how he learned to be a politician, and even how he learned to respect politicians. It’s about realizing he couldn’t litigate his past comedy, about trusting his staff, about understanding why politicians act the way they do in interviews, about recognizing why the norms of the Senate matter.So this is an interview about what it’s like to be a politician, why perfectly nice and interesting people end up acting like all those other politicians after getting elected, and the role we as voters (and we in the media) play in it. If you’re interested in how politics actually works, you should listen.Books!Captured: The Corporate Infiltration of American Democracy by Sheldon WhitehouseHow Children Succeed: Confidence, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character by Paul ToughOur Kids by Robert Putnam Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

On July 21st, the cinematic experience of the summer arrives.

0:06.0

Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer is an epic thriller about the man who risked destroying the world for the one chance to save it.

0:13.0

Featuring an incredible cast, including Robert Downey Jr., Emily Bluntz, Oscar Winner's Matt Damon and Kenneth Brandock, Oscar nominee Florence Pugh, and Killian Murphy at J. Robert Oppenheimer.

0:24.0

In theaters July 21st, rated R.

0:30.0

Hello and welcome to the Oscar Clanchon, the box media podcast network.

0:45.0

This episode is a fun one. I have Senator Al Franken on the show.

0:50.0

Senator Al Franken, which is still a sort of funny thing to say.

0:53.0

If you grew up watching him as I did on Saturday Night Live, he's Senator from Minnesota, and is the author of a new book, Giant of the Senate, which unlike virtually all books ever written by politicians is actually fun to read.

1:04.0

I actually recommend it.

1:06.0

But it's a really fascinating book in a way that I wasn't expecting when I opened up.

1:10.0

In addition to the jokes and the jokes are at least some of them are good.

1:14.0

It is a story of Franken learning to be a politician.

1:19.0

And what's unique about it as a story is that almost all political books are about how the politician at the center of them is authentic and unique and didn't need politics and isn't being made into a politician and is resisting Washington.

1:37.0

And this book is really the opposite narrative. This is a book about Franken learning that he can't litigate his old comedy learning that he has to listen to his staff is listen to his communications direct learning.

1:48.0

There's a reason politicians do what they do in interviews.

1:51.0

It's a book about Franken's journey to appreciating at least some of the skills and the structures and the norms of American politics and the politicians who are running around within it.

2:06.0

And for that reason it's very interesting and it's particularly interesting as a contrast with our current president who also to some degree or another comes out of show business but has taken the opposite tack.

2:16.0

It is not believed he needs to learn from anyone.

2:18.0

He is not looking around and picking up skills.

2:20.0

He has not come to have a greater appreciation for the profession that he has chosen to shift to late in his life.

2:26.0

So this is an interesting interview not just because Franken is an interesting guy, but it's an interview about what it means to be a politician.

2:32.0

Where do the skills that help you as a politician?

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