Oh, for the best, expect the worst.

Some preach and pain, some die of thirst.

The way of knowing which way it's going.

Oh, for the best, expect the worst.

Welcome to the Commentary Magazine Daily Podcast.

Today is Tuesday, April 20th, 2021. I'm John Puthward,

it's the editor of Commentary Magazine.

And with me in studio, in our offices, in New York City

for the first time in 14 months, sitting across from me in a closed office,

fully vaccinated.

We have executive editor Abe Greenwald. Hi Abe.

Hi John, an associate editor, Noah Rothman.

Hi John. Very excitedly, we gathered together to do the podcast in our old classic way.

The three of us in this office and Christine Rosen on remote in Washington, D.C.

We recorded an entire episode and Christine's audio track did not function.

And we don't know why.

And so we are having to do this a second time.

Having gotten all excited about going back to the old ways.

But it's been 14 months, something changed, some setting changed,

something happened to the program, something like that.

We can't get Christine back in, so we're just going to do it the three of us.

But this is not the new normal.

...