Hey there, it is the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Danielle Kertzleben, I cover politics.

And once again, we're here with a special Book Club episode. Every couple of months, we

read a book along with you, our listeners. And not only do I get to ask my burning questions,

but I also bring in the questions that you want answers to. Our latest pick is Why We Did

It, a travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell by Tim Miller.

And from that title alone, if you're an observant listener, you might guess that Tim Miller,

yes, you really pulled your punches there. Tim Miller isn't exactly enamored with how the

Republican Party has reshaped itself in the last few years. Miller worked for years on GOP

campaigns and projects before leaving that line of work and discussed during the Trump

era. His book is his insider's retelling of how and why the party became so thoroughly

Trumpified. We're going to ask him all about that today. So Tim, it's really good to have

you. Hey, thanks for doing this. I didn't realize that everybody was already reading it along

with you. That's so exciting. Hopefully they enjoyed it. Hopefully there's at least one

main question, but hopefully most people enjoyed it.

Honestly, there weren't. But let's start with the basics. And I suppose a pretty DC question.

I'm going to ask you to essentially give us your resume. Tell us about your background

in Republican politics. What were you doing up until Trump's election? And what are you

doing now? Sure. So I grew up in Colorado. And I started as a young high school kid being

a political nerd. And I just had the privilege and the luck to have a neighbor that was

friends with a guy that was running for governor. His name was Bill Owens. And so in the summer,

when other kids had to flip burgers or whatever, I went and interned on his campaign. You

know, he comes back from behind and wins the race. And I ended up getting the governor's

...