Chris Matthews Unplugged
The Dishcast with Andrew Sullivan
Andrew Sullivan
4.6 • 836 Ratings
🗓️ 13 June 2025
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Chris is a TV broadcaster and author. During his political career, he was a speechwriter for Jimmy Carter and the chief of staff for House Speaker Tip O’Neill. In journalism, Chris was a columnist with the San Francisco Examiner and then the Chronicle, the host of “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” and the host of “The Chris Matthews Show,” where I was a frequent guest. He’s also written nine books. He’s currently a professor at Fulbright University Vietnam, and he recently revived “Hardball” on Substack — check it out.
For two clips of our convo — memorable quips from world leaders, and debating the legacy of JFK — head to our YouTube page.
Other topics: growing up a Catholic in Philly with four brothers; showing up late to Mass; the Good Friday Agreement; absorbing Burke as a teen and lauding Bill Buckley; doing Peace Corps in Africa; working for Sen. Frank Moss; a stint as a Capitol cop; running for Congress in Philly; working for Ed Muskie the liberal budget hawk; Rick Hertzberg; writing for Carter and smoking cigs on Air Force One; the Iranian hostage crisis; Tip O’Neill the liberal titan; the corrupt Mayor Curley; Reagan the cowboy and ideas man; his tax cuts; Peggy Noonan’s epic speeches; Reagan’s humor; taking the piss out of Corbyn; the seductive charm and shittiness of Bill Clinton; his undeserved impeachment; Gore’s disastrous run; the collective trauma of 9/11; neocons and the Iraq War; Obama’s political genius; the nuclear threat from Iran; debating the woke’s role in electing Trump; Biden’s leftward lurch and Ron Klain; Tim Walz; GOP lawmakers’ fear of Trump; his slavish sycophants; the patriotism that liberal elites don’t fully grok; and the beauty of naturalization ceremonies.
Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy (the first 102 are free in their entirety — subscribe to get everything else). Coming up: Batya Ungar-Sargon on Trump 2.0, Walter Isaacson on Ben Franklin, Tara Zahra on the revolt against globalization after WWI, Paul Elie on crypto-religion in ‘80s pop culture, Thomas Mallon on the AIDS crisis, Arthur Brooks on the science of happiness, and Johann Hari coming back to turn the tables and interview me for the pod. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to [email protected].
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The Hi there. Welcome to another summer dishcast. I hear it's boiling down in DC. I am in slightly |
| 0:35.6 | calmer, cooler air up in Cape Cod. |
| 0:39.5 | It's been lovely. |
| 0:40.8 | I realize I'm blessed. |
| 0:42.8 | I just took the pop out for an hour on the beach, on the low tide, throwing ball. |
| 0:48.9 | Just, you know, in the end, this is what life is about. |
| 0:53.5 | I'm grateful. |
| 0:57.2 | I'm blessed for it. And every now and again, |
| 1:01.9 | you've got to acknowledge the wonderful stuff that you already have in your life. We have some great guests coming up. We have Tarasara coming in, a historian, on talk about the revolt |
| 1:08.2 | against globalization, the first one between World War I and two. Walter Isaacson's coming on to talk about the revolt against globalization, the first one between World War |
| 1:11.6 | 1 and 2. |
| 1:13.2 | Walter Isaacson's coming on to talk about Ben Franklin, part of our series of just talking about |
| 1:18.9 | some great Americans, given the place we're in as a country right now. |
| 1:23.4 | Arthur Brooks is coming on to talk about the science of happiness. |
| 1:27.3 | Paul Eli is coming on to talk about the science of happiness. Paul Eli is coming on to |
| 1:29.3 | talk about his book called The Last Supper, which is about crypto-religious pop culture in the 80s, |
| 1:36.2 | a really interesting book about the Catholicism of people like you two and Shunate O'Connor |
| 1:40.4 | and the religious instincts of Leonard Cohen and others in that era and how it |
| 1:48.5 | interacted with AIDS. |
| 1:49.6 | It's a fascinating and quirky little book, and we'll have some fun with it. |
| 1:53.2 | And then, Yohan Hari, my old friend, is coming back and we're going to do with Kibit. |
| 1:59.0 | He's going to actually turn the tables on me, which we do every now and again |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 11 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Andrew Sullivan, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Andrew Sullivan and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.