This is the On the Media Midweek podcast. I'm Brooke Gladstone. With Donald Trump moving back into the White House, we thought it made sense to take stock of how political and journalistic norms have morphed over the years. So we're sharing an episode from Radio Lab that aired in October on just that topic. Latif Nasser, Radio Lab's co-host, invited me to talk about it.

How you doing, Brooke?

Good, really good. Great to talk to you.

Really?

So this is Brooke Gladstone, long-time host of the show, on the media.

I called her up in her home because we had done this story back in 2016, just nine months before Trump was elected president.

It was about how the media covers presidential campaigns, how we the public think about our candidates.

And when I re-listened to the episode, I felt like it was perfectly speaking to the political moment that we're in right now,

but then also simultaneously, totally outdated.

Do you agree with that?

Do you think that's true in some way?

Absolutely.

Okay.

And I have thoughts, though maybe not the ones pertaining to what is the profound nature of our humanity that you may want to get to.

Well, that was the number one question. But Brooke did show me how the last eight years have evolved

out of, but also completely rewritten that story. So I'm going to play you the original show.

Like I said, we did it back in 2016. So you will hear Jad and Robert, our original host.

And then I'll come back on the flip side to talk to Brooke.

So here we go.

So we're going to take you back to an evening in 1987, Tom Feidler, ace political reporter for the Miami Herald.

It's late at night, and he's in his office.

I was at my desk and just, in fact, packing up to go home, my phone rang, and I'm thinking, oh, it's probably my wife, and she's wondering why I haven't left yet.

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