These are just anecdotes, but it's building up into something more coherent.

I think it'd be interesting to really try to unravel what his ties.

There's this sort of country city divide for their own convenient, and it's not clear where it goes next.

From One World Trade Center in Manhattan, this is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production

of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.

Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.

You know those scenarios in which a butterfly flaps its wings or somehow a breeze blows in a certain direction, some inconsequential act?

And it changes the course of human history.

In one of those scenarios, somehow Hillary Clinton will take the oath of office on Friday, just not in this universe.

We know that although Hillary Clinton won a popular majority by almost

three million votes, she lost in the electoral college, and there are all kinds of reasons for that

which we don't have to go into. One that we can't deny is that Clinton's gender was an issue. It was an

issue. Clearly, some people are not willing, whether they admit it or not, to have a woman lead the country.

The New Yorker's Amy Davidson has spent a lot of time this year thinking about the barriers that women face in politics, and who the first female chief executive just might be whenever she arrives.

Amy spoke with Debbie Walsh, the director of the Center for American Women in Politics,

at Rutgers University, which tries to get more women into office.

Say a woman comes to you who's sort of on the fence. Give me the 30-second pitch you would give her

why she should run for office. The challenges that this country are facing right now are enormous, and we cannot afford to keep half of the talent and the creativity on the sidelines.

And we can't just wait every four years for a presidential race to be engaged in the political process.

Our democracy demands that we are engaged in this process all the time.

And there's a wonderful saying that if you are not at the table, you are probably on the menu.

And we need to make sure that women are at the

...