Hey everybody. Welcome to the Weekender edition of the Booker podcast. I'm your host, Jared

Yates Saxton. Nick Halseman, our tried and true co-host, one of our all-time favorites. He is taking a

much deserved vacation day, which means that I am flying solo, and this episode of the

Weekender is going to be a lot more casual than usual. So let's start the weekend.

Ah, that helps. Anyway, hey everybody. Thanks for tuning in. I have a lot to go over today. A lot of

interlocking parts that we got to talk about. Before we do though, you know, we talk a lot on this

podcast about things that have gone wrong, how our government has been co-opted by the wealthy and the powerful, how the wealthy and

the powerful have more or less turned the American government into sort of a laundering business

to make sure that they get everything that they want and has hurt in the process so many different human projects from

health insurance, health care, infrastructure, education, you name it. We are currently in just a

really terrible situation of inequality in human suffering. But I have to say, you know, to start this thing off on the right

note, I got my first vaccination yesterday, which I feel incredibly lucky to have gotten. But I have

to tell you that when I went to get it, it was a really inspiring circumstance. I got it through

my university and there was this sort of whole mobilized situation set up. They had two lanes of

cars going. Of course, you have, you know, law enforcement out there making sure that everybody's going where they need to go. Meanwhile, there's like an entire legion of volunteers who are getting people's paperwork. They're making sure that, um, they know what's going on. They're getting all the facts about what they're getting ready to do, making sure that they go

the right place, that they end up getting the shot, that they're going to be observed, that

they're going to get taken care of.

It was really inspiring.

And it made me think quite a bit about what is possible in this country.

Now, of course, it wouldn't be the muck rake podcast without raking a little bit of muck.

I will say, it knocked me on my ass, like for real. The vaccine knocked me down a couple of pegs,

especially yesterday. I'm still sort of trying to get back to normal. I am rallying right now

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