Hey, everybody. This is Glenn Thrush with Politico's off message podcast.

We have a special guest on today's podcast, very excited about it. But before I do that,

I want to talk a little bit about something I haven't mentioned much, which is my philosophy

behind doing these podcast interviews, because I think it's a little different than a lot of

people who've done podcasts. Obviously, I love listening to podcasts as an increasing number of you have.

I'm not so sure how you feel after listening to this.

But my attitude towards podcasts, my approach is, I think, a little bit different.

I am first and foremost somebody who writes

long magazine pieces and long newspaper articles about the inner workings of campaigns or

profiles of people. And the process of putting those stories together is a really, for me anyway, a really fun and fulfilling

process that you don't normally get in the course of doing regular journalism.

You know, when you cover a presidential campaign, the basic job is that of the embed

to ride around on the campaign plane, to go with the candidate to every single event.

When you cover the White House, as I did for two and a half, three years, your basic job is to show up every day, go to the daily briefing.

That's not the way I approach my job. I think that's not the way the people I admire approach their jobs.

A lot of what we do, you know, and there's a lot of controversy and a lot

of hand-wringing at big news organizations about the use of off-the-record sourcing. But

the truth of the matter is off-the-record conversations, more relaxed, in-depth conversations

between reporters and sources. Oftentimes those sources are acquaintances or friends because

you've dealt with them for years

and years and years are much, much more interesting than what appears on the record, particularly

in the broadcast media where, and this is not a slight to my friends in cable or on radio, but,

...