How 2020 Changed Our Minds

Matter of Opinion

New York Times Opinion

Society & Culture, Ross Douthat, News, New York Times, Journalism

4.2 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 1 January 2021

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Happy New Year and good riddance, 2020! Ross and Michelle ring in 2021 with a reflection on how their opinions changed during “this wild and crazy and terrible and interesting and disastrous and a longer list of adjectives year,” as Ross so eloquently defines 2020. The hosts are joined by a bevy of thoughtful “Argument” listeners who share what — or who — made them look at the world in a new way this year. Then, Michelle and Ross offer their hopes for 2021, and recommend two streaming options that young and old can enjoy together. For background reading on this episode, visit nytimes.com/theargument.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey y'all this is Alice from Austin my name is Julia Allen for Madison
0:13.2	Wisconsin. This is Cindy from Ohio. Hi I'm Patrick. I'm Michelle Goldberg. I'm
0:18.3	Ross Douthit and this is the argument 2021. We made it. My name is Liam Hannah
0:30.4	and I'm calling to talk about how I changed my mind. Have I changed my mind about
0:35.7	anything in 2020? I changed my mind about almost everything I thought I knew
0:39.6	before this year happened. After a most eventful year we're gonna hear from you
0:47.0	about what you changed your mind about over the course of 2020 and then we're
0:52.1	gonna share what we changed our minds about if anything I suppose it's
0:56.6	possible that we were right about everything all along.
1:05.4	Happy New Year Ross. Michelle happy New Year's I'm not gonna ask you what kind of
1:10.6	revelry you engaged in to celebrate the end of what was not actually the worst
1:17.3	year in all of human history. But definitely the worst year in my life. Definitely
1:21.5	the worst yeah I mean there was the sixth century when the sun was blotted out
1:26.5	and the plague of Justinian wiped out like half the empire and you know we
1:31.8	didn't hit that level but it's good it's good to have 2020 in the rear-view
1:37.3	mirror. So we asked our listeners what they changed their minds about this year
1:41.7	and the 2020 election certainly made you rethink some things. Hi I'm Patrick what
1:48.0	have I changed my mind on in the last year? Well I before the election I
1:52.6	trusted polls I thought that 2016 was a fluke but it was a predictable like
1:59.3	it was going to happen eventually and 538 particularly had reassured me that 2016
2:04.0	was within the margin of error and it wouldn't happen again and then it happened
2:08.1	worse in 2020 and 538 has come out with some excuses for what happened but I
	...

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