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Hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American politics and now the Joe Biden presidency. We will be looking at how a 78-year-old president

will change America and we'll be asking if normalcy, which is what he promised to bring, has returned to American politics?

The answer, of course, is no.

I'm joined today by George Packer, who is the very distinguished American writer of nonfiction and fiction

and a staff writer at the Atlantic. He's the author of quite a few critically acclaimed books,

including The Unwinding and The Assassins Gate. And his new book is more of a political pamphlet,

and it's called Last Best Hope, an essay on the Revival of America.

Now, George, before we get started, I want to ask you a little bit about July the 4th, because today is

July the 5th, and I think this sort of connects to what you're talking about in the book.

But I wanted to just ask you if the way that Americans celebrate July the 4th has changed

in recent years, in recent decades, and whether that speaks to what you're trying to say about

America in this essay? It's a good question, and the answer is yes, it has changed. When I was a

kid, I grew up on a college campus, which was almost by definition,

a politically liberal place. But on July 4th, all the kids in my neighborhood would gather

together and decorate our bikes with red, white, and blue crepe paper and parade up and down

the street and then set off fireworks and sparklers.

...