Kurt Andersen

Impolitic with John Heilemann

Audacy | Puck

News, Politics

4.8 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 20 July 2021

⏱️ 94 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In which John Heilemann talks with Kurt Andersen, the host, writer, and co-producer of the podcast series "Nixon at War," a seven-part exploration of Richard Nixon's downfall through the less of Vietnam. Heilemann and Andersen discuss Andersen's thesis that the war in Southeast Asia and the Watergate scandal, the twin disasters of Nixon's time in office, are not separate stories but deeply entwined; the astonishing archival audio, much of it from Nixon's White House taping system, that makes the series come alive; the striking similarities between Nixon and Donald Trump, personal (insecurity, paranoia, resentment) and political (us versus them divisiveness, appeals to white grievance, demonization of the press); and the direct line between Nixon's criminality and disregard for democratic norms and today's Republican Party. Andersen also reminisces about growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, during the Vietnam era, and his transformation from a Nixon-supporting eighth-grader to a pot-smoking, McGovern-backing, Abbie Hoffman-loving high schooler. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This Christmas, discover the Whitney Houston story you never knew.
0:04.4	Wait, how about it? It's all in the same name.
0:07.2	From the right of Bohemian rap city.
0:09.0	This is what they want.
0:10.0	America's sweetheart.
0:11.0	You won't give it to them.
0:12.0	She has to watch me.
0:14.0	I want to dance with somebody, only in cinemas now.
0:38.0	Hey everyone, John Hylem and here and welcome to Hell on High Water.
0:40.0	My podcast from the recount and I heart radio with big ups to the one and only Rizza for our dope theme music.
0:45.0	As anyone with even a glancing familiarity with what we do around here knows,
0:49.0	Hell on High Water is a show that lives in the moment.
0:51.0	This moment, a time in America that feels shakier, nastier, more fibrile, and toxic and ominous and up for grabs than it has since, well, we'll get that presently.
1:02.0	It is a time when things are constantly falling apart when the center is not holding and when Mir Anarky has been loose to pull the ball out of the ball.
1:09.0	It has been loose to pull the ball out of the ball when it often feels like the apocalypse itself is nigh.
1:14.0	But while this is therefore a podcast that operates very much in the present tense and with an eye always towards the future, that does not mean we don't care about the past.
1:24.0	We do.
1:25.0	As some long dead Spanish gas bag named Santillano once put it, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
1:32.0	And given some of this country's epic fuck ups, just the past few decades, repeating the mistakes of the past is something we should all be doing our best to avoid.
1:41.0	If for no other reason, then that we are already pretty goddamn busy inventing whole new ways of fucking up.
1:46.0	Now, the reason I mentioned all of this is because, in this week's episode of the podcast, we are turning away from the present and directing our attention very directly to the past,
1:55.0	stepping back into the fraught annals of American political history to examine the moment that is the most recent precedent for what is happening today in the things fall apart center cannot hold Mir Anarky loose upon us all department.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Audacy | Puck, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Audacy | Puck and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.